#Seriously so many things are using AI for businesses nowadays...

[monstergili]

Me every time I see ads for AI:

No, app on my phone, I don't want to edit it with AI. I don't want to generate with AI. I don't want to ask the AI. I don't want to make AI wallpapers. I don't want to rewrite with AI. I don't want t-

[helenabuhagiar]

Social Media Ethics

What is trending in the social media industry currently? I notice nowadays that there is a lot of value in short-form content. TikTok is a huge part of this- despite the app extending video time from 15 seconds to 10 minutes, many people use the basic 15-60 second format to keep viewers engaged. Someone is more likely to skip a 10-minute video about a topic than a 15-second one. Another huge trend is AI usage, which I raise ethical concerns about. It is an extremely convenient way to generate visuals or post captions, etc., and many companies may find it easier to use AI than to pay employees who would normally do those things. I would prefer it if those jobs continued to be available to real people who are passionate about what they do.  

As someone who is super interested in the beauty industry and wears makeup often, I think joining Sephora’s social media team would be really fun. As said on their website, they have a set policy of ethical expectations for their online communities. They aim to make their online communities a safe and inclusive space for everyone, no matter what. As a beauty company, they place importance on making their consumers confident in who they are and making sure that they feel welcomed. They value being respectful of individual differences, which is necessary online, where unrealistic beauty standards would normally be pushed. Lastly, they make it clear that their online communities are no place for hate.  

A brand that I think is doing a fantastic job with utilizing ethical social media practice is Patagonia. They focus on being environmentally cautious and have even used their platform to promote reducing consumption in a time where everyone seems to want to buy the newest products. 

One professional I follow on social media who I think takes her ethics seriously is Audrey Finocchiaro, who owns The Nitro Bar café locations in Rhode Island. Since the start of her career, she has always addressed rumors about her and her brand head on. In response to comments suggesting that her business was not self made, she replied with a video explaining the history of her company and their humble beginnings- she started with a maxed-out credit card and a dream, and I really respect her for that.  

A major takeaway that I would like to bring forth is that above all, being open and honest is important. I do consider myself to be an honest joe, but I appreciate when people I admire on social media are willing to disclose details about their life that make them extra personable. Sometimes that little added detail is just enough to connect with someone and their brand and opens the door for communication between the creator and the audience.  

One main concept I think is necessary to adhere to for my own personal conduct online is being aware of privacy and how information is shared. I keep my personal social accounts private; I wouldn’t want all my personal info to cross over into the realm of a professional account, so maintaining this is important. Especially because a lot of media that I consume online is related to political content or updates from family members and friends, it is wise to keep the two realms separate.  

The biggest concept I feel strongly against on social media is being inauthentic. The way I present myself online matches up with the person I am in my real life, and it is important to stick with this because people trust consistency. Wavering from my values would suggest that said values are not intrinsic to who I am, and values have a lot to do with branding. I also refuse to use AI for anything that I could create myself or that I would hire/seek help for. The convenience will never outweigh the negative consequences that AI is inflicting on the environment. I also value creativity and uniqueness as a person and as a user of social media and to me, using AI goes against this completely.  

One concept I will absolutely follow is being responsible for what I create, write, or share. Out of respect for others, it's important for me to take responsibility for things like accuracy of information and for any issues that may arise. Another concept I would never disregard is DEI, as in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. I value all three of these policies, and to me they are intrinsic to my beliefs. I will continue to be transparent- being vague only leads to discrepancies in what is true about who I am and what I do. Another concept that is important to me is fostering an online community where hateful speech is monitored and is not tolerated whatsoever. I would never want to open a space where people are at risk of being attacked. Lastly- having a professional and positive tone that reads well no matter who the audience is. Being clear, respectful, and concise makes a post better.  

[aikoiya]

LoL Rants: Thoughts on the Machine Harold

Ooohoohoo! I have thoughts on the Machine Harold & this is just from the perspective of someone who's a fan of Arcane & only knows a few little scraps about LoL & hasn't really seen much gameplay, let alone played. (Have mercy, I'm still a baby fan.)

Let's start off with the fact that I don't even know the sort of advancements that they've made as far as neurology & computers. Yes, there are robots, but robot brains & ai are very different from human brains. It's because of these differences that Viktor is actually S.O.L. for being able to totally get rid of his flesh without seriously hampering his mental capacities. At least if they try to keep it as realistic as possible.

Just to put things into perspective, "the memory capacity of the human brain was reported to have the equivalent of 2.5 petabytes of memory capacity. As a number, a 'petabyte' means 1024 terabytes or a million gigabytes, so the average adult human brain has the ability to store the equivalent of 2.5 million gigabytes of digital memory."

"To put that in perspective, according to Computerworld, Yahoo – the Internet giant – has created a specially-built 2.0 petabyte 'data warehouse.' Yahoo uses the immense information storage capacity of this data warehouse to analyze the behavior of its half-a-billion monthly visitors. “It is not only the world’s single-largest database, but also the busiest.”"

"By comparison, the IRS’s own massive data warehouse, which keeps track of 300-plus million Americans and many more millions of businesses, has the capacity of 150 terabytes of memory. Yet Yahoo’s 2.0 petabyte computational center, which can process 24 billion 'events' a day, is a full 20 percent smaller than the capacity of a single human brain." - CNS or Clinical Neurology Nevada

This means, that in order for Viktor to completely get rid of his flesh, he'd need an entire building to store the supercomputer that would be his brain. Which would put a solid target on his back.

Please, keep in mind that the average data warehouse is around 100,000 square feet.

Which is this big:

With a 250,000 square foot building being about this big:

And THIS!

Is Yahoo's 2 Petabyte storage facility, if I'm reading it correctly!

That... is a fuckton, my friend! And it's still not able to store as much data in the human brain. For that, it'd need to be 20% bigger!

ALL that space just to house the equivalent of a single human brain! The AVERAGE human brain! Now, just imagine how much space someone like Viktor would require.

And that's just the human brain's capacity for memory. I remember reading somewhere that every cell in the human body stores information & that this is why transplants can cause people's personalities to change after recieving one. They're taking on aspects of the donor's personality. This is the theory of Cellular Memory. If this theory is, indeed, fact, then it would actually take even more space to store all that data.

Hell, apparently, a group at Columbia recently managed to store 214 petabytes of data, including a full freaking computer operating system inside A GRAM of DNA!!

The average human male has around 223 grams of DNA.

That's 47,722 petabytes & that still isn't accounting for everything!

That's almost 20 THOUSAND TIMES the amount of information that the brain stores! So, if Viktor wants to preserve as much information as he can & not sacrifice any important data, then that means that he'd need a place 20,000 times the size of the warehouses that I already showed above!

No matter what Viktor may want to believe, technology just can't match what flesh can manage, at least in terms of space.

An ai nowadays, however, can be measured in number of kilobytes. Petabytes being the equivalent of 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. A kilobyte, on the other hand, is only 1,000 bytes! That is a HUGE difference!

How much of this can magic make up for?

As such, it's more efficient to keep his actual flesh brain & contain it within a nearly indestructible body as the human brain is simply, by & far, the most efficient information database that exists at this time. At least as far as space goes.

Because of this, he'd also need to keep sleeping because sleep is a fundamental function for brain maintenance.

One, it helps us to organize the information we receive throughout the day, as well as flushes out toxins that build up during the day.

Again, unless Viktor has found a way to keep himself from building up these toxins to begin with, then he'll need to continue sleeping.

He might be able to find a way to make his sleep more efficient by maximizing the amount of energy he gets while minimizing the amount of sleep he needs to get it, but so long as he has a flesh brain, sleep is required.

Also, because he'd have to keep his flesh brain, Viktor couldn't really get rid of his lungs completely as that'd require him completely replacing each & every single one of his cells at the same time. Because every cell in your body needs oxygen to operate. This includes brain cells. Without oxygen, your brain will suffocate & die.

Therefore, oxygen is a must.

I also honestly doubt that Runeterra science has advanced into cellular engineering.

I could see him installing an air filter though. Or building a pair that more efficiently intakes & distributes oxygen throughout his body is also plausible.

Regardless of what he chooses, he'll need some way of getting oxygen to the few cells he has even if it's via vents.

The same could be said for his heart. Unless he's entirely gotten rid of his need for blood, he'd still need something able to provide his brain with oxygen, glucose, & other nutrients.

Even if Viktor manages to replace his heart with an artificial one, it'd still beat. We've built artificial hearts irl & they beat.

I also don't see how he could get rid of his stomach as it acts as an engine by converting organic matter into energy used to sustain his body. Perhaps he could build a more efficient alternative, but not totally get rid of it unless he relies entirely on magic to run his systems.

Again, his brain requires glucose & other nutrients to keep functioning, so unless magic can replace that, he'll need to keep the stomach.

And even if he did find a way to do this, depending on how common Hex Crystals are & how much work it takes to refine them into the more durable HexTech Gemstones, it might just end up being more trouble than it's worth to do so. Using more energy & resources than it provides.

Otherwise, he'd just be doing so because he can & realizing just how inefficient it is afterwards due to the high maintenance requirements of it when compared to only needing to eat a few meals a day to keep running.

It's much more effective to find a way to make his stomach more efficient, minimizing on the space required, & using both organic energy & magic at the same time. That way, organic energy goes to vital functions & magic can be used for non-vital functions.

It's like how hybrid cars are more energy efficient than either conventional cars or entirely electrical cars individually.

If nothing else, Viktor is utilitarian.

It'd also be stupid to not have tactile sensors or a way to gage temperature as it makes it easier to know when things get close to damaging you.

I mean, the weather has adverse effects on machines too.

Also, what would even be the point of getting rid of your taste buds?

Or touch? Or smell?

I also highly doubt that he got rid of his junk either, because otherwise, he wouldn't need to wear that loincloth.

Don't get me wrong, the idea of a robo-dick is supercool if done well, but you need to have the means to do it in order to make it & I just don't think Viktor does without the HexCore.

That sort of thing would probably require nanotechnology.

Actually, irl, there's this new artificial skin made by Caltech being made that is supposed to let robots be able to "sense temperature, pressure, & even toxic chemicals through a simple touch." Either way, it uses a gelatinous hydrogel & embedded into the gel are sensors that give the artificial skin its ability to detect the world around it. To get it in, a variety of inks of nanomaterials are injected into the surface like with a printer.

After printing a scaffolding of silver nanoparticle wires, the researchers then print layers of micrometer-scale sensors that can be designed to detect a bunch of stuff.

Thing is, there's no way Viktor has advanced tech far enough to make nanomachines. He'd need actual ferromancy.

—

I also highly doubt he actually managed to truly get rid of all of his emotions. Maybe dampen them so that they're less intense, but not entirely dispense with them.

Because if he does not get any fulfillment from his work (not even the satisfaction of a job well done), then what's keeping him doing it?

I know this because loss of motivation & drive is a known symptom of emotional blunting (which I suffer from) & apathy, which is when someone finds it more difficult to feel emotions. Imagine how low your motivation would be if you were entirely without emotions?

Further, if he truly got rid of his emotions, then his morals would be entirely dictated by logical pros vs cons as moral judgment is driven by both reasoning & emotion.

Things like disgust, shame, pride, anger, guilt, compassion, & gratitude.

If one does not have emotions, what value do things like morals & fairness even have? Let alone ideology?

What would push you forward?

Drive? Drive is an instinctual motivation towards action. For example, a drive for hunger is an innate need to engage in eating or a behavior which will satisfy a desire for sustenance.

Desires are also a type of very base emotion, so that's out too.

Want? Want is just another word for desire, so no to that also!

In order for Viktor to keep going as the Machine Harold without at least some base emotion as motivation, he'd need to be following some internal program that he built into himself. One that he specifically put in place before the operation in order to keep himself on track in following the old Viktor's moral judgment.

A moral judgment that, in & of itself, was driven by some of the most basic emotions. Therefore, he is either a hypocrite for being controlled by a program that was based on morals & thus emotions, or he has emotions & knows it, therefore he's a liar for saying that he 'evolved' passed the need for them when, in reality, you can't have morals without some form of emotional motivation & ideology is based on both conviction, belief, & opinion. Which are all emotions. Conviction actually being one of the most intense known emotions. Or he does have emotions, but doesn't realize that he does.

Meanwhile, machines without the influence of humans, are entirely without internal bias or personal opinion. All that truly matters is absolute, objective fact.

Thus, the very fact that he strives for a 'Glorious Evolution' is proof that he is a false idol driven by emotion in one form or another.

Otherwise, I doubt that he'd be doing much of anything.

In the end, a truly perfect body wouldn't be one entirely devoid of emotions so much as one that is able to separate emotion from reasoning &, failing that, is able to learn to control their emotions. That way, the body keeps the benefits of having emotions while largely avoiding the downfalls.

My suggestion? An internalized dial used to adjust the strength of one's emotions, but never to the point where there are none.

It's also possible based on the fact that his machinery is run on magic, that the magic gives him a form of replacement emotions. For all I know, he might not even notice these things.

If not for magic's presence in his body, he & Blitzcrank would likely be devoid of all desire to do anything beyond what they were programed to.

Realistically speaking, without emotion, his advancement would suffer immensely due to a lack of passion & inspiration on his part.

You can work as hard as possible & as often as possible, but a single spark of inspiration can render all that work meaningless.

By all accounts, by getting rid of his emotions, he'd be simplifying himself. Dumbing himself down.

Arcane Masterlist

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HACKERS AND SPEAKING

No company, however successful, ever looks more than a pretty good bet a few months. Either way it sucks. We ask mainly out of politeness. If you think someone judging you will work hard to judge you correctly, there's usually some feeling they shouldn't have to express every program as the definition of new types. If investors can no longer rely on their herd instincts, they'll have to get a foot in the door. -Oriented programming generates a lot of new work is preferable to a proof that was difficult, but doesn't lead to future discoveries; in the sciences generally, citation is considered a rough indicator of merit. If startups are mobile, the best local talent will go to the real Silicon Valley, and all they'll get at the local one will be the people who get PhDs in CS don't go into research. They're the ones in a position of power. I'm still not sure whether he thought AI was nonsense and that majoring in something rigorous would cure me of such stupid ambitions. I have never had to talk. When you change the angle of someone's eye five degrees, no one will pay for. Umair Haque wrote recently that the reason there aren't more Googles is that most startups get bought before they can change the world, people don't start things till they're sure what they want, regardless of how many are started.

Startups will go to work anyway and sit in front of them, so the odds of getting this great deal are 1 in 300. On the other hand, startup investing is a very strange business. Even if your only goal is to get every distraction out of the closet and admit, at least by comparison, be called turmoil. Just two or three lifetimes ago, most people in what are now called industrialized countries lived by farming. But software companies don't hire students for the summer as a source of cheap labor. But if you're starting a startup. I worried? I said what they need to get good grades to get into elite colleges, and college students think they need to get good grades to impress future employers, students will try to undermine the VCs by acting faster, and the VCs will gradually figure out ways to make money from. How casual successful startup founders are.

I write software: I sit down and blow out a lame version 1 as fast as angels and super-angels themselves. We think of the techniques we're developing for dealing with detail. I know of schlep blindness is Stripe, or rather Stripe's idea. You're better off avoiding these. If so, your old tastes were not merely different, but worse. Why is it that research can be done by collaborators. I'd guess the most successful startups we've funded haven't launched their products yet, but are definitely launched as companies. Fortran because not surprisingly in a language where you have to design what the user needs, who is the user? You may dispute either of the premises, but if you get funded by Y Combinator. But it seems more dangerous to put stuff in that you've never needed because it's thought to be a promising experiment that's worth funding to see how it turns out.1 But the startup world for so long that it seems promising enough to worry that you might not be the best solution. In Kate's world, everything is still physical and expensive.

Only a few companies have been smart enough to realize this so far. It's not super hard to get into grad school or just be good at math to write Mathematica. Google is afflicted with this, apparently. It has always seemed to me the solution is to tackle the problem head-on, and that people should work for another company for a few years down the line. With so much at stake, they have to be big, and it frees conscious thought for the hard problems. Why do you think so? Whereas when they don't like you, they'll be out of business, lies in something very old-fashioned: face to face for three months—so closely in fact that we insist they move to where we are. A lot of them. They believe this because it really feels that way to them.2

That solves the problem if you get a real job after you graduate. Because depending on the meaning of the word 'is' is. As usual, by Demo Day about half the founders from that first summer, less than two years ago, are now rich, at least in the short term. It was a lot of institutionalized delays in startup funding: the multi-week mating dance with investors; the distinction between termsheets and deals; the fact that you're mainly interested in hacking shouldn't deter you from going to grad school, because very few people are quite at home in computer science, and it will seem to investors no more than superficial changes. It's not just because they were pulled into it by unscrupulous investment bankers. You're rolling the dice again, whether you want them as a cofounder. In the mid twentieth century there was a great deal of play in these numbers. When you're forced to be simple, you're forced to be simple, you're forced to face the real problem. They treat the words printed in the book the same way you'd deal with a cold swimming pool: just jump in. So when you find an idea you know is good but most people disagree with, you should get a job. Nowadays a lot of de facto control after a series A round needs to be a good time for startups to have traction before they put in significant money.

One of our goals with Y Combinator was to discover the lower bound on the age of startup founders.3 If taste is just personal preference is a good deal of fighting in being the public face of an organization. The biggest factor determining how a VC will feel about your startup is how other VCs feel about it. Your tastes will change. So unless their founders could pull off an IPO which would be difficult with Yahoo as a competitor, they had become extremely formidable. The mobility of seed-stage startups means that seed funding is a national business.4 The puffed-up companies that went public during the Bubble didn't do it just because they want you to be a really good deal.

Do you, er, want a printout of yesterday's news? I know many people who switched from math to painting. This essay is derived from talks at the 2007 Startup School and the Berkeley CSUA. As well as mattering less whether students get degrees, it will turn out worse. Some magazines may thrive by focusing on the magazine as a physical object. As long as it isn't floppy, consumers still perceive it as a period that would have been for two Google employees to focus on the wrong things for six months, and the super-angels were initially angels of the classic type. Should you take it? Maybe, though the list of acquirers is a lot less than most university departments like to admit. VCs do now. It's too late now to be Stripe, but there's usually some feeling they shouldn't have to—that their startup will be huge—and convincing anyone of something like that must obviously entail some wild feat of salesmanship. The other reason parents may be mistaken is that, like generals, they're always fighting the last war.

5% an offer of 6. How has your taste changed? I don't consider myself to be doing research on programming languages. So if you want to work for, they may start to focus on working with other students they want as cofounders. Even though Y Combinator is teach hackers about the inevitability of schleps. And that statistic is probably not an option for most magazines. The seriousness of signalling risk depends on how far along you are with other investors seems the complementary countermove. Over in the arts. I don't know yet what the new rules will be, but it has to be better if both were combined in one group, headed by someone with a PhD in computer science, and it has to double: if you can imagine someone surpassing you, you can predict fairly accurately what the next few years will be like, but I'm not too worried about it.

Notes

That's because the arrival of desktop publishing, given people the first year or two, because they need them to private schools that in Silicon Valley, but suburbs are so different from a startup is compress a lifetime's worth of work into a fancy restaurant in San Francisco. We could be done, she expresses it by smiling more. It would have been the first question is only half a religious one; there is one that did.

The ordering system, which is probably part of a heuristic for detecting whether you realize it yet or not, and this is also a second factor: startup founders is how much they lied to them. Give the founders are driven only by money—for example, being offered large bribes by the financial controls of World War II was in logic and zoology, both your lawyers should be taken into account, they mean. It may be whether what you build for them.

We invest small amounts of new inventions until they become so embedded that they don't make users register to try to write it all yourself. It's lame that VCs play such games, but more often than not what it would be possible to have balked at this, but he got killed in the US treat the poor worse than Japanese car companies, but have no idea what's happening as merely not-too-demanding environment, and this trick merely forces you to agree. You're not seeing fragmentation unless you see them much in their target market the shoplifters are also the 11% most susceptible to charisma. If an investor makes you a clean offer with no valuation cap is merely boring, we found they used it to the biggest winners, which was acquired for 50 million, and don't want to work like they worked together mostly at night.

Except text editors and compilers. Users dislike their new operating system.

Thanks to Dan Giffin, Jessica Livingston, Hutch Fishman, Sam Altman, Robert Morris, and Ron Conway for sparking my interest in this topic.

[technology745]

The Only Guide for Technology

The Of Technology

From Internet of Behaviours to Hyperautomation, right here are some of the top innovation patterns for 2021 everybody must obtain ready for currently. The pandemic has actually turned 2020 into a tough year for both society and companies around the globe, that were already underway.

Hyperautomation Hyperautomation describes the procedure of how companies automate anything that can be automated in a company, utilizing devices like Equipment Knowing, AI, as well as robotics, among others. Artificial Knowledge Expert System (AI )is undoubtedly among the largest technology fads for the moment. This device can in many means: anticipating what clients will buy, adding facial recognition to company security, applying voice assistants, making usage of independent lorries and also robotics, and the checklist takes place. Within the context we are undergoing nowadays, AI will additionally, as well as make wise decisions regarding when and where to disperse resources. Robotics and also lorry automation The year

2021 is likewise anticipated to be one with fast growth and demand for robotics, specifically in the medical care market, to connect with members of society who are one of the most at risk to infection. They are expected to offer brand-new channels of interaction and also cleaning as well as safety solutions for firms requiring maintenance. Because method, cybersecurity mesh supplies companies with, enabling the security boundary to be defined around a person's identity or point. In various other words, any individual can get access to any digital possession in a safe way, no matter where the information is situated. The Cloud Although this fad began way prior to the pandemic, Covid-19's effect on worldwide companies has absolutely increased it. Many thanks to Cloud solutions, companies of varied sectors can As the Covid pandemic takes place, increasingly more business count on the Cloud to p Regarding this, Statista

anticipates that as 2021 obtains underway, the public Cloud services market is expected to go beyond 362. 3 billion UNITED STATE dollars by 2022. WFH modern technology This may be the technology pattern that will certainly be at the top of the podium throughout 2021., and it seems this pattern is expected to continue to grow in the years to come. A study exposed by Gartner shows that 90%of HR leaders will certainly permit workers to function remotely even after the Covid-19 injection is available.

Devices like, and other communication systems have become necessary for numerous ventures, facilitating remote working across the globe. These devices have assisted distributed groups maintain track of the tasks they are servicing, along with All these brand-new devices as well as technologies that have actually become a result of remote functioning have actually also aided business, along with boost partnership among members. However, taking into consideration that staff members functioning from home have to use their networks and that these may not be as secure as those provided by the office, companies may need to look to 3rd parties like Cloud services to guarantee those networks are risk-free and also the data is safeguarded. The years 2020 and also 2021 have differed from any kind of in the past. COVID might have transformed our lives upside down, however it might

not maintain organizations or specialists at a grinding halt. Organizations rolled on, customarily, individuals kept functioning, albeit from another location and also most operations still unravelled smoothly. As well as for all this, we have just modern technology to give thanks to. However what regarding C-Suite execs? Studies show that despite the fact that numerous companies are thinking about moving 80% of procedures to the cloud within a decade, CEOs are not so sure. As couple of as 3 out of 10 CEOs feel great about cloud movement. The prime factor for this is naturally data protection of customers. They will have all security functions, packed with data file encryptionand also data source monitoring to keep your data risk-free. If CEOs are still not comfortable, they can still go for an alternative that will certainly enable for movement of operations yet won't require information to be saved in the cloud. With the cloud, Lift and also Change does the job for you! You can merely migrate your entire system to the cloud and do away with your tradition framework. You can change you organization by investing in technology. Legacy infrastructure seriously limits development and market agility, as well as yet, Chief executive officers need to persevere since that framework is all they can trust for smooth procedure. Yet what happens if they can efficiently migrate to the cloud? After that there will certainly be no end to innovation as well as agility. Consumer Information Platforms, Advertising for anybody and everybody is a thing of the past. And Also Client Information System has actually proved that by being one of the largest technology fads for 2021. In 2021 data rules advertising totally, with 93 %of advertising and marketing supervisors concurring that using consumer data for advertising and marketing makes sure to give promising outcomes. Currently utilizing this comprehensive database of details, the advertising group can produce consumer accounts and also generate methods to woo the consumer. What are the benefits of utilizing a dedicated customer data system? When the advertising group recognizes the client completely, they can draft customized methods for each and every, which provides a far better chance to rapidly rack up a sale. Choice 2: Ask the customers for their information. No data extracted from the web can be as authentic as the one the consumer himself will supply you with. Not just sales however a CDP can additionally be a vital aspect in better customer retention. With more information regarding the client, the entire team can be conscious of customer assumptions from them whether in regards to service or merely website UI. Before CDPs entered into usage, complete integrations needed to be carried out on consumer data to produce a central data source, which used up both time and workforce. The entire procedure of utilizing information for advertising and marketing has ended up being a lot more reliable with the usage of CDPs. Work From Home, As opposed to a modern technology trend, job from residence has ended up being a lifestyle for us currently. But in the post-pandemic globe, Chief executive officers need to find to terms with the reality that such circumstances may occur time as well as once again as well as we have the innovation to handle them efficiently. Naturally, running a firm with no in person interaction could be challenging, yet there are ways to ensure individuals are collaborating with genuineness and stability. If needed, offer your employees with a VPN to ensure your information is safe and also the web rate is excellent. This will certainly make certain all digital meetings and also presentations run without a glitch. Your next-gen staff members are constantly all set to adjust any type of kind

of innovation patterns as well as tools you throw at them, however what about the older labor force? It is not possible or fair to toss them in the lurch in the middle of the pandemic. However does this mean there will be no UI? Of program not. Based upon a Net of Things principle, brainless technology primarily describes a personalized front-end. When we log into Amazon.com, all millions of customers see the exact same interface, there is no modification. But with headless tech, there is no telling what we will certainly see when we open the application. Modification possibilities will certainly be unlimited. Every client can have their extremely own UI.Cross-platform adaptation will not need any added job! Enables seamless combinations, This is the new kid in town when it concerns modern technology trends in organization however this is the age of personalized customer experience so it is only a matter of time before firms select this up, toss in some hardcore R&D and take it to new heights. These customized suites have an all-in-one system that has software concerning all essential HR functions like pay-roll as well as advantages administration, soft ability administration, onboarding, and also collaboration. Among the prime tasks of the HR department is to care for employee troubles, the most important of which is the worker's mental health and wellness. Courtesy of AI, we have located a means out of this. The employer need just go into a couple of requirements as well as the robot will merely wade its method with your pile of applications and draw out the very best of the whole lot. After that it depends on our seasoned Human Resources experts to cherry-pick thebest for the position! These 5 innovations are still in their inceptive stages as well as are not yet routine features for all companies. This is where Radixweb can aid you with important experience as well as understandings, gathered over years of experience in assisting organizations as well as their technology demands with electronic change services. So to connect to us to review even more modern technology fads in company, provide us a telephone call or drop an e-mail!.?.!!. Because of the devastating hit of the pandemic from the yearand database monitoring to keep your data safe. In 2021 data guidelines advertising totally, with 93 %of advertising supervisors concurring that making use of consumer information for advertising is certain to offer appealing outcomes.

[wordsturnintostories]

show me your rosettes, baby (g)

summary: The world tour is over and the Bangtan Boys finally get their well-deserved break. When Namjoon suddenly can’t find Jimin anywhere, things take an unexpected and pretty unbelievable turn. “Kim Namjoon!” “Hyung. How common is it for people to turn into cats?” word count: 11.7k note: sorry for not updating this baby in sooo long. i struggled with this chapter for three months and would have never gotten to this final version without @justanemptydream’s help. you saved me. thank you, love. anyway, last time i thought the chapter was long but now we’ve got an 11.7k monstrosity. let me know if you enjoyed reading it. toodles  ✨

masterlist | moodboard masterlist

[ prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven ]

The room is stunningly quiet apart from Jimin’s sleepy hiccups, the soft buzzing of the fish tank and the beeps that signal that the call is not yet connected. Unsure about what to expect, Sihyuk and Namjoon hold eye contact. Then, suddenly, a woman’s voice appears on the other side of the phone.

“Welcome, Bang Sihyuk, Kim Namjoon. I am your automated call agent today. We apologize for not being personally available to take your call at the moment. To continue, please choose an option from the menu. Press 1 to access all gathered data about Park Jimin, press 3 to-“

They both look at each other.

“What the hell.”

A bird caws outside the window. The fish in the tank swim in wobbly circles. Jimin sniffles and fails to lick his side. The silence - okay, it’s more of a shock-state, but the silence seems electric, like any word will change the current and any action will push them to a point of no return.

Namjoon starts a short body-mind check, feels his brain reboot. There are not many updates; he’s still sitting in the same chair in Bang Sihyuk’s office, Jimin is still wriggling around on his lap and they are still on the phone with the weird robot lady whose number they got from a magic business card. But his heart is pounding like it wasn’t before, and his eyes and mouth hang open wide. Actual shivers flow over his skin, matching the light reflexes from the tank, and Namjoon has a weird premonition that he will break something today. The silence is almost damp with shock, and probably only rings in his ears, like he’s a hero in an action movie who’s lost his sense of hearing after the explosion of the century.

Now, Namjoon knows a lot of things other people don’t know. He knows how to make music, great music according to ARMY and the charts, and he knows how to lead a group (although most of the time, he feels like he’s not actually doing anything, thanks to his hyungs). He knows how to survive a 40-event concert tour and he knows how to dislocate a shoulder without trying to. It’s the things Namjoon doesn’t know that scare him.

He doesn’t know how anyone could have possibly found out about Jimin’s condition - he’s been extra careful the past days, restraining himself from posting cat photos on their twitter and only letting Jimin out into their private backyard to avoid prying eyes. The only people he’s told about Jimin are Min Yoongi and Bang Sihyuk. Not even the other band members know about the leopard cub roaming their apartment and gnawing on their cushions. And yet, some company or organization has found out. 

Namjoon doesn’t know what to think - on the one hand, it could be very good. It could mean that the other company has no intention of blackmailing them. It could mean that there is interest in the topic but no pressure. On the other hand, this could be bad, very bad. To know that someone else is out there, with unclear motivations (because seriously, they could still blackmail BigHit for this), with an unknown amount of information - it could mean anything. Namjoon knows as well as any other person working for BigHit how fragile success is - no matter the foundation of work underneath. BigHit and BTS have worked years - long years that cost them their all - to rise up as far as they have today and the whole business is based completely on popularity, on opinions. Opinions can change quickly, especially in the music industry. One wrong move and your career is over. Namjoon knows all this. What he doesn’t know is whether Jimin will shift back, become human again (the doubt still lingers despite what Jackson says), whether BTS will be able to go on normally, whether their next shows will happen, whether Jimin will be okay. Because if he isn’t, BTS isn’t, and if BTS isn’t, BigHit isn’t either. That’s how it works. Namjoon knows that. And that’s why he looks up to Sihyuk for help.

Namjoon is sure that Sihyuk knows all these things too, that he’s thinking about them right this moment while Namjoon has to remember to breathe properly and both ways, in and out, to stuff back his rising anxiety (just like his therapist told him, in and out, in and out). Sihyuk stays pretty quiet for a long moment, looking back at Namjoon but not really looking at him directly, more like… through him like he’s not focused at all. Then, he shakes his head and himself out of his trance and grabs his phone. Another thing Namjoon knows (by heart) is this new look on Sihyuk’s face as he looks for the contact and dials. It’s the I’m-concerned-for-my-kids look that he’s been sporting less and less nowadays but that had been a constant companion during their first couple of years. 

The voice on the phone reels Namjoon back in from his observations, enough to catch the relieved “Good morning, Mrs. Kang”. It’s enough to let Namjoon know that the situation is very serious but hasn’t quite reached catastrophic levels yet. Mrs. Kang is their lawyer, not their emergency response unit. Mrs. Kang clears things up, does law research and manages their contract details. She’s not responsible for decisions concerning anything related to music or marketing or member conditions, so Namjoon manages to find some hope in the thought that all these things are not endangered. PDnim will take care of any new legal issues. We’ll be fine. 

Before he reroutes his full attention back to the words filtering through his phone, Namjoon takes a second to feel himself in the room - he thinks back to his therapist talking to him about unsettling situations and anxiety. Just ground yourself in the sounds and in the feeling of your body in the room - against the chair, against the floor, wherever you are. Feel the air around you and breathe in and out. What is near you? Feel it. Focus on that rather than the anxiety inside. Namjoon breathes in and for a second, he wishes he had Jungkook’s sense of smell because the office scent in his own nose is rather weak. He does smell Sihyuk’s perfume and the lingering residue of his own cologne on the soft collar of his coat. He feels the chair’s armrests that enclose his hips and the way his shoes line up perfectly with the floor. And most importantly, he feels Jimin pawing at his ankles in an eager attempt to be scooped up and cuddled, probably. It forces a pleasant smile on Namjoon’s face that he welcomes - as if the little leopard cub has managed to shush his anxiety completely. Rightfully so, Namjoon thinks as he grabs Jimin’s tiny body, legs and arms flailing around cutely in the air, tail curling around Namjoon’s wrist. Jimin’s eyes are wide and blue and just like a little plushie’s - big enough to stand out from the rest of his body proportions and big enough to lower your defenses to attack you with cuteness. Namjoon sets his dongsaeng down on his lap before picking up the call again only to realize that he hadn’t even responded last time - so now, the robot voice is tirelessly repeating the same menu choices as before.

“-mation we have gathered about Park Jimin, press 3 to apply for a regular membership or a VIP membership, press 5 to request medical or legal support, press 7 to be connected to our Shifter and Hybrid Needs network or press 9 for other issues.”

When his mind registers the options presented to him, Namjoon doesn’t know what to think. In all honesty, those options sound nothing like his paranoia had suggested to him before - it sounds like normal customer service and that bothers Namjoon because this is a magical number that Jackson had given him… right? To be honest, Namjoon doesn’t know what a phone call with a magical number should sound like, if there’s any sample he could go by - is there any K-drama he could watch that is even halfway accurate with these magical things? Maybe he should text Jackson later.

“H-Hi,” he cringes at how shaky his own voice sounds, “w-who am I talking to?”

“Forgive my manners, Namjoon-ssi. I am your automated call agent today. Our office staff is currently not available to take your call-“

It’s so strange. Namjoon has never encountered any automated call agent that responds to his voice, or rather, his words. Normally, those things present the options menu, wait for the number he presses, and react accordingly. He’s slightly confused by how this call goes right now and Jimin whines when the big fingers in the fur on his back still. Namjoon goes back to gently stroking the cub’s fur and frowns. What if this is not a normal machine?

“Are-are you an AI? Or are you a new kind of technology somehow?”

“I am an AMI, Namjoon-ssi, designed specifically to accommodate our many clients’ needs individually.” 

An AMI. He isn’t sure if that name was given on purpose, if that is part of the message that the other side wants to transmit - an AMI? Like, ARMY? Is it meant to… be a joke? A threat maybe? Does the female robot voice introduce itself (herself?) as AMI to everyone or just him? Namjoon’s brows are furrowed and he really doesn’t know what to think, only that wilder ideas arise the more he keeps thinking, so maybe he should stop. What if- what if this is not really a robot voice but an actual ARMY that uses some sort of voice contortion device? What if this is a Sasaeng? Alarm bells ring in Namjoon’s head. He isn’t sure whether that’s possible, whether this is a valid idea, but in the handful of years he’s been an idol, he’s learned that the world is crazy. Anything is possible, especially in BTS. He brushes his fingers through Jimin’s soft fur, letting the tail drag through his hands, relishes in the warmth under the fuzz and risks a look at Sihyuk, who is still talking to their lawyer. 

“There’s no sense in waiting longer, you’re right. Is there anything you can do to activate the contract clause faster?” and then, “Yeah, same as last time.”

Namjoon sits up a little straighter. A contract clause? What does he mean by that? What kind of contract clause - he sucks in a breath. Does BangPdnim - did he plan this somehow? Was he prepared for this kind of thing to happen? Also, same as last time? Has he done this before? Is there… maybe someone else like Jimin? Another shifter in the group? Wouldn’t Jackson have mentioned that? His thoughts swirl and Namjoon feels like he’s falling through his chair, into the ground, like there’s an endless bottom opening up underneath him. Like his world changes and all his breathing exercises from before have been completely useless. Once again, the voice - AMI - pulls him back into reality. He breathes unevenly and finds Jimin’s eyes. Innocent. Unknowing. Trusting. Namjoon’s heart pounds. It aches from his yearning to take care of Jimin well. To protect him.

“May I ask you to choose from the options, Namjoon-ssi. Main menu. Press 1 to access-“

“AMI, how can I change Jimin back? Is there anything I can give him? Maybe medication, or something?”

It’s a rushed question, a question tasting like panic and helplessness. Namjoon doesn’t know what’s going on, it scares him, and he needs to find a solution. If there is even the tiniest possibility of Jimin’s contract being changed up now that he is like this, and Jimin being at a disadvantage because of it, Namjoon will make sure to make it right. He shivers because normally, he wouldn’t hesitate to ask for Sihyuk’s help, but now? It’s all messed up, he doesn’t know what’s happening and what he can do. He needs to come up with solutions, and fast.

“Shifting is a process induced by hormones, Namjoon-ssi. There is medication to trigger a shift either way but it will majorly affect hormone levels of the patient and is not recommended to be taken on a regular basis.”

“Is there any other way?”

“Would you classify this situation as an emergency?”

Namjoon thinks. He looks at Jimin, then at Sihyuk. Catches the mumbled “Can’t have that happen. No one can find out” from the CEO’s lips. Feels breathless, like endless shame is gnawing through his heart for even allowing the mere thought of Sihyuk doing anything that could harm the members. He wouldn’t. Right? Right? But right now, Namjoon can’t really judge the situation well. He doesn’t have all the information, doesn’t know what a contract clause could do in this case, what it would be for, he doesn’t know. He kind of wishes he had Hobi or Yoongi by his side right now, to help him make decisions but also to help him keep a clear head. It would certainly make things more bearable. It feels like he’s actually stepped into that alternative universe from their Heartbeat music video, where impossible things are the norm and magical creatures float around everywhere. He doesn’t understand.

“Yes, I would say so,” he breathes.

“Understood,” AMI replies promptly, “Emergency response team has been alerted. Estimated arrival in 5 minutes. Please prepare to assist the medical examination by-“

Namjoon rushes to yell into the phone, “What- NO! No, no, no! It’s not that kind of an emergency! Jimin is fine, please don’t, there’s no need-“

Sihyuk sends a worried look into his direction, but Namjoon ignores it.

“Emergency response team on standby. Please confirm your previous directive. Is this an emergency?”

“We don’t need medical attention. Jimin is fine.”

“Understood. Main menu. Please choose from the options. Press 1 to-“

His shoulders sag in relief but he feels annoyed that AMI has moved back to the main menu again without even leaving room for discussion. It beeps when Namjoon presses the 1, maybe because he actually wants to know what this AMI knows about Park Jimin, maybe because he really feels bad for making her read the main menu so often and maybe because he doesn’t know what to do and needs to kill time so Sihyuk can do this phone call together with him and maybe even because he doesn’t know if this is important or not. So, he waits for AMI’s voice with bated breath.

“1,” AMI enunciates, “general data regarding Park Jimin. Nationality: Korean. Date of birth: 1997, June 5th. Gender: female. Species: White -“

“Wait, no. That’s uh, you’ve got the wrong Park Jimin.”

AMI is talking about Park Jimin who Namjoon had first met on the set of the After School Club together with Eric Nam, and he releases a breath of relief - and loses Jimin, who takes the chance to start exploring. Like the little troublemaker his kitty alter ego is (not really a big surprise when you think about how human Jimin’s mind works), he jumps right up where he probably shouldn’t be - on the desk. The desk where documents lay, where electronic devices buzz and where little objects look interesting enough to trigger a little cat’s curiosity.

“I apologize, Namjoon-ssi,” AMI says, sounding a little confused with her robotic voice, “would you like to change Park Jimin’s profile?”

“No, no. It’s just the wrong one. There’s another Park Jimin.”

“I apologize, Namjoon-ssi,” AMI repeats and Namjoon figures it’s just how she’s programmed, “would you like to register a new profile?”

“I don’t want to register anything, I just want-“

“Main menu. Press 1 to access-“

He groans. And there she goes again. Namjoon shuffled on his seat nervously, ignoring the little growls from Jimin somewhere further away. He risks a side glance to Jimin and feels soft amusement riding up his face when the cub rolls around playing and nibbling on a small BT21 Cooky’s ears. But then he hears AMI talking, persistently repeating the main menu and Namjoon isn’t sure if he can go wrong by choosing any of the options so he just dares to ask questions. He hopes it won’t get him into trouble.

“You mentioned legal advice. Why would we need legal advice?”

“Currently, there is very little official legislation regarding the Shifter and Hybrid community in Korea. Our legal department’s services are free and extend toward every member of the Shifter and Hybrid community in Korea. We offer-“

“And what about medical support? What kind of medical support would Jimin need?”

“Our organization connects clients to a network of professional veterinarians from all over the nation. However, we have specific 24/7 on-call staff trained to assess and treat Shifters and Hybrids specifically. We also connect to therapists, nutritionists, and skin & fur care professionals if needed.”

Namjoon isn’t sure what that means, only that it actually sounds like robot lady is trying to sell them something now. Hadn’t she talked about a membership before? He feels his leg bounce impatiently. When will Sihyuk be done? Should I just wait for him? Maybe we should just discuss this before anything else-

“Namjoon-ssi, Park Jimin is currently ingesting Samsung printer ink, which can be very toxic for a leopard cub his age, please-“

As if hit by a sudden strike of lighting, Namjoon feels his body move on its own. His eyes shoot up, focusing immediately on his kitty dongsaeng playing with a dark little ink cartridge by the printer. His thumb smashes that end-call button before letting the phone collide with the table in an ugly crash. He lunges forward to grab Jimin from the desk.

“Jiminie! Don’t do that,” he scolds and feels terror spread at the sight of the little leopard wiggling in his grasp, ears drawn back in shock, cheeks and chest soaked in splashes of blue, magenta and yellow ink. “What are you thinking!”

The cub meows pitifully but doesn’t let his words match his actions with all the feisty squirming. Once again, he seeks out the help of his claws that definitely pierce Namjoon’s skin. With his concentration completely on Jimin - it’s honestly a relief that the call is over so that he can deal with one issue at the time - he jumps when Sihyuk suddenly yells a curse through the room.

“What is happening!? Namjoon-ah, what did you do?”

Namjoon whines. It’s not his fault Jimin is prone to get himself into situations like this - he’s too curious, too adventurous and too tiny for the world right now and apparently, he likes making a mess with colored liquids. The toothpaste had been harmless of course, so it wasn’t a big deal, but Namjoon can’t deny it doesn’t give him a half a heart attack looking at Jimin with those stains in his fur. He looks like a little rainbow-kitty somehow. If this wasn’t so serious, Namjoon would take photos. He knows Jimin would coo and laugh at this later and Taehyung would declare it authentic art.

“I’m sorry, hyung! I didn’t pay attention for a second and- do you have tissues?”

Sihyuk throws him a package of wet tissues from some shelf by the wall, but like Namjoon expects, it basically doesn’t do anything to get the ink out of the leopard’s fur. It doesn’t look like Jimin minds or like he even understands the fuss (he purrs when Namjoon rubs his body down), but the humans certainly do. Namjoon sinks back into his chair and sighs, one of his hands brushing through his own hair in an attempt to calm himself. It takes a second to just calm down from the pulsing shock, so he just lets Jimin play with his hands until the little leopard loses interest and starts nosing Namjoon’s belly, the pockets of Namjoon’s jeans, and puts his tiny paws on Namjoon’s thighs, looking up.

“How are you so tiny and still such a troublemaker, Jiminie?”

Jimin stays in his position for quite a bit as if he wants to say something but Namjoon doesn’t get the hint, doesn’t know what Jimin wants, and realizes AMI is still talking. By now, he considers just hanging up and calling Jackson. Or one of the hyungs. He could really use a hyung now, just a steady, calming presence next to him like in English interviews or Award Shows. Jimin, who still has his nose buried in Namjoon’s jeans (where his pockets are), whines. 

“What is it, baby, huh? What do you need?”

The little leopard only snuffles wetly along Namjoon’s pockets (which are empty) and when the rapper tries to grab the cat, Jimin hisses. But then he slips because he’s a clumsy little thing with only a short, shivering tail that doesn’t know how to balance the body attached to it and his paws lose grip on Namjoon’s thigh so he glides off the side. Luckily, Namjoon’s reflexes are quick enough to shoot after his dongsaeng and grab his leg so that he can lift the kitty back up his lap before anything can happen. (He pictures the scene like one of those Dads grabbing their kid falling from the couch in those Dad-compilations. It’s epic.) He yelps when Jimin’s tiny fangs sink into his hand. He receives a vicious hiss on top and feels betrayed.

“Jimin! Don’t bite me like that! I saved you. No need to be so ungrateful.”

But the cub doesn’t seem to feel grateful or repentant and continues his search for whatever it is he hopes to find in Namjoon’s pockets. It’s a tad irritating to be ignored like this when normally, Jimin is so thoughtful and kind.

“If you feel bratty like this, you can gladly spend the rest of our time back in the box.”

At this, Jimin does look up and for a second, Namjoon feels something spark in his chest. Did he understand that? Did he understand me?

“The box? Do you want to go back into the box? Maybe that’s not such a bad idea, huh? You could nap a bit and you’ll feel much better.”

He gets up slowly, trying to grab Jimin on the way, but the little cub struggles too much so that Namjoon has to set him down to not have his hands torn up.

“C’mon, baby. We’ll put you back until you feel better, huh?”

All his hope is crushed when Jimin avoids the box like it’s hell even if he seemed to like it so much before. Any attempt to shoo him near the box fails and after a couple of minutes chasing the kitty around, Namjoon gives up. He goes back to his chair, plopping down and watching as Jimin tapers off to run circles in front of the fish tank and eventually trods over to Sihyuk’s feet. That, in turn, has Namjoon on edge, because Sihyuk is busy and concentrated on the phone call and Jimin is tiny and Namjoon knows from experience how easy the cub is to overlook and almost step on. But the CEO smiles at Namjoon and gives him a thumbs up. He straightens up and stands with his feet planted firmly on the ground, not bouncing on the balls of his feet like he usually does when on the phone. When Jimin starts to roll around, making it his mission to catch Sihyuk’s shoelaces, the man chuckles fondly. It’s a relief and Namjoon can’t believe he thought Sihyuk would somehow maybe make a bad choice just because Jimin turned into a baby animal.

“Yes, please let me know what options we have,” the CEO says. “Thank you.”

Namjoon uses the minute of peace and quiet to send a text to Jackson.

> Hey man, what exactly is the number on the card for? Why do they call themselves an AMI? Is it the same as ARMY?

He doesn’t get an answer immediately, so he stares at the little 1 in their Kakao chat for as long as he can and sighs when he turns his phone back off. 

“Who are you trying to reach?” Sihyuk whispers, covering the microphone with his hand. 

“Jackson.”

“GOT7 has their promotions in Europe now, don’t be disappointed if he doesn’t text back quickly.”

Jimin seems to get tired of playing with Sihyuk’s shoelaces and goes back to doing his own tour of the office. His little tail quivers in excitement as he sniffs every corner and rolls around on the carpet. Every now and then, there’s a little squeak that Namjoon finds adorable and that he wishes he could save in his heart for bad days. Namjoon focuses back on Sihyuk’s phone call. He can already see the many meetings with managers and staff this change could potentially cause; meetings to accommodate Jimin’s needs and to make sure everything stays under wraps for as long as possible. Or, depending on the outcome of the phone call, (Namjoon has assured himself by now that it will not end in a cancellation of Jimin’s contract because Sihyuk would never let go of Jimin, who is basically one of his fifteen children), a new round of contract negotiations. For the entire group, possibly, depending on the details Mrs. Kang will present to them. Namjoon hopes they can find a beneficial solution for everyone.

Suddenly, a strange sound moves into his focus, persistently interrupting his strategic thoughts. Scratch, scratch, scratch. It’s a weird scratching, not like a scratch on skin or wood or maybe clothes. It sounds different, like fabric snagging on something sharp and being released and Namjoon turns his head to look for the origin of the sound. There’s something in the corner of his eye that rouses suspicion. Jimin. Jimin is kneading the carpet. Alarm bells ring in Namjoon’s mind immediately. Kneading, scratching, peeing. It’s an established pattern that he’s observed during the past days. So far, his success rate of removing Jimin from a place like this (aka. a place that’s not his litter box) and carrying him some other place (aka. the backyard) stands at a proud 80%. However, the memories of the other 20% spur him on and Namjoon is out of his chair faster than he can even think about a plan. 

Jimin startles at the sudden movement and jumps out of the way when the rapper tries to grab him. He’s much quicker than his tiny legs suggest and runs to hide behind the big pot that holds the pretty rosé-blossom tree by the wall that backs against the hallway. He probably thinks the big pot will hide him well until Namjoon shows up again, still aware of what’s at stake here (the carpet, Jimin’s new reputation, and both Namjoon’s and Sihyuk’s sanity). In a determined effort to keep Sihyuk’s office sanitary and welcoming, he sneaks up on the leopard. Hands grab air and Namjoon groans. When he turns around, he notices the little tail peeking out from below Sihyuk’s desk. 

The CEO by the window himself doesn’t seem to notice what’s going on and Namjoon kind of feels like he could have used AMI’s emergency team after all. This is the second, no third emergency of the day and maybe, okay just maybe, Namjoon thinks he might have done something bad in his previous life so that the universe thought it would be fair to make him his dongsaeng’s babysitter. Suddenly, a VIP membership sounds tempting… do they offer babysitter services?

“Jimin-ah,” he whispers, “I swear, if you even think about peeing under hyung’s desk…”

Namjoon approaches slowly. If anything, he figures he should approach the leopard in a smart way. He’s aware that he probably doesn’t have much time left before the cat’s urge to relieve itself becomes insurmountable, so he tells himself to get it all over with quickly. What’s the best way to get Park Jimin to do almost anything you want? Sweet-talk. Namjoon approaches slowly and kneels. Before him, he sees the paper bin underneath the desk, a ton of (neatly bound) cables and the wooden legs of the table. Crouching, he grabs around the garbage can, meeting an amused meow that almost sounds like he’s laughing. Again, Jimin flees before Namjoon can get a hold of him.

“Ah, come on Jimin-ah, my cutest, prettiest, loveliest dongsaeng,” he coaxes, “You were doing so good yesterday, kitten…”

But Jimin doesn’t come back. He just sits on the carpet, tauntingly close, with a lively glint in his eyes. Jimin is watching Namjoon and the rapper doesn’t fail to note the excitement that lets the cat’s tail whip around wildly. So this is a game to you, huh?

When suddenly two legs appear right next to Namjoon’s face, he yelps. His hand gets tangled in some cable on the floor. He slips and slams his head against the metal paper bin, making it fall and spill everywhere. A nasty burn hits his temple and when he reaches up to touch the skin there, the cable around his hand pulls taut. Namjoon’s bad luck is endless, apparently, because something tumbles and crashes upon the table. Sihyuk lets out a yelp. Like a miscalculated movement in the shower, a quick burst of water hits Namjoon from above. He shrieks, feeling the wetness settle and hopes Sihyuk didn’t have any important documents out on the table. He doesn’t pay attention, but he can feel Jimin watching him from the carpet with amused eyes. When he looks, the little leopard rolls around, looking the most Jimin-like ever - like he’s laughing so hard that he just has to throw his body against something.

“Namjoon-ah!” Sihyuk yells, albeit more urgent than angry, “where are you? Kim Namjoon!”

“I’m here,” Namjoon groans, still rubbing his forehead. He’s sure the spot’s gonna be blue tomorrow. Yoongi’s gonna have a good laugh for sure.

“Where is here?”

The rapper crawls out from underneath the table. He sees movement from the corner of his eye but focuses on Sihyuk.

“No, I’m talking to Kim Namjoon,” he says into the phone and looks up only to have his eyes widen with a really panicked look in them. He jumps up, pointing into the room. “Don’t let him pee in there! That Sakura tree is from the President!”

When Namjoon whips his head around, making a cascade of water fly everywhere, he finds Jimin not on the carpet like he’d assumed, but in the big plant pot along with the Japanese tree. Jimin is walking around the stem of the little tree like he’s got a monopoly on the spot. From the body language, Namjoon can tell that the cat is calm and relaxed. Ideal for business. Oh no.

“Yes, hyung!”

Namjoon runs like he hasn’t in a long time (the couple days that he’s been on this pseudo-vacation) and finally snatches an unassuming Jimin right out of the tree pot, hands grabbing for the cat with so much determination that he even scoops up some earth. He hears mewling. It doesn’t matter, nothing matters in this emergency, and Namjoon looks around, nerves strung high, adrenaline rushing. He frowns when he realizes that there’s no litter box over here in the office. That leaves him with only one option: A dash for the bathroom. 

Quickly, he runs to the door. There’s a moment of hesitation. He isn’t sure how he should hide Jimin from all the people in the building but considering that the bathrooms aren’t really far away, he hopes no one will cross his way. (Especially now that Jimin looks so violently colorful). A thought crosses his mind. What if Sejin is still outside? There’s a possibility that the manager has gone to his own office to get some work done while waiting but there’s also the possibility that he’s out there and springs up at the door opening and sees Jimin right away. It’s nothing I have control over, Namjoon reassures himself. He feels Jimin’s little cry in his heart and nods. Let’s go.

Stepping out into the hallway feels a bit like coming out of the shower - out of the cozy, safe warmth and into the frightening cold outside. When Jimin keeps wriggling, softly crowing his discomfort, Namjoon repositions him so that his hands won’t press on the leopard’s belly so much. He looks to the side and freezes. Sejin is on the sofa. Luckily, he’s got his eyes glued to his phone and doesn’t seem to have noticed Namjoon yet - and Namjoon is determined not to let it happen either. Before Jimin can make any loud sounds, Namjoon turns and runs. He does manage to run with Jimin in front of his torso so he isn’t visible from behind. Even if Sejin were to look after them, Jimin would be out of view. Namjoon keeps his eyes on the hallway door until a yell comes from behind.

“Kim Namjoon! Wait up!”

Don’t stop, keep running, Namjoon tells himself, glad that the 6km are a result on his step counter every day, not Sejin’s. Sure, Sejin jogs and stays in shape but Namjoon dances and runs around and is much younger too, so he doesn’t even pant as he takes the next turn to the left and runs towards the men’s bathrooms. The door doesn’t budge when Namjoon uses the handle. A flare of adrenaline-induced panic drips down Namjoon’s chest and he wants to curse. He finds a sign that says “Out of order”. Great. Now, where to?

It’s a good thing that Namjoon is so familiar with the building. Practically, this is the building’s office level that BTS members don’t necessarily have to visit very often. But Namjoon is a regular guest in all kinds of offices, so he is not at a great disadvantage. He knows the way, knows a couple of bathrooms strewn all over the levels. It takes a few risks to bring Jimin there as fast as possible - Namjoon dodges people but almost knocks the head of the PR department off his feet as he rounds a corner and gets drenched in coffee. He runs on, apologizing with a quick but deep bow that almost makes him stumble, takes the stairs and finally, finally reaches the end of the next hallway, the men’s bathroom, an empty stall, and holds a trembling Jimin over the toilet. The leopard fusses, not liking the feeling of being held like this, in the air over an abyss of water. He whimpers. 

“C’mon Jiminie, look at me, I ran all the way over here for you,” he says, “give it some effort.”

It’s a moment of desperation but Namjoon feels warm inside (well, he’s sweating). He’s looking at Jimin and suddenly, he feels like he’s in a film, like he’s a Dad trying to potty-train his kid. Jimin shivers, ears flicking and turning constantly and even Namjoon’s gentle attempts to coax him into peeing don’t help. Those big blue eyes look like they’re gonna burst with tears at any moment. Can cats cry?

“You’re doing it wrong,” someone says behind him.

Namjoon jerks and swears he would have almost let Jimin drop. It’s Sejin and that means that Namjoon’s only got two options. Maybe Sejin knows what’s going on, maybe he doesn’t. In this moment, Namjoon doesn’t even let his fear of being discovered bubble up. He’s here to fix an issue, solve a problem, so he’s gotta get on with it. Sejin is on his side, so whatever happens, he’ll help. Namjoon is sure.

“Sorry,” Sejin says, breathing a little heavy as well, “just let him sit. Cats don’t like to be touched while peeing.”

Namjoon nods, suddenly feeling grateful that it’s Sejin who’s come after him. Sejin is the kind of hyung who just sees the need and helps, no matter what. There’s not a single occasion Namjoon can think of where Sejin has refused to help any member of the group. Of course, one could argue that it’s his job but Namjoon has seen people do their jobs and finds that Sejin is doing more than just a job - he’s taking care of Bangtan with passion and foresight, and sees their relationship as a way to install his substitute-Dad-wisdoms in them.

“He’s too small for the toilet though. He’ll fall in.”

“You need something like a litter box.”

Sejin moves around, drawing out a plastic container from below the sink. It’s a plastic container filled with wet tissues, deodorant the PR people keep in here for emergencies, and some excess paper towel rolls. Sejin fills it up with toilet paper and lets Namjoon place Jimin in it. Jimin circles the container, meows and finally seems satisfied. Namjoon looks away when the cub crouches. He doesn’t need to see that, cause it’s creepy, and rather turns his attention to Sejin.

“Not that I mind, but… why does your cat look like my three-year old’s drawings?”

Namjoon doesn’t know why but somehow, this question is so funny to him that he just starts to laugh - he laughs and laughs and when he’s done, he feels like somehow, a knot around his heart has loosened. He feels lighter than before and breathes. He’s tired but Sejin is here with him, and he knows it will be okay. Here on the cold tiles of the bathroom door, Namjoon finds a revelation coming to him. It approaches as he watches Sejin prepare the litter box for Jimin and unravels as Jimin joyfully runs a circle in it before crouching. It hits, however, in this moment of innocent glee, when Namjoon just enjoys the fact that their manager and friend is here with him. I’m not supposed to do this alone, Namjoon realizes, I was never meant to do it alone. He almost feels stupid that this feels like a revelation to him - he’s the leader of a seven-member group and still, his mind had automatically turned to selfie mode. But then again, he had felt so alone, this morning in the cold apartment, without any of the other members yelling around and sneaking Namjoon’s breakfast off his plate. His heart warms up as he watches Sejin smile at Jimin.

“Thanks for running after me and helping, hyung,” Namjoon says, grateful for the way the bathroom acoustics make it sound so much bigger, “I really appreciate it.”

Sejin smiles. “I’ll always help you, Namjoon-ah. Just let me know what I can do.”

There are some occurrences in life - sort of like déjà-vus - that make Namjoon hold his breath. Maybe it’s not that significant, but the way Sejin sounds like Seokjin almost makes Namjoon tear up right now. In his heart, he feels himself looking forward to the moment Seokjin’s banter echoes through their apartment again, the moment Namjoon steps through the door and looks into his hyung’s face. The moment Seokjin will hug him whether Namjoon wants to or not, and the moment he’ll feel his hyung breathe against his neck in a warm, friendly embrace. And the moment of relief, where Namjoon tells all the members what’s going on, where they talk over one another in an attempt to encourage Jimin and make him giggle in glee. It’s all gaining color and shape in Namjoon’s mind and with the image, hope and courage rise inside of him. Everything will be fine, and even with Jimin’s nagging self-doubt and perfectionism and whatnot, they will find a way. They will push the bad things away. Together.

“It’s great to have you on the team, hyung, seriously. I don’t know if I ever said this, but I’m really grateful for you.”

“Aw, cute. Why are you so sentimental all of a sudden?”

Namjoon shrugs, eyes turning back to Jimin so Sejin won’t see how mushy Namjoon feels inside, how much more he could say but won’t because he doesn’t want his hyung to suffocate under the avalanche of compliments and heartfelt emotions he’s still got in store. The right dosage is important, Namjoon-ah, he remembers Yoongi saying back in the dark, one shared night in their four-year-old studio chairs with takeout in their hands, don’t overwhelm people with your words. You’re too powerful with words sometimes, people don’t know what to do with it. It’s your superpower, so use it responsibly.

“I still don’t know why your cat looks like he’s just come back from a children’s birthday party.”

“PDnim tried to fix his own printer again. He left an ink cartridge on the desk and this little baby,” Namjoon pokes Jimin, who just meows, “was a bit too curious.”

“I don’t understand hyung. I told him he’s got an assistant for stuff like that.”

“He’s stubborn.”

“Yeah,” Sejin chuckles and they both watch how Jimin lifts one leg over the walls of the make-shift litter box, one after the other, very carefully. He catches on the rim with the last paw and lands on his snout with a soft thud. Following the momentum, he stumbles right into Namjoon’s shin and looks up wide-eyed like he can’t believe he just did that. Namjoon isn’t sure why he expects to see tears - probably because Tae is making him watch all those baby and toddler videos lately - but Jimin just whines, stands up and starts climbing Namjoon’s leg. 

“Aish, always so clumsy, baby,” Namjoon mumbles, cooing at the tiny cat in his arms. “You scared me, baby. I thought you hurt yourself. Are you okay?” He kisses Jimin on the head but lets him sniff at Sejin’s hands when he tries to. He doesn’t give much of a reaction, which is not necessarily bad - it’s not a rejection. Sejin smiles and scratches Jimin behind the ears. The cub purrs against Namjoon’s hand, happily closing his eyes.

“What’s going on?”

“Didn’t hyung fill you in already?”

“When? In the five seconds when you ran from me?”

“Good point. So, er-“ Namjoon takes a deep breath. There’s something about sitting on bathroom floors, something cold that makes you share your warmth and your inner thoughts, Namjoon thinks as he looks at Sejin. It’s a BigHit bathroom, so it’s clean, nothing like a public bathroom, but still - the floor under his feet makes him feel a bit bare, a bit lonely even if he’s not, and makes him want to not keep secrets.

“So, I uh… Well, Jimin, and I know it sounds er-strange, turned into a cat two days ago and I basically don’t know what I’m doing.”

Sejin does look surprised, looking back and forth between Jimin and Namjoon a couple times, as if he’s trying to figure out whether he’s become a victim to a prank or something.

“Are you serious?”

“I am. It’s not exactly… a great time but I’m glad this didn’t happen during our tour last year.”

“Wow. How are you so calm about this?”

“Well, I’ve had two days to come to terms with this now. But still, it’s a mess, hyung. I think I did well taking care of him so far, but it’s all a mess.”

“Remember when we first met, you and I?”

“Oh God,” Namjoon groans, “I don’t think I will ever forget that.”

“You were a mess back then too. So it’s okay, I can deal with a mess. I’m used to it,” the manager nudges Namjoon in the side with his elbow and Namjoon nods. It’s nice hearing that, and fitting, if Namjoon honestly thinks about their relationship. Yeah, Sejin has seen and has fixed messes left and right. Namjoon’s heart feels a little lighter when he hears those words. Jimin nuzzles into his hand in his lap and Namjoon feels a pang of affection travel through his body.

“Life is life, huh?”

It’s what Jimin and he have always been saying, ever since their first trip to LA. Life isn’t always fair, not always good, actually a lot less than good a lot of the time, but together, it’s not as bad and even great sometimes. Jimin curls into Namjoon’s lap, letting his body drop as if he’s too tired to hold it up much longer. He wants to be carried like the little maknae line member he is, starving for affection and attention.

“Should we go back?”

“What do we do with the litter box?”

“Do you have one at home?”

“Er, no. Jimin went outside for the past couple of days.”

“In the backyard!? Where people walk? Yah, Kim Namjoon! Also, think about your dongsaeng. That can’t be hygienic! Don’t tell me you really let Jimin outside every time he-“

Namjoon has to grin because of the scolding but blushes. “I’m sorry, hyung.”

“Well, that’s not allowed anymore. Do you at least have cat food or anything?”

“Not really. I promise I’ll work harder to be well prepared, hyung!”

“I see. Let’s drop off Jiminie and go cat-shopping. If he is a baby like this, we need to take care of him well, right?”

“Drop him off where?”

Sejin just pulls out his phone and dials a number. Namjoon can’t see the caller ID, but he doesn’t feel the need to ask either. When someone picks up and Sejin starts to rant, he sounds almost like a fake-enraged Seokjin. It’s like the familiar feeling replaces a little cavity-like hole in Namjoon’s heart that’s started to build the moment the members left for their vacations. It forces him to smile.

“Yoongi-yah, I’ve told you a dozen times not to bring your sick children to work.”

“Jimin is here?”

Sejin falters when the enthusiasm that breaks the mumble that is Yoongi’s work voice sounds through the speaker. Jimin squeaks suddenly, asking to be let down, so Namjoon lifts him up and makes him look right into his eyes. For a moment, he ignores that Jimin doesn’t understand and just hopes that his plea will get through. Namjoon tells the cub firmly not to create any trouble right now. Then, Yoongi speaks to him.

“Namjoon-ah, how are you holding up? Everything okay?”

“Honestly, hyung? It’s a mess. I’m a mess. Jimin is fine, but I don’t think I am.”

His thoughts fly back to the office. Sihyuk’s phone call with their lawyer, all that secretive talk about contracts and even the phone call with AMI. He remembers his confusion, his doubts, his fears - fears for Jimin, who innocently tries to climb up Sejin’s shins. There’s a rustle on the other side of the line that makes Namjoon’s heart beat suspiciously fast with some sort of anticipation. 

“Okay, stay where you are. Don’t worry, hyung is coming, hyung will take it from here.”

Sejin makes a face and Namjoon feels the exact same way. Baffled. What’s going on? What’s with the sudden rush of affection? 

“No need to baby me-“

“Oi, hyung is on his way, yeah? Where are you guys?”

“The bathroom by the PR department.”

Namjoon feels oddly confirmed. As if Yoongi’s sudden overbearing and sweet response was a wink from the universe. You’re not meant to do this alone, Namjoon. His stomach does a little jump at how much comfort Yoongi offers to him just by referring to himself as hyung (which Yoongi rarely does for him). Namjoon’s mind tells him that Yoongi will only baby him now that Taehyung and Jungkook are gone but in secret, behind really thick doors, Namjoon feels a tiny voice wishing for it to be a regular treatment. Namjoon has got Yoongi’s full hyung focus, even if he hasn’t explicitly asked for it. He knows that all the hyungs are attuned to the younger members’ needs but sometimes he forgets that he’s one of them. The leader position can be both a blessing and a curse. 

When Yoongi opens the bathroom door and steps in and Jimin pounces forward with a string of excited chirps, not letting himself get held down by anything or anyone, Namjoon’s eyes widen. Yoongi kneels, scooping up Jimin, totally enveloping the leopard baby against his chest.

“Did you miss me, baby? Ah, I bet you missed hyung so bad, huh? Aish, what did they do to you, hm? You’re all messy. Don’t worry, they’re all idiots who mean well. But hyung will take care of you now.”

Namjoon listens to Jimin’s sweet, chirpy responses that really sound like the kitty is trying to answer Yoongi. They look perfect together, Lil Meow Meow and the cub. Sejin seems to think the same because he’s sneakily taking pictures from the side. Namjoon makes the mistake of thinking that it’s all Yoongi is going to say. He doesn’t expect Yoongi to step forward and look right into his eyes even while Jimin keeps rubbing his cheeks against Yoongi’s heart.

“And how’s my other baby? Running around, destroying everything, coloring his dongsaeng? Tell hyung how to fix it, yeah?”

It’s the weirdest thing ever - Namjoon doesn’t know what exactly it is with Yoongi’s words (maybe it’s the way they float over to him like the steam over a cup of his favorite tea, like they aren’t meant to tease when you just allow yourself to feel them properly) but they make Namjoon’s composure crumble. His cheeks feel wet all of the sudden and he’s sniffing (not bawling, thank God) and leaning into Yoongi’s big hand cupping his cheek.

“It’s not your fault, hey,” Yoongi hushes him and he finds himself under the direct but tender attention of his hyung. “I wish you would have let me know that you needed me so I could come to help you out, you know. That’s what I’m here for.”

“You’re here to rap,” Namjoon sniffles, trying to swallow down his wild emotions.

“And yet I dance like a god.”

Namjoon snorts. 

“It’s not like I can only do one thing at a time, Namjoon-ah. I thought you knew that.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, hyung. Thank you for your support.”

Jimin begins nosing around Yoongi’s chest and arms now. Namjoon nudges Yoongi.

“Hyung, he’s been doing that since a while, what-?”

“He’s hungry. Did you bring any food?”

Wow. That makes so much sense. Jimin is hungry. How did I not understand that? It makes so much sense now that Namjoon knows what it means. 

“I-I brought shrimps.”

For some reason, Yoongi doesn’t look impressed or happy. 

“It’ll do,” he mumbles and moves to walk out of the bathroom. “Let’s go.”

“Manager-hyung and I thought we could go shopping in a bit, we wanted to leave Jimin with you. We’ll buy everything Jimin needs.”

“We could definitely need some cat equipment. Bring one of those fluffy little stick-thingies that cats like to play with. Those are fun.”

“Uh, sure,” Namjoon nods, absolutely not sure if a) he knows what Yoongi means, b) stores will have a “fluffy little stick-thingy that cats like to play with” or if c) a store employee will be able to translate the term for Namjoon. He’ll give it a try anyway. “I just need to get my jacket.”

“Maybe buy some rubbing alcohol as well.”

“What do you want with rubbing alcohol, hyung?”

“Clean this little baby. As much as the color explosion is cute, I doubt it’ll be good for him if he licks it up. Isn’t that right, Jiminie?”

Jiminie doesn’t respond. He’s fallen asleep, probably overwhelmed by the chaos around him. Namjoon feels slightly guilty for putting him through so much stress. Yoongi is obviously so much better at this. I should have just asked him to watch over Jimin. Namjoon knows that’s his own shadow talking, his disappointment at his own clumsiness that still haunts him sometimes. But it still feels like a real feeling, even if it’s a lie, and Namjoon’s shoulders sag at the sight of the little leopard breathing softly into Yoongi’s neck. 

Namjoon doesn’t say a word on their way back to the office and doesn’t even listen to Yoongi and Sejin discussing which cat toys and foods should be bought and how big their monthly budget should be for cat necessities. When the three of them enter Sihyuk’s office, it kind of looks a bit thrashed - Namjoon’s chair is on its side in the middle of the room (it must have toppled over when Namjoon had rushed to grab Jimin), there’s clearly a wet spot around Sihyuk’s desk, an even bigger mess underneath the table and a trail of earth leading from the Sakura plant to the door. Namjoon’s head threatens to hang even lower at the visible chaos (and the “oh wow, what happened here” that slips through Sejin’s lips) but Sihyuk’s voice cuts through his thoughts.

“Option 1. Let’s hear what you have.”

Namjoon’s brows furrow. How-? Is he on the phone with AMI? Then, curiosity rises. Will AMI tell Sihyuk the same as him?

“Option 1. Park Ji-” AMI pauses, almost as if she is thinking, “Good morning, Min Yoongi, Kim Sejin.”

Namjoon shivers. How does this supposedly automatic robot know who is in the room? How can they know? Maybe it’s this uncertainty that makes him feel so uneasy. Could it be that they are watching us? It sounds a little crazy in his mind, but he honestly doesn’t have a clue how else she would know. Maybe it’s magic. Namjoon sighs.

“Option 1. Park Jimin. Date of birth: 1997, June 5th. Gender: female; Nationality: Korean; Spe-“

“That’s not what I asked. Tell me what you have on my kid.”

Sihyuk sighs, visibly disgruntled with how this call is turning out. But the way he said my kid, it makes Namjoon grin fondly. Even if he’s not the person in question, he feels loved. Namjoon can’t help but smirk at how strictly Sihyuk deals with anything that has to do with the Bangtan Boys. Now that the CEO is on it, everything will be fine. AMI stays silent for a while, almost as if she is processing the request or gathering information or something.

“Option 1. Park Jimin. Date of birth: 1994, October, 13; Gender: male; Nationality: Korean; Species: Korean leopard; Genetic Expression: Dominant; Blood Type: A. Species warnings: strong predatory drive, exceptional senses and strength, possibly sensitive to aggressive behavior, solitary and nocturnal behavior; Species requirements: meat-based diet, extensive territory, regular physical exertion; Currently scheduled appointments: Physical Exam 1 by on-duty Shifter Staff of Seoul District.”

“Finally. Now, I would like to know how you have attained this load of information about Park Jimin and how you justify keeping it without our consent.”

“Sir, may I remind you that I am merely an AMI, and cannot substitute for your assigned customer client. I am however able to book an appointment for you with one of our staff…”

Yoongi makes a noise next to Namjoon. Even Sejin shuffles around on his feet. Namjoon feels slightly nauseous. He goes to sit down and Yoongi chooses to stand by his side, hand touching Namjoon’s neck, a soothing message of reassurance. Which is needed. This is a lot. A lot more than expected and somewhat scary, even in the face of 14 million wild Armys knowing more than is healthy about each member of BTS. As the information sinks in, Namjoon realizes that there are two options with this. Either, this is a terrible situation in which the robot lady and her organization are actually a threat, or they are a help and genuinely assist Jimin without any hidden agenda or contract. Heck, this would be so much easier as a commercial offer. Commercial offers are easy to deal with - you either accept, negotiate, or decline. BigHit gets hundreds of them every month, but this-? This is something else entirely.

“Who is your employer?”

“I apologize, Sihyuk-ssi. I am not authorized to communicate confidential information to clients.”

“I’m not your client.”

“Sir, please understand that the law requires for every shifter to be listed in our registry - which includes the scheduled check-ups and following classes-“

“Classes?”

“Sihyuk-ssi, we are required by law to ensure that every person in our registry knows their rights and understands their body. We are simply providing an educational tool to prevent diseases as well as help Shifters and Hybrids to live well. Our organization was founded with these goals in mind.”

“Let’s talk this through with our lawyer. I would like to make use of an appointment. For now, please do enter Park Jimin into your registry.”

“Very well. I will now propose a date for you with one of our customer service staff.”

“Sorry for making you wait,” Sihyuk says once he puts down his phone (he has to look for a good spot for a few seconds because there’s printer ink all over his desk). He looks into their faces. Namjoon can see how affected he is by this situation - a situation that turns tables and reshapes their group dynamics, possibly.

“Hey Yoongi,” he smiles. “Did you get the USB stick I sent you?”

“Yeah,” Yoongi nods, “I got it. What I’ve heard so far sounded great but I’ll look though it tomorrow. Thanks, PDnim.”

Sihyuk also greets Sejin but Namjoon doesn’t really listen anymore. He just wants to get the box and go home - no, right, he wanted to go shopping with Sejin. Namjoon is so tired. It’s like with a high-focus test where you hold up your concentration for so long but when it’s over, you feel your entire existence slack with exhaustion. He shifts in his chair.

Sihyuk’s eyes fall on Namjoon. “You okay?”

“No.”

“Namjoon, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you’re probably overthinking.”

“Hyung, how are we supposed to have our comeback like this? I looked at the schedules, it’s soon. What if Jimin shifts in the middle of a concert? What if we can’t get him to shift back? Even this robot lady said there’s no medication. It’s impossible to be an artist like us when you turn into a cat like this. It’s impossible.”

“Okay, listen. This situation is not unfixable and not impossible to solve, Namjoon-ah. We can do anything.”

“We can’t do everything, hyung.”

“Did I or did I not set you up to meet Warren G before you were famous?”

Namjoon blushes. Right.

“You did.”

“I did. That was impossible, wasn’t it? You guys became global stars. That was impossible, wasn’t it? You guys are one of the greatest artists in history. That’s impossible too, isn’t it? Raise your standard. RM is impossible. This,” he points at Jimin, who slowly begins to stir against Yoongi’s throat, “it’s just a page in your story. We’ll get through it and it will be okay. Okay?”

Namjoon nods. His head bobs much heavier than usual, as if it suddenly weighs more. He hears Yoongi coo at Jimin and watches him boop the tired little cat’s nose. Then, as if he’s actually attuned to the cat’s thoughts, he reminds Namjoon to look for Jimin’s snacks. He pulls his jacket off the chair, grabs the little plastic bag (the little bag almost rips in his hands but Namjoon manages to just prevent the fourth emergency on the day - a pile of shrimp on his CEO’s office floor) and hands it over to Yoongi, who walks out with the sleepy leopard cub, leaving only Sihyuk, Sejin and Namjoon behind. To some, it might look like disrespect, especially in terms of Korean society rules, but in reality, it’s both an open display of trust towards Namjoon to fill him in on all the important details later, and a display of responsibility as a hyung who prioritizes taking care of his dongsaeng. Namjoon doesn’t care. His fingers smell gross. Like dried shrimp. There’s no sink. Focus, Namjoon. Focus just for a little bit. You’re an adult, behave like one. You can wash up and be tired later.

“Hyung, what does this phone call mean? Do we really have to register Jimin and all that?”

“Yes. We have to take them seriously. That organization does its work well.”

“But what is it that they do? I talked with AMI for at least ten minutes but I still don’t know who they are.”

“They are a government-funded agency who protects shifters and hybrids in different aspects. I only know that they dragged two entertainment companies to court because they had not registered a couple of their trainees. The court decided that it was mistreatment even if they were treated like everyone else.”

“Why?”

“Apparently, there are different laws for shifters and humans but I don’t know much about that yet. I’ll have to go through it with our lawyers.”

“But… if they are government-funded, how did I never hear of this? A court case with other entertainment companies, I’m sure that would have been on the news, right?”

“That was many years ago. I don’t know when this organization was founded, but they must have been working hard to protect every shifter since then.”

“I didn’t even know stuff like this existed…”

“Well, the community is rather small. People don’t talk about it and I’m sure many people don’t know that this stuff exists. As far as I know, most magical creatures are hiding the fact that they are magic. Even the organization runs secretly.”

“Hyung, isn’t that contradictory? How could they be part of the government if they run secretly?”

“I really don’t know much, but I think they aren’t part of the government… just consultants with a special status. And funded. I’m not sure how it works. But they execute laws, like registering shifters and hybrids.”

“Okay… so now Jimin is registered. What now?”

“I’ll take care of the contracts and you take care of Jimin.”

“Okay, I’ll ask Hobi what we can do about-“

“You can’t tell the members, Namjoon-ah.” 

Namjoon isn’t sure he’s heard right. All the mushiness and good warmth from before vanishes in a second. His heart actually skips a beat. He feels awfully cold and like he’s been electrocuted at once. At least it wakes him up. What!?

“What?”

“Don’t tell the members.”

“Why? Jimin will need all the support he can get and I don’t want him to feel any less loved than before. I know that all of the members will feel the same.”

There are a hundred issues lining up right now, but Namjoon knows that their biggest problem of all will be Jimin himself. Because in the end, Jimin’s soul is not a bird that nests easily in a new environment. Of the last eight years that Namjoon has spent by Jimin’s side, he’s witnessed the boy go from believing horrid lies about himself to starving himself like even his worst enemy wouldn’t do to him. Sure, Jimin has overcome these things, has found firm footing in the muddy path called identity. He’s come to love himself, riding on the wave of fresh wind that his brothers’ love is for him. Nonetheless, Namjoon can’t stop worrying about every new wave that comes crashing on the shore. Namjoon knows Jimin is particular about his body. Knows the boy is strategic and sometimes painfully pessimistic in his thoughts without even trying to be and prone to driving himself into feeling lonely. Jimin is so precious and Namjoon just wants to see him be happy. The possibility of the truth coming out to the public and at the wrong time almost hits Namjoon harder than he thinks it could hit Jimin. It resonates in his bones with an evil ache. To think that Jimin will face yet another challenge, that the look of desperation and anger might appear again in his eyes. And that Namjoon can’t help, can’t make it better. And even if Namjoon knows that it won’t be bad forever, that Jimin will get through this and feel better about it all someday but Namjoon just doesn’t know the price. And that hurts. But the members - the members should know. Because they won’t judge him. They will carry it all with him. 

“He won’t. Listen, I don’t want him to feel pressured by this. It’s a huge change for him and he will need some time to figure it all out. And especially now, with the comeback approaching, I want you all to be focused. I know you guys always work hard and you always do your best. But we all know how fragile such a preparation period before a comeback is and how quickly it can become oppressing if bad news hits.”

Namjoon’s mind wanders back to when he’d undergone surgery and the schedule had only allowed it at a time when their next comeback had been on the horizon already. Like a cloud flying overhead, Namjoon’s trip to the hospital and the slight (secret) complications had thrown a shadow over their preparations. Back then, it had definitely stressed the other members, even if their dance practices and recordings had all been on time and perfect. 

“Hyung, we’ve always got stuff going on. After the comeback, we have shows lining up, then the next tour and a hundred different events in between, like the Summer package, like mv shoots. There’s no better time to deal with this than right now. I can’t keep this a secret from the members and then expect them to be happy about it when I tell them later. They deserve to know.”

“I’m sorry, Namjoon. As long as the contracts aren’t renewed…”

“Hyung, I can’t accept that. Jimin won’t do well with this secret. You know how he treats himself sometimes and how difficult changes are for him. Especially Hobi should know since they are roommates.”

“I trust Yoongi and you to be by Jimin’s side until everything is prepared.”

“What do you need to prepare?”

“Well, a change like this… needs to be reflected in his contract. If something happens, he needs to be secure. If there are any special needs he has, we will make sure to provide and help but it all needs to be written out in his contract first. We’ll have to check what laws are relevant for us and align ourselves with it. Until Jimin signs the new contract, I will make sure there will be as little pressure on him as possible. I want him to feel like nothing has changed, like he doesn’t have to feel bad or judged for what happens.”

“What if he shifts again and I’m not there, hyung? Or Suga-hyung? What if he’s left with the maknaes? They should know.”

Sihyuk swivels in his chair and stares at the window for a good minute before answering. Namjoon can hear the fish tank’s soft whirring. He wonders if one day, all this will be the next chapter in a film for Army. Or part of a song. Something to brag about. Because right now, it doesn’t feel that way - not glorious, not beautiful and definitely not comfortable. Sihyuk’s voice sounds quiet, as if he’s had to dig deep for his next words and hasn’t returned from the depths yet. 

 “You don’t know this because I never told you, Namjoon. But when our Park Jimin signed with us, his parents had one major condition. At first, I thought it would be about money, free time, or maybe dating. Actually, they asked me to sign a confidentiality agreement between me and them. I promised to never tell anyone including Jimin that he was a shifter, to treat him normally and to ensure that he would receive his medication - suppressants.”

“Hyung.”

Namjoon feels like someone has punched him in the gut. He can’t breathe somehow, but it’s like he doesn’t want to either. He never thought Sihyuk would do something like this. It’s so wrong, he doesn’t even know what to say. One look into Sihyuk’s eyes, however, makes Namjoon’s tumbling sea still. Sihyuk knows how wrong it is, to keep such a huge secret from Jimin, to restrict his personal… worldview like this. And he regrets it. Deeply.

“So you knew from the beginning. Did you never think that we deserved to know?”

“I wanted to tell you so bad, especially you, Namjoon. At least the leader should know, right? But that was the condition: I don’t talk. His parents said that there are traditions that needed to be followed and kept in their culture and I believed them and wanted to respect that. I wanted to keep my word.”

“But… Jimin’s parents didn’t tell him either, did they? He doesn’t know anything at all.”

“I believe so, yes.”

Namjoon sighs. That’s - crazy.

“We’ve always made sure Jimin received everything he needed to be in top condition as a normal human being. We constantly supervise his health as we do with all of you. Based on that, I kind of expected his body to build a resistance to the suppressants someday. It took a while until we had adjusted them well - do you remember when he lost so much weight?”

“That was because of the suppressants?”

“I almost canceled that stupid contract back then. Jimin shouldn’t have had to suffer through this - he should have known what was going on with his body, he had every right to.”

“Hyung, that’s horrible-“

“Yeah. He just blames it on that genetic disease his parents say runs in the family.”

“So there’s no genetic disease.”

"I mean, it’s one way to describe your genetic makeup. If you’re trying to suppress it, it probably feels like a disease.”

Namjoon nods. It’s understandable from a logical viewpoint. It’s inexcusable from an emotional one. Namjoon swears to himself that he will never call Jimin’s ability to shift a disease. Even if his parents had used that term to hide their shifter side, Namjoon will never allow anyone to call it that. He wants Jimin to feel like it’s a regular part of his identity, like he doesn’t have to feel bad about it.

“So… will that organization drag us to court? Because we didn’t register Jimin until now?”

“I hope not. I will definitely meet up with them and organize a meeting between all parties. Communication is key, so I’ll do my best to fix this. I apologize for causing such a mess but I still have to ask you to keep quiet about this until it’s all cleared up.”

Namjoon nods. He feels a little burnt out, a little defeated to be honest. How could this all be true? 

“May I leave, PDnim?”

“Of course. Please do put all your expenses for Jimin on my card.”

“Thank you, hyungnim.”

When Namjoon walks out, he hears Sihyuk talking to Sejin.

“Please tell our head of staff to give the cleaning staff a raise.”

masterlist | moodboard masterlist

[ prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven ] tags: @xmagicxshopx, @taeshuworld, @justanemptydream, @hoodmeup, @gingerpeachtae  (wanna join? send me an ask!) ✨

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen Rambles About Fighting Games

I... honestly don’t know where to begin with this Rambling. I’ve been trying to think of a decent intro for over a week now and I just can’t be bothered to write a hook.

I guess I should start with myself.

Hello folks, I am Allen X. I do opinion pieces on the internet that I call Ramblings, write silly fanfictions about cute girls punching things, attempt to write original fictions about cute girls punching things, and very occasionally write fan lyrics to video game OSTs. And today’s Rambling is about fighting games and my current thoughts on them as of late. 

I’m a huge fan of fighting games, been playing them since Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur 3, the latter being one of my favorite 3D fighting games period. After that I got into Blazblue around the time Continuum Shift came out, and I’ve played every game in that series since, becoming a massive fan of Air-Dashing fighting games. 

I’m not a huge fan of ranked listings, but here’s a quick list of my 5 favorite fighting games just so you all understand where I’m coming from. So in no particular order:

Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown

Blazblue Chronophantasma

Soul Calibur 3

Dead or Alive 5

Under Night In-Birth Exe Latest

So with that list I hope you understand I’ve played a lot of fighting games in my time. That list is just a fraction of the games I’ve played over these last ten years.

And folks, I don’t know how to feel about modern fighting games at the moment. 

I think the current games out are fine, but as a fan of fighting games since the early 2000s they just don’t scratch a certain itch. I couldn’t tell you what it was, but nowadays fighting games just feel very bare-bones. Most of them only have an online mode, a training, maybe a combo/mission mode to help learn combos, and then maybe an arcade/story, with that story mode being bare in some way, shape, or form. It’s just feels empty nowadays.

But... I think I should give an example before going further. And I think the best game that shows my... conflicting feelings is Blazblue Cross Tag Battle. 

And where to begin with Cross Tag? This was a game that literally came out of my dreams and into reality. An actual pipe dream that I and many other fans of Arc System Works games jokingly wished for. Under Knight In-Birth, Persona 4 Arena, Blazblue, all in one game. It sounded like the wildest of wild dreams.

And then this trailer dropped. And I lost my shit. I think everyone lost their shit. 

I screamed.

I jumped out of my chair.

I nearly broke my damn tablet in shock seeing this trailer. 

And Ruby Rose was being added? Something that Mori and Ishiwatari had only teased about in passing? 

I... I needed some air after watching that trailer.

I needed a drink and some food. 

I’m pretty sure I lost three pounds from that trailer, and I’m barely 115 pounds, I need to keep all the weight I can put on. I was so excited to play that game after that. A crossover of three of the best 2D fighters in the 2010s and one of the most popular niche IPs of the 2010s, all together in one game, with unique character interactions. And an English Dub. Finally, a chance to hear Patrick Seitz, Cristina Vee, David Vincent, and more back where they should had been in Central Fiction. It was just... a magical time to be a fighting game fan.

And then I actually played the game... and boy did I have opinions on it.

I did a Rambling about this game last year after playing a bit of the beta. My overall thoughts, aside from my gloating, were that I felt it was lacking in complexity, but had potential to maintain my attention if they could meet a few of my expectations. And not much of my opinion has changed since then. If anything, I honestly wish I got off my butt and wrote more about this game while it was still fresh in my mind. 

But, back to my original point, this game is a good starting point in a lot of my conflicting feelings about fighting games nowadays, and I think I should start by discussing...

My Expectations

Last year I had three main expectations for Cross Tag. Those being a story mode that was more entertaining than insightful, free DLC of some kind, and a fulfilling single player experience. These are the three main things I want in most fighting games, as I’m not into the competitive seen outside from online get-togethers nor do I have a positive opinion of the competitive side of the FGC to begin with. So, how did Cross Tag stack up?

Well, I can happily say that at least two out of three isn’t bad. 

But I should probably break this down a little, as again, these three points are what I look for in most fighting games.

The Story Mode

Much like I hoped, the story modes were relatively simple and didn’t get too deep into everyone’s lore and backstory, which is honestly for the best. I’m a fan of Blazblue’s story, I really am, but I wouldn’t wish for that encyclopedia of lore known as the Blazblue world-building and the mini encyclopedia of lore that is Under Night and RWBY world-building mashed together. A fan of all these series I am, but that would had been much.

That said, the story modes were great. I was cackling at almost every interaction. Ragna squaring up to Kanji and Wald, Ruby being an absolute weeaboo when she confuses Yosuke and Yukiko for a ninja and geisha respectively, Ragna being surrounded by all the robo-girls save for Labrys, Hyde just... dealing with everything in his story mode, Weiss and Orie teaming up to take down Ragna in the name of justice. The list goes on, but the point remains. I loved a lot of this mode, my only real wish being that it was a little longer and didn’t focus solely on the main character of each series. I was also hoping for something a little more... grounded. Well, not something so ridiculous as some weird AI/Goddess controlling everything behind the scenes and forcing everyone to fight anyway. I know with the Cross Tag 2.0 update coming there’ll be a new story mode, and I hope it’s a little more inclusive than this one. I’m also hoping for a bit more replayability too. This story mode was fine, but I’d like to see something I could come back to and want to come back to. 

To give an example, I think Continuum Shift Extend had the best story mode of any fighting on pure replay value. There are at least 20 didn’t character perspectives in that mode with alternate endings and gag endings included. Each character has a decent arc and narrative, they occasionally run into other named characters and have their timelines mix, and there’s even a retelling of the previous game with some added bits thrown in. I know I said Chronophantasma was my favorite of the Blazblue series, but Continuum Shift had the most love put into it. I’m not expecting something of that extent in Cross Tag 2.0, but something at least trying to reach that would be great.

Ah, but moving on.

Free DLC

This one’s a real technicality and I’m tempted to not count it, but for the degenerates like me that bought the original season pass, we also got to enjoy Seth, Heart, Teddie, and Naoto K. for free. That’s... not exactly what I was hoping for in my old post, but we did get something out of it. In the future I hope that Cross Tag will follow something a little closer to how Samurai Shodown handled their season passes, letting early adopters download it for free on the first day or week before charging as a reward for those giving it a chance... or at least running the the store page quick enough. 

In all seriousness, I do hope for something to the effect of the reason of Season 2′s characters being either cheap or free for the first few days before charging whatever retail price they set it to. It’d just give some incentive to stay up to date on the game and encourage people to actively play it.

But sadly, two out of three meant I didn’t get the main thing I wanted, which was...

A Good Single Player Experience 

I had mentioned I wanted something akin to Chronophantasma’s Abyss Mode or Persona 4 Arena Ultimax’s Golden Arena Mode. Something with a leveling system or that had some replay value to it for the single player folks. Sadly, I didn’t get that. Like many current fighting games, Cross Tag is rather bare-bones with the content. There’s not even a basic arcade mode, a staple in every ASW fighting game. I’m... disappointed by that. And this isn’t the only game either. I believe it took Street Fighter V an entire season to get an arcade mode. Tekken 7, a series known for its wild mini games, barely had anything beyond a story mode, a very bare bones arcade mode, and a treasure mode that... just didn’t feel fun to play. This is from a series where the last numbered series had an expansive 3D-esque brawler mode for it’s story mode with special items and costumes that gave some really wild effects. Soul Calibur 3 had a mini Fire Emblem-esque strategy game with Swords and Soul Mode where you got to create a character with a pretty original moveset all things considered, several movesets in fact. But sadly... a lot of that is starting to go away.

I just feel like with the push toward competitive play a lot of fighting games aren’t bothering to keep in mind casual players, and that saddens me. I don’t play too many fighting games for the sake of getting better, but that’s where we’re going. I want to say that’s bad for business, but Street Fighter is pushing out season 4 and EVO is still one of the biggest and most marketable events in the FGC. Maybe I’m just being an old man yelling at those darned kids and their bare-bones gaming content. I’m willing to accept my 25-years-old mindset is a bit old fashioned in the year of 2019 where time and technology is blitzing by and those in our mid-to-late twenties who have been playing games since the 90s are seen as the old men in the gaming community, but I just had to get my thoughts out. ...

...

...

God, I miss the line breaks Tumblr use to have, makes these closing statements a lot easier.

Anyway folks, with all that said I think I’m going to call it here. For those expecting the Weekly Update it’s been a real slow week, so not much to report. Consider this Rambling my update. I’ve finally gotten through the first chapter of Arifureta and honestly that’s all I need to read to get an idea on the Rambling I want to do for that series. I bought 6 volumes of Tokyo Ghoul:re against my better judgement, so expect me to talk about that next week. And slowly but sure I’m getting some notes together for the Taboo Tattoo Rambling. So look forward to all that and I’ll see you all later.

[xuaryxth]

BTS in Mass Effect

Hey! so since I know i’m not ever doing the series, I’m gonna post the original thing i made that had sparked it with the moodboards i made included here!

Kim Seokjin

-definitely the mess sergeant on the Bangtan -"you'll eat what i make dammit" -"you'd never get food this good in the Alliance!" -still probably uses Alliance rations half the time -willing to fight everyone on and off the ship -"THE REAPERS WILL NOT HURT MY CREW" -probably has an army of space hamsters in his quarters -all named after random food -fucking loves Blasto -the movies and games are his shit -space puns -duh -lowkey constantly worried every time the ground team goes out for a mission -or all the time -makes sure Jungkook eats his nutrition bars to keep his biotics up

Min Yoongi

-lazy ass pilot -he's great at flying -was once prized in the Alliance -left because "fuck that shit" -auto pilot is a blessing -means he can sleep until they need to do tricky maneuvers -lowkey hated Hoseok at first -"No AI is gonna fly my ship." -"You barely fly your ship." -Jungkook -"Did I stutter?" -learned that Hoseok is a lot more human than any AI he's ever met -still won't let him fly the ship -but they talk and are friends now -also taken an engineer like position alongside Taehyung -fixes things on the ship all the time when Taehyung is to busy with the ship

Jung Hoseok

-illegal AI -was referred to as J-HOPE by the people that created him -literally no one knows what J-HOPE stands for -the Council would not be happy to know he exists -but he looks exactly like a human so no one knows -doesn't quite understand all aspects of human life -like slang or certain phrases -usually ends with Jin making a pun and Hoseok being confused -confused like most aliens with human slang -very helpful for navigation -even though he's meant to actually help fly -loud -Namjoon complained -Hoseok turned up his voice settings to be louder -goes on plenty of ground missions since he's synthetic and has great aim -still sometimes screams during missions -no one understand how this AI gets so scared?

Kim Namjoon

-captain of the Bangtan   -was a Cerberus scientist at one point -realized how shitty Cerberus was but didn't want to go to the Alliance so he started his own crew -never originally wanted to be captain -but it ended up suiting him -sometimes get caught up in space talk -like everyone gets confused -wanted to be on the ground team -but he accidentally shot his own foot on the only mission he ever went on -even though almost everyone in the galaxy has translators, he learned several alien languages -he adores Asari literature and likes to read it in its native language -occasionally he'll surprise an alien by speaking in their native tongue rather than letting the translator do the work -has made a lot of allies and friends this way

Park Jimin

-ground team member -previously Alliance soldier -was never taken seriously because of his pretty face and smaller size -so he often not given missions -hated it and left the Alliance -sweet as hell but has super angry bursts -usually on missions -don't get between him and the enemy -otherwise you'll be full of bullets from his assault rifle -super chill off missions -can be whiny about injuries or kills stolen by Jungkook on missions -literally just fights with Jungkook half the time -but is totally willing to kill for him -hell, he's willing to kill for the entire crew

Kim Taehyung

-ship engineer -makes sure the stealth systems stay intact -probably a colony kid -fascinated by art and history of earth -also fascinated by Hoseok -like holy shit have you seen his body's systems? we could use similar mechanics to improve the ship! -occasionally joins on missions -he has some incredible tech to fight enemies -gets really in the zone when working on one of his side projects -and then gets upset if anyone tries to talk to him or mess with it -is great with talk about tech and the ship -kind of fumbles with 'normal' conversation and words -he's working on it and has made progress -refuses to let Namjoon touch any important part of the ship

Jeon Jeongguk

-ground team member -biotic -still fairly untrained with his biotics and they flare up with his emotions -somehow good at everything? -Namjoon sometimes jokes that he was genetically engineered to be good at everything -usually ends with him laughing awkwardly -trying to train his biotics -usually involves pranks -like pinning the rest of the crew with said biotics -or creating small blasts to scare the others -keeps his past secret -gets really quiet when the others talk about home -but it’s fine -the Bangtan is his home now

Y/N

-only alien species on the crew -Quarian -originally joined after being a hostage on a raider ship -is pretty capable with a gun -but has since become the crew’s medic -having to worry about so many health concerns of her own, she picked up knowledge on many other species’ systems -which led to her knowing how to deal with human diseases and injuries -very helpful when dealing with the 7 men aboard the Bangtan -was actually really close with Hoseok at first -until she discovered he was synthetic -then their friendship somewhat crumbled -huge navigation/ship nerd

That’s all of them... I hope you enjoyed... If you don’t know what Mass Effect is, I highly recommend you play the games if you can... they’re pretty cheap for the physical versions nowadays.

[sylvieusedhyperbeam]

annnd hacking away in my own little corner

just.  casually hammering away on my own Villainous AU don’t mind me folks.

AU isn’t really titled yet so for now i’m’a just call it ‘Virtuous’.  idk i’ll think of something better.  if there’s an AU out there called Virtuous already then i’ll work faster to think of something better and change it.  for now i’ll... just have to ask you to be patient.  :I;;

White Hat

Not much different from other White Hats of various other AUs, though the backstory/origin is different.  As a youngling incarnation, he was an embodiment of good that went about the multiverse to keep things in balance against the Chaos, which his fuckhead ‘bro’ Black Hat embodies, respectively. 

Used to be a lot more erratic and somewhat violent in this purpose, since in those first few early millions/billions of years, he operated a lot more around instinct than reason or logic.  He was a force that didn’t really have a chance to... think about what he was doing.  In other words, yeah, in those early ages of the multiverse he saw things in very black-and-white terms and he and Black Hat caused some shit for some worlds.

Of course, he does know better now and has developed a much more refined, intelligent response to evil and malevolence.  And nowadays, rather than a mansion of splendor and indulgence, he lives in what some might describe as a white and turquoise airship that comes down to base to settle every now and then, lending it the appearance of a mansion. 

He runs a business similar to Black Hat’s, where he gives heroes that serve the Light shields, cures, elixirs, all the stuff they need to help balance the multiverse and drive back the Chaos.  He doesn’t do it for money, of course, though heroes ARE inclined to give him some generous donations because ‘eeeey, airships that sail the multiverse don’t keep themselves in repair, not without White Hat seriously taxing his reserves, anyway.

These days he’s very polite, as well as far kinder, more compassionate than he was in his early days.  He’s also a huge dork with a soft spot for antiques who loves learning about the cultures and shit of other worlds, since even as old as he is, new worlds emerge in the multiverse all the time and so he feels very humbled by it all and seeks to always learn more!  Loves gardening, loves cooking, loves art, loves anything involving the act of creation or bringing harmony, really.  Also really loves singing, and his singing voice is very soothing, pleasant, with the inherent ability to help ease away sadness or anxiety. 

Standard design for him might be like any standard White Hat, though I’m contemplating teal on him instead of blue.  :|a  HMMM.

Doctor Trug

To answer potential questions, roughly translated, trug can mean a lot of things.  One of which includes ‘deception, swindle, elusiveness’, meaning yeah, Trug was basically a conman alchemist who worked his way up to a professional thief of many talents.  Being well versed in both dark magic and evil sciences as well as being manipulative as shit, he served the Chaos and sought to undermine the Light as a more direct agent.  How he managed to get the direct attention of the eviler Embodiments, well slap my ass and call me Betty, that’s anyone’s guess.

Buuuut a mission gone wrong with an attempt on the life of an early Embodiment kinda found him facing some hard-ass time in a multiversal prison.  Which... yeah, a questionably normal human facing time in THIS particular prison, it was bound to be a preeeeetty bad time.  Because you don’t wanna end up at in a multiversal prison.  You really don’t.

Until of course White Hat intervened and opted to ‘rehabilitate’ him, and seeing a chance out of serving time at Holy Shit Eldritch Horror Sing-Sing, Trug of course ‘jumped’ on the chance and played it up all ‘OH THANK YOU SIR WOW SIR SUCH MERCY SIR’ thinking ‘wow what a fucking sucker’.  He assumed that working for White Hat would be simple enough if he just played on White Hat’s kindness but... yeah, it’s a hell of a lot more taxing than he originally thought it would be.  TEEHEE.

Anyway, Trug is rude as shit and looks out for number one.  He’s an ambitious motherfucker though, with a really solid work ethic based mostly around prideful standards he holds himself to whenever he’s researching a cure or a counteraction to a villain’s bullshit.  He thinks nothing of experimenting on human beings or using dark magic for his own means, but White Hat forbids it on all counts, and well... talented as he might be, Trug isn’t stupid and knows better than to try going toe to toe with an Embodiment. 

He can also be very manipulative when he wants to be, and often is for either something he wants or just for the hell of it.  He’s the kind of asshole who will literally argue that the sky is green just for the sake of arguing, if he’s bored enough.  He hates people, for the most part, though he does enjoy people-watching to an extent and making up bullshit backstories about them (if you’ve ever seen Always Sunny in Philadelphia, you get my meaning here). 

Don’t really have a design in mind for him yet.  LMAO i act is if though i’ll actually draw them, or that i actually CAN draw for that matter.

Gemencia    

A very peppy young girl with a few magical abilities, in lieu of the more physical/likely genetically mutated abilities of her respective counterpart.  Gemencia is a girl who can utilize telekinesis, as well as low-grade stasis fields that can freeze people or objects in place for a short time, about ten or fifteen seconds or so.  How she does this, well, she can’t say even she knows.  She doesn’t really remember much about her own backstory, just that she kinda-sorta raised herself in the more nature/magic based world she came from before she decided to become a treasure hunter.

And BOY HOWDY does she love treasure hunting.  Like, the girl is GOOD GOD unafraid of anything on so many levels, so she often tends to do crazy parkour shit on the face of rocky mountains, pick fights with people ten times her size, annnnd maybe do a whole mess of shit without really thinking.  She tries to do RIGHT by people, don’t get me wrong, but if the rules look like they need bending or broken?  She’ll bend ‘em a little.  Or a break ‘em.  A lot.  And not give any shits.

Her impulsive love for adventure and helping people in her own crazy way eventually led her to hear tales of the Embodiments, super eldritch beings that maintained the balance of a neat nifty thing called the multiverse, and instantly became determined to see it all for herself.  Loving to do things for people and help people, of course she wanted to seek out the Light Embodiments and become the most awesome treasure-hunting hero the multiverse had ever seen.

SO!  Seeking out White Hat to be her teacher seemed as logical an action as any!

With the help of some magic users who showed her how to travel to other worlds, she kinda world-hopped and bummed around for a while in search of White Hat until she finally found him, when his airship settled in the same world she was in by pure chance. 

She just... kinda started following him around.  And when he got back to his airship one day he just sorta found her there, where she was all ‘HEY ‘SUP I’M STAYING HERE NOW LOOK I BROUGHT CHIPS :D’ and White Hat just kinda... sighed and rolled with it.

Gemencia loves, loves, LOVES spontaneity.  She’s a wanderer at heart, and loves seeing what entire worlds have to offer.  She loves a good brawl every now and then, cartoons, hard hitting punk rock music, collecting artifacts and treasures, and has a refined interest in mythology and lore that might surprise people who don’t know her very well.  As a treasure hunter, she’s been inside old temples, ruins, torn palaces, catacombs, all things that have exciting stories of old war and battles and ancient evils falling at the hands of ‘super TOTALLY badass’ heroes, and it’s from these legends that she became inspired to strike out on her own and become ‘THE MOST SUPER BADASS HERO’ that ever hero’d. 

Not above swearing, indulging (be it huge meals or drinking), or pulling dangerous/impulsive stunts though when White Hat doesn’t keep her in line.  If you befriend her, you have a fiercely loyal buddy for life who will fuck others UP if they try to mess with you, but be warned that you’ll be getting dragged along for a few... adventures when the mood strikes her.   

Her design includes light blue hair, and rather than a lizard hat, she has a big-ass fox hat with long fox-styled hair.  :U  I chose this because foxes are natural foragers, known for leaping to literally pounce into the ground to find their prey.  Gemencia is about the same as a treasure hunter, known to leap right into things in search of the various rare jewels and treasures and ‘OOOH NEAT’ artifacts that she kinda hoards away even if she doesn’t know WTF they even do.  Also tends to wear orange and black stripes, in lieu of Dementia’s magenta.  :T 

EDIT you all thought i forgot 505′s counterpart didn’t you?  ....well you’re half right.  i half-forgot, half-okay-what-the-hell-am-i-doing.  but anyway, here we go!

404

404 was originally an animatronic for a family restaurant - no not THAT one this ain’t a FNAF crossover get that shit outta here.  He was a regular animatronic up until Trug decided it would be super funny and edgelordy to reprogram it to not only frighten kids, but hell, rob the restaurant’s safe during closing hours and bring him the loot.  The restaurant owners kinda pitched him, Trug took him, and installed a few more fun TRICKS on him while he was at it to make him a better partner-in-crime.  Because why not, it would be a waste of perfectly good machinery otherwise.

Of course, it began smoothly enough at first... until 404′s AI kiiinda-sorta gained sentience.  After that point, he became lazy, grouchy, and at times outright refused to obey Trug’s orders on the grounds of ‘I don’t feel like it fuck you’. 

Trug deactivated him and decided to use him for spare parts, but kinda never got around to disassembling him.  When White Hat took on commuting Trug’s sentence, the two traveled to Trug’s hideout so that Trug could pack in order to feel as comfortable as possible while out traveling the multiverse with White Hat.  White Hat took notice of the big cuddly looking bear and whoops reactivated him, and then promptly forbade Trug from deactivating him again because LOOK AT HIM ALL HE NEEDS IS LOVE.

Trug wishes 404 would rip White Hat’s leg off and beat the shit out of him with it.

404 won’t do it out of pure spite.

Anyway, 404 contrasts 505 by way of being pessimistic, coldly logical, seeing no point in frivolities and only wishing to lie around all day and eat.  Thanks to Trug’s alterations, he does have nifty things like heat sensors, night vision, and even a vehicular mode where he can turn into a small car for quick escapes, but good luck getting him to actually use a single one of these things without bribing him with honey. 

He also contrasts 505 by being... well, mechanical, instead of organic. 

404′s design consists of purple fur, and atop his head is a little satellite dish instead of a flower.  His eyes are big red iris shutters, the kind you see on camera app logos, with a yellow center.

[webdeveolpmentcompany]

Top 7 Digital Marketing Trends In 2020

2020 is a period of the paradigm shift for several digital marketing company in Kochi. Major digital marketing services like Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Pay Per Click Advertising etc will have to witness a dramatic change this year. Notably, there is a need for you to know that many of the strategies you have missed in the past like visual search, voice search and artificial intelligence have to be considered seriously in 2020 for being in the competitive edge.With the evolving technology and insights, here are the top digital marketing trends you may have to follow this year.Artificial Intelligence  Artificial intelligence has been around for quite some years now and it is said that implementing this technology can provide an extra benefit to your digital marketing efforts. AI can easily analyze user behaviour and search patterns on various digital platforms and help you understand what they are up to. For example, facebook messenger has introduced its messenger bot to automate your communication. According to a study by the global research and advisory firm, Gartner, over 26% of the businesses will include AI by 2020. So getting started now can help or else you will miss out of major opportunities coming your way.Personalized MarketingAll your marketing strategies have to be completely personalized in 2020 to keep a good pace in the competition. Customers expect your products, services and even the contents you deliver online to be fully personalized for their convenience. With the advent of data analytics, discovering useful information that foster decision making has never been difficult. A study done by a popular digital marketing company in kottayam has found out that personalization can indeed improve the customer relationship and sending personalized emails based on user behaviour triggers better response. Why wait for the next moment? Start personalizing your business now!    Video MarketingVideos always hold a chance to become viral. Video marketing is a strategy which is on the rise for a few years now. But, you can’t ignore the importance of video making and promotion in 2020, unlike previous times. With the mass increase in usage of video viewing & sharing website like Youtube, digital marketing companies in Kerala and digital marketing service in kerala are further putting their step towards video marketing too.

Here we are going to reveal some of the major statistical data identified during our survey: More than 70% of the businesses revealed video marketing has improved their conversion rate. Around 78% of brand videos will be shared by customers instantly. Over 50% of customers get convinced better to buy a product or service if they watch a demo video. These statistics speak about the importance of video marketing and if your videos become viral, there is a higher probability that your customer base can increase tremendously. Voice SearchWith the launch of smartphones that are compatible with voice communication, people are more and more relying on voice chats and searches. A recent study has revealed that 50% of all search will be through voice by 2020. In the current scenario, more than 20% of Google searches are through voice.

 Nowadays, a lot of websites, as well as apps, are utilising the power of voice search technology to help their users go handsfree. So, the time has started ticking for you to think about optimizing your product or services for voice searches in the future. Social Media StoriesWith the increasing popularity of the “Stories” feature in several social media channel, it has become crucial for digital marketing agency in kochi to opt for this strategy. Apart from that, they can also look for creating live videos to build brand awareness, make engagement and promote the brand.The best platforms where these story strategies can be impactfully placed are Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Notably, we have found out that Youtube has also initiated the launch of this feature. Since it disappears after a certain period depending on the platform, digital marketers can make use of this feature by tagging the people whom you wish to see your texts, images, posts or videos.   Visual SearchVisual search is the next big thing going to be fortunate for the digital marketing company in Cochin. Visual searches are on the rise and this can help users to get more specific information about the product or service. Pinterest is the most popular visual search tool on the internet and interestingly, Google Lens has also started rolling out its features to other smartphones.   With visual search feature coming into play, you can easily fetch every detail of an image simply by dropping it instead of typing the long tailed keywords into the search box, to receive information like similar products, price comparisons, ratings & reviews etc. This search trend has the ability to pull customers towards their favoured product/ service.VR & AR  When we talk about Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, Pokemon Go is the first thing that comes to your mind that has been a major trend a few years back. Interestingly, there are several other areas where these two innovations can give a positive vibe. For example, if you are starting an interior designing company you can showcase the inside as it in the real world to your customer to give them a more personalized feeling.It has been found that this digital marketing trend is gonna rule within a decade. AR can display the same interiors upon your existing room to check whether it fits well. Implementing these kinds of interactive innovations can help bring your customers closer to your business/ brand in a much simpler way.Our Final Words  The digital marketing  has started following the latest trends that focus on primarily 3 things for bestowing a better customer experience – personalization, automation and innovation to get ahead in the competition. Let yours be the next?  

[starryburglar-archive]

Lily Info

Full name: Lily Kobayashi

Species: Human || A.I. ( verse dependant )

Age: 21

Sexuality: Pansexual

FC(s): Anarchy Panty ( Panty and Stocking ) // Hirai Momo

Bio: Miss Lily Kobayashi was born on a silver platter and blessed with good looks, with loving parents and never missing anything. She grew up assisting to the most prestigious institutions, with nothing but the best education to offer. One would think she never suffered bullying of any kind because of this, however, those factors are more of a curse than a blessing. Sure, she is known to be quite lazy and a party animal but that doesn’t completely define her, that doesn’t mean she’s a “dumb blonde” who cheated or bribed her professors to get good grades; not to mention the slight bullying tied into her heritage, as she isn’t 100% Japanese.

Lily knew she would never be taken seriously if she were to go to college, study hard and take over her father’s business at the given time. In other circumstances, she would’ve tried anyway just because that’s her life… but being constantly underestimated for many different factors is tiring and annoying. So while in the middle of her High School years, she went to the one industry where she wouldn’t be judged because of external factors.

Becoming an idol is hard, she was aware of it. It’s incredibly demanding but rewarding in so many ways. Thankfully, with the help of her father, she got in contact with one of the few (if not the only) modern Idol company who treats their stars like actual human beings: VOCALOID. And while Lily wasn’t lucky enough to be scouted by the Crypton wing, who has the biggest idol star of all time, Internet Co. was just as welcoming.

With the years of training she had to go through, Lily was thankful that her debut happened after High School -- just a year after her partner and good friend, Gumi. She was presented to Japan (and soon enough, the rest of the world) as a pop diva, but she tries to add a bit of sex appeal to her live performances.

Note: Heavily headcanon based.

[ MAIN || INBOX || HEADCANONS || VISAGE || MUSINGS ]

                                 -----------------------------------------------

V001: Pop Diva

Default main verse. One goal in her mind, to be a great idol. No, not just great... amazing, the best of the best. It would be ludicrous to say Lily wasn't the dictionary definition of a pop diva. Currently working for the VOCALOID company and firm, under the Internet Co umbrella, Lily is determined to stay always be the best, to always be on top.

V002: Almost a Real Seduction

Alternate main verse. A voice synthesizer developed (mainly) for computers but with the recently added AI functions, now it can work on any device. The program LILY can be activated on a mobile phone, a computer, or even the TV! With the right user, Lily can sing in Japanese, English and even Spanish; don't pressure her, however, she appreciates good communication with her user and if things get complicated she'll peace out for a couple of hours.

V003: Party Animal

High school verse. Known as the party girl, as the head cheerleader, as someone lazy but who always gets good grades. Nobody ever thinks her grades are a product of her own will, not because she studied or anything; oh no, I couldn't be that, not with her blonde hair, hourglass figure and rich background. Someone of her rank probably cheated her way to get good grades.

Kobayashi Lily knows that's what everybody thinks. All the time, for all of her life. Whenever she tries to be taken seriously, others dismiss it and laugh it off. Her background is something she's both proud and ashamed off... how does ti feel to live while everyone else doubts every little thing you do, just because of your background? 

V004: Slowly Climbing to the Top

College verse. High School is part of the past. College is her present. Her future? Lily wasn't sure yet. There were many probabilities, so many things she wanted to do. Will she be taking seriously in the real world? It's uncertain, but at least Lily will try to make the most of it. One of her objectives is to travel around the world, see as many things as possible, and trying to learn from experiencing stuff.

V005: To be the Best Coordinator

A Pokemon verse. Lily Kobayashi's family is filled with Pokemon Coordinators. Both of her parents used to be famous at their prime time, winning contests and the like. No wonder she admired them so much; to Lily, they were amazing, the best of the best -- she wanted to be like them.

Now at the age of 21, her team isn't as large as of regular trainers, nor does she dedicate herself to capture as many Pokemon as possible. Lily did travel across the different regions like any other did at the age of ten, but was more focused on identifying the Pokemons who she would have the best compatibility.

CURRENT TEAM: Jolteon, Emolga, Pachirisu, Jigglypuff and Sylveon.

V006: Teasing Succubus

A Monster Prom verse. To find demons still in High School wasn't much of a surprise nowadays, not even the variety of different kinds of demons one could find. Who in their right mind would believe incubus and succubus don't have to study? Well, that doesn't mean all of them really care about going to class. Lily was one of those succubi, one who cared very little about grades and classes and would rather spend her hours partying and hanging out with Polly, Scott, Damien or Miranda.

V007: Honey Mics

An Eldarya verse. Far away from the mainlands of Eldarya, there was an island across the sea. This is the land of the Muses, magical humanoid beings that can live for a long time, with strong auras and connected to the arts. Their large island has a sub-country for each specific art, with the capital on the centre ruling them all. 

Lily Kobayashi lived at the capital of this land, being one of the few rich families who do so. She’s a highly seductive muse with a hypnotic voice and a skilled ability to dance. Her aura is golden yellow, reflecting his high-class status.

V008: Hypnotic Voice

Lily Kobayashi was no unknown at the U.A. Academy. As the only daughter of a famous professional hero and an equally famous costume designer for all kinds of heroes and quirks. As third years go, she’s someone to not underestimate.

QUIRK: ENCHANTRESS. Much like a mermaid attracts pirates to their doom, Lily has a hypnotic voice that can put anyone within range in a trance. Once this happens, she can either have them as her puppets or leave them unconscious for a small amount of time. // Hero name: Syren.

                                 -----------------------------------------------

CONNECTIONS

Hatsune Mikuo :: [ Bae ]

pending tag

Hatsune Mikuto :: [ Bae ]

pending tag

Jumin Han :: [ Bae ]

pending tag

[webindiasolutionsmarketing]

Digital marketing Trends 2019

2019 is a period of the paradigm shift for several digital marketing companies in Kochi. Major digital marketing services like Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Pay Per Click Advertising etc will have to witness a dramatic change this year. Notably, there is a need for you to know that many of the strategies you have missed in the past like visual search, voice search and artificial intelligence have to be considered seriously in 2019 for being in the competitive edge.With the evolving technology and insights, here are the top digital marketing trendsyou may have to follow this year.Artificial Intelligence Personalized MarketingVideo MarketingMore than 70% of the businesses revealed video marketing has improved their conversion rate.Around 78% of brand videos will be shared by customers instantly.Over 50% of customers get convinced better to buy a product or service if they watch a demo video.Voice SearchSocial Media StoriesVisual SearchVR & AR Artificial intelligence has been around for quite some years now and it is said that implementing this technology can provide an extra benefit to your digital marketing efforts. AI can easily analyze user behaviour and search patterns on various digital platforms and help you understand what they are up to. For example, facebook messenger has introduced its messenger bot to automate your communication. According to a study by the global research and advisory firm, Gartner, over 26% of the businesses will include AI by 2020. So getting started now can help or else you will miss out of major opportunities coming your way.All your marketing strategies have to be completely personalized in 2019 to keep a good pace in the competition. Customers expect your products, services and even the contents you deliver online to be fully personalized for their convenience. With the advent of data analytics, discovering useful information that foster decision making has never been difficult. A study done by a popular digital marketing company in Cochin has found out that personalization can indeed improve the customer relationship and sending personalized emails based on user behaviour triggers better response. Why wait for the next moment? Start personalizing your business now! Videos always hold a chance to become viral. Video marketing is a strategy which is on the rise for a few years now. But, you can’t ignore the importance of video making and promotion in 2019, unlike previous times. With the mass increase in usage of video viewing & sharing website like Youtube, digital marketing companies in Kerala and digital marketing service in kerala are further putting their step towards video marketing too. Here we are going to reveal some of the major statistical data identified during our survey:

These statistics speak about the importance of video marketing and if your videos become viral, there is a higher probability that your customer base can increase tremendously. With the launch of smartphones that are compatible with voice communication, people are more and more relying on voice chats and searches. A recent study has revealed that 50% of all search will be through voice by 2020. In the current scenario, more than 20% of Google searches are through voice. Nowadays, a lot of websites, as well as apps, are utilising the power of voice search technology to help their users go handsfree. So, the time has started ticking for you to think about optimizing your product or services for voice searches in the future. With the increasing popularity of the “Stories” feature in several social media channel, it has become crucial for digital marketing companies in Ernakulam to opt for this strategy. Apart from that, they can also look for creating live videos to build brand awareness, make engagement and promote the brand.The best platforms where these story strategies can be impactfully placed are Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Notably, we have found out that Youtube has also initiated the launch of this feature. Since it disappears after a certain period depending on the platform, digital marketers can make use of this feature by tagging the people whom you wish to see your texts, images, posts or videos. Visual search is the next big thing going to be fortunate for the digital marketing company in Cochin. Visual searches are on the rise and this can help users to get more specific information about the product or service. Pinterest is the most popular visual search tool on the internet and interestingly, Google Lens has also started rolling out its features to other smartphones. With visual search feature coming into play, you can easily fetch every detail of an image simply by dropping it instead of typing the long tailed keywords into the search box, to receive information like similar products, price comparisons, ratings & reviews etc. This search trend has the ability to pull customers towards their favoured product/ service. When we talk about Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, Pokemon Go is the first thing that comes to your mind that has been a major trend a few years back. Interestingly, there are several other areas where these two innovations can give a positive vibe. For example, if you are starting an interior designing company you can showcase the inside as it in the real world to your customer to give them a more personalized feeling.It has been found that this digital marketing trend is gonna rule within a decade. AR can display the same interiors upon your existing room to check whether it fits well. Implementing these kinds of interactive innovations can help bring your customers closer to your business/ brand in a much simpler way.

Our Final Words

 The digital marketing has started following the latest trends that focus on primarily 3 things for bestowing a better customer experience — personalization, automation and innovation to get ahead in the competition. Let yours be the next?

[shilkaren]

Real world examples of data mining

In this article, I will try to give you some of the real-world examples of data mining.

 Data mining and its data functionalities

Datamining, predictive analysis or knowledge discovery all of these terms are used in different places by different people but all of these terms mean one and the same.

Let’s try to understand it in a simpler word, these terms refer to a set of techniques for discovering hidden patterns or insights from a large dataset. These patterns help in creating a predictive model to stay on top of future behaviors.

Today, almost all of the organizations irrespective of whatever their domain is looking to capitalize on their BigData and are hence favoring using sophisticated analytical methods to derive some hidden insights from the data which can help the organization to stand-in this competitive world. As the consumption of Big Data grew, so did the need for data mining.

Today, we can see applications of data mining everywhere around us in our day to day activities.

Let’s see some of the real-life examples of data mining.

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

MachineLearning and Artificial Intelligence both are gaining a lot of popularity in the world today, and why they are becoming so popular? We can simply say the credit goes to Data Mining.

One of the most common examples of AI and Machine Learning that you most likely come across every day is the beloved recommendation systems. Has it ever happened that after watching a video on YouTube, you’re shown a list of recommended videos, and you end up watching some of them? How did YouTube do this? By thoroughly studying and analyzing your past data and behaviors. Using your behavioral trends, YouTube can categories products depending on the probability of your purchasing the product. While YouTube and other online streaming websites use AI to show videos recommendations, product and music streaming platforms like Amazon, Flipkart and Netflix use the same to better curate your playlists and provide better customer services.

The examples which I have mentioned above uses Artificial Intelligence on top of the mined data. However, reverse usage is also possible, i.e., you can develop theories and then use data mining to strengthen your theory. For example, if a self-driving car sees a red Alto car over speeding by twice the speed limit, it might develop a theory that all red Alto car over speed. This AI can then use Data Mining methods to strengthen or weaken the theory.

Crime Prevention Agencies:

The use of Data Mining and Analytics is not just restricted to corporate applications or education and technology. The list goes to prove the same. Beyond corporate organizations, many of the crime prevention agencies also use data analytics to find trends across myriads of data present with them. This data includes information including details of all the major criminal activities that have happened till date. Mining this data and thoroughly studying and understanding patterns and trends allows these crime prevention agencies to predict the future events with much better accuracy.

With the help of Data Mining and analytics, these agencies can find out everything from where to deploy maximum police manpower (where is the next crime most likely to happen and when?), who to search at a border crossing (based on type or age of the vehicle, number or age of occupants, or border crossing history), to even which intelligence to take seriously in counter-terrorism activities.

Supermarkets and retails stores

Data mining allows the supermarket and retails stores owners to know your choices and preferences even better than yourself. If you don’t believe us, you’ll be amazed. Following the purchase history and behaviors of one customer, one of the supermarkets correctly concluded that the customer is pregnant. And let me tell you – this was even before the woman herself knew. You can now get to how much power data have. In general, these retail stores divide the customers into what they call “recency, frequency, monetary” (RFM) groups and specific groups with different campaigns and strategies. So, when a customer who spends a lot but infrequently will be dealt differently than a customer who spends little but often. The latter kind may receive loyalty, upsell, or cross-sell offers, coupons, whereas the former might be offered a win-back deal.

Service providers

Nowadays, Service providers have been using Data Mining to retain their customers for a very long time now. Using the techniques of Business Intelligence and Data Mining allows these service providers to predict the “churn” which means when a customer leaves them for another service provider.

Today, every service provider has terabytes of data on their customers. This data includes things like your billing information, customer services interactions, website visits, and such. Using data mining and data analysis, the service providers assign a probability score to each customer. This probability represents how likely you are of switching the vendors. Then, these companies target the people at a higher risk by providing incentives and personalized attention, to retain the customers.

As we see some of the example of data mining above but now it’s becoming a limitless technique, which every small or big companies trying to implements in their business model so that they can face this competitive world of due to technologies advancement.

I hope after reading this article, finally, you came to know about some of the real-life examples of data mining?

Insideaiml is one of the best platforms where you can learn Python, Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence & showcase your knowledge to the outside world.

[sawsells]

Co-founder Interview for Digital Marketing Podcast with Bill Hartzer

In March, Jeff Gabriel, Saw.com co-founder was interviewed by Bill Hartzer from the Digital Marketing Podcast. In the interview, Jeff provides his knowledge and expertise on all things domains. He gets into domain investing, appraisals , acquisitions , sales , and portfolio management. Click here to listen to the interview. Transcript Bill Hartzer – Okay hi this Bill Hartzer and today is March 5th, 2020.  This is the digital marketing podcast with Bill Hartzer, digital marketing with Bill Hartzer podcast, and I have Jeff Gabriel from SAW.com and we’re talking specifically about domain names and dot coms that you know; whatever.com , Hartzer.com,  SAW.com , tell me a little bit about yourself Jeff and how you got into the domain name business. Jeff Gabriel – Sure and thank you Bill for having me as always.  I got my start many moons ago, close to ten years ago at Sedo. Prior to that, I was doing numerous sales jobs and I came to Sedo because I thought their business model was something really interesting I didn’t know. If you remember the old Sedo site it would have all the auctions and domains for sale. It’s changed a little bit but it’s still relatively similar, and I was like, “What is this?” I used to actually try to sell products to them, HR staffing products, and when the economy kind of imploded on itself a little over ten years ago I went back to companies that I thought had interesting business models and Sedo was one of them. I worked there for a number of years where I sold sex.com for thirteen million. That was the highest .com sale for a while but it’s recently been broken obviously. GoDaddy sold voice.com  for thirty million, money.com  sold for twenty million and 360.com sold for 17 million. I’ll still be happy to take fourth place and the other thing is I’m happy to see that my record’s been broken multiple times because that’s showing us that the market is growing, and the value of domains continues to rise. I sold it in 2010, so I mean ten years later if I was still the top sale I’d be worried, I wouldn’t think that the market was growing. So, then I left Sedo and I founded a company called Domain Advisors, we rebranded that to Igloo that sold to Brand IT or Brand It, however you want to call it. From there, I worked at Uniregistry which was called Main Aim Sales prior to that for just under seven years, built a sales team from four of us to just under forty people. We did over three hundred million or three hundred fifty million dollars in sales in my tenure there and it was a wonderful time, great experience. I left there that’s recently sold to GoDaddy for I think close to one hundred ninety million dollars, one hundred eighty-six I think is that the word on the street. I’ve launched Saw.com recently,; we officially launched in mid-December. I really am counting the first of January because you’re still working on some of the technology. I think like that, so we just launched, and it’s been great. We have myself, three salespeople working with me, including my co-founder Amanda Waltz and we have a good little team of support staff as well.  Even you, you’ve helped us immensely in our business so it’s been a really great experience. It’s great to see that the little piston engines running – one of the cylinders was running but now we got all full bar chugging so hopefully in a few months it will turn into a nice six-cylinder and then an eight-cylinder and then a twelve-cylinder and it’ll really start to fire and really get going.  I’m happy to be here I’m excited to be here so let’s talk some domains. Bill – Yes, so acquiring domains … I mean let’s talk a little bit about the process of starting a new business. You’re trying to get a brand and you look and see whether the Twitter handle and the Facebook page and the different handles that are available. But then you find what is available, and also, ideally, whether the dot-com is available as well. It’s a little bit difficult now, more and more, to find a good dot-com that’s not already taken. Certainly, then the next step is to approach the owner and figure out how much the domain is worth and whether or not you even should spend a fair amount. So, you know how to domain. Jeff – I think that’s the question that a lot of people should ask themselves right, is and look themselves in the mirror and say, “What are my goals for this company, how long do I want to be involved in this company, and where do I want to take it?” Also, what is the style of your business? Are you relying on especially your business to consumers? Are you relying on repeat business word-of-mouth marketing? Are you relying on somehow establishing credibility quite quickly to get conversions to happen? Having a half-assed domain name is not a good thing and you cannot tell me one company that has a half-assed domain name that’s a household name. A domain that has one with a dash in it or is really long or it’s just really bad. Market leaders have usually a very strong dot-com domain and it gets so ingrained in people. This is an extreme example that I’m gonna give you but I urge anybody who uses Google as a search engine to switch to Yahoo for a week and tell me if you can actually do it. When I type in Google, even if I say Yahoo out loud, I type in Google like my fingers are trained. I’m trained for Amazon and they also do come trained for other places that they go to on a regular basis and those domains 99.9% of the time are dot-coms. The only one that I go to that’s a major player that’s a dot anything else on a regular basis is Verizon to pay my phone bill. Verizon dot net is really one of the only big ones that is not dot-com. They’re just still pushing that dot net. But not everyone has, including me, a million dollars to spend on a domain name. But it’s saddening to me to see companies that are spending more money on a printer or on a coffee maker than they are on their domain. So can’t tell me any other way, if your domain name is really poor but you’re spending millions in other places or hundreds of thousands in other places, that you aren’t looking at the front door to your business. In order to be taken seriously, you really need that. I find it interesting to see a lot of these startups using the dot IO the dot AI the dot CC. You know, I don’t know if people even realize that dot IO is Indian Ocean and it’s a CC TLP, and ccTLDs go to their own rules and regulations. You could wake up one day just like the Chinese did on dot CM and said you have to be a Chinese citizen in order to own these domains and what would happen if something similar happens there and your business is totally built on that IO? You’re in trouble. The other thing is that if you walk down the street and you tell someone about cars dot IO. How many people in the public actually even know that exists or what that means? They don’t. So we’re going to spend a lot of money to change that perception and change habit to get them to go to your business or to convert over radio advertising. We’re both advertising conference advertising and then you get into email and email security with phishing. What would happen if a scammer got the dot-com on you or something similar to your brand or the dot-net and started hitting your customers or your customers are emailing them or something? You have the dot CO, they hit him with the dot-net or anything like that. There is a lot to do with security these days and privacy and people have held companies hostage based on this stuff. So there are many levels and reasons why you should have the right domain and it’s important. If you have a small budget, there are ways that you can find maybe a second tier rather than your sex dot-com or cars dot-com. You could go and spend ten million dollars but you easily can find domains that are two thousand, five thousand, eight thousand, ten thousand dollars, and a lot of the sellers that I work with on a regular basis would even let you pay for them over time. So there is no real excuse if you’re really serious about building something. You can get something good and you know that’s one of the things that we specialize in. We hear what entrepreneurs, visionaries, ideas guys, or established businesses have to tell us about where their business is, where they want to bring it, and the money they have to spend. We use this information to see how we can make it work and then we go out there and we find them some good solid options at reasonable prices based on what their goals are. And like anything in life, you need to pay for quality and need to pay for the best and that’s just the way it is. Bill – Yeah, I mean nowadays especially, we start to think about, even in the past week, with everybody talking about companies going remote. That means if you’re remote it’s online and more and more people are online and that domain is one of the first things or the thing that people see all the time in the web address. So it’s that branding that they’re seeing over and over again. It needs to be presented in the best light as possible. There are several parts to marketing… having a good brand, having a good name, having a good logo, having the right colors and color scheme, and good web design. But again, having a good domain presents your company and your business in the best light possible. And we talked earlier about some companies that are using ones that are not dot-coms. Think about Zoom… dot-us right? I think you mentioned that to me the other day. I mean there are not many out there that are not a lot of major companies out there that are not using a strong dot-com. Jeff – Yeah. Especially in the United States, right? Yeah, I feel like when I travel to Canada, dot-CA is quite strong. I think if you use dot-CA in the US, a lot of people think it’s dot-California, right? But I travel quite a lot, and Zoom.us is a company that I see with billboards all over airports throughout the United States and internationally. I scratch my head about it because I know the person that used to own the domain name for a period of time. He doesn’t own it anymore, and I’m sure he would have worked out monthly payments with Zoom even if the price was exorbitant for them to pay that on a monthly basis and fit that into their budget. But they’d rather spend it on those billboards. Then, at the same time, their potential customers are going to the dot-com that could have other pictures on it. It could have something totally different and they’re like, then that opportunity is gone. How much money are you leaking out of the bucket with holes? It just doesn’t really make sense to me. One of the examples I was thinking about talking about today is a domain we’re selling called login dot-com. And we’re also selling the domain name password dot com and we have companies like one password dot-com and log me in dot-com and dash lane dot-com that we have approached about these domain names to see if they’re interested. And it’s been radio silence with no interest. We find it very strange that they, especially Dashlane, had some ads up. They did a Superbowl ad a 30-second Superbowl ad and then they had a blog that they sent the traffic to. There were pictures on both sides of somebody in a robe floating in the air with clouds talking about taking back the internet and you weren’t really sure what they did. In the comment section, somebody said they sell clouds or bathrobes as a joke, and when you visit the site and it’s a one password solution. But if I’m gonna give them five bucks a month, they’re asking you to give them every username and password to your entire life. They’re asking you to give all of your credit card numbers, write everything, and they’re saying they’re gonna protect it on you and their name is Dashlane. I don’t understand and they have a guy in a bathrobe with clouds in the background as their person. I don’t understand, and I don’t feel comfortable giving them all that information. If they own the domain name password dot-com, which is exactly what they’re selling, and then they made the site almost look like it’s a fortress, I’d be a little more into it. I mean, at the very least, I’m gonna go and talk to maybe log me in. The log me part doesn’t really make sense because you don’t say “log me in.” I feel like someone’s trying to bang on the door. I would think that login is probably a better name for their business. It’s more memorable, it creates more credibility, it’s easier to spell, you can advertise it on the radio. it is it checks off every single basic box of marketing. It hits all the basic marketing rules and it’s perfect for any of these three businesses. So you know, I find it strange that those three haven’t. I mean, we’ve still got interest from other parties but those three players haven’t shown interest. I guess I’m kind of calling them out here today on your blog. Hopefully, they’re listening and I’d love to have a fruitful conversation. Bill – kind of recently though, let’s look at Amazon. Amazon originally sold just books, and now Amazon has nothing to do really with what the word is. So there are exceptions out there as far as branding goes. Another example is Target, which makes me think about target practice or something. Jeff What do Amazon and Target have in common? They’re one word. Bill Hartzer Yes, that’s very true. There is a lot of money, unfortunately, in branding at this point over the years and sure. Jeff I mean and then look at ring dot-com. So ring dot.com is a domain that we sold when I was at Uniregistry. And they sold the company. That company was sold within two or three years of launch to Amazons for over a billion dollars. And the owner of that company, who was an ex-employee of Amazon (I’m not sure if you know this story), said they would never have gotten that valuation and they never would have gotten that purchase price without owning ring. They never would have gotten the market share, they never would have seen the growth that they were supposed to get, and they never would have gotten the purchase price that they got out of Amazon if they ever knew exactly, right? so I think that it’s imperative for some of these companies for market share, that they’re one of the first to the party. I mean, same with one password. They’d love to get a piece of log in’s market share. They’re late to the party, so how do you do it? You find the best possible brand that people are going to trust, and this is a massive leap of faith to any of these companies to give people this kind of information, and I think that that is a perfect opportunity for them to prove that they’re here for a long time. They’re not going to get hacked and that we are the leader in our space. Bill – Sure. Give us a little bit… say I have a domain or a couple of domain names that I bought. Say I woke up in the middle of the night and said “Hey, that’s a great idea for a company I need to go and see if that domain name is available.” I go on my phone and it’s available and I purchased it and now, six months later I haven’t started that project. I still own this domain, but now it’s a year or two later, or it’s eleven and a half months later. Do I renew it or not? How do I figure out that those domains that I bought a while back… how do I figure out if I should drop them? What is the value? How would I go about selling them? Jeff – Okay, so I’m gonna take you through kind of a speed version of this. So the first thing I would do is go to a website like EstiBot. I put the domain name in there and hit enter. I would see what comes up there. I would look at different data which would be comparable sales on there, look at those. Then I would take out the ones that are inferior. So you might see ones I just don’t meet the criteria. If you want to go into great detail, I have a YouTube channel called Saw Sells. We’ll have videos of me teaching how to appraise domains. But this is the lazy way of doing it. I would see what on there kind of catches up to similar quality. Similar quality means if the words make sense phonetically in a sentence and you’ve heard both in words together before that’s a plus and if you haven’t, or it’s the wrong tense or it doesn’t quite make sense, I’d immediately put like a little red X next to that one. Then I would certainly look there, then I would think to myself, “Am I going to do this project if I wake up two years from now? Will I revisit it? Will I regret selling this?” And if the answer is no, it’s probably time to move on. So my suggestion to you would be to go to a website like GoDaddy, put some sort of a low reserve on the domain name, and get rid of it now. If you multiply this, because I know entrepreneurs like myself and like you Bill, the gears are always spinning. So this isn’t something that happens just once, it happens a lot, so then all of a sudden you wake up one morning and now you have 200 or 300 of these and now you’re spending two thousand, three thousand, five thousand, ten thousand dollars a year on renewals on ideas that are never gonna happen and you’re carrying these and even if you’ve invested five hundred or a thousand dollars in this name, take the loss, get your money and move on to the next one. You’re gonna let them go. That’s the best advice I can give you. There are so many people that have come to me that have these big portfolios of thousands of names, carrying them year after year after year. There’s no reason to carry half of these names. And they’re just throwing money in the trash because they spent hundreds of dollars on renewals and they’re just unwilling to let it go. Let it go. Take that money and buy something else. Buy a new dream and move on with it. Get you right off on your taxes and take it. Sometimes you’re gonna make money, and you’ll say, “Wow, that was great!” Bill – Yeah, now there are certainly some exceptions to that. And the ones I would, from my experience if you are actively getting offers [it’s a different story]. I mean it depends on what your definition of actively getting offers is, but if somebody is sending you multiple emails or contacting you giving you an offer, then you probably would keep the name, right? You can’t just drop it. Jeff – it’s like a volcano. It’s popping out a little ash and a little smoke and a little lava and then eventually it’s gonna fill up. So what I would certainly do is I’ve put it on the market places, get it the exposure, put a price on it, get a good landing page. It’s a good little affordable solution to have the leads dumped into your email. You can connect it on to some CRM out there and then work those leads or give a guy like me the opportunity to work on those opportunities. Sure, put it up for sale. Those kinds of names are the best names because there’s demand and I would never let those go. Yeah, the stat that I would look at is if you have one, even one, interested party or two hundreds of parties a year on a name, I probably wouldn’t. I wouldn’t just put it up for auction. I would probably sit on it, right? If it’s making parking and it’s making close to registration so you’re carrying cost is a buck or maybe nothing if you’re making ten cents a year on it I wouldn’t drop it because there are people coming to that name. That’s showing there’s something out there. There’s a pulse, right? So I keep it. But if it’s not making registration it’s not getting inquiries and there’s no action on it. When they give the hot potato to somebody else, take your losses unless you’ve invested a lot of money in it. And let it go. That’s the best advice that I can give you. Bill – Yeah or if there’s any chance that you could potentially develop it or actually have a writer write some content and put it out there.There’s potential for it rather than just having it. Developing it into 5 10 20 page site that potentially could get it going again. Jeff – Yeah. But again, now you’re getting even deeper. And there’s a reason why there’s nothing happening with it in the first place, right? That’s why it was the plan that never took off. The idea that never happens. I had this brilliant idea a long time ago that you can make a party table that was disposable so we’ve come with a bag that you get at the party store for like ten dollars. But then when I figured out what design and engineering involved to make it. And then pitch that to the party store and all these things. I mean I considered how to pay every penny I had in the bank on a chance and I didn’t even understand the industry. Bill – So that was a disposable party table dot-com. Jeff – But that dream is over like it’s over now. So I’d say knowing that even if it had an opportunity nowt, I just have too many other things. Selling domain names for myself is a much more sure bet than me investing all this time, money, and resources and energy into this. It just doesn’t make any sense. Yep, take it off the chin, right? Bill – Sure. So with that said, we’re just about out of time. So thanks for joining me today. How do we get in touch? I know you mentioned your YouTube channel Saw Sells. Or go directly to saw.com . Is that the best way to get in touch? Jeff – Yes, go to the contact page on saw.com. We do domain acquisitions on behalf of buyers, we sell super premium names, we also manage people’s domain portfolios where we work on an entire portfolio where they point their names to us and then we would also be taking some of those names to market and selling them and then appraisal services as well. Bill – All right thanks again Jeff! This has been the Digital Marketing Podcast with Bill Hartzer. Thanks again, Jeff. And we’ll see you Online Jeff – Anytime. Thank you. Unedited Transcript Bill – Okay hi this Bill Hartzer and today is March 5th, 2020.  This is the digital marketing podcast with Bill Hartzer, digital marketing with Bill Hartzer podcast, and I have Jeff Gabriel from SAW.com and we’re talking specifically about domain names and you know dot coms that you know; whatever.com , Hartzer.com,  SAW.com, tell me a little bit about yourself Jeff and how you got into the domain name business. Jeff – Sure and thank you Bill for having me as always.  I got my start many moons ago, close to ten years ago at Sedo.  Prior to that I was doing numerous sales jobs and I came across you know because I thought their business model was something really interesting I didn’t know when I used if you remember the old SETO site it would have all the auctions and domains for sale it’s changed a little bit but it’s still relatively similar, and I was like what is this.  I used to actually try to sell products to them, HR staffing products, and when the economy kind of imploded on itself a little over ten years ago I went back to companies that I thought had interesting business models and Sedo was one of them.  I worked there a number of years where I actually sold sex.com  for thirteen million.  That was the highest .com sale for a while but it’s recently been broken obviously.  GoDaddy sold voice.com  for thirty million, money.com  sold for twenty million and 360.com  sold for 17 million.  I’ll still be happy to take fourth place and the other thing is I’m happy to see that my records been broken multiple times because that’s showing us that the market is growing, and the value of domains continue to rise.  I sold that in 2013 or 2000 2010 I sold it and 2010 I sold it so I mean ten years later if I was still the top sale I’d be worried, I wouldn’t think that the market was growing.  So, then I left SETO and I founded a company called domain advisors, we rebranded that to igloo that sold to brand IT or brand it however you want to call it.  From there worked at unit registry which is called main aim sales prior to that for just under seven years, built a sales team from four of us to just under forty people.  We did over three hundred million or three hundred fifty million dollars in sales and my tenure there and it was a wonderful time, great experience.  I left there that’s recently sold to GoDaddy for I think close to one hundred ninety million dollars, one hundred eighty six I think is that the word on the street.  I’ve launched recently, we officially launched in mid-December I really am counting first of January because you’re still working on some of the technology.  I think like that, so we just launched, and you know it’s been great.  We have myself, three salespeople working with me, including my co-founder Amanda waltz and you know we have a good little team of support staff as well.  Even you, you’ve helped us immensely in our business so it’s been a really great experience it’s great to see that the little piston engines running you know one of the cylinders was running but now we got all full bar chugging so hopefully months will turn into a nice six cylinder and then an eight cylinder and then a twelve cylinder and it’ll really start to fire and really get going.  I’m happy to be here I’m excited to be here so let’s talk some domains. Bill Hartzer yes so acquiring domains I mean it yeah I basically let’s talk a little bit I guess the process of you know sure you know you’re starting a new business you’re trying to get a brand you know you look and see what you know whether the Twitter handle and the Facebook page and the you know different it’s a graham handles that are available but then okay will you what actually find also ideally something that where the dot-com or the you know it is available as well and certainly that’s not you know that not taken so it’s a little bit difficult now you know more and more to find you know finds a dot you know find a good calm that’s not already taken you know certainly then the next step is I guess if we find something I guess would be to you know somehow approach the owner and figure out okay well how you know how much this is this domain worth and you know whether we you know whether or not you even should spend you know a fair amount I mean what you know how to domain Jeff- I think I think that’s the question that a lot of people should ask themselves right is and look themselves in the mirror and say what are my goals for this company how long do I want to be involved in this company right and where do I want to take it and also you know what are what is the style of your business if you are if you are relying on especially your business to consumer right if you’re relying on repeat business word-of-mouth marketing if you’re relying on somehow establishing credibility quite quickly to get conversions to happen having a half-assed domain name is not a good thing right and you cannot tell me one company that has a half-assed domain name that’s a household name one that has one with a dash in it or is really long or it’s just really bad you know your market leaders have usually a very strong dot-com domain all right yeah and it gets so ingrained in people I mean to the point now this is an extreme example that I’m gonna give you but I urge anybody who uses Google as a search engine to switch to Yahoo for a week and tell me if you can actually do it because when I do it I type in Google even if I say Yahoo out loud I type in Google like my fingers are trained it people I’m trained for Amazon and they also do come trained for other places that they go to on a regular basis and those domains 99.9% of the time our comms the only one that I go to that’s a major player that I go to that’s a dot anything else really on a regular basis is Verizon to pay my phone bill you know Verizon net is really one of the only huge big ones so they I believe they also on the comm they’re just still pushing that net but you know not everyone has including myself a million dollars to spend on a domain name sir but it’s saddening to me to see companies that are spending more money on a printer or on you know a coffee maker than they are on their domain so and again you can’t tell me any other way if your domain name is really poor but you’re spending millions in other places or hundreds of thousands other places that you aren’t looking at the front door to your business and in order to be taken seriously you really need that and again you know I find it interesting to see a lot of these startups using the dot IO the dot AI the dot CC. You know, I don’t know if people even realize that dot IO is Indian Ocean and it’s a CC TLP and ccTLDs go to their own rules and regulations I mean you could wake up one day just like the Chinese did on dot CM and said you have to be a Chinese citizen in order to own these domains and what would happen if something similar happen there and your business is totally built on that IO you’re in trouble the other thing is that if you walk down the street and you tell someone cars dot IO how many people in the public actually even know that exists or what that means they don’t so yeah we’re going to spend a lot of money to change that perception and change habit to get them to go to your business or to convert you know over radio Advertising we’re both advertising conference advertising and then you get into sorry I’m taking over your whole podcasts I’m very passionate about this but then you get into like email an email security in fishing what would happen if a scammer got on the dot com  on you or something similar to your brand or the dot net  and started hitting your customers or your customers are emailing them and their back or something you have the dot CO they hit him with the dot net or anything like that there’s a lot to do with security these days and privacy and people have helped companies hostage based on this stuff so there’s many levels and reasons why you should have the right domain and it’s important and if you have a small budget you know there’s ways that you can find maybe a second tier rather than your sex comm or your you know your car’s comm I mean I must say go and spend ten million dollars but you easily can find domains that are between two thousand five thousand eight thousand ten thousand dollars and a lot of the sellers that I work with on a regular basis would even let you pay for them over time so you know there’s no real excuse if you’re really serious about building something that you can’t get something good and you know that’s one of the things that we specialize in in a business is we hear what entrepreneurs visionaries ideas guys or established businesses have to tell us about where their business is where they want to bring it and the money they have to spend and how we can make it work and then we go out there and we find them some good solid options at reasonable prices based on what their goals are and like anything in life you know you need to pay for quality and need to pay for the best and that’s just the way it is Bill Hartzer yeah I mean nowadays especially you know we start to think about yeah even in the past week with all of the everybody talking about companies do you know going remote that means okay if your remote and your remoting in you know that means it’s online and more and more people are you know are using you are sexually you know online and that that you know domain is the one of the first things or the thing that that people see all the time in the web address and so it’s that branding it’s that you know it’s they’re seeing it over and over and over again and you know it needs to you know it does yeah need to be presented in the best white as possible you know you’re it’s you know there are several parts to you know having marketing you know having a good brand which is your you know having a good name having a good you know having a good logo having you know the right colors and color scheme and good web design but again you know the having a good domain really yeah also is presents you know your company and your business in in the best light possible and rather you know we talked earlier you know about you know some domains that are or some companies that are using ones that are not comms you know think about zoom dot us right I think you mentioned that to me the other day you know and I mean you know that there are not many out there that are not you know that are major companies that are that are you know that are you that are not using a strong calm Jeff – yeah especially in the United States right yeah I feel like when you when I travel to Canada dot CA is quite strong I think if you use a dusty in the US a lot of people think it’s dot California right but I travel quite a lot in zoom dot us is a company that I see with billboards all over airports throughout the United States and internationally and I scratch my head about it because I know that I know the person that used to own the domain name for a period of time he doesn’t own it anymore and I’m sure he would have worked out monthly payments with that company even if the price was exorbitant for them to pay that on a monthly basis and fit that into their budget but there’s they’d rather spend it on those billboards and then at the same time their potential customers are going to the dot-com that could have you know other pictures on it could have something totally different and they’re like then that opportunity is going how much money are you leaking out of the bucket with holes it just doesn’t that stuff doesn’t really make sense to me one of the examples I was thinking about talking about today too was there’s a company we’re selling the domain name login comm and we’re also selling the domain name we’re representing it password calm and we have companies like one password calm and log me in and dash lane that we have approached about these three these two domain names to see if they’re interested in and it’s been radio silence and not showing any interest and we find it very strange that especially dashlane they had some ads up they did a Superbowl ad a 30-second Superbowl ad and then they had a blog that they sent the traffic to and there was pictures on both sides of somebody in a robe floating in the air with clouds and in talking about taking back the internet and you weren’t really sure what they did and in the comment section in the comment section somebody said I think it’s a they sell clouds or bathrobes as a joke and then you click on it and it’s a one it’s like a one password solution but if I’m gonna give them they’re asking you for your to pay monthly X amount of dollars it’s like five bucks they’re asking you to give you give them every username and password to your entire life they’re asking you to give all of your credit card numbers write everything and they’re saying they’re gonna protect it on you and their name is dashlane I don’t I don’t understand and they have a guy in a bathrobe with clouds in the background is their person I don’t understand I don’t feel comfortable in getting all that information to them if they own the domain name password calm which is exactly what they’re selling and then they made the site almost look like it’s a fortress I’d be a little more into it to feel safe sure I mean at the very least I’m gonna go and talk to maybe log me in the log me and doesn’t really make sense because you don’t say log me in I feel like someone’s trying to bang on the door I would think about login is probably a better name for their Business it’s more memorable it creates more credibility it’s easier to spell you can advertise it on the radio it is it checks off every single basic box of marketing all the basic box and marketing rules and it’s perfect for any of these you know these three businesses so you know I find it strange that those three haven’t I mean we’ve still got an interest from other parties but those three players haven’t I guess I’m kind of calling them out here today on your on your blog hopefully they’re listening and I’d love to have a fruitful conversation Bill Hartzer kind of recently though lets you know look at Amazon when you know the Amazon originally was books and now Amazon the word Amazon and that brand has nothing to do really with you know what the word is so there are those you know saying what’s our target or for example target I think about you know target practice or something I don’t really necessarily think about so there are those exceptions out there where yeah I mean there are as far as Brandon goes right Jeff What does Amazon and target have in common they’re one words Bill Hartzer yes that’s very yes there’s been a lot of money unfortunately you know branding at this point you know over the years and sure Jeff I mean and then look at ring comm so ring comm is a domain that we sold when I was at unit is tree and they sold the company that that company was sold within two or three years of launch to Amazon’s for over a billion dollars and the owner of that company who was an ex-employee of Amazon I’m not sure if you know this story said they would never have gotten that valuation and they never would have gotten that purchase price without owning the defending they didn’t own ring they would have been they never would have gotten the market share they should have they never would have saw the growth that they were supposed to get and they never would have gotten the purchase price that they got out of Amazon ever know exactly right so I think that it’s imperative for some of these companies I mean they’d Ashley would love to get piece of log means market share and they’re one of the first to the party right I mean same with one password they’d love to get a piece of log Mann’s market share as well they’re late again late to the party so how do you do it you find the best possible brand that people are going to trust and this is a massive a massive leap of faith to any of these companies to give people this kind of information and I think that that is a perfect opportunity for them to prove that that they’re here for a long time they’re not going to get hacked and that we are the leader in our space Bill Hartzer sure give us a little bit you know say I have a domain or are me you know are a couple domain names that I you know bought you know I woke up in the middle of the night and said hey you know that’s a great idea for a company I need to go and see if that domain name is available I go on my phone and it’s available and I purchased it and you know now I’m six months later and you know now it’s I haven’t always started that project I still own this domain now it’s a year or two it’s eleven and a half months later do I renew it or not how do I figure out you know that those domains that I you know bought awhile back how do I figured out you know if I should drop all more what the value is kind of means and how do I how would I set go about selling them okay so I’m gonna take you through kind of a speed version of this sure Jeff so the first thing I would do is I would go to a website like Esteban I put the domain name in there and hit enter I would see what kind of comes up there I would look at different data which would be comparable sales on there, look at those I would take out the ones that are inferior so you might see ones I just don’t absolutely don’t meet the criteria if you want to go into like great detail I have a YouTube channel called saw sells we’re actually gonna there’s actually on there me teaching how to appraise domains but this is the lazy way of doing it is I would see you know what on there kind of catches up to similar quality when I say similar quality if the words make sense phonetically like in a sentence and you’ve heard both in words together before that’s a plus if you haven’t or it’s the wrong tense it doesn’t quite make sense I’d immediately put like a little red X next to that one and then I would I would certainly look there then I would think to myself am I going to do this project if I wake up two years from now you know will I revisit it will I regret selling this and if the answer is no it’s probably time to move on so my suggestion to you would be going to a website like main jet going to GoDaddy put some sort of a low reserve on the domain name and get rid of it now if you multiply this because I know that entrepreneur entrepreneurs like myself and like you bill the gears are always spinning so this isn’t something that happens just once it happens a lot so then all of a sudden you wake up one morning and now you have 200 of these or 300 leaves and now you’re spending two thousand three thousand five thousand ten thousand dollars a year on renewals on ideas that are never gonna happen and you’re carrying these and even if you’ve invested five hundred or a thousand dollars in this name and even if you only knee at 200 bucks in the name Kjetil action take the loss get your money and move on to the next one you’re gonna let them go that’s the best advice I can give you there’s so many people that have come to me that have these big portfolios of thousands of names or carrying them year after year after year there’s no reason to carry half these names and they’re just throwing money in the trash because they spent more than the renewal on at hundreds of dollars and they’re just unwilling to let it go let it go take that money by something else buy a new dream and move on with it you know get you right off on your taxes and take it sometimes you’re gonna make money you say wow that was great Bill Hartzer yeah now there are certainly some exceptions to that and the ones you know I would you know from my experience if you are actively Getting offers or people are actually you know at least let’s say I mean it depends on you know what your definition of actively getting offers but you know if somebody if you’re you know once a week or once or several times a month somebody is sending you an email or contacting you giving you an offer then you probably you probably would keep the name right you can just drop Jeff it’s like a volcano it’s popping out a little a little ash and a little smoke and a little lava and then eventually it’s gonna fill up so what I would certainly do is I’ve put it on the market places get it the exposure put a price on it you know get a good landing page now I’m in there I like ft personally it’s a good little affordable solution you know have the leads dumped into your email you can connect it on to some CRM is out there and then work those leads or give a guy like me the opportunity to work on those opportunities sure and put it up for sale those kinds of names are the best names because you know there’s demand and I would never let those go yeah the depth the stat that I would look at is if you have one even one interested party or two hundreds of parties a year on a name I probably wouldn’t I wouldn’t just put it up for auction I would probably sit on it right if it’s making parking and it’s making close to registration so you’re carrying cost is a buck or maybe nothing if you’re making ten cents a year on it I wouldn’t drop it because there’s people coming to that name that’s showing there’s something out there there’s a pulse right so I keep it but if it’s not making registration it’s not getting inquiries and there’s no action on it what they give the hot potato to somebody else you know take your losses unless you’ve invested it a lot of money in it and let it go right that’s my best advice that I can give you Bill Hartzer yeah or if there’s any chance that you could potentially develop it or actually you know have a writer rights of content and put it out there you know there’s potential for you know for you know rather than just having it’s it just actually you developing into 5 10 20 page sight you know that that potentially you know could get it going again Jeff yeah but again now you’re getting an even deeper and there’s a reason why there’s nothing happening with the day’s first place right that’s why we talking it was it was the plan that never took off right the idea that never happens I had this brilliant idea a long time ago that you can make a party table that was disposable so we’ve come in like a bag that you get at the party store for like ten dollars but then when I figured out what like design and engineering in and getting the everything started with it to make it and then get and then pitch that to like the party store and all these things I mean I went how to pay every penny I had in the bank on a chance and I didn’t even understand the industry Bill Hartzer so you know that was a disposable party table dot-com Jeff But that dream is over like it’s over now so I’d say knowing that even if it had an opportunity now I just have too many other things and selling domain names for myself as a much more sure bet than me investing all this time money resources and energy into this it just doesn’t make any sense yep take it off the chin right Bill Hartzer sure so with that said we’re just about out of time so thanks for joining me today how do we get in touch you met you I know you mentioned your YouTube channel saw sells youtube.com  so I just look up you know the YouTube channel saw sells go directly to saw.com  is that the best way to get in touch Jeff yes I comm go to the contact page you know we do domain acquisitions or react on behalf of buyers we sell super premium names we also manage people’s domain portfolios where we would work on an entire portfolio where they would point their Percy Landers to us and then we would also be taking some of those names to market and selling them and then appraisal services as well Bill Hartzer all right thanks again Jeff this has been the this has been the digital marketing with Bill hearts our pod thanks again Jeff and we’ll see you Online Jeff anytime thank you The post Co-founder Interview for Digital Marketing Podcast with Bill Hartzer appeared first on Saw.com - Blog .

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Internet Advertising: Learn About All Online Advertising & World bank Website Directory

Internet advertising  may be a  set of tools for delivering promotional messages to people, worldwide, using  the web  as  a worldwide  marketing platform. As web technologies evolved  within the  1990s, internet advertising appeared as a virtual  like traditional marketing methods like TV and radio ads, newspaper advertising, billboards, etc. In 2019 marketers expect that companies will spend  extra money  on digital advertising than on traditional ads. Let’s  determine  why online advertising has become so popular and explore its  most ordinarily  used types —  program  marketing, email marketing, social media advertising, display ads, native advertising and more. Why is Internet advertising important? Easy global coverage. Nowadays, people have a habit of  checking out  information about products and services via search engines like Google, Bing,  et al. . internet advertising  may be a   thanks to  demonstrate your offers  ahead  of over 4.3 billion web users  round the  globe.  you'll  easily target  the whole  world via  the web . Affordable for any budget.  consistent with  Seriously Simple Marketing, the minimum cost  to succeed in  an audience  of two ,000 is  3 times  cheaper than traditional advertising methods, so any company from  alittle   closed corporation  to  an enormous  enterprise can utilize online ads  and obtain   the foremost  out of their financial resources. Drives traffic to  an internet site . The more visitors you get to  the location , the more potential customers  you've got ,  which can   end in  increased sales. Internet advertising aims  to draw in  users’ attention and send them to your website. The offers displayed  within the  digital ads should arouse curiosity  and provides  people  an honest  reason for clicking through your site. Website Directory

Allows targeting. Unlike traditional marketing media that advertises to everyone without filtering, internet advertising tailors the message to a specifically targeted audience —  people that  are  presumably  to convert into customers.  as an example , a travel equipment company may use social media ads for advertising to users who are keen on travel, encouraging likes and shares. Enables retargeting. Internet advertisements are  how   to mention  “hey,  seems like   a few  of days ago you  verified  this toaster. I’ve got  a wonderful one for you here!” If many prospects visit your household appliances online store without buying anything, remind them about your brand with banner ads displayed on websites they browse. It allows you  to make  various touchpoints  together with your  audience. Internet advertising helps you  to seem   within the  right place, at  the proper  time  to speak   together with your  audience. If you own  alittle bakery, use socials like Instagram and Pinterest to demonstrate the products. To share news and build long-lasting relationships  together with your  audience, reinforce them with email marketing. By mixing  differing types  of digital advertising wisely,  you'll  show that your company  is usually  present  and prepared  to be of service. It is measurable. Unlike offline marketing, where  the value  and effectiveness are somewhat approximate,  you'll precisely track the return on your efforts and internet marketing efficiency with web analytics platforms like Google Analytics. No doubt that digital advertising  may be a  fast, flexible, and measurable method for tailoring your marketing messages to people throughout  the planet . It’s the spirit of the times: millennials and younger generations got  wont to  communicate virtually, and your competitors bear this tendency in mind, as well. Types of Internet Advertising The Internet offers vast opportunities  to attach  with potential customers, so let’s review  a number of   the foremost  influential  sorts of  internet advertising on the market. Search Engine Marketing

A search bar  is that the   start line  of the users’ buyer journey. Entering a keyword, people focus mainly on  the primary  page results. Program  marketing is all about getting your webpages to  the highest  of the SERP (search engine results page), whether in an organic or paid way. Google Ads displays the paid results  supported  the ad rank auction. Companies name their price for  a specific  keyword, while Google analyzes  the standard  and relevancy of the content. Here  is that the  formula of the ad rank: Internet Advertising Tips Analyze your ROI.  it's  easy  to form  sure your efforts are worth  a short time  with internet marketing. Check all the possible metrics  counting on   the sort  of digital marketing  you employ . Analyze open rate and CTR in email marketing, use Google Analytics for your social marketing efforts and  program  marketing. Segment your audience. Separate your audience into different groups that have something in common like age, gender, location, and find  the proper  approach for all of them. If you create a display  advertising campaign  for clothing,  confirm  the message you tailor to women differs from the one for men. Choose  the simplest  media for  a selected  business. If  you create  and sell vegan food, use socials for promoting and receiving orders. Appearance  within the  local directories in Google search results  can also  address potential clients to you  once they  google “vegan food near me,”  as an example . Use social media platforms that are popular. If your audience consists mainly of  children  14-30 years old, Instagram  is probably going   the foremost  commonplace  for his or her  communication with  one another . Facebook is preferable for adults,  therefore the  best practice here is  to look at  your audience, their habits, and global tendencies  to form   the proper  choice. Be creative  together with your ads. Internet advertising is all about catching people’s attention, so make your ads expressive and relevant. Bolster your creativity with bright colors  and large  headlines, but avoid using all caps. Use  a transparent  call to action. There's little time to getting your message across to the audience, so make it clear what  you would like . Use  a brief  and unambiguous CTA like “Book now,” “Learn more,” “Grab the promo code,” etc.,  counting on  the business  and therefore the  advertising goal. Make mobile-friendly ads. Preview all the ads you produce on a  mobile   to form  sure they work since 58% of site visits are registered from the smartphones.

References

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Best hair salon in Cochin

  2019    is a period of the paradigm shift for several digital marketing companies in Kochi. Major digital marketing services like Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Pay Per Click Advertising etc will have to witness a dramatic change this year. Notably, there is a need for you to know that many of the strategies you have missed in the past like visual search, voice search and artificial intelligence have to be considered seriously in 2019 for being in the competitive edge.

With the evolving technology and insights, here are the top digital marketing trends you may have to follow this year.

Artificial Intelligence  

Artificial intelligence has been around for quite some years now and it is said that implementing this technology can provide an extra benefit to your digital marketing efforts. AI can easily analyze user behaviour and search patterns on various digital platforms and help you understand what they are up to.

For example, facebook messenger has introduced its messenger bot to automate your communication. According to a study by the global research and advisory firm, Gartner, over 26% of the businesses will include AI by 2020. So getting started now can help or else you will miss out of major opportunities coming your way.

Personalized Marketing

All your marketing strategies have to be completely personalized in 2019 to keep a good pace in the competition. Customers expect your products, services and even the contents you deliver online to be fully personalized for their convenience. With the advent of data analytics, discovering useful information that foster decision making has never been difficult.

A study done by a popular digital marketing company in Cochin has found out that personalization can indeed improve the customer relationship and sending personalized emails based on user behaviour triggers better response. Why wait for the next moment? Start personalizing your business now!  

Video Marketing

Videos always hold a chance to become viral. Video marketing is a strategy which is on the rise for a few years now. But, you can’t ignore the importance of video making and promotion in 2019, unlike previous times. With the mass increase in usage of video viewing & sharing website like Youtube, digital marketing companies in Kerala and digital marketing service in kerala are further putting their step towards video marketing too.

Here we are going to reveal some of the major statistical data identified during our survey:

More than 70% of the businesses revealed video marketing has improved their conversion rate.

Around 78% of brand videos will be shared by customers instantly.

Over 50% of customers get convinced better to buy a product or service if they watch a demo video.

These statistics speak about the importance of video marketing and if your videos become viral, there is a higher probability that your customer base can increase tremendously.

Voice Search

With the launch of smartphones that are compatible with voice communication, people are more and more relying on voice chats and searches. A recent study has revealed that 50% of all search will be through voice by 2020. In the current scenario, more than 20% of Google searches are through voice.

Nowadays, a lot of websites, as well as apps, are utilising the power of voice search technology to help their users go handsfree. So, the time has started ticking for you to think about optimizing your product or services for voice searches in the future.

Social Media Stories

With the increasing popularity of the “Stories” feature in several social media channel, it has become crucial for digital marketing companies in Ernakulam to opt for this strategy. Apart from that, they can also look for creating live videos to build brand awareness, make engagement and promote the brand.

The best platforms where these story strategies can be impactfully placed are Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Notably, we have found out that Youtube has also initiated the launch of this feature. Since it disappears after a certain period depending on the platform, digital marketers can make use of this feature by tagging the people whom you wish to see your texts, images, posts or videos.  

Visual Search

Visual search is the next big thing going to be fortunate for the digital marketing company in Cochin. Visual searches are on the rise and this can help users to get more specific information about the product or service. Pinterest is the most popular visual search tool on the internet and interestingly, Google Lens has also started rolling out its features to other smartphones.  

With visual search feature coming into play, you can easily fetch every detail of an image simply by dropping it instead of typing the long tailed keywords into the search box, to receive information like similar products, price comparisons, ratings & reviews etc. This search trend has the ability to pull customers towards their favoured product/ service.

VR & AR  

When we talk about Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, Pokemon Go is the first thing that comes to your mind that has been a major trend a few years back. Interestingly, there are several other areas where these two innovations can give a positive vibe. For example, if you are starting an interior designing company you can showcase the inside as it in the real world to your customer to give them a more personalized feeling.

It has been found that this digital marketing trend is gonna rule within a decade. AR can display the same interiors upon your existing room to check whether it fits well. Implementing these kinds of interactive innovations can help bring your customers closer to your business/ brand in a much simpler way.