#Well blew up in terms of the attention my blog usually gets

[whosectype]

I watched the new Spider-Man across the spiderverse

[limitlessgojo]

Blood Bound: Red Strings of Fate (Ch 6)

Warnings: Action, Coarse Language, Fighting, Descriptions of Blood

Previous Chapter: Special Grade

Next Chapter: Bird of Flame

Tags: Soulmates AU, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Fem!Reader

Taglist: @lessie-oxj @rizzo-nero @whoreuc @fkngkumiko @isl3t @gojoussunglasses @onepotatostand-blog @s-t-f-u-b-i-t-c-h @sunaswife

Notes: If you want to be tagged for every update, please mention it in the comments below ty <3

We are finally past the introductions and getting into the bulk of the story🥰💕 excited for this to unravel.

Chapter 6: Speed of Sound

You had a physical and cursed energy examination along with the second years the next day. Much like when you had your height and weight measured at the clinic. But this time, it was your power, speed, stamina, defense level, and flexibility with and without your cursed technique that they were measuring.

“Ugh, it’s so windy out today.” Mai complained. The sun was really bright as the four of you first years stood there.

“Y/n.” All of you turned to look at the source of the voice. You smiled brightly upon hearing him. “It has been a while.”

“Noritoshi senpaii~” you skipped your way towards him with a huge smile on your face. “How have you been?”

Noritoshi was always busy, with clan affairs, missions (now that he got recommended for grade 1 and is enroute to a semi-grade 1) and studies that you only had a short time to say hi whenever you passed by the other in the hallways. But he always secretly looked forward to seeing you.

He nodded his greeting to the other first years before turning to smile down at you as you came up to him. “Not too bad. Hope you’ve adjusted well to campus life?” he murmured, eyes softening.

“I’m okay, don't worry about me. Shared class today, this is my first time. I wonder how it will go?” You excitedly said.

“The usual, you might find it boring. Ah, and I’ve heard that you were given the title Special Grade. Congratulations.” He said.

“Is that something to be celebrated?” you asked while tilting your head to the side. “Thank you though.”

He mimicked you, tilting his head in the same direction and leaning forward so that your eyes were both still in line with each other’s, “It’s proof that you’re strong and that’s also a good thing.”

You hummed in thought. “I don’t really care about rankings to be honest. I just need to be strong enough to protect the ones I love.”

Noritoshi’s eyes slightly widened at that. He was about to speak when he was rudely interrupted.

“TSUCHI CHAN! You owe me a fight.” Todo senpai boomed with Momo sighing tiredly beside him. You jumped about 4 feet into the air at the sound and Noritoshi protectively held a hand in front of you again. “That’s enough Todo. It’s still early in the morning.”

“A fight, or else I will reveal who your ideal type is to everyone here.” He grinned.

Oh no he didn’t. The winds picked up around you as your cursed energy flared dangerously. Everyone except Noritoshi took a step back from you.

You looked up at him with the coldest eyes you have, “You promised you wouldn’t senpai. But I am not backing down from a fight. Don’t cry too badly when I bury you 6 feet underground.”

“There it is! Her dark side.” Miwa cried out. “You’re gonna die senpai.” But Todou just laughed. “I knew you were interesting the moment we met Tsuchi chan. It’s settled. A fight later after class.”

“Todo’s gonna die later. I look forward to seeing it.” Mai yawned nonchalantly as Mechamaru just nodded. Momo just laughed as she settled in beside Mai.

Soon Utahime called you all to attention and you went on with the activities. You were competing with Todo for almost every measurement (with the use of cursed energy of course. You were not so strong without it).

You just laughed at yourself as you found out you had the weakest physical punching power among the first years. Yep, you rely too much on your cursed energy to back you up.

You had the highest score though when you used your cursed energy. You warped the space around your hand in a spiral motion, the wind picking up around your fist, before you propelled yourself to punch the target. BAANG! It was pushed a number of meters back further than Todo’s target.

Todo just clapped. “Well done.” And the entire time, Noritoshi was closely monitoring you, staying by your side and asking questions about your technique.

At that, you tugged on his sleeve and he smiled and bent down for you. You told him quietly that you would tell him more about it later when you’re alone. His eyebrows raised, but his smile widened, “Thank you for that. I don’t mind telling you about mine too.”

The others were just silently watching you both out of the corner of their eyes.

“Mai chan, wanna bet as to when those two will get together?” Momo whispered. Everyone else except the two of you heard her.

“Depends on what you wanna bet on. But I’m willing to bet they’ll get together in the next maybe 4 months or so.” she smirked.

“3 months” Miwa piped up quietly.

“Maybe 2 months lol.” Mechamaru said.

“No. They might take… a few weeks. 3?” Todo said seriously.

Utahime cleared her throat out loud gathering all of your attention. “Last activity. Running laps. This track field is 400 meters long as you all know. Finish 1 lap. First without then with your cursed technique. Nishimiya and Tsuchimikado flying is permitted.”

You perked up at that and clapped your hands excitedly. Then stopped and thought about it remembering your father’s words:

“ ‘You don’t have to max out your abilities. We keep our clan’s abilities as much of a secret as possible to prevent any information leakage that may be used against us. Remember to use your technique wisely. You’re the strongest in our clan, sweetheart.’ You nodded, ‘Okay papa.’ ”

So God speed mode of a Mach 4 is out of the picture. Mach speed 3… maybe out. ‘No I can limit it to just under the speed of sound.’ you thought determinedly.

You zoned out the next hour until it was time to run with your cursed technique. “Are you okay? You look a bit pale.” Noritoshi put a hand on your back to support you.

You quickly shook your head “I’m fine, no worries.” He didn’t look like he believed you but let you go ahead.

“Tsuchimikado. It says here on your report that you can move at mach speeds.” Utahime spoke. FUCK. Oh well. You turned to her with the stiffest smile on your face as she realized you didn’t want the information disclosed.

You took your starting position, still determined to keep it under half the speed of sound. “Ready… go!” You whipped around the entire trackfield in just under 3 seconds.

“Tsuchimikado. 2.4 seconds.” You nodded and jogged back beside Miwa who gave you a high five. “That was sooo cool, you need to let me fly with you next time.” She excitedly said.

You laughed. “I’m not the best at holding people with me when I move at high speeds. But slow flying is fine.”

“Why don’t you go faster?” Todo asked. Everyone quieted down as you turned to him. “I have a feeling you've been limiting your output. You’ve obviously been holding back this entire time, are you not taking it seriously? We are here to challenge ourselves, there is no need to hold back.”

Your eye and finger twitched. “That’s not it.” This man was amazing at pushing your buttons. But you sighed as there was no reason to hide it anymore. “Utahime sensei can I-”

“Go ahead. When you’re ready.”

You took your starting position again. You could push Mach 5 if you wanted to, though just above Mach 1 should be enough.

But you can feel Todo just silently egging you on from the sidelines. And it honestly worked. “Start!”

There was a loud BANG! You were back in the starting line in less than a second. The only proof of your movement was the smoke and dust rising above the tracks.

“I am so sorry, but I didn’t catch that. I physically can’t. That was less than a second. Your speed please?” Utahime called out. “Mach 2.”

You stepped right up to Todo with a challenging glint. “Prepare yourself for later.” He just huffed out a proud smile, then you stood aside with Miwa and Noritoshi.

“Was that, just now a sonic boom?” asked Noritoshi. “No it was my ringtone.” you deadpanned. The others choked a laugh out at that.

He turned to you with a pout, but you just bumped his hip with yours and laughed “It’s called sarcasm Noritoshi senpai~” He quietly chuckled along, which he was surprised at how easy it was to do so whenever he was with you.

You all finished up. Momo was also pretty fast, going at 10 seconds around the track. Noritoshi senpai blew you out of the water to be honest. His record was 35 seconds on foot. How. That was over the world record for men’s running.

You noticed a red marking forming over his eye and remembered seeing it for a bit when it came to the strength measurement test earlier. He was just a bit behind you, Mechamaru and Todo in terms of power.

And Mechamaru and Todo were largely… disproportionate to him, being way bigger and bulkier. But he could somehow manage.

“Are any of you going to spar after this? If so I will be supervising.” Utahime sensei called.

“We will.” Todo senpai motioned between the two of you. Noritoshi surprisingly spoke up too, “I also wanna have a go against y/n if that’s fine with you.” He turned to you with a concerned look. You just smiled, “Of course it’s fine Noritoshi senpai!”

“Okay, try not to break anything, limit the damage here on campus please. I will be calling a close if it gets too bad.” Utahime warned.

“There's no need for that.” You smiled to yourself.

Author's Rambles: Mach Speed (AKA Supersonic speed) is described as a speed greater than the speed of sound. Mach X means that the speed is X times greater than the speed of sound. A Mach 5 would be categorised as Hypersonic speed^^. O/C uses her Psychokinesis to move her forward as fast as she can.

Blood Bound Chapter Masterlist

[forthehpfanboys]

Dance With Me

Pair: Draco Malfoy x Reader; he/him.

Summary: Draco really wishes he asked you to the Yule Ball. He wishes his father wasn't such a prude. He wishes you were on his arm, not Potters.

Warnings: Swears, like usual, small homophobia??

Notes: Requested! Bisexual! Harry is the only Harry in this blog. Also, Harry is supportive and I shamelessly put some Blaise/Ron in this but it’s like the smallest mention possible. Anyway, enjoy!

~DO NOT REPOST ANYWHERE~

-

Draco watched on with a glum expression and prayed to whatever wizard gods are up there that it wasn’t noticeable. He glanced down at his polished shoes before shifting weight across between his feet. He cleared his throat, and rolled his shoulders back, trying to shake off the jealousy he felt deep down. This was the very last place on the entire planet he wanted to be standing in. He did not want to have to stand here next to Pansy Parkinson, listening to her go on and on while his rival danced and laughed with his long term secret crush.

He really should’ve asked you. The thought kept spiraling in his head, causing him to white knuckle the glass in his hand. He really should’ve ignored his father and just asked you. His icy eyes watched Potter dunk you playfully- since when did that git learn to actually fucking dance? His eyebrows furrowed when he saw your laughing expression and Harry’s sly smirk into a similar grin. The blonde really wanted to gag at the sight.

“So then (L/n) tried to do this stupid spell and it only blew up in his face, literally. Stupid mudblood really shouldn’t have been excepted into this school.” Pansy went on, giggling at the story. “He really is pathetic, isn’t he, Draco?.. Draco?”

“Don’t call him that.” Draco grumbled. He wasn’t fond of his ‘date’ talking smack about the male he’d rather be spending time with. 

“Oh, please. Don’t tell me you actually think he’s got talent or like.. Potential.” She was giggling again and the sound was almost more annoying than watching the pair dance and laugh.

“I don’t- Just- Oh for fucks sake, go get a drink or something.” Draco rolled his eyes, fixing his suit collar. He didn’t even watch his date strut away in her dark green cocktail dress. Instead, he turned from the sight and slammed his glass down on the table behind him. He resisted his urge to run his fingers through his perfectly combed hair.

“It isn’t too late, ya know.”

Draco didn’t have to look to know it was Zabini. The blonde sat down in his chair before grumbling back a response.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Draco really just didn’t want to be here. Every time he closed his eyes he saw you, clad in a suit that he desperately wanted to tear off you, dancing with The-Chosen-One. Merlin, he felt his heart ache.

“Draco.” A hand came to rest against his shoulder. “We know you took Parkinson just because your dad is a little traditional.” 

“A little?” Draco couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “My father is far from only a little traditional, Zabini, we both know this.”

“While it’s true, I think you should talk to him. The dance doesn’t end for a good few hours, mate. I’m sure he’d be down for at least one dance with you.” A silence fell over the friends for a few seconds before the blonde spoke up again.

“You don’t hate me? For liking a muggle born?” Draco clarified with clearing his throat.

“Draco.. For a Slytherin who gets O’s on almost all his exams, you sure can be dull sometimes. I’m your friend, like I have room to judge you.” 

“Oh, right, Weasley-”

“Anyway, have fun whooing him. Invite me to the wedding.” 

Draco watched his friend retreat into the crowd, choosing to ignore the blush burning into his cheeks before turning his attention back to the pair dancing. He watched you shed the top coat of your suit, sliding it onto a chair and rolling up your sleeves. The heat must be getting to you.

Draco knocked back the rest of his drink. Merlin, it was hot in here, or maybe it was just you. The blonde subconsciously licked his lips as he watched you go back to the dance floor. He just when a drink slid across the table and Pansy sat down next to him, effectively blocking his view of you.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, sipping her own drink.

“Nothing.”

“Do you wanna dance, then?”

“Not particularly.” Draco didn’t bother hiding the venom from his words. He wanted you on his arm, you asking him to dance, not her. It was always you. You should be tired with how often you run through his head.

“Fine, I’m going to find Blaise.” the Slytherin female stood up, watching Draco’s face for hints of any emotion.

“He went off with his date, good luck.” He shrugged, simply turning back to his drink. With a groan, Pansy left once again, taking her drink with him. His blue eyes went back to you for the umpteenth time that night, desperation hidden behind the irises. 

The blonde could imagine the look on his father's face if he ever brought you around. He could practically hear the disapproval and the pure disgust in his voice, stating he no longer had a son when it shouldn’t matter.

His happiness should be what matters the most. He wasn’t happy with Pansy, he was happy with you. He didn’t want a pureblood witch ready to follow him like a lost puppy. He wanted the muggle-born wizard who was now slow dancing with Potter. His eyes followed Potter’s hands that seemed to be heading south far faster than they should be for a slow dance. That was what snapped the final straw. 

He set his glass down, adjusting his suit once more before making long strides over to you. Harry noticed him first, his face scrunching up in confusion, causing you to turn around and look at the blonde. The way you innocently titled your head should be considered a criminal offense.

“Malfoy.” Harry spoke up.

“Potter.” Draco spat out as his icy eyes trailed up and down his rival.

“(L/n)!” You shouted, throwing your hands in the air, trying to disperse the awkward tension. You knew Harry was holding back a giggle. “Are we good? Did I defuse the tension good enough?”

“Like a professional defusing a bomb!” Harry chuckled out, his hand going around your waist.

“Say, Potter.” Draco spoke up quickly, his eyes glued to the hand on your hip before moving swiftly to meet your eyes. “May I steal your dance partner?” Draco held his hand out to you, his other going behind his back as he bowed, like the gentlemen he was.

“If that’s what he wants.” Harry tried to hide his grin. He’d known how you felt about the blonde for a while so he was so down for this interaction to take place. After all, he only danced with you to get Draco’s attention. Once Zambini became a low key friend, he’s gotten to know the Silver Trio a lot better from a distance and about Draco’s little crush on you. The whole plan was just made Draco jealous; fair and simple.

“Hmm, I’m not sure.” You teased, biting your bottom lip as your eyes trailed along his monochromatic suit. He looked good. In fact, he looked down right sexy- Holy shit- He should wear white more often. 

“Dance with me, (Y/n). Wouldn’t want to ruin my reputation would you?” Draco smirked, clearly joking as he pushed his hand closer to you.

“Oh, so polite and totally not self centered!” You placed your hand in his, doing a pathetic curtsy in your dress pants. You tried to ignore the primal urge to just hold the man's hand, maybe gaze under some stars with him. “Mom always did say it would be rude to say no to anyone who wishes to dance.”

Draco smiled and whisked you away. He led you into a spin before pulling you back into his chest, quickly taking the lead like his mother taught him too. One hand was resting gently against your waist while the other gripped your hand. 

“So.. Um.. What’s up?” You asked as the two of you began to sway to the music. Your cheeks were starting to hurt from the grin.

“Not very good with small talk are you?” Draco snickered out. He hated to admit it, but he really should’ve fucking asked you to dance sooner. Your body fit perfectly against his and he couldn't stop staring at your sparkling eyes.

“Well, you are quite intimidating.” You giggled out when he spun you around again. You couldn’t stop the blush from spreading across your face when he pulled you against him, but his chest was pressed against your back.

“You don’t have to be scared of me, love. I don’t bite.” His sultry voice whispered right by your ear, causing you to shiver.

“I never said I was scared of you, Draco.” You craned your head to glance at him over your shoulder. I actually like to think you're not as tough or bad as you play out to be.” 

“Wha-” Draco blinked a few times before spinning you back around and tugging you roughly against him. “What do you know about me?” He couldn’t help how his grin morphed into a sneer or how his hands tightened their grip on your waist.

“Draco, come on. Everyone knows you got shit going on at home.” Your hands were running through his hair, ruining Pansy’s hard work, not that he cared. He loved feeling your hands run through his hair so much he didn’t notice himself sighing. “See? You’re just a misunderstood softy stuck between a rock and a hard place.” You giggled out. It was cut short when Draco was suddenly pushing you back, forcing you to walk backwards by the grip on your waist. He didn’t stop maneuvering you backwards until your back bumped into a wall, leaving you stuck between the male and a hard place. You stared into his icy eyes, your hands pressed against the wall to steady yourself.

“I’m not a softie. I’m not a teddy bear! I’m a bloody Malfoy! I make my own bloody choices and I do what I want!” Draco pressed his chest against yours as he spoke. It was clear he was trying to intimidate you. His mood shifted a bit when your arms moved to wrap themselves around his neck.

“So kiss me.”

“What?!” His eyes got wide, his pale cheeks tinted a soft pink. He opened his mouth to speak again, but you were already going.

“It isn’t exactly a secret you fancy me, Draco. You’ve been staring at me since the dance began.” You smiled at his shocked expression. “That and Blaise told me. So, if you truly do what you want, you’d kiss me and maybe take me back to your dorm room.”

Draco stood shocked, his inner battle event on his face. Go against his father, his own bloodline and everything he’s been taught just over some feelings? You were a mudblo- muggle born wizard for fucks sake. His parents, his father, would disown him for the wizard bit alone! 

But did his dad have to determine everything he did? Did he really have to follow this bullshit code that should’ve died ages ago? Did he really have to be a pawn in his father's stupidity? 

His eyes watched your tongue trail across your lips and he made his decision. Draco’s hands tightened their grip once again on your waist before he quite literally slammed his lips against yours. He pressed his body harder against yours, if it was possible when you kissed back and shuddered when your fingers threaded through his ruined hair.

You truly didn’t know how badly he wanted you. You didn’t know the inner turmoil the poor male had been fighting since the stupid ball was announced, but the kiss. The kiss helped Draco express his passion for you, his love. He would charge into battle for you, put up with Potter for you, hell, fight his father for you. He’d ignore the stares of shock from the crowd and the unamused expression of his forgotten date.

You got under his skin and stole his heart. You were worth more than the stars in the sky and he wouldn’t let anyone separate the two of you. That night, he made sure you knew how much you meant to him.

[mytearsrricochet]

ok so....inspired by the events that took place tonight (or were rather “exposed” tonight, if you will) I feel this is a good opportunity to share my own story about a similar situation. it’s been awhile since this happened and I don’t tell almost anyone about this. but I feel like talking through it step by step will help me cope. the realization about this thing happening was about 6 or so months ago I think....and I haven’t let myself think about it or really do anything with it because I've been terrified of confronting my feelings. I just wanted to put it behind me and forget about it, but we all know that’s not healthy.

so this doesn’t really relate to anything in this fandom, and it may seem too personal for me to post, but ya know whatever this is my blog and one means of posting about something that happened to me without judgment from people who already know me in the real world (besides just the internet). I'm putting it under a cut because I don’t want to bother people with this long ass story lol.

trigger warnings for abuse, self harm, suicide attempts, all that jazz

so when I was about 12 and a half or so, I embarrassingly took place in a thing that was popular back then (circa 2011/12) which was facebook roleplaying. basically what you did was create a new facebook account for a character you wanted to play, which could either be a character that was canonical or one you made up, but you were usually in a fandom. I roleplayed a character from the hunger games as I was very into the fandom at the time, but I was also very into glee then as well. that meant I was active in both fandoms equally, roleplaying with thg and glee people. it was a way to pass the time and I met a lot of cool people on there.

I became friends with a girl who was roleplaying a glee character very quickly. her real name was Emilee and I facetimed with her a lot and had her on my real facebook. she was really great and she was actually a few months younger than me. no qualms about her in this story. she role-play “dated” a male character from glee, Finn. the guy behind Finn was clearly foreign as he spoke English but pretty choppy. since I was friends with Emilee in real life (not just on facebook), I became friends with the Finn character too. the person behind the facebook account was named James. he was really nice and cool, and I didn’t really go further with him in our friendship in terms of social media. eventually though, Emilee deleted her role-play account very suddenly and blocked me on all social media. I had no idea why until Finn/James told me he would rather role-play date me. please keep in mind I was like 12/13 so this is more dramatic then than it is for me now at 19. I thought it was stupid for Emilee to ghost me like that as I liked finn/James as a friend, but Emilee was a really good friend to me and I was pissed that he would tell her that knowing it would jeopardize our friendship. again, 12 years old. this was a big deal back then.

I ended up getting over Emilee ghosting me pretty quickly, and after talking to finn/James (as my character, not about real-life issues, strictly still role-play) I decided sure why not. Emilee (her character was Rachel) was no longer around and I liked to role-play dating scenarios since I had never had a relationship in real life and I liked to act them out online.

my character (Madge) began dating James’s character Finn. they got engaged, married, whatever. by this point in the role-play timeline though, I had actually grown to know James more personally, and half our conversations were about our own lives. we became actual friends. he was really nice, and eventually, I formed a crush on him. I had never met him, facetimed, Skyped, or anything with him, I just really liked his personality. he was nice and funny and always cared about what I wanted to talk about. naturally I formed a desire to talk to him more, which I probably wrongly perceived as a crush. I just liked attention, and at that age, I was going through a hard time in my life with an abusive person that my father was dating, and I was honestly just trying to find comfort anywhere. James provided it for me.

I was getting bored with roleplaying and was getting anxiety about having a crush on someone I didnt know, so I confronted him about it. he told me he cared for me honestly, not just in the roleplaying world. that was about it at that point. I didnt know what that meant which caused more anxiety. eventually he told me he had a crush on me too, based off of the things we had talked about before, and he wanted to get to know me better. I had just celebrated my 13th birthday around this time. I vividly remember going to church with one of my friends and seeing a long paragraph he messaged me about himself. he was 17, his name was James Levine, and he was from France. I realized at that point I was too scared to tell him my age because it might scare him off, so I let him know I wasn't comfortable with sharing my age, but I shared a lot of other personal stuff like my name and whatever. he understood.

about 2 years goes by, and we are still talking and “dating”. the thing is, he has never shown me a picture of himself, we haven’t talked on the phone, we don’t FaceTime, nothing. I had requested it before, but he always blew me off. I had a really bad feeling in my stomach about it, and I think I always knew what was going on, but he was my outlet during a time where I had either bad friends or no friends, my dad was in and out of rehab, I was living with my emotionally abusive grandmother, and I had no one to rely on. I ignored what I knew in my heart because I just needed someone to talk to. it’s my biggest regret to this day.

anyway, when I was 15, I tell him how old I am. if you do the math, he is 19 by now. he’s kind of upset about the age difference, but he kind of forgets about it, I guess. nothing happened from it. I send him a selfie of me, and it’s the first time he’s ever seen me. the next morning, he sends me a selfie of him. he’s cute. we go about our lives.

he sent me recordings of songs he covered, and sometimes when I was really upset, I listened to them before I went to sleep because his voice soothed me. things seemed pretty normal, but I still had that gut feeling, and I ignored it.

one day I opened my laptop to reverse image search something for a friend, and something hit me...I could reverse image search the pictures he’d been sending me of himself. I started crying before I even clicked the search button because I knew what I was about to see. I was right. he used the picture of some 15 year old model from Portugal. before I even confronted him, I (somehow) sleuthed really well and found the model’s social media and sent him a message on all of it to let him know someone was using his pictures to catfish him. I'm not sure what he could've done about it, but I guess it gave me some satisfaction. he responded “ok”. 

finally I confronted James about it, and his first response was to tell me he wanted to delete his account and never speak to me again. he told me this was for my own good, since there was no way I could ever continue to love him after that. and for some reason...since I honestly had no one at the time...I told him to let me think bout it for a few days. I did, and I returned as if nothing happened. he still neglected to send me a picture after that, and I was pissed.

this was around the time of my first suicide attempt. with everything going on in my life, I couldn’t handle it. he was very scared, understandably, and I tried again a few weeks after the first. for this time, though, instead of being met with sympathy, he told me I was selfish and all i thought about was myself. 

around this time, he also started talking about how sick he was. I always knew he had a heart problem (he told me the specific name but I can’t remember now). he was afraid it was getting worse. whenever I had panic attacks, he would pretend his heart was acting up and leave.

now, I’ve been diagnosed with PTSD since around this time. I had started going to therapy after my second attempt, where I was diagnosed with a multitude of illnesses. one of them was PTSD and one of the triggers, though it has since been handled via therapy, was alcohol. he knew this, and one of the things he always told me was that he hated alcohol and could never drink it. this was good for my situation, as we did one day plan to meet up and get married (yeah, you don’t have to lecture me about that, I know, just keep reading). but one night, he got shitface drunk and told me all about how he had a huge crush on this girl that worked for his dad, and he really wanted to leave me because my depression and PTSD were too much for him, and he couldn’t handle me anymore. in fact, he kissed one of his best friends that night, a girl who he had been friends with for awhile and she always made me really jealous because he would talk about her so often. this sent me into a deep depression that literally took me forever to get out of. I was so hurt for many many reasons.

the next day, he asked me, as if it was no big deal, “so uh I know I told you about the girl Payton, can I leave now? I wanna go ask her out”

I just wanted to include that to note his lack of empathy. typing that made me mad all over, though it was FAR from the worst thing he did.

I didn’t talk to him for about a week, until he came back and said it was just a fascination with the girl and not a crush, and he really loved me. I foolishly said ok. 

one day, I was sitting on my computer, and out of nowhere, I got this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, as if I was going to vomit, and I spent 3 hours surfing youtube to see if the audio clips he sent me of song covers were even his. I have NO idea how I did it, but lo and behold, I found the channel of a guy with those song covers. I remember clicking on a video and hearing the first notes and vomiting all over my lap. I was so upset.

let’s just say I didn’t learn. I forgave him.

he finally sent me pictures of his face, and I was satisfied with that. he sent me voice recordings of him saying my name. I let everything else go, because he did what I asked him to do. still no Skype or phone call.

fast forward a bit, and when I was 17, our relationship was really waning. we wouldn’t talk to each other for days, and when we did, it was nothing of substance. on Black Friday, I went shopping with my friends, and I found the hair dye I'd been wanting to dye my hair for awhile, this metallic blue. I sent him a picture of the bottle and was clearly excited that I had found it. he sent back, “you’d look so ugly in that, I wouldn’t date you if you dyed your hair that color”

contrary to popular belief, I did not suck it up as I did all those years before. I said “ok, guess you don’t have a girlfriend anymore”. that night I went home and dyed my hair an electric blue, and that was a mistake as I didn’t mix the color correctly, but damn if I may say I felt really confident with that bright blue hair after that.

we talked a little bit after that, and he backtracked and said he liked the blue in order to get me back. the night before our 4th anniversary, he broke up with me. and I said “ok. I'm done”. I blocked him on facebook and went on my damn merry way. I was pissed because I never found out what I wanted to know, about who he really was, but I was so done with the years of emotional abuse and neglect from him, all the lies and the insults and the long nights with no sleep and missing school because he would ask me to so he could still talk to me. what a wanker. however, right before I left the account, he told me he thought he might have cancer. I said ok cool and continued on.

fast forward a year, I reactivate the account because I am bored and I wonder if he still has the account. he does. I send a message “hi”. this turns into a few days of talking. I was in college at this point, definitely healed from the wounds he created, though I'm still very insecure about the things he pointed out. finally, I asked him, “can I know the truth?” it took him an hour to reply, and he said “tomorrow. I will tell you everything”

now, that weekend, my roommate’s friend was in town, and I wasn’t sure how that was going to be handled as she was staying in our dorm and I knew if what he would tell me was bad, I'd probably not leave my bed for days.

the day comes, and the first thing he does Is send a voice recording.

typing this part out still hurts, as I never let myself cope with what he told me. the rest of the story is old news and something I honestly don’t care about anymore, but this part just happened 6-7 months ago, and I still can hardly breathe when I think about it.

James was actually...Daniela. she was a 20 year old girl from Mexico who liked to role-play on Facebook as men. she never told anyone about it, and for some reason, instead of just telling me the truth when we decided to talk outside of our role-play characters, she lied to me. she made up WILDLY elaborate stories. I knew I couldn’t trust this person the whole time I was “dating” them, but this was another level. if you’re doing the math correctly, she also lied about her age by a few years, and our age difference was one of the many things that gave me anxiety throughout our “relationship”. 

I literally didn’t get out of bed for 11 hours. my roommate didn’t know what to do with her friend, but eventually I got up. I ended up with my fourth suicide attempt (the third was not mentioned in this story as it was not relevant to Finn/James/Dani). she Brought up the fact that she had told me (as James) that she thought she had cancer and it was very true. she still thought she did.

the next day, she acted as if everything was back to normal. as in, when we were dating. calling me baby, saying I love you. I was so pissed. but for some reason, she sweet-talked me into feeling like this was normal, and for a few days, I even went along with it. until one day, I snapped, and blocked her on everything (at this point I had gotten her snapchat too). I wanted nothing to do with her.

I unblocked her on facebook a day later for some reason, and she sent me 40 messages about how I betrayed her. my last message was “fuck off. I hope you die”.

brutal, but that was the last correspondence I have with her. and I fucking mean it. I hope nothing bad bad things happen to her. I'm still heartbroken over it, though not surprised. 

catfishing is very real, and while I knew what was happening th whole time, that doesn’t mean what happened was ok. I'm WAY better now, but the experience left me with trust issues, severe insecurities, a fear of talking about my mental illnesses because I assume I'll be judged, and a fear of getting close to people.

so yeah. there’s that. sorry about posting, but honestly, this was so therapeutic.

[hikariobsessions]

I think I kind of agree with you, I'm not too fond of the sassy mc in ikesen, but she'll grow on me eventually maybe. It kind of makes me sad that people think reserved or shy characters can't be written well or be strong without being sassy/rude or without being annoying. I always see them being written as if being shy/pure is their only trait. I've met shy people in real life who are very enjoyable to be around once they open up to someone. (You don't need to reply to this by the way)

I can’t say how much this kind of ask/discussion is making me smile right now. Thank you for this (*^^*) – if you want, you can dm me and we can discuss this in a little bit more detail~ More opinions from me under the cut – but you don’t need to read it if this topic is already driving you insane (as it is me) because of how it blew up into this odd, unpleasant thing that really didn’t need to be. But I suppose, it’s Tumblr nonetheless… 

Don’t let one opinion stop you from enjoying the stuff you really admire. THIS OPINION IS JUST ME. Ignore or barrel through the commentaries, that’s up to you.

But it’s there as food for thought. For myself, and just as an answer to this asker who has been the only person so far that has responded to my call for civility when it comes to these rants. 

Again, thank you so, so much (*^^*)

[RANT] Just another one to get stuff off my chest ^^;; We all know how this goes right?

I can understand why people like the ENG MC. And here’s the thing, they’re not WRONG to like her for whatever reason they have. It’s FINE.

I’m just running my mouth with my own opinions because first of all this is my blog - LET’S JUST GET THAT OUT OF THE WAY IN CASE NO ONE HAS NOTICED. 

But also, just as someone in the minority of these opinions, I take it upon myself to try and elaborate on my own point of view because I feel like I owe it to the people who like/maybe even love this particular character, to not just give them hate and criticism, but rather a valid argument for my own views.

But so far no one has given me any fair observations/criticisms of the writing that points me in a different way of looking at and appreciating the writing in the IkeSen ENG App for what it is, flaws and all. People are just going “it’s good writing/dialogue” and I’m just like…why do you think that way? PLEASE ELABORATE. 

I am literally someone who wants my opinions challenged because I don’t want to hate on this game. Far from it. Why would anyone want to download something just to do that?

Furthermore, I don’t tag the company’s social media in my rants in particular because they are just that – RANTS. I call the localization team out on several things, definitely, but whether they change their writing is up to them.

Ever since I entered this fandom, I already knew I was in the minority when it came to opinions of the MC, just by looking through Tumblr for IkeSen content. 

But honestly, I want a more substantial reason as to why people think the writing is good apart from the fact that the MC is different (sassy, witty etc.) from other examples of MCs in otome. 

Because as you said, hun, there are other people out there who can be really shy and reserved but have their own strengths as a person/character. And they can also be rude and judgmental at their worst. This is just human. 

And you’re right, it’s a shame that they are sometimes only “written as if being shy/pure is their only trait” – that in itself is BAD WRITING.

The only bad female character, if you ask me (and you did), is one who’s flat. One who isn’t realistic. One who has no agency of her own, who only exists to define other characters (usually men).

Here’s the thing about being a damsel in distress…it’s only bad if that’s all she is. If the character’s defining characteristic is being a damsel in distress, that’s bad. - Mad Lori

I can’t stop quoting Mad Lori enough about this :’)I don’t need to tell anyone that this goes for “sassiness” as well right?? So how about this? About “progression” in the sense that women don’t have to be “strong” in order to be good, well-written characters. And they don’t have to possess a specific trait, such as ‘sassy’ just to be said - “strong” character. That they find their own strength by choosing to love, overcoming their own flaws but more importantly being someone with their own agency to achieve self-determination in the world that they’re in – but also remain down-to-earth, shy, outspoken or otherwise. 

This was never taken from the Japanese MC as a character in the JP App. This is why I remain so confused as to why the English team decided to change her.PORTRAY CHARACTERS AS HUMAN. Not as this thing trying for a convoluted cultural ideal which has its own flaws. 

This is coming from someone, who in turn watches stuff like Orange is the New Black (just watch a trailer for it (if you haven’t heard of this show) and maybe you can get why I’m referring to it). 

It’s a show which has an amazing amount of diversity in terms of its portrayal of women. But what’s good about it, is that those portrayals aren’t so much black or white, shy or sassy, strong or weak – they all have their strengths and weaknesses that make them complex and are motivated by their individual character traits and flaws as well as possessing their own agency.

In any case, the only reason, or at least the MAJOR reason I was completely turned off by the ENG MC is that in the writing, they try SOOO hard to make a point that this particular MC is different from the rest. That she is witty. That she is sassy. Oh, and look just how “strong” she is, by thinking up all these snarky comments/comebacks against the guys, even when they’re not being dickheads!! 

To me, that’s the only reason they decided to change her from the original Japanese MC (correct me if I’m wrong, PLEASE) – shoving these sentiments of “a strong woman” into this particular character just to……..what? Reach a “diverse” audience?? How diverse are we talking about exactly? 

If you can’t even look at a type of character that is shy, insecure and reserved as part of that diversity – and admiring how she becomes an exception to her own trope – you’re just kidding yourself.  And this change isn’t even the core of my problem with the writing.

Look I get that people can be frustrated because of the lack of representation of different kinds of MC and that’s a fair frustration to have. But let’s not back ourselves into a corner of thinking that women need to be portrayed as this one thing in order to be “well-written”:

Sherlock Holmes gets to be brilliant, solitary, abrasive, Bohemian, whimsical, brave, sad, manipulative, neurotic, vain, untidy, fastidious, artistic, courteous, rude, a polymath genius. Female characters get to be Strong. -Sophia McDougall, Quote take from here.

To me, this entire push to have this “sassy” MC in the ENG App is the writer or perhaps the business, literally shoving their own rant/agenda onto my face (or rather their “market research” let’s say). 

Having that happen to you as an audience/reader is seriously disengaging from the story. What I’ve seen them do, is blatantly spoon-feed information about the traits of the characters and tell audiences what to think or feel about them, instead of letting readers figure these out for themselves. 

They are literally “talking” to the reader, and that severely takes me out of the world of the story. For example, they use thought-bubbles of the MC to monologue about (Oh, how I used to be such an independent woman, but now I’m in the Sengoku…) — From my perspective, THAT IS SERIOUSLY BAD WRITING. And hence, why I think she’s not a well-written character. Not because of how they changed her to be outspoken and/or sassy, but rather their execution of conveying that in the stories.

“Show, don’t tell” anyone?? Nothing bad about applying a common writing technique preached by almost every writing mentor out there.

The thing is audiences aren’t stupid, but more often than not - when they're paying attention - they know when they’re being called “stupid”.

I have nothing against the localization team trying to change this particular MC into having a ‘sassy’ personality. My problem is that they don’t write it well. 

There’s nothing substantial added to the story by changing the MC that actually makes the development of their relationship (MC and any Warlord) stronger from the stories in the JP App. It’s possible to have done it but unfortunately no, not in this version. If anything the ‘decorative’ nature of what the English team has done with the character to “reach” audiences just made the MC unbearably annoying (to me).

But, equally bad is that everything that they’re doing, which shouldn’t be evident while reading the stories, is showing:

i.e. aiming for a goal of wanting the MC to be different, and using her thought-bubbles to deliver expository commentaries; instead of letting her stand on her own two feet as a character through her actions. 

 –  they should at least BE SUBTLE about it and make sure that they have that self-awareness as to why they’re doing it. And not just because you want to gain popularity amongst audiences who are sick of a trope. This is what I mean when I say I don’t like different for the sake of being different. It’s just sensationalist, immature and completely distracting from the actual story and relationships we’re supposed to be admiring. To quote the great screenwriting guru, Robert McKee:

Just as children break things for fun or throw tantrums to force attention on themselves, too many filmmakers [in this case writers too] use infantile gimmicks on screen to shout, “Look what I can do!” A mature artist never calls attention to himself, and a wise artist never does anything merely because it breaks convention. - Robert McKee

But, hey, like with anything else — this is just me, with my blog, voicing my opinion~ If you’ve read this, again:

Thank you so much for putting up with these rants ^^

Peace out guys, and stay kind ^_^ - Hikari

[therapybg]

Domain Authority - the Devil's Rubrik

I was at work today when this topic came up. A conversational issue among nerds; "What is"Google search "Domain Authority"?

In the world of search engine rankings, this is a "real thing." Let me explain... When a potential customer searches for "Carista App," he or she will usually introduce a qualifier. This qualifier is called a long chain keyword or a string of search terms. What Google Search (and lesser entities do) is qualify the value of the response in terms of "domain authority." So what is this thing? It is a weighting factor in favor of more trafficked sites. I've lost half my audience by this point, but we are going to soldier on anyway. Me Let's say I search for "Carista App Reviews." I want to know just how people regard this product...

This is my result on page 1 of Google (different localities will get different rankings). Notice the relative strength that Google gives to larger platforms. It's own properties get 20% of the action. Then authoritative bloggers in the space. Take a quick look at the entry at number 4. A key-worded response, written by me, to address the customers question written as a Medium blog post. Who actually reads Medium? Who reads it in a sequential manner. Normally you dip in and out of stories and rarely follow the thread or sequence. OK, maybe You do. I certainly don't. Medium, for better or worse, has "domain authority." Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn't {the last valiant reader}...I "own" 7 of the top ten rankings. This matters, because the customer is looking for an independent voice. What he/she gets is the result that I want.  Think about that in the perspective of companies that have "real" money to determine what you see. "Confirmation bias is not an occasional bug in our human operating system, it is the operating system. Scott Adams (Dilbert) - "Win Bigly" Remember a few weeks ago how the internet disappeared Alex Jones (Relax, I'm not going to get political, my last reader can stand at ease), well this is something similar. I can direct the reader's attention to my posts simply by knowing that Medium has a value to the search algorithm that supersedes its real value to the reader. Real world domain authority. The platform has the value, then the keywords. It's not what you write, but where it's written. OK, time to slow things down. Medium allows me to rank higher because it has more weight (traffic). A blog on Medium would probably rank higher even if I had a (side by side) very readable and solid wordpress blog, that would offer far more "real value" to a customer. A value that the algorithm would (rightly) view as "tainted," because of it's direct links to the company. This game is played in the shadows.How to play the search game? Actually BeBee plays it very well ...which is a pity because the management cadre are "not quite there yet." The value of BeBee is that it has many links to a post or article from all over the globe. There are many internal engagements with a post. As a result the writer of the piece gains valuable SEO points. Both the writer and the post profits.  Multiply those over multiple posts, JM, Randall, Ali Anani, Gert, Phil or Liesbeth (Google them if you don't know who they are) and you get some serious search cred . Combine them together, you "network" the effect (a rudimentary form of grassroots democracy). Linkedin and Facebook pull a similar {but different} trick. That's why they matter in the online space. Linkedin targets your work connections, extending a data matrix around your past, present and future employment. Facebook, your personal network. So, some middle ranked social networking site can mix it with the big boys? Yes, but they can be out-muscled. Before they blew it on hot chips at the Casino, the boys were doing well. They could have cashed out as Billionaires on the backs of some pretty diligent bloggers, before hitting that pivot to the Spanish market. Let me finish on this one, because your patience is wasting. Before linkedin killed the publisher feature it had a similar ability to BeBee. You publish. People liked it, you got an increased rank in search. Simple. So why kill it? Domain authority still exists, now the algorithm kills your reach. What is the difference? The difference is that Linkedin wants your profile data (not your "writing prowess"), that is the marketable product. Could they have both? Yes. So why kill Publisher and Groups {They're effectively the same thing}...? Ah, now we reach the red bill/ blue pill question Grasshopper. Choose one and simultaneously ask yourself why Fascism killed 6 million Jews (cheap and willing workers after all). Grasshoppa? You gone? REF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schindler%27s_List Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter - Scott Adams (2017) TECH REF: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-algorithm-loopholes/278093/ Read the full article

[shannrussell-blog1]

There are a lot of people travelling around Australia right now. There’s also a lot of people who’ve done the big lap at one time or another, so getting information about amazing places to visit and stay at is now easier than ever. If you asked a handful of people who’ve been around Australia where their favourite spots were, I guarantee you the word Karijini will come up at least a couple of times.

Often referred to as Australia’s best national park, Karijini is a unique, picturesque and brilliant place to spend a few days exploring. If you have a sense of adventure and an appreciation for some of Mother Nature’s best, you’ll love Karijini.

Karijini is known for having some of the most beautiful gorges in Australia. 

Where is Karijini?

You’ll find Karijini National Park in Western Australia, about 200km northwest of Newman, and 1400km northeast of Perth. It’s 100km from Tom Price, and about 340km from the coast, directly south of Port Hedland.

How do you get there?

Karijini is accessed by vehicle, driving in from one of the locations mentioned above. The park itself is 6300 square kilometres and is connected via a series of gravel roads.

This park has so many beautiful sights to see. 

Do you need a 4WD?

The road condition varies a lot at Karijini and can become quite corrugated in peak season when the grader hasn’t been through recently. That said, you will easily get a 2WD vehicle into the park and around the place. There are no water crossings to be aware of and only a few sections of road where you need to slow down to a crawl. Mind the signs, pay attention to the changing road and you’ll be right.

That said, a 4WD will handle the roads much easier and more comfortably, but you will get a 2WD vehicle around. Take it slowly, adjust your tyre pressures accordingly and enjoy the amazing scenery.

The roads that take you to the park are usually in pretty good condition. 

When’s the best time to visit?

You can visit Karijini almost year round, except when there are fires and after very heavy rainfall. This is because the water levels can rise up to 15 metres in the gorges extremely quickly.

However, the best time to visit, and most popular, is the same as the dry season further north – in between May and September. The later you go, the warmer the weather and the less water around the place.

Be aware that this is also the most popular time to visit, and unless you are getting up extremely early, you’ll likely be sharing walks and swims with other people. That said, the park is easily big enough to share with others.

May to September is the best time of the year to visit Karijini. 

What’s the attraction?

Karijini is full of amazing gorges, creeks and stunning wildlife. You can swim everywhere, and explore the huge area – admiring and marvelling at the incredible location. Like the rest of the Pilbara, Karijini is home to the rough and rugged red rocks that come in so many shapes and varieties that it’s almost mind-boggling.

Couple it to some of the best places to swim in Australia, incredible hikes, stunning views and lots of adventure and you have a super popular place.

The red rock formations of Karijini are what make it such a uniquely incredible place. 

Getting around the National Park

There are a number of gravel roads that take you out to each gorge, and the best thing to do upon arrival, aside from setting up camp, is to head to the visitor’s centre. They will give you a fantastic map and a good idea of what you can and can’t do.

It’s quite literally just a case of picking where you want to go and driving out there. Be aware that it does take a fair bit of time to get from one side of the park to the other. So, if you are staying in the one place, plan your days accordingly.

You can even plan to go abseiling in the park. 

How long do you need?

I wouldn’t stay at Karijini for less than 3 days. There are a lot of amazing gorges to see and you can only see them so fast. We found two gorges a day was about the maximum you’d want to do, without feeling completely exhausted afterwards.

That said, depending on how fit you are, whether you have kids to worry about and what you want to see, you may be able to check a few amazing gorges out in 2 or 3 days, and head on.

You’ll need at least a couple of days to properly experience Karijini. 

Are there any crocodiles?

Being so far inland, and far enough south, you won’t see a single crocodile at Karijini. No fresh water ones, and most importantly, no saltwater crocs. The only risk of swimming here is the temperature of some of the water.

Circular pool for example only sees the sun for a few hours per year and is probably the coldest place I’ve ever swum. I think I just about walked on water there, but it was a lot of fun.

The incredible pools and bodies of water in the park do not have any crocodiles. 

Get up early

If there’s one piece of advice that will make or break your visit to Karijini, it’s to get out of bed early. I promise you’ll have a substantially better visit there than staying snuggled in your bed well after the sun has risen.

Getting up early does two things – you beat the crowds, which makes enjoying the gorges at least 3 times better, but more importantly, you beat the heat. There were a few times where we walked back from a gorge in the middle of the day, and even after a nice swim, that it didn’t take long before we starting feeling pretty average.

The temperatures get very warm, and hiking in that sort of temperature unless you are in the shade (thankfully a lot of gorges are!) isn’t a whole lot of fun.

All of the walking trails are classed and signed. 

How’s the hiking difficulty?

One of the great things about Karijini is that all of the walks are graded in difficulty. You can pick walks that are easy, if that is all you are up to, or you can be more adventurous.

The grades run from 2 – 5 and are well described in terms of what level of fitness and adventure level you need. Interestingly, we found the walks to be quite tame compared to what they were graded as, and some of those in our group were not overly fit!

The trails are well marked, with plastic dots stuck to the rocks as you walk. They also have ladders and stairs in places where they are really needed, and from there you just need a sense of adventure.

Some of the trails will require you to get wet, at least up to your hip in some cases. The water is cold, you’ll want shoes that you can take off or get wet (like the aqua boots) and to scramble over rocks from time to time. We just took our shoes off and tied them to our backpacks, but it isn’t the most comfortable feeling walking on rocks without any shoes. So, do what you feel is best.

Make sure you put plenty of sunscreen on, wear a decent hat and take plenty of water with you.

Scrambling on one of the walks in the park.

Do I need to be young and fit?

No, not really. I was very pleased to see a number of elderly people doing some of the walks. The smaller trails with a lower grade (like to Fern Pool) are not difficult and are well and truly worth a look.

Even younger children, once you can trust them to stay on the path will do most of the walks with ease, and have an amazing time whilst doing so.

The spider walk involves a slightly higher fitness level. 

What temperatures can I expect?

In between May and September, the daily average is not normally above 33 degrees. At night time it will drop to anywhere between 10 to 15 degrees.

The Eco retreat is one of the accommodation options in the park. 

Where can I stay?

If you want to stay in the National Park, you have two choices. There’s the Dales Campground, which is run by the department of parks and wildlife and cannot be pre-booked. Or, there’s the eco-retreat at the other end of the park. These are permanent tents that are set up and have a bit of added luxury. You can also camp at the Eco Retreat if you prefer.

Dales Campground has an overflow area, but it does get busy. The sites are gravel, easily accessible and van friendly. There are lots of toilets around the place, but no showers. If you want to have a shower, head to the visitor’s centre and just next door is a range of bathroom facilities.

Dales Campground is the other choice in the park. 

What’s the best place in Karijini?

You’ll get different opinions here. There’s something about Fern Pool which I well and truly fell in love with (and visited it on several occasions due to the short walk), and the spider walk is a lot of fun too. No matter what gorge you visit, you’ll get an overwhelming sense of beauty. It really is an incredible place.

My favourite place to visit was Fern Pool. 

Where’s the nearest fuel?

Fuel can be purchased from Newman or Tom Price. Both sell diesel and unleaded.

Other nearby attractions

If you are keen on exploring other places, Millstream National Park is also beautiful. Newman has some incredible water holes and camping spots. Karratha and Cleaverville are unreal and the asbestos-contaminated former mining town of Wittenoom, which is an interesting (though dangerous) place to explore.

If you haven’t been to Karijini, put it on the bucket list. It really is one of the best places you’ll ever visit in Australia. See you out there!

  Have you explored anywhere else in this region that blew you away?

The post Is Karijini Australia’s Best National Park? appeared first on Snowys Blog.

[buttercup-blue]

Vegas

I’m sure no one gives a fuck about this long ass post, but this blog is more my diary than anything else and a lot always happens on travel weekends.

I just got back from Vegas. Thank god I had a direct flight on the way back. This weekend was incredible, Travel Daddy and I always have the best time together.

I asked for a late dinner the night I got in so I could have some time to freshen up. When I got there, he had a bottle of wine waiting for me. We sat outside on the balcony with me on his lap (our room overlooked the Bellagio fountains) sipping on wine and catching up. When I got there I had no makeup on wearing denim cutoffs and a Brandy Melville long sleeve thermal so I wanted to put some effort in to getting ready for dinner. I showered, rubbed myself down in lotion and did a full beauty routine.

We went to a very intimate Mediterranean restaurant the first night. We have a tradition when we go out to eat where we each have a glass of champagne first and then split a bottle of red wine. I was already about 5-6 glasses of wine deep (counting the ones we had at the hotel) by the time our appetizers came 😂 I love that he can keep up with me and lets loose as much as I do. But just to clarify, I have an extremely high alcohol tolerance (the only good thing having an alcoholic dad gave me). I’ve never gotten sick from drinking with him, I don’t suffer from hangovers. I’m a happy drunk and know how to conduct myself. I also trust him completely so I’m comfortable with heavy drinking around him because I know nothing bad will happen. I usually drink in moderation, but I also believe there’s need for celebration from time to time.

We went to a cocktail lounge after. It was sugar baby hunting grounds and gave us a good laugh. Literally every girl was with an old guy. I complimented the girl sitting on the couch next to me on her shoes because we both were in the same boat. Of course they were Jimmy Choo.

Then we went to my favorite bar and had a couple more glasses of champagne. All of the sudden I hit a wall and was exhausted. It was only 2, but I flew in from the east coast so it was much later. When we finally got to the room, I was useless. We pretty much always have sex at the end of the night but I was out like a light.

I woke up super early the next day and made it up to him. Our sex is amazing and we like to try new things/toys. He REALLY loves when I get off though, so he’s extraordinarily attentive.

We had a cabana rented for the day. We went to the pool relatively early and settled in. There is a $400 minimum for the cabana so between him and I, we had a lot of work to do. We ordered breakfast, coffee and mimosas. We have another mimosa. I get a Red Bull slushie, a drink in a coconut, a house sangria that is champagne based and then switched to glasses of Vueve. We lounge around in the sun talking and it’s a lovely lazy day. We ordered lunch, which was basically half the menu to try. I was mid conversation with him and realized he fell asleep on me. I walked over to the daybed he was in and danced around it and he was definitely out cold. I figured I’d go on a walk around the pool because the views are incredible (it’s a rooftop pool). I ended up in the hot tub and was on my phone editing pictures.

A sexy guy my age on the other side of the hot tub called out to me and said his friends thought my bathing suit was too much to handle. I laughed and told them it’s conservative in my standards. He waded over and started chatting with me. We are both in similar fields (which is very uncommon for me to meet someone who does what I do) and we have an absolutely amazing conversation. Travel Daddy texted me and said the food came, about 15 minutes later I finally ended the conversation. He asked for my number and I said I would just see him around.

When I got back to the cabana, TD asked me if any guys hit on me while he was out jokingly. I think he’s prideful of the fact that I get unsolicited attention from the opposite sex. I told him about the conversation I had. He asked me if the guy was cute, which I said yeah. He asked me his age, which is around mine. And then asked me why I didn’t get his number 😂 I love that he doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body. He just wants to see me happy.

So after another 5 glasses of champagne, I’m ready to call it an afternoon. We brought a bottle of champagne back to the room. I pour two flutes and start running a bath. By the time I get out, I walked into the living room to see what he was up to and he was passed out on the couch. So I showered, washed my hair, put on moisturizers etc and got real clean and comfy. He woke up right when I got into bed and was going to take a nap. He said he’d take a shower while I rested and said he’d wake me up in 45 minutes.

He woke me up an hour before our dinner reservation. I wanted to play before we went out so I was confused why he let me sleep an hour and a half. He said I looked so peaceful sleeping and wanted to let me rest. We snuggled for a bit, then I started getting ready for dinner.

I brought a Herve Leger style dress with me. I never wear dresses like that anymore, but I figured it could be an option, especially in Vegas. He asked if I could beat my outfit last night in terms of sex appeal. So I figured that was the green light to ditch the more conservative option and go with the bandage. I wriggled it on and zipped it up. He was floored and kept grabbing on me, I loved it.

We went to a supper club for dinner. I’m a foodie and like trying new things. It was small plates so he had me pick 4 and he picked 4. We both got manhattans after our initial glass of champagne. The food was unreal, the music was so fun. The ambience was amazing, per usual it was a wonderful dinner (that’s what we do best.)

He got front row tickets for a Cirque Du Soleil show and we cabbed to the hotel it was at after our lengthy dinner. We grabbed two cocktails on our way in and made it to our seats in perfect time. I’ve seen Cirque Du Soleil shows before, but not this one. It has such a happy story line. I’m pretty sure I was smiling like an idiot for the full 90 minutes, I was so joyful.

After sitting in the dark for so long though, I was getting sleepy. I asked if we could go to the Venetian to get a drink because the ceiling always makes me feel more awake (the ceiling is painted to look like a cloudy day and is bright in there).

We both have a glass of wine and are super deep in conversation. It’s getting late though, and he was ready to head back. When we got to our hotel, I asked if he wanted to have one more glass of champagne at my favorite bar. He declined which is abnormal, but I didn’t mind. He said I could go out dancing if I wanted to, but he needed to call it a night. Obviously I went back with him and was ready to have sex. But this time he was too tired and fell asleep immediately 😂

So you bet your ass the next morning I climbed on top of him first thing to show how much I appreciated him setting this weekend up for me. We had AMAZING sex, then he needed to leave for the airport early. I walked him down, kissed him goodbye and got myself breakfast. He was very clearly satisfied by the weekend, which was a relief because I felt like it was one sided in my favor this time.

I didn’t fly out until late in the day, so I packed up and checked my bag at the concierge. I went and picked up some new makeup from Chanel and poked around Louis Vuitton. I had a massage appointment in the early afternoon for 80 minutes. He left his account open so I could charge it to the room. I had an incredible massage and sat in the aromatherapy steam room for a while. About an hour before I needed to leave for the airport I showered, blew my hair dry, moisturized but went bare faced for the rest of the day. If you can’t already tell, I’m a bit of a freak when it comes to being clean, I really like self care.

On the way out, I realized they had a whole section of Alo gear. I started browsing around and found an outfit I LOVED. I asked the girls at the spa reception if I could charge it to the room and they said absolutely. I didn’t ask TD if it was okay, but I got leggings, a bra top and wrap top. I’m hoping it just comes through as a charge from the spa because he knows I was there… but I also spent ~$500 on the afternoon so hopefully I’m not in the doghouse 😂

I left Vegas feeling happy, well fed and totally refreshed. I walked through the airport with my shoulders back more than usual and my head nice and high. Sometimes I let daily things get the best of me and get super stressed out. This was the rerouting I really needed.

Out of all of this what I’d like to share with other SBs is that experiences have value to them. He doesn’t give me a lot of cash. He would if he could, but I understand why he can’t. However, I genuinely love spending time with him. This is our fourth trip together and they’re always a blast. We stay at the most beautiful places, go to the most amazing restaurants, enjoy incredible cocktails and I don’t have to worry about a single thing the whole time. As much as I’m a partner to him, he’s protective of me and wants to make sure I’m comfortable, safe and doing things that interest me. I would never be able to experience some of the most amazing memories in my life if it wasn’t for him.

So as much as being a SB is about the hustle, I would choose him over a douchebag SD I don’t actually like that much giving me $5k for a weekend of my time.

[jae-bummer]

My Idol: Part Nineteen

My Idol From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My Idol is a South Korean competitive reality dating game show. It currently airs on Wednesday nights on Jae-bummer’s blog. First broadcast in 2016, the show offers the opportunity for a lucky fan to go on seven blind dates with seven idols. The idol plans the date with the show throwing in specific missions to complete during the day. At the end of the initial dates, the show opens up an audience vote to decide what three idols will move on to the second date.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20  - Part 21 - Part 22

The lights were too bright and the music too loud. You had become just one of the many bodies lost in the sea of people crowding the studio stage. Your lips had just separated from Taehyung’s as you dawdled idly across the floor, floating from face to face. You felt the strong hands of Jaebum find your forearm as he grazed his nails against your soft flesh. He smiled mischievously at you and gave a short wink before disappearing into the crowd. You furrowed your brows, standing on your tiptoes to follow where he had went, but your eyes had lost him. You tilted your head in confusion, spinning around to return to Taehyung again, but Jay had taken the place where Tae had once stood. You couldn’t decipher any words flooding from his mouth, but you were never much good at reading lips. As you moved closer, the bumping beat over the speakers silenced any words he was attempting to speak. You reached out, touching his shoulder lightly with only your fingertips. Just as your hands hit the woven fabric of his sweater, he stepped back, seeming to vanish into the dozens of strangers surrounding you.

At this point you were frustrated, tears beginning to form gently on your lash line. The second voting session had happened all too soon, and why had so many audience members been allowed onto the stage? You struggled through shoulders and elbows, noticing the familiar grin of Jooheon a few feet away. Step after step, you felt more and more as if you were walking through thick mud. You opened your mouth to yell out to him, but it seemed as if you couldn’t produce any sound. You put more effort into your steps, stomping forward and pushing strangers out of your way. Just as you had almost reached Jooheon, a firm hand gripped your shoulder and spun you around. 

You stood nose to nose with Seunghyun, the whites of his eyes red and angry. He inhaled shakily on a cigarette and blew the smoke directly into your face. You choked, gripping at your throat as you coughed. You soon doubled over, a mix of pain and fear flooding your system. 

“Yah! Y/N!” a familiar voice called, snapping you to attention. 

You flew forward, nearly colliding your skull with Jaebum’s as you cracked your eyes open. It had all been a nightmare. Your heart beat attempted to slow as you searched Jaebum’s concerned face, his hands still placed on your shoulders. 

“JB?” you whispered, looking around your apartment. You were a bit dazed as you eased yourself up from the couch, allowing your legs to dangle over the edge. You pulled your fingers through your tangled hair and shivered, eventually letting your face fall into your hands as you attempted to get a grasp of your surroundings. You must have dozed off while waiting for him to come to your apartment. “How did you get in?”

“You should really lock your doors,” JB sighed, shaking his head. A small smirk found the corner of his lips as he gave you a side eye. “I think I’m the least of your worries.” 

“Aish,” you groaned. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“Crime never sleeps,” Jaebum chuckled, patting your knee. “Now...is he here?”

As JB spoke the words, you couldn’t help but allow the disheveled image of Top to flood your mind’s eye. “Who?”

“Bingu!” JB nodded a bit more enthusiastically. 

“Oh, Bingu,” you whispered, looking past JB to Sweaty and Armpit who were busying themselves in your kitchen. 

As if summoned by the mere use of his name, your overweight cat turned the corner and clumsily toddled into the living room. Bingu wasn’t the most handsome cat, but he was yours. His head was too large for his body and his tail was too long. His tongue was constantly dangling from his mouth and he didn’t quite understand the idea behind a proper “meow.” He was a small and strange fellow, but a welcomed comfort in your small and strange life. He matched well, especially these days.

Just as you were about to begin to explain Bingu’s shortcomings to your date, JB took in a deep breath, allowing the air to hiss through his teeth. He immediately melted, sliding from the couch and directly onto the floor. His arms were outstretched as Bingu approached, completely focused on making his way to the man who was dissolving into your carpet. 

“Hello handsome,” JB cooed, taking Bingu into his arms as soon as the tips of his fingers had grazed his fur. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”

“Can I go on the record and say, I feel as if this show was a facade for you to meet cats,” you grumbled, a bit pouty at the scene before you. 

“I’m sorry, what?” he whispered, plopping onto the floor to lay parallel with Bingu. The cat rolled, exposing it’s stomach to Jaebum for proper pets. JB of course complied, rubbing his hands carefully through the cat’s fur before looking up at you. “It’s difficult to hear over Bingu’s purring.” 

“That’s not purring. I’m pretty sure it’s wheezing. If you haven’t noticed, he’s mildly overweight,” you muttered. 

“That’s just a little bit of fluff,” JB cooed. “Don’t let her comments make you self conscious.” 

You lifted your brows as you looked back up to Sweaty and Armpit who were now filming the scene, mouths full of something from your kitchen. 

You looked back down to JB, biting your lip as you watched how gentle he was with Bingu. You had never seen someone take such care and put forth such a special type of attention toward the unfortunate creature. 

You thought back to your first encounter with JB, only able to work off of your previous knowledge of his celebrity image. Knowing he was usually described as chic and cold, you had prepared yourself to deal with that sort of man. He was the first one to truly prove to you that initial conceptions could be deceiving and to not believe in everything you heard. Now as he rolled around on your carpet, cradling your cat, you chuckled at those past thoughts. At his core, he was soft and kind. 

“So...” you hummed, readjusting in your seat. For a moment you regretted breaking up the scene, but you were beginning to feel a bit of neglect. “Is this our date? Did I schedule an afternoon for you to have a play date with my cat?” 

“Of course not!” JB gasped, giving Bingu one last pet before setting him on the ground. Bingu promptly collapsed again, silently begging Jaebum to rub his tummy. “Sorry little one, I have to give some attention to your mom now.”

“Don’t sound so broken up about it,” you chuckled, standing. You reached down, extending your hand to JB. He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. 

“I couldn’t ask for you to help me up. I’m heavier than you think,” he hummed, rolling over to gain the aid of the couch in standing. 

“I’m sure,” you nodded. “But I’ve heard you’ve suffered from a back injury. I was simply helping grandpa get up from the floor.”

“You think your teasing,” JB countered. “But you’d be surprised how used to the nickname I am.”

“What? Grandpa?” you asked, grabbing your keys and bag. You stumbled down your hall, JB in tow. Armpit and Sweaty shuffled behind him, cameras heavy on their shoulders as you exited the apartment and locked the door. 

“It’s one of the members’ most used nicknames when I’m involved,” he responded. “But I’ve come to terms with it. I’ve been called worse.”

You lifted your brows, surprised by the blunt statement, but more surprised by the hand interwoven in yours. You looked down, your mouth falling slightly ajar as you began to realize that JB had grabbed your palm, lacing his fingers with yours. The last time you were privileged enough to have a moment like this, it was a life or death situation for him in which he was not suffering alone. Instead of the pulsing feeling of your circulation being cut off, this hand holding was much more pleasant, even if both of your palms were nervously sweaty. 

“What? Has a man never held your hand before?” JB chuckled, reading the expression on your face. “Because if I recall correctly, we did this on our last date.” 

“For a very different reason,” you argued. “That was out of fear.”

“Fear? As in, I was frightened?” he asked, halting in his tracks. “I was protecting you.”

“Really? I feel as if your memory is blocking something traumatic,” you giggled. 

“Look, do you want me to hold you hand or not?” JB grumbled defensively, furrowing his brows. 

“You look cute when you pout,” you grinned, beginning to walk again. You tugged at JB’s hand as he groaned. 

“I’m not cute. Bingu is cute...I’m...I’m...handsome,” he muttered, looking away. You looked up to his face, noticing his cheeks had turned a light pink. 

“Handsome things can be cute sometimes,” you affirmed, continuing down the sidewalk. 

“Where are we going?” JB asked, stopping once again. “I thought I had planned this date?”

“To be honest, I just assumed we were going to the cat cafe about a block away?” you admitted sheepishly. 

“That was not part of the plan,” JB smiled, continuing to walk in the direction you were headed anyhow. 

“It wasn’t?” you asked, lifting your brows in disbelief. “What’s the plan for today then?”

“We’ll be going to the cat cafe TWO blocks away,” he nodded proudly. 

“You’re impossible,” you sighed, shaking your head as you looked away. You thought your cheeks would fall off from the amount of smiling you had been doing in the short time since JB had arrived. 

JB smiled quietly to himself as well as he squeezed your hand gently. You continued in silence for a few moments, both of you enjoying the simple pleasantry of being together in a moment as normalized as walking down the street together. Every few steps, you would find yourself stealing a glance at your handsome date, his looks never lost on you for a moment. You appreciated Jaebum for what he was, a work of art. From your vantage, you could notice the small things, such as the arch of his brow and the angle of his jaw. His adorable beauty marks in which he was so proud stood out, just above his lashes, and his lips were constantly curved into a pleasant smirk. Your eyes would meet every now and again as he realized he was being watched. You knew he was watching you as well, blatant in his attention since the moment you had met. Most Korean men were similar in this way, unafraid to make their awareness of your body and it’s curves known. 

“So why are we going to the cat cafe two blocks away?” you whispered, interrupting the silence when you couldn’t handle the stolen glances any longer. 

“It’s where I first met Nora,” JB nodded. “So it’s a special place for me. I wanted to share that with you as this is a special experience in my life...and you’re a very special person to me.”

You halted your jaw from falling open again. You were surprised by the small and sweet exchange, not expecting anything like that to ever leave JB’s lips. You made a mental note to keep forgetting all of the preconceived notions you had of him. 

“To be honest, I played around with a few different date ideas,” he continued. “Ramen by the river, maybe some time in the studio so you could see me in my natural habitat...but I considered none of that being very fun to anyone who wasn’t...well...me.”

“Well,” you began slowly, squeezing JB’s hand. “Certainly those can be future date ideas.”

“To be honest, I didn’t expect to make it this far,” JB chuckled. “I’m kind of winging it. Around every corner is a new welcomed surprise. I’m happy to be here with you, so I didn’t want to lock you away in my studio...”

“I think as long as I was spending the time with you, I would’ve been happy,” you considered, nodding at the thought. “There could be worse things.”

“Like a spa date?” he whispered quietly. 

“Aigoo! You too?” you gasped, smacking him lightly on the shoulder. 

“No idea what you’re talking about,” he muttered, pursing his lips. He looked away, incapable of hiding his smile. “I was simply citing date ideas. If you associated something subconsciously, surely that’s your conscious telling you something.”

“You’re awful.”

“Yeah, well, apparently you like it.”

To Be Continued...

PART 1 - PART 2 - PART 3 - PART 4 - PART 5 - PART 6 - PART 7 - PART 8 - PART 9 - PART 10 - PART 11 - PART 12 - PART 13 - PART 14 - PART 15 - PART 16 - PART 17 - PART 18 - PART 19 - Part 20 - Part 21 - Part 22

[almostarchaeology]

A Lesson Plan for Videogame Archaeology in the Museum

By Adrián Maldonado

I didn’t wake up that morning thinking I’d be playing an original Street Fighter II Championship Edition arcade console in just a few hours. It turned out to be a very good day.

So I was on Long Island recently for our annual, far-too-short family visit to America. It was also my daughter’s second birthday but it was raining and we needed an indoor activity. She loves planes, trucks and trains, and we were assured that the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City has all that plus good hands-on activities and a toddler room. We were not disappointed on any of those fronts.

But unbeknownst to us, the Cradle of Aviation Museum also has a major videogame history exhibition on at the moment. And this was no ordinary rinky-dink travelling exhibit.  I’m talking all the consoles, or at least 60 different ones, all playable, alongside some 30 original arcade cabinets. Whose birthday was it again?

It’s been a minute since my last post, so get ready for a nerd onslaught. This post will attempt three things: a straightforward review of a videogame history exhibit; some sense of the wider context within videogame museums I’ve been to recently; and finally, something a bit different: a lesson plan for teaching kids about videogames in the museum. I should probably change the blog title to Things No One Asked For, Ever, but in the meantime, do enjoy the blatant work avoidance.

Capsule review

This exhibit is actually a sequel. It began life as a temporary event called The Arcade Age in December 2015, which focused on recreating the experience of arcade gaming using some 50 playable cabinets. The recreated arcade was only accessible in three daily 90-minute sessions. The layout showed the influence of superhero arcadologist Raiford Guins, who was consulted for this exhibit, in its attention toward recreating the dark, cramped, noisy ambiance of an arcade. Judging by photos of the original exhibit, it also had a cool sideline on related material culture like Street Fighter II action figures and Pac-Man lunchboxes. It originally ran through April 2016, and was then extended to September 2016.

After its success, it was redesigned as a more comprehensive exhibition, From the Arcade to the Living Room: A Video Game Retrospective 1972-1999 in November 2016, now including a full history of home gaming consoles alongside a reduced but still impressive list of arcade cabinets. The website doesn’t say whether this will become a permanent exhibit, but they are selling season tickets for hardcore gamers until December 2017. It was this exhibition I stumbled upon one fateful day in June.

Wall of ancestors

The games are laid out in roughly chronological order, beginning with the carcass of a Computer Space cabinet from 1971 at the start. Curator Seamus Keane has been damn near exhaustive, going beyond the usual focus on ‘Golden Age’ arcade games and providing real working examples of lesser-performing systems like the Neo-Geo and the Atari Jaguar. Fulfilling the dream of a 90s indoor kid, it was perhaps the first and last time I’ll ever play a CD-I and a 3DO (note to me 25 years ago: neither was worth the wait).

Besides the snippets of information provided next to each console, historical context was a bit light and there was no clear aim or agenda for the exhibition. Media surrounding the opening fleshed it out a little more, but not much: for curator Keane, it was “a concept I had in my head of telling what I felt was somewhat of a lost history about the social culture and the popular culture, as well as the technological history of the arcade game itself and of the arcade as a social setting.” Hope you caught all that between rounds of Marvel Vs Capcom.

There were only a few thematic displays but they worked well – a wall of ephemera included a Nintendo Power Pad, several strategy guides and a Game Genie (!). A wall display on the Great Video Game Crash of 1983 included a screen playing the documentary Atari: Game Over (2014) next to an Atari 2600 with an ET cartridge you could load yourself, a crucial part of the home gaming experience you rarely get to experience in a museum setting. A cabinet of dead peripherals was also eye-opening in an unexpected way; the juxtaposition of Sega 3D Glasses and a Sega Dreamcast mouse from a decade apart made me think of how Sega was so often ahead of its time, and yet somehow lost the console wars. In the tech world, it doesn’t always pay to be first.

Videogames in the Museum

Touch the artefacts

I’ve been to several videogame museum exhibitions now (and even some videogame museums!) and can confidently say that this was one of the most fun. There was a wall of NES games and a wall of Atari games, but the core of the arcade was in a long, low-ceilinged dark hall. There, the half-assed display cards dwindled to a minimum and the game was the thing. Original cabinets, many of them with fucked-up decals from years of play, were ready to rock, no MAME here. Aside from the usual Golden Age of Arcade stuff, there were plenty of classic 90s cabinets from my era, and even some left-field entrants like Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, which I thought was a masterpiece when I first played it in 1990 and has accrued tremendous baggage since then.

Best of all was the chronological row of home gaming consoles buried deep in the bunker-like arcade hall. Here in glowing cubicles of glass but not out of reach were the venerated SNES and Genesis games of my formative years, alongside the also-rans like the Sega Saturn. I showed my 2 year-old daughter her first game of Super Smash Bros for the N64. She picked up the control and held it up to her ear like a phone. I have never loved her more.

The ragtag army of 90s CRT veterans

Each console was hooked up to a full-on CRT TV, no messing about with flatscreens, as I’ve groaned about previously. As the exhibition website puts it, they are “all on old school TV tubes!” Each TV was different from the next one, as they had clearly been scavenged piecemeal from various Long Island attics. Some had flatter screens, some bulged out lewdly, but all were hard-bitten survivors from the 90s. They are the real heroes here.

How does this rate? While the Computerspielemuseum in Berlin clearly wins out in almost every way in terms of playability, historical context and design, there was something about the scale of the recreated arcade and lack of interpretation here that charmed me. As Guins has pointed out, the material presence of the cabinets and the consoles are part of the gameplay; they are designed to draw you in and beg you to grab them, and whatever their flaws, their physical interfaces shape how the game is played.

Beyond Retro-Nostalgia: A Lesson Plan

Ready player one

At one point I was able to play technician: I was able to revive a blank TV screen by switching it to channel 3. I felt like a wise elder. I also may have felt very old because I was surrounded by schoolkids. It was a weekday, and we shared the exhibit with a group of fifth-graders (Year 6 for UK readers). For once, it was genuinely interesting to share a museum with a school trip. There have always been children in the videogame exhibitions I’ve visited previously, but they’re always there with their aging nerd parents (of which I am now very much a number). It is certainly worth recording the stories told to a new generation about their cultural heritage. But it was enlightening in a different way to hear what kids said to one another when playing these games.

What I heard blew my mind. I was playing the Double Dragon (1987) arcade cabinet (I’d only ever played the NES version, so this was very exciting indeed), when two boys walked behind me – one of them said to the other, “Double Dragon! I love that game!” How did he know? What else did he know? Has the Internet already made everyone like Wade from Ready Player One? Other kids swapped stories about the games they’d tried, and I felt almost compelled to start writing these candid observations down. They were like little archaeologists unearthing the artefacts of my past and puzzling over what they might mean – but also making more interesting connections with recent games than I could with my nostalgia specs on.

On my way out I ran into one of the schoolteachers and thanked her for taking the kids here, and congratulated her on how well-behaved they all seemed to be even though they were surrounded by a hundred flashing screens. I asked whether this was part of a specific class, and she said no, they usually take the kids to the Cradle of Aviation Museum because science and whatnot, but they dropped into the arcade exhibition because it was there. I asked if they would follow it up in class at all, and she said no.

The Atari Jaguar: and alternate future of 64-bit gaming

That struck me as a bit of a missed opportunity. Here were a few dozen kids having a great time in a museum, handling the technological ancestors of their favourite devices and games. The kids I heard were knowledgeable about videogames, native to them. For all the action in teaching history through videogames, there are no easily accessible resources out there to teach videogames as rare artefacts of a meaningful past. In what other museum exhibition are you allowed to handle, let alone grab and generally get all up in, the archaeology? What better way to learn than by playing?

Don’t get me wrong – museums with videogame exhibitions often provide their own series of educational resources and programmes for school visits, but a quick and very unscientific search shows little coherent agenda for dealing with the historicity of videogame and the material cultures of gaming. As more videogames end up in museums, we do the next generations a real disservice if the whole message is just about how videogames used to be pixellated and now they’re not. The game is not just the visual but the physical, and every console and medium enabled and constrained ways of playing, creating cultures of gaming. To get beyond nostalgia, we need to draw out the untold stories which will engage kids who are playing these objects for the first time.  

There’s at least a PhD thesis in here

Digital archaeology guru Jeremy Huggett recently reminded us about the need to deal with the historicity of technology: as the workings of our gadgets inexorably disappear into smaller and more efficient packages, we know less about how our devices work, and think little about why they are built the way they are. So break open a few controllers and cartridges to teach the history of computing. We assume a linear progression from worse to better technology on the basis that the invisible hand of the market chose the best products over time. So tell the story of the Sega Dreamcast, recognised for its merits only long after its demise. The market of ideas is always in conflict with the actual market, and real innovation is always pitted against the chance for real profit. Teach the Great Video Game Crash and its mountain of destroyed cartridges; debate the value of excavating the recent past, and what else of theirs will remain to be excavated.

It’s not all about the tech, either. You don’t have to wait for Assassin’s Creed: Cuban Missile Crisis to teach kids about the Cold War and why we’re (still) not playing nice with Russia. You can start with games like Contra and Missile Command and talk about ways in which war found its way even into children’s bedrooms in the 1980s. Maybe have a frank discussion about all those Battlefield games they’re playing now. Play the first ten seconds of Double Dragon to introduce the term ‘toxic masculinity’.

There’s a million ways to sneak learning into a trip to the arcade. Teach the kids how to critically read the artefacts; what could be more archaeological?

More photos here.

Follow us on @AlmostArch

[thedanny522]

Doesn't it feel like everyone is a personal brand these days? Whether you have one follower, one subscriber, or 100 million, if you have any sort of presence online, you have a personal brand. And whether you're trying to be an entrepreneur, or you're just in college or you're trying to get a job, you better believe people are searching for you online in some way, shape, or form. Going on a first date? Bet they Googled you. So, you want your personal brand to be rock solid. And in this day and age there are some new strategies that we can all implement to make sure that our personal brand stands out in a sea of other people, and millions of other people who are trying to build their name, build their brand online.So I'm going to share with you my best tips and the strategies that I'm now implementing to build my personal brand. If you're looking forward to this, give this video like, you know you want to. I don't know why I might make the sound effect but it just sort of happens. And be sure to hit the Subscribe button and hit the bell to be notified every single time that I post a new video. I love the topic of personal branding, because there's so many different things that go into it, but the biggest thing that I've learned in the last year particularly as my brand has skyrocketed across all platforms and continues to grow daily, is that there is no better key to building your personal brand than you.I know that sounds weird. Let me explain. So, when we used to talk about personal branding, and believe me I've been talking about this for a long time, we can cut to a really old video that I did on this topic and I look totally different. I think my hair is a lot darker. It's filmed... I don't know, it's not the best video lighting wise and aesthetically wise, but hey, did pretty well on YouTube. The idea of self promotion is a bit of a weird one, and actually that phrase kind of makes my stomach turn, because it gives you the misconception that it's all self serving.But the reality is you build your brand online, and you build a loyal following by adding value to people's lives. So I've been talking about this for a while, and when we used to talk about personal branding, it was really focused on things like: having consistent brand colors, having a logo, having the same sort of copy everywhere, and really having a consistent theme and aesthetic to what you do. Now what's really interesting and what's happening with personal branding that I found, is the more you you are, the more magnetic you are.And we've kind of started to veer away from perfect aesthetic, perfect brand colors, all of these other things, because this is the issue: there are so many people trying to build their personal brand, like babies are personal brands, dogs are personal brands now, that there is an influx of people competing for attention, competing for eyeballs, competing for authority. So the only real way that anyone can compete nowadays, or get seen or stand out, is being true to themselves. And this probably sounds really hippy-dippy to you, but it's actually so true.And you have to leverage your own unique factors and your own unique attributes. And they could even be things that you maybe don't even like, but that other people resonate with because they're real. Because the thing is, everyone can copy your brand colors, it happens all the time. People can copy your fonts, people can copy your copy. People can copy everything about you, but nobody can be you. So two big things, really interesting. I asked my community recently, I said, "What do you think stands out the most, and makes you think of me as a brand?" And they said, "Your hair, your laugh and your eyes." It had nothing to do with anything that I actually created, it was just innately who I am as a person, because that's the most personal part about you. And the funny part for me, and I've told this story before, is that I hid my hair for a years. I had flat ironed my hair, I didn't like my curls, I was embarrassed of them. And then I had a life changing moment and I was like, you know what? Screw this. I'm just going to leave my hair natural. And it's crazy how much people are reaching out to me and saying, "Oh my gosh, I love your hair," or, "How do you do your hair? I have similar hair," and it's just a bonding thing with people.So whatever is different, unique about you, you want to leverage those things. And it could be physical, it could be an aspect of your story, it could be a lot of things. Now that kind of brings me to my next point, which is your story makes you stand out. So important to understand this. Again, there is an influx of people building personal brands, so you have to really know your journey and you have to really lean on your experience. So a big part of this is figuring out how you got to the place that you're at, and making sure that you reaffirm and retell that story as much as possible.So, my story and how I help people, and how I actually built a business off of my story and my experience and my journey, is that I used to be an entrepreneur with this tiny little business and I wanted to grow it, but I didn't know how. And I kind of stumbled into creating a YouTube video for my clients at the time, and it blew up. And I realized that YouTube was a powerful platform to build your business on autopilot, and to bring in clients and leads and sales at all times. So I moved into that, I leaned into that, and that's how I ended up where I am today.And we built a multimillion dollar business based on my story. And here's the thing, if you're sitting there thinking, "Well, I'm not an expert in anything. I don't know what my unique gift is, or how I can really both build a personal brand around it," I want you to sit down and write your own hero's journey. Start from when you were a kid until now. What have you overcome? What hurdles have you faced that you've moved past? What's a problem that you've solved for yourself? What's a problem you've solved for somebody else? What's something that lights you up? All of those things are clues as to what your story and your experience is, and how you can become your own expert, because nobody has that experience like you do.And I've built courses all around my experience and my journey, using my own unique system because I knew it worked. And now I've worked with thousands of people to make it work for them as well, but it's all based on my story, nobody else's. And that's why nobody else can take what I do and do it, it's unique to me. And everybody has something that's unique to them. There's people who teach hula hooping and have big businesses. There's people who teach how to fly drones and have big businesses online.So think about your own unique story and tell it, and tell it often. Now, the next thing I wanted to say is play to your strengths. Because a lot of the times when you're entering the online space or trying to build a personal brand, you think you need to be everywhere, and you don't. The best thing you can do is pick a platform that plays to your strengths and creates the least friction for you to create content. So for me, being on video is very easy, because I've been doing it for a long time.I was in TV before I started on YouTube or any other platform. And I know that I can film a video a lot faster than I can write a blog post, or do anything else really. So I knew that for me video would be the medium that would play to my strengths. So think about yourself and what comes most naturally to you, and that's where you really want to work, i.e. that's why a lot of photographers end up on Instagram, because Instagram is a visual medium when it comes to photos specifically so it plays to their strengths.Now, the next thing I want to share about building your personal brand is know your audience, and know who isn't your audience. It is good to be disliked, it means you're doing something. So you want to be polarizing. You want to know exactly who you're trying to reach, and exactly who you're not trying to reach. Because the worst thing you can do is try to reach everybody. And prime example of that is if you look up some of the most generic terms online, things like motivation, inspiration, et cetera, look at how much competition there is.There's massive competition. You're trying to compete with millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of results. So you got to figure out, "Okay, where do I fit in in those results? What is my particular niche in those results?" And I know people get sick of hearing that, but if you look at a lot of the really successful examples in any business, they found a particular niche, they built their momentum there, once they had an audience they were able to branch out.But if you don't niche down, you get lost in a sea of people who have more experience than you. But you can be successful as a beginner, as long as you find your little pocket and sweet spot to start it. And I talk a lot about that in this video, on how to grow fast and gain subscribers on YouTube. So in order to know who you're attracting, you want to talk to as many people as possible. This is the really simple part about building a personal brand. You can get to know your audience really quickly by talking to a lot of people about what you do, and telling people a lot of your story.Because when you do, people are either going to relate to it or they're not going to relate to it. If they relate to it, dive deeper with them. Ask them what do they usually consume online? What are the videos they will watch? The channels that they watch, the blogs that they read, the podcasts that they listen to, the Instagram accounts they follow, because that's going to give you clues as to the kind of content that your ideal audience member and your raving fans are going to want from you, and then you can create more content like that on your platforms.The next thing, which I think is probably one of the most important things in today's day and age, and one of the newer strategies when it comes to personal branding, is receipts are your reputation. You want to be known for one thing, and you want everybody in the world to know that you're synonymous with that one thing, and that you're the best at it. So collecting receipts, meaning collecting social proof, like it's your job because it is, is so important. We have testimonials coming out the yin yang, because I know that it's really important for people to know that I'm actually good at what I do, and that they can trust me and that my system actually works.So we collect our testimonials in Google Drive. We also have a lot of video testimonials on our wall of fame, from our success stories and our clients. And that just builds more reassurance to say, "Yeah, she's the best when it comes to X, Y, and Z," and you can see when people ask about YouTube and YouTube growth, oftentimes I'll get recommended, and my reputation speaks for me. So receipts are your reputation, collect them like it's your job, keep a bank of them wherever you need to, and share them.I share my testimonials all the time on Instagram, on Instagram stories, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, everywhere I can. Because I know the more I do, the more people will respect me and understand that I have a good reputation, and that helps to build my personal brand as an authority in my space. And the next piece of your personal brand right now, is that we have moved from vanity metrics. A lot of this comes down to Instagram hiding likes, which you can watch this video all about that. But the thing that I want to focus on with that move was that we aren't so focused on vanity metrics anymore, we're focused more on true engagement and sharing content.So you want to create content that's shareable. And creating content that's shareable, which I talk about in this video, and I ran this video on my Instagram growth strategy for 2020, is creating content that anyone could share on their platforms without it being something that looks like you. Because I wouldn't share something that has somebody else's brand colors, because it doesn't really resonate with me, unless it's something simple, like there's BossBabe who uses pink, and it's a really nice shade and maybe I'll share some of their stuff, and I love their account but I'm not really a pink kind of girl.So I prefer graphics that are just black and white, and I think black and white shareable graphics on Instagram and everywhere else, are a really great way to create content that people will be really quick to share on their own platforms, which helps you build your audience. The more you can get little ambassadors in your own community to share your content for you, the faster you're going to grow your personal brand. So creating shareable content, versus just trying to get clicks and likes and getting that quick hit is so important, because shareable content grows your reach a lot faster.Next I want to talk about doubling down on what works. You probably have seen, and you should know your metrics across every single platform. And what I mean by that is you should know the analytics that actually matter on each platform, and you should be studying them. Because you'll start to see trends that when you share this kind of content about this topic, it gets way more reach and it gets way more engagement, so share more of that content. It literally is the same across every social media platform.Double down, share more of what works, because you'll grow faster and you'll reach more people. And if you want more info on that, you can also watch this video on how to grow from zero subscribers fast. And I really want to touch on something that I hear a lot. Often we'll ask people, "What's your goal? What do you want to do?" And people say, "I want to inspire people and I want to motivate people." And we're in this culture of just a cycle of constant motivation, and it's great that you want to motivate people and it's great you want to inspire people, I do too.But if you're just trying to compete in the motivation space, good luck. Because it is competitive AF. So you have to figure out how to find your little area of expertise and like I said, niche down to blow up. So one quick thing that you can do is complete this sentence: I help blank, to blank, by blank. So I help coaches and online entrepreneurs, to reach their audience and monetize their message, by using YouTube and online courses. That's what I do. And the motivation aspect of that and the inspiration aspect of that, is a byproduct.It just happens, because I'm helping people reach their goals, which is inspiring. And when I share that, people are like, "Oh my gosh, I want to do that." And when I share the stories of how people's lives have changed since they've started working with me and my team, that also is inspiring. So just being in the motivation space is rough. It's hard to grow real fast there, unless you already have a base. So instead, motivate people through your results, through the action, through the things that you're able to do and impact others with.Impact is everything, impact is inspiring. So that's where you want to start. Complete that sentence: I help blank, to blank, by blank. Just fill that sentence out and you'll start to understand where your niche or your particular category is. And if it doesn't come right away, that's okay. It takes some time, it takes some work, but keep asking questions, keep talking to people, keep telling your story, and you're going to get to know your ideal audience member, your ideal client really, really well in order to reach more of them.You need to know your ideal client and your audience members on a deep level in order to grow your audience. And I always come back to using your story because your story is motivational. Everybody has a hero's journey, everybody has an experience in their life where they went from not a good situation to a great situation. And if you watched this video, on how to create an online course, I talk a lot about that, and how to create a profitable course based around your own experience. Because nobody's a better expert than you on your own experience, and if you've solved a problem, hands down, there are other people out there who would pay for your expertise on how to solve that problem.So make sure you check out that video as well. Next thing I wanted to say is find your rhythm, and be consistent. Super, super important that you find your own unique rhythm. There are people on YouTube who post once a month, but their videos are bomb, and so they get this massive exposure from that one video and it's quality over quantity. I posted once a week until I got to 200,000 subscribers, now I post twice a week. I'm a big believer in quality over quantity, and making sure your content is going to perform well before you even record it, and that comes down to doing the research.But making sure that you have a rhythm and consistency that works for you, because consistency creates trust with your audience so that they continue to show up for you, and continue to support you so that you can continue to build your personal brand. So make sure you find a rhythm that works for you and stick to it, and remember to share your content across other platforms, and don't think you need to reinvent the wheel. A big part of personal branding is consistency in your messaging, and telling the same story over and over and over again until people fully grasp it, and they know exactly who you are and what you do and how you can help them.So you can take one piece of content, whether it's a YouTube video, a podcast, et cetera, you can split that content up and share it everywhere so that you're active on these other platforms, but you're not having to create content from scratch. So really great tool for this is something called repurpose.io. We use it in my business, it's awesome. I'm not currently an affiliate with them, but they're great. And it basically allows you to clip your videos or your content into small chunks with like the headlines, and make them really shareable across platforms.So that allows you to make more content in less time and not have to come up with brand new content for every platform every day, because it's just less exhausting. So those are my key strategies for building a personal brand today. And I know these are going to be really helpful for you, so please take action on them and start working on your own unique story. Because you being you is enough, I promise you that. And it's your biggest asset today, because everybody can build a business the same way, but not everybody is you.Everybody can copy a logo, copy a font, copy a brand color, but not everybody is you. There's nobody that can compete with you at being you. And we live in a day and age where you can get paid to be you. It's a wonderful time to be alive. So, hone in on what makes you you, and that's going to be the biggest advantage to your personal brand. And keep telling your story because there's someone out there who needs to hear it. If you want to build your audience, build your platform a heck of a lot faster, make sure you go to bossyoutubestrategy.com, and I will show you how to blow up your YouTube channel, and blow up your personal brand in the next 12 months. You can sign up for that at the link below in the description. Thank you so much for watching, check out these videos next to further build your personal brand, and own your niche and dominate, and become the authority on social media. If you liked it, hit the Like button. Subscribe, hit the bell to be notified, and be sure to share this with someone who needs to hear it. Thanks for watching. via /r/Affiliatemarketing

[rebeccasrosetinted]

This photo was taken 2 months before I found my first patch

This photo was taken last week.

What is Alopecia…

Alopecia is a general term for hair loss. Alopecia areata is a specific, common cause of hair loss that can occur at any age. It usually causes small, coin-sized, round patches of baldness on the scalp, although hair elsewhere such as the beard, eyebrows, eyelashes, body and limbs can be affected. Occasionally it can involve the whole scalp (alopecia totalis) or even the entire body and scalp (alopecia universalis). It is not possible to predict how much hair will be lost. Regrowth of hair in typical alopecia areata is usual over a period of months or sometimes years, but cannot be guaranteed. The hair sometimes regrows white, at least in the first instance. Further hair loss is not uncommon. In alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis, the likelihood of total regrowth is less.

I read this paragraph on the 3rd April 2017 whilst sitting in my car. I had just been to see my lovely friend Lauren for a hair cut. Something I used to look forward to! This day was the day I found my first bald patch. As small as a 50p piece.

Hair is a funny thing. My friends used to joke that I was “Becky with the good hair”, for me my hair was a part of my identity. I had a certain style because of it. To have this taken away can be soul destroying.

  Help…

I took myself to the doctors, not because I thought they would have a solution but because it’s the only thing I could think to do. The doctor was kind enough to let me know what the cause of Alopecia Areata was. For those that don’t know:

Hair is lost because it is affected by inflammation. The cause of this inflammation is unknown but it is thought that the immune system, the natural defence which normally protects the body from infections and other diseases, may attack the growing hair. Why this might happen is not fully understood, nor is it known why only localised areas are affected and why the hair usually regrows again.

I was given a steroid cream to apply to the patches each night. (I learned later this was a ‘bog standard’, ‘go to’ solution most doctors initially prescribe)

This not only ruined my bed linen but it also made my hair really greasy, when you’re losing your hair this is the last thing you need. I couldn’t carry on with it so I took the decision to come off it after a week – to be honest I didn’t like the thought of using a steroid based product.

I soon realised I needed to do some serious research

Lots of people had advised me to go and see a Trichologist. So I booked a consultation with  a lady in Cheltenham, it was just under £200 for an hours session.

It was an expensive consultation, but at the time there wasn’t a price I wouldn’t pay if I thought it was going to help me.

Unfortunately I came away feeling deflated and disappointed. The lady was lovely, however I wasn’t advised of any alternatives other than her products for hair loss….

I felt the approach could have been more sensitive, at that time I didn’t fully understand or realise the potential level of hair loss. This may not be the case for everyone as I know some find such comfort in seeing their Trichologist, it just wasn’t an avenue for me.

This is when I really started to look at a more holistic approach

I looked at my life and well-being, I made a list of all the things I could change and I began ticking them off.

Stressful Job

Living with family

Diet

Exercise

Hair care

I now work on a beautiful Organic farm, I moved in with my boyfriend, I changed my diet to include non-inflammatory products and I found this amazing blog from a lady called Angie (Greenbananagirl). Angie talks through the do’s and don’ts of a non-inflammatory diet and as she too suffered from Alopecia Areata it became a must read! I even began to exercise (this was the hardest challenge, I have a major dislike of the gym!)

Lastly I limited washing my hair to once a week, towel dried with minimal brushing, used Aveda regrowth products and I took florisene tablets everyday.

The second patch was found on the 6th June

  Why me…

During the early stages I often asked this question.

I would get in from work most evenings and before Mark got home I would sit there and sob.

I am the type of person who will openely say that I am upset. I will quite happily talk about a problem but I don’t often cry in front of anyone, I guess that’s just my way of coping.

I either make a joke or I shrug it off in an effort to prevent people feeling uncomfortable. One of my coping mechanisms is to address the situation before anyone else does. I used to crowbar my hairloss in wherever I could. To many, this looks as though I am absolutely fine about it, attention seeking even.

For me its a chance to have some sort of control over what is happening to me and to also make sure I am not caught offguard if someone points it out.

The worst memory I have was when I was at work, it was pretty windy outside (something I always feared!) and I was walking back to my office. There was a lady walking towards me with her dog and as we both met a gust of wind blew my hair away from my face. The lady gasped and put her hand to her mouth. I simply replied ‘I have Alopecia’. It was an honest reaction from a total stranger (who I think thought I had a wig on that was about to blow off!)

This effected me. So much so I would never wear my hair up, not even at home with Mark. I was so self conscious. At the back of my mind I honestly thought Mark would leave me if he had to see the extent of my bald patches. Obviously Mark isn’t with me just for my looks. Hairloss can send you a little stur crazy and at the beginning I did feel a little on edge.

The hardest thing to cope with for me was the not knowing.

How  bad this was this going to get?

How much would fall out?

Why was this happening?!!

Worst of all……would it ever grow back!

This is a progression photo from April to June 2017

For the 2nd patch I found this was the progression from 7th June – 1st July 2017

Acceptance…

For me this was the hardest part, I remember being angry at myself for not being able to accept what was happening.

I told my mum that I was embarrassed.

My mum has had cancer twice and both times her hair fell out – why couldn’t I accept my hair loss when my life wasn’t at risk?

My mum is my rock and she just simply said “The difference is, I knew it would eventually grow back when I had stopped having the treatment. You’re suffering because you have no control and you just don’t know what’s causing it”.

The turning point for me was just another ordinary day.

I was looking at myself in the mirror obsessing over the patches and the amount of hair on my brush.

Mark must have walked in and I hadn’t noticed.

All I remember is him wrapping his arms around me and giving me a big squeeze.

He probably doesn’t even remember it but in that moment I felt happy and safe – that moment put everything into perspective.

Yes my hair is falling out, Yes I feel as though my femininity has been robbed but at the end of the day I am in good health, I have great friends and family, a great job and a pretty remarkable boyfriend!

You can either let something like this define you or you can use it to become your strength.

Alopecia and I

I truly believe that your mental health, above all else, is your most important asset when dealing with a difficult time in your life.

This was the area I focused on the most. The farm that I work at has given me access to a world I desperately needed. I have now taken yoga classes, practised meditation, had endless massages and really focused on this “self love” so many people are talking about. I couldn’t recommend it enough!

Above everything else I have joined a dance school, something I never thought I would do in a million years! I have always loved to dance and truly believe a hobby is the key to a healthy, happier lifestyle. This particular school has not only introduced me to some pretty special people but has also given me so much confidence.

Bandanas and hats

Became my bestfriend!

So here I am! If someone had said to me a year ago when I found the first bald patch that I would be the happiest I have ever been I would have laughed in their face. Everything really does happen for a reason. Alopecia Areata gave me a kick up the bum and forced me to re-evaluate my life. It allowed me to make changes for the better!

I still have patches, patches I have learned to accept as being apart of who I am. Will they ever go away…Maybe! Will they ever come back…Probably! Will it change the way I feel…Definitely not!

This is me now! 🙂

The regrowth over a year

Happy Me!

UPCOMING POST: Same time next week “Our Trip to Budapest” Dreaming of colder months I look back on our time in this wonderful city!

  Alopecia and I What is Alopecia... Alopecia is a general term for hair loss. Alopecia areata is a specific, common cause of hair loss that can occur at any age.

[connecticut-seo-adwords]

6 CRO and SEO Lessons from Top Speakers at MozCon and Conversion Jam

I just got back from speaking at MozCon the top SEO conference in the US and ConversionJam, the largest CRO conference in the world, and wow did I learn a lot. Both MozCon and ConversionJam were jam packed with inspiring speakers, extremely interesting sessions, actionable content and powerful takeaways I just couldn’t let fly by without sharing them with you guys. Below is a summary of some my favorite sessions, the top CRO and SEO lessons that included powerful tips and resources about conversion optimization, UX and SEO.

Link Building’s Tipping Point / by Rand Fishkin

It comes as no surprise that Rand’s session was a great one. As someone who isn’t a full time SEO peep, I found his tips to be incredibly helpful, actionable, simple to execute for and very profound. Rand gave us a deeper look at the link building world, rather than thinking of it as tactics, he introduced 5 long-term link strategies that work for the most successful companies in the world. In fact, Rand says these strategies are adopted by the vast majority of companies in the world and those using them correctly see great results. These are the strategies he mentioned that gave me some amazing ideas for my own site and for Banana Splash’s strategy:

The community path

The press and media path

The embed path

The partnership/alliance path

The content marketing path

Rand went on to sharing his top 10 hacks for link building, and as he should, made a point of reminding us that the best way to utilize these hacks is by connecting them to larger strategy. There are my favorite hacks that he shared:

Republishing Content – One of the most used tactics for promoting content and getting links is republishing content on platforms such as Medium and Linkedin. The key to success here, isn’t simply copying and pasting your content on these platforms (which is what most marketers do) but re-writing or editing the article and only then publishing it on these platforms.  

Anchor Text in Bio Links – Use anchor text links in your bio to promote certain links. Anchor links still work really well for rankings as Rand showed us how he promoted his wife’s blog in his own bio and got ranked for new search terms.

Using Local Links– This is an awesome way to find new sites you want to get a link at according to location. First find your two most popular competitors in your region, then combine their names with your region as a search query and discover new relevant websites that could recommend you too.

Giving Testimonials & Case studies – another awesome way to get links is with testimonials and case studies. Usually we just ask our partners and clients to write something for our site, however, by writing a testimonial, review or case study for their site, you get a direct link to yours.

Get the full slides and examples here.

29 Advanced Google Tag Manager Tips Every Marketer Should Know / by Mike Arnesen

In probably the most actionable session I’ve seen in ages, Mike Arnesen blew us away with some amazing tips about Google Tag Manager. Mike basically covered 29 ways we can up level our GTM usage, track better and become smarter marketers. Some of my favorite tips included:

Mike started off by helping us make sure that GTM is present on all the most important pages of our site. To do so he used ScreamingFrog which is a great tool all marketers should check out.

One of my personal favorite tips he shared (#3) was a way to track the most valuable clicks on our site (the ones we care about) without involving a development team/person. This to me is one of the most important tips as there is nothing more frustrating than waiting on someone else such a developer to get things done. It’s frustrating and makes it even harder to launch tests which is why we built Banana Splash the way we did – designers and developers free.

Mike went on to show us how to track file downloads, outbound clicks, merge GA and CRM data and most importantly how to configure cross-domain & subdomain tracking all in one session!  Check out Mike’s incredible list of tips, links, screenshots, videos and tutorials here.

How to Be Specific: From-The-Trenches Lessons in High-Converting Copy / by Joanna Wiebe

Another great session that came as no surprise was by Joanna Wiebe of CopyHackers. In her session Joanna gave us some great actionable tips on how to grab our customer’s attention in email marketing and get them to perform an action rather than closing our email and never opening it again.

The first rule is simple yet extremely important – Make it obviously about me. This is also one of the main pillars of the emotional targeting and persuasive design course and probably why I connect with it so well. It’s easier to pay attention when it’s obviously about me. Walking us through an entire case study with Wistia, Joanna showed us how they optimized Wisita’s email campaigns for higher conversions by feeding their customer’s ego, connecting the email to their life, empowering the customer and using a call to action button in first person.

The second rule was “connect the dots for “ME” and tell ME exactly what and HOW to do it”.

The third rule focused on it being easier to pay attention to what customers can visualize. This is where Joanna made it clear for all those who doubt – people read copy whether long or short if it helps them. If it doesn’t they won’t even read your short copy.

Get the full presentation to see the play-by-play of how Wistia increased their conversion rates here.

The Secrets of how Amazon Crushes the Competition / by Bryan Eisenberg

While most people analyze the tactics Amazon uses to increase their sales, Bryan who did the opening keynote for Conversion Jam focused on the strategies Amazon uses and how all marketers can and should use them. My favorite tips and strategies include:

Obsess about customers – Apparently, everyone at Amazon has to spend 2 days a year working with the customer success team answering emails, phone calls and helping customers out. This is one of the ways Amazon ensures that everyone within the company talks to customers and optimizes their specific work according to their needs and feedback. Whether you’re in marketing or maintenance, talking to customers matters.

Continuous optimization – every year Amazon runs over 1,900 experiments. They don’t test variations for the sake of testing, instead they test big ideas addressing the little things that change processes within the company, for example “the ready to buy area”. The key to testing at Amazon is that they don’t just test for design, they test to change their business. Each test tells them more about their customers and helps them optimize their tactical operations such as shipping, packaging and much more.

Culture of innovation – Amazon spend a LOT on research, investing in new categories and ideas. As my favorite saying goes, Conversion optimization is not about your website, it’s about every part of the experience – finance, returns, customer success and more. Everything needs to be optimized in the company, from the cleaning process to marketing and robots that deliver the products. It’s all about customer experience and Amazon is nailing it.

Top 7 ways to sabotage your Google Analytics data / by Annie Cushing

Annie gave us the ins and outs of Google Analytics. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen her on stage and I absolutely love how nerdy she gets about data. She LOVES it and has a great way of teaching marketers on all levels how to take their GA skills to the next level. My favorite tips from this session include:

You know that annoying feeling you get when you check Google Analytics for traffic sources and just just “direct” or “other”? Well there’s a quick fix to reducing the amount in these channels by tagging all links you publish on social sites and email with campaign tags. It’s an awesome and simple solution that will prevent email traffic for example from showing up as direct traffic without these tags.

Another great tip for the channels issue and for finding misstagged campaigns is checking your (Other) channel in the Channels report by switching primary dimension to medium.

A last great tip from Annie that is true not only for Google Analytics data is simple: Don’t send your visitors away to do what you want them to do most (check out, sign up for an event, book a hotel, etc.). They take their most critical data with them!

Annie has a huge amount of , online courses and templates for rocking Google Analytics. Be sure to check them out.

One Click & Nothing to Purchase; Redefining News Media CRO / by Unn Swanström

Watching Unn on stage was a lot of fun. As a UX designer, she shared her experience working for some major publishers in Sweden and gave us a look into what she’s been testing to optimize content sites and blogs. Her most relevant tips discussed metrics you should follow and behavior to look out for:

How to give relevant recommendations:  It’s about understanding who your reader is and how you can create a better experience for them with relevant recommendations. To do that, Unn suggests to look at your data and start asking your customers questions that will start identify different segments and categories of readers that use your service in similar ways. Once you know what they’re doing and reading on your site, you can highlight those behaviors and encourage them even more.

Check: Are visitors really reading? Another important aspect for content sites and blogs is understanding not just what people are reading but how far they scroll, the time the spend on the site and how fast or slow they scroll. Don’t just look at one metric (time on site), get the whole picture of how people read and then optimize those sections in need.

Retention – The key to a better reading experience is giving readers a good experience in and to do that you have to combine the two most important parts of research: Quantitative data and qualitative data.

So, those were my top CRO and SEO lessons from these great conference I’ve spoken at. The last session I’ll share with you is my own.

The Mobile CRO Equation – How to turn more mobile visitors into customers

During this session I dug into the importance of understanding that mobile visitors are not mini desktop visitors. Because most marketers design for desktop and adapt to mobile, there’s a 270% gap in conversions. Which is why we have to start optimizing for a dedicated mobile experience.

My main points covered the psychological and behavioral differences between someone on their phone and someone on desktop, why we must create a personalized experience for mobile visitors and how to do so with the mobile web equation:

Mapping out the 4 most critical stages of a mobile journey, I showed how to address key pain points within your mobile funnel and how to optimize for them.

My next stop is at Google’s LCS Conversions event where I’ll be meeting the talented web psychologist Nathalie Nahai and the brilliant optimizer Craig Sullivan for 2 full days of mobile web and cross device optimization.

Stay tuned for some additional tips and sessions from my next conferences.

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What helps kids really learn

Andrew Stadel on episode 220 [A special encore episode] of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

How do kids learn and remember? Teacher Andrew Stadel, @mr_stadel founder of the popular site estimation180.com, talks about this pursuit of learning in the classroom. This topic is his summer research topic. As you ponder the classroom, look at what you’ll research to become a better teacher.

Richard Byrne, author of Free Technology for Teachers, has some fantastic courses for history teachers and those wanting to learn about technology. Check out http://ift.tt/2lomeMO.

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Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

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Enhanced Transcript

What helps kids really learn?

[Recording starts 0:00:00]

To celebrate the end of the first season of the Ten Minute Teacher Podcast on June 16th, we’re running a giveaway. The Dash and Dot robot wonder pack from Wonder Workshop Stay tuned at the end of the show for how to enter.

What really helps kids learn? Episode 86

The Ten-minute Teacher podcast with Vicki Davis. Every week day you’ll learn powerful practical ways to be a more remarkable teacher today.

VICKI: Several episodes back, one of our educators (see Dan Meyer http://ift.tt/2qCGpIU ) just went on and on about Andrew Stadel @mr_stadel

and his Estimate 180 website. http://ift.tt/1dVJzbZ But today, we’re actually going to talk about learning. So Andrew, I was just listening to a teacher talk the other day and they were frustrated. And they’re looking at these final exams and, yeah, there’s some kids who’ve mastered it but there are some kids who just don’t seem to be leaning the material. And I know that you are passionate about understanding what helps things stick into the mind

ANDREW: Yeah, I feel like I’m just getting on to the road of the beginning of my journey to really dive into the dive into the idea of what helps us learn as long term learners not only as adults but our students too and how can we support them in that. Creating and environment, creating activities and lessons and structures so that they thrive and also are able to remember the content that we teach.

I think right now, I’m going to say I’m at the beginning of my journey, there’s two books that I’m just kind of going back and forth with. One of the books is called Make It Stick, http://amzn.to/2rpqu3c there’s three authors on that; Peter Brown, Harry Roediger and Mark McDaniel and that’s just kind of learning the premise is pretty such the science of successful learning.

And then there’d David Sousa, I think is how you say his name, I could be wrong, and his is How The Brain Learns, http://amzn.to/2rpz4iI and he has a specific addition on mathematics. So as a math teacher by trade, just thought back of various time in my classroom when kids understand but will not remember a handout or a review packet or some worksheet because there’s really no meaning to it.

[00:02:00]

Yet they would remember the craziest things, if I told a story, I how I used math in life or for example, like you said in Estimation 180 I provided my students with visuals and ways for them to make sense of the world around them so I take pictures of things and ask them to estimate quantities or heights or distances. And I when I would show early estimation pictures at the beginning of the year and then I maybe use them a little bit later in the year or review – it was amazing, it blew my mind away that kids would actually remember some answers or be really close. And I was like there’s something there, there’s something that sticks.

And so, I’m a musician – two; music is a form of language and a way for people to communicate, find a communality. And I’m always amazed at how music strikes people differently and how it sticks with people. So as a musician may I’ll listen to the guitar tracks more than the vocals or the lyrics but yet for other people they listen to the lyrics more than me, yet it still sticks. You can’t memorize your favorite song on the first listen, it takes time, it takes repetition, it takes coming back to. And the more I’m reading and learning, it feel like education activities and learning and lessons need that idea that we have to kind of grapple with something at first, there’s something hooky there, you like it but you have to return to it.

You need practice on it, you need to be tested on it. So I’m listening to my favorite song and all of a sudden it stops. Could I continue that song on in my head, could I hum it, could I listen? The same kind of goes in education. Like, if the bell rings, could my students continue their thought process, could they continue making sense of what I was teaching that day in math? So that’s what I’m grappling with.

VICKI: So Andrew, as you wrestle with this, I mean, we know we need meaningful practice but memorization and boring routine – I mean, isn’t the word boring and the word memorized reviled in education right now?

[00:04:00]

I mean, some people really rebel against repetition. So how can we repeat without being boring? And do we have to memorize? I mean, sometimes we have to, right?

ANDREW: Yeah, it’s a good question. If we break those two words down, like, boring is totally relative, it’s objective. Memorization is more a matter of fact but think everybody’s brain is differently wired. So how do people memorize things more than others? It’s such a great question whereas something that I found was engaging to me might not have been engaging to my students, it might have been boring to them.

As educators, we could all sit around and joke like – you know, you hear it coming. Like, my hair could be on fire and no one is paying attention kind of thing. Like, we’ve all had those days. So in terms of memorization, yeah, I really want to know more about that because the more experience I got as an 8th grade teacher – multiplication facts were important to me that my students knew them but at the same time the more as I progresses in my craft of teaching it was like, well, what if my kids could just make sense of multiplying?

Like kids struggled with 12s, like that’s wired that kids struggled with 12s. It’s totally fine but then for some reason they were fine with 11s. So 5 x 11 kids would just go 55, great. So that can empower that kid to do that and I’d just say, “Look, add five more to that to get your 12th five and that makes it 60.” And that’s empowering and then hopefully that logic sticks and not the multiplication fact. I need to learn more.

VICKI: Yeah, the thing I’m hearing you say is that you’re trying different ways and I’m actually having a flashback, at the end of the school year I do anonymous student surveys, I’ll ask you, “What do you like best, what do you like least.” And one question where they say they like best, half of the class said, “I love it when you circle up, you tell stories and we have conversations.” And then the other half class said, “You talk too much.”

[00:06:00]

And it’s like, “Well which is it?” I think that we somehow think that we’re going to get 100% approval form everybody for how we do this repetition. And I think that’s unrealistic. I mean, do you or is it just me?

ANDREW: Yeah. I agree 100% and I’ve actually reminded myself of that when I do consulting, when I work with districts, teachers feel like I should come and present them with this overboard and yet we need repetition and we’re going to say, yeah, we’re not always going to have a high of engagement, we’re not always going to be people pleasers, we can’t please everybody. And I don’t think that’s what we need to get into it for.

VICKI: Yeah. And I always tell my students, you’re going to thank me when you’re 23.

ANDREW: I agree 100% that you can’t please everybody.

VICKI: But we don’t want to use that as a cop out either, I mean, I know teachers who are worksheet wonders and they just use worksheets. I mean, have your read enough, Andrew, to know that business as usual, worksheets as usual don’t work?

ANDREW: For the most part, yeah, I’ve scratched the surface on that one a little bit. So the short answer, yeah, I think I’ve read enough, I’m convinced enough based off the reading I’ve done. But I’m also convinced on the personal experiences I’ve had. There’s a time and place for it, though. It’s playing sports. Like if I’m at practice and a coach shows me how to do something then now on my own time I can go work on that muscle memory. There’s a time and place where playing basketball I had to go practice my free throws. But at practice, the coach would specifically help me with my form, how to release the ball, how to set the ball up, the same thing that happens in the classroom. Like, as teachers, we got to be in a position to kind of help students understand things or use critical thinking or problem solve and work on those mechanics face to face with them. And then there might be a time and place where it’s like, “Look. You just need to kind of do some ground work here, you got to practice a few things.”

[00:08:00]

And that is part of making things stick a little bit but it’s not the end all where you just hand out a worksheet and be like, “Yeah, do 50 of these and you’ll remember it.”

VICKI: Andrew, as we finished up, we’ve really talked about a lot of issues. This is almost like a conversation you and I might have if we were on the same school in the faculty teacher’s lounge about learning because these are things that we teachers talk about. But could you give a 30-second pep talk to those teachers who just feel like, “It’s the end of the year and have I actually taught anything?”

ANDREW: What gets you excited about what you teach? I tend to fall back on Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk and why do you want to wake up and get out of bed? So on Monday what gets you excited that you’re going to get up out of bed, go to school, greet your students at the door and teach them. And so that for me is what helps guide my work as a teacher and as a coach. And so I share the enthusiasm with other teachers and say, “What gets you excited? What are some things that you experience in your life that you’re excited about and you can share with your kids?”

And it’s amazing, like you said, you have a conversation or a story-telling opportunity with your kids and those stick and the learning will actually come out of it. So find stuff you’re excited about and share it with your kids.

VICKI: And, you know, teachers, teaching is a relentless pursuit of learning, it’s hard, it’s not easy. There are no easy answers. And I would just encourage you on this motivational Monday, what are you wrestling with now? What are you going to find your books on this summer? What are you going to look into so that you can be a better teacher in the fall because that, teachers, is what truly makes us remarkable?

On June 16th we’ll finish up Season 1 of the 10 Minute Teacher. So celebrate, we’ve partnered with one of my favorite robots for teaching coding, Dash and Dot form Wonder Workshop. Go to http://ift.tt/2rZ88GW and enter to win your very own Wonder pack form Wonder workshop and to learn more about how you can use Dash and Dot to teach programming to kids, aged, kindergarten and up.

Thank you for listening to the Ten-minute Teacher Podcast. You can download the show notes and see the archive at http://ift.tt/2quX4Nu. Never stop learning.

[End of Audio 0:10:27]

  [Transcription created by tranzify.com. Some additional editing has been done to add grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. Every attempt has been made to correct spelling. For permissions, please email lisa@coolcatteacher.com]

  Bio as submitted

Andrew Stadel is a Digital Learning Coach for Tustin Unified School District in California, working with secondary math teachers to use and implement technology in meaningful ways to enhance the teaching and learning of mathematics. Andrew is the creator of Estimation 180, http://ift.tt/1dVJzbZ, a website designed to provide students and teachers with daily challenges to help improve their number sense.

Blog: http://ift.tt/1dVJzbZ

Twitter: @mr_stadel

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

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