#actionable metrics

[lostconsultants]

Mastering KPIs: From Basics to Advanced Metrics

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are everywhere in business, but they’re often misunderstood or misused. Having spent years working with teams across different industries, I’ve seen how the right KPIs can drive success, while the wrong ones can create confusion or, worse, false confidence. So, what exactly are KPIs, and how do you make sure you’re focusing on the ones that actually…

[kropotkindersurprise]

February 15, 2025 - Direct action gets the goods! After a sustained direct action campaign by Palestine Action, property giant London Metric cut ties with Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems. [video]

[eri-pl]

Beginning of a crackfic I wish I could pull off or whatever the phrase is (I said I won't do rpf but) (at least CSL isn't there, he'd make it too chaotic)(yes well be dissing Dante a little tiny bit... This is Dante the literary character not Dante the actual guy, ok?) (my great unrealistic ambition is write people in a way they would write, and that's obviously insanely high bar)

Scene: a clearing in a forest. Night, the full moon is high behind the scene.

Entrant Finrod Felagund on the left and Dante Alighieri on the right.

Dante (it should be in a verse in the finished version) (this is a draft ok?): What is this place? It's doesn't look like Hell, but it's not as glorious as Heaven either, and-

Finrod: It is a forest, my good man. (Sits down on the grass.) For you are a Man, am I right?

Dante: And what do I look like, a plucked chicken? I am a man indeed. But, sadly, I bear no arms. (Inspects the grass and carefully sits down) So this is again the mundane Earth in all its sorrows?

Finrod: 'Tis vision of some kind, I think. A new kind, which may have something to do with the mushrooms my dear cousin offered to me, claiming that they're a delicacy- but what are those places you spoke of?

Dante: Are you a pagan then? You look too beautiful for a pagan, my lord, I thought that you were an angel... Are you one of the ancients?

Finrod: I am rather ancient on Mannish time scale, indeed. You seem to never have seen an Elda. Do you come from the East?

Dante: I came from Florence, my lord. Cruelly exiled from my city- (dramatic pause)

Finrod: Please, don't call me "my lord". How sad this must be, I could never imagine how this must feel. I left my homeland of my own will, which I now regret deeply. On the other hand, I got to meet you. I mean the Men in general. But back to the strange words you mentioned-

Dante: Oh strange indeed, stranger yet than this vision and you, o strange lord of unknown ancient land! I shall speak of them, for your benefit and those of the readers.

Finrod: (puzzled gaze)

Dante: ...I chronicle all my strange visions into a book, written in verse.

Finrod: Oh. I thought... Nevermind.

Enter Stranger on the right.

Stranger: Good day, my friends. May I join you and listen to your discussions?

Finrod: Of course.

Dante, simultaneously: Are you a in Elda too, whatever that is, or another shade sent to lead me, or are you just a man?

Stranger sits down.

Finrod: The Eldar don't have beards. But I'm sorry, I've interrupted.

Stranger: I'm used to this, my best friend used to do this a lot. But back to your discussion-

[spottedenchants]

TS!SG and Romantic Trappings

Loosely inspired by this post and prompted by @disastergenius, here is a non-exhaustive list of common storytelling markers that, either alone or in combination, often indicate a dynamic is intended as romantic. I have broken down each item for TS!SG in terms of engagement, exclusivity, and reasoning.

Engagement: whether or not they do the thing

Exclusivity: a common throughline of 'romantic' dynamics (i.e. they Only do this with each other)

Reasoning: why they do or don’t do the thing

Some background for Touching Sentiments: I assume most people dislike being touched by people they hate and like being touched by people they love. What if, once he genuinely likes the Nein, Essek still frequently dislikes their touch despite craving it at the same time? This is TS’s premise and flavors how Essek and Caleb engage in their relationship in the series. Different markers apply (if at all) at different points in the TS timeline, so this is the general vibe around 1.5 to 2 years post-C2.

See below!

Relationship labeling: yes and no

Exclusivity: none

Various terms apply to Caleb and Essek’s relationship (friendship, companionship, partnership, kinship, to name a few) and so they opt to leave it unlabeled, generally referring to the concept of their relationship as ‘this’ or ‘us’ when speaking to each other.

‘Define the relationship’ talks: yes

Exclusivity: none

This one is established directly on-stream (see Caleb’s ‘we are, friends, now’ feeling out Essek’s familiarity in ep 77 as well as their talk on the tower’s ninth floor in episode 133). In TS, their footing changes often, especially at the beginning as they get comfortable in one another’s daily lives.

Feelings confessions: yes

Exclusivity: none

Related to the above, the Nein as a whole frequently share the fact they are fond of each other and only rarely is it treated as a revelation. Essek, when capable of articulating his feelings, will often express them either in a stumbling rush or a matter-of-fact way. Caleb tends to keep his affections to himself unless he deems them necessary, beneficial, or useful to express.

Saying ‘I love you’: no

Exclusivity: n/a

Out of universe, they don’t say ‘I love you’ verbatim because I have banned myself from writing it. In universe, ‘I love you’ said by Caleb to Essek or by Essek to anyone is a question, not a declaration. It does not clarify; it is a request for clarification. It is a less clumsy ‘do you feel loved by me?’ or a succinct ‘am i loving you right?’. ‘Love’ in terms of emotion is a vague word to them and they prefer to be more precise.

Flirting for fun: yes

Exclusivity: none

They both find it entertaining to tease, compliment, and fluster the other, but this is not exclusive in any direction in the Mighty Nein’s dynamics. Caleb’s style aligns the most with Essek’s tastes. (Rather, Caleb can/does mold his flirtations to Essek’s tastes.) Essek’s style involves intense staring and layered language, and is largely misinterpreted by all but Caleb and, much to her chagrin, Beau. (e.g. Essek may flirtatiously compliment Caleb’s dexterity when Caleb successfully counterspells- most of the Nein would assume the flirtation only lies in his observation of Caleb’s casting reflexes (physical) when it’s actually also an implied compliment on Caleb’s quick thinking (intellectual).)

Flirting for romance/sex: kind of

Exclusivity: None in concept, yes in practice

Essek is not typically receptive to flirtation when the one flirting with him is just after a sense of ‘romance’ or a sexual encounter. Though neither Caleb nor Essek are opposed to being flirted with by the Nein, none of them do so with Caleb or Essek for romance/sex reasons save for Kingsley on occasion.

Terms of endearment: yes and no

Exclusivity: none*

Their terms of endearment for each other are ‘Caleb Widogast’ and ‘Essek (in a fond tone, no Thelyss)’. Their names are very important to themselves. Essek acknowledges the time and effort and care and kindness and strength it took to foster Caleb into *Caleb*. Caleb acknowledges Essek as an individual, untethered from courtly contexts and familial expectations. ‘Essek’ alone is a new start. Caleb knows what it’s like to inhabit a floating identity and wants to reassure Essek he sees him underneath any name, and so he teases Essek over having multiple aliases. Under the guise of adding to Essek’s running list of aliases, he tries out a few pet names (e.g. ‘Schatz’, ‘Schmusekatze’, ‘dearheart’). ‘Dear’ is established in canon, and TS!Essek gains ‘dear’ as a result of the aforementioned teasing. This one sticks because Essek appreciates the fondness it conveys, like an anonymized greeting in a letter. Essek thinks of Caleb in fond Undercommon terms, but he tends not to say them out loud. *Essek fullnames the members of the Nein as terms of endearment, so they usually don’t register it.

Prolonged mouth kissing: yes

Exclusivity: none in concept, yes in practice

Essek in canon frequently touches his lips while thinking, so in TS I've extrapolated that into TS!Essek enjoying his lips being touched. Physicality aside, between Caleb and Essek, kissing on the mouth represents voluntary vulnerability. They can’t efficiently/secretly cast most spells while engaged and it is a distracting activity besides. Kissing on the lips also becomes a means to determine each other’s emotional state. Neither Caleb nor Essek are entirely opposed to being kissed by the rest of the Nein, but no one’s genuinely asked.

Hand holding: yes

Exclusivity: none

Aside from mind and mouth, a wizard’s hands are their most important tools. Both Caleb and Essek readily acknowledge their bloodstained hands, so they enjoy casual hand holding in private as a representation of repurposed weapons forging tenderness instead. They also taunt one another by pinning or otherwise restraining the other’s hands. Essek frequently holds Yasha’s and Jester’s hands.

Public displays of affection: kind of

Exclusivity: none

The Mighty Nein are a physically affectionate group. Essek prefers to express his affection privately. Caleb follows suit but will sneak a gesture if he thinks he can get away with it.

Cuddling: yes

Exclusivity: none

It’s a low-effort way to enjoy each other’s proximity. They just have to lay there. They don’t even have to talk.

Sensual touch: yes

Exclusivity: some

Given Essek’s ambivalence towards touch, sensual touch is often a trust exercise involving the discovery, exploration, and maintenance of boundaries. He and Caleb are experimentalists and enjoy teasing out effects from their causes.

Nudity: rarely

Exclusivity: none

The Mighty Nein bathe together and will change clothes in each other’s company. Caleb has few qualms about being nude. Essek has many. Caleb tends to stay dressed in Essek’s company unless asked otherwise.

Sex/Sexual touch: yes, depending on the definition

Exclusivity: none in concept, yes in practice

Due to his Kryn cultural upbringing, Essek initially assumes humans (and other short-lived races) think of sex only as a penetrative and/or reproductive act. Caleb and Essek eventually jointly define sex as physical and intellectual play that may or may not involve genitalia or stimulation but does involve some degree of vulnerability and arousal. Essek rarely wants sex spontaneously or seeks it out in an unestablished dynamic; it doesn’t occur to him. Despite typically enjoying it, sex isn’t something Caleb actively pursues in or out of their relationship because he likes the feeling of pining in a ‘hurts so good’ sort of way.

Shared sleep space: yes

Exclusivity: none

A display of vulnerability, especially from Caleb’s perspective. Caleb trusts Essek to watch his back while Caleb himself is both unconscious and unseeing in the dark. Caleb asleep is usually not disruptive to Essek’s trances.

Cohabitation: yes

Exclusivity: somewhat

Neither Caleb nor Essek mind sharing day-to-day living arrangements with the rest of the Nein. Essek moves around enough that there’s technically no one place he settles for long, but he does end up keeping most of his belongings with Caleb both for practicality and sentiment. Caleb and Essek do periodically share housing with Beauregard and Yasha, though Beauregard and Yasha eventually carve out their own space.

Date activities: no

Exclusivity: n/a

They don’t typically have planned outings with romantic intent. They spend time together when and where they can. Essek is more likely to go on a platonic date with Jester than a romantic date Caleb.

Matching rings: yes

Exclusivity: none

Caleb and Essek share a pair of silver rings. The rings serve as material components for Telepathy, a spell they worked on together as they were re-reestablishing their relationship. Essek wears his ring on his right hand ring finger. Caleb wears his ring on a chain around his neck.

Engagememt/marriage: no

Exclusivity: n/a

They don’t have much legal ability to wed using Essek’s real identity and they don't need a witnessed ceremony to acknowledge their care for one another. Of anyone, Beauregard is probably who Caleb would place in charge of his estate.

Having children: no

Exclusivity: n/a

Caleb wants to focus on the children of the Empire year by year as a whole, not a single child or a few specific children for their entire lives. However, he is very open to taking on a dedicated godfather, uncle, or mentor role. Essek doesn’t enjoy the thought of accommodating a child’s needs on a continuous daily basis, nor does he trust himself to raise a person from the ground up. He had a hysterectomy decades ago in part to eliminate the possibility of accidental conception. He is marginally more open to a mentor role, though he probably wouldn’t think of himself as a mentor.

(Lifelong) commitment: yes

Exclusivity: none

Essek commits himself to the Mighty Nein, Caleb and his goals included. Caleb commits himself to bettering the Empire and holding the Nein together.

Extras for funsies:

Non-verbal communication:

Common is TS!Caleb’s second language and TS!Essek’s third. The two of them don’t always have a shared verbal language, especially with matters of the heart and body, so they make their own language using both words and their bodies. This includes Essek’s ability, as a drow, to purr. After the Telepathy incident, Essek tends to go nonverbal & frozen when extremely distressed/overwhelmed, so he eventually uses taps and squeezes to communicate with Caleb when in such a state.

Some aspec easter eggs:

Essek wears a black ring on his right hand middle finger (in universe: teleport anchor to the Nein Heroez II)

Essek briefly describes his relationship with Caleb as a ‘wavership’ (in universe: a possible translation of the Kryn Undercommon term ‘ferede’)

Jester gives Essek a 'best friend squish' (see 'platonic attraction' in previous link) (in universe: she literally squishes him)

Essek likens his internal search for sexual feelings to searching a pond for turtles (in universe: just another one of his metaphors)

[thisonesatellite]

tomorrow never knows - CH7

AO3

PAIRING: Steve /Bucky

SUMMARY:

In East Berlin around the late 60s /early 70s, KGB Asset 3B-1 is tasked with eliminating a subject, but his personal equipment malfunctions and the whole thing gets switched to recon and this is how Asset 3B-1 finds himself watching a hapless artist sleep, mostly. But this is the heyday of spies and corruption and nothing ever being what it seems, and so Things Happen. Plot and action and secrets and lies Happen. Until of course the truth comes out, the way it always does. Because at the core of this are Bucky and Steve, as always—idiots who are being the most idiotic idiots about everything, especially each other.

A/N: PEOPLE. i have a final chapter count. Do you see this. Do you? (Well, you'll have to go on AO3 to see that the final count will be nine, but anyway. ANYWAY.)

Here then is the Great Escape Part I, my darlings, and a little Bucky sorting out his scrambled brains and Steve absolutely not sorting out his scrambled feelings and little more back story and a lot more forward motion, you feel me.

Please please go thank @booksandabeer who saved me from myself (and my writing from needless exposition, wrong character notes, and at least one tonal shift that went completely off the rails). She makes my fic readable, she really does. Also please hug @bittersweet-in-boston who holds my hand and listens to me complain about real life (because it ALWAYS interferes. In everything.) Thank you @hanitrash and @sparkagrace for just being awesome, always.

And all of you still along for the ride -- thank you for your incredible patience. LOOK! THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS FINALLY IN SIGHT!

i love you all. 💖💖💖

[newvegascowboy]

also im gonna be honest, while i think rdr is a fantastic game and a well written tragedy, i really dont jive with the ultimate message of "nothing is forgiven and nothing gets forgotten". i get that at the core of thing, both John and Arthur have done some pretty heinous shit and that no amount of good deeds can make up for the lives they've taken, but so many people suffer unnecessarily, including them. the whole message of "it doesnt matter if you try" is just like... man. ok i guess.

[unma]

I think CEOs and company execs more broadly should be hunted for sport actually.

[collectiveclams]

Is it me or did they flatten the characters in season 8? Either that or the writers focused on the more flattened characters and didn’t try to expand on them more, so despite the season being more action-filled it just seems more bland.

[fisherrprince]

HI…….. IM NEW HERE CAN I ASK WHAT THE SPRAWL AU IS……… HOLDING UP A MICROPHONE TO YOUR CHIN

ARIOFUDB(eats it)

I HAVENT Talked about it in a while have i it’s because I got stuck writing it— anyways. may I direct u to the tag. it is an au so far removed from canon they may as well be ocs to me and I love them dearly and they’re in space and Lauriam and Elrena are like the recurring team rocket villain-friends and Xigbar has pictures from when he was younger and had thigh length hair. this is my pitch

[choccychipz]

some misfits causing chaos in barovia

template can be found here

[candleeyed]

i loved the new spiderverse but miguel is so funny when you think about it. yes hes sad but the whole reason he's an antagonist at all is that he assumes miles is a good person and gets REALLY mad about it. like hes not wrong but he's very angry about it

[unproduciblesmackdown]

other day i was like "yeah virtually all my dreams are defined by anxiety / every goal/hope being Thwarted, but at least i never really have nightmares" but it's like well what's the baseline what's the reaction, b/c i also then have to be like "but does it count if yeah i had a fairly typical dream sequence that was like, 'uh oh, i'm on The Horrors Street and the monster is probably after me, which i'm staving off by hand but it's kind of difficult b/c it can dissolve its own corporeal form in a somewhat gory manner as it tries to gnash at My corporeal form' but i was like 'i mean this is some bullshit but typical tuesday' level reaction so it wasn't a big deal?" like i don't even know when In Real Life it's also typical to have stress reactions like, just now going "smh obviously this sucks. i know i'm stressed. i know this is unpleasant bullshit & somewhat alarming. but typical tuesday (on a thursday)" and only due to noting some physical tremors is it like oh right i guess i'm also having an adrenal response. i tend to bring the like "smoke grenade! disassociation!!" response to a dream in that i can kind of Respond to it by withdrawing / distancing myself, sometimes even like [pushing things into being: as though it's a video game. pausing, exiting, etc] & like it's My psyche & it's brief sequences melding into each other anyways so okay, we'll pivot. other times it's just like yeah this is bullshit but shrug guess we're doing this, until it pivots anyways. Outliers are usually like, "just had an unpleasant Worldwide Peril scenario premise :/" or that like yeah once in a blue moon like sometime the past year my dream was so stressful i woke myself up b/c often when Urgently Confronted w/ Alarming Dream enemy i launch into fight mode & that one was just so [!!!] >:((( that it pushed the urgency into "oh shit, wake up maybe??" response levels. get their ass!! but mostly it's like "ugh i'm at this Job & im not sure what i'm doing, didn't get enough training for this. thinking about getting food but can i afford it" like yeah thee horrors but not as urgent. but then sometimes it's urgent or at least threatening & it's still like literally zzz / well this isn't ideal clearly but it doesn't even occur to me like Do i have nightmares i just shrug off? idek man. call that nightmarinating

[bredforloyalty]

yesterday i was fine and today. i am sick of this shit

[aw-dag]

Section 1557 is the law that guarantees trans protections in the us. Saying she supports that law is not “not giving a shit about trans rights lol” just because you don’t know to what law she is referring.

Lovely how libs has spent a year going "yeah well Harris is gonna back and fund a genocide but at least she will stand by trans people in the US" just for her to come out as not giving a shit about trans rights lol

[thisonesatellite]

tomorrow never knows - CH5

AO3

PAIRING: Steve /Bucky

SUMMARY:

In East Berlin around the late 60s /early 70s, KGB Asset 3B-1 is tasked with eliminating a subject, but his personal equipment malfunctions and the whole thing gets switched to recon and this is how Asset 3B-1 finds himself watching a hapless artist sleep, mostly. But this is the heyday of spies and corruption and nothing ever being what it seems, and so Things Happen. Plot and action and secrets and lies Happen. Until of course the truth comes out, the way it always does. Because at the core of this are Bucky and Steve, as always---idiots who are being the most idiotic idiots about everything, especially each other.

A/N: i AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG.

i may or may not have melted down several times during the course of writing this because there were moments, many moments, when i felt like this was never going to come together.

The reason it did come together is @booksandabeer, period. BECAUSE SHE IS AMAZING and can lead you out of every plot hole and character wobble like it's not even hard.

And also @bittersweet-in-boston for what i can only call anticipatory patience and support, @hanitrash for impatient supportive support, and also @sparkagrace for shouty loving support, all of which i love to distraction, so there.

ANYWAY.

Here's where you find out some Stuff. Finally.