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omfgtrump · 4 years

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The Don Gets The Boot

FUCK YEAH!!!

ABOUT TIME!!!

Americans have voted in the first female Vice President. A mixed race Black Indian whose mother was an immigrant. Now that’s the idea of America!!!

Yes, The Don gets the boot, but how many Republicans will remain boot-lickers? Seems like Lindsey Graham has his tongue stuck to the bottom of The Don’s shoe. Congratulations Lindsey, in a unanimous vote, you win the “Sycophant of the Decade Award.”

Mittens Romney, whose occasional expression of dismay over The Don’s actions, took off the Mittens and took The Don to task. But honestly, I’m tired of hearing that Mittens shows courage and independence. Crawling out of your bunker every few months to venture your dissent only to slink back in to hiding leaves me cold. Where is your voice on The Don’s atrocious handling of the pandemic? Umm, thought so. I guess that makes sense, as you are the one who thought it was okay to tie your dog, like a piece of luggage, to the top of the car, and believed he was having fun. That takes a lot of denial and wishful thinking.

Many are shocked that The Don decided to tell the American people that he won before all the votes were counted. Really?

Let’s examine the reasons why he thought won.

It was unfair that pollsters were counting votes after election day, even though the ballots were cast before or on election day.

He didn’t understand that you can’t choose which states to count votes.

He didn’t think it was legal for people from rat-infested cities like Baltimore to vote. So unfair, so unfair.

There are so many more Red states then Blue ones. If he has more Red M&M’s than blue ones, red wins, right?

Millions of people dressed up as other people and voted twice. The Don said: We have evidence of this. A detailed report will be coming out soon. QAnon is working on it as I speak.

Putin promised me that I would win.

There is evidence that at least 5 million dead people voted, and since Joe Biden is practically dead, they felt closer to him and voted for him. You’ve seen the “Walking Dead,” that stuff is real.

Most importantly: I never lose, so this is all fake news.

Frankly, anyone who understands The Don’s pathology, his malignant narcissism, could have written his ludicrous rant. Translated, it goes: I am The Don, I control the world; if it doesn’t go the way I render it, there is something wrong with the world as there is never anything wrong with me. That’s why I win, win, win; and never lose.

His response to the results of the election are identical to his response to the pandemic. “This can’t be happening because I didn’t deem it to be.” Once again we witness The Don’s delusional process at work, hoping if he repeats over and over that the election is illegal, rigged, a fraud, a conspiracy against the greatest president who ever lived; and that it is he, who is democracy greatest defender.

The next 74 days will be like no other transition of power in this country. Anyone believing The Don will go lightly into the night is living in their own alternative reality. Everything he has done and said before tells us that he will do whatever he can to burn the house down. The chances that he can accept defeat graciously are zero! It is not in his DNA. The Don’s entire life is predicated on destroying others in order to avoid losing: losing exposes his underlying smallness and the humiliation it brings is intolerable. He will do anything and say anything to twist reality so he doesn’t have to experience this. Up until this point in his life, he has miraculously escaped every situation that could have confronted him with his true self. He will never accept defeat and when he eventually leaves the White House (willingly?) to start Trump TV, he will turn his rage toward Joe Biden, just like he did to Barack Obama. He will continue to be a force in politics and continue to stoke fear and resentment and seek revenge on those who have usurped his power because that is the only way he can protect himself from connecting to his smallness. The good news is that those of us who do not want to ever hear from him again won’t have to because he no longer will be president. However, his desire to remain relevant to his supporters will make him a real force in Republican politics and he will have no qualms inciting people to violence. Maybe his first guest will be Steve Bannon, who recently called for the beheading of Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Yes, The Don has lost; and the country, for a few moments, can exhale. Millions took to the streets in celebration. Church bells rang out in Paris like they did after the Germans surrendered; in London, there were fireworks. The perpetual state of anxiety that many Americans were thrust into for four years has been mitigated, though pharmaceutical companies are probably upset as profits may decline because fewer people will renew their prescriptions for anti-depressants and Xanax.

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The Don made democracy fray at its seams, but the people pushed back. Democracy prevailed. Enough of us felt that another four years would catapult us into an autocracy. It is remarkable that nearly 150 million people voted during a pandemic.

It is also remarkable that 70 million people voted for a man who separated children from their parents, supported White Supremacists, banned Muslims, called Mexicans rapists, is a vowed sexual predator (Access Hollywood tape), was impeached (remember that), is in Putin’s pocket and did nothing when he was given high level intelligence information that Russia paid bounties to the Taliban to kill Americans, paid no taxes, covered for the Saudi Prince who murdered a Washington Post reporter and attacked science promulgating an alternative reality (with the heinous silence and collusion of Republicans) that the coronavirus is about to take a hike, when we are being ravaged and setting records for infections with 1,000 people dying every day.

Experts are saying that by the time Biden takes the reigns that there could more than 200,000 cases a day and increasing death tolls. It didn’t have to be that way, and the task before Biden and Kamala is enormous. Long after The Don is gone, our country will be paying the price for his incompetence, indecency, and heinous disregard for human life. Rather than being closer to a point where would are containing the spread, we are heading in to a very dark winter that will take a much longer time to come out of. The economic costs will be graver than necessary and tens of millions of people will continue to struggle with existential issues of food and housing insecurity. As for The Don, he will seek refuge cheating at golf and not give one iota of thought to the suffering of the American people.

For people of color, members of the LGBQT community, Muslims, immigrants and other marginalized groups, there is relief that his malignant man has been banished and hope that Biden and Kamala Harris’s policies will embrace, protect and uplift them. But these communities also see the numbers of Americans who voted for a vengeful, carnival barker who has deceived them into believing he is speaking for them, that he cares about them. Despite all they have seen and heard, his capacity to stoke fear, resentment and divisiveness allowed them to cast their ballot for a White Supremacist, a man totally void of empathy and morality. What message does this communicate to these communities? What does this say about America and its capacity to move forward and embrace equity and inclusion?

It galls me when I hear pundits create moral equivalents between the Right and the Left’s extremism and the need for people to come together. I am all for coming together; this country will have a hard time surviving if we don’t. But the Right in this country (which at this point is the Republican Party) has been stoking racial animus, creating obstacles to voting, promulgating abhorrent and dangerous conspiracy theories, stoking violence by White Supremacists groups, and working against equity and inclusion for years. The violence at Charlottesville did not have good people on both sides. Torch-bearing White Supremacist and Nazi groups chanting anti-Semitic tropes are not the same as people fighting for racial and social justice. The oppressed fighting back is not the same as the oppressor asserting itself. Fighting for social justice shouldn’t even be a movement: it should just be. But as sobering as it is, this is America.

But America is also the place where a Black Indian Woman with an immigrant mother can become vice president. Let’s hope that that the part of us that could make that happen is the part that moves us forward during these challenging times.

P.S

I had planned to end this blog with the defeat of The Don, but given the way this transition is going to go down, I thought I would stick around and wait until he actually leaves the oval office and Biden is sworn in. Hold on to your seats!

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#IFTTT #WordPress #trump #politics #potus #capital hill #washington dc #white house #america #usa

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tessatechaitea · 4 years

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Justice Society of America #4 (1992)

Ultrahumanite exhibits all the characteristics of a man happy to be reunited with friends: cheerily laughing, bright happy expression, hands on hips, weirdly-shaped massive hard-on.

Forgive me for the erect penis joke but I felt it was in the tradition of Grunion Guy. You might find it funny if you knew how uncomfortable it made me to type it and how worried I was for a second that my mother might see it. But then I realized that if my mom saw it, it would mean my mom read Grunion Guy's blog, and then I almost threw up. That would be so embarrassing! Normally I would be on the side of the Justice Society of America because they are the good people with the good values. But how good are their good values if they are trying to stop a job creator and upstanding corporate citizen like Ultrahumanite who is just trying to run his Ultragen business the best way he knows how: with stormtrooper bodyguards to defend labs where they experiment on animal-human hybrids? Anything that hurts corporate profits is a bad thing for capitalism and the Justice Society of America should know that, being that they have "America" right there in their name. Although they also have "Society" in their name and that is a bird whistle for socialists. The bird whistle is the dog whistle of the left because it is more pleasant to listen to and it isn't aggravating or obnoxious and it makes the world a better place for everybody (except people who hate birds and probably own guns to shoot those stupid birds. Stupid birds. So dumb).

Oh no! Nobody warned these old timers that we aren't doing prison rape jokes anymore!

Wildcat has some great words of wisdom in that previous panel. It is the most scienciest science statement I have ever read (unless it was the mathiest math statement): "If X did not happen, Y would have happened! Thusly I have proved we are better than you! QED! In your face, Ultrahumanite!" Whenever I would lose a game of Dungeons & Dragons with my friends Bullpup and McGroover, I would say, "Oh yeah? Let's see you make a delicious sandwich!" Then they would back down and they would be all, "Yes, you are correct, Pickle Boy. You are the better friend with the most useful skills and we are only good at pretending to slaughter Kobold families for copper coins." That's pretty funny if you realize Dungeons & Dragons is about adventurers invading the lairs of creatures to steal their material possessions! Doctor Mid-Nite does not quip with the others because he might be dead. Do not forget these guys are really old! It does not matter how many muscles they have or what kind of cardio breathalyzer tests they can pass; they still have super old bones and a lifetime of clogged arteries. One slip or the slightest bit of extra exertion could mean Stroke City or Brokenhipsville for these cool cats! That is old person slang! It is very humorous!

Now they goof on his stutter? I am beginning to wonder who the real villains are in this story!

Look how happy the Ultrahumanite is! And these old guys have been nothing but bitter, cynical old winds from the butt! Plus he is a successful businessman and scientist who has created life! It sounds like he has turned over a new leaf now that he no longer has to steal bodies. I am not ignoring the laboratory full of hybrid creatures; I'm just going to assume that they were all volunteers until it is proven otherwise. You cannot go through life never eating the buttered bread that fell on the floor buttered side down! Ultrahumanite decides to recount his past for some reason. This made me laugh because I was thinking, "Yeah! They are old men. They cannot remember stuff from so long ago and also they have enlarged prostates!"

But which is actually worse: making fun of somebody's disability or sympathizing with Nazis? I've got some hard questions to answer!

Some things are unforgivable but one thing I think we can all agree to forgive is a hot woman who sided with the Nazis.

How does a huge ape body reflect the Ultrahumanite's desires? Please do not answer, "He loves to copulate with monkeys," because that's what I an suggesting by the question and you would look like one of those fools on Twitter who thinks they are hilarious by restating somebody's joke in a less subtle manner.

Ultrahumanite continues to explain how he became such a pillar of the business community. It is as boring as you would expect a PowerPoint presentation from a business man would be. That was probably the joke! Why is not the trademarked name "PowerPoint" two words? If you are going to bother capitalizing the second "P", you might as well just separate the words. Maybe it was somebody's online name when they were fourteen years old. It is always a smart decision to just run the two words together rather than separating them with an underscore. And it is easier to read when the second word is capitalized (as opposed to every other word capitalized or just the consonants. I do not understand young people). Nobody remembers to put underscores in when searching for a name online!

"Ultrahumanite! You are experimenting on innocent people, ruining the environment, causing unknown amounts of damage to the populace of every city where one of your labs operates but Ted Grant and the world just want to know one thing: was that hot Nazi body the real you because 'Rrrrrow!'"

You think I am making a joke but I don't joke about things that I don't joke about and one of those things is that Ted Grant has previously expressed interest in cultivating an intimate relationship with hot Nazi Ultrahumanite. Specifically, he said earlier that she "swept him off his feet." He only used that phrase so Al could make a joke about how they were hanging upside down so the sweeping off of feet is still happening. But I think, in his heart, he wanted to say, "She made me spontaneously become a man every time we wrestled. Is that okay under the Hays Code? Can I get away with that amount of innuendo?!" The Ultrahumanite has to go deal with The Flash who has literally suddenly appeared. Weird how the word "literally" is never actually needed when it is used properly. I guess using it in a hyperbolic and exaggerated fashion is really its only job. While Ultrahumanite is gone, Doctor Mid-Nite "double joints" his wrists to escape. I'm pretty sure Grunion Guy's wrists were double jointed by the amount of times he wrote about masturbating. He was a crude jerk but I still hope he rests in peace in that pauper's cemetery down by the toxic sludge factory. Doctor Mid-Nite takes on the guards while The Atom and Wildcat rush out to save The Flash who is The Flash and almost certainly does not need saving. While Doctor Mid-Nite is beating up the guards, he suddenly becomes a stand up comedian. Was I wrong to assume he was an actual doctor? Is that just his stage persona? I would tell you why his jokes were funny if they were but I cannot figure them out. Why is this an old joke (and if it is, why would he even retell it when it is nonsense): "I know you're out there because I can hear you breathing"? The Flash gets encased in some living green goo that absorbs heat and kinetic energy which might also be a definition of heat? I'm just a sandwich maker slash writer's assistant who has never once showed an ounce of curiosity about the real world so forgive me for languishing in my ignorance. At least I own a thesaurus. Back in Gotham City, Jesse Quick appears for a page or two to remind everybody that she exists. "Hello! I am the hot daughter of the infomercial guy! I have also deluded myself into believing a mathematical equation gives me super speed! It makes no sense!" Jesse takes some papers proving that Ultragen is breaking laws so the JSA has the right to beat the crap out of its CEO. For comedic effect, they have a little more confusion over Ultrahumanite's pronouns (which, to be fair, he has not expressed any preference for and doesn't seem to mind using whatever pronouns match the gender he seems to be expressing) before rushing off to punch her in the face. I don't know what pronouns to use either but she was a super hot Nazi so let's just go with that one.

See? She is a scientific genius!

At first I was all, "Oh, big deal! So The Flash is trapped in goo!" And then the Ultrahumanite was all, "You cannot breathe without oxygen!" And then I was all, "Oh no! I had not thought of that! Somebody save him, preferably an old guy from the JSA or I will feel cheated out of my hard earned buck twenty-five." I keep laughing at that previously scanned panel and how Wildcat and The Atom are hiding behind trees the way characters do in comic strips. So ridiculous! It is even funnier if you remember that they are old men! I bet you are laughing a lot more now! Doctor Mid-Nite arrives because he "smoke bombed" with his previous stand-up gig. Get it?! If you understood the play on the word "bomb" there and that I meant the fight against the guards when I said "stand-up gig," you would be cracking up like crazy!

Yeah. A smoke bomb! We all know that is where he keeps them!

The Flash breaks free and Doctor Mid-Nite punches Ultrahumanite in the nose, breaking it. Ultrahumanite is so vain that he falls to the ground, defeated! And that is when the Calvary arrives! That is funny because I used the wrong word and now you are picturing a crucified Jesus riding up on a horse to save the day instead of Green Lantern, The Flash, and Jesse Quick arriving on a Green Lantern construct! Justice Society of America #4 Rating: A. I have not read as many comic books as Grunion Guy but this one seemed pretty good in comparison to the ones I have read, like WildC.A.T.S. #1 and pick any issue you want of Youngblood. One more "What gender is Ultrahumanite?!" joke for the road!

Alan felt this was the kind of thing a heterosexual would say. It's funny because he "New 52" comes out of the closet later!

#Justice Society of America #DC Comics #DC #Len Strazewski #Mike Parobeck #Mike Machlan

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positivlyfocused · 5 years

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Things happening in my life is how I know my spirituality works.

My my life gets better and better. In every area.

Coming on the heels of the previous story, the following is further proof. Further proof how All That Is makes things happen with virtually no effort on my part.

In that previous post I wrote about what seemed like a chance meeting, but really wasn't. That story showed how when people show up in what seems like magical ways, I know I'm doing this whole "manifesting" business right.

The more that happens, the more I want to keep it up. I'm discovering a brand new kind of life. A life where everything I want happens with no effort.

. . .

This next experience happened last month, one week after the previous post. It shows how the Universe answers my every desire. The path it creates though is never direct. It curves all over the place.

That's because I'm always adding more to my desires. And every thing added is being organized by me to be experienced by me. That's why I know I already have everything I want. Even though it looks like I don't right now.

It looks that way because "right now" is the past. Not the present.

The reason it looks like I don't have these things "right now" is, because the present has manifestED. The NOW is in a manifestING PROCESS.

The now is always a manifestING thing. In the manifestING NOW, I have all I want. It only takes a while for it to become manifestED. But when it becomes manifested, it's the past.

I want to be in the steady, manifestING now. Not the "right now". The fresh, the new is in the manifesting now, what I also call The Moment of Becoming (MOB).

Sometimes I get impatient about not having in the right now what it I want. I know being impatient prolongs the process. So I strive to be happy and positive with the right now, knowing it's old news. Not news.

What's more, it takes longer to manifest things in physical reality. In the nonphysical realm of the MOB, everything happens now. The trick is finding satisfaction with that. Rather than satisfaction on the right now, which is the manifested past.

After all, what is manifestING MUST become manifestED. That's just how life works. Here's why satisfaction with the MOB reality is key. When I'm satisfied there, I'm not prolonging the process. The process by which things there become real things in the "right now".

See?

So I know it's only a matter of time before everything I want becomes my physical reality, my right now. How do I know it's happening? How can I believe that? Experiences like the one you're about to read happen so much these days, I'm convinced.

Incredible Outcomes Indicate More Are On The Way

Before I share what happened, here's some context. What happened was cool. But if you don't have the context, you won't understand it.

I now have a bridging job. I call it that because it bridges beliefs I've held a while with beliefs I'd rather be dominant.

To explain...

I have believed, like a lot of people - nearly everyone actually - that money shows up in my bank account when I do something to "earn it".

That's not the only way money can show up though. There are infinite ways money can show up in my bank account.

For example:

There are people who inherit money.

There are people who win lotteries.

There are people who steal money and get away with that.

There are people who find money.

There are people other people give money to for no apparent reason.

There are people who's money comes from interest and investing.

There are others who do things today, that later, generate constant streams of money. Like building a company, or creating a film or writing a song today, that perpetually generates income through profits or royalties.

So there are a lot of people experiencing money flowing into their experience. And that flow is not tied to what they're doing.

My beliefs about money match beliefs most of us tell. Like others, I've believed this so long, it has a lot of momentum. The belief that "I must do things to earn money" itself has faded into my consciousness background. Doing so it creates a belief constellation and associated reality. A reality I took for granted as some objective"truth".

That reality can be replaced with any reality I deliberately create. And beliefs creating that reality can become my new beliefs. A new "truth" emerges. As real as my current one.

The shift can't happen quick though.

That's because my old beliefs have a lot of momentum. I know this because I've tried over the last four years to force it through action. That didn't work. My old belief constellation has too much momentum behind it to turn it on a dime. Like the train analogy, old belief momentum must first slow down. Before new belief momentum can dominate.

So I've taken this bridging job as a way of slowing momentum behind my old story.

What I like about living is, I learn how to live better nearly every day. By better, I mean happier. Every day life shows me how to live in accordance with my Personal Trinity in the Moment of Becoming. The better I get at that, the better life gets.

The happier I get.

This bridging job is part of my learning. It came consistent with creating my reality. That's another story too. One I already plan writing about.

Suffice it to say I didn't have to do anything to get the job. It literally came to me. And, my Inner Being has told me over and over that this job is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now.

Meeting that transgender woman I wrote about last time, and the way it happened confirms this. So does what happened in this story. So much good stuff is happening, I know this job is on the path to all I want.

Ok. That's the context.

So here I am, at my bridging job. I'm preparing to go on a route when another guy asks to ride with me. He does the same job I do. Sometimes our dispatcher pairs us.

So this guy, I'll call him "Guy", and I pair up. We prep my van. Then we head out.

Turns out Guy believes in the power of beliefs. He also coaches others on using clinical techniques to change reality. I didn't know this about him. But that was a nice surprise. I have no idea how successful his approach is.

Anyway, we spend the day connecting over this and other things we have in common. We both enjoy the work we're doing. We both enjoy practicing positivity. We both enjoy napping in parks. ☺️ We both have other things going on. Things larger than this job we enjoy. We both know life is an adventure. We both have strong spiritual practices.

Midway through the work day, Guy tells me he's enjoying working with me. The feeling is mutual.

Guy asks me about what I do when I'm not at the job. I tell him about Copiosis and Positively Focused.

Then I tell him about The Transamorous Network. As I'm talking his eyes light up. He's rapt while I'm telling about it.

When I finish, Guy says "Perry, I'm a trans guy."

I knew that about him. But didn't want to say anything. Was I surprised? Yes.

And no.

Think about this. I'm telling more and more stories about affiliating with the trans community, about wanting a person who matches my relationship desires. And here I've spent my entire day with a transgender person! On my job! The job my Inner Being said was perfect for me!

Not only did we spend the day together, we share many things we believe in.

This doesn't mean Guy is one of my matches. He's not someone I'm gonna date. I want a transgender woman after all. But he represents my unfolding path to the person I want.

I know life is not a straight line to my fulfilled desire. It's a roundabout adventure!

I also know I'm not supposed to get everything I want all at once. That would be overwhelming. Imagine if all the transgender women I would meet in this life and the next and the next showed up right now. I'd have so much trouble just remembering all their names!

That wouldn't be fun at all. Well...it might be at first. 😜

It's much more fun watching my Personal Trinity put together events. Like this all-day get-together, put together in ways I couldn't organize myself. Or like thatbus experience from the last post. I know it's all happening -- Sarah from two weeks ago, "Guy" from this week, the other transgender woman I chatted with on the bus the other day, but didn't write about, the media interviews I'm doing more of lately, and whatever else might come next. It's all for the sheer enjoyment of the unfolding. Not for the end result!

So Guy isn't the one. I mean he is a match in the sense he matches many of my beliefs. That's great news. It's great news because if Guy is this close of a match, imagine what my actual transgender woman match will be!

Guy showing up in my life is like the Universe saying "here's evidence you're on the right track. Congrats. Keep up the great work!"

Just as Jeannette was in the last post. Just as the trans woman I chatted with briefly on the bus the other day. It's all evidence my beliefs are changing.

And here's the better news: As one belief's evidence shows up, that means, all my new beliefs are in play too. Everything happens simultaneously.

So I know my belief about money flowing into my bank account, without me having to do anything, is becoming real. I know it's becoming real because this belief about my transgender partner is unfolding in tangible, satisfying ways.

This is how it works!

Let me be more clear: Meeting Guy, spending all day with him, enjoying the connection and having so much in common with him tells me I'm headed in the right direction. A direction where I'll spend all day with, enjoy the connection with, and have so much in common with her. The transgender woman who matches me as much and more as Guy does.

And, all that will coincide with an event, where my bank account fills with money.

On the way to all that, I'm having fun enjoying my now.

· · ·

There's more to the story of course.

Guy then asks if The Transamorous Network would ever expand its work. He wondered if it could help trans people become more comfortable in their skin.

The short answer is: yes.

The longer answer is of course. Until a person is comfortable in their skin, i.e. holding beliefs of self-acceptance, self love and worthiness, they can't meet their ideal partner. Or have much else that they really, really want.

If I want a person who is confident; someone happy in themselves; a strong and capable person, a happy person, that person can only be mine if I feel that way about myself. I have to be a match to that. That's the only way I can have that.

Of course that is what Positively Focused helps people with. We help others learn how to do what I'm doing.

After that, Guy asked me for my contact information. He said he wanted it for when he meets transgender women. He asked whether I prefer non-op, pre-op or post-op women. I think he's thinking about matching me with someone. Why else would he ask such questions?

I know one of the ways the Universe brings my match into my life will be through people I already know. Since Guy shares many of the same things I believe in, and since he sees and knows a lot of transgender people, who knows what may come of this? That said, I know my Inner Being has far broader perspective than I have. So she can come from anywhere.

That's not why I'm happy about having met Guy. Guy is a cool person. It's fun to work with him. It's cool to have him as a co worker.

And, he's an exceptional indicator that my beliefs, my new beliefs, are shaping for me a new reality. One in which everything I want is.

Seems something significant is happening every week now. I like that pace. And I know it's going to get better and better. Real evidence is the best evidence of spiritual validity.

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shirlleycoyle · 4 years

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What Alternate Reality Games Teach Us About the Dangerous Appeal of QAnon

This story was originally published on mssv.net by Adrian Hon (@adrianhon)

The far-right QAnon conspiracy theory is so sprawling, it’s hard to know where people join. Last week, it was 5G cell towers, this week it’s Wayfair; who knows what next week will bring? But QAnon’s followers always seem to begin their journey with the same refrain: “I’ve done my research.”

I’d heard that line before. In early 2001, the marketing for Steven Spielberg’s latest movie, A.I., had just begun. YouTube wouldn’t launch for another four years, so you had to be eagle-eyed to spot the unusual credit next to Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, and Frances O’Connor: Jeanine Salla, the movie’s “Sentient Machine Therapist.”

Close-up of the A.I. movie poster

Soon after, Ain’t It Cool News (AICN) posted a tip from a reader:

“Type her name in the Google.com search engine, and see what sites pop up…pretty cool stuff! Keep up the good work, Harry!! –ClaviusBase”

(Yes, in 2001 Google was so new you had to spell out its web address.)

The Google results began with Jeanine Salla’s homepage but led to a whole network of fictional sites. Some were futuristic versions of police websites or lifestyle magazines; others were inscrutable online stores and hacked blogs. A couple were in German and Japanese. In all, over twenty sites and phone numbers were listed.

By the end of the day, the websites racked up 25 million hits, all from a single AICN article suggesting readers ‘do their research’. It later emerged they were part of one of the first-ever alternate reality games (ARG), The Beast, developed by Microsoft to promote Spielberg’s movie.

The way I’ve described it here, The Beast sounds like enormous fun. Who wouldn’t be intrigued by a doorway into 2142 filled with websites and phone numbers and puzzles, with runaway robots who need your help and even live events around the world? But consider how much work it required to understand the story and it begins to sound less like “watching TV” fun and more like “painstaking research” fun. Along with tracking dozens of websites that updated in real time, you had to solve lute tablature puzzles, decode base 64 messages, reconstruct 3D models of island chains that spelt out messages, and gather clues from newspaper and TV adverts across the US.

This purposeful yet bewildering complexity is the complete opposite of what many associate with conventional popular entertainment, where every bump in your road to enjoyment has been smoothed away in the pursuit of instant engagement and maximal profit. But there’s always been another kind of entertainment that appeals to different people at different times, one that rewards active discovery, the drawing of connections between clues, the delicious sensation of a hunch that pays off after hours or days of work. Puzzle books, murder mysteries, adventure games, escape rooms, even scientific research—they all aim for the same spot.

What was new in The Beast and the ARGs that followed it was less the specific puzzles and stories they incorporated, but the sheer scale of the worlds they realised—so vast and fast-moving that no individual could hope to comprehend them. Instead, players were forced to cooperate, sharing discoveries and solutions, exchanging ideas, and creating resources for others to follow. I’d know: I wrote a novel-length walkthrough of The Beast when I was meant to be studying for my degree at Cambridge.

QAnon is not an ARG. It’s a dangerous conspiracy theory, and there are lots of ways of understanding conspiracy theories without ARGs. But QAnon pushes the same buttons that ARGs do, whether by intention or by coincidence. In both cases, “do your research” leads curious onlookers to a cornucopia of brain-tingling information.

In other words, maybe QAnon is… fun?

ARGs never made it big. They came too early and It’s hard to charge for a game that you stumble into through a Google search. But maybe their purposely-fragmented, internet-native, community-based form of storytelling and puzzle-solving was just biding its time…

This blog post expands on the ideas in my Twitter thread about QAnon and ARGs, and incorporates many of the valuable replies. Please note, however, that I’m not a QAnon expert and I’m not a scholar of conspiracy theories. I’m not even the first to compare QAnon to LARPs and ARGs.

But my experience as lead designer of Perplex City, one of the world’s most popular and longest-running ARGs, gives me a special perspective on QAnon’s game-like nature. My background as a neuroscientist and experimental psychologist also gives me insight into what motivates people.

Today, I run Six to Start, best known for Zombies, Run!, an audio-based augmented reality game with half a million active players, and I’m writing a book about the perils and promise of gamification.

It’s Like We Did It On Purpose

Perplex City “Ascendancy Point” Story Arc

When I was designing Perplex City, I loved sketching out new story arcs. I’d create intricate chains of information and clues for players to uncover, colour-coding for different websites and characters. There was a knack to having enough parallel strands of investigation going on so that players didn’t feel railroaded, but not so many that they were overwhelmed. It was a particular pleasure to have seemingly unconnected arcs intersect after weeks or months.

Merely half of the “Q-web“

No-one would mistake the clean lines of my flowcharts for the snarl of links that makes up a QAnon theory, but the principles are similar: one discovery leading to the next. Of course, these two flowcharts are very different beasts. The QAnon one is an imaginary, retrospective description of supposedly-connected data, while mine is a prescriptive network of events I would design.

Except that’s not quite true. In reality, Perplex City players didn’t always solve our puzzles as quickly as we intended them to, or they became convinced their incorrect solution was correct, or embarrassingly, our puzzles were broken and had no solution at all. In those cases we had to rewrite the story on the fly.

When this happens in most media, you just hold up your hands and say you made a mistake. In video games, you can issue an online update and hope no-one’s the wiser. But in ARGs, a public correction would shatter the uniquely-prolonged collective suspension of disbelief in the story. This was thought to be so integral to the appeal of ARGs, it was termed TINAG, or “This is Not a Game.”

So when we messed up in Perplex City, we tried mightily to avoid editing websites, a sure sign this was, in fact, a game. Instead, we’d fix it by adding new storylines and writing through the problem (it helped to have a crack team of writers and designers, including Naomi Alderman, Andrea Phillips, David Varela, Dan Hon, Jey Biddulph, Fi Silk, Eric Harshbarger, and many many others).

We had a saying when these diversions worked out especially well: “It’s like we did it on purpose.”

Every ARG designer can tell a similar war story. Here’s Josh Fialkov, writer for the Lonelygirl15 ARG/show:

“Our fans/viewers would build elaborate (and pretty neat) theories and stories around the stories we’d already put together and then we’d merge them into our narrative, which would then engage them more. The one I think about the most is we were shooting something on location and we’re run and gunning. We fucked up and our local set PA ended up in the background of a long selfie shot. We had no idea. It was 100% a screw up. The fans became convinced the character was in danger. And then later when that character revealed herself as part of the evil conspiracy — that footage was part of the audiences proof that she was working with the bad guys all along — “THATS why he was in the background!” They literally found a mistake – made it a story point. And used it as evidence of their own foresight into the ending — despite it being, again, us totally being exhausted and sloppy. And at the time hundreds of thousands of people were participating and contributing to a fictional universe and creating strands upon strands.”

Conspiracy theories and cults evince the same insouciance when confronted with inconsistencies or falsified predictions; they can always explain away errors with new stories and theories. What’s special about QAnon and ARGs is that these errors can be fixed almost instantly, before doubt or ridicule can set in. And what’s really special about QAnon is how it’s absorbed all other conspiracy theories to become a kind of ur-conspiracy theory such that seems pointless to call out inconsistencies. In any case, who would you even be calling out when so many QAnon theories come from followers rather than “Q”?

Yet the line between creator and player in ARGs has also long been blurry. That tip from “ClaviusBase” to AICN that catapulted The Beast to massive mainstream coverage? The designers more or less admitted it came from them. Indeed, there’s a grand tradition of ARG “puppetmasters” (an actual term used by devotees) sneaking out from “behind the curtain” (ditto) to create “sockpuppet accounts” in community forums to seed clues, provide solutions, and generally chivvy players along the paths they so carefully designed.

As an ARG designer, I used to take a hard line against this kind of cheating but in the years since, I’ve mellowed somewhat, mostly because it can make the game more fun, and ultimately, because everyone expects it these days. That’s not the case with QAnon.

Yes, anyone who uses 4chan and 8chan understands that anonymity is baked into the system such that posters frequently create entire threads where they argue against themselves in the guise of anonymous users who are impossible to distinguish or trace back to a single individual – but do the more casual QAnon followers know that?

Local Fame

A Beautiful Mind

Pop culture’s conspiracy theorist sits in a dark basement stringing together photos and newspaper clippings on their "crazy wall." On the few occasions this leads to useful results, it’s an unenviable pursuit. Anyone choosing such an existence tends to be shunned by society.

But this ignores one gaping fact: piecing together theories is really satisfying. Writing my walkthrough for The Beast was rewarding and meaningful, appreciated by an enthusiastic community in a way that my molecular biology essays most certainly were not. Online communities have long been dismissed as inferior in every way to “real” friendships, an attenuated version that’s better than nothing, but not something that anyone should choose. Yet ARGs and QAnon (and games and fandom and so many other things) demonstrate there’s an immediacy and scale and relevance to online communities that can be more potent and rewarding than a neighbourhood bake sale. This won’t be news to most of you, but I think it’s still news to decision-makers in traditional media and politics.

Good ARGs are deliberately designed with puzzles and challenges that require unusual talents—I designed one puzzle that required a good understanding of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs—with problems so large that they require crowdsourcing to solve, such that all players feel like welcome and valued contributors.

Needless to say, that feeling is missing from many people’s lives:

“ARGs are generally a showcase for special talent that often goes unrecognized elsewhere. I have met so many wildly talented people with weird knowledge through them.”

If you’re first to solve a puzzle or make a connection, you can attain local fame in ARG communities, as Dan Hon, COO at Mind Candy (makers of the Perplex City ARG), notes. The vast online communities for TV shows like Lost and Westworld, with their purposefully convoluted mystery box plots, also reward those who guess twists early, or produce helpful explainer videos. Yes, the reward is “just” internet points in the form of Reddit upvotes, but the feeling of being appreciated is very real. It’s no coincidence that Lost and Westworld both used ARGs to promote their shows.

Wherever you have depth in storytelling or content or mechanics, you’ll find the same kind of online communities. Games like Bloodborne, Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Dwarf Fortress, Animal Crossing, Eve Online, and Elite Dangerous, they all share the same race for discovery. These discoveries eventually become processed into explainer videos and Reddit posts that are more accessible for wider audiences.

The same has happened with modern ARGs, where explainer videos have become so compelling they rack up more views than the ARGs have players (not unlike Twitch). Michael Andersen, owner of the Alternate Reality Gaming Network news site, is a fan of this trend, but wonders about its downside—with reference to conspiracy theorists:

“[W]hen you’re reading (or watching) a summary of an ARG? All of the assumptions and logical leaps have been wrapped up and packaged for you, tied up with a nice little bow. Everything makes sense, and you can see how it all flows together. Living it, though? Sheer chaos. Wild conjectures and theories flying left and right, with circumstantial evidence and speculation ruling the day. Things exist in a fugue state of being simultaneously true-and-not-true, and it’s only the accumulation of evidence that resolves it. And acquiring a “knack” for sifting through theories to surface what’s believable is an extremely valuable skill—both for actively playing ARGs, and for life in general.And sometimes, I worry that when people consume these neatly packaged theories that show all the pieces coming together, they miss out on all those false starts and coincidences that help develop critical thinking skills. …because yes, conspiracy theories try and offer up those same neat packages that attempt to explain the seemingly unexplained. And it’s pretty damn important to learn how groups can be led astray in search of those neatly wrapped packages.”

“SPEC”

I’m a big fan of the SCP Foundation, a creative writing website set within a shared universe not unlike The X-Files. Its top-rated stories rank among the best science fiction and horror I’ve read. A few years ago, I wrote my own (very silly) story, SCP-3993, where New York’s ubiquitous LinkNYC internet kiosks are cover for a mysterious reality-altering invasion.

CITYBRIDGE/NYC

Like the rest of SCP, this was all in good fun, but I recently discovered LinkNYC is tangled up in QAnon conspiracy theories. To be fair, you can say the same thing about pretty much every modern technology, but it’s not surprising their monolith-like presence caught conspiracy theorists’ attention as it did mine.

It’s not unreasonable to be creeped out by LinkNYC. In 2016, the New York Civil Liberties Union wrote to the mayor about “the vast amount of private information retained by the LinkNYC system and the lack of robust language in the privacy policy protecting users against unwarranted government surveillance.” Two years later, kiosks along Third Avenue in Midtown mysteriously blasted out a slowed-down version of the Mister Softee theme song. So there’s at least some cause for speculation. The problem is when speculation hardens into reality.

Not long after the AICN post, The Beast’s players set up a Yahoo Group mailing list called Cloudmakers, named after a boat in the story. As the number of posts rose to dozens and then hundreds per day, it became obvious to list moderators (including me) that some form of organisation was in order. One rule we established was that posts should include a prefix in their subject so members could easily distinguish website updates from puzzle solutions.

My favourite prefix was “SPEC,” a catch-all for any kind of unfounded speculation, most of which was fun nonsense but some of which ended up being true. There were no limits on what or how much you could post, but you always had to use the prefix so people could ignore it. Other moderated communities have similar guidelines, with rationalists using their typically long-winded “epistemic status” metadata.

Absent this kind of moderation, speculation ends up overwhelming communities since it’s far easier and more fun to bullshit than do actual research. And if speculation is repeated enough times, if it’s finessed enough, it can harden into accepted fact, leading to devastating and even fatal consequences.

I’ve personally been the subject of this process thanks to my work in ARGs—not just once, but twice.

The first occasion was fairly innocent. One of our more famous Perplex City puzzles, Billion to One, was a photo of a man. That’s it. The challenge was to find him. Obviously, we were riffing on the whole “six degrees of separation” concept. Some thought it’d be easy, but I was less convinced. Sure enough, fourteen years on, the puzzle is still unsolved, but not for lack of trying. Every so often, the internet rediscovers the puzzle amid a flurry of YouTube videos and podcasts; I can tell whenever this happens because people start DMing me on Twitter and Instagram.

This literally came a few days ago

A clue in the puzzle is the man’s name, Satoshi. It is not a rare name, and it happens to be same as the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. So of course people think Perplex City’s Satoshi created bitcoin. Not a lot of people, to be fair, but enough that I get DMs about it every week. But it’s all pretty innocent, like I said.

More concerning is my presumed connection to Cicada 3301, a mysterious group that recruited codebreakers through very difficult online puzzles. Back in 2011, my company developed a pseudo-ARG for the BBC Two factual series, The Code, all about mathematics. This involved planting clues into the show itself, along with online educational games and a treasure hunt.

To illustrate the concept of prime numbers, The Code explored the gestation period of cicadas. We had no hand in the writing of the show; we got the script and developed our ARG around it. But this was enough to create a brand new conspiracy theory, featuring yours truly:

My bit starts around 20 minutes in:

Interviewer: Why [did you make a puzzle about] cicadas?

Me: Cicadas are known for having a gestation period which is linked to prime numbers. Prime numbers are at the heart of nature and the heart of mathematics.

Interviewer: That puzzle comes out in June 2011.

Me: Yeah.

Interviewer: Six months later, Cicada 3301 makes its international debut.

Me: It's a big coincidence.

Interviewer: There are some people who have brought up the fact that whoever's behind Cicada 3301 would have to be a very accomplished game maker.

Me: Sure.

Interviewer: You would be a candidate to be that person.

Me: That's true, I mean, Cicada 3301 has a lot in common with the games we've made. I think that one big difference (chuckles) is that normally when we make alternate reality games, we do it for money. And it's not so clear to understand where the funding for Cicada 3301 is coming from.

Clearly this was all just in fun – I knew it and the interviewer knew it. That’s why I agreed to take part. But does everyone watching this understand that? There’s no “SPEC” tag on the video. At least a few commenters are taking it seriously:

I am the “ARG guy” in question

I’m not worried, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t a touch concerned that Cicada 3301 now lies squarely in the QAnon vortex and in the “Q-web“:

Here’s a good interview with the creator of the “Q-web”

My defence that the cicada puzzle in The Code was “a big coincidence” (albeit delivered with an unfortunate shit-eating grin) didn’t hold water. In the conspiracy theorest mindset, no such thing exists:

“According to Michael Barkun, emeritus professor of political science at Syracuse University, three core principles characterize most conspiracy theories. Firstly, the belief that nothing happens by accident or coincidence. Secondly, that nothing is as it seems: The “appearance of innocence” is to be suspected. Finally, the belief that everything is connected through a hidden pattern.”

These are helpful beliefs when playing an ARG or watching a TV show designed with twists and turns. It’s fun to speculate and to join seemingly disparate ideas, especially when the creators encourage and reward this behaviour. It’s less helpful when conspiracy theorists “yes, and…” each other into shooting up a pizza parlour or burning down 5G cell towers.

Because there is no coherent QAnon community in the same sense as the Cloudmakers, there’s no convention of “SPEC” tags. In their absence, YouTube has added annotated QAnon videos with links to its Wikipedia article, and Twitter has banned 7,000 accounts and restricted 150,000 more, among other actions. Supposedly, Facebook is planning to do the same.

These are useful steps but will not stop QAnon from spreading in social media comments or private chat groups or unmoderated forums. It’s not something we can reasonably hope for, and I don’t think there’s any technological solution (e.g. browser extensions) either. The only way to stop people from mistaking speculation from fact is for them to want to stop.

Cryptic

It’s always nice to have a few mysteries for players to speculate on in an ARG, if only because it helps them pass the time while the poor puppetmasters scramble to sate their insatiable demand for more website updates and puzzles. A good mystery can keep a community guessing for, as Lost did with its numbers or Game of Thrones with Jon Snow’s parentage. But these mysteries always have to be balanced against specifics, lest the whole story dissolve into a puddle of mush; for as much we derided Lost for the underwhelming conclusion to its mysteries, no-one would’ve watched in the first place if the episode-to-episode storytelling wasn’t so strong.

The downside of being too mysterious in Perplex City is that cryptic messages often led players on wild goose chases such that they completely ignored entire story arcs in favour of pursuing their own theories. This was bad for us because we had a pretty strict timetable that we needed our story to play out on, pinned against the release of our physical puzzle cards that funded the entire enterprise. If players took too long to find the $200,000 treasure at the conclusion of the story, we might run out of money.

QAnon can favour cryptic messages because, as far as I know, they don’t have a specific timeline or goal in mind, let alone a production budget or paid staff. Not only is there no harm in followers misinterpreting messages, but it’s a strength: followers can occupy themselves with their own spin-off theories far better than “Q” can. Dan Hon notes:

“For every ARG I’ve been involved in and ones my friends have been involved in, communities always consume/complete/burn through content faster than you can make it, when you’re doing a narrative-based game. This content generation/consumption/playing asymmetry is, I think, just a fact. But QAnon “solved” it by being able to co-opt all content that already exists and … encourages and allows you to create new content that counts and is fair play in-the-game.”

But even QAnon needs some specificity, hence their frequent references to actual people, places, events, and so on.

A brief aside on designing very hard puzzles

It was useful to be cryptic when I needed to control the speed at which players solved especially consequential puzzles, like the one revealing where our $200,000 treasure was buried. For story and marketing purposes, we wanted players to be able to find it as soon as they had access to all 256 puzzle cards, which we released in three waves. We also wanted players to feel like they were making progress before they had all the cards and we didn’t want them to find the location the minute they had the last card.

My answer was to represent the location as the solution to multiple cryptic puzzles. One puzzle referred to the Jurassic strata in the UK, which I split across the background of 14 cards. Another began with a microdot revealing which order to arrange triple letters I’d hidden on a bunch of cards. By performing mod arithmetic on the letter/number values, you would arrive at 1, 2, 3 or 4, corresponding to the four DNA nucleotides. If you understood the triplets as codons for amino acids, they became letters. These letters led you to the phrase “Duke of Burgundy”, the name of a butterfly whose location, when combined with the Jurassic strata, would help you narrow down the location of the treasure.

The nice thing about this convoluted sequence is that we could provide additional online clues to help the players community when they got stuck. The point being, you can’t make an easy puzzle harder, but you can make a hard puzzle easier.

Beyond ARGs

It can feel crass to compare ARGs to a conspiracy theory that’s caused so much harm. But this reveals the crucial difference between them: in QAnon, the stakes so high, any action is justified. If you truly believe an online store or a pizza parlour is engaging in child trafficking and the authorities are complicit, extreme behaviour is justified.

Gabriel Roth, editorial director for audio at Slate, extends this idea:

“What QAnon has that ARGs didn’t have is the claim of factual truth; in that sense it reminds me of the Bullshit Anecdotal Memoir wave of the 90s and early 00s. If you have a story based on real life, but you want to make it more interesting, the correct thing to do is change the names of the people and make it as interesting as you like and call it fiction. The insight of the Bullshit Anecdotal Memoirists (I’m thinking of James Frey and Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris) was that you could call it nonfiction and readers would like it much better because it would have the claim of actual factual truth, wowee!! And it worked! How much more engaging and addictive is an immersive, participatory ARG when it adds that unique frisson you can only get with the claim of factual truth? And bear in mind that ARG-scale stories aren’t about mere personal experiences—they operate on a world-historical scale.”

ARGs’ playfulness with the truth and their sometimes-imperceptible winking of This Is Not A Game (accusations Lonelygirl15 was a hoax) is only the most modern incarnation of epistolary storytelling. In that context, immersive and realistic stories have long elicited extreme reactions, like the panic incited by Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds (often exaggerated, to be fair).

We don’t have to wonder what happens when an ARG community meets a matter of life and death. Not long after The Beast concluded, the 9/11 attacks happened. A small number of posters in the Cloudmakers mailing list suggested the community use its skills to “solve” the question of who was behind the attack.

The brief but intense discussion that ensued has become a cautionary tale of ARG communities getting carried away and being unable to distinguish fiction from reality. In reality, the community and the moderators quickly shut down the idea as being impractical, insensitive, and very dangerous. “Cloudmakers tried to solve 9/11” is a great story, but it’s completely false.

Unfortunately, the same isn’t true for the poster child for online sleuthing gone wrong, the r/findbostonbombers subreddit. There’s a parallel between the essentially unmoderated, anonymous theorists of r/findbostonbombers and those in QAnon: neither feel any responsibility for spreading unsupported speculation as fact. What they do feel is that anything should be solvable, as Laura Hall, immersive environment and narrative designer, describes:

“There’s a general sense of, ‘This should be solveable/findable/etc’ that you see in lots of reddit communities for unsolved mysteries and so on. The feeling that all information is available online, that reality and truth must be captured/in evidence somewhere”

There’s truth in that feeling. There is a vast amount of information online, and sometimes it is possible to solve “mysteries”, which makes it hard to criticise people for trying, especially when it comes to stopping perceived injustices. But it’s the sheer volume of information online that makes it so easy and so tempting and so fun to draw spurious connections.

That joy of solving and connecting and sharing and communication can do great things, and it can do awful things. As Josh Fialkov, writer for Lonelygirl15, says:

That brain power negatively focused on what [conspiracy theorists] perceive as life and death (but is actually crassly manipulated paranoia) scares the living shit out of me.

What ARGs Can Teach Us

Can we make “good ARGs”? Could ARGs inoculate people against conspiracy theories like QAnon?

The short answer is: No. When it comes to games that are educational and fun, you usually have to pick one, not both—and I say that as someone who thinks he’s done a decent job at making “serious games” over the years. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, but it’s really hard, and I doubt any such ARG would get played by the right audience anyway.

The long answer: I’m writing a book about the perils and promise of gamification. Come back in a year or two.

For now, here’s a medium-sized answer. No ARG can heal the deep mistrust and fear and economic and spiritual malaise that underlies QAnon and other dangerous conspiracy theories, any more than a book or a movie can solve racism. There are hints at ARG-like things that could work, though—not in directly combatting QAnon’s appeal, but in channeling people’s energy and zeal of community-based problem-solving toward better causes.

Take The COVID Tracking Project, an attempt to compile the most complete data available about COVID-19 in the U.S. Every day, volunteers collect the latest numbers on tests, cases, hospitalizations, and patient outcomes from every state and territory. In the absence of reliable governmental figures, it’s become one of the best sources not just in the U.S., but in the world.

It’s also incredibly transparent. You can drill down into the raw data volunteers have collected on Google Sheets, view every line of code written on Github, and ask them questions on Slack. Errors and ambiguities in the data are quickly disclosed and explained rather than hidden or ignored. There’s something game-like in the daily quest to collect the best-quality data and to continually expand and improve the metrics being tracked. And like in the best ARGs, volunteers of all backgrounds and skills are welcomed. It’s one of the most impressive and well-organising reporting projects I’ve ever seen; “crowdsourcing” doesn’t even come close to describing its scale.

If you applied ARG skills to investigative journalism, you’d get something like Bellingcat, an an open-source intelligence group that discovered how Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was shot down over Ukraine in 2014. Bellingcat’s volunteers painstakingly pieced together publicly-available information to determine MH17 was downed by a Buk missile launcher originating from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade in Kursk, Russia. The Dutch-led international joint investigation team later came to the same conclusion.

Conspiracy theories thrive in the absence of trust. Today, people don’t trust authorities because authorities have repeatedly shown themselves to be unworthy of trust – misreporting or manipulating COVID-19 testing figures, delaying the publication of government investigations, burning records of past atrocities, and deploying unmarked federal forces. Perhaps authorities were just as untrustworthy twenty or fifty or a hundred years ago, but today we rightly expect more.

Mattathias Schwartz, contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, believes it’s that lack of trust that leads people to QAnon:

“Q’s [followers] … are starving for information. Their willingness to chase bread crumbs is a symptom of ignorance and powerlessness. There may be something to their belief that the machinery of the state is inaccessible to the people. It’s hard to blame them for resorting to fantasy and esotericism, after all, when accurate information about the government’s current activities is so easily concealed and so woefully incomplete.”

So the goal cannot be to simply restore trust in existing authorities. Rather, I think it’s to restore faith in truth and knowledge itself. The COVID Tracking Project and Bellingcat help reveal truth by crowdsourcing information. They show their work via hypertext and open data, creating a structure upon which higher-level analysis and journalism can be built. And if they can’t find the truth, they’re willing to say so.

QAnon seems just as open. Everything is online. Every discussion, every idea, every theory is all joined together in a warped edifice where speculation becomes fact and fact leads to action. It’s thrilling to discover, and as you find new terms to Google and new threads to pull upon, you can feel just like a real researcher. And you can never get bored. There’s always new information to make sense of, always a new puzzle to solve, always a new enemy to take down.

QAnon fills the void of information that states have created—not with facts, but with fantasy. If we don’t want QAnon to fill that void, someone else has to. Government institutions can’t be relied upon to do this sustainably, given how underfunded and politicised they’ve become in recent years. Traditional journalism has also struggled against its own challenges of opacity and lack of resources. So maybe that someone is… us.

ARGs teach us that the search for knowledge and truth can be immensely rewarding, not in spite of their deliberately-fractured stories and near-impossible puzzles, but because of them. They teach us that communities can self-organise and self-moderate to take on immense challenges in a responsible way. And they teach us that people are ready and willing to volunteer to work if they’re welcomed, no matter their talent.

It’s hard to create these communities. They rely on software and tools that aren’t always free or easy to use. They need volunteers who have spare time to give and moderators who can be supported, financially and emotionally, through the struggles that always come. These communities already exist. They just need more help.

Despite the growing shadow of QAnon, I’m hopeful for the future. The beauty of ARGs and ARG-like communities isn’t their power to discover truth. It’s how they make the process of discovery so deeply rewarding.

What Alternate Reality Games Teach Us About the Dangerous Appeal of QAnon syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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therachelperspective · 4 years

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FILM | The Family (2013, dir. Luc Besson) Welcome to a mafia movie if it were rooted more on comedy than drama. And for the most part, it actually does work. But I won’t lie to you, it still just feels like another mob movie. It almost got me there, because it’s from a different perspective and a slightly different tale... before falling short during some crucial scenes.

Brace yourselves, this is a long one with lots of spoilers.

Giovanni Manzoni (Robert DeNiro) is a mafia boss that *gasp* snitched – but in his defense, there were attempted his on his and his family’s lives; it’s what any patriarch would do. For the obvious reasons, he and his family are put under Witness Protection and are relocated. And when we catch up with the Mazoni’s, we don’t have a clue how many times they’ve been relocated, but it’s obvious this isn’t their first rodeo. They are on first name terms with the Fed in charge of their seemingly constant relocations (Tommy Lee Jones as Robert Stansfield), as well as the two other agents set up in the safe house across the street from their new home.

This was a moderately fun movie; acceptable for DeNiro fans, good for a few good chuckles, and for those of us Italian-Americans, at least one moment where you could definitely relate. But I thought it felt underdeveloped in some spots. Or, overdeveloped in the wrong places. Regardless, it left me wanting more; eventually I just got bored and wanted it to be over, keeping my fingers crossed for something, anything, to give it a redemptive twist. Sadly, it’s just another mob film that revolves around that typical “taking people out who have wronged me” violence we always see in these tales.

Robert DeNiro is a great actor, but Gio was a little boring to me. Gio writing his memoirs – revealing all that he’s experienced as a boss – was intriguing and an obvious opportunity to provide backstory, but It would have been MORE interesting if something had actually become of his manuscript. Furthermore, I found his “why is the water from my faucet brown?” arc bland. Was that really the best writers of this movie could do? Gio going around shaking people down for answers in typical mob guy fashion? I suppose he was to be laying low, mostly sequestered to this little old French house with not much to offer, and it was a way to give Gio a more personal touch, a sense of activism to help himself and ultimately the community, but I have to believe there was something better that could have given him to occupy his time. At least he ended up in a decent scene: a film debate/discussion amongst the locals where, in a turn of events, he found himself talking about topics related to Goodfellas (pssst, for those that don’t know, DeNiro also starred in Goodfellas). But mostly, I just think The Family is just an aging DeNiro starring in the same stuff he’s always done. It makes sense when you see Martin Scorcese’s name as a producer.

I had a little more interest in Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), but only a smidgen more and really because of her culinary related scenes. The first, when she brings a snack to the FBI agents in the safe house – roasted peppers doused in olive oil and garlic. I literally said out loud how delicious that sounds (yes, my Italian is showing). And while I don’t necessarily agree with what she says in denouncing the French use of butter and cream in the majority of their dishes, her description of the effects of olive oil versus butter in the body was a fantastic scene. Other than that, her only major arc was related to going to church and attempted redemption through religion, which is all too typical Italian-American fare in film. Again, like DeNiro, her character was just so typical of a mafioso’s wife.

The way The Family differs from other mob films I’ve seen is that viewers get a bigger glimpse into the kid’s point of view. Which might be why I feel the arcs of Belle and Warren overpower that of their parents. They had so much more memorable aspects that I just didn’t have with Gio or Maggie.

With Belle (Dianna Agron), we have the “girl next door” with an attitude and edginess thanks to her place in this hardened family. Honestly, I think they did her dirty with her arc and character. Belle becomes infatuated with a college-aged substitute teacher that we ultimately see in an overly dramaticized look at teenage love. How could a girl that beat the crap out of a boy her own age earlier in the film (for good reason, more on this later), who was also savvy enough to seduce the aforementioned teacher in the first place, be the same girl that wanted to commit suicide because of unrequited feelings? I call lazy writing (**SPOILERS** it is on that rooftop where she contemplates death that she sees incoming trouble for her family). Even later, during the final fight scene, we see Belle quite literally prancing away and crying while trying to escape the bad guys, despite having just shot them up in a pretty badass way mere minutes before. MAKE UP YOUR MIND, PLEASE?!?! I found my feelings about her character bounce back and forth with each scene. Girls next door can still be feminine and hold their own in the face of danger. Psh.

And while Warren (John D’Leo)’s narrative isn’t as dramatic as his sister’s, his role in the overall story was just silly to me. First of all, this kid is mastermind enough to collect information about his fellow classmates at his new school in record time, and create a resulting “mini mafia” system to not only take down the school bully but also make profit from his fellow students. Like, this boy has got skills for sure. But Warren is also sloppy. He has the abilities to create such an amazing thing for himself... yet apparently wasn’t capable of keeping all his goings-on underwraps and was confronted by school faculty. Again, I say lazy writing, as his role was the same as Belle’s in ushering the final conflict of the film (like legit, it his slip up that makes the whole ending happen). But at least I’ll say it is more realistic in the repercussions of his actions; we see schoolyard violence often enough in film, but not always the punishment for doing so.

This is very obviously not a perfect film in my eyes. Especially considering they neglect how the Witness Protection Program actually works – YOU DO NOT JUST CHANGE YOUR LAST NAME, GUYS. Only Gio changes his entire name to his new identity, “Frank Blake.” The rest of his family maintains their same first names. This and other details throughout the film honestly just bother me to no end.

Buuuut.... I love that we see each family member handle things on their own against those that wrong them throughout the film, while simultaneously doing their part to defend their family. Of course we expect acts of brutishness from Gio, that’s just what he does and how he rolls. Then, however, we see Maggie, at the grocery store asking for the overtly American specialty of peanut butter, and the townspeople begin badmouthing Americans because of it. So what does she do? Sets off a little explosion in the back of the store that starts the place on fire as she walks away. And Belle has the previously mentioned tussle with a group of male classmates, when one is being a gross greasy boy wanting to take advantage of her at a park when she merely just needed a ride home. Not only does she hit him with a vicious right hook, but she also finds a tennis racket in the trunk of the car and continues to pummel his disgusting ass while simultaneously giving a stern lecture on how to treat women and how important women are to the men’s futures (again, how does this badassery get so warped later on for her?) Similarly, young Warren’s run-in with the school bully allows us to see how masterful his skills are for utilizing his knack for collecting information and creating a well-crafted pull with the other students as a result (class nerds and rugby players alike) to give that bully exactly what he deserves. Not surprised at all that each and every one of the Manzoni’s/Blake’s would handle matters with violence, as all good mafia families do. And it’s equally not shocking at all when **SPOILERS** we see them drive off into the distance to start anew again at the end of the film. I was, however, constantly waiting for this wonderful moment at the end of the film where I believed the entire family was going to fight together, literally side by side. And it never happened. Honestly, the big gunfight between the Manzoni’s and the Don(s) he betrayed felt so anticlimactic I think because of this fact. We know they’re all capable of holding their own separately as they’ve already demonstrated, and they did it separately again here at the end, though at least in the same vicinity. But just think how beautiful it would have been to actually do it all as a true family unit, as was seemingly impressed upon us throughout the film.

I know The Family is not supposed to be some award-winning dramatic piece of cinema. In fact, some if not most reviewers call it a satire of the mafia trope or dark comedy. But I think Ben Nicholson of CineVue (found via Rotten Tomatoes) says my general assessment quite well: it is “acting Goliath [DeNiro] as a now all-too-familiar caricature of the parts that made his name.”

Frankly (ha! see what I did there?), I would say it’s a film I might put on as background noise as I often do with the television when I stay up late these days, but only if I’m truly desperate; I would not actively pursue watching this one again.

OH! I do like fun facts though: like that this is the first time we see legends Tommy Lee Jones and Robert DeNiro together in a film. Only took forever, right? And apparently there’s another with these two coming out later this year, a remake of The Comeback Trail. Equally so, The Family was actually based on a book called Malavita by Tonino Benacquista. How much you wanna bet the book is better?

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ecotone99 · 5 years

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[OT] Going on a whim.

So here i am. Sad. Depressed. Poor. Unhappy. There are a lot of ways to describe my feelings. However they all have the same root issue. I'm doing nothing to change them. Now i'm describing old issues with new terms to compare my issues to others and really confusing myself thinking my problems are much worse than they really are, and i go down this spiral why? And the day I asked myself that question “why?” is the day things started to change. No it wasn't immediate, but everytime i asked myself why i was feeling or doing something i was not pleased with, It was a reminder of hatred of the life I was living. We humans have a unique ability to rationalize our thoughts however only if we actually think to do it. And there lies problem number one. We choose to ignore our dissatisfaction because that was “easier” than thinking and doing things differently. We are victims of our own minds, addicted to routine and scared to veer off course even though nothing we are doing is making our problems go away or get any better, and the fear we have only gets masked by the fact nothing will change and everything will be okay because we survived today. Sound like you?

So what do we do? We change. And yes it is that simple. Of Course there are some exceptions to the rule, and this is in no way meant to tackle your diagnosed depression or any form of medical issue, please listen to the advice of your doctor.

If you want to be better nothing should stop you from achieving that, especially you. Yes there are problems that don't have solutions, but if youre reading this, youre reading to better yourself. Not to pick apart the small details that you're going to try to rationalize and make yourself think this is all a load of bullshit. If you're telling yourself you can't solve a problem you gave up too soon. There doesn't need to be a perfect solution written in stone, nor does the solution even need to exist yet, if it doesn't exist, create it. Am i starting to sound like a dad now? Fun fact. I am, however i have seen this thought process work. Not just with myself. But with my family and amongst the few living in this society who found their sweet spot. I have seen solutions to problems create themselves out of sheer will of wanting them to work. Have you ever considered the reason you can't google your problems and find simple fixes is because everyone googling that same question and writing on forums...also hasn't gone above and beyond to find the solution? You give up and wait to let others solve your problems another fun fact, you're going to be waiting awhile. And when that magical fix all that describes all your problems and claims to have the perfect solution know what else is attached to that? A price tag. see, The people who are creating solutions to problems are not doing it for nothing. They wanted to change, they changed. And they found a way to make money in the process. So in no way am i talking down on that mentality because it's great! Props to all those people who figured out that we don't need to have a path paved… to pave a path. You just need to want it, and you need to keep telling yourself that every day. Every. Day.

So what gives me the credentials to tell you all this? Nothing. What education do I have on the subject? Well years of failure but besides that, not much. What skills do I possess on the subject? Pretty much nothing except common sense. So Why listen to me? Im not making you, i don't even know if you made it this far in the read. Think of this read as “my plan” cause lets be honest here, i am writing this to better myself, because over all the years of telling myself i don't have any writing capabilities i said fuck that, now here i am writing whatever you want to call this.

This read will consist of everything I hate about the way our society lives. From the suing companies out of sheer stupidity to shitting on people for trying to do a good thing regardless of the negative or positive publicity that comes with it and people taking simple jokes as personal attacks.

People are too opinionated and thanks to social media everyone for some reason needs to care. I haven't quite figured this part out yet. Why do so many people care about dick and jane? What are they doing that's so important that it affects your emotions and causes people to act like assholes in disagreement. Now i'm not talking about anything political or in the terms of a way a country should run, you should always care about this stuff because it is your home. Make it your home, but choose the things to care about based off education, not emotion when it comes to this stuff emotion leads you to making the wrong choice which will entice disagreements which in turn has people attacking your character because you based your facts on emotion, not education, now you're backpedaling trying to make sense of what you originally thought and then that harsh reality hits.

What would happen if instead of looking at peoples positives in a negative light… you just stopped caring about it all together because let's face it, the energy you're wasting fuming at a problem that has nothing to do with you… even if its a subject you are extremely passionate about… is what your thinking and wanting to do … rational? Or is the emotion you feel the exact reaction the writer/commenter/speaker wanted to draw out? Families are a different struggle, what if i disagree with my Spouse? Child? Sibling? Parents? If I just stop caring they will just get up and leave. You're not wrong my friend, you certainly need to choose your battles, maybe a better approach to family related issues is seeing it from their perspective, agreeing with them and moving on even when you don't truthfully see it in their eyes. if it's merely a hypothetical your life will be easier to agree and move on, but also seek the education in their opinion, because frankly the “crazy” ideas often bear the most fruit and two minds can usually polish a crazy idea and turn it into a practical one. If it's something they are extremely passionate about you should be supportive, not an asshole. This is a category i struggle with myself but who am i to tell my family what they think is stupid? They probably think me writing this is stupid and that's 100% fine, i know i am bad at this, and a role model to no one, but what am i going to do about it? I'm going to start caring when it's hard to care i will subconsciously remind myself to care in situations like this, again its that unique ability humans have to think about their own thoughts, so what negative implications will i have from caring more about my family? None if you don't look for them however if you search you will find, stop wasting energy looking for problems. Here's the grey area we operate in, we don't need to care about the small stuff. What family wants is support, not criticism, they are going to get criticism everywhere else, they don't need that shit at home too. If it's not detrimental to life, find balance and move on. people try to draw out emotion all the time, it's very profitable to do so. But what you choose to have emotions about is completely your choice. Don't let people influence your emotion. This read is not meant to influence your emotion, i'm merely telling you it's possible to not be an asshole when you disagree with someone, and that you're capable of doing what dick and jane do, if you stop caring so much about them. And care about what they are achieving. And put the same effort of your dissatisfaction into obtaining what they have. Did they say something that stuck a nerve? Why? Why does it affect you so much? It doesn't. They want you to think it involves you but it doesn't, never has, never will, end of story. Stop beating yourself up about the thoughts of another just because they don't align with your own theory, instead seek to understand their perspective, and if you don't see it yourself that's fine too, but keep it to yourself, that's how you avoid conflict based on emotion. There is no point in arguing with someone about something they are passionate about, you won't win, and that will lead to anger and saying irrational stuff not even pertaining to the subject. Has this ever happened to you? It sure does with me. All the time.

Here stems problem number 2. Why do i always need to feel “right” when there is nothing wrong about being wrong. Being wrong is great, it allows you to learn and not make the same mistakes again. But sometimes when people hear no, they get offended. Why? Why get offended because someone disagrees with you. You in fact may be right, however changing the other person's mind is going to take more than a quick back and forth argument, is that really worth the time and effort? And what do you gain? One person who sides with you? Or maybe even a larger group of people. But what does that gain you. Does everyone agreeing with you give you more than just an ego? Be honest with yourself and ask. If i change Jane’s mind what do i gain...other than someone agreeing with me. So what am i doing about this problem for myself? I'm constantly reminding myself that only i can see the direction i want to go, the path i want to follow, and the things i want to do or see. I don't need anyone to agree with my principles. They are not public principles which require the community to vote where im allowed to travel, or what i'm allowed to wear say or do. They are mine. So if i had any advice here, its let your principles be yours, they don't need to be a public dick measuring contest, you don't need approval from society. Stop thinking you do.

Were growing up in a society of inclusion which i also think is great. However the way inclusion is exercised in reality makes me scratch my head. Rewarding people for simply showing up builds egos at such a young age, they are miserable later on. Always wanting stuff given to them and not actually willing to put in the effort. How do i know? Im of that generation, and i was that dickhead prior to discovering who i wanted to be. However i must say it's driving business. Never before have you had the ability to spend $25 hard earned dollars on a $10 meal, simply due to laziness or lack of time. New companies are solving issues that are created because of our lifestyles and they are the ones making all the money, while we look at our massive piles of debt that grow because everything you see is an ad for something that wants your money.

So who am i and why am i saying all this? Let's say my name is Rhonin Oaks, i'm a youngin on paper, but my life experiences make up my resume. Currently i reside on the east coast of canada, in a small annoying town of about 10k. I have a young daughter and an amazing spouse, they are why i am writing this. I am bettering myself for them. Nobody else. Nobody else matters to me. I grew up in the same town i currently reside, but i've lived in many different provinces with plans to be mobile again soon, not to run from problems but to stop living in fear of change. Currently i'm working in the financial sector, but i've worked in telecommunications, call centers, fast food, labour, oil industry and retail. So besides healthcare, i think i've worked for every type of industry the general public loves to hate. Every morning i wake up and read the news while im taking my morning shit, just to always be reminded of how people actually felt about the industries i just so happen to work in. and it didn't happen just once, i worked for a bank...cbc marketplace video goes viral about how banks were operating, also i may add everything in that news segment was true at the time, however i cannot speak on that currently. Then it was telecommunications and the evil rise of their thousands of employees reaching out to cbc marketplace and that goes viral too. I actually thought this gray cloud was following me. So how does that play on my mental health? It sucks. Having crippling anxiety every morning not knowing what customer was going to reem into you because they are upset about something. Or you made a mistake and feel like you're going to be a news story yourself. I honestly felt that this cloud of bullshit was following me, and soon. I was going to be the target. Ridiculous right? Well i didn't think so for many years. It caused me so many health issues...and for what? I’ve gained nothing. Nothing except the experiences i'm writing to you today. But i did come to one conclusion, when people can't solve their problems, they play bully to someone who can. Reaching out to media about the affairs of a business doing business, just because you don't like your $2000.00 overage fees for something that was completely in their control to avoid. They reach out to the media to see if the pressure comes down hard enough on the company that they bend and do a refund. How is that fair to anyone at all? Own your mistakes people. Im owning mine to a degree that i will have this published somewhere as a constant reminder of what i once was and what i will become, and you know what they say… once on the internet always on the internet. I'm not running anymore. I'm not suppressing these negative feelings im working to get rid of them forever and ever. Do i consider myself successful? Currently no, i haven't achieved my level of what i consider success. However, i'm on the right path.It was not streamlined nor written in a book. I've read dozens of self help books, and i've taken something from each and every one of them. I mean i'm here writing my own in a way. I had to take all the pieces of the puzzle and put myself together. There is no one shoe fits all solution to life i used to think that was called marijuana, i was wrong, more on that later. So what do i define as my own success? Success to me isn't how much money i make, the car i drive, where i live or anything materialistic. It's how i feel when i wake up. Success is waking up and already knowing what my day will consist of, sure there will be surprises but i will be prepared to handle them. Success to me is being prepared enough to for every day life to the point it no longer affects my mental health which turns into anger and aggression towards my loved ones. My loved ones mean more to my success than anything else. I'm a provider, being able to provide for my family is my success. And this is why i say i have not achieved the level of success that i want to. How am i getting there? Well i'm glad you asked. Once i discovered that providing for my family was something i would stop at no end to achieve i opened the book of problems that would all need to be solved.

This is where the fun begins, once i had my vision of success in my head it was time to get it on paper. I had to dissect my flaws. But rhonin what if i can't see my flaws? If you can't see your personal flaws, look at the problematic parts of your life, what do you stress about and why are you stressing over it, search for your flaws there. Let me give you a personal example, i want to provide for my family so we don't need to worry what tomorrow will bring, i know i make enough money to do so however i'm still not hitting my goals. Now it's time to dig out the bank and credit card statements, where is my money going? I made $48k before tax in the year of 2018, my total expenses for living came to just under $30k so where is that other $18k? What do i have to show for it? But to make matters worse. Not only did that $18k disappear, i added an additional 6k of credit card debt. So i made $48k, spent $54k, so here lies flaw one that i have discovered in myself. I suck with money and its causing financial stress on my family which is not allowing me to feel successful (ironic i work for a banking institution and i suck with my own money) So rhonin, where did your money go? Well, McDonalds and Tim Hortons got a nice chunk. My drug dealer got the other chunk. When i looked back i discovered i was spending $1000 a month on take out and just as much on marijuana. So what now? Clearly i have a problem that is going to take more than just knowing about it to fix. How am i fixing it? Pain is the answer. Because everything comes with some degree of pain. My pain comes from eating foods i dislike because they are what i can afford. My pain is coming from the withdrawal of not smoking, not being able to sleep, and when i do, waking up like i just got out of the shower and have to change my bed sheets every night, let me tell ya, i have nothing but respect for anyone going through this pain.

Pain is the trade off for success, how much pain are you willing to absorb to accomplish your goals? this is where most people fail, they don't realize there are compromises to be made when you want to achieve something, that or they feel like they are strong enough to complete their task but only to the point that it gets hard, then they give up and lose interest. But this can also be a good thing and people put themselves down all the time because this repeated philosophy of not succeeding at something makes you a failure, but just because you lose interest in something and don't complete it doesn't make you a failure, it opens you up to new opportunities, clearly if you lose interest, you weren't that passionate to begin with and your success in that field would be limited to the pain you're willing to take to get there, why settle for a plan that's going to bottleneck your success. Pursuing something to feel successful is a great first step, just understand the first idea you get, may not work. You may get to idea 100 before something sticks. With social media pushing all these fun and exciting things in your face, it skews people's ability to find what truly makes them happy, they see what makes other people happy and they generalize that happiness thinking it will make them happy to. This is how successful marketing works and that's why you should never pay attention to it. I haven't used social media in terms of facebook, instagram, snapchat or whatever else floats your boat in many years. Do you really know 400 people or more? Do you actually care about 400+ people? If you don't and are just being nosey into the lives. Why do you care about their life if you aren't close to them? Are you comparing dicks? Delete their stress from your life. You don't need people to compare yourself too. Compare yourself to your previous self that is what you should be doing to feel happy. Dont be better than dick and jane, be better than you!

Currently i am in the process of quitting smoking marijuana as i mentioned earlier, it's hard. It sucks. But im doing it. Why? Because the person i am now is not the same person my spouse fell in love with. I changed, and not for the better. I was a frequent smoker for the last three years, however i did not smoke anything when i met my spouse and she fell in love with my character, years of smoking and living in a rut, smoking more to compensate for bigger problems in our lives, i became a shitty person. To my family. And to myself. I just so luckily managed to also get a rare illness THC induced pancreatitis is my life now, and no, there isn't a lot of research to go off of for this illness. However it only flares up when i am smoking. Pancreatitis in just its regular form is a pain in the ass so having a version that flares up when i'm doing something i enjoyed was just a slap in the face, and in case you weren't aware, pancreatitis unless taken care of very well not just temporarily but permanently will become cancerous, being my dumb ass self tho, i didn't care, i continued to smoke for another year before im taking the initiative to quit. I tortured my body and potentially reduced my life span because i was too stupid to open my eyes and do something about my problems. No more. No i don't think marijuana is bad for everyone it's gotten me through a lot of hard times but when i look back, i would have made it though those problems anyways and i realized this only recently.

I was one lazy son of a bitch, dishes might have gotten done once a month. Laundry hamper overflowing floors unswept and garbage that smells like shitty baby diapers and rotten food, and the fruit flies, holy shit the fruit flies. I couldn't even make a meal without getting bugs in it. What the hell am i doing? Why would i want my child to grow up in this mess. What example am i setting for her? A terrible one. My daughter is amazing, she's always smiling and she's slept through the night since 4 weeks old. I can't really say i had the “tired dad” look all the time, because i slept great. She was amazing, she was the daughter i needed because she was the daughter i was able to take care of. I truly feel for the parents who were up every 2 hours or more with their child. I didn't have these struggles but i know if i did, my daughter may not even be in my possession. So what am i doing? I cleaned up my act. Im doing chores daily (work in progress) but i'm getting there. I'm quitting smoking. Im being there for my family when they need me and all these steps towards a better life is making me happier in the progress and when i finally can say i have this shit under control. I will feel successful.

Having a game plan is very important because you don't want to tackle every issue at once, for instance when im quitting smoking, other chores will piss me off and make me think i need to smoke. Seems counterproductive eh? Have stages, but make your stages known to the people you're close too. Once they see what you're willing to do, but want to do it smart and not all at once with a higher rate of success. You will get support, if you dont are they really worth keeping around? Family or not, choose those to be in your life that propel you forward. Not hold you back.

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ggdbshoesforsale-blog · 5 years

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omgtaxtwerk · 6 years

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Buy Traffic Trapper and Receive Exclusive Bonuses!

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Traffic Trapper Review

So this is one of the ones I did not plan to share…. Aha! Yes, that is correct I was going to keep this one all to myself, because it is really so good! But the truth is I had to stick to my mission. I decided to take part in this movement to help others with more time freedom in my own special way, so definitely pay attention to this one…. You can thank Deepak Chopra and Oprah for my Kind Hearted giving spirit! In this review we are discussing Traffic Trapper and how it works for internet marketers and small business owners who love to use the internet too. What is Traffic Trapper? In a nutshell it is a downloadable plug-in that you install on any WordPress website and then get laser-targeted traffic from pinning on autopilot. I have personally tried it and applied it to all of my web properties and it really does work just as they have described on the software features. Anyone can utilise this software for growing their niche business or website. From internet marketing, to finance, to entrepreneurial mindset coaching, fitness, food, fashion, artists, musicians and various other fields of work. You’ve got to have it if you have a visual based business, because you have a great advantage as people will like to look at the pins that you are creating and sharing via Traffic Trapper. Watch the demo The results are pretty incredible with a massive boost to our incoming website visitors and traffic. Thanks to this method Pinterest is one of the top traffic sources for my sites. What I really love about Traffic Trapper is that it gets you to focus on simple and small, yet highly valuable and engaging content, which you share with the pinning community. Afterwards if they like it they are attracted to visit your website and perhaps connect or purchase your offerings. All great digital entrepreneurs know that you have to be in it for the long run so all of these results are extremely valuable. I have to add that the autopilot feature really saves a huge amount of time so you can focus on your main one to three priorities, because we all know that social media and pinning is fun, yet you do have to control your time in order to be productive. There are not many drawbacks to the software. The only point to note is that in order to set it up you do need some basic developer skills. However they do provide for training and links to guide you on how to get it set up correctly. Plus after the first setup you can leave it in the background and check on your campaigns periodically. You will know that I absolutely love finding hidden digital marketing gems that work wonders and Traffic Trapper is definitely one of them. At only $34 as a one time payment with lifetime access I feel this is a complete steal! Don’t sleep on it (there is a discount code given to you below). … And yes they do offer upsells and cross-sells after you purchase, but you don’t have to buy anything you don’t need. I should also add that I chose the unlimited sites option because I am a #boss… and I’d recommend the same if you have multiple sites! But if you’re just beginning the lower priced single site options has everything to get you started. Two thumbs up!

Want More? Since I began my business I’ve been putting together a dynamite method using the best digital marketing tools that you can use to gain exposure, make money online and shamelessly promote yourself. Did you enjoy this review and insight into the traffic trapper marketing software? If yes, would you be interested in an easy and detailed guide on how to make money online? If you would, or you have questions regarding this post, let me know in comments below. Questions? Ask in comments >> Did you like this post / method?… Let me know in comment.

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ALL TRADEMARKS AND LOGOS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. THIS SITE AND THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED ON THIS SITE ARE NOT ASSOCIATED, AFFILIATED, ENDORSED, OR SPONSORED BY ANY BUSINESS LISTED ON THIS PAGE NOR HAVE THEY BEEN REVIEWED TESTED OR CERTIFIED BY ANY OTHER COMPANY LISTED ON THIS PAGE. THE RESULTS SHOWN ARE NOT TYPICAL AND RESULTS WILL VARY BASED ON YOUR MARKET, YOUR EFFORTS, COMPETITION AND MANY OTHER FACTORS OUTSIDE OF OUR CONTROL.

Source: https://taxtwerk.com/best-review-of-traffic-trapper-exclusive-bonus

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andrewdburton · 7 years

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Money story: Our financial 180

This guest post from Joel is part of the “money stories” feature at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all stages of financial maturity. Today, Joel shares how he and his wife made a “financial 180”, going from extreme spenders to extreme savers.

Hi, I’m Joel!

Last November, I quit my job as a software engineer to retire early at the ripe old age of thirty-three. I had reached financial independence — that point where you’ve saved enough money that you never need a job again.

Life’s been pretty great since then. I work on fun stuff — like writing and music — on my own schedule. I take care of the household chores and cook dinner for my wife (who still works…for now). I have plenty of time left in my days to spend goofing off with family and friends.

You might think that if I managed to retire at such a young age that must mean that I had this money thing figured out all along. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, just a few years ago, I was stuck in a job I hated with no way out. I wanted to escape.

This is the story of how my wife and I made a financial 180, going from zeroes to heroes in just a few short years.

An Expensive Past

In 2007, I graduated college with a degree in computer engineering, took a job with a fortune 500 company, and bought a brand new house. For the first time in my life, I felt like an adult. With a big paycheck coming in every two weeks, I could have anything I wanted. As luck would have it, I wanted a lot — and I had expensive tastes!

I decided my first purchase would be a $3500 high-def television. I added a PlayStation 3 and assorted accessories to the shopping cart, and raced back to my new house to get everything set up.

That night, as I sat on the floor in that empty house, watching The Simpsons, my girlfriend (now wife) convinced me that something was fundamentally wrong.

“Joel,” she said.

I glanced over to her. She looked beautiful in the glow of the giant television. “Yes my darling?” I said.

“We have no furniture,” she said. She was right. But we had an awesome TV!

In all of the excitement of my spending spree, I somehow forgot furniture. No problem. I reached for the credit card, and $10,000 later, our house was filled with furniture: fancy leather sofas, king-sized beds, the works. It felt great! For the previous five years, I’d been a broke college kid. Now, I was a respectable grown-up.

As the years passed, my spending habit worsened. By 2012, we were spending six figures a year on… Stuff.

Two brand-new cars at $25,000 a pop? That’s normal, right?

A $40,000 wedding and a fancy Bahamian honeymoon? Sure, that was expensive but we could “afford” it.

$13,000 in restaurant spending during a single year? We liked to think of ourselves as food connoisseurs.

Why shouldn’t I treat myself? I was putting a full 6% into my 401(k) every year to get my employer match. That was more than most Americans. I was being smart! So, I continued my adventures in spending.

A Crash Course in Life

Before I knew it, our life was full: food and water delivery services, monthly massages at the spa, fancy dry cleaning bills, season tickets to various entertainment venues, expensive martial arts hobbies. You name it, we had it.

But as our life — and bank statements — filled up, we weren’t getting any happier. It was actually the opposite. We were more stressed than ever before! We just couldn’t figure out the problem.

In 2013, I decided changing employers would shake things up and give me a much-needed morale boost, so I jumped to another big firm in the area. The pay bump and new faces helped a bit, but within a few months, I was unhappy once more. What was wrong? I had spent thousands of dollars on toys the previous year. Why weren’t Amazon purchases fixing my problem?

What I needed was a way out of the life we had built for ourselves.

You’d think a high tech job would be interesting, but over the years I realized it’s all the same: Write yet another version of an already existing widget for a program that’s behind schedule and over budget. Changing jobs didn’t help. New code, new cubicle, same prison sentence. The fluorescent lights taunted me as I stared at the blue skies outside. I couldn’t go out and enjoy it; I was always too far behind on my tasks. I tried coming to work earlier, staying later, working through lunch.

Nothing helped.

I was trapped.

It was around this time that a friend pointed me to a blog called Mr. Money Mustache. He thought it might help give me some perspective on money, so I glanced over a few articles. “What an interesting website,” I remember thinking at the time, unaware that my life was about to change in a very big way.

Soon after, my wife was in a terrible car crash.

She was visiting her mom in south Florida when a sheriff’s officer ran a red light with no sirens and T-boned her in an intersection. My wife’s Honda was totaled, but thankfully she walked away with only minor injuries. Soon after, the insurance company sent us a check for $10,000 — the depreciated value of the $25,000 car she purchased new just a few years earlier.

Our Financial 180

That night, as we sat on the fancy leather sofa in our filled-to-the-brim-with-stuff house, my wife once again convinced me that something was fundamentally wrong.

“Joel,” she said.

“Yes my darling?” I said.

“We need to stop spending our money,” she said. As is often the case, she was right, and I knew it.

That night, we both binge-read the Mr. Money Mustache website. I became consumed by this strange concept of financial independence, the idea that somebody could save enough money to retire in ten years (or less).

I worked out the math for myself. I checked the numbers twice, looking for a mistake. But it was real. Financial independence really was a way to escape the daily grind, a way to add control and meaning back into our lives. We took the $10,000 insurance check and put it into a Vanguard index fund instead of buying a second car.

It was a new financial beginning for us.

As we began slashing our expenses, we realized that most of the luxuries we purchased to make ourselves happy were superficial. The new house and cars, the fancy furniture, it was all a sham. None of it actually brought us any long-term happiness. After a few months, the shininess fades, and you’re back to square one. It’s called lifestyle inflation.

Worse, the things we sacrificed for those luxuries — control of our own schedules, free time for friends and family — really would contribute to our happiness, if only we had time for them! Once we figured this out, we worked hard to increase our saving rate as much as possible.

We turned money management into a game. Every month, we’d look for one improvement we could make to our budget. Before long, we got pretty good at saving money! The results were dramatic.

This graph shows how we slashed our spending:

And this graph shows the simultaneous rise in our savings:

By 2015 we’d cut our expenses by two thirds, allowing us to max out our 401(k)s and pay down our mortgage. In the years since, we’ve saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. And just after my 33rd birthday, less than five years after our financial 180, I was able to quit my job — for good!

A Team Effort

I know this story sounds like sunshine and lollipops, but turning things around was not easy. And the turnaround didn’t happen overnight. It was gradual. We made a ton of mistakes along the way:

We bought a new home worth less than half its mortgage.

We had six-figure annual expenses and battled lifestyle inflation.

We had sizable wedding, travel, and new car expenses.

We had no investment knowledge whatsoever, so we made poor decisions.

The list goes on and on and on.

Despite the mistakes, my wife and I were determined to work together as a team to turn our finances around and to learn as much as possible.

We devoured financial independence blogs like Mad Fientist, 1500 Days, and Frugalwoods. We read books such as Your Money or Your Life and The Millionaire Next Door.

We worked together on our impulse spending by creating shopping lists before stepping foot into our favorite stores (Best Buy for me, Target for the wife). If it wasn’t on our list, we didn’t buy it. To reduce our restaurant spending, We learned to cook each other’s favorite meals instead of going out to eat every night. The key here is that we each put in the work — together. We communicated our goals. We were both invested in turning our financial situation around, and so we were fully committed to making it work. At the end of each month, we’d sit down together to scrutinize our credit card statements and cut all nonessential expenses.

Gradually, our hard work started paying off. All of the individual improvements we made added up to something enormous.

We tracked our net worth as it grew. This helped form a mission statement for my blog: to document our journey, and help as many people as possible save up their own FU money, replace fear with flexibility, and avoid all the mistakes we’ve made in the past!

Why did we pursue financial independence? To spend more time with family and less time at unfulfilling jobs. To pursue creative endeavors with no pressure to turn a profit. To live our lives the way we want, on our own schedules, without the need to worry about money ever again.

Want to get started on your own financial 180? The math is easy. Create a gap between what you earn and what you spend. Build a wealth snowball. If you can save half your income, your working career will only be around a decade long! I know, I know. It sounds crazy — but it’s true.

Maybe it’s time to make a financial 180 in your life. Ten years from now, you’ll be glad you did!

Reminder: This is a story from one of your fellow readers. Please be nice. After twenty years of blogging, I have a thick skin, but it can be scary to put your story out in public for the first time. Remember that this guest author isn’t a professional writer, and is just learning about money like you are. Unduly nasty comments on reader stories will be removed or edited.

The post Money story: Our financial 180 appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

from Finance http://www.getrichslowly.org/2018/02/04/our-financial-turnaround/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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fesahaawit · 7 years

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Why I FIRE’d Myself From Rockstar Finance

What if you woke up this morning to the following:

1/2 the emails to respond to in your inbox

1/2 the decisions to make for the day

1/2 the time you need to spend even working today

and 1/2 the added stress and pressure

And then let’s say someone paid you in the 6 figures to receive all of this.

Would you take it? :)

Now let’s say you had to give up OWNERSHIP of a project for it that was relatively successful and a huge part of your life and business for the past 4 years, of which still has oodles of potential for growth and helping everyone in your community, thereby possibly going down as one of the biggest blunders of your entrepreneurial life where everyone from that point forward points and laughs at you every day for the rest of your life.

Would that change anything? :)

Well, either way, we’re about to find out as I officially sold the 2nd best website in the world this morning, RockstarFinance.com – a museum of personal finance articles and resources – effectively FIRE’ing myself from President and CEO down to humble little “Advisor.”

And I cannot wait to see what the future now holds!!!

(I put “FIRE’ing” there btw, because this move will not only open up 50% more freedom *time* wise, but also pushes us a tad bit closer to the epic freedom that all of us here are shooting for – *financial* freedom. We’re still not there yet, but this certainly puts us more into the running :))

Now of course there’s a lot more to the story here, which also effects a lot more people than just me, so let me try and brain dump everything on ya here and see if I can answer a lot of the questions that I’m sure will soon be bubbling up here in the next few moments…

If I miss anything, just hit me in the comments below as you know I’m an open book!

Take it away J. Money alter-ego…

#1) WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO, MAN???

I sold Rockstar Finance to a friend of mine in an attempt to trade my hustle card in for more of a living card.

#2) When did this all go down??

We signed everything last week, but we’re making it all public this morning which has been many months in the making. Pretty much since that fateful day of “The Hike” when I realized I had my priorities all kinds of backwards and knew I had to make some big moves if I truly wanted some big results.

I had considered handing it off a number of other times throughout it’s 4 year existence too, but I loved it too much and each time I just couldn’t pull the trigger as it never felt right.

#3) What other times are you talking about?

In 2015 I was handling every aspect of the site and almost sold the whole thing for $5,000 because I was close to burning out. Fortunately my friend Cait Flanders stepped in and convinced me to keep going, and with her on my side that is exactly what we did :)

Then in 2016 I got the “deal of a lifetime” where I originally accepted a million dollars for all my projects and a 2 year commitment to blog for someone else, which as you know I ended up dipping out of at the last minute and decided to go ALL IN with my own projects instead.

And this is what we did for all of 2017! We launched every single project I had wanted to do over the years, and we added it all to Rockstar Finance so it would have a much farther reach to people (and not attached to “me” specifically). This is when we launched our personal finance and blogging forums, our Directory that now tracks 1,400 other finance blogs as well as the most popular podcasts, apps and books, and then of course we rocked our Community Fund which ended up giving out over $14,000 of assistance to those who needed it in our community.

We were on fire!!! Until I almost had a break down – again ;)

#4) And this time you truly feel it’s “right”?

I do, yes…as close as 100% as you can get, at least.

#5) What would make it even *more* right?

If I knew no one would hate me for making this move!! :) Or I got like triple the money for it, haha…

#6) Speaking of money, how much exactly did you get for it?

In the (very) low 6 figures.

#7) I said Exact, don’t you play that card!

Hey – you know how these contract things go! But I bet if you pay attention enough to the numbers in our next net worth report you can get a pretty good idea :) Though don’t forget about the taxes or paying out some of my team members too which was important to me…

#8) How much tax will you have to pay from it?

About 25%.

#9) And the % you gave to your team members?

20%… wait a minute!! I see what you’re doing there!

*Takes a bow*

#10) Alright, now why was THIS TIME the right time to sell again?

There’s a handful of reasons, that when combined just made the most sense:

I’m having a 3rd baby in a few months and really want to try being a stay-at-home dad

But to do that I had to figure out how best to cut 50% of my time and responsibilities out, meaning one of my internet babies had to go :( And I just couldn’t give up the one site that started it all for me – Budgets Are Sexy! My first love! (And I also didn’t like the idea of just hiring on a new leader or team for Rockstar, because in my experience if you don’t have ownership of something you don’t give it all you’ve got)

I also felt I took Rockstar Finance as far as I could with my energy and talents, and it was about to go into “maintenance” mode which would have done it a big disservice for people. Especially due to all its potential that we never got to tap. So handing it off to a new leader to continue its legacy just made the most sense to me.

Lastly, and this is going to sound silly, but I REALLY want to enjoy the site and all the resources we put together as a “regular” reader without having to do any work for it! Haha… I built it exactly for us personal finance enthusiasts, but I’ve never been able to stop and enjoy it as I’ve always been in the thick of it during its entire lifetime… I’m so excited to get the daily digest tomorrow and not know what’s in it! :)

#11) I’m glad you mentioned this “new leadership”… Who exactly bought it from you and is taking over the site now?

My good friend, and blogger veteran, John from ESIMoney.com. Someone who’s not only been with this community longer than I have going on 12+ years now (!), but also someone I know is “in it for the right reasons” and not going to add it to the infamous Site Selling Wall of Shame, haha… Which let’s face it, most sites go when new owners take over!

#12) And how do you know this “John” character won’t be adding it to this Wall of Shame?

Because I know him and trust him, and I know on a list of his priorities, money is at the bottom of it as an early retiree with plenty of millions in the bank already :) Which is usually why sites go down in flames with new ownership – they just plaster it all with ads!!

And due to this new found “retirement”, it also means he has plenty of time to dedicate to it and is already working on a number of new features I was never able to pull off myself. It’s pretty much going to be a turbocharged version of how it is today, and at worst it’ll be the same as it is today if nothing pans out, which is a pretty good worst case scenario.

So between all that, and the fact he wants to pass this site down to his kids one day to continue its legacy, it’s the best a creator can really ask for :)

He actually has a post live right now too if you want to hear his side of the story – it’s going to be a fun project to work on together! Why I Bought Rockstar Finance

#13) Wait wait wait, what’s this “together” part here? I thought you just sold it and are moving on?

Nope. I sold it, yes, but I’m still helping out with everything, just more in an “advisory” type role than a day-to-day one. Which pretty much means I get to do all the fun parts like brainstorming and scheming and connecting the dots, only I don’t have to do any of the work in actually making it happen :) I’m actually quite impressed with myself in pulling this off! Haha… And as a minimalist, it’s actually a pretty freeing feeling because “stuff” applies to internet and brain assets too!!

But ask me in 6 months how it’s all going and we’ll know more then ;)

#14) How do you think it’ll be in 6 months?

I’m *hoping* that I’ll be much more relaxed and creative and our blog here will be flourishing even more at Budgets Are Sexy – since this is literally the first time in 8 years it’ll be the only project I’m working on! – and that I’m also hitting inbox zero every single day and have a baby who sleeps 12 hours straight a night, but only time will tell ;)

I can tell you out of every move I’ve ever made with work-stuff though, this one sets me up closer to the “ideal lifestyle” than any others… I’m literally getting paid to do half the work!! And I still get to be a big part of a community I helped create!

#15) Okay, we’ll come back in 6 months and see how it’s really going :) Getting back to the projects of Rockstar Finance again real quick, what about that Community Event you guys just launched where you gave 20+ bloggers $100 in cash to go out and do something helpful with it? Is that still going on or has something changed with it now?

Nothing’s changed! We’ve set up a page that highlights all the results from our Community Fund over the past 12 months, and we’ll be adding all these new blog posts that people will be sharing to the tippy top of it all. And we’re hoping it moves us from $14,000 of Good to almost $20,000 of Good! A great way to go out with a bang this year!

(I will note, however, that we are phasing out the Community Fund for the 2018 year as far as being attached to Rockstar Finance (I’ll probably keep doing The Good behind the scenes and/or move some of the project here to this blog), but as a big philanthropy guy, John is already coming up with his own replacement project which I have no doubt will be doing some great stuff… Back at one of his original sites, he used to give out ½ of his earned profit every month so I know his heart is just as big as ours, if not bigger. He really is a good guy.)

Okay, I’m running out of questions here so we’re going to enter the Speed Round…

SQ#1: What’s going to happen to Cait Flanders who works on it?

She’s sticking around for another month or two, and will then be leaving too to focus on her own projects, specifically her new book that’s about to come out: The Year of Less (now open to pre-orders!!!)

It’s so pretty!

SQ#2. How about Nate who was working on strategy and The Community Fund?

He took up a pretty solid gig earlier in the year that he’s doing quite well at, so in a way he’s hustled himself out of working on the side as well :) You can find him anytime here: NateStPierre.me (people from the Love Drop days will remember him!)

SQ #3. And Steve, Rockstar’s resident Tech Guy?

He’s in it for the long haul at Rockstar! And will be taking a much more active role with the site, particularly with the Directory and the Forums, on top of his own fastly growing blog – ThinkSaveRetire.com. He was one of the guys I had actually talked to as well about possibly taking over Rockstar during my initial talks with people…

SQ#4. What did that process look like?

Once I knew it was time for me to leave, I hit up about 6 or 7 people in the community that I thought could be a good fit for it, and then I just had a butt ton of interviews and questions and spent the better part of 4 months really marinating on everything until John’s name eventually crept to the top. It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do since being on the online world, but again – big dreams require big moves!

SQ #5. And where did your now famous Triad of Hustling come into play with all of this?

It was instrumental! Not in finding a new leader, but in getting me to the point where I realized what I had to do… Here’s the quick version of the Triad being applied towards Rockstar since I know you’re trying to make this a speed round ;)

Did it take up a lot of time? Yup. 3-4 hours a day, if you count all the thinking too

Did it make money? Enough to pay the team and a little left over, but not much. Though it was also not built originally to make money either – I had no idea it would grow to as large as it did!

Was it fun? Yes. Most days at least :) But again, to pass the Triad it needs to hit 2 of the 3 areas…

The Equalizer: Was it a HELL YEAH or a “no”? Well, the first few years it was close to a HELL YEAH, but over the past 6 months it turned into more of a Kinda Hell Yeah, which we all know it means some changes need to happen… And this is when the soul searching began.

You know, thinking about the Triad in terms of Rockstar I’m realizing that there’s one major factor that we haven’t even touched on: whether a project is successful or not.

Shutting down something that fails the Triad and is not successful anyways is one thing, but it’s a whole other when it IS successful yet still doesn’t make you happy in the end. Similar to the other years dilemma with me walking away from the podcast, M.O.N.E.Y. – remember that one?

So that’s also something for everyone here to be aware of, especially the entrepreneurs – just because your project is successful, however that may be defined, it still doesn’t necessarily mean you should be continuing it if in your hearts of hearts you know it’s not bringing you joy. I’ve shut down over two dozen projects or ideas over my 10 years in this game, but the only two I struggled with were the two that were booming on the outside! I think we need an equalizer for those beasts! Haha…

SQ #5: Last question … what do you want everyone to know here before we sign off and move the questions to the comments?

That no matter what happens with all this, know that I am so INCREDIBLY thankful for all of you here reading this, and for all of you who supported and encouraged me with Rockstar as well as all my other projects in years past.

Everything I’ve ever built has been to help our community here be as good as it can be, and I’m beyond grateful for the chance of even being *able to* do all this in the first place. Those of you who know my story know it was a pure accident* that I stumbled across this money stuff, but thank GOD I did and thank GOD I’m now surrounded with people I love and respect!! Some mistakes can be the best thing that happens to you! (Although I don’t want to test this decision in that department, haha..)

So thank you THANK YOU thank you for allowing me to do the one job I love more than anything else in this world, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for us :)

I wish John nothing but success ushering in the new era for the site, and I will see you guys here at Budgets Are Sexy every week going forward as usual too.

Questions/comments/concerns – drop them below or shoot me an email and I’ll hit you back!

XOXO,

****** *10 years ago I went looking for a 2 bedroom apartment to rent, and literally made a wrong turn bringing me into a townhouse community where I went on to buy a $350,000 place with no money down and no budget… Three months later I was online trying to get my act together, when voila – I stumbled across personal finance blogs! I’ve never been the same since ;)

Why I FIRE’d Myself From Rockstar Finance posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

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heliosfinance · 7 years

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Why I FIRE’d Myself From Rockstar Finance

What if you woke up this morning to the following:

1/2 the emails to respond to in your inbox

1/2 the decisions to make for the day

1/2 the time you need to spend even working today

and 1/2 the added stress and pressure

And then let’s say someone paid you in the 6 figures to receive all of this.

Would you take it? :)

Would that change anything? :)

And I cannot wait to see what the future now holds!!!

If I miss anything, just hit me in the comments below as you know I’m an open book!

Take it away J. Money alter-ego…

#1) WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO, MAN???

I sold Rockstar Finance to a friend of mine in an attempt to trade my hustle card in for more of a living card.

#2) When did this all go down??

I had considered handing it off a number of other times throughout it’s 4 year existence too, but I loved it too much and each time I just couldn’t pull the trigger as it never felt right.

#3) What other times are you talking about?

We were on fire!!! Until I almost had a break down – again ;)

#4) And this time you truly feel it’s “right”?

I do, yes…as close as 100% as you can get, at least.

#5) What would make it even *more* right?

If I knew no one would hate me for making this move!! :) Or I got like triple the money for it, haha…

#6) Speaking of money, how much exactly did you get for it?

In the (very) low 6 figures.

#7) I said Exact, don’t you play that card!

#8) How much tax will you have to pay from it?

About 25%.

#9) And the % you gave to your team members?

20%… wait a minute!! I see what you’re doing there!

*Takes a bow*

#10) Alright, now why was THIS TIME the right time to sell again?

There’s a handful of reasons, that when combined just made the most sense:

I’m having a 3rd baby in a few months and really want to try being a stay-at-home dad

#11) I’m glad you mentioned this “new leadership”… Who exactly bought it from you and is taking over the site now?

#12) And how do you know this “John” character won’t be adding it to this Wall of Shame?

Because I know him and trust him, and I know on a list of priorities on his list, money is at the bottom of it as an early retiree with plenty of millions in the bank already :) Which is usually why sites go down in flames with new ownership – they just plaster it all with ads!!

So between all that, and the fact he wants to pass this site down to his kids one day to continue its legacy, it’s the best a creator can really ask for :)

He actually has a post live right now too if you want to hear his side of the story – it’s going to be a fun project to work on together! Why I Bought Rockstar Finance

#13) Wait wait wait, what’s this “together” part here? I thought you just sold it and are moving on?

But ask me in 6 months how it’s all going and we’ll know more then ;)

#14) How do you think it’ll be in 6 months?

Okay, I’m running out of questions here so we’re going to enter the Speed Round…

SQ#1: What’s going to happen to Cait Flanders who works on it?

It’s so pretty!

SQ#2. How about Nate who was working on strategy and The Community Fund?

SQ #3. And Steve, Rockstar’s resident Tech Guy?

SQ#4. What did that process look like?

SQ #5. And where did your now famous Triad of Hustling come into play with all of this?

Did it take up a lot of time? Yup. 3-4 hours a day, if you count all the thinking too

Did it make money? Enough to pay the team and a little left over, but not much. Though it was also not built originally to make money either – I had no idea it would grow to as large as it did!

Was it fun? Yes. Most days at least :) But again, to pass the Triad it needs to hit 2 of the 3 areas…

You know, thinking about the Triad in terms of Rockstar I’m realizing that there’s one major factor that we haven’t even touched on: whether a project is successful or not.

SQ #5: Last question … what do you want everyone to know here before we sign off and move the questions to the comments?

So thank you THANK YOU thank you for allowing me to do one the one job I love more than anything else in this world, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for us :)

I wish John nothing but success ushering in the new era for the site, and I will see you guys here at Budgets Are Sexy every week going forward as usual too.

Questions/comments/concerns – drop them below or shoot me an email and I’ll hit you back!

XOXO,

Why I FIRE’d Myself From Rockstar Finance published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B

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arcuniversal · 7 years

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12 Innovative Internet Marketing Tools to Help Boost Your Visibility

Have you tried these tips to build your visibility?

If there’s one thing that can be agreed upon in the marketing industry it��s that visibility is one of the most important parts of owning a business. This is because the more visible you are, the more traction your brand is going to gain over your target audience. The larger your target audience becomes, the more customers you’ll reel in on a regular basis.

Without a marketing strategy that emphasizes on boosting brand awareness and visibility, your business is going to suffer more than you could imagine. There are plenty of different tips and tools that you can use to your advantage when it comes to getting your name out into the public eye and implementing them into your strategy is your best bet.

Below are 12 of the most innovative marketing tools you can use when you’re looking to boost the visibility of your brand.

Use Personal and Authentic Communications

Although many business owners like to assume that a customer making the decision to purchase something is a strict business relationship, that’s not always the case. In fact, your customers are going to be far more likely to buy from you if they are able to establish some type of emotional connection with your brand. This is why it’s best to ensure that all of your communications are not only authentic, but personal as well.

Social media has become one of the primary marketing tools for many companies simply because of the surge of people logging into social media platforms on a daily basis. You’ll need to harness the power of social media in order to engage in more personal conversations with your clients. People need to understand that behind a giant corporation there are people that care about them and want to make sure they’re making the right purchasing decision.

This also applies to any marketing materials you use, such as newsletters. The more personal they are, the more likely the recipient will be to read them and understand the benefits of what you’re trying to get across. For example, a newsletter written from the owner of the company about how a certain product helped them in a specific way will boost your sales.

Take Advantage of an Established Network

No matter if you’re a huge company or a small start-up trying to make their name in the world, you have a network of people. It could be family and friends or it going be loyal customers that regularly purchase every new product you release, but they are certainly your best assets.

There is no better way to get word out about a company than by word-of-mouth and not only is it reliable, but it’s free as well. It’s best for you to reach out to your core audience to get an idea of what they like about your products and/or services. You can then ask them for a referral, a testimonial, or a written review based on the experiences they’ve had with your company.

You can even go as far as to create a referral program that offers some type of incentive to get more customers on board with the idea of recommending your company to their friends. For example, if they were to refer a friend they would receive a $5 off coupon for their next order.

The most important part about reaching out to an established network to boost brand visibility is to make sure that you’re consistent in your efforts. Even if you think you have enough reviews and testimonials, you don’t. You’ll constantly need to be adding to your list to ensure that all of the reviews are current and reflect present-day benefits that you have to offer.

Boost Google Rankings

We’re all aware of the benefits you experience from boosting your Google rankings, but we also know how much it can cost. Luckily, there are plenty of inexpensive ways for you to get higher search engine results for a fraction of the cost, such as Google Maps. It’s unique, fresh, and incredibly important for all businesses. Plus, you can link your Google Maps page back to your social media and business website for even more traction.

All you need is a small amount of information such as your business hours, address, and photos. Your customers will also have access to your Google reviews, which are equally as important for brand visibility.

Create Shareable Tips

If there’s one thing that people certainly use the internet for, it’s to find information about how certain products or services can help them to accomplish a task. If your business focuses on selling items that are designed to help your customers, such as baking tools for at-home pastry chefs, consider creating shareable tips.

Ideally, you can design a 5-10 minute video with a bunch of interesting and unique tricks to help educate your audience. You even have the ability to throw in some advertising, such as using X product to achieve this or Y product to make this easier. The best part is your viewers have the ability to easily share the content amongst their diverse groups of friends, only for the video to also be shared by their extended friends. It’s essentially word-of-mouth but in a more innovative way.

Collaborate with Your Competition

Gone are the days when businesses try to go head-to-head with each other and isolate their brand from anyone else’s. Yes, your company is unique in its own right but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re the front-runner of your industry. This also applies to companies that may be the most popular in their industry, as helping out smaller businesses can be equally as beneficial.

Instead, step into the ring together and feed off of each other’s audiences. There’s a very high probability that although someone knows about one brand in your industry, they most likely don’t know about yours, and vice versa.

Consider creating a collaborative project, whether it’s guest posting on each other’s blogs or advertising on each other’s websites, to reach both audiences. You’ll be surprised to know that it’s incredibly rare for businesses to turn down this opportunity.

Host Giveaways and Competitions

As a consumer, there’s nothing better than getting free stuff just by filling out a form with a few details. Anything from laundry detergent to free power tools is more than enough to get word about your business out into the world. In fact, giveaways and competitions are two of the most renowned ways for companies to gain more traction than ever before. Even social media influencers turn to product giveaways to boost their follower count.

The most important thing to remember is to make sure that your promotion is something that is going to start a conversation and entice people to share. For example, getting extra entries into the giveaway every time they share the post on one of their social media platforms. You can even rely on online ads to promote your contest and use targeted tags to reach the right audiences.

Know Who You’re Marketing To

When you’re starting a business it’s easy to want to be that brand that has something for everyone, but in all reality this is one of the worst things you can do. The better and only option is to become everything for someone. You need to take advantage of all of the online analytics and statistics you have at your disposal to get a better idea of who your target audience is and who you should be marketing to. Otherwise, all of your efforts are going to be lost in a sea of billions of different advertisements and promotional materials.

The more targeted your efforts are, the more likely you are to acquire reliable customers who are actually likely to purchase what you have to offer. Spending too much time marketing to the wrong groups is only going to waste money and make it more difficult to see the success of your strategies.

Offer Free Trial Versions with Credit

For businesses that develop software programs or other online tools, offering a free trial version can be more profitable than you imagine. For example, if your program helps companies develop logos you can offer both a free and paid version. A customer buying the paid version is one way for you to see more money coming in, but the free version gives you access to the brand awareness you’ve been craving.

When you develop a free trial, ensure that there is some type of credit such as a backlink or a watermark that will bring other customers back to your website. Even though the majority of people using your program may opt for the free version, them placing the logo designed with your program on their website gets your name out into the public eye.

Include Free Products with Purchase

Instead of hosting a giveaway or a competition, consider adding a special promotion to every order such as customers receiving a free product with their purchase. This is the perfect opportunity for you to develop promotional materials that your customers will use on a regular basis that have your company name attached to them. For example, pens or calendars. It’s important to choose free items that will actually be used instead of thrown inside of a drawer of miscellaneous house goods.

Develop a Unique Personality

If you take a moment to think about the most successful marketing campaigns, they’re clearly the ones that stand out from the rest because of personality. Take Old Spice into consideration with their onslaught of seemingly comedic and strange advertisements. Sure, they do stand out, but for all of the right reasons.

Establishing the identity and personality of your brand is what will boost your visibility with minimal effort. It’s easy for customers to find 10,000 businesses just like yours with the same strict corporate mentality. It would be substantially harder to find businesses that take a more fun approach to the idea of selling products and services. Though this all depends on the type of industry you’re in, as some industries don’t fit in well with comedic personalities.

Start a Podcast

Even if you’re not the most social business owner in the world, you can guarantee you have someone working under you who would love the opportunity to have his or her voice heard. Podcasts are an incredibly simple way to spread information online, as you require very little infrastructure and only need open conversation.

Another advantage to starting a podcast is you can invite industry professionals onto the show to provide their experienced and interesting input into a particular topic you might discuss. People have the tendency to prefer audible conversations in comparison to reading huge blocks of text, which is particularly important when you’re looking to create shareable materials.

You’ll not only be creating the perfect avenue to boost your visibility, but you’ll also establish relationships with professionals in your field. Not to mention that when posted on the right platforms, your podcast can help to be an additional source of revenue for your business.

Establish Social Media Influencer Relationships

Social media influencers have become the latest group of celebrities as more people are beginning to pay attention to the people they follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram more than their favourite actors and actresses. These influencers can at times have higher numbers of followers than celebrities, making them the perfect target for your products and services.

By reaching out to influencers via social media, you can send them free products or offer them free services for one or two weekly posts about your products. There are plenty of brands that already do this such as plastic surgeons, health supplement manufacturers, and even clothing designers.

All you have to do is compile a list of top rated social media users that can relate into your industry and start a conversation to see whether advertising for your business would be something they would be interested in.

Brand awareness is more than just a simple factor of marketing; it can make or break a business. By using these 12 phenomenal tips for gaining visibility, you’ll get the most out of your efforts and improve the awareness of your brand.

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internetblogs13-blog · 8 years

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4 Ad Serving Companies For Blogs

Ad Serving Companies For Blogs The Internet has really changed the way in which most of us communicate each day. E-mail, chat, and instant message have replaced, now and again, most of the traditional kinds of communication that took place earlier than the Internet coming on the scene. Another way of communicating is simply by blogs. Although there exist several different logic behind why you need to create a blog website, the way in which you decide to go about carrying it out is normally the same. Here are some pointers to acquire started. In the recent years blogging has gained plenty of popularity plus more plus more people are adopting money blogs to earn their living. A fun and interesting strategy to make money, blogs have become interesting to publish and browse. 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