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motherjoel · 4 years ago

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last cup of coffee (spencer reid x reader)

summary: you and spencer are the famous frenemies of the BAU, but one day he goes too far in a fight and the team decides to force you both into the same car to make up. little did you know, the check engine light isn’t just a suggestion.

a/n: this is on my ao3 but i wanted to post it on here too! let me know what you think :)

wc: 2.6k

tw: brief mention of suicide

“Triple A says it’ll be a few hours before they’ll get here,” Spencer sighed, shutting off his phone and shoving it in his pocket. The car engine had stopped working about 10 minutes ago and you cursed yourself for your terrible navigation skills. It may have been your fault that you had no idea where you were, but you'd never admit to it- like many other things you’d never admit to. Your extreme sense of pride led you to blame Spencer for not doing anything about the check engine light. It was this same sense of pride that hid your real feelings for this man- feelings you would never admit to even yourself. Instead, you shielded yourself from these emotions in the form of daily bickering matches with Mr. Genius.

The two of you had ended up in the same car on the way back to the hotel, which was insisted on by the team. You could feel the tension in the air- the tension that had been there since you stormed out of the break room earlier. You both normally never went for blood in these arguments- nothing behind either of your words were to be taken seriously, even the team knew this. Everyone knew that you and Spencer had a bit of a love hate relationship- today, however, was focused on hate. Ever since he went a little too far during one of your bickering matches, you had been icy with him. The team couldn’t take the tension, so they figured a long car ride would solve the issue, except, what was meant to be only an hour of awkward silence was now an indefinite amount of time.

“Well that's just great,” you huffed, going to check your phone to see that it was dead. You dropped it into your lap with a sigh and leaned your head on the window to gaze outside. The cold glass felt nice on your forehead- a contrast to the flushed hotness you had been feeling whenever your mind drifted to your fight with Spencer. The pent up anxiety from this case had really weighed on you- the unsub was killing teen girls and was framing the deaths to look like a suicides. This struck a chord with you, but you tried your hardest to not let it show. You thought back to your argument earlier, where your icy exterior had faltered slightly.

Most of the team was in the break room of the police station you were working the case at, fueling up on the coffee you all so desperately needed. You were the last one to fill your cup, or so you assumed, so you decided to fill your mug to the top with what was left in the coffee pot. Spencer was the last to walk in, and when he saw you holding the empty pot he immediately started in on you.

“Wow, I'm not surprised Y/N took the last of the coffee. Predictable,” he said with a huff, slamming his travel mug on the counter. You winced at the noise, your stress headache was back and you didn’t feel like dealing with his temper.

“You know what Reid? Maybe if you weren’t shitting around with that pretty receptionist over there, you would’ve gotten here on time. Not my fault men think with their dicks,” you said the last sentence under your breath, but he definitely heard it from his flustered reaction.

“I was asking her to bring me some files!” he yelled, seemingly defending himself to the room of your teammates who had stopped in their tracks to watch their daily entertainment. “You know what, Y/N, you’re just insufferable,” he said, turning to the coffee machine to fill it up. Your eyes widened, but you tried your best to mask your expression or to come with a response- when both failed, you stormed out of the room and went to the bathroom to ground yourself, not hearing Morgan whack him on the back of the head once you were out of sight.

You had both been silent for about 20 minutes when you decided to look back at him for the first time. He was shifting in his seat, trying to get comfortable for a nap. You couldn’t stand to sit here in silence for what could possibly be hours, so you tried to break the ice.

“Tired?” you asked him. Simple, but enough to get the two of you talking. Or so you thought.

“Yeah, someone took the last cup of coffee,” he said sarcastically, not daring eye contact.

Groaning, you opened the car door, stepped out and slammed it, deciding to walk down the street you had stopped on until you reached the dead end. It had begun to snow as you walked, and you cursed yourself for forgetting your jacket. At this point, it didn’t matter- the icy coldness of the outdoors was better than the coldness coming from Spencer's attitude.

After walking for a few minutes, you had come across a cliff with a view overlooking the city below. The sight was enough to make you forget about your dead phone and the genius, who had, unbeknownst to you, quietly followed you to this spot. You spotted a green wooden bench overlooking the city and took a seat. It wasn’t long before your tears began to flow. They were wet hot tears of embarrassment, of anger, and of sadness. For years working in the BAU, you had tried to keep up your barrier, being the badass in the black boots (Garica’s loving nickname for you). Your past weighed on you, however, and you kept everyone at an arm's length. All of these people you so desperately wanted to be closer to, and one person in particular who uncharacteristically gave you butterflies. Letting these people in, however, meant vulnerability. Getting close to someone just meant that losing them would inflict great pain on you, and you didn’t think you could survive any more loss in your life.

After crying for a few minutes and wiping your tears on your sleeves, you felt a sweater being draped around your shoulders. The sweater smelled like him. He made his way around the bench and sat next to you. You hastily wiped the last of your tears and scooted to the edge of the bench to stay as far away from Spencer as possible.

“So, why'd you follow me? I thought I was ‘insufferable’” you quoted him from earlier, the sentiment that struck a chord. You hugged the sweater tighter to your body, ignoring that it belonged to him because the chill of the night catching up with you.

“Listen, Y/N, I'm sorry about that. You know how I get when I'm having difficulty with a case, and it's not like we have a great track record with each other,” he defended himself, and he was right. Neither of you really expressed outward kindness for each other, but you never knew why. “But… I didn’t think today was any different,” he finally looked up at you.

“You’re right, Reid. Today isn’t any different,” you sighed, avoiding actually telling him what was wrong- although your splotchy red post-cry face was telling enough. He flinched at your use of Reid- although you two were “frenemies,” you always called him Spencer, sometimes even Spence. The team teased you for it but you shrugged it off- “Spence” was just easier to say, or so you told yourself.

“Then… why did you storm off?” he asked softly, looking back down at his hands on his lap, fidgeting with them slightly. You avoided his gaze, knowing that you were about to tell him something that only Garcia knows- she did a bit of research on you because she wanted to know why you were so cold, and when she found out that your parents had died at a young age, she was nothing but kind to you. She also kept everything to herself, which you were grateful for.

“When I was in high school, I was in a really bad place,” you started, fighting back the tears. Spencer scooted closer to you, urging you to continue. “I wasn't very well liked. When I was 15, my parents both died in a car crash and I transferred schools to live with my aunt,” you confessed. Spencer's expression saddened greatly, and he rested his hand on your arm as a form of comfort. You gave him a look that said “oh, and that's not even the half of my trauma” before you continued.

“At this new school, I was bullied a lot. Like, a lot a lot. People told me I was a waste of space, I was�� insufferable,” you said, ignoring his pitying expression. “I started to believe these things. Spence… I tried to take my own life,” you said, finally breaking down in tears. Before you could continue, he wrapped his arms around you and you buried your face in his chest, letting your messy tears stain his shirt without thinking twice. His hands stroked your back, soothing you. You had melted into him, finally feeling vulnerable for the first time in years. For some reason, you were no longer embarrassed of your vulnerable side. You bore your heart and soul to this man and were greeted with nothing but kindness. Pulling away for a moment, you continued telling your story.

“I’m doing a lot better now,” you said, wiping your tears with your sleeve as he maintained eye contact, showing his full support. “I don’t have those thoughts anymore, and if I do I know to get help. It’s just difficult to get close to people because I'm afraid… that if I lose them, I’ll be right back where I was when I was 18,” you finished, realizing his hands were grabbing yours.

“Y/N, I am so sorry. This case probably affected you differently and I was such an ass earlier, god I'm terrible,” he criticized himself, putting his head in his hands. You reached over and took his hands in yours again, resting your entwined fingers between you. This was the most physical contact you had ever had with him, but for some reason it felt more right than anything- you never knew what you were missing until now.

“Spence, there's no way that you would have known,” you soothed, looking into his eyes and rubbing his hand with your thumb. He looked down at your hands and sighed, before returning his gaze to you, but there was something different about his expression. Rather than his usual contempt, or even the pity from a few minutes ago, he now looked almost amazed. Like you were some celebrity or a superhero who had just saved the world. Before you even knew what you were doing, you started to lean in, Spencer mirroring you. Soon enough, you were inches away from his fluttering lashes, you could feel his breath on your lips. You pulled away suddenly, apologizing profusely for your out of character actions.

“Oh my god Spence, I'm so sorry, I think I'm just emotional right now, and you're being so nice to me, I didn’t mean to make things weird,” you avoided eye contact, face flushed with embarrassment.

“Y/N, it's okay! I leaned in too…” he blushed. You looked back up at him to see his eyes were already on you. Simultaneously, you both leaned in and crushed your lips together, his arms snaking around your waist and yours resting on the sides of his face. Your lips moved in perfect harmony with passion as you leaned your back against the bench armrest, him leaning forward to keep your lips connected. There was a hunger between you two- like these years of bickering and sexual tension (that apparently everyone but you two had noticed) had built up so much, it finally spilled and manifested itself as a makeout session with your once enemy.

You didn’t know how long you stayed like this, entwined with each other, before you both came up for air. He pulled away from you, still leaning over you but his face was now a couple inches away, and smiled. You both sat up and started to laugh uncontrollably. It was ridiculous, really- the two of you having an intense makeout sesh only seconds after you bore your soul to him. But he was Spencer, and you were you.

“That was…” you started.

“Amazing,” Spencer finished for you. You both sat in silence for a minute, his hand touching his lips, before you scooted closer to him and rested your head on his shoulder, curling your legs under you. He wrapped his arm around you and your hands met, resting between the two of your warm bodies.

“What are you thinking about?” he asks you. You sigh in contentment, the cold air biting your nose in the right way.

“I'm thinking that this is one of those moments that are so... perfect. It’s just so wonderful, you almost feel sad because... nothing will ever be this good again,” you confessed. He took his arm back from around your shoulder and faced you, looking in your eyes.

“If you’ll be my girlfriend, I can promise you that we can have endless moments like this,” he told you, taking you by surprise. You looked at him, smiling widely as his face broke into insecurity.

“Your… girlfriend?” you asked, still in shock. He started to fidget a bit in his seat.

“Obviously, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do, I know this is really sudden but I don't know… I'm sorry, I know we're supposed to hate each other or whatever, but I’ve just… I’ve liked you for a while now,” he blurted. You laughed at his shyness, it was really adorable to see him flustered like this around you.

“Spencer, I really like you. I’ve liked you ever since you spilled your coffee on me on my first day,” you recalled fondly, he smiled. “I even liked you when you tried to clean it up but accidentally felt up my boob,” you laughed at that memory, he blushed profusely. “I think these little arguments that we get into were just fueled by my ‘keep everyone at arm's length’ rule- it was you that I was afraid to get close to, because Spencer Reid, you are dangerous. You have the capability of shattering my heart into pieces because I just like you so damn much,” you confessed to him, his face was in awe. You studied his expression, lips parted slightly, eyebrows raised. His eyes held pools of adoration, and rather than be scared and shy away from it, you finally wanted to dive in and soak in it. His expression softened as he leaned in, tilting your head up by putting his hand on your chin.

“Y/N,” he whispered. “I swear to never shatter your heart into pieces if it's the last thing I do,” he said softly before closing his eyes and pressing his lips to yours. This kiss held less intensity, but more soft passion and caring. You felt safe in his embrace, safe for the first time in years, and you knew this is where you were meant to be.

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid/reader #spencer reid angst #Criminal Minds #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds reid #spencer reid x you #spencer reid/you #Matthew Gray Gubler

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ethanramseyyy · 4 years ago

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OPEN HEART: SECOND YEAR CHAPTER 12

I have already written this post but Tumblr had the audacity to delete it. So here we go again

The first exchange between Mc and Ethan in the hospital was adorable. Since Ethan opened up to us in the last chapter we have seen a WHOLE different side to Ethan and I love it. When the heart rate monitor started accelerating because Mc and Ethan were talking, I DIED. It just goes to show how powerful their love is. “It’s okay if you need more time”, this man is really out here trying to kill me for the 500th time.

Rafael stans were spoilt today. I know they didn’t get the chance to have a 30 diamond scene with him (at least I don’t think they did). Considering the fact only a few chapters ago he was meant to be abandoning everyone to move to Brazil or somewhere like that, I think they did well today. Raf’s grandma is one of the best characters introduced into Open Heart (behind our angel Bobby obviously). She is your typical grandparent with the array of food and drink and the embarrassed grand child XD. When she said that we saved her beautiful boy and then Mc replied that they saved eachother, I understood why so many people romance him because that was adorable. Mc and Rafael’s friendship has to be one of my favourites they are so sweet with each other. Unfortunately, I was an idiot and didn’t buy the diamond scene. The only reason I didn’t get it was because it was so early in the chapter and I didn’t know what other content we were going to get. I will probably replay it and buy the diamond scene but let me know what happened during the walk.

Mc getting ready for the memorial was so sad. I thought our landlord Farley sending flowers was so so sweet. I have got to say that I LOVED the diamond dress that was on offer. Obviously, I had to get it because I had to look good for our boys on their day. I have got to give all the credit to @playchoices because I think they did an unbelievable job with the memorial. They really gave Bobby and Danny a funeral fit for kings!

The first screenshot broke me. The caskets with the boys in and the flowers on top, I miss them already. To make it even more sad, I had ‘Hold On’ by Chord Street on in the background and if you have listened to that song you know how bad that combination is. Bryce telling the story about them was so heartwarming and one of the many reasons we all love Bryce whether you are romancing him or not. That boy is an angel. Our poor baby Elijah really struggled during the ceremony and all I wanted to do was give him a big hug. He deserves the world and we must protect him at ALL costs. Him saying he has been to ‘too many of these’ was so so sad, I feel like we deserve more of his backstory because I have a feeling it is a lot worse than we originally thought. I know that this sounds heartless but I do want to mention how amazing all the men looked in their suits. Especially Ethan, this man rocks anything and everything. Laying the orchids on their caskets, made me sob. I don’t even know why their memorials hurt me so bad.

Daniel Cardinal and Robert Gunderson. We will miss you. ❤️

Ok, I just want to say that I thought that Mc and Aurora discussing the hospitals finances during the reception was kinda rude and disrespectful. I know it was probably key in the development of the story but it would have been nicer to hear stories about the boys rather than Edenbrook and Mass Kenmore. But anyway, the conversation between Sienna and Mc was so cute but so heartbreaking. When she started saying that she always thought her and Danny would become something more, I broke down. This girl deserves happiness so much especially after her ex. And Danny was that happiness but unfortunately she will never be able to experience that relationship 😞.

Ethan looking into our literal soul was very sexy if I do say so myself. The way he can just look at Mc and know exactly what she is thinking just goes to show how powerful their relationship is.And then this man had the audacity to raise his hand in our face to silence us. I didn’t know if I wanted to slap him or marry him right there and then. Did anyone else have that issue? Just me? Ok.

One thing I loved about this episode is the choice between who you wanted to leave with and the fact it wasn’t a diamond scene. This is what we like to see. I chose Ethan because... well I don’t think I need to explain why. Just so you all know he was going to leave an hour before but didn’t because Mc was still there. if that isn’t true love, then what is.

Ethan is not ok people. When he started to explain that he was scared to leave Mc alone incase he wasn’t there to save her, my jaw dropped. He has never opened up THAT much before. I thought I was ready for it but then me tell you I was not. I know that countless times during this scene he wanted to say that he was in love with Mc but wasn’t ready. Honestly, I am ok with that. For now. I feel like we should wait a little longer (emphasis on the little) for a more sentimental moemnt. Like on our first date or even in the hospital where they first met. I have a feeling that he is just going to end up saying it without thinking about it, like a reflex and I wouldn’t mind that happening either.

Finally, we move onto the diamond scene. This was the best 30 diamond scene we have had with Ethan. It was unbelievable. “The idea that I’d never touch you again... it was almost more than I could bear”. I am not even going to comment on that quote because it explains itself. Just know that I did indeed scream. Like actually scream. We got a glimpse of angry Ethan which so happens to be my second favourite Ethan after cute Ethan. Him being angry because he didn’t want people thinking Mc slept her way onto the diagnostics team shows how much he respects her career. Get you a man that respects both you and your job. The freaking windows steamed up. The power can not be matched. So I did choose the option to straddle him but let me tell you I did not choose that lightly. I was so close to picking the option of going into the back seat. “Trust me, I have many more tricks up my sleeve”, bitch I am not READY for the other 30 diamond scenes we better be receiving. Obviously, I don’t need to go into TOO much detail because we all know what happened, if you actually played the scene. Just know it was a great experience.

To make the experience better ( if that is even possible ). I chose the option that led to Ethan begging. Yes, you heard that right. BEGGING. I feel so evil yet so good at the same time 😋. Again I would like to personally thank @playchoices for that 30 diamond scene. It was unforgettable. But let’s be real, we deserve it after what we have been through.

I don’t remember Farley being this sweet but that man is so cute. I hope that everything works out for him at hospital. But I am excited/nervous to see how the memories and PTSD of the attack impacts Mc going back to the hospital. One thing that makes me less nervous is knowing my man Ethan will be there to support me. I know he said that at work he is still our boss but like just imagine how cute the scenes will be between them now. Ugh, imagine them meeting up after a long shift and walking out of the hospital hand in hand. Can’t freaking wait.

This chapter again was so so well written, I hope Choices keep up with this quality because it’s been amazing. I’m praying that they don’t forget to mention Danny and Bobby though, especially after a few chapters. I hope they remember to give them mentions because they were big infuences on Edenbrook and they don’t deserve to be forgotten. I just want to add that I am sorry that this is late, like I said before I had already written this and had it ready to post but then Tumblr did a mad one and deleted it. I am sorry if it seems rushed or I have forgotten something but I tried XD. As usual let me know your opinions and feelings about the new chapter and thank you so much for all the recent love on my posts. I am unbelievably grateful! ❤️

If anyone would like to be tagged in these posts let me know!

#choices #open heart #playchoices #ethan ramsey #openheart #ethanramseyyy #ethanramsey #choicesoh #dr ethan ramsey #ethanramseyxmc

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its-a-branwen-thing · 5 years ago

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On Fear

I want to talk about fear and Ironwood here (yes, I know, don’t we all) as well as Oscar (he was a highlight for me this season) because I think these two carried a lot of the Volume’s scenes in their dynamic. They were just...so well written and their conflict was so wonderfully dynamic.

It’s long so, under the cut

Ozpin’s speech at the end, regarding fear, really struck me as something directly relating to Ironwood’s character’s actions, specifically two of those fears:

Fear of Loss

“You can’t just go dark in the field like that!”

“It is so good to see you all.”

“Get a communication tower up in the sky, higher than the Grimm can survive...so we never lose contact with each other again.”

Ironwood seems to reflect on this sentiment...a lot. He cares about his team. He hugs Qrow and tells him it’s good to see him again. He’s relieved to see the students again, he grants them their licenses to help with the coming conflict. He trusts them to make the choices...he ultimately will make for them. But it seems so prevalent throughout this and even the last volumes that Ironwood functions at his worst when alone. He was called paranoid, and his control is fairly absolute. Sure he gathered a team, but they did not offer him guidance they offered him loyalty, blind obedience, and trust. The latter is important in that it’s what Clover says before his death. That he trusts James with his life. (more on that...in a separate post)

But he seems fearful of being left alone. Of being in the dark without the guidance of others. He was desperate to call Ozpin back, to consult with him, and Oscar served, to him, as a poor substitute. Ironwood says he had to make his own plan in Ozpin’s absence and he did--and it was an arguably good plan (without the stress on Mantle part). But the crux of it is that he wants to make sure they wouldn’t lose contact again, none of them. Because being alone is one of Ironwood’s greatest fears.

Fear of Failure

“Some things matter more, I think. Keeping our humanity...it’s what makes us different from her.”

“Sometimes I worry that’s her greatest advantage. Without humanity does she still feel fear? Does she ever hesitate? When Salem hit Beacon, even with all my ships, all my soldiers, I was no match for her. I’ve never felt so helpless. The way she...told me she was there.”

This is key to Ironwood’s turn. I loved that it was planted in the season relatively early. I love that Cinder placed the chess piece in his office as a reminder. And I love that we saw that foreshadowing without really knowing what it meant outside of showing us his realized fears. Of Salem winning. Of his failure to stop her. And in the end, he was proven to be correct in that fear. And it was what ultimately lead to him turning his back on the unity of his allies and trusting only in his own judgement. Because Ozpin is gone. He is surrounded by yes-men and fledgling huntresses and huntsmen outside of Qrow, who he has a rocky relationship with at best when it comes to judgement calls, even if, and I’ll reiterate this again, Qrow always seems to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“We have to stop Salem. Nothing matters more.”

“The path you’re heading down where you’re the only one with the answers, where you do the thing you think is right no matter the cost, it’s not going to take you anywhere good.”

-----

Now I want to move into the finale because, once again, these two stole the show outside of Penny and Winter and the maiden powers.

“It was smart of you, not to bring the lamp down here. I wouldn’t trust me either right now.”

This exchange occurs after what is, by all accounts, Ironwood’s fall. It’s after he thinks Winter is behind him only to realize it’s Oscar (looking suspiciously like a certain Headmaster). Ironwood knows he looks bad. Ironwood knows he’s now the enemy of our protagonists. But he’s made it clear time and time again that he doesn’t care what people think of him. What matters, always, is that he does what he thinks is the right thing to defeat Salem. It’s the climax of this volume. It rips Qrow and Clover apart. It rips RWBY and the Ace Ops apart. They have different views of what the right thing is. But what Oscar says during his first exchange in the Vault with Ironwood really cements the idea of loyalty, which is unconditional for Ironwood, and trust, which is unconditional for Oscar (and now, hopefully, Ozpin).

“I am not going to end up like Lionheart. Do you believe in me?”

“I do believe in you. But not only you. I think the best thing you could do is sit down and talk to the people you’re most afraid to.”

And Ironwood does talk to the people he’s most afraid to. He sits down with Robyn, he sits down with RWBY, and he eventually reveals Salem to the people of Atlas and Mantle. It’s a brilliant misdirect because even though he does work with others in his plan, it’s on his own terms. We think we win it after E10, but in E11 the truth is revealed once more. Ironwood has to do the right thing now. And he’s made it clear it doesn’t matter the cost. Because he doesn’t trust in the judgement or opinions of his team. He trusts only in his own not because he’s villainous, but because he is bearing the weight of decisions he thinks only he can bear. (It’s called Atlas for a reason, I’m sure)

Lionheart was a coward. But so is Ironwood, if not in the way he imagines himself to be. He is stalwart against Salem. And when she is in his office, he refuses to yield, even though he is clearly terrified. He stands by his rejection of her offer. Ironwood is such an amazingly complicated anti-villain because he’s expressly that: a good man pushed to the brink and making heinous choices likely because he doesn’t want others to have to make them. We don’t necessarily see him as a full-on villain until he pulls the trigger on Oscar. And even than, I can’t be the only one who felt bad knowing Salem was bearing down on both cities, Winter lost the maiden powers, and therefor their access to the relic, his army is spread too thin and is weary from the Grimm swarm, his top Ace Op is dead, and the rest of them are out of commission just like Winter. This is a terrible loss for Ironwood. And he’s lost the support of half of his friends. RWBY, JNR, Penny, Oscar and Ozpin, and even Pietro even if it was his fault. He has the Ace Ops, he has Winter, but the moment they open their mouths to resist an order or offer an alternative he won’t hear it. And the man who wanted so desperately to have communications spread across the kingdoms, who wanted to work with teams of trusted allies, who worried over the safety of friends--is now left alone having failed at trying to stop Salem. Because he bore the weight of it all himself instead of trusting others to bear it with him.

----

“Trust is what I’m hoping to fix. I know we can still figure this out. All of it, together. Please.”

“Do you intend to fight me?”

“No, that’s exactly what she wants. I guess it’s because of Oz but..holding it helps calm me down when I’m afraid.”

“You still think I’m afraid...”

“We all are. It’s what do in our fear that reve--”

“That’s easy for you to say! You can label me whatever you’d like but the fact of the matter is I was right. The minute I softened, let my guard down, that’s when Salem had her opening.”

“If you abandon Mantle you abandon our best chance of reuniting the world, you abandon Remnant, leaving millions to fend for themselves so a few can survive, what kind of--”

“All excellent philosophical points that won’t matter if Salem wins.”

The reason this quote slaps is because it’s what some of the audience is probably thinking. He’s right. Why does it matter if they’re all dead? But Oscar, RWBYJNR and Penny, and even Qrow, all seem to embody the idea that there are things that are more important that the “big picture” because without those smaller, simpler acts of human bravery, what are they even fighting for?

“Listen to me--”

“No, you listen. I am done letting others’ inability to see the big picture get in the way of doing what’s right.”

And that, friends, is what I call thematic justice. Ironwood cements his position opposed to our heroes by an act of betrayal so foreshadowed it might as well have been predicted by the opening (haha...ha). And how can we reconcile that act as an audience? It’s difficult, and I say this because I sympathize with Ironwood while also still maintaining my stance that RWBY’s being painted as correct is absolutely the correct take because Ironwood’s betrayal is what Salem wants. And he’s too blinded by fear to see beyond his own judgement, to trust in the judgment of others because he has been lied to and he has been manipulated. That’s what, I think, makes him so compelling and hard to let go of as a hero. Because he’s so familiar. To us. Because he’s thinking he’s strong enough to make the right decision while neglecting to be in conversation with anyone else. Remember, he brought his army to Vale too.

What’s so conflicting about Ironwood is that this isn’t a malicious, evil dictator bent on ruling. Clover trusted him until the end. And it seems Winter does too. I doubt those are just pawns paying him lip service. Ironwood is a fearful man shouldering the responsibility of decision-making. This is a desperate hero we’ve followed who has fallen because all this time he’s shown to be a good man, and that’s a hard pill to swallow. After shooting Oscar, a child, I think it’s safe to say he’s officially become an antagonist because that act wasn’t just a stone-cold rejection of Ozpin’s ideals. It was attempted murder.

Ironwood does make the hard decisions. But he does it alone. And that doesn’t always make those decisions right.

Bruh, V8 is gonna hurt, isn’t it?

#rwby #james ironwood #i just...love this show #thank you crwby for all these gifts that keep on giving!#also this is not ironwood defense squad #shooting oscar was reprehensible #but i love character reflections and this is that #day...3 of hiatus got me like #rwby spoilers

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teriwrites · 4 years ago

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2020 Writing Wrap-Up

Something that I do every year on the 1st is go back through absolutely everything I’ve written throughout the previous year and compile it into one massive word document. Everything from outlining notes to unfinished short stories to my NaNo project wind up in that file, where I like to read back and reflect on what I’ve gotten done through the year.

Every year, I end up having written more than I expected, and this year was no different!

Total for 2020: 203,119!

This is the first recorded year (I think it’s year 4 that I’ve done this for?) in which I’ve cracked 200K! It’s also the first year I’ve ever actually followed through on my resolution to share some of my writing online! So as rough as 2020 has been, I still somehow managed to break some personal records in writing. Which probably has everything to do with the fact that I joined this community earlier this year, and it’s been incredibly encouraging and supportive!

I also branched out a bit more this year in a few ways. I worked on some poetry and prose, which is not something I’ve put a lot of time into before so tends to be a challenge. It’s nothing that I’ll be posting anytime soon, but it was fun to work on in the moment, which is especially important in such a wild year as 2020.

One snag that I definitely hit was the fact that I have a lot more unfinished work than most years. A majority of the short stories I started working on never got finished. But I can’t even be too upset about that, because I totally loved being able to read back on even the fragmented pieces I ended up with. And while I do think a large part of that (for me) is discipline over inspiration, I’m willing to accept that, sometimes, things will remain unfinished. And it’s okay to stop working on them.

My overall focus shifted a bit this year, too, which was interesting. I worked more on longer things than most years - started out the year by finishing my first draft of Castle on the Hill, continued making some edits and reworking its outline, did a large part of Beneath Alder Creek’s first draft in November. Right now, I’m working on what I expect to be a novella by the time I’m done with it. It’s a big contrast to the usual, short and snappy short stories that fill most of my previous wrap-up files. But I still definitely write those sometimes, and it’s nice to be able to try stretching and testing my own boundaries.

This is the part of my wrap-up where I go ham throwing in some of my favorite out-of-context quotes from a variety of different things I’ve worked on. Some of them might be familiar, a lot probably won’t. I’m going to post it beneath the thing so this doesn’t become even more absurdly long!

Some of the ~highlights~ of 2020:

First Thoughts in the Morning: wow the sexual tension between me and the alarm clock right now. Later Reflection: wtf? (a literal note on my notes app that I included because I Cannot remember writing any of this and it made me laugh)

Edriele’s gaze trailed down to the woman’s armor, and her stomach twisted. “Where did you find your attire?” The woman glanced down in surprise, as though she’d forgotten she was wearing it. “It was fitted to me when I gained my ranking. I suppose it draws attention, but after my confrontation at… you mean to ask me whether I’m impersonating a Knight!” “The thought had crossed my mind,” the Sister replied dryly. (novella WIP)

“Do you need to make a stop at your house before we head to the chapel?” Leslie asked as they started off. “What for?” Winnie asked. Leslie looked pointedly at the tip of her galoshes poking out from beneath her dress. With another roll of her eyes, Winnie sighed. “Oh, I suppose so.” (Beneath Alder Creek)

When the third meeting for the Society of the Hidden Immortal Tribe was called for the decade, I knew heads would roll. Gathering the entire society together took months. Everything had to be hush-hush; that was the entire point of spreading ourselves out. Plus, every time a letter arrived in the mail, it was a reminder of the idiot who had decided we needed a name change. Everybody agreed that being deemed the ‘S.H.I.T.’ was humiliating, but nobody could agree on a better title, so it had remained the same for nearly a full century. That was the problem with living forever. You always had more time to make decisions, and, in the end, nothing ever got done. (S.H.I.T.)

When she leaves, I’m not sure I remember a word of what she’s said. But as the stresses of the semester wash back in, and my mind clears like being pulled out of a dream, I suddenly understand how one could crash upon the rocks without realizing they’d ever changed their course. (A Modern Siren)

When Georg arrived later, he found Klaus leaning forwards onto the table, staring vacuously at one of his textbooks. "Studying hard?" he taunted as he approached and dropped into the seat Ingrid had been occupying. "I talked with Ingrid," Klaus explained. Georg's eyebrows shot up in genuine surprise, but he quickly recovered and looked pointedly at Klaus' posture. "Go that well, then?" "She said I'm arrogant and completely self-involved and that I never take what a girl says into account whenever I'm on a date." With a haunted gleam in his eye, Klaus stared up at his friend. "I think she's right." "Well then it's a good thing somebody pointed it out," Georg offered, and he turned to his work. (Castle on the Hill)

Takemoto Hana rested a hand over her face. She couldn’t see the swirling of darkness over her head, but she heard the whine behind its words. With a wry smile, she asked, ‘Do you not know how to brew tea?’ ‘Of course I know how to brew tea!’ The dark spirit’s voice boomed with a defensive defiance that rang false in the funny little woman’s ears. (The Funny Little Woman)

“None of us want to be here right now,” Edgar called out to the hall. “None of us want to go back through the handbook and listen to the steps of proper etiquette in immortality. But it seems that, once again, it’s necessary.” “Dammit, Dave,” muttered the man next to me. I said nothing, but I couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. Dave was… how do I describe Dave? To call him an idiot would be underestimating his craftiness. To call him a genius, I’d have to ignore all of his dumb antics. Cruel was too strong. Misguided was too innocent. Mischievous fit best, but even that fell short. Dave was a trickster god, if ever one existed. (S.H.I.T.)

Ridiculous, he told me with a self-conscious laugh of someone who didn't expect to be believed. I smiled, but I didn't join in. (The Little Roads)

“Hey, where did Alina go?” Lorelai asked. Zoe shrugged, but Jaiden cleared his throat. “I think you crossed one of her boundaries, Lo. She specifically asked not to involve her girlfriend in this, and then you did anyways. I know we needed the help, but friendships have to be built on mutual trust, my dude. You should’ve at least let her know your plan before you went behind her back.” The two women stopped and shared a look. “Hey, Jaiden,” Zoe asked. “Do you know the capital of Canada?” He shook his head. “I dunno, Ontario?” “Amazing.” (Mirror, Mirror)

"We had a bet going over whether you'd make it in time," Hans told him. "Did you win or lose?" Josef replied. Hans flipped a 5-Deutsche Mark coin over to Peter, who grinned as he pocketed it. "I'm glad you have so much faith in me." Josef's voice dripped with sarcasm. (Castle on the Hill)

Taliesin reached over his head and grabbed at one of the low-hanging bows, picking leaves from it. “I’m not sure.” Winnie stopped. “What do you mean?” “I mean that I don’t know.” (Beneath Alder Creek)

While she attended to these, the man beside her began to stir. Ella could see him out of the corner of her eye, attempting to push himself up into a sitting position. ‘You may want to lie back down,’ she told him, scrubbing uselessly at her skirt. The man continued to sit up anyways, pressing a hand against the side of his face. ‘Am I killed?’ ‘No, but your savior may be.’ Ella threw her skirt back to the ground. ‘When the Madame sees the state of me, I’ll be spending my future afternoons off making a new dress out of the fabric scraps.’ A frown crossed the man’s face as he considered her words, followed by a scowl of understanding. ‘You work for them. The bourgeoisie.’ (Cinderella)

Ingrid took the seat and began digging through her bag for a book. As she did so, she explained, "There were no other tables open in the building - even in the quiet section upstairs - so I figured that I would just ask the first person I recognized if I could sit with them, and well... here we are." "Don't worry about it," Georg answered when Klaus found himself dumbstruck again. "Just ignore the oaf, he'll leave you alone." Ingrid shot a grin at Georg, and Klaus suddenly wondered whether it was a good idea to have the two of them sit together. (Castle on the Hill)

Up ahead, I could see the glass walls of the bus stop. Usually, I waited for the bus leaning against the metal frame of the stop, leaving the seats inside open for children on their way to school. But the seats were empty now. I still avoided them. (Flo’s Magical Emporium: The Pandemic)

Now, I ask that you do not feel too much self-pity. For as easy an error as it may be to mistake a visiting aristocrat’s son for the hired help, the true talent in such a display causing his immediate departure lies within you alone. And to think that the meeting was the work of your father’s tenuous sway over the court! Well, I am sure the time away will do him some good, lest you begin to consider that you’ve ruined his position as well as your prospects. (Dearly Detested,)

Edgar was at the front of the lecture hall, and standing beside him was Dave, smirking as though at some private joke that only he was in on. He was wearing sunglasses, despite the dim lighting of the room, probably because he thought he looked cool. I rolled my eyes. What a tool. (S.H.I.T.)

The work is different now. Countryside pathways winding through the forest lie forgotten for years without the familiar steps of a traveler. Off beaten paths in the city are never unknown for long, and sometimes streets that were once crossed by thousands a day fall back into obscurity. (The Little Roads)

“How much time will you give me to think on it?” she asked suspiciously, wrapping her arms around herself as though afraid they’d reach out to him if not kept in check. “You have all the time in the world,” the golden man said. “The boy’s, however, runs out with every passing second.” He extended his hand. (Beneath Alder Creek)

You ever met a rich person? Not comfortably wealthy. Not ‘my Uncle Kenny is a lawyer’ rich. Not even ‘widow answering the door to her manor on a hill dressed in fine silk’ rich. No, I mean proper, so-much-money-you-literally-can’t-spend-it-fast-enough rich. They say it isn’t worth Bill Gates’ time to pick up a $100 bill off the floor because he’ll have earned more in the time it takes to grab it. That kind of rich. They seem to be bred for times like these. Their houses are a source of endless entertainment – movie theaters, bowling alleys, personal gyms with a view of the sprawling landscape they overlook like cruel dictators. There’s no need for them to leave during a pandemic; they have access to the equivalent of a luxury resort most families have to save up month to visit. Necessities can be stockpiled in one of the useless extra spaces in the house. I mean, I once had to hide out in a luggage room for a contract. That’s right. An entire room dedicated to holding luggage, bigger than some of the apartments I’ve rented. I thought their residential labyrinths were my greatest source of grief. But social distancing? I’m one bad contract away from retirement. (Bounty Hunter During a Pandemic)

Shaking his head, Detlef pulled a new sheet from his notebook. “Look, I’m just saying, if we can get the satire right, we can be a modern Jonathan Swift.” “I don’t want to be a modern Jonathan Swift, I want to be a student actually passing his debate course!” Peter snapped. (Castle on the Hill)

Moonlight illuminated the German’s fair hair and pale skin, the effect more malevolent apparition than man. (Face on the Other Side of a Dark Window)

Back then, he’d been known for commissioning the exact same portrait of himself every hundred years, hanging them in a hallway in his manor and trying to pass them off as his line of ancestors to any of the locals. It had been a far less skeptical age, and Dave had earned himself a small band of worshipers before Jeff Goldblum himself had been forced to intervene. (S.H.I.T.)

Clara stood before the board of advisors assisting with her thesis. She was one, very intense paper away from her M.A., and she wasn’t about to risk it all by being too proud to ask for help. When she’d made the appointment to meet with them, she expected a series of questions surrounding her topic. Instead, they’d opened by offering her a job. “You want me to steal from the school?” Dr. Pye wrinkled her nose at the suggestion. Next to her, Dr. Pritchard said, “Don’t think of it as theft, dear. It’s merely redistribution.” Clara hadn’t amassed tens of thousands of dollars in debt to be lectured on the definition of robbery. “Either way, it involves me sneaking into the Chemistry department and taking a huge risk to get you some new toys to play with.” (Origins: The Ghost)

“Why is undermining Pryderi so important to Queen Ceridwen that she would risk breaking a timeless alliance just to dismantle them?” Her stomach twisted into a knot, protesting against the answer. “There are few members of the Dusk Court that we know by title.” A shadow passed over Enid’s expression. “The Lord of the Undernell is second only to the Queen.” “Great deeds build the reputation of one in their own court. Cruelty builds it in both.” Taliesin buckled under Winnie’s weight as she suddenly leaned against him. (Beneath Alder Creek)

“Why are all my friends so quick to endanger themselves?” I muttered as I packed up Midas’ crate. Natalie swiveled around from the candy aisle. “So you’re finally willing to admit that we’re friends?” “Save it.” (Flo’s Magical Emporium: The Pandemic)

#writeblr #writing #my writing #writers of tumblr #teriwrites #writing wrap-up 2020 #my wips #I forgot just how much I missed my boys from CotH until I was reading through it #wow I would die for those funky little dudes #also feel free to ask about anything for some extra context since I've never talked about half of these projects #anyways that's all folks

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sol1056 · 6 years ago

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let’s just leave this here

so let’s see how quickly I can get through a bunch of these, just so they don’t languish for the next month... here we go. behind the cut: why the opening never changed, why DW is deploying Josh again, a few about Iverson & Hedrick, is a reboot possible, staying in fandom vs leaving... and some others in the same vein.

why did they keep the same opening for all of vld seasons, considering the line-up was never supposed to come back to the original from s3?

Every indication is that originally, the team would return to the original lineup. Keeping the opening was probably meant to remind audiences of that inevitability. Or you could believe LM, who said the opening cost 20K to make, and thus was too expensive to do more than once. She’d rather spend that money on a vacation.

So I've heard that Josh Keaton is doing damage control for S8. Do you think Dreamworks sent him in because they know that he's the one guy that no one can get mad at? After what some of the fans have done to him this past year [...] I’m amazed that he's willing to stick around and try to make his fans happy for as long as he can. I can see why people say "We don't deserve him."

Josh has somehow managed that sweet spot between charming the fandom and gaining its trust. Doesn’t hurt that he’s got the chops, voice-wise, to take written dross (no, really, some of those lines are horribly clunky) and spin it into gold. More than anything else, he comes across as genuine, and that adds a certain credibility to his words.

But... Josh doesn’t really have a choice. Playing Shiro is what catapulted Josh upwards, and the last thing he can afford to do is piss off DW by refusing to play ball. He’d only be damaging himself (and his reputation among potential employers) if he didn’t snap to attention when called. Plus, I think he really does sincerely love the character, but it’s got to be a tough spot for him right now.

When you get down to it, the only one on VLD’s (former) staff who seems to believe Shiro belongs in the story and should be respected as part of the story... is Josh. Who else can Shiro’s fans look to, if Josh stops speaking?

So, yeah, Josh is it. And I bet he knows that, and knows it’s just part of signing up for such a major role. This is part of his job.

So I came across a pic of Mitch Iverson from SDCC 2018 where he and Tim Hedrick weren't in the panel ... and [Iverson] was wearing a SHIRO BLACK PALADIN top ... while the EPs & Hamilton were in the panel promoting S7, Iverson supported Hedrick & his story, and Shiro.

Hedrick was actively involved in every script as the story editor, and reportedly conceived of Shiro as an astronaut returning after his capture by aliens. Iverson got his start thanks to Hedrick, thus it makes sense that Iverson would be simpatico with Hedrick’s vision of the story.

On top of that, by SDCC Iverson already had his next gig lined up. He continued to write for VLD, so he had to be subtle... but a t-shirt was a good way to make his sentiments clear. Can’t blame the guy, seeing he probably knew what was coming and chose a quiet protest of his own.

As an American, how would you take it if someone, that is, Iverson, called himself a redneck? From what I know thats derogatory term & for people not exactly inclusive & supportive of minorities. He also retweeted an art of Allura with a quote: ‘Laters’, which I found in really poor taste...

Redneck is another slur adopted by the in-group. My guess is that if you called Iverson a redneck to his face, he’d be offended. But if you introduced yourself as a redneck, and then called him one, it’d be different. And yes, as a term, redneck has a complex history, and it changes subtly in terms of how each generation defines/uses it.

As for retweeting things in poor taste... eh, most people don’t have any training in social media. Jokes are the hardest; it’s so easy for them to go so wrong. Until VLD, I’d bet Iverson was lucky to have a few hundred followers. How many follow him now? It takes time to find your footing in striking the right balance of humor and dignity.

Sometimes the best course is to ignore the stumble. They’ll either learn, or they won’t. Either way, it’s their problem, not ours.

Will Tim Hedrick be allowed to continue the voltron universe the way he planned it?

I doubt it. He’s got a new project. If you’re now an EP finally getting your name at the top, would you really want to go back and fix someone else’s story? Sometimes it’s just better to leave it behind, and make sure the next thing you do is something you can have pride in.

...why do you keep saying the last episode Tim Hedrick wrote was The Feud? A lot of people keep repeating it, like it was his last 'fuck you' to the showrunners. But official sources all say 'The Journey Within' was his last episode.

All we can say for certain was that tJW is the last Hedrick episode broadcast. That doesn’t mean it was the last one written.

Here’s why a lot of us peg tF as Hedrick’s last written episode: the story editor credit. Hedrick's the sole story editor on all his other episodes; tF is the only one in which both Hedrick and Hamilton share credit. The simplest explanation is this episode was edited in that window during which Hedrick had one foot out the door, and Hamilton had one foot in. iow, Hedrick put it into the queue, edited half, and moved on. Ergo, last written.

I can’t believe how they just managed to anger literally everyone no matter your favorite character or ship.

I recall a quote from early on, where LM said they had a feeling they couldn’t please everyone. The problem (which I noted at the time, and has remained true) is that the answer isn’t to just piss off everyone.

It’s to figure out who you want your audience to be, and to write the best damn story you can for that particular audience. If you end up with a story only old-timer DotU fans love, and kids are lukewarm about, fine. If the reverse is true, fine. You can’t please everyone, especially in a reboot/remake. So you pick your battles, and write your story accordingly.

Looking around social media, most people I'm seeing are either rightfully upset, or they're hyperfocusing on the one single scene they liked because they just don't have the energy to deal with the show's bullshit right now. How can they fuck up the last season so badly that it seems like the general reaction is disappointment and denial?

I think there’s a common cause for the fandom reactions: exhaustion.

In American broadcast television, a 26-episode season runs from September to May, then a summertime lull, during which people digest and discuss. Binge-watching is changing this, but it seems one thing hasn’t changed: no matter how fast we watch a show, we still require processing time.

What did we get? A half-season, two months’ break, another half-season, two months’ break, a full season, three months’ break, and a final full season. If every season had provoked a spike equal to S1/S2, we might’ve been begging DW by June to just freaking chill. Fandom had barely begun to process one season and a new one was already landing on our heads.

On top of that, S3-S6 weren’t exactly walks in the part, post-release. In terms of controversy, S7 dwarfed them all. That made an awful lot of people (across the entire spectrum, from almost every sub-group in the fandom) disengage. Those who remained dialed back on their expectations (”as long as X happens, that’s all that matters”), or they hung in there, insistent it would turn out alright.

So either you’re exhausted from not being able to fully disengage with the final season still in the wings, you’re exhausted from convincing yourself this one specific thing would be enough, or you’re exhausted from defending what turned out to be indefensible.

Frankly, disappointment and denial is a fairly soft landing, compared to what might’ve been. But any way you cut it, the fandom’s worn the hell out.

Do you think LM and JDS are gonna address this or are they just going to ignore the complaints, wash their hands and move on?

They don’t need to do anything. They don’t work for DW anymore. If someone has to address the complaints, it’d be DW or DW’s chosen spokesperson. I guess you could call that washing their hands, but the simple fact is they’re not on the payroll. They’re not responsible for VLD anymore.

do you think it's possible for dreamworks to rewrite season 8? i've never heard of a show doing that before and i'm afraid that we'll be stuck with what we got, but damn, i really hope that we will get to see the characters get the endings they deserve, if nothing else.

I’m not sure why anyone would bother. S7 was rife with problems; S3-S6 meandered back and forth. If I were to do a soft in-series reboot, I’d go back to the end of S2. That’s the clearest break, story-wise.

But if you’re going backwards 50+ episodes to the 26th, just keep going and start over. More to the point: not a lot of creators would sign on to inherit problems not of their own making. Same reason new directors on a property will want to rework the script in some way (if not start over from scratch).

Do you think this is truly the end of Voltron: Legendary Defender? I know that a lot of the cast and crew wanted to continue on with a sequel, and there's so many possibilities and things they can do in that universe, not to mention that Voltron is (or rather, was) a money bank...

Your guess is as good as mine, really. Hopefully we’ll get at least hints when the SACanime panel rolls around in early January.

There's a change petition for the "original s8" to be released ... [people] believe that LM and JDS are NOT the ones who ruined the last two seasons and that it was "exec meddling." Like, no, sorry, exec meddling appears to be what made it good in the beginning.

If we consider Yoo an exec by virtue of being CEO of Studio Mir, then I kinda wish he’d meddled a bit more.

...I'm wondering if the original version exists, completed. In one post, you said DW picked Tim over L/J so surely that got animated? What do you think? Be real. I don't want to get my hopes high thinking there's some buried treasure out there to find.

Ah, no, sorry, I wasn’t speaking in the sense of VLD but in the overall corporate sense. Here’s how the scenario often plays out: manager A and employee B do not get along. The longer they clash, the greater the chance A will find an excuse to fire B. The project is literally not big enough for the both of them.

B could resign, quit, or do a preemptive strike: go over A’s head and ask for help. If B leaves the company shortly after, it means the higher-up said: “I’ve heard A’s side, and I think A is right.” The exec might offer a good reference, or blame it on a no-fault bad fit. Doesn’t matter; the exec’s chosen A’s side.

Now, consider what actually happened: B gets transferred off the project, and gets a major promotion -- basically up to the same level as B’s former manager. Either B has some of the most amazing dirt ever, is phenomenally good at twisting reality to seem like the wronged party... or the higher-up reviewed the situation and decided that of the two, B was the one worth keeping.

Having decided that, the exec made an offer B couldn’t refuse, which would be to run a show that’s practically tailor-made to fit B’s dream job. That’s what I meant by losing the battle (how VLD would go) and winning the war (being the party seen as in the right, by the execs).

The only way for A to turn things around is to have a blisteringly successful final product. It could literally kill two careers with one stone: the (former) employee, B, who spun such a good story, and the exec(s) who believed B.

Given the numbers I’m seeing for S8... that exec did choose wisely.

ETA (sorry forgot this part): There might be pieces, but it really depends on what version control is in use (if any). For that matter, even if there were saved copies, who’s to say those didn’t get, whoops, deleted at some point? I’d put my bet on there being nothing, now, except what we got. Sorry.

I could understand if you never want to have anything to do with this show ever again.

Oh, jeez, I was here before VLD and I’ll be here after. Once we all get over our mutual exhaustion (and the holidays, bloody great timing, there), it’ll be time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Fandom’s got a lot to do, putting things back together in all the shapes that’ll make us happy. This is the best time to be in a fandom, if you ask me. Everything’s just getting started!

#vld #voltron #come for the sugar stay for the salt #wrapping up a bundle of asks #sol thinks about stuff

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illogicalword-blog · 6 years ago

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Religion and Secular Injustice

I've lived in the state of Arizona most of my life. Sometimes, I'm really proud of that. For instance, we just elected Kyrsten Sinema to the US Senate. Not only is she the first Democratic senator elected from Arizona since the eighties, she's the first openly bisexual member of Congress and the second LGBT member of Congress.

But last Monday, February 11, 2019, something happened in the Arizona state legislature that makes me ashamed of this state. Representative Athena Salman delivered the morning invocation that day. Representative Salman is nonreligious, and delivered a secular prayer inviting all present to ponder the "wonders of the universe" and the interdependence of the earth, how insignificant we are in the grandeur and size of that same universe. She asked, in a secular way, if we could fathom what it takes to support the many types of lifeforms on this little planet in this out-of-the-way corner of the galaxy.

There was a response to this invocation. Representative John Kavanagh has sixty-eight years to Representative Salman's twenty-nine or thirty, a booming voice, and a good ol' boy's mannerisms. He invited his "guest:" God. For God was in the gallery with them, "as he is everywhere." It was rude, it was snarky, it was demeaning. It sounded like it was meant to be.

But Representative Salman did not let it lie. The next day, with a group of supporters behind her, she quoted a number of ways Representative Kavanagh had displayed "behavior unbecoming of a member" of the House. That day, the reason, perhaps, that Salman was delivering the invocation, was Secular Day, and members of the Secular Coalition for Arizona were in the gallery. This was likely the reason for Kavanagh's rebuttal to the invocation devoid of a traditional deity. He sent an emailed response to the Phoenix New Times that expressed no regrets, calling what he said a "friendly counterpoint to Representative Salman's hijacking of the prayer." He added, "I felt it proper to restore God to the prayer, which is the purpose of the prayer."

I invite you to view Representative Salman's invocation, Kavanagh's "friendly counterpoint," and her rebuttal the following day on the YouTube channel secularcoalition. It was how this actually came to my attention, bad local politics follower that I am. Let me know how friendly you think Representative Kavanagh sounds.

I have to admit, I have a lot of admiration for open atheists and secularists like Athena Salman in politics. I've heard it said before that being an atheist in politics is committing career suicide, but she's been reelected more than once. This isn't the first controversy that's come up over her invocation, either. In 2017, the House took her to task for delivering one that wasn't religious enough. No, really.

I found an article about that on Arizona Central, and the House required by policy for the invocation to invoke a higher power. The House Majority Leader, John Allen, had suggested that if the lawmaker making the invocation had no interest in a higher power they should "ask the members to focus on theirs."

At this point you might be asking, as I was, why in the hell there's a prayer before a legislative meeting anyway? I've never watched one, I should point out. But apparently this is a common occurrence in every single state (at some point in the proceeding) and even at the federal level. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, "The constitutionality of legislative prayer was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983. In its decision on Marsh, Nebraska, State Treasurer, et al V. Chambers, the court ruled that Congress and state legislatures do not violate the U.S. Constitution's separation of church and state even when clergy are paid to lead devotionals." So apparently that case was more about the payment than the secularism, but Chief Justice Warren Burger went on to say that prayer during these legislative proceedings is not "an establishment of religion or a step toward establishment; it is simply a tolerable acknowledgment or beliefs." Again, no mention of lack of beliefs.

Evidently, this use is part of the pomp and circumstance of legislation, part of the ceremony of the proceedings, and while it may be unnecessary, it goes all the way back to the British Parliament, preceding the creation of the United States of America. I might point out that the British government is distinctly religious (in theory), with the monarch being the head of the Church of England, while the United States is designed to be the opposite. But perhaps I shall leave that for another day.

Representative Salman brought up several arguments for why Representative Kavanagh's behavior was unbecoming of a member of the House. Let's take a thorough look at each of those in turn.

First, she brought up the Arizona Constitution, Article Twenty, Section One. This reads, in full, "Perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured to every inhabitant of this state, and no inhabitant of this state shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship, or lack of the same." The Arizona Constitution was ratified in 1912, when Arizona became a state. Other subjects of section twenty include a banning of polygamy and a requirement of state officials to read, write and speak in English. It determined which lands were public lands, which were Native American lands, where the state capital was located, and which lands belonged to the state.

The point is, the very first section established not only religious freedom, but freedom for "the lack thereof." And yet Representative Salman was publicly shamed for offering a secular invocation on a secular day with a secular group in attendance.

The second point she offered was the Supreme Court ruling in 2014 of the Town of Greece vs. Galloway. This ruling involved a town that had similar invocations in their meetings, but the town was largely dominated by one religious denomination. The ruling determined that volunteer chaplains could open each session with a prayer. Now, Jewish and atheist women who had filed suit were disappointed by this ruling, as were secular groups. Ultimately, though, this comes down to what is a prayer? We already know what Arizona thinks a prayer is. Cough, cough, higher power, cough.

That being said, Representative Salman pointed out a passage in it that "prohibits the disparaging of other faiths or none." Moreover, one of the constitutional prescriptions for the prayer is that "The body may not dictate what is in the prayers and what may not be in the prayers." That kind of suggests Arizona can't say that it needs a higher power, though I'll admit the prescription goes on to say, "A prayer may invoke the deity or deities of a given faith, and need not embrace the beliefs of multiple or all faiths" and says nothing and a prayer invoking no deity at all.

Let us briefly consult our friends at Merriam-Webster, since I have no subscription to the Oxford dictionary. While the first definition of prayer is "(1) : an address (such as a petition) to God or a god in word or thought, (2) a set order of words used in praying," the second part of the definition is only "an earnest request or wish."

Representative Salman's next point turned to the Arizona Supreme Court of Appeals and Cochise County 1982. The court stated in that treatise "We cannot imagine that the Legislature would give preferential treatment to one religion over another because one is perhaps more established and thus more acceptable than another." For the record, this appeal had to do with a family of Christian Scientists whose children had been taken away after one had died due to not receiving necessary medical treatment. And in defense of my state, who it seems decided there was no abuse other than the lack of medical treatment and was awarding the children back to the parents, they also referenced the case of Prince vs. Massachusetts, stating, "Parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow they are free, in identical circumstances, to make martyrs of their children." This suggests they were still going to have people follow up on whether the children were receiving medical treatment if they were in need of it. I hope.

Arizona is a peculiar state. It leans conservative, despite being surrounded by liberal states. This is because the largest population center, the Phoenix metropolitan area, leans conservative while many of the other populations centers such as Tucson and Flagstaff lean liberal. And Sedona. Whacky, whacky Sedona. According to pewforum.org, Arizona is 67% Christian, with 21% Catholic, 26% Evangelical Protestant, and 5% Mormon. And yet 27% are Unaffiliated. Looking at the United States, 70.6% are Christian and 22.8% are Unaffiliated—with another 15.8% being nothing in particular. So by that logic, there should be 38 Senators who are not religious, and 165 members of the House of Representatives. Or at least who are nothing in particular. In reality? There is one. Representative Jared Huffman of California. In 2017, Representative Huffman gave an interview with the Washington Post didn't say he was an atheist, but did say he was a non-religious humanist. He is quoted as saying "I suppose you could say I don't believe in God."

He was reelected in 2018. Thank you, California. Few other states would have done it.

Even more interestingly, in seven states—eight, if you count an ambiguous line in Pennsylvania's state Constitution—it is still on the books that you must believe in a god to hold public office. This despite the 1961 Supreme Court ruling of Torcaso v. Watkins in which the Justices ruled unanimously that it was unconstitutional for the notary public in question, Roy Torcaso, to be submitted to any kind of religious test upon being appointed to office. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution states, and has stated from the beginning, "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." This supersedes the line in the Constitution of Maryland—which, I might add, is still there today—where "a declaration of belief in the existence of God" is necessary for somebody to take public office. For the record, the next time a referendum can be held in Maryland to discuss modernizing their Constitution is 2020. People of Maryland, I urge you to let your voices be heard!

Religion is a divisive subject for people. I don't understand how people can be so offended when they feel their religion is being belittled, and yet treat people who profess to believe in no religion in the same way. For many, choosing not to believe in a god is a logical conclusion after study, questioning, and learning. It's not something we choose so Christians can mock us or preach to us—or both at the same time.

The original prayer that brought Representative Salman up in the news—you know, the one that wasn't religious enough—was as follows:

Take a moment to look around you at the people gathered here today. We come from a variety of backgrounds and interests, but the passion that ignites us; the fire that burns within us; is similar. We all seek to form "a more perfect union," creating change from an abiding passion to improve the lives of the humans of this city. There is wonder in that. More importantly, though, there is unity. In a nation often eager to be polarized in its views, allow us in this moment to recognize what we have in common: A deep-seated need to help create a more just and positive world. As we speak today, remember that commonality. Remember the humanity that resides within each and every person here, and each and every person in the city, and in all people in the nation and world as a whole. In the words of former President of Illinois Wesleyan University Minor Meyers, Jr., "Go forth and do well, but even more, go forth and do good."

But remember. Don't just take my word for it. Learn everything. Question everything.

#positive atheism #kyrsten sinema #congress #discrimination #humanism

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gloieee · 6 years ago

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(Belated and unfinished thoughts on) Mistakes

I don’t do regrets. It’s what I’ve said about myself for as long as I can remember. I torture myself over decisions, interrogate myself, hold on until its unbearable, “because” I don’t do regrets. Thinking about it like this makes me chuckle, because it’s abundantly clear that there’s something wrong with that statement. This is a digression though. What’s clear is that I’ve always made decisions carefully, often erring on overthinking and internal agony. I guess the true reason I haven’t regretted my decisions is because I hold onto decisions until it’s clear that I have no choice but to finally choose. At that point, I’ve beat the dilemma to the core. I can’t regret because I know I exhausted myself, and that I drove myself to a point of no return. Regardless of whether it’s the right decision or not, I know that whatever I chose was inevitable.

I’ve made a lot of decisions these past few years. I suppose all decisions are somewhat related to your circumstances, but I feel as though I’ve made some active decisions over the past few years. I guess it feels more like “active” decisions because many were decisions that not many supported. I’ve always gone against the current, but not in any kind of romantic, rebellious, edgy way—I find no delight in defining myself as ~alternative~ or a free soul or some bougie highbrow connoisseur of life. I literally hate that shit, perhaps because I feel indignant. I feel like more of a farce than some open-minded intellectual artist type. Ultimately, I want the plainest, most generic things in the world—revel in security, love the suburbs, love benefits-eligible positions and dream of being a homeowner—but yet, I seem to choose the hardest route to that goal. It looks like I’m purposefully trying to find the most difficult path, like some ego-driven power tripping junkie, which makes me let out an empty chuckle and feel despair at the same time.

Anyway back to decisions. I guess it comes with the territory of “adulthood,” which must stay in quotations, because I most definitely don’t feel like an adult. I certainly don’t have the self-sustainability that I associated with adulthood, that I hope to have at this point in my life. Under this definition though, I do wonder whether I’ll ever really be an adult in the sense that my parents appeared to me as a young child. I doubt adulthood comes automatically with becoming a parent. At least not for our generation. Yes, many of my even my active decisions, have (perhaps) inadvertently led to suffering on my end, lots of pain, turmoil that most would label “unnecessary.” Yet, despite all that, I have never quite regretted my decisions. Partly because I was convinced it had to be so; partly because I did really value those experiences. I valued learning from suffering. I wasn’t as idealistic or passionately aesthetic enough (or, lacked in painful experiences enough) to ever see the beauty of suffering, as the deepest realization of the human experience. But I suppose I was open enough to see the value of experiences, of difficulties. “The world/ gives you/ so much pain/ and here you are/ making gold out of it –there is nothing purer than that.” I guess this was what I felt. This is certainly in the the past tense. It’s a pessimistic reading of my present state, because it implies that I am currently in a place where I can’t even appreciate some of the rather deep experiences of life, to embrace the ups and downs that have been thrust upon me. The alternative reading is a pessimistic, or even tragic reading of my past, in that maybe I felt that way back then because I had no choice. I was in such despair and pain that it was all meaningless, if I didn’t convince myself that I was “learning” from it, it would’ve broken me. And God knows there’s nothing that gets my ego and survival instincts going like the thought that something could “break me.” That’s definitely why I’ve made some of the most foolhardy decisions of my life, which have been many. Someone softens, and says that sounds too hard, and I balk, and go ham cause I can’t break my streak. I think I’m pretty humble, or at least, I’ve never been a humble bragger, but I have a weird protectiveness about being “strong.” But again, a part of me feels like it’s definitely a defense mechanism.

I fell in love with Andre 3000 this winter/ spring—in Boston, is there really a difference at this point? On the surface level, his lyricism, the way he literally plays with language, has made me see how rap, in its truest form, is the most exulting and perfect form of poetry. It’s perhaps been the only form of aestheticism and beauty that I’ve been able to appreciate as of late. And of course, his obsession/ fascination/ fear/ disillusionment with love is something I’ve always resonated with. The unshakeable tone of resignation, the empty but deep sense of pain in Andre’s recent solo bits pulls at my heartstrings. The profoundly real sentiment of emptiness comes across regardless of the content (T.I- Sorry).

I'm a grown-ass kid, you know ain't never cared about no damn money Why do we try so hard to be stars, just to dodge comments

And this that shit that'll make you call your baby mama When you gone on half a pill, don't know why but that I did Then you take a flight back to the crib, y'all make love like college kids And you say all the shit you gon' do better, we can try this shit again 'Round the time the dope wear off, you feel stupid, she feel lost That's that dope, I mean, I mean dopamine you think Cupid done worn off

Maybe should have stayed but it ain't yo fault Too much pressure, I fell off, I'm sorry Was young and had to choose between you And what the rest of the world might offer me, shit what would you do Well I'd probably do it differently if second the chance Only if some cool ass older man would've let me know in advance

This, this quarry, that is dug so deep in a father's chest When he feel that he's broken up his nest And he figured shit he was just doing the best that he could Which end up being the worst that he could

Regrets. You really see it here. True regrets are admitting you “would’ve done it differently,” but knowing you can’t go back and fix it. Even the hypothetical second chance is qualified: “Only if some cool ass older man would've let me know in advance.” But there was no cool ass older man back then, there’s just Andre now (props for his humble brag here, which he also does so well in “Walk it Out”—a glimmer of hope for Andre despite the sadness of his recent songs). It can’t be fixed at this point. It’s not about the people or the individual parts involved that could change the situation. Him getting back with Erykah Badu (who he’s most likely referring to) and raising Seven together at this point wouldn’t make it right. The “second chance” can’t ever come. You can hear the “quarry,” dug so deep and hollow in Andre’s chest.

Well, sitting here sad as hell Listening to Adele, I feel you baby Someone like you, more like someone unlike you Or something that's familiar maybe

The emptiness. You know you’re sad when you’re a man at a strip club but being “saddened” by the injustices of the pecking order of strippers (“All of them ain't all equipped/ And this saddens me, I see the pecking order/ Quote-unquote "bad bitches" work the whole floor/ Those that get laughed at sit off in the corner/ Like a lab rat nobody want her). “Someone like you, more like someone unlike you/ Or something that's familiar maybe” is such a biting analysis of how people feel post-break up. More often than not, we may want “someone like you” in the sense that we want someone we could share the intensity, the emotion with, but it’s “someone unlike you” that we actively seek—someone who won’t cheat, won’t treat you like shit, who will accept you for who you are, won’t make you feel small, who’s stable, who’s fun, who might last—but yet, we often end up finding someone “familiar.” It’s a disenchantment. A sly peak behind the curtains to uncover the truth (Drake- The Real Her). Familiarity is covert—it’s not active, it’s not conscious, it’s a sense, a shadow, a feeling you can’t put your finger on. We don’t want to think we’re dating someone because they’re familiar, we want it to be fate, unique, the one.

Since you been gone I been having withdrawals You were such a habit to call I ain't myself at all had to tell myself naw She's better with some fella with a regular “job”/jaw I didn't wanna get her involved

Even when Andre misses someone, it’s almost as if he’s purposefully comparing her to a drug, to convince himself that it’s just a craving and a literal “habit” (Frank Ocean- Pink Matter). He gives up on her before he even gives it a shot—saying “naw, she's better with some fella with a regular “job”/jaw” (also love love love the play on words here with job and jaw (his protruding, unconventional jaw line), the ingenious rhyming with naw fella and jaw—it gets me every time). This entire song is divine. Soft pink matter, Cotton Candy, majin buu, so genius.

What do you think my brain is made for Is it just a container for the mind? Sensei went quiet then violent And we sparred until we both grew tired Nothing mattered Cotton candy, Majin Buu, oh, oh Dim the lights and fall into you, you, you My God, giving me pleasure Pleasure, pleasure, pleasure Pleasure over matter

I’ve rarely heard someone sing so intensely, which is contrasted with Andre’s off-handed ambivalence.

5.22.2018

#mistakes #regrets #outkast #andre3000 #frankocean #musicblog #thoughts

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stargleeksil-blog · 7 years ago

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Criminal Minds s03e16 Elephant’s Memory review - or more aptly named, no elephants, but we get Derek and Spencer backstories and I just can’t believe how much love my heart can encompass. An Elephant Never Forgets

Episode 16 – Elephant’s Memory

Hey guys! So when I saw the title of this episode I was like, wait, are they actually bringing real elephants on the show? Because my excitement levels would skyrocket!! Then I realized it must be an analogy to something and I kinda got depressed. I love elephants.

Hello, Babar!

Anyway, let’s not get my hopes up too much and see what’s going on.

Let’s see what happens.

So we’re starting out in Texas and there’s a hillbilly song that begins with a line: “There’s a man going round, taking names.” Does NOT bode well.

Why is that dude talking to the trees?

Oh honey, didn’t your momma teach you that smoking is bad and will kill you?

See? You’re already limping, honeybee.

Oh fuck! That house just fucking exploded with that dude inside it! SHIT!

“Heck. Send everybody.” Haha he looks so lost. Dude.

WAIT WHAT? Did someone just open fire on the cops? Oh damn.

Oh my poodle is going to a support group for cops? I love you so much, Babyboy.

“I didn’t expect to see a man of your position here.” Oh honey, you don’t say that to a higher ranking agent. You don’t.

Aw! That agent gave him his one-year medallion so he’ll be more determined to stick it out and get to the one-year mark of being clean. I love you, dude.

“Sorry I’m late.”

Rossi: “I hope she was worth it.”

Derek: “I hope it was a she.” YOU LITTLE SHIT, DEREK! SO WHAT IF HE WAS OUT WITH A GUY? Wait, does this mean Derek is now jealous of whoever Reid was out with? I totally get the ships now XD

I love you so much, baby, but why hide what you were doing? Oh yeah, a support group is secret and anonymous.

“The locals are thinking terrorism in West Bune, Texas?”

First off, why the slouch, baby boy? Still broken up about Penelope?

And second, it looks like he’s never even heard of that place.

“I’ve never heard of this place.’

….

NAILED IT

“They’re gonna want revenge.”

“Can you blame them?”

I’m with Rossi, a hundred percent.

John Steinbeck: “A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.” WHOA! That’s so true, I’ve never even thought of it!

Oh god. So it’s not terrorism? They knew the habits of that Rod Norris and shot the deputy in the face. That sounds like something out of a hillbilly song, “I shot the deputy in the face” (imagine it in a Texan accent XD I am! And I’m lovin’ it)

“Shoots Savage in the face when he knows he’s already dead.” YEESH

Baby boy is onto something here, that’s plain cruelty.

Wait hold up. So the guy who got shot in the face postmortem’s son was dating the guy who got blown up’s daughter? Are we in some Southern Soap Opera?

Hold up. So there are no pictures of the wife and son, the dude resents his son for going off to the marines. The wife died in a drunk driver accident, but she was the drunk driver. Oh boy. This really is a southern soap opera.

“You might have just sold me on that profiling of yours.” Oh honey.

“Gun safe is empty.” Oh boy.

“That’s a surprise.” Did my poodle just use sarcasm? WHOA.

“That’s James Dean’s Porsche. No pictures of James Dean, though. That’s a bad sign.” LOL why?

“Still haven’t found the Father of the Year award.” WHAT IS WITH MY POODLE BEIGN SARCASTIC???? I DON’T LIKE IT!

Neither does yummycakes.

“Hey, Reid. Check yourself. That sheriff out there wanted to take your head off. I think Hotch might have let him.” OH SNAP! So I’m not the only one who picked on Reid’s seriously annoying behavior? Thank goodness.

“You know, I wish all our unsubs would just tack their profiles on their walls like this for us.” Oh honeybear.

“It doesn’t mean anything. What, you grew up in Chicago, a high school jock, you had pictures of, what, Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan all over your walls, trophies everywhere?”

“Yeah. But you forgot Walter Payton.”

“Not to mention the sexy ladies of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.” Oh god.

Oh damn. The fat officer’s wife just stormed up and demanded they shoot down the kid. Oh damn.

“Why do I get the feeling she’s not going to be the only one with that sentiment?”

Ooh, my puppy’s smart

Wait. So the body they found in the house isn’t the girl? He stuffed the meat he bought in her jeans? What the fuck is going on here?

She’s not a victim. I repeat, she’s not a victim.

Oh damn, twenty seconds looking at Owen’s files and poodle just diagnosed his learning disabilities and how the school wasn’t treating them right. Boom. Schooled about school!

“Come on, mom.”

LORD watching Shemar try to work a computer and fail shouldn’t be hot.

NAILED IT! My baby is amazing.

Lol, I love it how my baby is the tech genius in Texas. Has Penelope been giving you private lessons?

I like this Eileen, she’s sweet.

Wait. Hold up. So a video of the football guys forcing Owen to masturbate in public was posted on the school social networking site, and they just took it off? Once it’s on the internet, it’s out there forever. You can’t really delete it. Come on, dudes.

God, I hate that dude so fucking much.

Wow. My poodle is seriously judgmental right now.

“I told him that being bullied is part of growing up.” NO IT IS NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!

Oh god. He deleted everything but the mpeg, “I’m walking Morgan through retrieving what he put in the trash.” You teach baby boy to do it right.

“The kid is tech savvy, sir, but fret not, I am tech savvier. Is that a word?”

Well, it didn’t flare up my spellcheck.

“That sounds like a word. If it is a word, I’m it.”

I love this woman so fucking much.

“DC time, Garcia.” “11:17 AM.”

“DC. Decaf.”

“Right.”

I love this so much.

Oh god, this mpeg must be horrifying, my baby girl is absolutely devastated. Shit.

Oh fuck. he just shot his tormentors from high school. Damn.

“There’s a man going around taking names, and he decides who to free and who to blame. Everybody won’t be treated all the same.” Johnny Cash.

That’s the first time the character quoted something, and not the actor in the background.

Poignant.

“But you could have prevented it.”

What the frack is wrong with you today, poodle?

Wow. That’s the first time I’ve seen Hotch loose his cool on one of the gang.

And it’s the first one-on-one scene he’s had with Reid and I love it so fucking much!

“It’s the truth. They could have done something. They worked with this father. They knew Owen.”

“So what? All adolescents profile like sociopaths. There’s a reason you can’t diagnose them until they’re eighteen.”

“Yeah, and they could have seen the signs.”

“Nobody sees the signs, Reid. You know that. And making it their fault is not only unfair, it’s dangerous.”

“I want you to go back to the Savage house and I want you to go through Owen’s room.”

“Morgan’s already doing that.”

“Yeah, and you’re gonna join him.”

“Oh, you’re punishing me?”

“No, I’m using you. You know this kid better than anybody. Go find us something we can use.”

Oh my fucking fuck! He just stabbed the old man who lives in the house he’s squatting it! DAMN!

“Reid.”

“You know, you’re not the only one who identifies with him.”

“You said I was a high school jock.”

“I was. But not at first.”

Wait. What? We’re getting more young Derek background story? YAAAAAAAAAAY

“My freshman year I was five foot three. I weighed a buck 20 soaking wet.”

“So trust me when I tell you I got my ass kicked every day.”

“So the following summer, I hit the weights.”

“And I got lucky. I grew six inches.”

“But it was never about vanity, Reid.”

“It was about survival.”

Damn it! Every time I think I might be over him, Derek reels me in and makes me fall in love with him all over again and I can’t fucking take it anymore.

“I was in the library, and, uh …”

Wait, we’re getting more poodle backstory too? FUCK YOU!

“Harper Hillman comes up to me, and she tells me that Alexa Lisben wants to meet me behind the field house.”

“Alexa Lisben’s like, easily the prettiest girl in school.”

“So what happened? Alexa wasn’t there?”

“She was there.”

“So was half of the football team.”

“They … uh … stripped me naked and tied me to a goal post.”

“So many kids were there, you know, just watching.”

“Nobody tried to stop them?”

“I begged – I begged them to, but they just … they just watched.”

“And finally, they got bored, and they left.”

“It was, like, midnight, when I finally got home.”

“And my mom didn’t …”

“Mom was having one of her episodes, so she didn’t even realize I was late.”

“You never told her what happened?”

“I never told anybody.”

“I thought … It was one of those things that I thought if I didn’t talk about it, I’d just forget.”

“But I remember it like it was yesterday.”

“Ah, Reid, you don’t need an eidetic memory for that.”

“You know, we forget half of what they teach us in school, but when it comes to the torment and the people who inflicted it, we’ve all got an elephant’s memory.”

Oh my god, this was like one of the most intense scenes in the entire season so far and I just fell in love with my two babies so fucking much. Both characters and those amazing actors, oh my fucking god!

“He’s been making a big deal of saying goodbye to Jordan in all of his emails. None if’ts shorthand.” Weird.

So they used Eileen to get Jordan to talk to them via the PDA? Oh honey. Also, I can’t believe they had PDAs in 2007, I’m so behind on technology it’s weird lol.

Oh damn. They’re planting a seed of doubt to get her away from Owen. Please get her out of there, fast.

Get out of there, sweetness.

Oh thank god. Jordan is there. Fuck.

The found Strattman. Lovely.

“He’s gonna force us to kill him. I don’t need to be a part of that.”

Oh my sweet little poodle.

Oh my genius poodle’s mind’s at work. So Owen isn’t going to return the necklace ot his mom, because it’s hers, he’s going to return it to Jordan, because she left it there. Fuck, I love you.

So he’s coming to the station. Damn.

“Cover me.” And you’re giving away your gun? WHAT? Oh my god, Reid, be careful, you crazy loon!

Did my poodle just negotiate with a psycho teen without the use of weaponry? Oh my goodness fucking gracious.

Tom Stoppard: “We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except the memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.” WHAT? Somebody explain that nonsense to me, please.

SLEEPING MORGAN!

“You knowingly jeopardized your life and the lives of others. I should fire you.” WHAT?!

“What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that that would have been the second time a kid died in front of me.”

“You’re keeping score, just like Owen.”

Oh hey, come on, Aaron! There’s no need to turn nasty on poodle.

“It was my turn to save one.”

“It doesn’t work like that.” “It should.”

“I know it’s painful when the person you identify with is the bad guy.”

“What does that make me?” “Good at the job.”

Oh Hotch, you just ruined it for me.

Oh my boy, my sweet, sweet boy.

Okay, so this episode was just a magnitude of whoa for me, I loved every bit of it. It had very little humor, but enough background story about my yummycakes and my poodle that I’m satisfied with it. We got to see emotional Hotch. We got to see sides of Morgan and Poodle that I didn’t think I’d ever see and I love it so fucking much.

And of course, as always, thank you guys for your amazing support, as I’m queuing this, the reviews of the first episodes of season 2 are being posted, and I’m overwhelmed that anyone is even liking the shit I put out there. So THANK YOU! (especially cuz Elle leaves and all that)

So, as always, my faithful sweeties, I leave you with shots of our handsome boys that didn’t make the cut above.

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gadgetsrevv · 5 years ago

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Michael Owen shows he’s not just Mr. Nice Guy, ranting about Liverpool, Man United, fan hate and his regrets

MALPAS, England — Michael Owen laughs a lot. It’s one of the first things you notice when you are in the company of the former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester United forward. The common perception of Owen is that he is, and always has been, an extreme version of the modern-day sportsman who has been managed and polished to within an inch of his life, but the reality is very different.

We are chatting in the Owners Lounge at Manor House Stables, a thoroughbred horse racing training complex deep in the Cheshire countryside, which was nothing more than a cattle barn when Owen bought the land in 2007 as a post-football investment. While the camera is being set up in the stables to film Owen’s first interview since the publication of extracts of his autobiography, “Reboot,” we discuss the fallout from the book, including headlines about his broken relationship with Alan Shearer, controversy surrounding his comments about former club Newcastle United and criticism of David Beckham. (And, of course, two of his former clubs square off this weekend when Liverpool host Newcastle at Anfield.)

There has been widespread surprise at Owen’s candour and readiness to be blunt; it’s a side of his character he’s kept well-hidden since bursting onto the scene as a teenage sensation with Liverpool in 1997. But he laughs again when reminded of the time he scored his first goal for Manchester United. It came at Wigan in August 2009 and after the match, Owen walked past reporters asking for a post-match quote before turning on his heels to tell them to “F— off, because you’re always caning me…”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t have been a first,” he said, laughing. “I was probably right as well!”

– ESPN’s Ultimate XI: This team would win everything – Lukaku’s mission: Win at Inter, prove Man United wrong – Harding: The real reason Bundesliga is king

Owen is surprised that people have been surprised about his true personality, but he hasn’t lost any sleep over it.

“I’ve taken my tin hat off to chat about this!” Owen tells ESPN FC, following the initial reaction to the revelations in his book. “I’ve written a book that’s open and honest, talking about my career. It’s been interesting, quite a therapeutic process in the beginning, but now that it’s in the mainstream, it’s causing quite a lot of opinion.

“But look, to get to the top of any profession, you need unbelievable drive, confidence and the ability to filter out anything that is going to have negative impact on your mind.”

Owen is known for his safe public persona but in retirement and with his memoir released, he isn’t afraid to speak out.

Behind the laughter and the smile, it is fairly obvious that Owen is a tough, hard character to the point of appearing cold to outsiders. Perhaps it’s a result of being a child prodigy, the son of a former professional footballer (Terry Owen played over 300 games, including a spell at Everton) who spent his young life being groomed for the stardom which came at such an early stage of his career.

By the time he was 18, Owen had become a first-team regular at Liverpool and emerged from the 1998 World Cup as the most-talked about teenager on the planet after scoring his stunning individual goal during the second round defeat against Argentina. He was the Kylian Mbappe of his day, his scorching pace combined with an ability to score goal after goal after goal, but there was always an element of the “brand” being the most precious commodity, with Owen’s persona carefully managed to the extent that he never quite connected with supporters at any of his clubs.

Opinions back then were simply not on the agenda.

“A lot of the time when you are playing, you are slightly gagged,” Owen says. “You can’t be talking about Liverpool if you play for Man United.”

He scored 158 goals in 297 games for Liverpool but even at Anfield the affection for Owen is lukewarm, at best, largely because he signed for bitter rivals United after leaving Newcastle in 2009.

“When I left Newcastle, the two real options were Everton — David Moyes wanted to sign me — and Manchester United,” said Owen. “You could say that I was doomed to be criticised by Liverpool fans at that time, no matter what I did, because their two biggest rivals were the two biggest moves for me. But that’s fine. I’m certainly not sitting here apologising for anything.

“If I had the time again, in that situation, I would do the same again. In no other walk of life would you be criticised for having ambition: people would applaud it. But because I chose to sign for a club at the top, to play in the Champions League, you get castigated for the colour of your shirt. I’m never going to change that ‘you wore red, he wore blue, so I hate you,’ mentality.”

There it is again: that cold, hard honesty. Owen just does not do sentiment or play the game of telling supporters what they want to hear.

In his book, Owen admits that by the time he left Liverpool for Real in 2004, he was earning more from commercial deals than from club wages at Anfield, an admission that underlines not only his global status at the time, but also that sense of Owen the brand being bigger than Owen the footballer. As Sir Alex Ferguson says in the foreword to the book, “another factor in Michael’s career was the way he led his life; no arrogance, no partying, a good family life, respect for his parents, his manager and team-mates: all in all, a completely rounded young man.”

The problem for Owen, though, is that all of the above conspired to create the image of a footballer who was hard to love. “Over the years, I’ve inevitably run into a fair amount of criticism about various aspects of my career,” he said. “In my case, people complained that I wasn’t loyal enough to this or that club, was ‘always injured,’ boring.”

But does it bother him? Does he care?

“A throwaway line from Alex Inglethorpe, the Academy Director at Liverpool, summed up everything for me,” Owen writes in his book. “He told me that I had the best s— filter of anyone he’d ever met. To many, all I’ve ever been is a voice — a not very interesting one at that, some would say — or a face on a television screen.

“This ‘s— filter’ is at the core of it all and I hope everyone enjoys getting a brief glimpse into my head.”

April 12, 1999. It was certainly the end of the beginning for Michael Owen but the subsequent years also proved it to be the beginning of the end and, in many ways, the root cause of those accusations that he was injury prone.

Liverpool played Leeds United at Elland Road. Steve McManaman split the Leeds defence with a pinpoint pass to Owen, who collected the ball and raced towards goal until he pulled up sharply and collapsed to the ground on the edge of the penalty area. The Leeds crowd cheered, mocking Owen as he rolls around on the turf, clutching his right hamstring, which is torn from the tendon. The YouTube footage is difficult to watch considering the implications of the injury.

Owen was still only 19 at the time. He would go on to win the Ballon d’Or two years later and move to Real in 2004, but he tells ESPN FC that the injury at Leeds changed everything to the point that he could have quit in his mid-20s.

“Yeah, 100 percent,” he said. “Back in the day, when I did the injury, they didn’t do surgery on muscle [injuries]. If they did, it was extremely rare, so it was an injury that was going to catch up with me later in life, mainly in terms of speed, and this is one of the most frustrating things about what people have accused me of when I have said that, in the last few years of my career, I didn’t enjoy it as much as in my early years.

“I think that’s a perfectly fine and honest thing to say. I was right at the top of my game and I have countless recollections to prove how high my standing was during the first half of my career, but just think of the mental toll it takes when you’ve done that but then have to accept that players who are, with all due respect, half as talented as you, almost taking the ball off you.

“At 26, I couldn’t even run past them anymore. I was having to tell myself to link the play because I couldn’t sprint into channels anymore. It was alien to me, of course I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did when I was at my best.”

Owen, left, was prolific for Liverpool but a serious injury at 19 set the tone for several tough fitness issues in the later half of his career.

Losing his trademark pace was like a master craftsman being unable to use his tools and Owen could sense his decline. In his book, he admits that the root of his rift with Shearer stemmed from the then-Newcastle manager believing that Owen was refusing to risk his fitness to help save the club from relegation.

Knee, hamstring and foot injuries marred Owen’s career at Newcastle, restricting him to just 71 Premier League games in four seasons at St James’ Park. He had a similarly injury-affected three seasons at Manchester United, making just 31 league appearances (he only started six league games for the club), but having been one of the biggest stars in world football as a teenager, he claims it was “torture” to have to endure such a painful decline.

“I enjoyed the game throughout,” he said. “I’d have stopped playing at 25 if I hated it that much. I love the game now, I loved it at 33, but the mental torture of not being able to do what you could once do — the brain is still telling you to do it — you think, come and get it to feet because you can’t expose yourself to sprinting.

“The older I got, the slower and slower I got, but how do you get used to being ‘just a player?’ My brain, my heart, my everything is about being the best and when I couldn’t be, it was just torture in my mind to feel like that. I can’t understand how people don’t understand that.

“I was almost dying a slow death when I was playing. The last year at Stoke, I hardly played, and it made my mind up. I vividly remember playing away at Crystal Palace. I hadn’t played for six months, I was on the bench, hardly getting on, and I played [at Palace] and I just thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ I’m just not as fast or as strong as anyone anymore. Yes, I could still finish as well as anyone in the six-yard box, but I just vividly remember that I wasn’t capable anymore.”

For a player who achieved so much, Owen has a surprisingly long list of regrets. He smiles about them, and does not project the image of a man weighed down by questions of what might have been, but they are there nonetheless.

Owen left Liverpool a year before Rafael Benitez’s team won the Champions League in 2005, spent just one year in Spain with Real Madrid, signed for Manchester United a month after the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez and was part of the so-called “Golden Generation” of Beckham, Ferdinand, Scholes, Terry et al, which failed to win a major tournament with England.

But such is Owen’s character, and his pursuit of absolute excellence, that it appears he relishes setting his personal bar so impossibly high.

“I’m wired in a certain way,” he said. “I’ll regret anything if I can. If I win the league, I regret not winning it twice. If I win the Ballon d’Or, I want to win it two or three times. That’s the way you have to think if you are at the top of your profession. But if I had one regret, with all the players we had, nobody will ever convince me that we didn’t have an amazing team with England. It was so frustrating that we never won anything.

“Yet my trophy collection is my pride and joy, my memories. Sometimes, you have a little five minutes looking at them, remembering how you did it, because the evidence is there. You just go into a room and see it all shining.”

One of those trophies is the Ballon d’Or, which Owen won after helping Liverpool to a Treble of FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup in 2001. No Englishman has won it since and, although he believes the Premier League now possesses the players to produce a winner again, Owen does not expect an English player to emulate him anytime soon.

“I can’t see it being in the next few years,” he said. “We have some great players, but you’d to think Messi and Ronaldo will be around for a bit yet. There’s obviously Virgil van Dijk and other top-class players in the Premier League but yes, it’s going to be a while before Englishman does it.”

Michael Owen opened his Twitter account in November, 2010 and it is fair to say he has endured a bumpy ride on social media ever since. For a player who generates more negative opinion than positive, it can be a daily grind of abuse and hatred for Owen, especially since going public on his rift with Shearer. He bites back more than most but also believes there is a difference between what happens in daily life and being at a computer screen.

“I think everybody gets [abuse] in my line of work,” he said. “I’ve been used to that since social media started. It was my decision to go on it and interact with fans and, by and large, you do get amazing interaction on it and a lot of support through social media.

“In the street, no-one says anything, so you’ve got to take social media with a pinch of salt. I was having lunch in Manchester city centre with my wife and kids last week, and this is when I’m in all the headlines, and not one person has a go at you. Not one person says anything. I’ve never encountered anyone saying anything [face to face] like they do social media.

“But if you’re not thick-skinned, there’s no point going on it.”

And with a shrug and a smile, Owen sums himself up. His skin is thicker than most.

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toldnews-blog · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/united-states-of-america/strong-support-here-helped-trump-win-pennsylvania-in-2016-2020-could-be-different/

Strong Support Here Helped Trump Win Pennsylvania in 2016. 2020 Could Be Different.

ALTOONA, Pa. — President Trump’s road to re-election runs through places like Altoona, with its deep working-class roots, conservative social values and nearly all-white population. But it is not a straight line.

He won about 70 percent of the vote in Blair County, where Altoona is the largest city, in 2016, and that support was an integral part of why Mr. Trump defied forecasts and carried Pennsylvania, a state that will again be critical to his chances in 2020, by about 44,000 votes.

Altoona’s voters have now had more than two years to assess whether Mr. Trump has honored his campaign commitments and whether they will support him again so enthusiastically. Their answer, judging from interviews with more than two dozen voters, is complicated, not the black and white narrative that either Mr. Trump’s supporters or his critics might assume.

Most of his supporters say they will stick with him, citing his blunt style, which some of them see as a form of entertainment, as well as a strong economy. But not all of them.

That same economy has yielded uneven results in Altoona, a city of about 45,000 where the low unemployment rate of 4.2 percent masks some uglier economic facts: Most of the new jobs are in lower-paying service industries, with scaled-down benefits. The poverty rate is 23.2 percent. And there are few signs of the renaissance in manufacturing that the president said he would create.

“There is not a lot of disposable income at $11 an hour,” said Jim Foreman, the county Republican chairman, who operates several physical therapy clinics.

Robert K. Kutz, the president of a local labor council, put it more bluntly. He said some union members who voted for Mr. Trump were starting “to realize that the promises came up empty” and will vote against him in 2020.

“As far as the manufacturing goes,” he added, “none of that has come back.”

Mr. Foreman also acknowledged that it would be difficult for Mr. Trump to replicate his overwhelming numbers from 2016. And if the numbers fall off in rural counties like his, Mr. Trump’s path to winning a state where Democrats picked up three House seats in the midterm elections becomes more challenging.

Val DiGiorgio, the Republican state chairman, said the challenge would be to maintain Mr. Trump’s margins in rural areas while trying to blunt an expected surge of Democratic voters in suburban areas of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. “That’s the question,” he said.

But there are few signs that Republicans have lost their hold in Altoona. The area is represented by Representative John Joyce, a dermatologist elected for the first time in November with more than 70 percent of the vote. The district is largely Catholic and fervently anti-abortion, helping Mr. Trump.

And there are Trump supporters like Sarah Vogel, who said she wanted to live in her hometown to help its revitalization efforts and opened a coffee shop downtown. “He’s doing what he can to help small businesses and rural areas,” she said. “I don’t know if I can give any specifics.”

But, she said, she is “personally a little bit torn” over Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigration policies. While she voted for him in 2016, she is waiting to see who the Democrats nominate before making up her mind this time. Her strong opposition to abortion will weigh heavily in her decision, she added.

Cultural issues could outweigh economic interests for many voters.

Over lunch with his mother at the Black Dog restaurant near Altoona, Dr. Levi Delozier, a Democrat who returned home to practice medicine, said those issues motivated many voters here in 2016.

“I think cultural beliefs and social mores pervade every decision they make,” Dr. Delozier said. “The haze and the fog and the ether of the campaign made people feel like they were better off. I think the current president is very astute at programming his quote-unquote wins, and he is very good at off-loading losses.”

Altoona includes ancestral Democrats, voters whose family members worked for the railroad or a coal mine, but increasingly have supported Republicans. Older voters in particular, and especially those who had manufacturing jobs, believe that Washington has become out of touch, and are more likely to be Trump supporters.

Gib Beckwith worked in manufacturing much of his life. He lost his job as a tool and die maker, but sought retraining and now has an information technology job at North American Communications, which produces envelopes for direct mail.

Mr. Beckwith gets his news from Fox. “I know it is biased, but I get more truth out of their news than anyone else,” he said. “And it’s on my radio. On the weekends, it’s on. I won’t watch NBC or CBS anymore.” He said no one in his family, “not a one,” will vote for anyone other than Mr. Trump.

“Did he do better for the working man? Most certainly,” Mr. Beckwith said. “He has brought what jobs he could bring back, and yes, he gave the rich a tax break, but I got a tax break as well.”

Views like his present a studied contrast to a generation ago, when the federal government delivered big for people here. A former congressman, Bud Shuster, who was chairman of the House Transportation Committee, was famous for securing projects for the area, most notably the extension of Interstate 99, which some have mocked as “the road to nowhere.”

Mr. Shuster was so successful securing federal largess that when reporters asked Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York which state received the most funding one year, he replied, “The state of Altoona.”

But congressional earmarks are now banned and Mr. Shuster’s political career is long over, his politics of accommodation and compromise replaced by stark polarization.

North American has been churning out envelopes for direct mail solicitations for 40 years, and a sign outside its sandy brick headquarters says “Now Hiring,” proclaiming what should be good news for both the city and Mr. Trump.

Not so long ago, the company transferred most of its production jobs to Mexico, taking advantage of lower-cost labor. Then came Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigration policies and with them increased chaos that led many customers to say they no longer felt comfortable with their time-sensitive mailings subject to disruption.

So the company is trying to “reshore” several hundred light manufacturing jobs back to Altoona, just the kind of thing the president promised to do as the champion of the “forgotten American.” But company officials said Mr. Trump’s approach includes almost nothing that would assist them in bringing back jobs.

“There is no federal program to help businesses like ours to reshore our jobs,” said Tera Herman, the company vice president.

Her husband, Robert Herman, the company president, lived in El Paso for a time when the company had operations in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. He said he did not like the way the Trump administration’s immigration policies had played out.

“I am a registered Republican,” Mr. Herman added. “I like Republican ideals on the economy. But I don’t like the way that it’s translated. It seems very at times bigoted and the language that’s used, the derogatory references. I am not that way.”

Workers at Mr. Herman’s company reflected similarly conflicting sentiments about the president. Cory Reed is the third generation in his family to work at the facility in Altoona. He voted for Mr. Trump in 2016, but doubts he will again.

“He hasn’t really fulfilled that promise,” Mr. Reed said of the president’s ode to the forgotten American. “The follow-through wasn’t there.” He is also fed up with the president’s tone. “I feel like there should be more important issues than someone completely bashing someone on Twitter. I don’t really agree with that at all.”

But like Mr. Beckwith, Rick Zupon remains solidly behind Mr. Trump.

In Mr. Zupon, a lifelong Altoona resident who twice voted for President Barack Obama, Mr. Trump has an unwavering convert. “The guy has all the money in the world but is still looking out for the guy who made the country what it is,” he said.

Mr. Trump was the plain-spoken truth teller Mr. Zupon wanted to see shake up Washington. “Another thing I like about President Trump: He doesn’t use language that you have to get a dictionary to understand,” he said. “That’s kind of enjoyable coming from a president of the United States.”

John Stultz, a local real estate agent, also finds Mr. Trump entertaining. Some nights he says to his wife, “I’m going home to watch the national news tonight to see what he said.”

But, he added, he would consider a candidate like former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “I like Joe,” he said, “even the touchy-feely.”

For the president, voters like Mr. Stultz make Pennsylvania particularly challenging, especially if Mr. Biden, who was born in the state and plans to make the first speech of the presidential campaign he is expected to launch on Thursday in Pittsburgh, becomes the Democratic nominee.

Some in the Democratic Party say its nominee should focus on the so-called Obama coalition of younger voters, minorities and suburbanites. But Democrats like Mr. Biden have said the party should not abandon rural voters and should lay its own claim to the “forgotten American.”

In 2016, in Blair County, Hillary Clinton ran seven percentage points behind Mr. Obama’s performance in 2012. If a Democrat can simply cut into Mr. Trump’s numbers here, much less match Mr. Obama’s, Mr. Trump’s Pennsylvania victory could seem more aberration than trend.

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simplemlmsponsoring · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://simplemlmsponsoring.com/attraction-marketing-formula/website-traffic/3-tips-to-supercharge-your-sales-through-smarter-storytelling/

3 Tips to Supercharge Your Sales Through Smarter Storytelling

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…

“Facts tell; stories sell.”

Rolls right off the tongue, don’t it?

It’s true, though.

From commercials that tug at our heartstrings to people-centric ad campaigns, nothing compares to the power of story in advertising.

I mean, watch this and try not to feel something…

youtube

Is someone cutting onions, or is it just me?

That said, there’s a problem with the implied “but” in “Facts tell, but stories sell,” as it implies a negation of the importance of facts when it comes to persuasion.

Fact is…

Marketing isn’t a zero-sum game when it comes to facts and stories

You can use both.

In fact, you NEED to, if you want to maximize your bottom line.

Reality check: we live in a society of skeptical consumers.

So while we certainly might appreciate the occasional sentimental commercial, we also want to make sure we aren’t buying out of sheer emotion.

We want to see some PROOF before making any sort of decision, big or small.

Thus, when you combine the timeless art of storytelling with hard facts, you basically get the best of both worlds when it comes time to push your prospects’ buttons.

Want to win over people that buy with their hearts? Check! Want to convince those diligent buyers who do their homework before making a purchase? Done and done!

The art of appealing to logic and emotion is a subtle one, but it’s crazy effective once you figure it out.

And in this post, you’re going to learn exactly how to do that.

You don’t need to be a master storyteller or statistician, either.

All you need to start?

Get your facts straight.

Face the facts: marketing by the numbers works!

We’ve talked time and time again about the connection between storytelling and sales.

How to Turbocharge Your Sales Through the Art & Science of Storytelling

How to Use Stories to Sell and Recruit

What’s often overlooked is how numbers can tell a compelling tale of their own, though.

So if you want to increase your revenue, one of the quickest ways is to start getting specific!

What do I mean, specific?

Simply put, our brains are weird.

There are countless examples of how moving around a few digits here and there influences our buying behavior.

This rings true whether we’re talking about ad copy, pricing, or testimonials.

For example, there’s a reason why you see price points at $197 and $499, instead of $200 and $500, respectively.

It’s not an accident…

We have an intrinsic fascination with odd-numbered offers versus rounded ones

Logically, we know exactly what’s going on.

Despite that, pricing “by the nines” was proven to result in nearly 25% more sales in a study conducted by professors affiliated with MIT and the University of Chicago and published in the journal, Quantitative Marketing and Economics.

A few years back there was a fascinating study that really drives this point home.

Columbia Business School Psychologist Malia Mason and her colleagues wanted to study how numbers impacted the process of negotiating a sale.

Her team’s hypothesis?

You could improve the result of your negotiations by honing in on a specific number.

In the study, participants took up the roles of buyers and sellers of a fictitious used car.

In each case, the participants acting as sellers received one of three offers:

$2,000, $1,865 or $2135.

After receiving the opening offer, the sellers then responded with their counteroffers.

The findings were fascinating, as the precise counteroffers were much more generous, staying within 10% and 15% of the original offer.

On the flip side, the rounded offer wounded up being much less generous, a whopping 23% away from the original!

Crazy, right?

Why specifics work for business

Why does this work, though? Is it as simple as our brains working against us?

Not exactly.

With a specific price point, there’s the implication of some sort of story behind it.

In other words, it seems like someone put actual thought into calculating their price point, instead of just pulling it out of thin air.

Think about how this applies to talking about your positive result in terms of traffic or revenue.

If I told you that we ran a single ad campaign that netted $141,246.30 in sales, against an ad spend of $9,524.90, for a whopping ROI of 1381% over 6 months, you’d be probably be inclined to believe me, right?

(Oh, and that’s totally true, by the way.)

You see, providing specific numbers, data, or stats is a subtle but effective way to gain someone’s trust.

And behind every business there’s tons of data, and the more often you can incorporate those stats into marketing your business’ story, the better.

Before we do that, though, we need to talk about the big picture of storytelling.

Do stories actually sell?

Now, if you are a skeptic yourself when it comes to storytelling, I don’t blame you.

The idea of spinning words into dollars and cents might seem like something reserved for the Stephen King’s of the world.

Plus storytelling implies creativity.

And you might not see yourself as a creative, but rather a business owner and entrepreneur, and understandably so.

That’s why I’m going to get “meta” here and show you a specific example of how simple storytelling turned one business’ trash into absolute treasure and how you can do something similar.

And when I say treasure, I mean a 2,700% increase in revenue!

The power of selling a story

Check it: stories add real, quantifiable valuable to whatever it is you might be selling.

Digital products. Education. Used cars.

Or in the case of Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn, random thrift store trinkets.

As part of a social sales experiment, Walker and Glenn managed to take a bunch of <$1 items from random thrift stores and turn them into nearly $8,000 in sales via eBay.

And guess how they scored such a sweet ROI?

They told stories!

As part of their “Significant Objects” experiment, Walker and Glenn hypothesized that they could literally increase the value of junk through storytelling, they believed that perception was value, and with the right words, they could turn that perception into cash.

With the help of 100 hired creative writers, they found the right words to do exactly that.

The writers wordsmithed product descriptions to provide a fictional background on each of the items, hoping that they would drive up the price of the respective item.

And oh, they were so right.

Here’s an example of a listing for a seemingly ordinary meat thermometer:

“Everything had a temperature in those days. Cheese was cold. Avocados were warm. My heart was a piece of hot meat pierced by love’s thermometer.”

The original price? 75 cents.

The final selling price? $51.

Oh, and here’s one for a wooden mallet:

“On September 16th, 2031 at 2:35 am, a temporal rift – a “tear” in the very fabric of time and space – will appear 16.5 meters above the area currently occupied by Jeffrey’s Bistro, 123 E Ivinson Ave, Laramie, WY. Only the person wielding this mallet will be able to enter the rift unscathed. If this person then completes the 8 Labors of Worthiness, he or she will become the supreme ruler of the universe.”

The original price? 33 cents.

The final selling price? $71.

Many of the objects went for well over $100, with a few for over $200.

Make no mistake: this wasn’t an exercise is trickery, either.

Even the creators of the experiment ended up having an emotional stake in their creations. Here’s a telling quote from Glenn explaining to NPR how difficult it was parting with these “prized” objects:

“As the kind of curator of the project, I thought that I would be immune to the stories, but I had a really hard time letting go of some of the objects. So there is really something hardwired in us to want things to be meaningful.”

This all just really reinforces how irrational and emotional the buying process is at the end of the day.

Making people FEEL something is so important for stoking their desires and pushing them to buy.

Meanwhile, those stats we talked about earlier play into the logical parts of our brain to help seal the deal.

See how it all comes together?

3 tips to maximize your marketing through facts and stories

Again, you don’t need to be a creative genius to put your story into words.

Every single story has a story to tell.

Some prime options to put to paper include…

The “ah-ha” moment that made you decide to pursue network marketing in the first place The story of your first sale and the trials and tribulations that led you to that point An insight or inspirational story from a client or customer

Any of these could be potential prompts for ad copy, emails or blog posts.

The possibilities to package and repackage these stories are seemingly endless.

Scrambling for stats to couple with your stories?

You probably already have them on deck. For example, consider some specific data points you can pull to back up your tales such as…

The specific amount of money you made during your biggest month in business so far (“…a whopping $11,789 for the month!”) The number of sales or traffic you were able to score on behalf of a client thanks to your work (“…she managed to improve her monthly traffic by 157% and win 3.7x leads!”) Your years or months of experience as a marketer, providing readers with a sense of urgency (…”How I Made $31,196 in my first three months as a marketer.”)

If your mind is currently racing with ideas, you’re on the right track!

And if you’re feeling a bit daunted, don’t fret.

Below are a few quick tips to help bring your facts and stories together.

1. Humanize your product

Stats are fantastic pointers for supporting your product and what it does, but it’s not the be-all, end-all of what you’re selling.

Bringing in a much-needed human touch is key to selling just about anything.

Sure, you may have some sort of course or turnkey solution to transform your prospects’ lives and make them tons of money, but where’s the story?

How can you make them feel beyond the numbers?

Volvo is probably one of my favorite examples in the marketing world of humanizing a product effectively.

Investing in a Volvo isn’t just investing in a car: it’s investing in your family’s safety.

The brand’s long-term emphasis on safety is a brilliant example of what we’re talking about.

There are plenty of opportunities for Volvo to talk up their specs, but the slogan “Volvo’s life insurance on wheels” coupled with a family photo is a powerful image.

Give your prospects the opportunity to put themselves in the shows of your product.

In short, let them imagine what it’s like to be behind the proverbial wheel.

2. Remember: people are drawn to experiences

Do you know why stories like Steve Jobs’ days as a college dropout and struggles prior to Apple’s renaissance are so compelling?

Because they represent a human experience we can all relate to.

We might not all be tech gurus, but we’ve all certainly had our stumbles.

We’ve had our naysayers.

And while the idea of being a billionaire might as well be fiction to many of us, we can still empathize with those struggles.

People love underdogs. David versus Goliath.

Luke Skywalker making the heart-stopping run to blow up the Death Star all by himself, against all odds.

Those specific instances of struggle in the grand scheme of things will always appeal to people, so use that sort of appeal to your advantage.

When in doubt, discuss your own shortcomings and vulnerabilities: you may be surprised at how much people respond.

3. Tap into the “Spielberg Effect”

Last but not least, don’t forget to harness the power of the Spielberg Face.

This artistic technique popularized by Steven Spielberg that you can see in the likes of E.T., Jurassic Park, and Jaws relies on extreme, awe-struck close-ups of characters to create an emotional connection with audiences.

And it works. Beautifully.

Putting a face to your marketing strategy is always a smart move in pursuit of humanizing both your brand and whatever it is you have to sell.

So plaster your photo throughout your marketing campaigns.

Don’t be afraid to get emotional.

If we’ve learned anything in marketing or otherwise, it’s that emotion is a fantastic motivation.

Use it.

Ready to sell your story?

It might seem like there’s a whole lot to unpack here, but let’s break it down in plain English.

High-performing marketers understand the transformative power of storytelling.

And while nobody can transform words into gold from the word “go,” a little bit of practice goes a long way.

So don’t be afraid to write that blog post or email.

Put YOUR story into your copy.

Go for it!

All the while, don’t forget to tap into your prospects’ sense of logic.

Support your story with stats.

Give it the legitimacy it needs to stand out in their minds.

With the help of stats and storytelling, you instantly put yourself on a pedestal when it comes to establishing rapport with your audience.

And with that, it’s time to put pen to paper!

Uncovering the right story for your business

To get started, you just need to figure out which stories will resonate with your prospects.

Luckily, we’ve already done the homework for tons of marketers to help them absolutely explode the volume traffic to their ads.

So if you’re ready to learn the proven tactics classic brands have been using for over 100 years to attract an audience, we’ve put together a step-by-step tutorial that reveals our exact advertising process in a 100% FREE online workshop, hosted by none other than Tim Erway, co-founder and CEO of Elite Marketing Pro.

You’ll discover how you can put together a profitable ad campaign in just 10 minutes a day with as little as $10 in initial ad spend.

So if you haven’t registered yet, what are you waiting for?

Pick a time that works for you to attend Tim’s traffic workshop right here.

Here’s to your success!

Andrew Draughon Director of Content Elite Marketing Pro

The post 3 Tips to Supercharge Your Sales Through Smarter Storytelling appeared first on Elite Marketing Pro.