#also they didn't want my portfolio what sort of place is this?

[crimsonblackrose]

My aunt found me arguably the most boring looking white collar job to apply to that just so happens to be remote writing related. How she managed to find like the cliche parent job recommendation I have no clue. I applied. But it hilarious. I didn’t think those were as easy to find between the thin narrow line of like what I qualify for and what won’t make me faint and ill.

[russellsppttemplates]

Uh oh, I'm falling in love (Lando Norris)

Y/N and Lando both have jobs that require good sight and attention to detail and yet they're oblivious to their feelings for eachother

Note: english is not my first language. I'm in a very fluffy mood, so I got really excited when I got this request! This also makes my expectations even higher and calls me single in about seventeen different languages at once...

Thank you so much to everyone who likes and reblogs, your feedback is appreciated 🤍 and I'm taking requests so if you have any ideas or concepts you want to share, feel free to do so as I'll try to get to them the best I can!

my masterlist

Tw: mentions a needle (for sewing)

Tag list: @myloverjk-blog

"Hey guys! How's everyone?", Max said to the camera as you made sure the set up was right, the screen showing his and Lando's faces on one screen and the table on the other like it was supposed to.

"As per your many, many requests, we have brought our graphic designer at Quadrant, Y/N", Lando announced as you appeared on camera, sending a very awkward first wave to the camera, "today's stream is little different than our usual programming, but it was the only way she agreed to be in one! You guys really wanted to see her, so we had to be creative!", Max said as he moved the friendship bracelets making kit into view on the table.

"Hey, Queen Taylor said we should make the friendship bracelets, so we're just following her!", you chuckled, looking at all the coloured threads and colourful beads, sorting them out and grabbing a pen and paper so you could draw your ideas.

"Since you guys wanted to get to know Y/N, can I tell them to send in questions?", Lando questioned you, "sure, I'll answer them to the best of mu ability", you smiled.

You were picking the letters you needed for the bracelet you were making when Max spoke up, "first one: how did you start working with Quadrant? I'd love to work on the team when I finish my degree!".

"I saw the job offer, and I must admit at first I didn't really know much about the company. I looked it up, looked cool enough and I sent my CV and portfolio in. So keep your eyes peeled for any offers, I guess? We have them now on the website, which was my doing, so you can check them out there if you want to be part of the team", you offered.

"I need help, guys", Lando said as he fiddled with his bracelet, the orange and grey beads with his initials sliding on the elasticated material, I can't do the closing knot on my own", he pouted as you placed your bracelet down.

"You have to flip it like this, here. Just put it on your wrist and I'll do the rest", you ushered him, your fingertips gingerly touching his hand and wrist as you quietly laced it, "this way we don't get frilly bits out and it looks pretty, see? Pretty!", you smiled, modelling his wrist for the camera.

Pretty, that's what he often thought about you. Not only pretty, but it was one of the first physical traits that came to mind.

"We should all have matching ones!", Max said as he completed his bracelet, impressively on his own, revealing the colourful beads with Quadrant spelled in white round beads with black letters, "I'll make one for each of you", he said as he watched you show your own, pink beads and a lyric he assumed was from a Taylor Swift song.

"I'll make Y/N's, she helped me after all", Lando said as one brave fan sent a comment into the chat.

He's so giddy to make Y/N a bracelet, it's a shame it will snap because of his lack of skills

Am I delusional if I say that they'd make a great couple?

If you're delusional, then what do I call myself? I still think they're making heart eyes at eachother whenever they catch the slightest glimpse!

We're joining forces, I think it's a noble pursuit!

He's a dork, Y/N, but you should give him a chance

Have you always known you wanted to be a graphic designer?

"I thought about different careers before I settled on this one, for now at least", you explained, "engineering was in the running up, but then I figured out that I was curious about how things worked, but that didn't mean that I wanted to be the one working on it. And this was a way to express my creativity, my strategy planning as well, and at the moment it's been quite good", you smiled as Lando grabbed your wrist softly, "I need to make sure this fits", he interrupted, "and it won't snap because I've learnt how to do it, thank you very much", he blushed. So he, too, was reading the comments, choosing not to dwell in them.

"Look, this way you always have a lucky charm with you everywhere you go, even if we're not together. We're eachothers lucky charms!", Lando announced as Max mafe a fake gagging noise.

.

"Are you all ready?", you said as you and Tara walked inside the room, clasping your watch on your wrist and hoping to find the boys ready.

Quadrant had been invited to a gala dinner that celebrated the companies in the same line of business, inviting five people to take part in the meal. After some team members politely declining the invitation since they had things booked already, the group ended up being Lando, Max, Callum, Tara and yourself.

The dress required everyone to up their usual style, hence the long dress you were wearing. Even though it was far from your usual everyday attire, you felt beautiful in the dress you ended up with after browsing the online shops for a while. The cut was simple, the skirt widening from your waist down and complimenting your curves as the sheen from the midnight blue fabric looked soft and sweet against your skin.

Lando seemed to think the same, trying his best to not let his mouth hang open when you and Tara walked inside their room, heels clicking on the wooden floor as you hurried them, "does it really take that long to put on a suit? I had to help Tara with the laces on her back and we still got ready faster than the three of you?", you asked, shaking your wrist to check if the dainty watch wasn't going to fall and that it wasn't too tight either.

Looking up to meet Lando's eyes, you were sure you physically and audibly gulped. No one should look that good in a plain white shirt. The cuffs were still unbuttoned, but the shirt itself was tucked in his black pants. He didn't have any jewellery, so his tanned skin caught your eye as it contrasted with his clothes.

"Lando has a problem with his shirt and we are trying to solve it", Max said, a little bit too antsy given that, at the naked eye, there didn't seem to be a big issue with the piece of clothing you had been inspecting quite closely.

"There was a loose button, and I tried to fix it, but I made it worse", Lando said as he pointed to the button on his hand, the slight movement showing you the place where it was supposed to he holding the piece together and closed.

"Three people in this room and no one thought about grabbing the sewing kit from the amenities?", Tara suggested, looking for it in the box that was the same as it was in your room, "see? Simple as that! Can you sew it, Y/N? My hand isn't fully healed yet, I can't quite grasp something that small yet".

Tara had injured herself earlier on in the week, prompting her to ask to tag out of the gala until you pleaded her to go so you wouldn't be alone, so she couldn't do it. None of the other guys seemed to even know how to pull the thread through the needle, so you grabbed the kit from Tara's hand, "sure, I'll do it", you said, "if that's okay with you, that is", you looked over at Lando.

"Sure, anything to solve this. Do I keep it on or should I take it off?", he questioned, wanting to slap himself straight after at his offer. Why would he volunteer to be shirtless in front of you? It certainly wasn't the way to go, shoving himself like that.

"On should be fine", you muttered, missing the snickers going on behind you as you wet the thread with your tongue, careful to not transfer any of the lipstick on it and ruining the piece without point of return for good, easily looping it through and adjusting the size of the ends.

"Button", you put your hand out so Lando could place it in your fingers, "I will do my best not to poke you, let me know if I do so accidentally", you mumbled at the closeness to him you found yourself in. It was the third button from the top, and as much as you loved the sight of the shirt slightly undone, the dinner required his shirt to be done up. Looping the thread on the button a few times, you moved to pierce the crisp white fabric so it would be secure, your hands dangerously close to his skin as you could hear his laboured breath. Lando still remembered and thought constantly about your fingers touching his hand and wrist when you did the friendship bracelets video for the YouTube channel, and right now, it only added to his predicament.

"It's done, all good!", you exclaimed, looking up as you cut the thread and seeing Lando's eyes on you. The intensity nearly threw you off of your balance as you stood the tiniest bit crouched down on your high heels.

Scrambling to further the distance between your bodies, you smoothed out the non existent wrinkles on your dress, storing the supplies back in the kit as Lando managed to utter out a thank you, too stunned and intoxicated by your scent to say anything else.

"I sewed a button as neither of you look any more ready that you were when we got here? We're going to be late!", you hurried, sitting next to Tara and ignoring her smirk as you scrolled through your phone.

.

"That shoot will have to wait since Lando won't be back here soon, then", you said, moving things around in the online shared calendar, "when did you say you could again? I'm sorry", you asked, rubbing your forehead and squeezing your eyes, adjusting your glasses and looking at him through the screen.

"The first weekend of the next month", Lando assured, "are you okay, Y/N?", he asked. The bags under your eyes didn't fool anyone and you looked tired. And sick, he guessed by the layers of clothing you had on.

"I had a pretty shit day, actually", you admitted, "I had to go with the guys from storage because there was an issue. The supplier sent the samples and we wanted to get things moving so I could have some ideas for the description and the social media team also wanted to prep the draft for the whole story telling, but it all went under. I also think I caught some bug, so it's been a fun day", you exaggeratingly smiled, mocking your own misery.

"You look like you need a hug, Y/N. Do you need a hug?", Lando asked as you nodded, "Actually, that would be pretty good, but I live alone. The neighbours would think I'm pretty weird if I went around like this asking for one, too", you reasoned.

Even though he wasn't next to you, Lando still managed to pull a smile out of you as he got up from the chair he was sitting in, hugging his laptop, "did you feel that hug?", he loudly wondered, "it's full of Get well soon fairy dust!", he smiled charmingly.

"Fairy dust, mate?", Callum wondered, reminding you of his presence in the videocall, "you try and spend more than a few hours with a little girl and you let me know. Mila has taught me all about fairy dust and princess magic", Lando added.

.

"How will we get out of here?", you wondered, starting to regret joining Lando, Max and Pietra when they said they were going to watch a football game. You loved the sport and you figured it would be a nice distraction after a work loaded week, but now, things were looking less than a distraction.

"We will let them space out once the game finishes, free up the roads as well because getting out of here will be a pain, too", Lando suggested.

The game granted your team a win and three points in the championship, the crowd going wild as they clapped, whistled and waved their scarfs, slowly leaving the stadium.

"Should we make a run for it now?", Pietra said, holding her boyfriend's hand as she allowed him to pull her away.

You followed Lando, thanking his choice of a colourful hoodie to wear today as it made it easier for you to spot him, "go in front of me, I'll back you up", he switched positions. You weren't having too much trouble until you were met with a ramp, people carelessly shoving others as they tried to leave as quick as they could, all with the same intent of avoiding traffic and crowded roads.

"Here, Y/N", you heard Lando as he grabbed your hand, lacing your fingers in his and pulling you along, excusing you two as you approached Max and Pietra again, "we're here", you tapped the blonde woman's shoulder with your free hand.

"Goodness, that was and adventure", she said once you reached the stadium car park, the crowd clearing up significantly as there was maybe another ten people headed the same way as you were now, "is everyone alright? I think someone stepped on my foot quite a few times, or many people stepped on it at various different times", you reasoned, walking alongside Lando still.

"Don't we need to hand the bracelets back?", Max said as he looked at the sign, taking his bracelet off and depositing it in the box in the booth, Pietra doing the same as you seemed distracted.

"Are you okay, Y/N?", Max asked, seeing you and Lando were still holding hands and, because of that, not taking off your bracelets.

"Yes, why wouldn't I be?", you scrunched your eyebrows, "we need to hand the bracelets back in, so I kind of need to have yours, too", he teased, looking at your hand still entwined with Lando's.

Removing your hand from Lando's as if it har started burning all of a sudden, you removed the bracelet, apologising quietly to the stadium employee as you thanked him, "shall we go now?".

"Dinner out?", Lando gulped, getting into the driver's seat, "Good idea, yes", Max added, sitting in the passenger's seat as you and Pietra sat in the back, your hand rubbing your other hand that had been laced with Lando's own one for a long time. Uh oh, you were falling in love.

.

The launch was finally over after an amazing response from the fans, leaving your heart happy and warm with a sense of mission accomplished.

"Is everything packed into the van?", you asked Tara, "yes, it's just this box. It has fragile things, so do you think you guys can take it in the car with you? It probably only fits at the front, so you'll have to squeeze in with the boys on the back", she smiled apologetically, "it's fine, we'll keep eachother warm like penguins do", you chuckled, holding the door open as she set the box safely.

Saying goodbye to her and the rest of the team, Max and Lando joined you, "You sit in the middle seat", Max pointed at you, opening the door ao you could scoot closer to Lando and he could get in.

"Could you tell me how long we have until get back?", Lando asked the driver, "with traffic at this hour, I'd say around 90 minutes", he smiled, turning on the blinker so he could leave the car park.

"Plenty of time for me to catch up on sleep, then!", you cheered, making yourself comfortable in the space you had, folding your scarf into an impromptu travel pillow, closing your eyes.

"Are you a snorer?", Max asked, making you blindly swat his thigh, "only when I'm sick, and lucky for you, I'm in presteen health, no blocked nose", you grumbled.

It didn't take you long to fall asleep. In the last week, all of the nights combined, you probably slept less than thirty hours, so your body was indeed in need of rest.

"And there it goes", Max said as your pillow undid itself, Lando lifting his shoulder in reflex so your head wouldn't drop drastically, landing on top of him, "Good thing she isn't our engineer, hm?", he chuckled, looking at how his bestfriend was looking at you like you hung the stars and the moon.

"I think I'm in love with Y/N", Lando whispered after he took your appearance in. You had forgone wearing make-up today, so he could see all your moles and scars, your pouty lips and the darkened skin under your eyes. It took everything in him to not bend down and kiss your forehead.

"Congrats on being the last one to find out, mate", Max added, shaking his head, "I genuinely thought you had some issue processing information, I'm glad to find out you don't.

"Now you just have to act on it, which is going to take you, what? Two, three more months?".

[keymintt]

Not sure if this has been asked before but, how did you start doing professional work for traffic cabinets? Was there some sort of job fair or exhibit that you advertised your art at and the city decides "this guy is really good, let's get his art in public"?

OKAY so the thing with public art is it's all local and every city kinda does it differently, but so far in my career all of the public art stuff i've done has been application-based

this got long so i'll go into details about what the searching/application process looks like under the cut but tldr: a big part of finding work like this is knowing where to look for local opportunities and submitting applications

generally the cities/towns/whatever will put out a call for artists (also sometimes called a request for qualifications or RFQ) that's basically like "hey we need some artists to do this, this is how much we'll pay you and the details for the project" and from there they'll link a form (or sometimes give you an email address) to apply to where you submit stuff like your contact info, resume/portfolio, sometimes references, and usually a letter of interest on the project

because i submit applications to things pretty regularly, i'm usually good about keeping track of what i use to apply to things—this includes what i've written for applications and stuff like image descriptions—so when I apply to new things it's a lot of copypasting and editing things to explain how i'm a fit for the specific project yadda yadda it's cover letters. it's basically cover letters. pain and agony

in terms of finding the applications, i'm signed up for several local newsletters and arts organizations, but i also check sites like the az commission of the arts (bc i'm az-based) for their updated list of opportunities pretty regularly, as well as searching for stuff like [city] arts and culture and poking around the .gov sites to see if they have an arts opportunities page. in all honesty a pretty big component of finding this work is knowing where to look, and unfortunately if you're doing public art a) it's not always listed on social media b) the best places to look/start are local, and that differs for everyone so i can't say like "oh look here and you'll find something"

once you apply it usually takes awhile to hear back (they usually give you a timeline on the initial application of how long it takes to review all the applications), but i've found people in these fields are good about letting you know when you didn't get something so you can move on with your life lol. atm i'm waiting to hear back from....over five things so i'm kind of always doing this "applying to projects while i'm working on other projects" song and dance which is honestly just...kind of the freelance artist experience?

i feel the need to mention that public art stuff like this consists of about...2/5 of my yearly income...? i'm not solely making a living off of doing these things bc i also usually have teaching and ttrpg illustration stuff in the mix BUT there are artists who can and do make a living off public art and murals and whatnot. i simply cannot resist the urge to stick my finger into any pie i'm even remotely qualified for

working with public art stuff is also that same thing with a lot of fields where once you get some sort of experience, it's easier to get more jobs, BUT as an artist your portfolio can do a lot of speaking for you, even if you don't have experience with public art specifically. take my traffic boxes for example: i've done three of them now and have a fourth lined up, i know that if there's an application for one i have the exact experience they're looking for and will in all likelihood be one of the selected artists at this point. however with my very first one, i obviously didn't have a traffic box in my portfolio so i included a digitally illustrated city banner i designed, several other digital illustrations of mine (bc they wanted a digital artist), and a mural i had painted on a 3d object (to demonstrate i could design with 3d forms in mind), and together these things all helped my credibility as someone who could do this project. as much as i loathe writing letters of interest these are also good places to elaborate on how your portfolio can connect to the project

also with public art starting local is also your best bet at first (not to say you can't land other opportunities right off the bat though), bc people like their artists to know the local scene. i have the experience to back me up more nowadays, but when i was first applying to things you bet your ass i was all like 'i love it here and want to give art back to my local community bc i'm an artist and i'm fresh out of college yaaaaayyyy' you don't have to mean this when you say it, but they don't have to know

thank you for the ask !! and best of luck with any of your potential artistic endeavors (to anyone reading this)!! feel free to ask any more questions, i'm happy to elaborate on anythin btw for anyone :>

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Hi Rebecca! I'm a recent(ish) graduated student interested in pursuing a career (or any other form of involvement) in environmental education. I was curious how you built your writing portfolio, especially writing for other sites/organizations? What first steps would recommend someone take (particularly if they're already graduated) to get into environmental education and scicomm? Thanks so much, love all your writing!!

Hi there, @misopossum! So I am a pretty atypical case. I have a BA in English, but I mainly used it for technical writing/editing (and personal journaling) for a number of years.

Most of the scicomm folks I know are either A) scientists who also have good writing and interpretation chops, or B) are science journalists who went through a formal journalism program in college/grad school. You haven't mentioned what your area of study was, but your department may have some resources to draw on if you haven't already spoken with them. Check with related departments as well, as they may have ideas too. You're a recent grad, but that doesn't mean that you can't still make use of those connections if they exist.

If you want to go a more traditional scicomm route, good places to start are The Open Notebook and the National Association of Science Writers. ScienceBites may be a good spot for you to start pitching a short article here and there to build up your portfolio, too. And this article from CrossTalk is a pretty good summary on how to get started with science writing.

Other people get involved with environmental education programs like forest schools, summer camps, and the like; some conservation nonprofits also may run these, and you can even check with state and federal parks, National Wildlife Refuges, and other governmental entities who may be in need of volunteers (or occasionally seasonal staff) for environmental ed programs.

You didn't mention where you are, but here in the PNW US there are a lot of these, especially in the Portland and Seattle areas. Depending on what your education level is you may not find the pay to be what you expected, and a lot of these programs are primarily in summertime. But if you can at least get in as a side gig, that will get some experience started.

A lot of what I do is meant for a general audience and not just specific to one locality. I do a lot of blogging online, to include articles on my website, plus some shorter form commentary on various news articles I find online that I think are worth exploring, and I have my quarterly chapbooks that let me dive deeper into various topics. These get me a pretty broad audience, beyond just my local area.

But I really got my start as a nature writer several years ago by writing pieces for the nonprofit Friends of Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, from Facebook posts to 2-3 minute radio segments for their Willapa Nature Notes segment on our local public radio station. I've also helped with other scicomm efforts they've run, from our 4th grade environmental education program in local schools, to giving talks and tours at our annual Wings Over Willapa birding and nature festival. And later this track record helped me get in as a regular columnist with the Coast Weekend paper (and occasionally a longer piece for related publications.) These are all incredibly local to where I am in the Columbia-Pacific region, but they've been good experience and they've helped me get my footing in my local community, which has helped me to facilitate other regional efforts like my independent guided tours.

I think the best choice I made overall was teaching non-credit community education classes through various community colleges, as well as municipal parks and recreation departments and libraries. It's a great way to connect with people who aren't pursuing a degree, but just learning for the fun of it. You do need some credentials of some sort, but expertise counts if you can show that you know your stuff--for example, the people teaching art classes don't all have art degrees, but they may have X number of decades' experience in their art medium. I don't have a degree in the natural sciences because my math skills are terrible, but I am a certified Oregon Master Naturalist and I also have a lifetime of experience of exploring nature and learning how to identify the living beings around me. It doesn't pay a lot, but it's a lot of fun and I get to meet a lot of new students every semester.

Be aware that people like me who take a more unorthodox route usually end up doing like eight different things for a living, rather than having one (1) career path. If you are going to do more of a "professional potpourri" like I am, you're going to need to seek out multiple niches, and perhaps create a few yourself. You're likely going to be very busy, and there's not going to be a lot of payoff immediately (as opposed to a regular job, where you start at a particular rate immediately and hopefully gets raises as things go along.)

On the bright side, having multiple professional directions means that if one of them isn't really active, I can often put more time toward another to make up for it. For example, I'd like to expand to writing for more varied venues that aren't just based in the PNW; it's just a matter of making the time to prep some cold pitches to publications and websites. This time of year I'm really busy with the tours business, so writing tends to be emphasized more in the off season. And either way you slice it, I'm still very much in the "building" process.

Aaaaanyway. That is my very long, rambling answer to your question. Please feel free to let me know if I can clarify anything for you, or if you have further questions.

[anordinaryarchitect]

If you're ready, I'll pour out a little

Normally I haven't been pouring out in here because my English is not good enough to express my feelings. But I fairly need this right now therefore I try it. I feel like I'm going to start crying if I don't express myself somehow. I worry about my future. I graduated but I didn't find a job. Did I prepare a good portfolio and seriously go out looking for a job? Nope. So why? Because until now I wanted to pursue an academic career. For this reason always I studied to exams. Work was always secondary to me. I didn't make any preparations to find a job when I graduated. Now, due to the negative conditions of academic life, I have moved away from this idea. Now my hands are empty. I don't have academic career ideals, nor do I have enough background to find a job. Even if I already find a job, the financially offered price is only enough to cover the costs of traveling to and from work. I want to have an option to work abroad, even my English is very bad. In addition, I need to learn German. I don't know if I can do this. I'm so confused. I have so many options, but because I do not have confidence in myself, "Yes, I want this, I will strive for it for a while. I can't say, 'Leave me alone, don't ask anything. Even if no one asks anything, I can't leave myself alone. I feel like everyone around me has sorted out their lives in some way, and I'm the only one standing in my place. This feeling was there even before I graduated. In fact, happiness will not come when we have access to things we do not have (career, job, possessions, money…). If you are happy, you can be without anything. I, who thought that everything would be perfect as soon as I graduated, realized after this happened that the situation was very different. I've said this before, but I guess I have to remind myself often. I am worried about the future right now, I will have other problems when I have a job or work abroad in the future. That's why I have to put all the negativity aside and be happy with what I have. Then I have to make a decision: What do I want to do? What do I expect from life? If I create a good portfolio and find a job where I am; What are the pros and cons of this? If I continue to study for exams for an academic career, what are the pros and cons? Also, if I don't get accepted, will I have a second option? As a third option, would I have anything to lose if I completely devote myself to language study to go abroad? I will think about all this and make a decision. Just as I said resolutely, "I'm going to study architecture," and I did it. Now I will decide how to work and focus on my goal without deviating to the right or left.

[literaticat]

According to QT comments, an agent sends one of two form rejections. One that praises the premise but criticizes the writing and one that praises the writing but criticizes the premise. Do you think this agent actually has a system where they tailor-send these forms to 1. writing needs work and 2. premise needs work? Or is it just random? Because it's always one or the other. Surely, the agent would encounter books where both writing AND premise were the problem or something else was the issue?

Here's the thing about QueryManager:

When agents are passing on something, they have a drop-down menu with possible responses. You can make those responses be whatever you want, and as far as I know, you can have as many as you want. I have two that I mainly use -- one is sort of abrupt, and I use it when I think something is not targeted well to me. (I mean, it's not MEAN or anything, it's just sort of like, "Hey, thanks for the query, but this is not for me.") The other is a little more flowery with some language about how "I didn't feel that spark" and other agents will feel differently, etc. This is what I use when I think somebody is definitely on the right track, it's just not something I can or want to take on personally.

(I also do have a couple of others - one specifically to artists/portfolios, for example).

Within those, I can also ADD or change the language if I want to -- like if I personally really feel like XYZ is the problem, I'm allowed to tailor that response so it's BASICALLY the form, but with a little something extra added. However I usually do not, unless I'm particularly moved to do so, which is not often.

My point though: It is literally exactly the same amount of work to click one thing on the drop down menu or the other -- SO, I'd assume, that this particular agent generally finds that the work they are sent either has an OK or even good premise, but the writing doesn't hold up -- or the writing is nice, but the premise doesn't hold up. This tracks for me, actually -- usually one of those things IS the problem, if I were to pick two possible problems!

Those are just very big buckets -- like if I say "the writing needs work" that covers a vast array of possible issues. Characterization, sense of place, dialogue, literal grammar -- all those things and more fall into the "writing" bucket. If I say "the premise needs work", again, that could mean a lot of things. The stakes aren't high enough, the plot isn't interesting enough, it feels like a re-tread of a lot of things I've seen before, it's in a genre or category that isn't fashionable right now, or I just personally don't like stories about dead dogs and this is what that is -- all those things and more could fall into the "premise" bucket.

What I'm saying is, I think they probably are not just choosing which one they send *willy-nilly* -- and I do think that virtually all queries that are a decline COULD be put into one of those two buckets. So they are likely choosing the one that they feel is the bigger "problem."

At the end of the day -- I personally would probably not call out either of these things, or other specifics like that, in a form decline, because frankly, I likely didn't read enough of the book to REALLY know or be able to pinpoint a problem, and I don't want to send the author into some sort of spiral by telling them a something is a "problem" that they will then feel the need to "fix", when it's just my totally subjective and random opinion that somebody else may not agree with at all.

But that said - I do understand why some other agents who AREN'T me might choose to be a little more specific. I just don't think that's enough info for you to be able to really DO anything about it, and at the end of the day, they said no, so move on and find that yes.

[featureenvyproductions]

I really want to go to art school and I've been toying with the idea just to fill in the gaps - not because I need a degree or the fucking meritocracy badge of approval, but just bc you have access to a lot of people and resources when you're in school, and it was maybe the ONE thing I felt was an advantage when I got my degree. There's also a clear path and structure. Like first we learn this, and here's some deadlines. Then we build on that and learn this, and here's some more deadlines. For some reason I always have trouble following through if I'm trying to just watch an entire several semesters of YouTube lectures. It's hard for me to follow bc there isn't the hands on component and I can't ask questions. And now there are no good places on the internet to ask questions anymore (bc capitalism.....rant for another time). Sure, I could ask someone for info to help me animate better, but for every helpful response, I'm gonna get like 10 death threats and quips about my ignorance. I don't have the energy to sort through that.

So yeah. I'm toying with the idea of going to art school. Because there's a pretty affordable online 2d animation program at a school near me. Idk. Not saying I'm necessarily gonna do it, but I was thinking like, this time maybe I could actually get in instead of everyone either raising their eyebrows or outright laughing at my portfolio like when I applied as a kid (different school though....Cal arts can suck my unwashed ass....oh wait no actually they don't get the honor).

Theres something cathartic about being able to go study the thing I want, but this time I hold all the cards because I have a job and a degree already, and if a professor pisses me off, I can straight up tell them to suck it, get up, leave, and never go back if I don't want. Because I literally don't have to care if i finish as long as I get some extra info out of it. I hold all the cards this time. I can go learn but I can set life balance boundaries, and I can afford to fuck things up this time. I think it would be easy mode compared to when I got a degree and was desperately trying to get through it despite everything, with the pressure of knowing I was basically doomed if I didn't graduate.

I always do better when I know it's safe to fuck up.

the only thing I dread looking at these course requirements?

THE GODDAMN CREATIVE WRITING REQUIREMENT. GODDAMN I AM GOING TO HATE THAT MORE THAN ANYTHING. HATE. LOATHING. I AM GOING TO FAIL THE BEJESUS OUT OF THAT CLASS, AND I AM GOING DOWN IN RAINBOW FLAMES, WRITING COLORFUL QUEER TRASH THE ENTIRE WAY DOWN. LIKE YOU CAN MAKE ME WRITE BUT IM GONNA MAKE YOU READ THINGS SO BAD THEY MAKE YOUR EYES BLEED (sometimes unintentionally) god I hate creative writing "BUT EJ YOU WROTE 4 COMIC BOOKS" Yes and all of them were achieved by blacking out and channeling my dark gay emotions in a frenzy and projecting them onto awkward guys idk how the fuck to follow assignments for this shit in high school I couldn't even use an adverb correctly or tell you what the fuck a theme was and I got screamed at constantly for it like I suck ass at writing normally

Me, walking up to admissions with a 20 dollar bill: "hey....what do you say to maybe.....counting the technical writing for engineers course I took 15 years ago towards this requirement"

Admissions: "are you.....are you trying to bribe me with 20 dollars"

Me: "will it work?"

Admissions: "no..."

Me *digging around in my pocket* : "well I've got good news then bc I can also give you" *more digging* "this..." *withdraws paper* ".....crumpled bird sketch...."

Admissions: "shouldn't that have been in your portfolio - OHHHH nevermind you were serious about not drawing animals well...."

[2-7]

Pug + Sass + Gulp -> Gatsby + Tailwind

For about a week now I've been trying to rewrite my tiny "portfolio site" with Gatsby and Tailwind. It was originally written about a year and a half ago with Pug & Sass used in place of bare HTML & CSS, and then compiled, stitched together and minified with Gulp. The whole rewriting project was conceived as an attempt to learn some new technologies in order to make my resume more appealing (I am still unemployed, [insert crying emoji here]). While it is still far from over (rewriting a webpage appears to take more time, than making a new one), I do have some thoughts.

Gatsby

Gatsby's documentation is not well organized. I have found a few pages, that can be found using the search feature and yet do not appear anywhere in the documentation's table of contents (like this on porting an HTML site to Gatsby, or this on creating dynamic navigation, both very useful things).

I took me some time to realize, how different parts of a Gatsby project relate to the resulting bundle: (1) the "page" you write as a React component doesn't correspond to the whole HTML page, it is the content of the <body> element of the actual HTML file (or at least, most of its content), (2) you can insert things into the <head> element of a specific page by exporting Head variable from the "page" component file, (3) if you want to insert things into the <head> element of all pages, you need to use gatsby-ssr.js or gatsby-browser.js files at the root of your project: the first one controls the build process, the second one controls the app lifecycle in the browser, both can be used to change the default HTML code wrapping the page components. And I'm still not sure, I'm getting it correctly, because after I added a list of <link> and <script> elements to the <head>, this is what got in the console:

The whole thing works, it's just that I get this error message every time. And I know what it means, and I know I didn't make this mistake in my code, so it looks like Gatsby itself somewhere forgot to add key attribute while rendering a list of components inside the <head>. Right? Or am I missing something?

UPD: It was my fault! And I did make this mistake in my code. I needed to add key attributes myself:

Tailwind

I am not sure if I am impressed by what this thing can do, or terrified by the code I end up writing as a result.

Using class names with custom values for spacing and border radius in them defined inside Tailwind's config? It's quite useful, really. Using CSS variables directly in the class names? OK, sure, why not. But putting a calc() function directly into a class name? Using a theme() function to retrieve config values inside a calc() function?? Inside a class name??? Clearly, this is crazy, right? And yet, the docs encourage you to reach for those features before trying to extract your styles into pure CSS, so here I am, shoving calc() into class names. Madness.

If you, like me, are using Tailwind with the Prettier plugin (because the order of classes doesn't matter, and it helps to have them uniformly sorted), I strongly recommend using prettier-plugin-classnames for adding line breaks (because the main plugin, annoyingly, doesn't do that):

Also, for some reason @apply directive doesn't work with a custom class either used or defined with the dark: variant. So, neither of these 2 works:

(1)

(2)

This was mentioned in an issue from 2020!

[mintyvoid]

so im once again trying to work through my issues with life, but again more specifically what is hindering my ability to finish projects. Cause like- if you dont know already, i am an artists..if you can't find a salary job(and even if you can) you need to build some sort of following or portfolio to garner attention and ~eventually~ that leads to income.

...so i need to finish things, get better at my craft, figure out what my ~thing~ is. and to do that once again, i need to finish things.

aight so i write down some of the main reasons, start from the basic and keep delving deeper and deeper till i figure out the main issue that i can start working on. I didn't get very far before i started seeing a pattern lol.

My current reasons for my struggle to finish things-

1. struggle to start

2. struggle to stay focused

3. struggle to overcome problems

Now there are probaby more- but I figured the more I thought about this the more likely id get either frustrated or overwhelmed and then not move onto the next step. Of exploring each reasons and what hinders THOSE.

1a. no motivation

1b. no energy

1c. lacking resource/info/guidance

1d. depression

As an autistic person- these kinda aren't really surprising. Executive dysfunction is like a really hard thing to overcome and it effects a shit ton of things. I wouldn't be surprised if I also deal with PDA(pathologic demand avoidance). Some days the only thing hindering are things like 'cant open program' or 'cant move from spot to computer to work'. Some days I can do these and STILL just stare at my screen and my body and mind refuse to do anything.

Unsurpisingly as well, when moving onto the other reasons the hinders ended up being identical LOL.

But then I fall into the issue i've had since getting diagnosis, by looking at all of this the 'main issue' IS my autism. Its the executive dysfunction- its the fact that ive lived for decades undiagnosised and am now so fucking tired trying to fix myself when it never wouldve worked in the first place. To rewrite my brain from all the internalized ableism i most likely have.

But the resources to work with my autism are hard to come by and quite expensive.

I can't afford to change my environment- and there are a lot of things in my home that I can't change that ARE hindering my ability to function. Working with what i have simply isnt working anymore, but im right back to trying it- desprately wanting it to work because its the only thing i have access too.

right back to feeling helpless cause there doesn't seem to be anything I can do. Like theres no easier solution and im too tired to fight for myself anymore.

[eagles-translated]

Answering Eagles questions before the season 3 finale (Part 2/2)

I've received a bunch of questions since 3x08 and 3x09 dropped, so I compiled all the questions into two posts. I had to split them up because Tumblr only allows 10 images per post. Anyway, keep reading to see my answers and enjoy! 👇

There might be some kind of collaboration between Amie and Ludde like last season—we have only heard snippets of Ludde's song submission to the music school and it wouldn't surprise me if we saw Amie perform the song in its entirety in the last episode. I touched on this a little in part 1 of answering these questions.

It seems like Amie singing at the end of the season has become kind of a recurring theme. She performed “Follow” in 1x08 and “Second Sight” in 2x10 (on the radio, but my point still stands). I wouldn’t be surprised if they followed this trend by having Amie perform a new song in the season 3 finale.

I'm not sure if she'll recommend Ludde to the record label, though. I honestly still feel like Amie's whole storyline with sending in a rather basic demo written by two teenagers with little to no experience and then getting praised on it with comments such as "it's going to be a real summer hit" felt so unrealistic to me. Maybe they only said that so Amie would accept their offer or something, but that's still very strange because she would have still said yes without a doubt.

I can understand that they thought Amie was marketable as a person and there was this bonus with her having gone viral before on Felicia's Instagram, but that demo did not seem good enough for me to be immediately released as a single and then have them decide on the spot that Amie would be given a contract.

I mean, come on. It never felt earned because we never really saw Amie struggling with her songwriting journey to achieve this dream. Sending in one demo to one record label and having them immediately want to make a whole album with you just doesn't happen in real life unless the song is extremely good or you have a very unique voice. Amie is really talented but there are hundreds of people just like her, if not thousands. I was never convinced by her getting signed so quickly in season 2.

I understand that they wanted to establish her as a successful artist, but that felt so rushed. I was so sure that the record label would screw her over and steal the song rights to record it with another artist who was already established, and that we'd have to see Amie work even harder to achieve her dreams. But we didn't get that at all. Where was the struggle?

Anyway, I'm getting a little off-topic here. To be honest I have a lot of problems with the writing sometimes, even if I still love the show and its characters. Of course I wanted to see Amie achieve success (and I was happy when she did), but the journey there was so bizarrely easy.

She didn't start to seriously work on making her music career become a reality until season 2. Amie had dabbled in music prior to that, like when she auditioned for the school band and did that performance of Follow, but she didn't truly start to work towards it until season 2 when she decided to have her work sent to professionals in the business. And then, just five episodes later, she gets contacted by the record label in Stockholm.

To put this into context—season 2 took place somewhere around March, and episode 5 around three weeks into April. So when Ludde first started helping Amie it took less than two months for her to get signed. You could argue that the song was just that good or that Amie is just that talented, but it never felt like a realistic storyline to me.

So, back to your question! I need to stop getting so sidetracked while answering these haha. I don't think it would be realistic for the record label to hire a teenager with no professional songwriting experience, likely a very small portfolio of his own work in both size and variety, having a criminal record, and on top of that being infamous in the press for abusing his ex-girlfriend. If Amie offered the ultimatum to her label that she'll only return with Ludde, who has an incredibly bad reputation right now, it feels like she would be running the risk of losing the contract entirely.

There's only so much her label can put up with. We've seen Amie ignore their calls with no intention of reassuring them that she's coming back soon. Honestly, with the way things are looking right now it makes the most sense for the contract to be dropped. By Amie or by the label, I don't know.

The episode description for the season finale says that Ludde will get some sort of justice and it could be about his music (or something related to whatever Andreas is doing).

I believe Amie will be doing a live performance of Ludde's song at a New Year's Eve party in episode 10 but I doubt that Ludde will be picked up as a producer. If he actually does I would find that to be a very unrealistic plot point, to be completely honest with you.

This is an issue I had with 3x08 and 3x09 as well. I had a hard time actually enjoying the moment between Felicia, Klara, and Amie knowing that her family was getting increasingly worried for her and even thought for a short moment that Felicia was lying dead at the bottom of the ocean. All that could've been avoided.

To add, it didn't make a lot of sense to me that when Klara finally decided to call someone she called Amie instead of Elias. An ex-friend of Felicia's instead of her brother who could've helped a lot more. What was Amie supposed to do when she showed up at the hotel, exactly?

I know there was the thing with Klara only knowing Amie's number off the top of her head, but there is no reason why she couldn't have gone down to the reception while Felicia was sleeping and asked to use a computer just to get a quick message to Elias. Like, "hey, Felicia attempted something bad but she's safe with me, we're at this hotel in this room but she didn't want me to call anybody, I don't know what to do". That would've been so much better than keeping quiet about the situation for nearly 24 hours.

I know that Klara probably has trauma from leaving her dad at the hospital after his suicide attempt and that she probably didn't want to go against Felicia's wishes. I understand the first part 100%. But Felicia was in a very bad place emotionally and was thinking that her whole family hated her when that wasn't the case. I feel like in a situation like that you kind of have to be the bad guy just to ensure the family that Felicia was safe. Even if everything turned out alright in the end, it could've gone so much worse if Felicia had wanted to be kept hidden for longer.

The ending of 3x08 was super tough to watch and I can't imagine the feeling of thinking your only daughter/sister drowned herself after you just yelled at her and showed no support. Klara couldn't have known any of this, but I feel like she should've at least contacted Elias if she wasn't taking Felicia to a hospital.

Elias calling Amie would've been an easy solution to this whole debacle but we would've lost the drama. It's still somewhat of a plot hole though, like you said.

Thank you for reading that whole post @detectivejulesohara!

The clip you're referring to was posted on Yandeh Sallah's Instagram account, so not in a trailer for this season.

I think that was either just fanservice or it will appear in season 4 since it was posted in May of this year, and I believe the filming of season 3 had already wrapped by then.

It might indicate that Elias and Amie will be a couple by season 4 (this actually seems very likely regardless if this is actually part of a scene or not).

I think Elias is getting increasingly frustrated with hockey and the fact that he doesn't really have any other ambitions to strive for. He was raised with nothing but hockey surrounding him and it's in his blood. Elias got drafted to the US at around the same age as Mats, but Elias left after a year because he just wasn't progressing.

That must feel like a huge step back, and on top of that Mats was probably thriving in his successful career around the age that Elias is now. It's a tough difference in success to have weighing on your shoulders when you're in a team that's second to last in the rankings.

There's even the accusation in the press that Mats paid for Elias to advance in the rankings, and I'm sure that's going to affect his career negatively.

I think Elias overworking himself could also be the result of him feeling like he has to prove that returning to Eagles—a small club that is probably having their worst season ever—was in fact the right choice and not the death of his elite hockey career. That choice was very questionable from the very start and his agent advised against it. Even Mats found it strange. Elias said that he didn't really have a choice most likely because of the clause in his contract, but then he also claims to Mats that things just turned out that way.

Ludde: You don’t regret coming back [to Eagles]? Elias: I didn’t really have a choice.

The idea that he didn't have a choice in the matter doesn't seem accurate. His agent told him there were other alternatives like Jokerit (a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland) and that they could find something better than Eagles. Elias seemed kind of defeated already and the decision to return to Eagles didn't feel thought-through at all. It's almost like he just didn't care.

Agent: [...] Jokerit has called and I’ve had a great conversation with them, so they’re on. Elias: You know what? Let’s skip all the trouble. Let’s go with Eagles, it’ll be great. Agent: What? Elias: I’m so tired of moving all the time anyway, plus I’ll be close to my family. Agent: Wait, I thought that you— Eagles has big economical problems, and… Sorry, but their season started awfully. We can get a better team. You understand, right? Elias: Yeah, but we can’t get a team that needs me as much. Plus— If they say they want to see development, I’ll give them that. Agent: Wait— They’re under the line. We’re talking about qualifying down directly. You can’t in earnest believe you’ll change that on your own. Elias: It’s perfect. I’ll only go up, as you like to say.

It also seems like he's maybe realizing that hockey isn't everything and that there are other things he might want to explore and pursue in his life. I think Elias is feeling kind of stuck right now. He's been training his whole life for one purpose which is a professional career in hockey, and maybe he feels like Mats wouldn't allow him to quit. That option doesn't exist to him.

Like you said, Mats had that comment where he labeled Ludde a "quitter" and Elias stressed the fact that there shouldn't be anything wrong with losing interest and deciding to pursue something else.

Mats: Can you imagine that he’s just quitting? I mean, I’m completely— He really didn’t strike me as a quitter. So fucking close. [...] Elias: [...] Ludde, he’s… He’s not a quitter, he’s just didn’t want it anymore. That should be fair.

However, quitting is seen as failure to Mats. Mats dropped everything when he got drafted. He left his relationship with Petra seemingly without a second thought, because hockey comes before everything for Mats. Felicia even mentioned back in season 1 how her father was just a voice in a telephone for most of her childhood. He barely had any presence in her life because he was busy with hockey.

When Klara tells Elias that he's always putting hockey first, he gets angry but he doesn't outright deny it. In fact, he kind of changes the subject to shift attention away from Klara's claim.

Klara: This— You haven’t changed at all. You’re always putting yourself first. Elias: Excuse me? Klara: Yes, it’s either you or hockey. Elias: Stop! What the— Klara: I can’t take this. Elias: Are you leaving now? I wasn’t the only one you dumped. You’ve been acting like shit to Felicia. Yeah, and Amie and Ludde too, for that matter. You haven’t thought about that? So don’t come here and say I’m the egoist.

This is kind of an interesting thought—that maybe Elias subconsciously knew that was Klara is saying is true to some degree and that he has been putting hockey first. He decided to get on the train to the draft combine in Seattle instead of staying with Klara, and a year later he realizes that things didn't turn out the way that he'd planned and he returns to Eagles.

Maybe Elias is trying so hard to be someone who he just isn't, and it's affecting so many aspects of his life negatively. He lost Klara, he had to repeat almost his whole last year in high school because of moving to the US, and now he seems to be stuck in Oskarshamn. He's previously expressed to Amie that this isn't necessarily where he wanted to end up.

Elias: [...] Hey, is it just me or is there something about this town that… It sort of feels like no matter how much you try to get away, it… It pulls you back somehow.

It's kind of strange that he doesn't want to be in Oskarshamn, and yet he was the one who chose to return. Maybe he somehow feels like he has some purpose there because it keeps pulling him back. He just doesn't know what that purpose is.

Elias tried coming back to Eagles to turn things around for them, and they did win a game against the Capitals but that victory was later tarnished by the fight that broke out between the two teams (and to add to this, the loss of Ludde who used to be one of the star players and Klara as a sponsor). That kind of overshadowed their whole victory. Elias was very determined to do something to help and it very much feels like he needs Eagles to succeed—he needs to sort of "redeem" himself.

Elias: [...] Can I do anything? Can I go talk to— I could go talk to the sponsor. Mats: Let’s deal with it later. I’ll solve this. You have to go to school now. Elias: But we can finish talking— Mats: You can— No. Try to think of something else. Alright?

I think that Elias's desperation for Eagles to do well could absolutely lead to him eventually deciding to be a coach. He doesn't really seem to want the life that Mats had after seeing how success turned out for him—a broken family that he barely cares about because hockey occupies his mind more than caring for his children or repairing the relationship with Leila.

I think Elias being a hockey coach could suit him, but I would also love to see him exploring things outside of hockey—maybe even his interests outside of sport entirely.

I kind of agree with you on this. Klara has apologized to Felicia and been forgiven, but we've never seen her properly apologize to Amie for filming that video of her and posting it on social media. Amie and Ludde were in the wrong, yes, but that video being posted was humiliating for both of them. They had to deal with the ramifications of that for months after with the whole school judging them in silence.

To be fair, the video was posted a long time ago in the show's time frame (nearly two years ago if I'm right?) and they all kind of moved on from it. To add to this, maybe she felt it would've been kind of awkward to apologize with Felicia in the room.

Felicia was so hurt by that video being posted and I think it would feel very weird for her that Klara would apologize for posting the video when it's the sole reason Felicia found out what had been done to her. Without that video, she would've probably gone a few more months without being told what happened at the Halloween party.

I'm waiting for a Klara and Amie reconciliation in this season finale. I feel like this is something that should be discussed between just the two of them, and maybe they'll sneak in some blessing from Klara with the whole budding Elias and Amie relationship? I'd be happy with just a reconciliation, though, but I'm unsure if we'll get one. I have a feeling they'll start the season finale with a time jump and I don't know if Klara is even going to be in Oskarshamn by that time.

If we don't see them reconnecting in the season finale I will be pretty disappointed, to be honest.

Thank you! I really appreciate you too @lunawedlers (your gifsets are absolutely magical)!

This question was sent in a while ago but as season 3 had just started airing I was very excited to see the development of Elias and Amie, mostly because the director had been hinting on Twitter that something would happen between them this season. I've been really interested in them ever since 1x03 and so far the wait has been worth it.

I think all episodes have great visuals, but if I had to pick one I would probably say 3x06. All those shots of Elias and Amie on the walk through the park, the drone shots, and then the view from that bench spot were so gorgeous visually. That answer is more of a scene rather than a whole episode haha, but I think they really made the beauty of Oskarshamn stand out in those shots.

I think Amie will have some sort of performance in the final episode of a new song and that Elias will be watching her! After reading the episode description for the final episode and seeing that there will probably be some New Year's Eve party going on, I have a feeling that Amie will be performing. She's always had a performance of a new song in every season finale and this one should be no exception.

They tricked us a little in the season 3 trailer with us thinking that Elias would be at one of Amie's concerts in Stockholm, but now I'm sure that this scene fits in at the New Year's Eve party.

I think we should keep our expectations low for a kiss between Elias and Amie. They just started developing their relationship, and I like the slow pace they're going in. They're not rushing anything. I also have this feeling that their development has deliberately been so slow because they're sort of "saving the best for last".

Elias and Amie are fan favorites and their relationship has been very talked-about from the beginning. I can see the writers maybe having decided to push their relationship more towards the end of the show, which is why we haven't really gotten any Elias and Amie content until now. That's frustrating if you're impatient and I've seen some people thinking that maybe Elias and Amie won't happen at all, but I don't think we need to worry at all. The fact that Elias and Amie's development has been so slow should indicate that they're much more likely to be endgame.

A kiss in episode 10 could definitely happen, but I don't know. Maybe they'll drag it out further. As I've said before, if they don't get one in season 3 they will absolutely be getting one in season 4. I've noticed that it's always best to keep your expectations low when it comes to this couple.

The episode description for the season finale said this about Elias, which some have interpreted to be about Amie.

New Year’s Eve is here. [...] But is Elias brave enough to say what everyone else already knows?

This could mean anything, really. I'm actually leaning more towards this being about an individual thing rather than Amie being involved. It could be about Elias admitting that he's been overworking himself and not eating properly, or coming clean about the fact that maybe he doesn't want a career in hockey. This is something that everyone else already knows, so I think it might be about hockey.

Felicia has observed the overworking, Mats has told him to stop with it, and Ludde might've had some inkling about it while he was still on the team. Even Amie has probably also noticed that he's been spending a lot of time at the gym lately.

I could absolutely be wrong about this though.

Thank you for the question @lunawedlers!

This is a hard one because season 3 has had so many strong episodes already, and usually my favorite episode ends up being the season finale because it's basically the culmination of the whole season. I really loved 2x10 for this very reason since the ending montage was so well done.

If I had to pick between 3x01 - 3x09 though I would probably have to say it's a tie between 3x04 — Date night and 3x05 — Wounds! These two episodes showcased what Eagles should be all about so well, which is relationships plus the struggles you go through as a teenager in a small town, and then of course hockey. The hockey game episodes are really good, even if I don't think 3x05 topped 2x05 (the game where Ludde got tackled and knocked out).

I loved the contrast in Date night of the budding relationship between Elias and Amie and then that fight between Felicia and Ludde on the cliff. That whole scene between Felicia and Ludde on the cliff was actually really beautiful, especially when the sun had gone down.

It was interesting to see how this sweet gesture from Felicia turned into a fight between the two of them. I thought that was very realistic, because no matter how big of a gesture Felicia made to apologize there were still underlying problems that they needed to talk about.

I also loved the "non-date" between Elias and Amie in this episode. It was cute to see them goofing off before the movie started and then talking about it on the way home. I liked how Elias could connect to her on how they had both returned to Oskarshamn.

The recent episodes that dropped last week (3x08 and 3x09) were very strong and discussed some important subject matters, but I had a few problems with them that I discussed in a question above. They were dark, but not necessarily bad because they needed to happen.

However, I have to say that I prefer Eagles when it's about hockey and teenage relationships. 3x04 and 3x05 made me kind of nostalgic for season 1 and I liked the vibe they both had.

I agree, but I think we could maybe get a combination of both! Relationships can have all these romantic and sweet traits like you described, but also be more passionate and show public displays of affection.

I think Elias and Amie fit the more laid-back and sweet characteristics, but we have yet to really see what Amie is like in a relationship. We've seen her with a crush on Ludde and we got a glimpse of that thing she had with Robin (which was apparently a relationship but I did not pick up on that at all), but we don't really know what Amie is like in a relationship. Maybe she's never really had a "real" one, either.

Nevertheless, I'm excited to see what's in store for Elias and Amie. I'm very positive that they will eventually become a couple in season 4.

[kanalsodoart]

The Terror of Distortion: Entry #1

Name: G

Days in the job: 1

Location: District 13, Neon Office

People involved: Fenric, Jadzia, Lilith, Alexis

Is. Is it weird to start this like a factual report? Either way.

So. First day of being a Backstreets Fixer. It's still weird being out here. Everything's different from how I'm used to, and I do feel out of place a lot. Also a lot more dangerous, but this is what I signed up for.

I met up with the rest of the team at the Office's front door. It took a while for our boss to open the door for us, since he, as he claimed, wasn't expecting anyone to really take the job. Which is..whack, we did submit our applications. Jadzia almost destroyed the door just to get in. Huh. Speaking of applications, turns out I should not have submitted my portfolio. I knew I should've gone with my 2-page resume instead. Boss was sort of eyeing me, so he most likely deduced I was from the Nest, or would find out sooner or later. Not as though I was hiding that fact, to be fair.

At least I'm still hired. Though he did also hire someone who submitted nothing. That's Jadzia, who is from the ruins, which is pretty impressive, if not shocking. Lilith submitted an application that says 'will work for 4 million platinum'. Amazing. People say I can be surprisingly gutsy (i don't really believe them tbh), but I don't think I'll ever be gutsy enough to submit something like that. Then again, maybe she didn't do that because she was gutsy. The only one who had submitted a proper application was Alexis. She does look the most experienced too, so there's that. His name is...very familiar though.

For a Grade 7 fixer, the Office does look Very Nice. Maybe Boss had his Grade demoted recently, or the Grade 7 fixer title was a lie? Doesn't matter much to me; I just wanted the job lol. We packed our things into our respective lockers and changed up into teal and black suits. Alexis changed rather quickly, but Lilith and Jadzia had trouble with their ties so I helped them. I didn't know Tie Wearer of the Month was a legitimate award, but the more you know! I wonder which of us would get that award.

We received our first mission, which is to deal with The Rats. We formed a plan to have Lilith and Jadzia be bait, and to signal with orange cats for Alexis and I to attack the Rats. I hope things go smoothly.

---

[The Terror of Distortion is a DND Inspired Lobotomy Corporation World Campaign played by my friends and I. I do not own Lobotomy Corporation or the campaign itself, just the character G. I am merely a scribe with too many ideas.]

[writerforfun]

Underwing Challenge Day 6 + Day 7

6. What does your portfolio look like? Talk about as many other WIPs as you’d like here.

I have to be honest here, I never understood portfolio. I mean u understand what it is and its purpose but I never understood how to make it for myself.

But either way I guess I do have certain things I worked on.

Starting of with Collection.

1. Collection: Story 1: Mirror Defect: (DONE) (Sorry no cover)

Not all is as it seems.

Not all can be explained and even when the truth is out not everything will make sense.

"I just lost my brother, I can't lose her."

What can you do when you lose trust in those around you? When grief holds you too close?

When lies are hidden all around you?

When nothing is real?

Can you trust your own eyes? When all goes wrong who can you trust?

"Experitment 1034, you are next"

Is anything real? Are you real?

**Warning: character death, graphic description of the deceased character.**

I SUCK AT SUMMARIES.

The story was originally done to scare my uncle. I was going to send him this other story, which R.L. Stine wibe to it but sadly I lost it.

So here we are. Now this story features Mark, who despite all that has occurred, is trying to fix his broken family, even if it means destrying himself but is this family real?

You can check it out here

2. So, A Deal?: (DONE)

Met with death she has no choice but to let death consume her.

"No, I can't leave like this! Not like this."

There is no other way, or is there? But is she ready?

"What do you want? Does your soul not fill with rage, anger and despair? Pushing you to the core of vengeance? Don't you feel like a ghost? Dreading you will disappear? You know you are nothing but a ghost, and eventually, you will have to fade."

"I have seen the face of affliction brought by my reality, I'm tortured by the future of things that cannot be, haunted by visions of yesterday."

Her sin is great, but her desire greater. Will she survive the burn?

This was something I did for my school wrok once. Although it is quite different than the original work. I'm quite happy with the last chapter. I honestly just posted it out as a test to see if others would like it.

It took quite an effort and I enjoyed doing the last bit of it. I really want to make a sequal to it, get it going, but not really sure if this is going to go well.

You can check it out here.

3. Solar Elements: (DONE)

Avatar: The last Airbender inspired.

A lot can happen during a lifetime, faultless rotating to flaws, heroes into villains, a lifetime of destruction smiling in your wakes.

A lot can be lost in a lifetime.

"Wolf is going overboard,"

"We do not have time to wait."

"Surrender now and we shall show you all mercy."

"No, we will never yield to you"

"Then so be it."

"You are not prohibited to address better yet conduct such disgrace." "We are still alive!"

"Love you, Son"

A lot can happen during a lifetime, faultless rotating to flaws, heroes into villains, a lifetime of destruction smiling in your wakes.

"And so she has finally awoken."

I had done this for a story contest once, sadly I was unable to win. But I have to behonest, if I had I would have been so annoyed, it was awful, so awful. I won't talk much on it, as I still don't like this too much.

This feature elemtnal magic and time twist you can say, where a character, reborn must choose to either repeat history or change it completely.

4. Pirates tale: (WIPs)

Had this in for a while, been working on it but didn't have a plot till now.

The ship has no name, no crew, nothing. But if you see it, it's already too late.

Legend says they're ghost, some say they are cursed, others....... others don't live to tell the tale.

It was inspired by a prompt I saw once. Hoping to make these pirates cured to be vampires, hidden from all and only visible at night. They are insearch of their first crew captain, the one who must break the cures. Problem is, Captian dies 30 years ago.

Guess, his hidden daughter must be placed instead.

This is dumb, so dumb, but hey, I'll work on it.

5. The Basement: (WIPs)

Another school work.

This one feartures students sneaking into their school's basement. Each with their own story on why the basement is forbbiden.

If only they had listened and not followed through, then maybe they would not have encountered, the hidden dark past of the school.

This has a gay couple, lol I actaully send it to my teacher but I don't think she noticed :(. It needs alot of work though, so this may take a while.

6. To find the Truth: (WIPs)

This one seems to be liked a lot by you guys. Many seem intrigued.

In the dystopian future, when the world government collapsed, when humans fell and the virus took hold, out rose a series of mutants. Their genes mutated by the virus released when a power plant went nuclear.

These mutants, blessed with powers beyond their control, have taken leadership. Smart, strong, powerful and undefeatable. They hold power over the weak like you and me. But I won't let them stop me. I won't let them come in the way.

They are sloppy, weak and useless. The world is filled with criminals, danger and people in need. This world needs justice, it needs help and they won't help, so I will.

"They'll take you away. They take people like them away"

"I won't let them"

I worked up a lot on this in the past few day and have actually most of the plot down. Well the main chracter's backstory at least, even how the virus started and why these mutants have taken over.

I just need to start it out and get it going. I have done that and I was thinking of adding bits and pieces on how the world is after every sub-story, like telling the tale as the story progress.

Was also hoping to give this story, a big reveal as to who these mutants are and how they came to be, why they take other's like them and how they find other's like them.

7. To Sacrifice or To Live? (WIPs)

Still working up on the name here, but the story goes like this.

Two wedding decades a part, each holding nothing but tale forgotten.

An evil entity hanting them both. A power over both familes, readdy to demolish them whole this time.

Will the scarifice work?

Ok, before you turn away, here me out here.

Two weddings, one in the 1900s and the other in 2000s. Both familes trapped in a curse long active, each must work to find a way to break the curse. One failed, made it worse, will the new bride make it? Or will she suffer worse?

8. Collection: Haunting Memories (WIPs)

Jenny doesn't know how she did it but she did. She didn't mean to. She really didn't. But Nina is dead now and it's her fault. She did it.

It's her fault.

Then why do they blame Jake? Jake is sweet, kind and caring. Sure he was the one with the blade, covered in blood and coming to kill Jenny next but it wasn't Jake. Because she saw.

Saw him kill her. Push the blade through Nina, watching as the girl fell. Her blood turning the ground crimson. She saw as the life left Nina's eyes. As the killer slumped to the ground, the control over him wearing off.

Jenny knows because she killed Nina. Then why does no one believe her? And why do her memories differ from Jake's?

“I am telling you what happened.”

“All you are doing is wasting our time.”

“Then be patient, this is all I have. Please just hear me out.”

“We are busy people here. We don’t have time for stupid tales, girl”

“This is not a stupid tale. If you could just listen.”

“We are listening. Listening to you for the past 10 minutes, all you have done so far is tell us useless things. We have things to do.”

“Everything I mention is important. One thing missed and you won’t understand. Please. I need your help.”

“You have 10-”

“15”

“Fine 15 minutes.”

This I hope to work and get done by at least in the next month. It need a lot of work and must be quite slow yet fast paced. I need to make the plot a bit more than just what I have written.

8. Trick? No, I'll take the Treat (WIPs)

Halloween themed. Done quite long ago.

What will you do when your Halloween turns into a nightmare?

I have nothing much on it at the moment, but will update this soon.

7. What kind of partnership are you looking for in this event? Friendship? Somebody to bounce ideas off of? Something else? What sorts of people are you hoping to meet and adopt?

Honeslty, I did a lot of research in the past few days and boy do I ned a lot of work done.

For starters, I need someone who can actually tell me how my work is going, just how kuch of an effort I have out in and how it seems to others.

I need harsh, quite harsh feed back so I know what I am doing wrong, what I should improve with and what interests the reader about the book.

I also say wish to meet and know other writers here. Would love to meet them and get to know them.

[fjprofessionalpractices]

Video Showreel II

Before editing the final thing I needed to commit and choose some music to have on the showreel. This needed to be the next step as the best showreels I've seen have added so much value in syncing the editing to the music and therefore in order to edit the final sequence this music needed to be considered. In order to find this I started out looking through Adobe Stock however found the search setting somewhat vague and difficult to narrow down a consistent sound which would match the sort of thing I was going for and so it felt difficult. This is when I discovered Epidemic sound, which had a deep library, was associated with Adobe too and had curated playlists for different uses including a 'showreel' playlist. While the final piece of music didn't come from this playlist it helped me get a better idea of the sound I was looking for and made searching a whole lot easier. I finally found a piece that fit my idea and as I listened to it I could actually see how I was going to edit to it which was a huge thing because up until no I didn't know how the showreel was going to look in terms of speed and pace but this piece, 'come together' (Ooy, 2020). Having found this I immediately signed up to this site and downloaded the track. Once I had this it suddenly felt it was all falling into place as I now knew what I was editing to and could start organising the clips to match the music. It took me a full day to put together the initial edit as I fit in every clip and moved the order around several times trying to hit the right beats etc. I came back to it a day later to revise the final edit as it was over 1 minute long which was longer than I planned. I had been aiming for around 45 seconds thinking I didn't have enough truly high quality professional work but when editing to the music and adding all the clips this milestone disappeared quickly. When I revisited it a day later I instantly found some elements I could get rid of all together as they added no value in terms of showing off my work. This also meant that I had to edit the soundtrack and cut the first couple of seconds to keep all the other beats synced up. I have to say that editing this showreel showed me and renewed my confidence that more than a few of my projects were done to a standard I am pleased with and surprisingly some of the stuff from first year and done on the side for fun was some of the best looking work in the final product. Once this was done I made sure I had the standard 12 frames before any audio and video started and ended with 5 seconds introducing my name what I do and linking to my Website.

Once I had finished editing this showreel and exported it I knew I wanted it to be significant on my website so that it would be shown off centre stage. I decided to replace the thumbnails in my portfolio preview and replace it with this showreel as I thought it fit perfectly as an introduction to my work which then links out to the displays of the full final projects individually. The only thing I didn't like about this I didn't want it to play sound automatically however in order to turn the sound on the video controls have to be enabled which in my opinion slightly takes away from the perfectly sleek design of my site although functionally it is essential.

Sources:

Ooy. (2020). Come 2gether. [song]. Epidemic sound. Available at: https://www.epidemicsound.com/albums/album/1739. (Accessed on 18/05/2021).

[purvitatiya]

September: 3rd Week

Topics:

First draft of our foundation portfolio story.

Intro to different types of tools and functions in adobe premiere pro.

Heyya!

My team and I are preparing for our foundation portfolio. As I wrote in my previous blogs we are watching all sorts of ads, short films and series which are around the theme of a big fat Indian wedding. My cousin's marriage is in November, so we are thinking about scheduling our shoot during that time. My house will be all decked up and filled with people, exactly the kind of atmosphere that we need for our shoot. The only thing I am a little finicky about right now is how will we handle the large crowd....but that's how we'll learn!!🤗

I'd like to share our story's initial draft here:

"Finally she said yes!" Shouted Kunal. He was talking about the girl whom he had loved for past 4 years. Kunal's complete family was in a mode of ecstasy, especially his mother. "Finally Reeva will be my daughter in law." She exclaimed with utter excitement.

Kunal had proposed Reeva today for marriage. They have been together since the third year of their college in Mumbai. After graduation, Reeva got a job at an MNC in Mumbai, and Kunal came back to Jodhpur, his family town. He joined the family business there and was earning quite well.

Until today they were in a long distance relationship. Due to family pressure Kunal has been trying to convince Reeva, since past two years to leave her job and marry him and live a luxurious life with him in Jodhpur. But for Reeva her job and career were equally important, until today, when her unconditional love for Kunal made Reeva finally leave her job and marry him.

Everyone was happy and excited except for one, Reeva's father, Mr Singh. He was happy for Reeva but at the same time confused. He didn't know whether leaving her dreams behind was the best option for Reeva or not. He showed his insecurities a bit, but then Reeva handled him and assured him that she would not have any problems with Kunal and his family and that she would be loved by them.

Finally, Mr Singh agrees and Kunal and Reeva get married. All the functions were carried out with super enthusiasm and excitement.

After marriage Reeva develops a close relationship with everyone at Kunal’s place. Kunal too took her for monthly trips to Mumbai, her home town. For honeymoon, Kunal took Reeva to Santorini, Greece. In their second year of marriage Kunal, Reeva and Kunal’s parents went together to New Zealand on a 10 day trip. Reeva felt that her in-laws were becoming more and more like her parents every day and Kunal loved her unconditionally and she loved him back with the same warmth.

Everything was going on smoothly, another good news had just come in. Kunal’s best friend, Ravi became a father. Both Kunal and Reeva went to meet Ravi and his family at the hospital. They got pictures clicked with the newborn.

When they came back home, Kunal was showing those pictures to his mother. Mrs. Sharma was very happy. Everyone was laughing and then suddenly Mrs. Sharma called Reeva and Kunal to sit with her. Very calmly she said “It’s been 2 years since you two got married. That Ravi got married after you two. I think it’s time for you both to also start thinking about kids.”

Reeva jumps from her seat and shouts “No!” Both Kunal and his mother were startled to look at her that way. Reeva calmed down after a few moments. She said, “ Umm… I mean, we’ll think about it.”

Then Kunal shouts “Mumma leave this topic!”

“arrrree! But we need to talk about it. It’s high time!"

"There is nothing to be discussed." Said Kunal and stormed out of the room with Reeva.

Reeva and Kunal sat in their bedroom, tensed. Reeva shouts "I don't want to have kids."

" I know you arent ready for them right now."

" No I mean I dont ever want to have kids."

"Ohhh"

Kunal took a moment to analyze the fact which was thrown at him. He then said " You don't have to do anything without you wanting to do it. And also, with kids or without kids, I will always love you."

" I love you too."

"but I just need to ask you one thing. Can I?" Said Kunal.

"Mmmhmm what is it?"

" What is the reason for not wanting kids so badly?"

"It's a long story."

"I am all ears"

"I mean it's not a story exactly but just the surroundings. I mean, we listen about rape cases every other day and not just rape.....murder, kidnappings, robberies, drug abuse and whatnot. If it's a girl then we have to keep her safe, put restrictions on her not because she'll be wrong but because of the society. And if it's a boy then keeping him out of all of this also going to be very difficult. In today's scenario, a child's upbringing is not the only thing which moulds a child, it's the atmosphere and the atmosphere right now is not the best to raise a child. I don't want my kid to come into a world like this."

"Hmm....fair enough" exclaimed Kunal.

For a while, nobody talked about it in the house but after a while, Mrs Sharma again started bringing on the topic. Initially, she talked about it only to Kunal but eventually, she started talking about it indirectly to Reeva as well. After a point, Mrs Sharma became a pro at turning every conversation in this direction. 

Reeva started being irritated more and more day by day. Initially Kunal would really get offended by his mother's actions but then gradually even he started trying to convince Reeva for a child.

" I was thinking...." Said Kunal

"Yes?" Replied Reeva.

" hmm, I thought about what mumma was saying. I mean just because of the societal culture these days.........we deserve this happiness."

" Kunal! You're joking right??"

But Kunal's expression didn't change.

"I didn't expect this coming out of your mouth" exclaimed Reeva, frustatingly.

Kunal stomps out of the room.

As the time passed, not only the fights between Kunal and Reeva increased but the fights intensified as well. 

This is our story, I hope you guys like it!!!

As far as our theory classes are concerned, we learned about different types of tools and functions in adobe premiere pro:

cut,

import,

effects,

transitions,

timeline bar,

speed/duration,

selection tool,

ripple,

stretch,

pen,

The preliminary shoot for our class's other team also happened in this week. My team's director, Nishtha and I were locked as their actors. They used pulling kind of machine to act as a trolley for their follow shot. It was a simple ply fixed on top of four little wheels and a string attached to pull it. It's used in our school's kitchen.

[natalias13]

MarkUp Workshop

7th January 2020

This is the first workshop of this project. For the fist stage of the workshop we had to find a portrait of a famous icon and print them off in 2 different paper sizes so that we can work on a range of different scales, this worked well when we had to work with the different media. We then had to experiment with media and create each picture in ink, carbon paper and mono print. 

For my famous icon i decided to use a young Leonardo DiCaprio, because his career started when he was a young boy staring in many films but not until the big award winning Golden Globes ‘Titanic’ film did he get his fame. Now he is a famous well known actor. 

Carbon Paper :

The first print that I done was the carbon paper print, i used the A4 size portrait as the carbon paper was A4 size. There is a small step by step shown below of what I have done. With this I had to get a A2 size of paper and place the carbon paper on top of that (the carbon paper had to go one specific side to print down onto the plain paper) the portrait picture then has to be placed on the surface of all of that, I then secured it with masking tape so that my print would stay in place.  

With a red pencil ( dont need a specific colour) i then traced on top of the portrait, this then printed through and created my print. 

As this was on of my first prints i wasn’t happy with the outcome. The printing wasnt as detailed as i wanted i to be and i found it hard to make shading. however i lik how simpl his face came out and i could now develope on further from this and experiment with other ppictures.

Ink :

The next media that i experimented with was ink. Now with this one i used a larger scale portrait, as this included a lot of shading. The set up of his was slightly less complicated, for this all i needed was a cup of Indian ink (diluted slightly) my large portrait and A3 size tracing paper. The tracing paper had to be secured with masking tape on top of the portrait, i only chose fine brushes to work with as there was a lot of fine detail I wanted to work on. 

With this part i had to have more that one go at it as i didn't like how i started it the first time, the picture looked distorted. 

I liked doing this portrait as i could do more shading once i understood how the ink worked. The face looked more detailed and brighter. i wasn't happy that the hair came out very dark as in the picture he has light strips of hair that reflect the light, i couldn't create that effect. 

However i can now develop on from this and corporate this with mother work and pay around to see with what type of outcome i can achieve. 

Mono Print :

For this process we had to roll out an even layer of water based black paint on a A3 plastic sheet, then place a plain A3 size sheet over the paint (if there's too much then take the sheet you have just placed off and place another one on, the previous sheet should have of taken off some paint) once that is done carefully centre the portrait picture on top of the plain paper and secure with tape. to create the picture draw over the portrait with the back of the pencil, to create depth. 

I found it quite easy to do, as this was one of the last 3 that I done. This means I felt for comfortable and relaxed about doing it, even though it was a total different media use. With this print I could create shape, texture and tone on his face which meant he had a character to him unlike the previous prints/paintings. I liked his eyes in this print as they have more depth and expression in it, although theirs minimal detail and more shading.

Over all I found this workshop very useful, it showed me that I can create all sorts of portraits, even it is the same one but with different medias. I found somethings challenging, such as the Ink portrait this is because the colour of it was so dark and I needed lighter shades to create the tone I wanted, however overcame this and found a way to get light grey shades. Also found this useful as I know how to prepare these workshops and I can now use them in the future there is many more colours that I can experiment with as well as faces. 

I can now develop on further from this by going into Photo shop and creating backgrounds and touching up the original pictures, to get a clear pure image. I could also incorporate colour and different textures to give the face a meaning/ or a background scenario. 

Once I produce some work to a high quality standard, I could then put this into my portfolio and present it to a University of my desire.

[luckkyy-buddha999-blog]

Part 2..Broken Promises, Broken Dreams

A Retiree's Crucible.

I became a client of Edward Jones Investments in 2006/07 as best as I can remember.

My life had changed dramatically in a financial sense, after a successful Civil Litigation.

I hired Edward Jones to manage my estate, and significant liquid assets ( Cash).. Having limited experience with planning for the future or how to manage my now rather robust bank accounts.. I needed professionals to guide me.

The Financial advisor was Frank E. ( I'm not sharing his full name )!

If any of my readers have had any experience with Edward Jones investments, they will know that the financial advisors who work for them are much like "Jehovah Witness", and the Mormons, they do a lot of door-knocking to get neighborhood clients..

If you're new to the retail investing, with a half a million dollars burning a hole in your pocket, then running into an" Edward Jones financial advisor," is like "Manna From Heaven", because they are so believable!

My relationship with Edward Jones and Frank E. Was all about " trust, trusting, and fiduciary responsibility"..

Edward Jones investments runs a tight ship.

I'm here to tell you, "they protect their clients"! . I really don't have anything negative to say about Edward Jones or Frank E.

I think it's important to note, all documents had a qualifier attached, that read " Investing comes with risk of loss of Investments" i. e. Cash$$$...🤔 LOL!

Yeah, I read this again in 2009 after the stock market crash of 08,

Needless to say, I was fully invested in 2008 for the tune of about 5-6 hundred thousand dollars, having obtained another 300k in a second Civil suit.

Edward Jones Investments had managed well over 600 grand by the time the Market Crashed..

Yes I got whacked pretty significantly, (100++k)lost in the crash..

I don't blame my financial advisors for my "Financial Losses"!

If you invest in the stock market, you have a chance of losing those funds.

Unfortunately, I lost 100, 000 plus dollars in a very fast way.. Just gone😭

I flew home from Thailand in 2009 to try and sort out my financial situation and plan for my continuing retirement plan ( Married and living in Thailand).

This is the part where "John Hancock Annuities" comes into the picture.

I was invited by Frank to meet with a John Hancock annuities representative.

John Hancock Annuities had a veritable annuity, that would fit my retirement plans.

My retail investing portfolio Edward Jones managed, was market based mutual funds and stand-alone stocks type of investments.

This is what the variable annuity was based on, this Market performance " Variable Annuity" was guaranteed interest of 7% over a certain time period.

This product had " Income for Life" Rider attached, and you could contribute to the annuity ( extra cash) also.

All in all, it seemed to be a fantastic opportunity for my retirement plan. My best laid plans, have at times failed to materialize..

I could at whatever point, after two years, annualize a contract over 20 years, take monthly payments.

Of course all of this comes with a price tag!

You can buy into a annuity typically, if you pay anywhere from 7% to 10% fee up front, sometimes more.

My Hancock variable annuity was priced initially at $100,000 with the option of adding more funds up to a certain period of time.

I purchase this veritable annuity, and I paid approximately $10,000 for it. I added another 80,000 US dollars, plus another 20 thousand in 2011/12

I decided to part company with Frank E. and Edward Jones 2011 / 2012. ( I'm risk-averse, I just didn't know it until the market crash)!

I was turning 62. I wanted to take my Social Security at it earliest legal availability, which was age 62.

I instructed Edward Jones to start the process for annualizing my 20-year payout from the annuity I had purchase in 2008, from John Hancock and that was managed by Edward Jones.

Frank set this up for me, he cobbled together different Financial products I was involved in, sold them off, and put the assets in the variable annuity, increasing the value in the 230k. territory..

We also managed to receive in the neighborhood of "30,000 US dollars in appreciation "for the annuity over the time I own it. (7% guaranteed interest based on market performance)

I made some money, so we added everything together an annualized this 20 year variable annuity

I had my Social Security direct deposit set up with Bangkok Bank public Company Limited here in Bangkok Thailand.

The routing of funds to a dedicated savings account was in place for my federal government Social Security benefits.

Frank, and John Hancock Annuities Service Centre, decided that since this route was already in place,

they would "piggyback" my funds directly into this account. ( obviously, Social Security had the correct IAT format, Federal Routing Numbers Beneficiary Bank, addresses of said bank, plus the recipients name, account number and Thailand address..

The above scenario is the correct format for International Direct deposits.

Basically, my best guess is " John Hancock Annuities Service Centre" did not have the correct IAT format, so they took the convenient way, using my Social Security to direct deposit funds in Bangkok Bank PCL Thailand, without using a dedicated account, which they should have done from the start!

They set this up without my input basically.

I had little personal input or participation.

Definitely had no idea that it was not the correct way to do things!

Unfortunately expediency, is the way things get done sometimes.

When you're no longer a client, you know it's like "let's get it done, and get it out of the way"!

I understand this thought process, and at the time, I was okay with it.

I didn't know any better!

Fast forward to 2017, Bangkok Thailand,.

Bank Public Company Limited main branch contacted me over these funds being piggyback, informing me me in no uncertain terms, I needed to change the " John Hancock Annuities Direct Deposit" to a dedicated savings account, not piggybacked with the Social Security DD.

I contacted John Hancock annuities service center.

They sent me ETF forms. I filled them out, and" DHL" back to them.

JHA change the account number, no problems, everything done!

So I thought!

That was 2017. This now 2019. Bangkok Bank has /is making changes on how we can do the routing.

They ( BBNY) have to follow United States government rules on Outward Bound money, meaning money wired from the United States, the government wants to know where it's going and who's receiving it!

"All banks,and every financial company that has a fiduciary responsibility knows about these federal laws! "

Retirees living in Thailand, ten thousand miles away, would not have any inkling of what's going on!

it's not my job, it's the job of John Hancock annuities!

Needless to say, I discussed in detail, part 1" Broken Promises, Broken Dreams"

how, International ACH transfers coming to Thailand via " Bangkok Bank branch of New York" to the main branch of Bangkok Bank public Company Limited Bangkok Thailand come with detailed information on the need to format " IAT and Federal Routing Numbers, along with pertinent beneficiary bank account and address and beneficiary personal name and residence address in Thailand.

It was by total accident I even came across this information.

One would think, a very large financial Products Company, like "John Hancock Annuities," the fiduciary in all of this, is provided information and detailed instructions, on how to comply with the new federal laws!

However, it was their client(Me) a seventy-year-old retiree, who had to notify them... Sad, but true!

A lot of this information is redundant that I'm talking about.

It's important to note, I have provided all the information that was provided to me by the beneficiary bank here in Bangkok.

I pass this information along to the headquarters of John Hancock annuities service center, and to the supervisors, ( Mr Wijaya & Richard Ambrosio) who control how funds leave John Hancock annuities.

I provided contact information detailing routing numbers and pertinent information.

ETF Forms for John Hancock Annuities were provided for me via email from my friend at Edward Jones ( Frank E.).

They (ETF Forms) were completed and sent directly to the headquarters of John Hancock Annuities Service Centre.

It's now the 12th of April, my payment was due on the 5th of April.

All the information that I've shared on this post, was provided to John Hancock annuities service center, prior to April 5th, to no avail.

I'm now facing credit defaults starting on April 14th.

Basically I'm in a bad way.

It's now the 22nd of April.

My April 5th payment arrived on the 17th.

I checked with" BBNY help desk" in regards to the format.. No answer yet if it's correct.

The "help desk" informed me that " John Hancock Annuities",wasn't the "Sender"... 🤔

So now I'm faced with the possibility of a" third party "being involved in my monthly annuities payment.

I'm assuming,"This third-party" is related to John Hancock in some form?

I hope so.

Having a few bad dreams about service fees being deducted from my annuity account..

A "third-party " Payment, might very well be coming out my funds.

Welcome to my Crucible.

luckkyy-buddha999