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shikantazaart · 4 years

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Shikantaza Creativity Interview III - SPARTALIEN

At Shikantaza we are not content to just create art. We want to understand art. We want to understand the people who make art. Into the act of creation. Who are the people behind the art work? What motivates them? Where do they find their inspiration?

No two people think and act alike, so it is even less likely to find two artists who think and act alike. Yet, there will be crossovers, shared thoughts and shared experiences. Where do we adjoin and where do we diverge?

Our series of interviews with artists and creators aims to answer these questions.

In interview number three we speak to multimedia experimenter SPARTALIEN. You can find his creations here https://spartalien.com/visual as well as a collection of his work in the Shikantaza gallery.

1 - Starting with the most important question - Who is Memoria?

Memoria is Latin and means, when translated, memory / remembrance.

I named the merchandise for the album "2358" Memoria instead of Memory, because the main track titles are also translated into Latin.

I see my merchandise as small memories/artefacts. Not only because they are very rare, but because I can never go back to that time.

“Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things” - Cicero

2 - You work across different mediums. Do you have any preference for a specific form? When did you first find the format that was “you”?

I became really infected with the digital virus around in the late 90s when I built my first computer. A year or two later I started taking photos and manipulating them digitally. I also had a few printed, which allowed me to bring the digital into the real world. Then I discovered IRC and started learning a little bit of TCL. Since I had fun coding, I decided to learn the basics of web development because I needed a website to show my pictures to other people. In general, I was fascinated by the flow of information on the Internet. That distance is no longer a real hurdle when it comes to data transmission.

I've always loved music as a listener and small collector. I was then and still am one of those people who never go out of the house for long periods of time without a Walkman. Music production came into play when a couple of friends set up a small studio where they produced Techno/Psy. When I was there for the first time, I knew immediately that I wanted to try it too. A few old tracks from back then are still available on my website.

From then on, many of my projects have developed in the direction of music. The input for a program was often music metadata or it was a website that was about music in some way or another. But since I was still at the very beginning of my learning process, I kept discarding practically everything in order to improve it or to learn new things. Around 2001, I started a web radio with friends, which was online for several years. The music was mainly Downtempo, Trip-Hop, IDM and Ambient. Promos from unknown artists from around the world were also broadcasted.

The atmosphere, the feeling I got from this time - how the music finds me and not the other way around, how it can change people's thoughts - has never left me since then.

3 - Do you feel that each medium allows you to express yourself differently from the others? How do you choose which medium you work in any given moment?

Yes. But I think you can convey the same feelings with any medium. The question is how direct it is. For example, pain can be expressed with fire but also with a chair in an empty room. At the end of the day, in my opinion, it's not about the artist's intention but about the perception of the viewer and his or her subsequent thoughts and actions. For example, imagine you make a dark ambient track that you experience as sad and heavy, but someone else tells you that it helped to relax and develop thoughts.

In addition to all of this, each medium also has advantages and disadvantages when it comes to technical implementation. So, sometimes the choice can also purely depend on skill or resources.

We all have ideas and often out ambitions outweigh our resources. Sometimes we need more resources, but more often than not we need to chip away at our ideas until our ambitions and resources align.

4 - Do you seek different sources of inspiration for your music than you would for your visual creations?

It's everything in the world around me that inspires me. Everything I perceive and feel, so to speak. Most of the time I don't have a melody or a picture in my head. It is more of a feeling and then I look for the right tone or shape for it, so to speak.

5 - How closely are your creations connected to each other?

Very close one could say - through my thoughts that I have wrapped in it. I always had a bit of a problem putting my thoughts into words. I tend to stray through various topics when I talk about something. With music and visuals, it feels lighter and more natural to get to the point. The "message" doesn't always get through, but being able to do so is liberating and invaluable to me.

6 - If you were to direct people to a specific piece of work that you feel really nails what you are aiming for with your creations, which would it be?

This is a hard question. Maybe I would ask you to sit down and listen to the album "FLOATING HIGH" in one sitting. Since it felt like coming home to me while making it. The music is less intrusive and not as precise in its message as the previous releases. Like its cover art, where the clouds could be seen as opening or closing. I wanted to create tracks that leave more room for thought while still telling a story.

7 - You have “X minutes of peace” on your site. Why is this needed? Was this made for you or for others?

For others but also for myself. For me it is self-reflection that allows me to understand myself better. But since I have problems with "just switching off my head", the moments in which I just sit quietly and let the recording device do its work are very valuable. In moments like these I can really switch off and think about something very carefully. Asking questions even though I feel like I don't have an answer. Or simply enjoying the precious fresh air and sounds of nature.

Unfortunately, too many people don't have time for that kind of peace. Too much pressure is on them. They either get this or that, or they can't survive. It's so sad how the system works. I simply think that if everyone would have more inner-peace, the world would be a better place. But then again, what do I know living under a rock between mountains?

The videos should allow us to find peace for a few minutes, no matter where we are. So that new and hopefully useful thoughts can develop.

The series Let It All Go is actually the same thing, just with music.

For the really dark hours there is BRAIN I/O. From time to time I prefer to embrace the pressure. Difficult to describe. The concept is basically: don't think, just feel and record it. It's about things that I personally want to leave behind or at least want to learn to accept (not necessarily being okay with) them if I can't change them.

Peace is an issue for me. When I briefly find it only points the way to the next act. This is fantastic but self defeating. Why can’t we just stay in peace?

8 - When inspiration has left the building where do you look to find it?

I'm not really actively looking for inspiration. Somehow it doesn't work that way for me. So variety is important to me. That is why I usually have several side projects going on in the areas that I do not much publicize. Much of it never leaves my hard drive and is mainly intended to free my mind and get on to new ideas in the process. Coding, graphics, drawing, etc. But the music production is and remains the main focus.

9 - These are the questions I am asking all the interviewees. Why do you create? What is it that pushes you to keep creating?

The inner child is just too strong. I've been living for a while and I know exactly nothing. It kind of feels like that. So many things that you can create with the computer alone. I'm stuck in that loop where you just love to create things and learn - and use the new knowledge to create new things. Things!

10 - What would most assist you to create more works? Is there an ultimate goal for your creations?

More time and resources for sure. but most important to me is the feeling that my loved ones are safe. When I have to worry about their future because the system is going the way it is, it feels like a pile of stones in my head.

The creative / social goal of my art is relatively simple and based on my own experience. Art has helped me tremendously when I felt lost - or when I was just "bored". Taking time to really listen to or look at something can be very liberating.

My short-term financial goal is to generate a more or less regular income through art. But since I never released anything commercially before 2016, this world is still new to me.

My dream goal is to hear my music in film and games and to generate an income that supports my family.

Nonetheless, I think goals are here to create an initial path, not necessarily motivation.

I do not know of a single soul who has not been lost. Some never find their way back. Some don’t need to find their way back, they are happier in the place they found.

11 - If you were to offer a creator any advice what would it be?

Based on my own experience in no particular order:

Stay curious and open minded for different viewpoints.

Tutorials can limit your creativity. Sure, learn the basics, but explore as much as you can on your own and never be afraid to fail. It's a process, not a game.

On projects that take longer than a day to complete, set yourself a deadline when you want to have it completed. Not important if it takes longer, but in general that helps to stay more focused.

Very few things are easy when you start.

Limitations are not necessarily bad.

Don't wait for motivation to create. It will kick in usually a few minutes after you've started. Therefore keep your tools ready and organized so you can start creating at any time.

You can always turn off the internet.

Be open for constructive criticism.

Especially for the digital crowd, backup your stuff!

(All images and works by SPARTALIEN)

#shikantaza #art #music #video #visual #creation #peace

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soft-stormcloud · 5 years

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The Witching Hour [Ghost AU]

Trigger warnings: Virgil is dead lol, Logan makes one joke about wanting to die, LOTS of cursing, mention of divorce, scared yelling and mention of a shitty couple yelling at each other, Deceit’s mannerism once

Word count: 1478

A/N: I spent like an hour and a half on this I’m sorry xD I can’t promise the rest of the month will get much better, I’ve got a lot going on

I don’t. I don’t even know what this is.

If enough interest is expressed, I might make this an au.

Reblogs > Likes

“I’m serious!”

Logan leaned back, his folded arms under his head. “I know you are. I still don’t believe you.”

Roman pouted. “You never believe me.”

“That’s because you’re a moron.”

Roman, Patton, and Logan were in Roman’s basement, sitting in a circle on the floor with sigils drawn on paper and a bunch of random things like matches and fans that Roman called ‘charging material.’ It was eleven thirty at night on Halloween, and Roman was adamant that they sped things up.

Roman grinned. “Well at least Pat believes me!”

“Patton’s also a moron,” Logan said helpfully, his eyes closed.

Patton swirled the lollipop around in his mouth, gripping his messenger bag nervously. “I don’t know if I want to do this…”

“No, look, I did some reading, okay?”

Logan groaned. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

“If it were something evil, like a poltergeist or something, I don’t know, it would have done something already.”

“Oh, yeah?” He said sarcastically.

“Yeah!” Roman nodded vigourously. “And everyone knows Halloween is the best time to talk to ghosts!”

Patton bit his lip. “Maybe we should ask your parents first-”

Roman’s eyes widened. “What?! Are you crazy?! They’d never let us do it!”

“Well-”

“Come on.” He turned to Logan. If you don’t believe in it, how is it going to hurt you?” Then, to Patton, “And you know I can protect you!”

“Of course I know that, but- But this isn’t a person! You can’t fight off a ghost!”

Roman scowled. “Says who?”

Logan sighed dramatically, sitting up. “If we do this with you, will you stop talking about it every day?”

“Wait wait wait-”

“You can go home if you want,” Logan told Patton, “but I’m sick of listening to him talk about it. It doesn’t mean anything and this will prove it to him.”

Roman glared at him, then turned a softer look on Patton. “Pat,” he cooed, “what if the ghost is lonely?”

He crossed his arms over his chest, huffing. “Fine. But it’s not because of that!”

Logan rolled his eyes. “Alright, get on with it. What do we have to do?”

Deep rumbling fills the room, seemingly coming out of the walls. It almost sounds like laughter. Every freezes, Roman resting his hand over the pocket knife in his belt, Patton’s eyes practically bulging out of his head. Logan looks around warily.

“I told you!” Roman whisper-screamed.

“Ohmygodwe’regonnadie.”

Just as Logan stood up, the basement went pitch black. Patton whimpered.

Logan felt vulnerable, standing in the darkness with nothing to defend himself. No matter which way he turned, his back felt exposed. “Roman,” he said, deadly calm.

“Yeah?” He asked nervously.

“You were lying when you said your parents are home, weren’t you?”

“…Yeah.”

“ROMAN!” Patton shrieked.

Everyone’s hearts jumped in their throats.

“What?!”

“Come on,” he whined, “give it back, that’s not funny!”

The lights flicked back on, and everyone’s gaze snapped to the boy now laying on Roman’s couch, his legs tossed lazily over the arm. He had Patton’s lollipop in his mouth.

“Jesus Christ, you guys fight a lot.” His voice echoed. “Are you sure you’re friends?”

Patton screamed, a few tears dripping down his face. Roman and Logan were too afraid to move.

The boy was just a teenager, in black ripped jeans and a black hoodie, his hair dyed purple. The only thing that gave him away was his doubling voice, the fact that his skin was completely white, and the black circles around his eyes. He couldn’t be any older than they were.

Patton let out a string of little panicked noises. “Romaaaaan, there’s a boy in your house!”

The boy sat up, grinning around the lollipop. “You guys know there’s no such thing as summoning a ghost, right?” No one answered. “I’ve just been here.” He shrugged. “You’re dysfunctional as shit. It’s fun to listen to. Better than the assholes who lived before you. I’m glad they divorced, for the neighborhood’s sake.” Nothing. “They’d just scream and scream and scream at each other, all night. It used to give me panic attacks, before I got used to it.” Silence. He chuckled. “They were so freaked out. One time I screamed back, and all their dishes just shot out the cabinets.”

Roman’s eyes widened. “Wait, what? How’d you do that?!”

“Roman!” Logan hissed, lowering back to the ground.

The ghost’s eyebrows disappeared behind his bangs. “Your reading on ghosts? All fake. You can’t research us, not really. All the real information is sprinkled in all over the internet with all the fake shit. Good luck trying to figure out what’s accurate.”

“You took my candy,” Patton pointed out, looking somewhat awed.

He grinned. “Couldn’t resist.”

He stood and drifted over to Patton, crouching in front of him. He pulled the candy out of his mouth and, as he spoke, his breath smelled like blueberries. “I can give it back, if you want.”

A little smile forced itself onto Patton’s face. “I have more!”

Logan gaped at them. “Are you fucking ser-”

“Hush.” The boy waved his hand, and Logan’s own hand clamped over his mouth.

Patton held open his messenger back; It was full of loose candy. “We stopped at Walgreens before this.”

“Let go of him!” Roman snapped, pulling out his pocket knife.

He glanced at it, looking uninterested. “What? He’s fine.” He paused. “I mean, he’s an asshole. But he’s fine.” He laughed, flicking his wrist to make Roman’s knife fly across the room, lest Roman charge at him when he wasn’t looking and end up hurting Patton. “You all kind of suck, actually.”

Roman glared, and the ghost let Logan go. They watched in complete shock as he settled himself into Patton’s lap. Patton giggled and wrapped his arms around his waist. He wasn’t transparent, but didn’t feel completely solid, either.

The ghost glanced between them curiously, pointing at them with his lollipop. “Patton. Logan. And Roman. Right?”

Patton grinned. “Yeah!”

“How long have you been listening to us?” Logan demanded.

“Every time you come over.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry, do you think there’s something better to do?”

“Get off of him,” Roman said lowly.

“Patton, do you want me off?”

“Uh…” He thought for a moment, before shaking his head.

The boy grinned at Roman challengingly. “I’m staying.”

“What the fuck.”

“How long have you been here?” Patton asked.

He laughed. “You think I keep track of that shit?”

“Do you know when you died?” Logan’s eyes shone with curiosity, even as he tried to hide it.

“More or less.”

“Jesus Christ,” he sighed.

“You’re not gonna give us a straight answer, are you?” Roman asked.

He shrugged. “Nothing about me is straight.”

Patton giggled. “We should watch movies! Hey- Hey- Hey, ghost boy! What’s your favourite movie?”

Roman gasped. “I am not watching movies with a ghost.”

“Do you remember your name?” Logan asked.

“Virgil.”

“Must have been dead for a while,” Logan muttered. “And you’re able to control us?”

“More or less.”

Logan glared at him, and Virgil leaned forward, pulling the lolli out of his mouth. “Oh, I’m sorry, are my answers not adequate for your data?” He sneered. “Want the whole tragic backstory, will that help, Sherlock?” Virgil snapped his teeth down on the candy, and it shattered in his mouth. He whipped the stick at the wall. Patton handed him a new one- Pink this time. “Thanks, darling.”

“Oh my god,” Roman deadpanned.

“Hey- Hey guys!” Patton giggled. “A boy likes me!”

“Patton, no-”

Virgil grinned. “What, am I not good enough for him?”

“YOUR FIRST BOYFRIEND CAN’T BE DEAD.”

“Says who?!” Patton tightened his grip on Virgil’s waist, kissing his cheek. It was like kissing dry ice cream.

“I want to die,” Logan groaned, flopping backwards.

“You wanna trade places, pocket protector? I imagine you wouldn’t get bored so fast, you sure like judging people.”

Logan scoffed.

Virgil rose to his feet without using his arms. “I’m gonna go make coffee.”

“What?” Roman looked at him like he was out of his mind.

He shrugged. “Your parents aren’t home. You guys know I’m here. I’m making coffee.” He rose an eyebrow. “Or is my reasoning not sound? Huh, Sherlock?”

“Just go,” Logan groaned.

Virgil grinned, and turned to Patton. “You want something, love?”

Patton giggled, his face pink. “Bring me back a cookie!”

“Don’t do that!” Roman jumped up. “He could poison it!”

“Do you just have poison lying around?” Virgil asked.

“I don’t know what you’re capable of! I’m coming with you.”

“If you can catch me.” Virgil fell through the ground, and everyone looked around for a second, in shock, before Roman dashed up the stairs.

“Are you seriously gonna try and date a ghost?” Logan asked, his voice flat.

“Maybe.”

Logan pulled a pillow over his face. “Do what you want. I’m going to bed.”

The Witching Hour AU

If you like my work, please consider donating a few bucks to my PayPal (paypal.me/chemically) or Venmo (maxgraybooks)

#virgil sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #moxiety #fluff #virgil writes #the witching hour au #virgil #patton #roman #logan

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chemically-imbalanced-romance · 6 years

Text

The Witching Hour

Prompt/Synopsis: Ghost!Side

Requested by: Day 21 of @sanderssidesspook

Word count: 1478

A/N: I spent like an hour and a half on this I’m sorry xD I can’t promise the rest of the month will get much better, I’ve got a lot going on

I don’t. I don’t even know what this is.

If enough interest is expressed, I might make this an au.

Reblogs > Likes

“I’m serious!”

Logan leaned back, his folded arms under his head. “I know you are. I still don’t believe you.”

Roman pouted. “You never believe me.”

“That’s because you’re a moron.”

Roman grinned. “Well at least Pat believes me!”

“Patton’s also a moron,” Logan said helpfully, his eyes closed.

Patton swirled the lollipop around in his mouth, gripping his messenger bag nervously. “I don’t know if I want to do this…”

“No, look, I did some reading, okay?”

Logan groaned. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

“If it were something evil, like a poltergeist or something, I don’t know, it would have done something already.”

“Oh, yeah?” He said sarcastically.

“Yeah!” Roman nodded vigourously. “And everyone knows Halloween is the best time to talk to ghosts!”

Patton bit his lip. “Maybe we should ask your parents first-”

Roman’s eyes widened. “What?! Are you crazy?! They’d never let us do it!”

“Well-”

“Come on.” He turned to Logan. If you don’t believe in it, how is it going to hurt you?” Then, to Patton, “And you know I can protect you!”

“Of course I know that, but- But this isn’t a person! You can’t fight off a ghost!”

Roman scowled. “Says who?”

Logan sighed dramatically, sitting up. “If we do this with you, will you stop talking about it every day?”

“Wait wait wait-”

“You can go home if you want,” Logan told Patton, “but I’m sick of listening to him talk about it. It doesn’t mean anything and this will prove it to him.”

Roman glared at him, then turned a softer look on Patton. “Pat,” he cooed, “what if the ghost is lonely?”

He crossed his arms over his chest, huffing. “Fine. But it’s not because of that!”

Logan rolled his eyes. “Alright, get on with it. What do we have to do?”

“I told you!” Roman whisper-screamed.

“Ohmygodwe’regonnadie.”

Just as Logan stood up, the basement went pitch black. Patton whimpered.

Logan felt vulnerable, standing in the darkness with nothing to defend himself. No matter which way he turned, his back felt exposed. “Roman,” he said, deadly calm.

“Yeah?” He asked nervously.

“You were lying when you said your parents are home, weren’t you?”

“…Yeah.”

“ROMAN!” Patton shrieked.

Everyone’s hearts jumped in their throats.

“What?!”

“Come on,” he whined, “give it back, that’s not funny!”

The lights flicked back on, and everyone’s gaze snapped to the boy now laying on Roman’s couch, his legs tossed lazily over the arm. He had Patton’s lollipop in his mouth.

“Jesus Christ, you guys fight a lot.” His voice echoed. “Are you sure you’re friends?”

Patton screamed, a few tears dripping down his face. Roman and Logan were too afraid to move.

Patton let out a string of little panicked noises. “Romaaaaan, there’s a boy in your house!”

Roman’s eyes widened. “Wait, what? How’d you do that?!”

“Roman!” Logan hissed, lowering back to the ground.

“You took my candy,” Patton pointed out, looking somewhat awed.

He grinned. “Couldn’t resist.”

He stood and drifted over to Patton, crouching in front of him. He pulled the candy out of his mouth and, as he spoke, his breath smelled like blueberries. “I can give it back, if you want.”

A little smile forced itself onto Patton’s face. “I have more!”

Logan gaped at them. “Are you fucking ser-”

“Hush.” The boy waved his hand, and Logan’s own hand clamped over his mouth.

Patton held open his messenger back; It was full of loose candy. “We stopped at Walgreens before this.”

“Let go of him!” Roman snapped, pulling out his pocket knife.

The ghost glanced between them curiously, pointing at them with his lollipop. “Patton. Logan. And Roman. Right?”

Patton grinned. “Yeah!”

“How long have you been listening to us?” Logan demanded.

“Every time you come over.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry, do you think there’s something better to do?”

“Get off of him,” Roman said lowly.

“Patton, do you want me off?”

“Uh…” He thought for a moment, before shaking his head.

The boy grinned at Roman challengingly. “I’m staying.”

“What the fuck.”

“How long have you been here?” Patton asked.

He laughed. “You think I keep track of that shit?”

“Do you know when you died?” Logan’s eyes shone with curiosity, even as he tried to hide it.

“More or less.”

“Jesus Christ,” he sighed.

“You’re not gonna give us a straight answer, are you?” Roman asked.

He shrugged. “Nothing about me is straight.”

Patton giggled. “We should watch movies! Hey- Hey- Hey, ghost boy! What’s your favourite movie?”

Roman gasped. “I am not watching movies with a ghost.”

“Do you remember your name?” Logan asked.

“Virgil.”

“Must have been dead for a while,” Logan muttered. “And you’re able to control us?”

“More or less.”

“Oh my god,” Roman deadpanned.

“Hey- Hey guys!” Patton giggled. “A boy likes me!”

“Patton, no-”

Virgil grinned. “What, am I not good enough for him?”

“YOUR FIRST BOYFRIEND CAN’T BE DEAD.”

“Says who?!” Patton tightened his grip on Virgil’s waist, kissing his cheek. It was like kissing dry ice cream.

“I want to die,” Logan groaned, flopping backwards.

“You wanna trade places, pocket protector? I imagine you wouldn’t get bored so fast, you sure like judging people.”

Logan scoffed.

Virgil rose to his feet without using his arms. “I’m gonna go make coffee.”

“What?” Roman looked at him like he was out of his mind.

He shrugged. “Your parents aren’t home. You guys know I’m here. I’m making coffee.” He rose an eyebrow. “Or is my reasoning not sound? Huh, Sherlock?”

“Just go,” Logan groaned.

Virgil grinned, and turned to Patton. “You want something, love?”

Patton giggled, his face pink. “Bring me back a cookie!”

“Don’t do that!” Roman jumped up. “He could poison it!”

“Do you just have poison lying around?” Virgil asked.

“I don’t know what you’re capable of! I’m coming with you.”

“If you can catch me.” Virgil fell through the ground, and everyone looked around for a second, in shock, before Roman dashed up the stairs.

“Are you seriously gonna try and date a ghost?” Logan asked, his voice flat.

“Maybe.”

Logan pulled a pillow over his face. “Do what you want. I’m going to bed.”

Tag list:

@dr-gloom

#virgil sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #moxiety #LAMP #polysanders #sanders spooks #sanders sides spooky month #the witching hour #virgil writes

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aromantic-pantyanarchy · 6 years

Text

Making Love Potions for Fun and Profit

For @aroacelibrary‘s Halloween prompts.

The tale of a witch, dealing with the hassle of modern day, who makes a living by making love potions out of their garage. The only question is what’s more of a pain to deal with, the process of making them or the clientele.

Amaranth Cassiopeia Melancholia snored loudly in their twin mattress, the one that lacked an actual bedframe under it. Their lower body was wrapped tight in the covers while their upper body seemed to have attempted to throw them clean off the bed. A perfect half and half, restless sleepers could work miracles at times.

Amaranth Cassiopeia Melancholia often had to assure people that, yes, that was the actual, legal name that they had been born with. People could still call them Amy though, if Amaranth didn’t quite roll off the tongue. The most common assumption following this revelation was that Amy’s parents were hippies, and they usually told them, yeah, something like that.

People asked if that’s also where the no gender thing came from, and Amy would tell them that no, that was an unrelated thing.

Amy was, in fact, not the child of hippies, though the end result was more or less the same. Actually, Amy was a witch. And they would be sure to tell you that being a witch sucks, or they would if it wasn’t supposed to be a big secret. So to elaborate further, if you were also a witch, they would be sure to tell you that being a witch sucks.

The world of witchery had never quite gotten over that whole pocket of history that involved stakes and burning, you know, the one that lasted for most of recorded history, so globally, witches had more or less decided to keep the existence of their powers under wraps. Amy was of the opinion that if they had to keep their magic a secret, then they might as well not have it to begin with. Yeah, it made household chores a lot easier, but these days anyone can have a magical self-using vacuum cleaner, it’s called a Roomba.

Whenever people got past the whole name thing, they seemed to get stuck on the money thing next. How, they would wonder, could a person so young and so independent afford a house in the suburbs? In this economy? With no roommates? No rich parents? Amy might tell them, perhaps a little sardonically, that the business of love never ran dry.

They’d then ask if they meant, like, dating apps? And Amy would say yeah, something like that.

It wasn’t actually dating apps though.

If there’s one thing witches love, it’s specialty shops. The nature of witches means that, when it comes to magic-related commodities, there’s a high demand, low supply situation to be had. If there was one thing Amy appreciated about magic, it was this fact.

Amy’s alarm went off, and they shot up with a surprised snort. After coughing the morning breath out of their mouth and blinking last night’s dreams out of their eyes, they began trying to remember why the alarm had been set to begin with.

Oh, wait. It was mixing day.

Amy stretched, mentally preparing to tackle the adversity in front of them, then turned over, pulled the covers back over their body and closed their eyes again. Mixing didn’t take that long, they could afford to sleep in a little longer.

Perhaps the single most important development in the past decade of witchcraft was the jailbreaking spell. With the witchery community as secretive and insular as it is, communication is critical. For this reason, a witch, who’s name has been lost to the witching community’s obsession with secrecy, created an easy to use spell that since has mostly passed around through word of mouth, that when applied to any device capable of internet access allowed it to access data normally unobtainable. Thus, the .wic boom, well, boomed. With the internet, witches were able to spread information and resources all over the world while still keeping their big secret a secret.

This is important as it relates to Amy’s financial situation, as well as their living situation. To say that Amy could afford to live in the suburbs was a bit of an overstatement, they could barely afford the house and were honestly much more of an apartment type person anyways, but the space was necessary for their work, as was the witches’ internet. Amy’s website was amaranthapothecary.wic, and while they offered a number of various potion types with a range of effects from transmogrification to anti-depressants, the focal point of Amy’s little store was the love potions.

Love potion suppliers were rare. It was a substance that was dangerous to make and dubiously ethical to sell. Not illegal to sell, mind you, and to be sure that was Amy’s go to phrase whenever the issue arose, but that was because, well, it’s really hard to prosecute lawbreakers in a completely hidden society.

Like Amy told all those people, the business of love never ran dry. They never asked why customers needed or wanted these potions, and honestly, they really didn’t want to know. As long as the potions were selling, they just had to keep making them, keep selling them, and keep ignoring what people were actually doing with them.

Alright, Amy was getting up for real now. They shambled into the bathroom and started brushing their teeth, falling into a familiar, very half-awake type of rhythm.

The biggest rule for mixing love potions was not to wear anything that you were going to be wearing while interacting with anyone else at any point. The fumes would sink into fabric and even the smallest whiff could have an adverse effect on a person. When it came to magical concoctions, everything ran on the better safe than sorry rule. As a side note, the biggest rule for using love potions by the same measure was to hold your breath while dispensing the liquid.

Amy spat out the toothpaste, washed out their mouth, took a quick leak, and thusly concluded the morning’s preparation. They opted to stay in the tank top and underwear that they’d slept in, given the biggest rule for mixing love potions. It was best to go with something light that you were planning to take off soon anyways.

Finally, they grabbed a granola bar from the pantry, wolfed that down as some semblance of a breakfast, and moved on into the garage.

To reiterate, the reason Amy absolutely needed to move into a house that they probably couldn’t afford was for the work space. The garage was filled with stacks of shipping boxes with only narrow spaces cleared out to be walkways between them. Along the walls were metal shelving units that were each filled with sets of cardboard half-boxes which were filled with rows of plastic bottles which were filled with brightly colored liquids. The neon pink love potions had an entire unit all to themselves, but half that shelf was empty now.

The garage also had a second room in it. Through a set of small double doors was where the actual equipment was. On one side of the wall was a big steel drum with hatches on its top and bottom, suspended in the air by two legs leading into a base on wheels. Next to it was a floor scale. In another corner was a stack of plastic buckets. There was a cart that floated around everywhere in the garage with two levels, one cleared off, the other full of random junk. And of course, the most important piece of gear, a water cooler.

The process was simple but tedious. Amy would go out and grab a cardboard box full of a specific ingredient (most of them weighing around 50 pounds), pour a specific amount of it into a plastic bucket (measuring with the scale), pour that into the mixer (the steel drum thing), tape the box back up, replace it and move onto the next ingredient. Lugging around so many heavy boxes usually meant the day after mixing day was recovery day for Amy’s poor, stiff back.

But the first ingredient to go in the mixer was actually pretty light. It was a bath bomb. Amy had to admit, they also weren’t immune to the captivating charm of specialty witch stores. Magical bath bombs especially were really handy for potion making when you didn’t want to kill yourself with water and heating bills.

The first bath bomb was a small little crusty orb of aquatic blue with white waves and teal flecks. Amy tossed it into the bottom of the mixer and spit on it. The orb expanded immediately into about a hundred gallons of water, filling the mixer up immediately. The spit also apparently qualified as “a dallop of hatred” for the recipe, which, Amy wasn’t sure about, they didn’t really feel hateful, maybe they should feel offended.

Next came the much harder part, the part involving the heavy stuff. Amy added to the mixer: 20 lbs of dried egg yolk (the easiest thing on the list to get their hands on, made a good chunky base, absorbed a lot of the other ingredients’ effects, good protein), 17 and a half lbs of phoenix gizzards (these had to be ordered from a potion-specializing witch shop with jacked up prices, requiring Amy to jack up their own prices in response), 16 lbs of rock salt, 12 lbs of calcium, 6 lbs of cow eyes (fortunately still obtainable from a normal Chinese supplier), a pound and a half of rose petals (synthetic, bought in bulk from a wedding supplier, it’s the romantic connotations more than the actual flowery parts that have an effect), a pound of fairy wings (see note on phoenix liver, double the price jacking), a cluster of hair from a fair maiden (from one of those donated hair wigs, the potion was actually a lot less strict on the source than you’d think), and a dollop of hatred (already covered).

Finally, Amy added another bath bomb, this one was a bright orange with red and yellow patterns around it. As soon as it hit the oddly colored soup, bubbles began streaming to the surface. Within seconds it had reached a frothy boil. These were meant to help fire-enchanted witches actually, like, bathe themselves, but Amy couldn’t be faulted for being creative and frugal on this part of the potion making process.

They fixed the top hatch back on, sealing the mixer up completely, then smacked the big green button and the whole thing began spinning around its arms. After waiting for a moment to make sure nothing went horribly wrong, they left the mixer to its work and left the garage.

The mixer, it is worth noting, was not meant to hold boiling liquids. It wasn’t meant to hold liquids at all actually, this kind of machinery was only meant to mix powders. Amy had to give it a couple of enchantments to suit their needs, though it had taken them a bit of time getting the actual enchantments just right, learning them as they were from witchipedia.

No, go ahead, laugh. That was a joke. Seriously, you think any self-respecting magical encyclopedia, online or no, would call themselves that? Witchipedia? Really? No, the site was called Encyclopedia Arcania Terrarum, a bit hard to remember as a url but Amy could hardly talk.

No, it was everyone else that called it witchipedia. It was such a common shorthand for the website in witching circles around the web that the actual Encyclopedia Arcania Terrarum put the word in its header, and now redirects from witchipedia.wic, which was a lot easier to spell consistently.

Amy was lying face down on their mattress again, half-listening to the entomology podcast playing from their phone. The potion would have to mix for the next half hour, and until then Amy had nothing much to really do. And while adding the ingredients was certainly physically taxing, the bottling process required more of their attention, and was the point when the job became some actual, real, work. They needed to rest a little more in preparation for that.

But yes, the mixer, Amy had enchanted the mixer with two primary spells. One gave the mixer some additional heat resistance, love potions needed to be boiled after all and outside of getting an old-fashioned cauldron and setting up a bonfire pit in their backyard (bad idea on multiple levels) this was the best solution.

The other was a bit more vague. It was a common cheat used by witches on all kinds of equipment, but Amy had no idea how it actually worked. The effect was that their mixer was now much more watertight. For as much as it was spinning, so long as the hatch lids stay on, not a drop of the potion would spill out. It also made the mixer completely stainless. So long as Amy made sure to completely empty the mixer after use, they didn’t even need to wash it out.

Amy snorted awake as the podcast wrapped up and transitioned into silence. They checked their phone to see it had been a full 45 minutes since the potion had been set to mix. That wasn’t really a problem, the bath bomb would burn itself out in the first 10 minutes, but it still felt like a waste of time.

They went back into the garage, pressed the big red button below the big green button to bring the mixer to a stop, then opened the top hatch and peered into the mix.

The liquid below glowed a bright neon pink, an errant bubble still drifting its way to the surface before breaking. Amy reached down, dipped a finger in the mix and poked it in their mouth.

They shuddered. It tasted like sloughs of wet ash, deep fried for too long, burnt to a crisp, dragged through cold grease, then flash frozen and microwaved for too long. They gagged and stepped away from the mixer. Yep, the love potion had come out perfectly.

Amy reached onto the lower level of the cart and pulled out a loose garden hose. They dropped one end into the mixer, then dragged the other over to the water cooler. The bucket that fed into the cooler had its top cut off and was currently sitting empty. Amy placed the other end of the hose to their lips and sucked. Motivated by not having to taste any more love potion than was necessary, they counted out the time to the second, then dropped the hose into the water cooler’s bucket. Pink liquid gushed out and it began to fill up.

Amy ducked out into the garage and grabbed a huge stack of cardboard half-boxes and unmarked plastic bottles. This part required speed and efficiency. They would use the water cooler to fill up each bottle one by one, put 20 into a single half-box, fill the cart up with three half boxes, run out to put the half-boxes on the shelf, then run in and start the cycle over again until they’d emptied the mixer, all while keeping ahead of the potion filling in from the mixer so that it didn’t overflow and spill everywhere.

The water cooler was a decently helpful device, cheap of course and functioning like an overly large funnel with a gallon’s holding capacity, but more than that, it helped by actually cooling the potion down a little. The love potion’s potency wasn’t affected by the temperature it was kept at, but those who were in a position to give reviews and testimonials after using it commented that it tasted much better when chilled to an extent. Amy didn’t exactly know what they were talking about, it tasted the same to them regardless of how they tried it, but it built up customer satisfaction at the very least and those results were never arguable.

A pretty big proportion of people who bought Amy’s love potions were repeat customers, surprisingly. Perhaps not that surprisingly, even when fully ingested a love potion’s effects generally wore off within 5 days, so of course it had to be reapplied if one wanted the affects to have any sense of permanence. But the surprising part was just how many of them were using the potion on themselves. Amy got at least a dozen testimonials every month from people who had been slipped some of the love potion without their knowing and now couldn’t bear to imagine losing the intense feelings they held for their new partner.

Amy didn’t get it, truly and honestly, but it was business. They couldn’t make any kind of living without people like that. Though they had, eventually, added a caution label to their bottle’s wrapping. “Product is designed to simulate desirous feelings and may have addictive properties.” It was a formality given how this stuff was usually used, but it was the most Amy could do to massage down the guilt.

After all, if they didn’t make love potions, someone else would. Someone probably less equipped to deal with its affects at that. Amy just wished that their target demographic wasn’t so… like they were.

The doorbell rang. Amy muttered a curse, having almost finished two half-boxes by now. They pulled the hose out from the water cooler and stopped the flow with their thumb.

Amy ran back to their room as fast as they could and threw on jean jacket and sweatpants. It wasn’t perfect protection against the potion’s aroma, but it should smother what was there long enough for a short interaction.

They opened the front door a crack, just enough to see who was there. It was a woman, older than Amy by a bit, heavy makeup, blonde hair tucked into a big, brown trenchcoat, and big, black sunglasses hiding her face.

“Can I, uh,” Amy started. “Can I help you?”

“You’re the one I need to talk to, right?”

Amy blinked.

“The weed guy is a block down.”

They attempted to close the door, but the woman stuck her foot out and stopped it.

“I’m not looking for - weed. You make love potions, right?”

Amy looked at her with concern.

“I have a website, all transactions go through that.”

“I have money.”

“That’s good. You’ll need that. Please let me close the door now.”

“Look,” the woman said as she stepped closer. “I don’t have time to wait for a delivery. He’s leaving tonight, I need your help.”

“Well I’m sorry, but there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with deciding to use a love potion, it shouldn’t be made on a snap judgement.”

“Please!” She was all but bodily forcing the door open at this point. “You don’t know him, you don’t know what I’m losing. He’s perfect and kind and funny and beautiful and – and the one. He’s the one for me and I’m the one for him and the only thing bad about him is that he can’t seem to realize it. Haven’t you ever loved someone so much that you would do anything to keep them to yourself?”

“Uh,” Amy coughed. “Yeah, no. No not really. Now could you please, get off my property?”

The woman just scoffed. “How can you call yourself a creator of love without knowing anything about the real thing?”

“That’s not really how that works.”

She sighed. “Fine. I’ll leave you to it then.”

Amy eased away from the door, getting ready to close it, and the woman barreled right through them and into the house.

“Wha- Hey!” Amy shouted up from the floor.

“Where are they?”

“You can’t-” Amy started, shakily getting to their feet. “You can’t be in here.”

Amy had already completely lost track of her. All they knew was where they didn’t want her to go, so that’s where they immediately went.

“I’m calling the police. This is a – You really can’t – I -”

Oh hell.

The woman stood in the middle of the garage, her eyes wide and vacant. As soon as Amy stepped through the door, her head snapped towards them.

God dammit.

“You…” she muttered.

“No.”

“You’re so beautiful.”

“No.”

She darted forward and grabbed Amy by the hands. A shudder ran up their spine.

“Please, I’ve never met anyone I’ve cared so deeply for.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I need you in my life.”

“You really don’t.”

The woman looked like she was about to cry.

“If this about that other guy, I don’t care about him anymore. I belong only to you now!”

“Well that’s – fine actually considering the circumstances. But, no, you really need to le-”

Before Amy could finish, the women grabbed one of their love potion bottles and splashed the liquid onto their face. They spat and coughed and sputtered and did everything to get the vile taste out of their mouth.

When they could finally speak again, they gave it a few heavy breaths to calm down before saying anything.

“You’re paying for that,” they muttered.

“Yes of course, anything you want.” She was already digging through her pockets.

“No. Okay. If you want to know what I want,” Amy said, already pushing her out of the garage and towards the front door. “I want you to go home, sleep on it, and until then, get out of my house.”

“I’ll wait for you for as long as it takes.”

“Yep. I’m sure.”

Amy shoved the woman out the front door, who took a few stumbling steps, turned back, and whispered “I love you.” before Amy slammed the door in her face.

They leaned against the door and sank to floor, sighing.

Mixing day.

#aromantichalloween #aromantic #aromanticism #uhhhhhh MC is also non-binary if that's your bag

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freenumerology4-blog · 6 years

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Moment for An Updated Numerology Looking at

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Numerology

Forty years ago, My partner and i was any psychic fan. I had found out reincarnation and the mesmerizing benefits of psychics. But, out regarding the blue, I became converted on to numerology. I had been young and starting the job and marriage. We really adored finding our next email. One day time, someone said numerologist for you to me. I was some sort of bare. I had zero idea what which supposed. But I designed to locate out.

Numerology

I was functioning in Dallas. I seemed to be told this numerologist had been in Fort Worth as well as her name was Jessica Norris. Sounded innocent adequate. How do I publication a numerology session using her? It was somewhat complicated. It seems Skip Norris wasn't a huge fan in the modern make use of of the telephone. This lady didn't even have a new assistant or answering equipment. Whatever the case, I found out there where the lady lived and also off I actually went.

Dallas isn't since close to help Fort Worth as much folks tell you. And with earlier 1970s, it looked further. But gas has been up to 29 cents a one gallon aren't cared. We failed to have internet then thus I possessed no speedy way to look just what numerology was. I got the tiny bit familiar having horoscopy, but now My spouse and i know just how little.

Her house wasn't also difficult to find possibly for a Dallas lady. I walked because of the entrance and knocked wanting any nice older woman to look to graciously ask my family in to a wonderful house. The woman was without a doubt older and also a tremendous partner of kittens and cats by the actual number I 1st observed. And maybe even some sort of significant other of mice given that they decided as properly.

The first thing My partner and i noticed while entering ended up being being overwhelmed from the awful smell. A nice the southern area of girl, I would never ever point out anything about the idea. But We began in order to realize I didn't want to inhale and exhale very well in it is occurrence. She simply inquired me to be able to sit lower somewhere between the lots of newspapers and viscous canned cat food. I actually didn't know how very long this will take, but My spouse and i had not been sure I can stay long with the particular stench.

She said this name and my very own special birthday. I gave the item along with off she was. The girl began hundreds of data starting at the top rated of the webpage for you to the bottom and and then returning to the major with the second strip. I'm not sure, yet this lady put at the very least 6-7 lines of calculations in addition to then started around the backside of the page. This kind of went on for several pages.

The lady was deeply wrapped up in the woman calculations. And then the woman would merely completely end and downturn down within what I can simply describe as a "nap. inches Just as My partner and i started to acquire involved, she would then abruptly sit up and keep on. That seemed like the eternity. So, We cautiously excused myself as well as gone outside to desperately pick up some fresh air.

I had developed no idea that the girl seemed to be creating a numerology reading in me or maybe even what that will recommended. I was simply ready for a deck of control cards. Yet she was established to produce her knowledge. And indeed the lady performed. When she done and also asked me to are available back inside, she started out telling me personally things I actually hadn't perhaps asked in relation to. With complete specialist, this lady told me that My spouse and i would receive a natural car. I stated, not any, no. My automobile will be red and considerably fresh. She said, "The subsequent time you come, costs green car. "

For some reason, she alerted the attention in me. After the woman finished telling me just where I would live, who also I had be with along with what best items have been for me, I begun questioning her. It's recently been quite some time, but I bear in mind she mentioned she researched numerology from Stanford College or university. I have certainly not thought if that is genuine, but I then seemed close to all the heaps of newspaper publishers and uncovered a create on a new table.

I then found that she was under written agreement with several different necessary oil organizations to tell these people where to drill regarding oil. Suddenly she evolved into a bit less odd to me. My partner and i grew to become addicted to her. The very next time I came, I noticed I had a environment friendly car. Everytime I emerged I discovered considerably more regarding her, but not concerning numerology. She wasn't considering teaching about numerology, how numerology chart is as well as how life path numerology can be of aid. She travelled about your ex calculations and after that made your girlfriend numerological prophecies.

She advised me that the girl acquired always lived in Fortification Worth. Her father was an officer in typically the Navy stationed at Feet. Well worth. Sometimes she would certainly arrive at the girl residence at the same moment I did inside a stunning Cadillac. She discussed in which the driver had "rented" her for a event. This lady set up a good office for the party-goers to drop in in addition to get their particular numerological parts.

I begun to realize this Marie Norris had been a great icon in the Ft Worth community. She suggested everyone, from the extremely very abundant to often the not so rich. The woman had simply won these individuals over doing what the lady did better than any person else with no tooting the woman own horn.

Concerning five years later after the way too long abstinence, We was enhancing a video with my friend George Kline. His production business had made the picture in Dallas. While i was chatting, he reminded myself which he was originally coming from Découplé Worth. I grew to be just about all bubbly and expected when he knew Jessica Norris. Just as uptempo, his sight lighted way up and he explained, "Of course! " I actually claimed, hey we need to help move see her.

He or she arranged and called his or her helper to arrange any booking. His or her assistant named back and notified people that Miss Norris has been no longer living. I was devastated. Who would we all head to for numerological tellings.

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mattkennard · 6 years

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Business Is Booming for the U.K.'s Spy Tech Industry

Published: The Intercept (11 May 2018)

DRIVING INTO CHELTENHAM from the west, it is hard to miss the offices of Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, the United Kingdom’s surveillance agency. The large, doughnut-shaped building sits behind high-perimeter fencing with barbed wire and many levels of security. The facility – used to eavesdrop on global emails and phone calls – is located on the edge of the sleepy Gloucestershire town, which feels like an incongruous location for one of the world’s most aggressive spy agencies.

Cheltenham has a population of just 117,000 people, and GCHQ’s presence has turned the area into one of Europe’s central hubs for companies working in the fields of cybersecurity and surveillance. GCHQ says it employs almost 6,000 people in Cheltenham and at some smaller bases around the U.K., although the agency has in recent years secretly expanded its workforce, reportedly employing thousands more staff.

People in the area are now talking of a cyber “corridor” that stretches for 50 miles from Malvern, just north of Cheltenham, all the way to Bristol, where the Ministry of Defence has its equipment and support headquarters at Abbey Wood. Many quaint English towns, known for their farming and country pubs, have seen an influx of companies dealing in cybersecurity and electronic spying. Even office space on former farms is being used for this burgeoning industry.

Chris Dunning-Walton, the founder of a nonprofit called Cyber Cheltenham, or Cynam, organizes quarterly events in the town attended by politicians and entrepreneurs. “Historically, there has been a need for the companies that are working here to be very off the radar with their relationships with GCHQ and to some extent, that does exist,” says Dunning-Walton. But since Edward Snowden leaked information in 2013 about GCHQ’s sweeping surveillance activities, the agency has been forced to come out of the shadows and embrace greater transparency. One consequence of this, according to Dunning-Walton, is that GCHQ is now more open to partnering with private companies, which has helped fuel the cyber industry around the Cheltenham area.

Northrop Grumman, the world’s fifth-largest arms manufacturer, has located its European cyber and intelligence operations in Cheltenham, where it has two offices in the center of the town. In the nearby city of Gloucester, a 20-minute drive west of Cheltenham, Raytheon, the world’s third-largest arms company, in 2015 opened a Cyber Innovation Centre that it says is focused on “big data, analytics and network defense.” BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, the cyber arm of the world’s fourth-largest arms company, also has offices in Gloucester, where it says it “delivers information intelligence solutions to government and commercial customers.”

Many of these companies are secretive about the work they do – especially when it concerns surveillance technology – and refuse to speak to the media. But L3 TRL Technology – which is based in Tewkesbury at the northern tip of this new cyber corridor – does grant an interview via email.

L3 says it provides “electronic warfare” equipment that can jam communication signals and gather intelligence. A spokesperson for the company says it plays “a crucial role in counter terrorism and the protection of military forces with our electronic warfare solutions.” He declines to provide any information about any of the company’s customers. But a video posted on YouTube by a Middle Eastern news agency reveals one potential client: It documents a recent meeting between L3’s parent company and Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy commander of the UAE military.

According to government records, the U.K. has sold weapons and other equipment worth £7.3 billion ($9.9 billion) to the UAE in the past decade, including components for telecommunications eavesdropping technology and “intrusion software,” which is used to hack into targeted phones and computers.

Another Cheltenham-based company is CommsAudit, whose flagship product is a surveillance system called Spectra Black, a portable device that can monitor cellphone calls and other wireless communications. CommsAudit did not respond to a request for comment and does not publicly disclose the identities of its customers. The company was, however, showcasing its products at the 2017 DSEI arms fair in London, which was attended by government delegations from across the world.

Latching onto this wave of innovation, last year, the British government pledged £22 million ($30 million) in funding for a new cyber business park on a patch of land close to GCHQ’s headquarters. “It will act as a ‘honeypot’ for cyber security and high tech supply chain businesses,” the promotional literature said, creating 7,000 jobs, while boosting the number of private companies in the area that can then potentially become GCHQ’s clients. There is a lot of largesse to go around. GCHQ takes the majority of the share of the roughly £2.8 billion ($3.8 billion) budget for Britain’s intelligence services and has twice the number of personnel of MI5 and MI6 combined.

David Woodfine, a former head of the Ministry of Defence’s Security Operations Centre, worked inside GCHQ’s Cheltenham headquarters for two years. He left in September 2013 to found Cyber Security Associates, a Gloucestershire-based company providing cyber consultancy services to the public and private sector.

Woodfine says toward the end of his tenure at GCHQ, there was a realization that the agency needed to partner more with private industry. “From a GCHQ perspective, I think their whole attitude has changed from quite a hard approach – ‘we’ll keep everything in-house’ – to ‘actually, we need to open up.’ They changed their recruiting, their apprenticeship schemes, so they are attracting more young talent into their organization.”

The National Cyber Security Centre – which opened in 2016 under the remit of GCHQ – is currently piloting new “Cyber Schools Hubs” in Gloucestershire. The idea is to send staff into local schools to “encourage a diverse range of students into taking up computer science,” in effect grooming the next generation of cyber-competent spies.

GCHQ offers meager salaries compared to the private sector, but the agency can offer prospective employees the chance to work with technologies that they could not use anywhere else – because if they did, they would be breaking the law. “That’s a good way of retaining people on public sector pay,” says Woodfine. “So you can argue that they don’t join for the money, they join for the ability to learn and to test their techniques and their abilities.”

A GCHQ employee can work with the agency for a few years, learn about its tools and methods, and then take that knowledge with them to a job in the more lucrative private sector, where there are plenty opportunities for surveillance innovation. According to the London-based advocacy group Privacy International, the U.K. has 104 companies producing surveillance equipment for export to foreign governments and corporations. Only the United States – with 122 companies – has more.

SINCE 2013, SALES of surveillance and hacking technology have been controlled under the Wassenaar Arrangement, which was signed by 42 countries, including the U.S. and most of Europe. The arrangement is intended to prevent authoritarian regimes from obtaining arms and sophisticated spy tools that could be used to commit human rights violations. However, it is not legally binding. And the U.K. has continued to sell eavesdropping equipment to a number of countries with questionable human rights records, such as Honduras, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, China, and Qatar.

Inside the bustling Victoria train station in central London, Digital Barriers, the world’s premier video analytics company, has its offices. Video analytics sounds like an arcane branch of the high-tech industry, but in terms of surveillance technology, it is a field that has rapidly advanced in recent years. Zak Doffman, chief executive at Digital Barriers, founded the company in 2010 after recognizing that in the area of video intelligence, there was a gap in the international market. Digital Barriers’s technology is designed to analyze video – and identify people’s faces – in real time, where the cameras are placed, rather than having to rely on retrospective analysis.

In its London offices, the company demonstrates to this reporter how even with a scarf wrapped around a person’s face, its software can successfully identify them within a few seconds using a standard surveillance camera. Facial-recognition technology is notoriously inaccurate and can produce false positives, but Digital Barriers claims its software can pick out obscured and blurred faces in crowds and match them with photographs that are held on databases or published on the internet. It is, the company says, most useful for counterterrorism operations. But in the wrong hands, wired up to a nationwide camera network, the technology could potentially be used to trace the movements of millions of people in real time. “We built the business primarily in the public sector working for government agencies,” says Doffman. “We are now working increasingly in the private sector with the commercial customers.”

Digital Barriers’s website boasts that it has clients in more than 50 countries. Doffman won’t reveal the names of his customers, and when questioned about the export licensing process, he says the company’s products are exempt. “It’s not export control per se,” he says, “so there’s no formal restrictions on the technology.” What would he do if countries with authoritarian governments wanted to buy the system? Doffman says only that Digital Barriers has a “moral code on this stuff.”

People within this industry want the technology to remain uncontrolled; they argue that countries with authoritarian governments don’t want this type of video surveillance anyway. “Countries where you have a lot of corruption, the last thing they want is facial recognition,” says one industry source, because of elite factionalism. But that seems scant reassurance for dissidents living in dictatorships that can now freely access this technology at the right price.

#gchq #surveillance #electronic warfare #cheltenham #mi5 #mi6

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makemoneyonline70 · 3 years

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3. If you receive an invitation to participate, you choose a time that suits you from those made available by the researcher.

4.After you have completed the study, you are paid via PayPal, cash, or Amazon gift cards.

If you are interested in earning money with focus groups, another top-rated legit company is Respondent.io.

Respondent.io is always looking for industry professionals, parents, and students. They have projects that are available to US residents as well as international. This means you don’t have to be in the US to join and earn from $50 to 250$ per research.

All you need to join is a PayPal account and either Facebook or LinkedIn to connect your profile.

2. Become a shopper

Image from Grace Gordon

If you love shopping around, how about doing it for others? With Instacart, you will work as an independent contractor delivering groceries for other people.

There’s great potential to make good money, especially right now.

You could make up to $25 per hour during busy times, although the average is between $10 to $20 per hour.

It couldn’t be easier: you get offered the order, you shop the order, you get paid!

You make your own schedule and pick your orders, and the flexibility is what makes it so great, especially if you have limited time or are a stay at home mum or a student.

Instacart is the best website for shopper

Create Attention-Grabbing

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or any video platform out there!

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3. Get paid to watch videos online

InboxDollars is a cool website to make some cash with surveys. Plus, you can also make money by watching movie previews, TV shows, celebrity videos, the latest news, and many other videos. And you’ll get a $5 bonus just for signing up.

But how does it work?

That’s easy! Simply head to InboxDollars.com and login to see the list of videos available for you to watch. You’ll watch videos on your phone or laptop.

InboxDollars then rewards you for watching them with your choice of free cash or gift cards for popular brands.

You need to watch all of the shows in a specific playlist, so be prepared and get the popcorn ready! You can check out how long the playlist runs before you start watching, and playlists range from a few minutes to about a half-hour.

4. Wrap your car

Do you own a car? How about placing advertising on it and get paid? With Wrapify you can get paid up to $452 for having your car wrapped with an ad.

You need to download the Wrapify app, and then they will track your journeys until you reach 50 miles. Once you reach 50 miles, you are eligible to take part in a campaign. Each campaign will place ads on your car for 1 to 12 months.

During that time you will be earning free money every month!

To be eligible to take part in a campaign, you need to:

• Be 21 or older

• Have a clean driving (and criminal) record

• Have a car that is from 2008 or newer

I think this is a cool way to make money, but it’s also a great idea to generate passive income. If you are already driving around town, why not get paid for it?

5. Sell your crafts

Image from Fall For DIY

If you are a creative person, did you ever think about selling your crafts on websites like Etsy?

When Dan and I were 17, we came up with the idea of selling salt dolls for Christmas. Well, believe it or not, in a couple of months, we managed to make over $1,000!

By making and selling your crafts, you can set your own hours, spend your days producing items that you enjoy making, and earn some money in the process.

The trick here is to make sure you actually make items that will sell.

6. Download these 2 apps and make $125 by going online

Get the Nielsen App and make $50 a year

In the old days, Nielsen used to collect data by tracking TV ratings. But now, they have moved on, and they would like to get people like you to help them study the future of the online world.

By simply installing their app on your smartphone, they will pay you $50 a year if you are in the US.

The app will collect statistics on what websites you go to and how long you stay there. All the data collected is ANONYMOUS, and it’s not linked to you at all!

Install UpVoice Edge extension and earn $75 or more

UpVoice is a new passive user panel that pays users $75 in Amazon gift cards for regularly browsing specific sites (like YouTube, Twitter, Linked In, and Amazon!). While you browse, UpVoice passively collects data about the ads you see and match it with their demographics data to create marketing insights for brands.

It’s currently available in two new forms – a Windows 10 app or an extension for the Edge browser.

And you don’t have to worry about the security of your data! Any data UpVoice shares with their clients is always anonymized and aggregated, and they never share any personal information nor target or monitor individual users.

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or any video platform out there!

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7. Make an extra $100 pet sitting

Look after these cute dogs with Rover

If you love animals, pet sitting is a great way to make extra money.

Pet sitting is extremely flexible because you decide when to do it, and you can fit it around your own schedule. It’s easy to do even if you work full time, as you can spend time during the weekend looking after our little friends.

Rover is the perfect place to start!

It offers different services to pet owners and, once you have registered with them, you will be able to decide which one you want to offer to your potential clients:

• Dog walking

• Doggy daycare

• House-sitting

• Dog boarding

8. Teach anything online to kids

And I really mean anything! From cooking to coding!

Did you know that you could make over $10,000 a month teaching online, as Jade does?

Online teaching is forever changing the way kids learn at school and from home.

And if you are passionate about sharing your knowledge, you can benefit from this revolution. All you need is an internet connection and a laptop, and you can start to make money today.

And you don’t need to be a traditionally qualified teacher. You just have to love teaching kids under 18.

Places like Outschool let you teach any sort of subject from the comfort of your own home.

You can teach classical subjects like English and math, or fun classes like acting, singing or sketching.

Listing classed is free, and Outschool will provide you with the perfect platform to host classes online.

Teachers on Outschool earn an average of $35 per teaching hour.

But you have full control over the listed price for a class and the number of participants. Outschool will take 30% of your earnings for their support services. Once your class starts, you will receive payment via PayPal.

Teaching online is an incredible way to make extra money, especially during this time

Create Attention-Grabbing

Thumbnails In 3 Clicks With The World’s Only A.I. Thumbnail Creation APP

for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram

or any video platform out there!

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9. Get paid to walk

We all know we need to stay active to keep fit! And you are probably trying to get to your 10,000 steps a day every day!

How about getting paid for that? You can!

Apps like Sweatcoin will reward you for every step you take.

This app helps me be even more motivated to stay fit, take the stairs an extra time a day, and walk more! Will you make $100 a day just by using Sweatcoin? No way, not even close. But it’s a free cool app that can get you some nice rewards for something you already do.

10. Become a virtual assistant (and earn up to $4,000/month)

You can earn some great money working from home for a few hours a day by becoming a virtual assistant (up to $35-$50 per hour!).

Virtual assistants need to have strong administrative skills, be highly organized, and be familiar with blogging/social media.

There are different types of tasks a virtual assistant can help a business with. Some businesses use a VA to keep up with emails, customer service online, blogging updates, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.

If you want to find out more about becoming a virtual assistant and all the tasks you can offer to potential clients, I strongly advise you to read Abbey’s story.

11. Answer questions for money

If you are in the US, you could earn up to $100k a year (yep, that’s not a typo) by answering questions online.

JustAnswer connects doctors, software engineers, plumbers, lawyers, and other experts to people that need answers to questions.

You just need a computer or smartphone and an internet connection. You can set your own hours, pick which questions to answers, and earn cash by helping people online.

Just make sure you have the right skills, and you can simply sign up for free, and you’ll be paid monthly via PayPal

12. Freelancing

If you have some skills, you could put them to good use and do extra freelance work from home!

But how can you find a freelance opportunity?

There are plenty of websites that will help you to find a side job to work part-time from home. You can work for a few hours a day as a proofreader, virtual assistant, bookkeeper, writer, social media manager, tutor, transcriptionist…

The options are infinite, and you could be making up to $100 an hour!

The best way to find freelancing gigs is to register to these great websites:

• Flexjobs

• Weworkremotly.com

• Remote.

13. Drive people around

Woman driving in a vintage car! Need money now? Make extra money fast with these creative ways to make money, the easy way. The best ideas to make money. Learn how to make 100 dollars a day!

Want to make $100 a day? You could drive for Uber!

If you need to get $100 fast and own a car, driving people around in your spare time can be a great way of earning the extra cash you need in no time.

The best companies to sign up with are:

•Uber

•Lyft

You need to consider car depreciation and the money you are spending on gas, but if you are clever about the trips you accept to do and don’t drive too far for a pickup, you’ll be able to make an extra 100 dollars in a day.

14. Get paid by searching online

We all spend hours every day searching online.

And guess what?

Swagbucks will pay you to use its search engine.

Create Attention-Grabbing

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riichardwilson · 4 years

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A deep dive into the fact check structured data: Who is it right for?

Do you want the entire internet to know you have your facts right? If so, then you should take a look at the Fact Check structured data. In this post, I’ll cover everything you need to know about it.

What is Fact Check structured data?

It’s part of Schema.org markup. Specifically, the Fact Check structured data includes three elements:

You’ll need to use all three types if you want Google to display your fact-check in search.

In this article, I’ll go over the Fact Check structured data in detail. I’ll also explain who it’s right for and how to use it.

Diving into Fact Check structured data

So what, specifically, does the Fact Check structured data do? It shows claims and reviews in search.

For example, if somebody types a question based on something overheard into the search bar, Google might show the claim and its review right there in the search engine results pages. That result might look something like this:

Claim: The earth is flat

Claimed by: The Flat Earth Society

Fact Check by NASA: False

There are few things that you should notice about the fact-check above.

First, take a look at the claim. That’s the statement that’s getting fact-checked. In this case, it’s a statement that the earth is flat.

Next is the “Claimed by” section. That’s the name of the person or organization that’s making the questionable claim. In this case, it’s the Flat Earth Society.

Finally, the last line is the “answer” to the claim. It tells you if the statement is true or false (or somewhere in between).

There’s another part to that last line, though. That’s the name of the person or organization that’s evaluating the claim and rendering a verdict. In this case, it’s NASA.

It’s safe to say that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration might have some valuable info on the shape of the planet we live on, so most folks would probably assume that NASA is qualified to evaluate the claim.

By the way, that claim evaluation in the last line is called the rating.

Who is Fact Check structured data right for?

At this point, you might be thinking to yourself, “Well, I don’t think too many of the people in my target market believe the earth is flat, so I don’t need this markup.”

Not necessarily. While you may not need to fact-check details about the world, you could use Fact Check structured data for other purposes.

For example, you could use it to position yourself as an authority in your space.

Let’s say you’re running a digital marketing agency business. You want to convince people that you’re an expert in search engine optimization (SEO Company).

There’s a current claim running around SEO Company circles that Google uses the Better Business Bureau rating as a ranking signal. You know that’s false because Danny Sullivan just said so.

So why not create some Fact Check structured data to debunk the claim? It would look something like this:

Claim: Google uses BBB rating as a ranking signal.

Claimed by: Various SEO Companys

Fact Check by MyDigitalmarketing agencyCompany: False

As you can see, the last line includes some branding. That will help build awareness about your business.

But beyond that, the fact-check itself will appear below a link to your web page that includes details about the claim and why you rated it the way you did. As a result, you may also get traffic to your site because of the markup.

So the answer to the question posed in the section header is: Fact Check structured data is right for you if you want to portray yourself as an authority in your space.

Beyond that, it’s also right for “hard science” websites that want to clear up confusion about any issues.

Fact Check structured data can also be used by political blogs to render verdicts about claims made by people in government.

Important guidelines

Just because you add the Fact Check structured data to your website, that doesn’t necessarily mean that your claims and reviews will show up in search. You’ll still need to follow some guidelines.

For starters, you should have several pages marked with the ClaimReview type. Apparently, Google wants to see that you’re a bona fide fact-checking individual or organization.

If you’re fact-checking a news claim, you’ll need to meet the News Publisher criteria for fact-checks.

While you can host multiple claims on a single page, it’s probably best for SEO Company purposes just to go with one claim per page. Otherwise, the URL to the claim review will need to include an anchor tag to the right claim. If you don’t include the right anchor tag, it probably won’t show up in search.

Also, the page hosting the claim and review must include a summary of the fact-check as well as the rating. It can include the full text if that’s what you’d prefer.

Next, you should avoid evaluating the same claim on different pages. That confuses the search engines and could hurt your visibility in the SERPs.

Finally, if you run a website that aggregates fact-checking articles, make sure that all of the articles conform to the guidelines listed above.

Important definitions

Let’s take a look at the different types of markup you need to include on a fact-checking page.

First up is the ClaimReview element. Pay particular attention to the following properties:

claimReviewed – This is the text of the claim that you’re fact-checking. For example: “The earth is flat.”

reviewRating – The actual rating of the claim. This isn’t just a simple text string like claimReviewed. Instead, it’s a type of the Review element. I’ll cover it in more detail below.

url – Link to the page containing the full text of the review. The domain of the URL must be the same domain name as the page hosting the ClaimReview element.

author – The publisher of the article checking the claim.

datePublished – The publication date of the article checking the claim.

itemReviewed – The full details of the claim getting reviewed. For more info, see a breakdown of the Claim element below.

Please note: the first three properties mentioned above are required by Google. The final three are recommended.

Next, let’s take a look at the Rating element. That’s the type that you’ll use for reviewRating in ClaimReview. It includes the following properties:

ratingValue – A number from 1 to 5, with 1 being False and 5 being True.

alternateName – Some text describing the review. Examples include “True,” “Mostly True,” “Half True,” “Mostly False,” and “False.”

Remember, the Review element is embedded in the ClaimReview element. It doesn’t stand apart by itself.

Next, let’s look at the Claim element. Pay attention to these properties:

appearance – A link to the web page where the claim appears.

author – A Person or Organization type describing the entity that made the claim.

datePublished – The date that the person or organization made the claim.

firstAppearance – A link to the web page where the claim first appeared.

Finally, let’s go the important properties of the Rating element:

alternateName – Another place to put the human-readable rating. Examples include “True,” “Mostly True,” “Half True,” “Mostly False,” and “False.”

bestRating – The best possible rating of the claim. It must be a number greater than worstRating.

ratingValue – The numeric rating of the claim on a scale from 1 to 5. It must be a number between worstRating and bestRating.

worstRating – The worst possible rating of the claim. It must be a number less than bestRating.

Don’t forget, there is a tool and an explorer

Now if you don’t want to add the data manually, keep in mind there is a markup tool.

That will allow you to mark up the page without coding it.

There is also an explorer. This allows you to see the fact-checked data in action, even when it is not triggered in search results.

Wrapping it up

Do you want to convince potential customers that you’re an expert in your field? One of the ways you can do that is by fact-checking industry-specific claims.

Fortunately, you can use Schema.org markup to add fact-checks to your web pages that will appear in search, if Google thinks it should. In doing so, you’ll build brand-name awareness and boost your business.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

John Lincoln is CEO of Ignite Visibility, a digital marketing agency agency and an Inc. 5000 company. Lincoln is consistently named one of the top marketing agency experts in the industry. He has been a recipient of the Search Engine Land “Search Marketer of the Year” award, named the #1 SEO Company consultant in the US by Clutch.co, most admired CEO and 40 under 40. Lincoln has written two books (The Forecaster Method and Digital Influencer) and made two movies (SEO Company: The Movie and Social Media marketing agency: The Movie) on digital marketing agency.

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source http://www.scpie.org/a-deep-dive-into-the-fact-check-structured-data-who-is-it-right-for/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/614771495883915264

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laurelkrugerr · 4 years