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uponrightful · 3 years

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So, I love possessive, jealous Crosshair 🥵 Tell me about this scene (please?):

“Trouble doesn’t suit you, doll.” He murmured lowly, soft voice contrasting the slight pressure over her pulse point and the swell of her hip. Crosshair was all-consuming and Dutch was weak to do anything but try to stay silent under his pressing weight and commanding presence at her back.

Also, I’d love to know what Echo was thinking once Cross went to the fresher after Dutch.

You’re the best! 😘

Commentary Track for Coriolis Effect

Copy 500 words -or more- of any of my fics and I'll give you my thoughts/rambles on what was going through my head -or the character's- when I wrote it!

*send one in here anytime!*

My oh my! 😍 What spicy scene we have here. I'll start with what's going on with Crosshair first, then I'll come back for Echo and the rest of the Batch. haha

***

Crosshair is fuming with rage during his conversation with Echo: It's that kind of bodily energy you get after watching a action-movie, where your whole body feels tired, but it's twitching with adrenaline that can't be spent or released. That kind of feeling you can't get rid of no matter what you do to ignore it, or work through it. Your mind feels like it working so fast that it's in slow-motion, overanalyzing the smallest details until your grinding your teeth because there's nothing else that helps relieve the pressure.

But the second he enters the refresher all of that energy snaps from anger and fear for Duchess, into dead calm. His inner voice stops screaming and evens out in tone and his hands stop shaking. His breathing slows and the second Cross sees her standing there, it's like he's been meditating deeply for hours. This kind of concentration is only present in Crosshair one other time... And you guessed it. When he's shooting.

Note: This is the epitome of Crosshair's ability to manage impulse-control in unfamiliar -and stressful- situations. Key-word here being "unfamiliar." I firmly believe that Cross is painfully terrible at monitoring and expressing his emotions. He has so many of them all the time that from a young age he had to learn how to turn them off in a moments notice, simply so he could survive. Think about it... How can a sniper worry about his brothers dying right before his eyes and still make clean shots? Not even Crosshair can do that. So the second he's certain Dutch is safe -by visually proving her health- that well-trained nature takes over to protect him like it always does.

Crosshair -at this point- isn't sure what he wants. He needs to touch her though, remind himself that she's tangible and within reach. Not that he isn't aware of his effect on her, but this moment isn't about sexual appeal or attraction. This is desperation, and Crosshair knows that; He's just banking on the hope that she'll let him, because she's always done so. He feels safe with Duchess, and even though this feels/looks sexy, Crosshair feels completely vulnerable right now.

Note: I will say it now; Once and for all. I have never subscribed to the idea that Crosshair is a typical Dominant/BDSM/Sadisim kind of guy. And the distinction is all to do with motivation. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out why he acts the way he does, and how that manifests itself. So when I planned this scene, I wanted to focus on just how strong his desire to have security is. Not prowess, or control. It's all to do with the desperate need he has to prove how he feels about her. That kind of vulnerability just comes easier to him physically than it does emotionally. Duchess gives him a sense of stability -in and out of the sexual sense- that makes his characterization insanely complex and difficult to balance.

The moment he finds his words, it's a compulsory need to cover his own jealousy. Crosshair is undoubtedly unhappy knowing she went out with Regs... but what's really bothering him is how easy it is to feel so strongly for Duchess. Every time he speaks, it's intentionally driving attention towards someone else, and away from his own desire to be the focus of her attention. Cross uses his fear of her being unsafe to mask the jealousy that constantly compares himself to the others who can give her attention more freely than he can personally. Duchess sees his calm nature as patience and precision, but it's really Crosshair planning out what he's going to say because he knows one wrong move will reveal just how desperate he is to have her acceptance of him.

Note: I've never struggled to balance possessiveness and love like I have with Crosshair. He's so intense that if I'm not careful, he comes off like a walking red-flag. Word choice is essential when getting Cross' character and reactions right. Whether it be the way he talks to her, or the way he naturally falls into a protector role. That's why when I'm writing for him, it takes double the time it does to write anything else. Every movement, every word he says, needs to be written like he says it in the moment. That's the only way to show his softness... because the love that he gives is best felt in person. You can't describe Crosshair's love with words easily.

Now for sweet, sweet, Echo.

Let me preface this by saying: Echo is his brother's keeper. There is a relationship there that goes far deeper than the ones Crosshair holds for his other brothers. It happened slowly, but it wasn't until the two of them were too far into it that either recognized what had happened. Their personalities are something that wouldn't really mix on first glance, but for some reason or another, they just get each other. It's natural, and they gravitate towards each other.

That being said, Duchess and Echo are their own kind of dynamic. I see them as the "platonic-soulmate" kind. She has an intensity that Echo marvels at, and Dutch knows she could take any problem to him and he would do anything to help her. They both see something in the other that they wish they still had, or could develop. It's probably the purest friendship Duchess has ever had, and Echo can't help but harken back to Fives when he sees her attitude -in future chapters.

Note: From the first moment I created Duchess, I just knew in my heart she was meant to be something special to Echo. To me, it was only right that Crosshair's doll would feel strongly connected to Echo as well. Add in their common feeling of loss for brothers, and that just made their relationship that much stronger. She's such a force, and the ARC trooper can't help but find a enamorment with people who have such a strong will and fiery personality. (See Fives)

The moment Echo sees Crosshair, he's already preparing to do anything necessary to protect Duchess from incurring another possible hit to her bruised emotions. Echo trusts Crosshair, but he's highly attentive to Cross and how raw his emotions are. Their interaction is based in Echo's desire to save the couple from losing the chance to do things the right way. Intuition and experience guide Echo through the whole conversation; He really is flying by the seat of his blacks here... But he's so well-versed in reading Crosshair that none of the other Batcher's even think about offering to be the first one Crosshair faces when he comes in the bunk hall. Echo has unmatched faith in Cross, and this was something both of them knew would happen.

Note: Writing this scene was challenging for a number of reasons. For one, neither Echo or Crosshair really talk a whole lot. They say what they need to, and that's the end of it. So I spent days watching Echo and Crosshair's interactions. Trying to figure out what I could based off the -very little- examples I was given. In that, I found that the two of them hardly ever stand next to each other, but they're constantly sharing glances and looking at each other. Echo and Crosshair have silent conversations all. the. time.

Had Echo not allowed Crosshair to go and see Duchess, their sexy scene would have never happened. (And I played around with that idea very seriously...) Ultimately, Echo's intuition was the deciding factor. That conversation, and Crosshair's attempt at honesty was the reason Echo felt confident in letting him speak to her. And although Echo could sense Crosshair's patience running thin, he'd already told the rest of the Batch to be prepared for any fight. Echo wouldn't put it past Cross to stun him, but a gut-feeling kept him from mentally preparing to do the same thing.

Additionally, it was Echo who made everyone leave the bunk hall. The second Crosshair and himself reached an agreement, Echo was the first to step away. His next move was to shove the rest of the Batch out the doors and give Duchess and Crosshair the privacy needed to work through their shit. And although he expected it to end in sex, the desire to keep their business between them alone was Echo's main motivation to empty the bunk room. Neither Crosshair or Duchess really trust the Batch at this moment -in Echo's mind at least- and risking their privacy wasn't something the ARC would stand for. In the back of his mind though, Echo was terrified that Crosshair would fuck her and leave it at that. He's seen the sniper at his best and his worst, and although his best is wonderful, his worst can be miserable to endure. Echo was praying that Crosshair wouldn't be too harsh -physically and mentally- on Duchess.

When Hunter finally decided enough time had passed, Echo was on edge to see just where the two of them would be. The image of them sleeping in separate bunks: Crosshair pretending to sleep -like always- and Duchess laying quietly and pretending like nothing happened shook Echo to his core. But the second he saw her bunk in a disarray, and her not in it, Echo couldn't help but fucking grin. He was proud of his brother for doing the right thing. For doing something for himself, and not worrying about how it would make him look for once. Add in the way Crosshair reprimanded Tech, and how deathly serious he looked with her sleeping peacefully against him...?

That was the moment Echo knew for certain that Crosshair was never coming back from this. He saw a visible change in his brother, in the way his attitude changed. The way Crosshair wasn't worried about himself, or attempting to hide behind sneers and sarcastic comments. Echo noticed how attuned he was to her in that moment, putting her comfort above all else. For a man who pretended to not care about anything, Crosshair did a terrible job of hiding his true personality when Duchess was curled up into him. And Echo couldn't be happier, knowing that his trust in Crosshair hadn't been for nothing. Not only was his brother experiencing love in a way that all of them desired, but Duchess was never going to live with the question of whether or not someone truly cared for her.

***

I hope this was what you were looking for in-terms of answers 😅. I had a great time writing this for you, and I hope you'll feel comfortable doing this again whenever you feel like it! I love sharing the behind-the-scenes stuff with you! It makes the cuts and editing feel a little less sad knowing I might be able to share some of it with you anyways!

#uponrightful #uponrightfulwrites #coriolis effect #Crosshair #the bad batch crosshair #the bad batch #commentary track #saltywintersoldat

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globalvoices · 7 years

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In A Greek Refugee Camp: A Volunteer's Notebook

By Mai El-Mahdy

Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

Syrian refugees in Greece. By now there are thousands of blog posts, newspaper articles and eyewitness accounts that tell the stories of entire families drowning in the ocean, in desperate hope for a life free of warfare and poverty. I’m sure there are even more on those who eventually survived the ferocious waves, only to move into inhumane, “temporary” camps where they end up spending years. But for better or for worse, I’m not going to talk about the refugees, the lives they left behind in Syria or how they ended up in Greece. I want to talk about the current conditions and the role—or lack thereof—of those of us who try to help them, in bringing an end to this humanitarian crisis.

Recently I spent a couple of weeks at Greece’s Ritsona camp, a hub for five different humanitarian NGOs, alongside the UN operations. Ritsona is an old military base located outside Chalkida, the chief town on the island of Euboea, about an hour’s drive north of the centre of Athens. Its population is roughly two-thirds Syrian, with the remaining third made up of Kurds, Iraqis, and Afghans.

Sunken dignity

One of the harsh realities about life in the camps that is hard to fathom, let alone survive, is the absence of self-respect—dignity that has dropped so low it’s as if it was eaten up by the fierce waves before sinking to the bottom. It’s the dented sense of dignity that makes a person happy to move out of a tent into some makeshift caravan container box that becomes your “temporary” shelter for months and months. It’s the type of dignity that is all but lost when your entire livelihood is at the mercy of NGO workers who, through their authority and the decisions they make on people’s behalf, teach the refugees to accept the little they get, and be happy. Why do this, when these people are already broken? Do we volunteers always know what’s best for them? Would we allow others to make similar decisions on our behalf?

It’s not about freedom of choice; it’s not about allowing people the space to make their own decisions and mistakes. It’s about self-determination. Refugees take every single imaginable risk, relying on factors way beyond anyone’s control, only to arrive—miraculously—at a camp and submit to someone else’s decision-making, regardless of how good or bad those decisions are.

“Let’s teach English!” Everyone needs and wants to learn English, right? “Let’s buy toys for children,” overlooking the desires of parents, and the children themselves. Queuing up for food or clothes is part of the harsh reality of accepting that, due to circumstances beyond your control, you have become less valuable of a human being.

Refugees don’t want to queue for ages for food or clothes: they want to be treated as human beings, just like a black man in Apartheid South Africa, a Palestinian in the face of the Israeli occupation, or a woman anywhere in the world today. Part of the pain is acknowledging, while you stand in line, that few outside of your war zone would ever have to endure this or even entertain the thought. It is the frustration of being offered the non-choice of either being grateful that you’re in a queue with food at the end of it, or of being featured in a photo shared on social media that makes people feel sorry for you.

Perhaps we should look at the treatment of refugees as a right they have earned for themselves, not as charity that we choose to give to them. Perhaps we should focus our efforts on allowing them to fight for themselves. Perhaps it is simply about paving the way for their self-emancipation, regardless of where it leads them, and especially regardless of where it leaves us. We need to focus on educating them about their rights based on the country they are relocated, caring for their health, providing education for them and their children, etc.

Perhaps we should look at them the way we want them to look at us: with dignity and self-respect.

Are we really helping?

It’s funny how, as volunteers, we’re expected to arrive on the scene and push, along with everyone else, to get the wheels in motion. As though we’re not part of the story, but instead temporary outsiders brought in to perform a specific mission. But whether we like it or not, we are part of the narrative and influence it, significantly.

As individuals, we struggle with our egos. It’s one thing to recognize that—and in fact, very few volunteers are strong enough to do even that. Suppressing our egos, however, is a totally different story. It’s probably inevitable that volunteers find it easier to feed their egos than feed the needy. And the reward is so tempting that many forget to stop for a minute and ask themselves: are we really helping?

It’s no wonder so many volunteers pay special attention to children, who become quickly attached. But how does that help?

Volunteers can’t help but feel superior. In the camps they stand out like a sore thumb, and that’s not always unintentional. Volunteers often see themselves as providers of a valuable service, as making a great sacrifice of time and expertise. And they expect others to be gracious and remind them what great human beings they are for doing what they do.

But it’s not a service—it’s the refugees’ right. And this shouldn’t be debatable.

Once, at one of the stores where we shopped for the people of Ritsona camp with donated funds, I tried to bargain with the cashier to get more for my donated buck. The cashier, a fellow Egyptian making a living across the Mediterranean, agreed to “hook me up.” But instead of reducing the cost, she offered to write me an invoice for a higher sum. According to her, many volunteers and NGO workers accepted the fake invoices and pocketed the difference, so it was clear to her that I was new to this. And no, she did not budge on the price.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Some volunteers finance their travel out of the donations they receive. In spite of pleas for greater transparency, few NGOs actually publish the details of their finances. And even fewer donors ask for the details. If it’s change we’re after, this is probably a good place to start.

In my opinion, the best way to help refugees is by bypassing the NGOs altogether. It’s not difficult for us to connect directly with refugees. They’re human, just like us, just with different circumstances that suck. Treating them as patients with some disease or disability doesn’t help.

A friend of mine has a different take on this. He relates the story of a German doctor, an older gentleman, extremely professional and meticulous about his work. It’s his job to treat patients to the best of his ability given the facilities provided. From morning till night this doctor receives patients, diagnoses them, treats them. He doesn’t speak the language of the country where he works, and is very distant, almost cold. But he treats every single person he comes across, and he sets up and develops the medical facility and trains the workers so that the project can sustain itself after his departure. Many might not know him, care about him, or even remember him, though he is the one who directly helped and advanced the community. No credit. No showiness. No emotion. Just pure problem-solving.

I don’t necessarily disagree. NGOs impose strict rules on volunteers, one of which prohibits staying at the camp past 5pm. I hated this rule, so after a couple of weeks, I moved out of NGO housing and into the camp. I stayed with a refugee friend and her two daughters in their container. I would never argue that I was living their life, but I will say that I was observing it through a sharper lens.

While I agree that being distant and professional may be highly efficient and effective, I think that closeness also helps. Yes, we eventually leave; and sure, we may invest more time and effort in forming emotional bonds with the refugees than in providing tangible deliverables. And I won’t deny that I’ve learned more from the refugees about the Syrian cultural and political context than I’ve shared my own knowledge.

But by establishing close bonds we remind others—and ourselves—that they are human. And we become more human in the process.

Hospitals Don't Always Speak Your Language

The day to-day medical needs of Ritsona camp residents, of which there was an abundance, were left pretty much unattended. In emergencies, however, the Greek National Emergency Medical Services (EKAB, Ethniko Kentro Amesis Voitheias) would transport residents of the camp to and from the nearest hospital.

No one likes to go to the hospital, but when you’re a Syrian in a foreign country, it’s even worse than you imagine. Refugees are immersed in a sea of loneliness and fear of the unknown. You can see it in their eyes. And the harsh conditions of the journey to the camp leaves the majority of children, especially, with severe respiratory problems.

Many of the Greek doctors, however, didn’t even speak English nor did they have translators, and most patients could express themselves only in either Arabic or Kurdish. Often, residents would spend hours awaiting emergency care at the hospital, only to lose hope of ever understanding what they needed to do to get treatment, and leave.

At the camp my Arabic came in handy, as my job was to accompany the patients. Last May one of the NGOs at Ritsona pioneered a unique initiative dubbed “Hospital Runs”; that was the team I worked with. It’s a program organized in collaboration with the Red Cross that operates under the license of the Greek Army. They provide medical transportation, English, Greek and Arabic interpretation, and intercultural and medical assistance. The team also helps with bureaucratic procedures.

I was proud to be a member of that team. Each day we’d hop over to Chalkida or trek all the way to Athens, returning in the evening after having handled whatever problems, cases and complications had been thrown at us.

Sometimes the hospital staff made us feel unwelcome, scolding us about coming in with muddy shoes, indifferent to the fact that the camp is basically built on mud. I remember arriving at the hospital one day to find a young woman, clearly Arab and most probably from the camp, all alone, with nobody attending to her. She had clearly given up on trying to communicate or to save herself from whatever pain had piled on top of everything she had brought over to the continent. She gave me her details and the number of a loved one, so that I could communicate to them in the event she didn’t make it. Thankfully, and against the odds, she survived.

I guess I just can't fathom how borders and bodies of water can ultimately decide who's granted the opportunity to climb to the top, and who will be left to drown, and sink to the bottom.

Mai El-Mahdy is an Ireland-based Egyptian who works in tech. She was one of the millions who took part in the #Jan25 revolution, and she looks forward to being part of the next one.

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casualarsonist · 7 years

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ArmA 3 review

NB: This is a review of the base game only – it doesn’t include anything regarding multiplayer or Apex, so take that as you will.

Arma 3’s single-player campaign is one of the most terrifying of any game I’ve ever played. It makes me wish that I’d trained in the military, because perhaps then I’d spend less time getting my ass handed to me. Perhaps I’d have a better eye for noticing details on the battlefield that alert me to danger. Perhaps I’d spend less time in loading screens waiting for my last save to boot up again, or clutching my fists in frustrated rage at how close I’d been to defeating the enemy before taking a bullet to the skull.

Now I skulk around corners. I dread urban combat and all the possible hiding places for enemies. I hit the deck or scramble for cover the second I hear the crack of a rifle, and if I don’t, I’m usually dead soon after. Arma 3 is good at making you dead, and if I played the game accepting the consequences of my poor decisions, I’d be having a much worse time - the enemy AI is whip smart at times, almost too smart, and most of my problems occur when I assume that they won’t act like a human, such as the time I was driving a pickup up a hill and a sniper started taking potshots at me from across the valley; there was little chance that I was going to find him before he wounded or killed me, so I kept driving and ignored him, assuming that he wouldn’t be able to hit us. I lost a man that day. However, a lot of problems also occur when I assume that my AI companions will act like humans, for not all AI is made equal, and this is but one of the unbalanced, unintuitive aspects of Arma 3 that still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

The game is at its best when it’s allowing the story of the player to unfold as a dynamic result of the player’s unpredictable interactions with the pieces the developers have put on the playing field - stumbling across a patrol while on foot can spark a desperate life-or-death skirmish, clearing out an urban environment is a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse, and there’s always the choice to fight or flee that allows for spontaneous, varied, and tense interactions. Emergent gameplay is where Arma excels, and in the spirit of a good military sim, it plays best if you to plan ahead, adapt to the changing battlefield, and suffer with the wounds you sustain; that is, unless it kills you outright, which is so often does, which then prompts either sober reflection on your mistakes, or bitter frustration at the janky design choices that left you floundering.

Yes, janky design – a term synonymous with any Arma release, and present here as always, for one of the main issues with the game is that so much of the end result of any confrontation in Arma 3 can come down to a number of factors that could be perceived as clunky design, or simple unfairness, particularly: how well you understand the many, many unexplained mechanics, how preternaturally accurate the enemy are at any given time, and often, simple random luck. At its best the game teaches you how to play by punishing you for failing to abide by its laws, but sadly, at its worst it punishes you for not knowing what the laws are.

For example, I didn’t know that my character could sustain damage in a car crash until I crashed my car into a tree and got out with a limp about 5 minutes after the fact – there was no feedback when I hit the tree, and the game didn’t tell me up-front that I’d be injured, so how was I to know the rule before I made the mistake? Sure, I knew about it once I had done it, and I could’ve reloaded, but setting players back 5-10 minutes every time they discover a new inconvenience built into your system because you’ve simply failed to tell them how your game works is not good design. Similarly, AI teammates often won’t tell you when they’re injured, and you’ll only realise they’re hurt when your character melds minds with them telepathically and asks for a SITREP seconds before they die. The fact that this moment of automation comes with far too little warning to heal them only incites frustration – if a squad-mate needs help, I shouldn’t have to wait for them to keel over after minutes of silent bleeding in order to know that they needed to be fixed. This ‘trial and error’ vibe that requires you to fall into a trap before you know that the traps can even exist seems at odds with the game’s desire to encourage you to ‘adapt and survive’.

And of course, in every war there’s the poor grunt that sets off the tripwire and, in becoming mincemeat, informs his companions that they need to be careful, but in Arma 3 you’re that poor grunt - if you die, it’s game over, too bad, try again. It’d be mitigated slightly if you could take control of a companion after your death – in that case, your team would continue on and you’d truly be forced to adapt as circumstances unfold, but you can’t adapt if you’re dead, and re-entering the area knowing where the dangers are takes away some of the feeling of spontaneity and realism. So, as is the norm with Arma, there are many frustrating design aspects that still apply to the game, even in its third major iteration.

I’ve vented my frustration, but it’s true that Arma 3 is like no other FPS out there. I must reiterate the visceral thrill the game gives you – there’s a mission in the single-player campaign in which you’re dumped on a beach with a pistol, and must make your way to a squad of men about a kilometre away. How you get there is up to you, but between you and the squad lies a village crawling with smart enemy soldiers. It’s possible to sneak by the enemies patrolling the area, but there are quite a few to avoid, and just as you get by one group, you’re likely to run into another. You can scavenge dead bodies for weapons and ammo, but shooting attracts other soldiers. I had to restart at least a dozen times if not more as it was so easy to die, but once I got over the rage-quit-inducing frustration of the mission, I found myself crouched at the corner of a building, my heart racing in my chest as I prepared to cross a road blind. I knew that if I was attacked and killed, I’d have to replay 5-10 minutes again, and I was almost paralysed with anxiety – I feared my death in the game in a real, tangible way, in a way that made me mentally prepare for the task I was about to undertake. This kind of deep emotional impact is so rare, and whilst some games can instil fear in a player through stress, I found the thrill that Arma 3 gives you is one of adrenaline. Killing the last enemy in an encounter, reaching your waypoint, fleeing the helicopters that are scanning the landscape, all these accomplishments are met with a sigh of genuine relief and a feeling of real achievement.

It’s also worth noting that the best time I had as a player was when I was given the chance to stray from the narrative missions and take a team into the open world and complete small scouting tasks. Perhaps the joy I took from the freedom to create my own story is an indication that multiplayer is where the most fun will be had? In any case, being injured and stumbling across a township in which there were entrenched soldiers that need to be removed, skulking around the streets, getting brained once, twice, stepping on a mine, checking every single doorway from then on out…it’s an exhilarating experience. Again, marred a little by the fact that it felt like trial and error (I didn’t know the enemies used mines until I stepped on one), but exhilarating none-the-less.

If the goal of the Arma 3 single-player campaign is to teach you the skills and caution required to be a real-life soldier, it succeeds admirably. If the goal is to make you feel like the leader of a unit of capable human beings, it fails miserably. It’s true that you can order and position your men wisely, and pull off an attack flawlessly, but this is undermined by the far more frequent occasions in which the enemy spots you or a teammate first and kills someone before you can navigate the fiddly command menu and order your puppets to do anything other than soak up bullets. Overall, the single-player content of the game is a very mixed bag; the best memories I have of the game lie at opposite ends of the spectrum - either elation following a rare engagement that’s successful on the first try, or fear-soaked nightmares of bullets cracking, whipping by my head, and pelting the ground around me. If it sounds like I’m in two minds about the game - torn between wonderful moments of realism and frustrating moments of design - I am. Ultimately though, I know that the former trumps the latter because sometimes I stop running and rest in the shade of trees because it feels hot out. Sitting down and trying to objectively rate the game, I find myself wanting to give it a lower score than it probably deserves. I’m not blind to the face that I give almost everything here a ‘7′ or more, because I review a lot of games that I would say are good-to-great, and honestly, some aspects of Arma 3′s design feel like ‘5′. But I think that, as a single-player game, it’s better than the sum of its awkward parts. It puts you through the grinder, and forces you to become the best possible player in order to succeed, and despite the frustration, most of the time it’s worth it for the glory and the one-of-a-kind thrill.

7/10

Good

#arma #3 #pc #military #simulation #mil #sim #fps #war #bohemia #interactive

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spotyourshop15-blog · 6 years

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What One Must Have While Traveling For More Than 12 Hour in Plane

Traveling will never taste likea pie-in-the-sky unless you’re a super crazy adventurer. There’s always a very rare populace out of the general public, whichrelishes rough expeditions equally to those laid-back long-flight ventures. Craving reads like Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, and Gulliver’s Travel, even though they are well aware that they are not on terrains or water bodies, but in atmospheric midways.How about those flying fanaticswho would binge watch movies like Cast Away, The Grey, 127 hours, and inspire to become Leo’s The Revenant character surviving freezing chills, madcap gunshots and foul plays by so-called friends. These people are self-made survivalists, at least gearing on with life-saving fundamentals during their flight excursions.

You people (including me) might think that these people are maniacs having no at-a-halt station control over their lives, feeling secure under one’s wingand acting with three sheets to the wind dumbfounded. Every now and then, these same folks comprise those men and women well aware of their airlineprerequisites, keeping a livelihood baggage under their shoulders. Especially when it comes to long flight journeys, these people will do anything to recreate it into an airborne odyssey. Bear in mind, these people frequently prefer 12hr + aerial cruises alongside air-carrier prerequisites.

Today, I will discuss some of the nitty-gritty basics that will keep your above ground traveling well accustomed. A must read for those new to traveling in-the-air long distances for the very first time.

A Neck Pillow, Scarf and a Blanket

Almost every one of us has found those “born-on-earth” airborne enthusiasts, on global orbiting jumbo jets, least bothered about those in-flight turbulences throughout nearing their destinations. These people really know what they should be bringing with themselves, especially when it comes to take innate vision time-off with their seat-after-seat eyesight straight towards the curtained area before the Captain’s cabin.

In case you’re one of those folks who get that flight fever already before boarding the plane. You should be going for a bit personal pacified preferences before anything else. Calm down and get yourselves one of those comfy neck pillows, a softly thick scarf to let you feel securely cozy during crazy hustle and bustle shrieks of older people during the slightest of commotions. However, you can avail a blanket from the attendants, but I would recommend you take something snugly warmth of your choice.

Wear carefree Casual Clothing with a Featherweight Outfit

Do a double-check for your travel devoted clothing selection, and make sure you’re choosing those delicate easy-to-wear fabric frills. Cardigans ideally suit this dress up definition. Likewise, suitable blazers and zipper jackets are also exclusive for your airliner transit and USA Jacket takes great care in this concern for you people.

Additionally, when you’re going for a long haul airlines journey, a pullover is one of the most perfect suit supreme that are comfily elongated to cover our backs appropriately. Simply put, your homespun ensembles are those excellent endowments you can toss over yourselves for a happy-go-lucky transitory treads.

A few other alternatives of these lighthearted wardrobe articles, you can try while traveling for more than 12 hours on a planeencompasseseasygoing wearable. A t-Shirt, loose-fitting pants, comfycanvas sneakers and softly built loafers, and even compression stockings due to elevated chances of getting Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) amid sitting for ours in the plane. I just really don’tget it how guys can dress up in a Michael Jackson costume like wear during head-to-toe exhausting ventures.

Essentials Toiletries in your Carry-on Bags

These toiletriesaren’t something sumptuously to make the most of, but are the evident daily routine essentials you should be having in your bags. The best effect of these miniature necessitates is that they make you feel at home. Going at long hour intervals to the in-flight lavatory for your day-by-day facelift will definitely rejuvenateyour long-distanceendeavors. A very sensible verdict if you’re looking to feel fresh in apredictablewearisomeexpedition you’re going through.

The most basic toiletry items include combs, toothbrush, toothpaste, soaps and shampoos, cotton buds,mouthwash, lip balm, shaver, shaving cream, razor, aftershave, perfume, towels, and blow dryers.Nonetheless, some of these are high-end ones (shaving cream and razor) and are to be addressed if any one of you out there is a travel junkie who feels at home in the sky.

Keep up with Books during a long-ranging Destination venture

Some adults feel not fitting well with today’s techie inventions, a bit too much old-school remembering their leisure time spent reading books in libraries. We all have smart phones in our pockets, a laptop in our carry-on bags, a camera, a portable hard drive, etc. But to remain a bit too generous, senior citizens do coerce with something of today’s generation.A Kindle book reader will keep you serenely enlightened during your prolongairliner cruise. Adding flying fascinations to your journey, exciting books and bestseller novels keep your in-travel hype alive throughout the midair no-where-to-go plane phase.

Nowadays, E-readers have become the major library excusers amid young people having this side note gadget in their bags as well. Indisputably, books are one of the most important factors that are ideal for long hour in-the-air movements.

In addition, keep your favorite book genres that make you feel exuberant almost every time your eyes delve into those make-believe elucidated realms. In case, you’re not getting those insomnia attentive infatuation, then I must prefer you some black-and-white boredom books having monotonous illustrations. These later ones will definitely make you sleepy for a while.

Have understandable Manuals and Maps in your in-hand Carriers

One of the most crucial must-haves when you’re going on for a long trip away from home or going for a personal/group business meeting elsewhere.Besides, if you’re consistent with using Google Maps and other mobile apps offering satellite vicinity diagram, you might even not these tangible plotted paper works with you. Still, they come expediently handy in caseyour mobile phones battery dies during your long-distant trips.

Additionally, such maps are ideal for tourists to look out for the best the place has to offer. Whether it’s a place to visit, a restaurant, an attraction site, etc. These guides and route charts keeps you well-awarewith your transit en-routes, as you’re moving in a taxi, bus or even a chauffeur presented from the designated company, where your business delegation is heading towards.

Fuel in Full Charges for your Gadgets before leaving for the Airport

Keep your portable powerhouse charged up every time you’re going on for long-term travel courses. You never know that you could end up in a plane-to-plane transit hourly delay in interceding airports such as the Dubai International Airport.Therefore, you should better be careful with those gadgets i.e. keeping your fingertips performing sensitively on not-so-heavy phone apps that would drain your battery like anopen-gates dam river flow.

Keeping permitted Liquid/ Gelquantities with conventional Drugs

Aside from having the mainstream toiletries mentioned before, you should be well aware about the human body that keeps shifting with surroundings. One of the ‘first things in the morning’ when you’re about to leave your place for the airport is to keep a check for medications. Try keeping painkillers, sinus relievers, congestion relaxers and constipation controllers, for these are some of the most common illnesses that usually occur during long in-air routes.

These are the top-most priorities that makes’ sense to me, to keep you in check with your 12 hours plane midair passage. Nevertheless, it all totally depends on the nature of your journey and comes with personal choices as well. For almost everyone, travelling etiquettes vary from person to person, but at least the above should be applicable to the most of us experiencing one of the longest aircraft expeditions of our lifetime.

Explore more here:

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kasunpererablog · 6 years

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Rationality and the biggest killer of our times

Why does your mother always criticize your driving?

She does that all the time. No matter how fast or slow you drive, she’s got something to say. But why?

Fundamentally, the answer to this question might have something in common with the reason why you might be more scared of a snake than you are of a car. Confused? Let me explain.

Imagine that a snake slithers past you. Even if the animal didn’t bite, you might have been momentarily struck by the mortal dread of imaging the ‘what-if’ of it biting. Now imagine that a car speeds past you. Do ever give as much thought about the possibility of it running you over?

Yet, statistics tell us that 58 deaths were caused by snake bites in 2008 (in Sri Lanka — and yes, this was the latest data I could find,) while 2328 people died in road accidents in the same year. So, why aren’t cars scarier than snakes?

Emotions trump Rationality

Throughout the course of evolution, a big part of which we humans and our ancestors spent in the jungle, our brain functions have been developed to take the simple fight or flight decisions. The risks (of predators, natural disasters and such) were often assessed based on our emotions towards them. Emotions are basically decision-making shortcuts.

“Our emotions push us to make snap judgments that once were sensible — but may not be anymore.”

– Maia Szalavitz, Psychology Today, 2008

Where human existence is concerned, Risk and Emotion have become inseparable, and while this approach has been helpful in surviving in the midst of predators, it has not fared as useful in the world of news media.

This brings us back to snakes and cars. In our eyes, a snake is an embodiment of fear and revulsion. It’s very easy to imagine a snake’s fangs sinking into your leg as it bites you, and it’s easy to detest its slimy snakeskin. A snake is a much more visual threat thanks to our inventiveness. A car simply isn’t.

Following the same logic, one can explore why Americans are passing legislation for Muslim bans instead of gun control when in reality terrorist attacks have caused only a minute fraction of deaths when compared to gun violence.

The perception of risk

Several factors affect our perception of risk. As noted by Paul Slovic, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, the following seemingly trite ingredients play a part.

Trust: You automatically assume lower risk in a transaction with a person you trust.

Control: You assume that there’s lower risk when you are in control. The reason why your mother freaks out when you’re driving is not that you’re in the driving seat. It’s because she’s not. (This is pretty interesting psychological behavior because, even if your mother cannot drive, she’s predisposed to feel safer when she’s in control of, in this case, the vehicle.)

The nature of the occurrence (Catastrophic or Chronic): A plane crash is scary because it carries the illusion of tangibility. A heart disease you’re going to get in 20 years because of your unhealthy eating habits does not feel so scary right now.

Dread and anger: A feeling of dread is more likely to increase our risk perception.

Uncertainty: We associate knowledge with certainty and the lack of it to uncertainty. The more you know about something, the less risky it feels.

Our societal values also come into the picture. For example, arguably marijuana is bad and should be avoided, while prescription drugs are safe. The truth is that (in the USA alone) prescription drug overdoses kill more people every year while there are no reported cases of deaths caused by marijuana overdose. Before I’m accused of being a junkie let me just say that I only mean to point out the fact that we underestimate the dangers of some commonplace items like prescription drugs (and, for example, don’t think twice about leaving them accessible to small children who are at risk of being overdosed unintentionally.)

The cost

We create impressions about the world around us based on our collective experiences. The thing about impressions is that they’re difficult to change once formed. Because of our inherently irrational nature, we tend to stick to our beliefs even when presented with evidence that confirms otherwise. Facts don’t seem to matter anymore. Thanks, Kellyanne!

Educators like Hans Rosling (who passed away not long ago — the world misses him dearly) have made it their life’s work to fight back in the face of this irrationality. The question is, how many of us are willing to listen to them instead of listening to the mainstream media?

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Media Sensationalism that fuels availability bias (think, the coverage on 9/11 attacks) is not the only culprit here. The rise (and triumph) of populist political camps is disconcerting. The rhetoric today seems to revolve mostly around race and economics, but the long-term implications are far greater.

I’ve written earlier about how astrologers make money by playing the determinism card

That analogy applies here as well, because, when we seek knowledge through horoscopes and not through facts and data, we’re discrediting centuries of work in scientific advancement and defecating in the faces of people who made it possible. (I couldn’t put that in a less dramatic way, I apologize.)

Insurance businesses manipulate our inability to evaluate risks to make money off things like flight insurance and diamond ring insurance. I don’t have anything against insurance businesses, but it’s funny how easy it is for us to give into emotions, oblivious to the fact that someone else stands to gain every time we do so.

Another classic example of our distorted risk assessment is the attitude towards self-driving cars. Skeptics were up in arms when the first death in a self-driving car was reported last year. The question nobody cares to ask is, how many deaths do human drivers cause every year? Even if self-driving cars eventually killed 1,000 people a year, isn’t that better than 35,000?

Logic and rational thinking take effort. There are no shortcuts here

I’m not calling on everyone to be Spock. No, that would be a disaster.

Don’t get me wrong. We need emotions. They’re what makes us human. But it’s important to understand that the world has changed too quickly for natural selection to catch up. It’s our burden now to champion rationality because the biggest killer of our times is indeed misinformation.

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silvino32mills · 7 years

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A Practical Look at Turning Your Blog into a Functioning Business

Following last week’s post on treating your blog like a business, this guest post from Anna Johansson provides some practical ways you can start turning your blog into a business.

In many cases, blogging starts out as a hobby or creative outlet for someone looking to have a little fun writing about a topic that interests them. But at some point, most bloggers reach a fork in the road where they have to decide whether they want to continue their blog as a personal endeavour or turn it into a professional pursuit. Considering there’s a lot of money to be made in blogging, a lot of people choose the latter route.

The problem? It’s not an easy road. Trying to turn a blog into a profitable business takes strategic planning, hard work, and precise execution. But if you think you have what it takes, it’s definitely worth a shot.

How Much Do Successful Blogs Earn?

Before diving headfirst into blogging as a business endeavour, most people reasonably ask, “How much can I make?” Well, there isn’t an easy answer to that question. It depends on dozens, if not hundreds of factors. Some make a few dollars on the side, while the largest blogs on the internet produce more than a million dollars per month.

The Huffington Post, for example, which is technically a blog, reportedly makes $2.33 million per month. Mashable brings in a healthy $600,000 in monthly earnings. The popular Life Hacker blog earns $110,000 per month, while the lesser-known Shoe Money blog brings in $30,000 per month.

If your head is suddenly spinning with ideas at the prospect of earning between $30,000 and $2.33 million per month…slow down. These are some of the most successful blogs in the world. Most people will never come close to sniffing these figures in a year, let alone in a month. However, it is possible. When you compare these blogs to the ones that make just $25, $500, or $1,000 per month, there’s an obvious difference in the approach. The more successful ones treat their blogs like functioning businesses – not hobbies.

Five Ways to Turn Your Blog Into a Business

While you aren’t going to make $30,000 per month from your blog any time soon, who’s to say you can’t start making $300 or $3,000 per month by the end of the year? It’s far from easy – and many fail trying – but the first key is to start treating your blog like a fully functioning business that’s hell-bent on bolstering the bottom line.

There’s obviously way more on this topic than can be fit into a single article, but let’s review some of the things you need to do and think about as you shift your mindset towards building a business.

1. Don’t Do it Alone

Most bloggers operate as a one-man team. At best, they solicit help from their spouse or a close friend. But would you ever attempt to build a successful business without ever hiring an employee, advisor, or partner? Hopefully, the answer is no because solopreneurs rarely taste success. If they do, they end up working themselves to death.

“No one is good at everything. We may have expertise in many areas, but we aren’t experts at every thing,” blogging coach Lisa Kerr says. “That’s why it’s important to find and build a team when you have a big goal. Actors have agents and managers. Writers have agents and editors. Public officials have an entire staff. Companies have dozens of teams. The fact is we need other people’s expertise.”

Don’t think you have the resources to hire writers, editors, and marketing pros up front? Feel free to get creative. Offer small amounts of equity in the blog. Trade content on your blog in turn for content on their blog. Provide a talent you have in return for a service they can provide.

The point is that you can’t cultivate a thriving blog without having some support. The demand for quality content is simply too high and there aren’t enough hours in the day for you to handle everything that’s required.

2. Find Your Voice

One concept new bloggers often struggle with is the idea that their blog can’t be everything to everyone. They want a blog that reaches the masses – therefore, they generalise everything they do in order to appease as many people as they can.

Hint: That doesn’t work.

Think about the most successful blogs in the world – such as the ones referenced earlier – and consider that even they don’t attempt to reach everyone. The Huffington Post targets liberal people on the far-left – specifically younger liberals. Mashable is squarely aimed at millennials. Life Hacker targets millennials who want to learn practical skills. Shoe Money targets people who are interested in earning money online.

These blogs still reach millions of people, but they’re able to do so because they don’t attempt to overextend their reach. There’s a fine line between targeting a niche with a large enough audience to build a profitable business around and trying to reach everyone on the internet. The difference between the two is identifying a voice for your blog and sticking to it.

“A voice, with respect to your blog, is a feel or style evoked in your writing that causes the reader to personalise what she is reading,” entrepreneur and blogger Jeff Goins explains. “Your readers begin to construct a person based on the voice of your blog. And when that happens, your blog ceases to be all things to all people and becomes something very particular to a certain group of people. And that is okay. That is the whole point.”

Not sure where to start? Large companies usually craft “style guides,” which establish standards for writing that can then be referred to when there are questions on language, tone, grammar, and structure.

And as a point of clarification – because there seem to be lots of misconceptions on the idea of developing a blogging voice – you can’t just copy someone else’s style. “If you’re going to develop your own style – your own blogging voice – you can’t just take another person’s voice,” blogger Jeni Elliot says. “You have to take everything, everyone that influences you and filter it through your own personality.”

Sit down and think about who you’re trying to connect with (your target audience) and how they talk and write. Do they use big words, or are they short and to the point? Are they sarcastic or literal? Do they prefer slang or grammatically correct sentences? Once you start uncovering these little facts, you’ll naturally find yourself developing a voice.

Your voice is your brand. Just as a business can’t survive without a recognisable brand, your blog can’t thrive without a voice that connects with readers. Don’t rush this process, but certainly don’t delay it. You’ll find that your voice will evolve over time, but the key principles will remain the same.

3. Create Value With Your Content

Monetisation may take place through other vessels (more on that in the following section), but for all intents and purposes, content is your currency. If you don’t have good content, your blog (business) doesn’t stand a chance of surviving. Specifically, your content needs to create value for your users.

Did you know that 94 percent of people who share blog posts do so because they think it’ll be helpful to others? In other words, people want content that’s constructive and applicable to their lives, not vague prose that lacks purpose. And while length isn’t always indicative of value, the average word count for top ranking content on Google is somewhere between 1,140-1,285 words.

The point is that while revenue may be produced in other ways, your blog’s content is what drives traffic to your business. Without content, everything else withers away. Consistently create valuable content that aligns with your voice and you’ll do well.

In addition to word length,valuable content is defined by actionability. Is the content you’re providing your readers with able to spur action and drive real results? Google wants semantically pleasing content, or content that answers questions.

Let’s compare two pieces of content to get a better idea of what we’re talking about here. We’ll start with this article, titled Carpenter Bees, Genus Xylocopa. It’s a fine article with good quality writing, but it doesn’t really provide the reader with any value. All it does is explain the characteristics of carpenter bees. Unless you’re merely looking for head knowledge, the article is pretty useless.

Now contrast that previous example with this article, titled 13 Home Remedies to Get Rid of Carpenter Bees. This article provides practical tips and suggestions for homeowners looking to ward off carpenter bees and prevent damage to their homes. After reading it, people can apply the knowledge learned. They’re also much more willing to share via their social profiles. Do you see the difference?

In order to create value with your content, you need to move your readers to action and give them a reason to share. It may sound obvious, but if you go back and review your posts from the past, you’ll find that many of them don’t create much tangible value.

4. Develop a Monetisation Strategy

In the beginning, when you’re still trying to transition from hobby blog to moneymaking business venture, the focus needs to be on creating quality content and engaging readers. However, as your audience grows and you start to see results, you should also start looking at opportunities for monetising your blog and driving revenue.

There are more than a dozen ways to monetise a blog, so you’ll have to experiment with some ideas and see what works for you. However, these are the most common techniques:

Product sales. Presently, one of the more profitable monetisation strategies is to sell physical or virtual products to blog visitors. Some bloggers choose to build online courses and sell access to customers, while others like to create tangible products and sell them through an ecommerce portal on the blog.

Advertising. The classic strategy is to turn pageviews into revenue by attracting advertisers and charging them for space on your blog. You can do this through banner advertising, CPM advertising, or even pay per click ads via Google AdSense.

Affiliate sales. If your blog is an industry where there are lots of different products and services from various businesses, you may find it profitable to join affiliate marketing programs and sell their products on commission. You don’t want to dive too deep into affiliate marketing or you may water down your blog’s value, but there’s a lot of money to be made in this niche.

Subscriptions. Finally, there are subscriptions. If your content is valuable enough, then you may be able to create premium content and stick it behind a “paywall” where loyal readers have to pay a monthly or annual fee to access it.

The key is to stay honest to your blog’s purpose and voice. You don’t want to pursue some monetisation technique that stands contrary to your blog’s long-term focus just to make a quick buck. You’re trying to build a sustainable business, not develop a side hustle. It’s always better to forgo a little revenue up front if it means making a smart decision for the future of your business.

5. Take Charge of Your Accounting

One of the biggest problems entrepreneurs encounter when trying to build their blog into a successful business is not knowing what to do with their finances. They end up mixing personal and business accounts, failing to keep meticulous records, and making other costly mistakes that could eventually get them in trouble with the IRS.

When it comes to taxes, you need to remember that you’re responsible for paying estimated quarterly taxes. This means you’ll have to set aside a portion of your earnings each quarter and cut a check to the IRS. Stay on top of this or you’ll quickly fall behind.

“On a monthly basis, when you review your P&L statement, put aside a percentage of your profit for taxes into a separate savings account,” accountant Brittany Turner suggests “A safe percentage to put away of your profit for taxes is about 30%. Your actual percentage may be more or less, depending on a number of factors, such as your total exemptions, your incorporation status, and your itemized deductions.”

Treat Your Blog Like a Business

There isn’t a ton of up-to-date information on the subject, but according to a survey conducted a few years back, just 7.4 million of the 133 million blogs tracked had been updated in the 120 days leading up to the study. Assuming that a blog needs to be updated at least once every four months in order to be considered profitable, that means roughly 95 percent of blogs are failures.

If you want your blog to be a part of the five percent that actually thrive, then you need to treat it like a business. It’s easier said than done, but you have to start somewhere.

Anna is a freelance writer, researcher, and business consultant. A columnist for Entrepreneur.com, HuffingtonPost.com and more, Anna specialises in entrepreneurship, technology, and social media trends. Follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post A Practical Look at Turning Your Blog into a Functioning Business appeared first on ProBlogger.

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kristinejrosario · 7 years

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A Practical Look at Turning Your Blog into a Functioning Business

Following last week’s post on treating your blog like a business, this guest post from Anna Johansson provides some practical ways you can start turning your blog into a business.

How Much Do Successful Blogs Earn?

Five Ways to Turn Your Blog Into a Business

1. Don’t Do it Alone

2. Find Your Voice

Hint: That doesn’t work.

3. Create Value With Your Content

4. Develop a Monetisation Strategy

There are more than a dozen ways to monetise a blog, so you’ll have to experiment with some ideas and see what works for you. However, these are the most common techniques:

5. Take Charge of Your Accounting

Treat Your Blog Like a Business

If you want your blog to be a part of the five percent that actually thrive, then you need to treat it like a business. It’s easier said than done, but you have to start somewhere.

The post A Practical Look at Turning Your Blog into a Functioning Business appeared first on ProBlogger.

from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/TS1zaCNf9gQ/

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richardrobertsimsuccessblog · 7 years

Text

A Practical Look at Turning Your Blog into a Functioning Business

Following last week’s post on treating your blog like a business, this guest post from Anna Johansson provides some practical ways you can start turning your blog into a business.

How Much Do Successful Blogs Earn?

Five Ways to Turn Your Blog Into a Business

1. Don’t Do it Alone

2. Find Your Voice

Hint: That doesn’t work.

3. Create Value With Your Content

4. Develop a Monetisation Strategy

There are more than a dozen ways to monetise a blog, so you’ll have to experiment with some ideas and see what works for you. However, these are the most common techniques:

5. Take Charge of Your Accounting

Treat Your Blog Like a Business

If you want your blog to be a part of the five percent that actually thrive, then you need to treat it like a business. It’s easier said than done, but you have to start somewhere.

The post A Practical Look at Turning Your Blog into a Functioning Business appeared first on ProBlogger.

A Practical Look at Turning Your Blog into a Functioning Business

#Richard Roberts IM Success Mix #A Practical Look at Turning Your Blog into a Functioning Business

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