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awesomelephuoclocblog-blog · 4 years

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aspiestvmusings · 5 years

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TMS S3: GROUP A

THE MASKED SINGER SEASON 3 GROUP A/ GROUP 1: (contestants 1 - 6)

EP 3x01: CLUES & MORE: RECAP for remaining 5:

SPOILERS BELOW!!!

KANGAROO

CLUES:

Location: Outdoors: “Australia”

Location: Next to a /in a yard of a “peach coloured” building with arch/vault-style architecture

VISUAL CLUES:

Sign: OUTBACK (with the U being in the shape of horseshoe)

Sign: Yellow “road sign” with an arrow pointing down (”spiraling down”)

MIB as papparazzi/press following her - taking pics, media attention (for “the wrong reasons”)

Gramophone on a tree branch

Boxing bag - the kangaroo boxing/hitting the boxing bag

Jump rope - the kangaroo jumping over a jump rope (made of a vine...held by MIB)

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

”Like most of you watching, I’m a survivor.”

“I recently lost a person, who held my familys heart together. Then, by my own admission, I found myself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.”

“But I’m here to do what kangaroos do best - bounce back.”

“I have to fight for my family. And show them that bullies never win.”

“I am beyond terrified - I’ve never done anything like this before. But I’m not about to lose the chance to realize the dream I’ve always had.”

“To all the survivors out there -- This one’s for you.”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “Dancing on My Own” by Robyn

Look/Costume: The kangaroo has a pouch (indicates female), but also has a red/silver boxing outfit & gloves (indicates male). Outfit colours: red & silver. Important: there is a crown on the back of her robe.

Stage: hexagon-shaped mirrors (5 of them) surrounding her/behind her [if my other guess is correct, then that stage design is a “clue”]

Height: Tall-ish...almost the same height as host Nick. A bit shorter, around 175cm, probably.

Mic hand: Right

Talking: “One of my greatest fears is being vulnerable. And this year I’ve had no other option than to be vulnerable. But...with this kangaroo costume I feel like I can get my superpowers back.” + [breathes in/sighs heavily before the song starts]

GUESSES:

I HAVE NO NAMES OF MY OWN. -- I thought she was this certain female artist, because the voice kinda seemed familair (sounded like hers to me), but none of the clues and other things seemed to fit. And after checking the clues it seems to confirm it cannot be her, cause nothing matches. Also... to me she doesn’t sound like any of the singers I thoughts she could be based on the clues, so... I havent actually figured her out...

I think people online are correct, and it’s a certain “reality star” (gramophone = reference to her dad being a sound engineer on a well-known past TV show) Though I am considering a few more options - mostly other reality stars/youtubers/family members of celebs... particularily one name. If my guess here is correct, then just like Llama, she would have a connection to a previous TMS contestant...but since I am not that familiar with her singing voice, I cannot be sure. But she has lost family members in the past few years, she has been in a media scandal, and you can even explain the australia thing kinda... so...until I hear more of her, I’ve got one name mainly in mind. But I wont name it until I’ve heard her sing at least once more.

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES.

Survivor = the title of a “Destiny’s Child” hit song

Lost a family member recently = either her family member (parent, grandparent?) died or they parted ways (were cut ouf of each others lives)

Gramophone = possibly a reference to a Grammy nomination/win. Or just music/sound/audio

Outback = possible connection to Australia

“spiraling down” road sign + papparazzi following her = she’s been in a media scandal “recently”

Crown = King/Queen

LLAMA

CLUES:

Location: Radio station/Mixing studio - mixing console (close up)

Location: Pottery making “class”

VISUAL CLUES:

Mixing console - close up of a studio/radio station mixing console

23.3 The Wool (name of the radio station/show)

Red lightbulb in the studio

Photo of a bull (the animal)

Playing cards: Ace of Spaces & Jack of Spades). Two black suit cards showing (Jack Black)

Sounds of Seattle - title of a vinyl album

Romancing a llama: pottery

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

"Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi-Mix it up!”

“Good morning, Nerd herd! You’re listening to The Wool. Where we’re all cool. No Bull.”

“I’m here for one reason only - to have a laugh. And what’s funnier than a Llama? (laughs at his own joke)”

“You may call me a joker. But I’d like to get serious for a minute. The song I’m singing tonight is my favourite track for celebrating love with that... special someone. There’s nothing like being swept up by it’s deep, profound lyrics. It’s a tune that really gets me in the mood for romance. I can’t wait to sing it for you tonight.”

“Llama out!”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “She Bangs” by Ricky Martin

Look/Costume: Dressed as a tourist - “hawaiian” style shirt,, photo camera around his neck. Llamas tongue out of his mounth, on the side.

Height: he is around 180cm - about the same height as host Nick (their shoulders are on about the same height)

Mic hand: Left

Talking: “umm.. This whole costume just spoke to me... My vibe... I wear digs like this in real life.” (answering the question about his costume & it’s looks)

GUESSES:

Drew Carey (TV host/comedian/actor...)

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES.

23.3 Wool = His show (The Drew Carey Show) had, during it’s 9-season long run, a total of 233 episodes.

Photo canera prop = His hobby is photography. Actually, it’s more than just a hobby - he has been accredited press photographer during many (sports) events.

Radio = He was a radio operator during the time he served in the Marine Corps. Also..he’s hosted a radio show (radio DJ) during his later career

Red light in the room = photography reference. In the DarkRoom red light is used when developing photo film/photographs.

Buddha figurine (Dalai Lama/Llama joke) = He is a buddhist.

Joker = he is a joker aka comedian

Seattle = He is the co-owner of a Seattle Football Club.

Playing cards = He took part in the celebrity poker game in 2003, where he did better than Jack Black did (played against Jack Black)

Nerd herd = He did take part in Zack levis (Chuck) “Nerd herd” lightsaber race one time at a Comic-Con convention.

Nerd herd = his show (DCS) & character were/was about nerds/was a nerd

Llama’s side tongue = early in his stand-up comedy days he had a joke with a side-tie (it looked visually very similar to what the llama’s tongue looks like - he just added some wires & tape to do “the trick” of swinging the tie to the side)

BONUS: He knows last years winner, “The Fox Mask” - they did “Whose Line is it Anyway” together, so... connection...

SPOILER ALERT: Llama is the mask who will be voted off next - in ep 2 (on Wed, Feb 5th). But while his voice might not be as trained as some other contestants, I loved his stage energy, and the comedy/fun he brought! One more song coming from him! And no, I am not sharing some secret info - they “accidentally” revealed the first two contestants, who get unmasked, so it’s been revealed by the network...for those, who notice small details...

MISS MONSTER

CLUES:

Location: Lady’s restroom/bathroom. The moster getting ready (coming hair, applying hairspray...)

Location: school hallway - lockers

VISUAL CLUES:

Sign: (image) ladies restroom

Itmes on the counter in bathroom/dressing room: Furspray (hairsray) can, pink bottle of some beauty product, three crystals (stones), a piece of sequin fabric

Key/Keychain: a single (old style) key with a keychain that says “FUN” #FUN #KEY = FUNKY = “QUEEN OF FUNK”

Purple furry diary/good luck charm/cosmetics bag/pencil box (with a face + kitty ears & unicorn horn) + a glittery pen

Lockers: Lockers numbered 10 (the ones she opens) & 11 (the one next to it)...with no other lockers having numbers on them

Miss Monster Locker: filled with images of S1 Monster, scrapbook flowers..etc...

Piece of paper on the locker door: Monster Hits.

Photograph of a cityscape (skyline with many skyscrapers) on the locker door [if I could only see the image better to know which city it is on it, that’d be one more clue]

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

“When you become famous, people want you to look or act in a certain way. They forget that you started off as just a shy little monster.”

“It didn’t take long for me to be misunderstood. So I’m here to set the record straight. Just like my favourite creature in Season 1 did. The Monster. He made me feel. He re-wrote his story. It was fire!"

“And now this performer in pink wants to follow in his furry footsteps, But darlings... I’m nervous. Will you still love me without knowing my name?”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “Something to Talk about” by Bonnie Raitt

Look/Costume: pink & purple/violet furry costume with a bowtie

Height: she is short-ish (shorter than host Nick). She looks very short (barely 5 feet - more Dolly P. height 152cm than Chaka K height 162cm)

Mic hand: Right

Talking: NO ON-STAGE TALKING!

GUESSES:

Chaka Khan

Dolly Parton (since the total number of Grammy noms that the 18 contestants have in combined in 69 & Robot as the first revealed one has had 24-25 of them, that leaves only 44-45 for everyone else, that rules out this person, because she alone has had 46 nominations...compared to C. Khan’s 22 noms)

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES.

Number 10 = She has 10 Grammy Awards/wins. (interestinly: both D. Parton & C. Khan have 10 Grammy wins!)

Monster Hits = she has had (many) hit songs during her career

He made me feel = She has a song by the title “I Feel You” (1984 hit)

It was fire = She has a song by the title “Through the Fire” (1985)

Will you love me - that is (word for word) the title of of her her hit songs, “Will You Love Me?” (2007)

It was fire = She wrote the hit song “Fule to the Flame” (1967 hit) for Skeeter Davis.

Will you still love me? = She has/wrote a song titled “I will always love you”

Furspray/Hairsray = he was/is known for her big hair/haircut (managing that probably takes lots of hairspray)

FUN = FUN(K) #FUN KEY [FUN:KI] - she’s kinda the “queen of funk” (one of her albums is titled “FUNk This” (btw: Pun intended by her!)

TURTLE

CLUES

Location: school’s track & field event (Balzano Track Field) - contestants getting ready to run. The slow turtle surrounded by fast bunnies, all preparing for the event. [Slow & steady (turtle) wins the race]

Location: Schools track & field event - BANG! The race begings. The three other contestants (MIB as bunnies - wearing pink bunny ears - starting the race with a head start, all jumping on their blue bouncy balls)

VISUAL CLUES:

Turtle vs bunnies

BANG! in comic style - to mark the start of the race

The others (three bunnies) bouncing on blue balls whe n the race begins

Surf board - the turtle poliching/cleaning his poink & blue surf board

Pins on the track...popping the blue jumpy balls

Grilling burgers on an (outside) grill...on the track field.

Turtle crossing the finish line first (bunnies just going in circles, being stopped by pins on the way, or other reasons), as he has time to do other things & take it slowly, and then still get there first...with a burger in hand & winning the golden medal.

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

"At the starting-line of my career I was surrounded by other hungry new-comers. It felt like everyone around me was fighting tooth-and-nail for the dream. And I watched as many of those stars burned too brightly, too quickly, and then fizzled down”

“I’m a turtle, because I’m always taking it step-by-step.”

“Slow and steady wins the race. But now I feel like I’m ready to break out of my shell. After years of preparation I would love to make a big splash. So I don’t want anyone to cross that finish line before me.”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “Kiss from a Rose” by Seal

Look/Costume: Punk/Rock-style, dressed in leather (pants, jacket), has a spike (hair)

Height: Short-ish (shorter than host Nick) - seems around 175cm. Small in size.

Mic hand: Right

Talking: “It’s hot. It’s really hot. And it’s heavy!” (when answering how doesn it feel to be in that costume and perform in it)

GUESSES

Jesse McCartney

Joey McIntyre PS. I tried connecting the voice to any boy-bands (of 1990s & 2000s), but I coukdnt. Even after some “research” - listening to each possible candidate...and IMO it’s none of them. The voices dont match, the heights doesn’t match---But it did sound like someone, who for me was a one-hit-wonder. Yeah, I only know that one song (and one more) from him... but voice seemed familiar.

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES:

Surf board = that he is a surfer; that he is from Cali/Australia/somewhere which is known as being popular among surfers; that he has won Teen Choice Award(s) (this award in in the shape of a surfboard)

being surrounded by other new-comers at the start of his career = either he got his start through a (singing) competition and was one of many contestants fighting for the win AND/OR he got his start in a “boy-band” and was one of the youngsters looking for fame...

Surf board = Teen Choice Awards - winning several TCAs for his first/biggest hit song/album in 2005, and more. And he’s played a surfer character on a TV show

BSB references/connection - he was the opening act in 2005 for BSB during the European part of the tour.

Dream = he started in a boy-band with the name “Dream Street”

on stage presence/body language (movements) = very similar to J.M.

WHITE TIGER

CLUES:

Location: Football field. Tiger striking a power/winners pose.

Location: School hallway, lockers. Tiger walking in, shoving everyone out of his way.

Locatrion: School library (sitting behind a table, with his legs on the table)

Location: School hallway, lockers. MIB trying to get him to audition for TMS. MIB (fans) taking selfies with him.

VISUAL CLUES:

Golden plate/sign with text: Ultimate champion for clam shucking: 51 clams” (next to a golden clam shell)

Sign/ad on the wall: “Masked Singer tryouts 5/3.” + images of three past masks included: Eagle, Lion & Raven. Plus the text: “Hurry. Not for long" also written on it.

Sign on the all with images of past US presidents, including Abe Lincolns & the text/quote “Four Score and Seven Years Ago...”

The TMS golden mask throphee shown next to the lockers (as Tiger says “let’s party!”)

AUDIO CLUES/VOICEOVER:

“Ready to meet your next champion? My entire life I’ve sought out perfection, so choosing a mask with unlimited power like the White Tiger was a no-brainer.”

“I’ve had a giant career full of accomplishments. But when I imagine being on stage (and) singing, I’m a big old scared cat.*

“It’s been a while since I did something that scared me, so I’m here to concour yet anither challenge.”

“What’s my motivation? My fans! I don’t wanna let them down."

“So now I’m ready to get in that ring and smash the competition.”

“Let’s party!”

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice

Look/Costume: Dressed in “Egyptian style"

Height: very tall & big (much taller than host Nick) - over 190cm, looks about 2m tall

Mic hand: R & L (alternates)

Talking: “It’s the most powerful I’ve ever felt. Like I can concour anything. I never wanna take it off” (when answering what did it feel like when he first put on the costume/mask)

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES:

He played during the 51st (51 clams) & 53rd (5/3) Super Bowl games.

The three past TMS masks shown are all animals that are parts of names of existing football teams: Ravens, Eagles, Lions. Meaning he is an athlete & specifically plays american football (NFL)

The Lincoln quote translates to “87 years ago...”, so number 87 is the clue here. This could be a reference to player No. 87.

He has had a very succesful career in his own field (sports). Singing is not his main job.

IF the voice-overs were done later, not during initial filming, then it’s possible that “smash” relates to the person smashing a lego-statue of a TV host during 2019/2020 New Years. Which in itself was supposed to be about his famous “Gronk Spike” during football games.

A tiger (albeit “regular”, not white) was one of the characters & costumes + name of the sports team in the Katy Perry video “Swish Swich”, where this athlete also appeared.

The Golden (Golden Mask) trophe - most likely a reference to his many wins (the trophees he/his team has won)

GUESSES:

Rob Gronkowski (Gronk, athlete, 198cm) = 99% certain it’s him

Because of the height alone (seems to be around/almost 2m = 6 feet 5) there are not that many possibilities at all. Even if we don’t listen to that voice or consider the clues. Based on height alone it can basiclaly be only one of these names: Dave Bautista (198cm); The Rock (196cm); Hulk Hogan (201cm); Tyler Perry (196cm); Brad Garrett (204cm); Joe Manganiello (196cm); Jeff Goldblum (194cm); Jason Mamoa (193cm); Tom Brady (193cm)..or the likes...

Even other possible names, like the ones listed by the panel, are not valid guesses, because of their height: John Cena for example is actually only 185cm tall. Also... several of these tall men are bigger/more muscular, so that makes it even easier to determine the name based on only the physical appeance...without even listening to the clues.

ROBOT

First mask to be voted out in ep 1

Havent listed his clues, cause there’s no use for them anymore, as he was voted off.

With his 86 tattoos he makes up for about half of all the 160 tattoos the 18 contestants have combined. With his 24-25 Grammy nominations he makes up about 1/3 of all the 69 noms the 18 contestants have combined. And quite many of the 88 gold records the 18 contestants have combined, belong to him (I don’t know the exact number, but most/all of his 10+ albums have gone gold, I think) - exact number depends on how they count it for this list.

<<<<< THIS IS WHAT GOES ON IN MY HEAD AFTER EVERY TMS SHOW/EPISODE. THIS IS HOW I CATEGORIZE THE INFO I HAVE INTO FOLDERS IN MY MIND. THIS IS HOW SPECIFIC I AM, AND HOW INTO DETAILS I GO. THIS IS HOW MUCH I PAY ATTENTION (while, most likely, missing a ton of more hints that I’ll only notice during re-watch) I JUST DECIDED TO WRITE IT DOWN...FOR ONCE.

BUT... unless I decide to cut some sleep time to do this again, I am probabky not gonna do this after every episode. Possibly for the first episode of every Group (so beside ep 1, also ep 4 & ep 7)

#THE MASKED SINGER #TMS #SPOILER #TMS SPOILER #TMS US #THE MASKED SINGER USA #THE MASKED SINGER SEASON 3 #TMS S3 #TMS SEASON 3 #THE MASKED SINGER S3 #MASKED SINGER

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shenanigans-and-imagines · 7 years

Text

Promise Me

Not my Gif

Bodhi Rook x Reader, Gender Neutral, Established Relationship, Post-Canon

AO3 Link/ Support Me on Ko-fi

Summary: Bodhi wakes up from a nightmare and you go to comfort him.

A/N: This is not a request, but I had to get it out of my system. I’ve been in an angsty mood and I need more Bodhi in my life.

Word Count: 2.0 K

A cold shiver ran up your spine, waking you up from a dreamless sleep. You half opened your eyes and rolled over, reaching out for a warm body, only to be met with sheets and blankets. You opened your eyes fully. The side of the bed normally occupied by your boyfriend, Bodhi, was completely empty.

You sat up, rubbing the sleep from your eyes as you looked around the room. The small desk in the corner was empty and there was no light coming from the bathroom. Glancing at the small dresser across from the bed you saw it was open, and Bodhi’s jacket was gone. It didn’t take you long to put two and two together. As quietly as you could, you got dressed, and walked out of your room down the ship’s hallway.

It had been over a year since the battle of Yavin and the rebel alliance was on the move. The Empire was quick to retaliate after the destruction of the Death Star and it was necessary to evacuate the forest moon. You had been bouncing around the outer rim ever since, never being able to stay in one place for more than a few months. There had been rumors the high command had settled on a more secure location, but they were just rumors.

You just hoped it wasn’t some place like Jakku. You never could stand the heat. On the other hand, you knew the planet of Hoth had been tossed around a few times. You didn’t much like the idea of the ice planet either, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

You reached the elevator and punched in the hanger level.

You had met Bodhi after he had been awarded a medal for bravery along with the rest of the Rogue One crew after the Battle of Scarif. He had been shy and tended to ramble when he was nervous, but he quickly won you over. He was kind, determined, and more than earned the medal he so often tucked out of sight. The fact that he was easy on the eyes was just an added bonus.

He expressed an interested in becoming an X-Wing pilot early on, which you were more than happy to assist him in. You and Wedge were the one of the few remaining Red Squadron pilots left and needed every man you could get. He had admitted failing the flight test in the Imperial Academy, but with your coaching, he passed his test with flying colors.

He truly was brilliant, even if he never could admit it. On the ground, he was still as gentle and slightly awkward as ever, but once he was in the air, all his anxiety melt away. It was just him and the stars.

You could appreciate the feeling. Every pilot felt it, but you had never seen it with as much intensity as you did in Bodhi. It was probably one of the growing list of reasons why you fell in love with him.

The elevator doors slid open as you entered the hanger bay. To your slight surprise, Bodhi wasn’t beside his X-Wing. Just to your right a little way down the hanger, you saw a light coming from one of the U-Wings.

It didn’t need repair work. The ship hadn’t even been close to a battle in almost a month. Most of the missions had little more than flybys marking imperial trade routes and Stormtrooper stations. But after all this time, you knew tinkering was the only thing that could give him comfort.

You cautiously walked towards the ship and into the cargo hold. Inside, you saw Bodhi working on some of the wiring of the radio.

“Bodhi?”

His head whipped to you, clearly surprised by you being there.

“Y/N, what are you doing up?”

“Same as you,” you said. “Couldn’t sleep.”

It wasn’t a complete lie. You did have trouble sleeping without him next to you.

“What are you working on?” you asked.

Bodhi turned back to the mess of wires in front of him.

“Cassian mentioned he and Jyn might be put on assignment soon,” he said. “They had a small flutter in the communications last time. I just wanted to make sure it’s all working.”

You nodded your head in understanding.

“Do you need help?”

He shook his head.

“No, no I got it. You should really go back to bed. I’m fine here.”

“Well, I’m not going to sleep either way,” you said, shrugged. “I’d rather just stay here anyway if you don’t mind.”

Bodhi looked at you and back to the wires. His eyes flickered cross the consul, not thinking about what was in front of him. He then pulled out one of the tools and held it out.

You smiled softly and took the tool from his outstretched hand.

The pair of you worked in silence with Bodhi only once correcting you on where to put one of the wires. There wasn’t really anything wrong with the console. One or two wires were starting to get loose, but nothing a bit of electric tape couldn’t fix. You occasionally glanced at Bodhi to see him fully concentrated in his work.

You had a good idea of what it was that woke him. When you had first started sharing a bed, it became very apparent that sleep often evaded him. With most memories you could hold him close and he would fall back asleep in your arms, but Scarif always prompted action.

Soon enough Bodhi seemed satisfied with his inspection and put all the component parts back in their proper place. You had hoped that completing his task would relax him, but he remained in place staring at nothing in particular.

You stood beside him and took his hand in yours.

“Are you ready to come to bed?”

Bodhi shook his head in a silent no.

“Do you want me to leave?”

He looked at you then and squeezed your hand gently.

“No.”

You nodded your head and leading him towards the cargo bay. You sat down on of the seats, pulling him down next to you. You leaned your head on his shoulder, keeping your hands intertwined between you.

You didn’t disturb the silence for a long while, allowing the low hum of the ships engines to fill the void as Bodhi rubbed absent-minded circles into your hand.

“It wasn’t Scarif,” he said, quietly.

You glanced up at him, surprised, but you quickly pushed it aside.

“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” you said, nuzzling your head into his shoulder.

He shook his head as his gaze drifted down towards his lap and his grip on your hand tightened.

“It wasn’t a memory at all,” he said, his voice sounding tired with emotions. “You were on the mission with us. I couldn’t remember why. We needed help. I tried to get the message through, but it wasn’t working. I saw them all…”

He paused, taking a gulp of breath, but he didn’t need to say it. His eyes and silence said enough.

“You were right next to me,” he said, choking on the words. “I kept thinking it would be alright, because you were right next to me. And then you weren’t.”

His breath stuttered as one does when holding back tears. With your free hand, you cupped his cheek turning his head to look at you.

His eyes were glassy with tears you knew he was trying not to let fall. He wanted to be brave for you, but at the moment, his fear was over powering him.

Without a second thought, you pressed your lips to his kissing him deeply. You needed him to know you loved him. There was no shame in showing fear, because you were just as afraid of losing him as he was of losing you.

Bodhi kissed you back immediately. His free hand quickly wound its way into your hair pulling you close while the hand holding yours slipped from your grip and moved to the small of your back. With a gentle push, he guided you onto his lap so you were straddling him.

His lips pulled away from yours only to make a trail across your cheek and down your neck kissing and breathing you in as he went. His arms warped around you holding you to him as his hands roamed your back.

You let out a low moan when he finally settled in the crook on your neck, biting and sucking desperately at the skin. You knew you were going have to cover up the bruises in the morning, but you didn’t care. Bodhi needed you and you needed him.

You curled one hand into his hair, while the other clung onto the base of his neck, holding him close while still giving him all of the control.

Bodhi groaned as your fingers tugged his hair before he detached himself from the base of your neck. You let out a frustrated sigh to be quickly replaced by a small whimper as he traced his lips across your collar. You tried to keep your breathing in check, but couldn’t prevent an involuntary gasp from escaping you when he placed a loving kiss on the center of your throat. You swallowed hard as he continued his trail only stopping when he reached on the other side. He immediately assaulted the nap of your neck, kissing and biting and marking you as fervently as before.

“I love you Y/N,” he whispered against your skin. “I love you.”

“Bodhi,” you cried softly.

He didn’t stop, kissing his way back up your neck and across your face until he claimed your lips once more. You kissed him back, tugging at his hair as you parted your mouth, allowing him to deepen the kiss. Bodhi obliged, slipping in his tongue with quiet moan. You breathed a sigh of pleasure as he explored your mouth, savoring every bit of you as if at any moment you would disappear. To your frustration, he pulled away leaving you both panting for air.

“Don’t die,” he pleaded, breathing hard against your lips. “Promise me. You have to promise me you won’t ever die.”

You wanted to lie to him. You wanted to tell him that he was never going to lose you, that nothing in the universe could take you away from him. Despite how desperately you wanted to tell him everything was going to be alright, you shook your head.

“I can’t,” you said, gently. “No one can.”

You opened your eyes to see Bodhi staring into yours. He looked so lost. He searched your eyes as if somehow that would give him the answer he wanted instead of what he knew to be the truth. But he couldn’t find it.

He bowed his head, his body beginning to shake as the tears he had been holding back began to spill down his cheeks.

You felt your throat tighten at the sight as you pulled Bodhi to you, guiding his head to rest on your shoulder. He didn’t fight you. You felt his tears stain your shirt as you rubbed reassuring circles into his back.

“I love you,” you whispered. “I love you so much.”

He didn’t answer. His arms wrapped tightly around you and his fingers dug almost painfully into your skin.

“I can’t promise I won’t die,” you continued. “I can only promise that I won’t die without saying goodbye first. And I promise that death will be the only thing that will take me away from you.”

Again, he didn’t say anything. He kept his hold on you, but his breath began to even out.

You lowered your head to rest in the crook on his neck, holding him as desperately as he held you.

“I love you Bodhi,” you said. “I’m not going anywhere. Not for a long time.”

“Do you promise?” he asked, his voice strained from crying.

“I promise,” you said, meaning it with all of your heart.

The pair of you didn’t go back to your room. You spent the rest of the night in each other’s arms, comforted by gentle kisses, light touches, and quiet promises. Neither of you were going anywhere.

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junker-town · 5 years

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Sports movies that would be more fun to emulate in real life than ‘Field of Dreams’

Photo by Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post via Getty Images

MLB wants to emulate ‘Field of Dreams’ next season, and that’s fine. But if we’re being honest, big league adaptations of these movies would be even cooler.

I’ve never seen Field of Dreams. It’s probably fine? From what I gather it’s sickly sweet with a lot of I Love You Dad-type stuff engineered to exploit our too-human hearts.

The effect is apparently pretty strong, because Field of Dreams is still revered 30 year after it was released. So much so that Major League Baseball will try to bring the movie to life by making the Yankees and White Sox play in an Iowa cornfield next season.

If you build it …@Yankees. @whitesox. THE Field of Dreams. August 13, 2020. pic.twitter.com/RuBpS04BgG

— Cut4 (@Cut4) August 8, 2019

Ignoring the fact MLB’s promotional image implies Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, Tim Anderson, and Yoan Moncada are ghosts walking out of the cornfield, and therefore will have shuffled off this mortal coil by the time the game is played, this could be fun! Baseball is a goofy sport that is enhanced when played in goofy places. Why not!

But it does get us thinking: What famous sports movies would be even more fun to replicate for a one-off event? Here are some of our ideas. Go ahead and tell us yours via your nearest comment section and/or Twitter account. Being realistic awards you no bonus points.

Eddie (1996)

Pretty sure everyone reading this has had this fantasy. Take a vocal fan out of the stands, let them coach the Knicks, and if they win the fan gets to keep the job until the Knicks lose again. There’s no risk to a cratering team. In fact, the changeup might help break the loop of hope and letdown (and hope and letdown) that the Knicks have been stuck in for 20 years. — Louis Bien

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)

I want this. I want this, like, yesterday. How have we gone 15 years without someone trying to take the world of professional dodgeball by storm with professional wrestling-esque characters, overwhelming production values and all the pageantry it entails?

The best part is that since this is a one-off event we can totally get Jason Bateman to do commentary and stick Chuck Norris courtside. I’m almost upset I’m sharing this information here, because I know some wealthy industrialist is going to steal this idea. — James Dator

Nacho Libre (2006)

First off, yes, wrestling is a real sport. The action might be slightly scripted but the moves are real. Imagine a random cook in a monastery becoming a luchador. It’s an underdog story for the ages. He even fights for a great cause: so the orphans in the church can eat better quality foods. It’s a heartwarming story filled with adventure and danger, mostly from the fear of having their bones broken from getting power-bombed. Picking a random person and making them a part-time luchador is an event worth watching. Especially if one of their first matches is an eight-person battle royale. Sign me up for the chaos. - Vijay Vemu

Teen Wolf (1985)

I just want to see people get eaten. — Christian D’Andrea

Air Bud (1997) or Treasure Buddies (2012)

The Air Bud archives, including its spinoff series Air Buddies and Santa Paws, is more voluminous than the Police Academy and Mission Impossible franchises put together. And you really couldn’t go wrong picking ANY of its 14 installments. SO MANY GOOD DOGS.

For the sake of brevity, I’ll narrow it down to two: OG basketball-playing Air Bud, which still holds up 22 years later, and which seems like the most logical choice if we’re talking about replicating it in real life. (Here’s one suggestion for the starring role.)

The other is Treasure Buddies, which I have never seen and technically isn’t a sports movie but gets the nod based on a Wikipedia description that belongs in a museum:

The Buddies find themselves on an Indiana Jones style adventure.

Yes, please. — Sarah Hardy

Over the Top (1987)

Don’t you want to win an arm wrestling championship? — Russ Oates

The Sandlot (1993)

The Sandlot — or more specifically Sandlot 2 (2005), where girls exist and play sports — is truly the only answer here. Since about age 7, all I wanted to experience was playing baseball at the sandlot, and that hasn’t changed as I’ve gotten older. Just make sure James Earl Jones is present. — Kennedi Landry

Brink! (1998)

Brink! is a Disney Channel original movie about extreme in-line skating and how capitalism exerts its influence on our passions. But the X-Games already exists, so we don’t need to bring skating to life, we just need ... more milkshakes to the face.

Pup ‘N Suds forever. — Michael Katz

Like Mike (2002)

I need to see a 4’ tall child dunking on NBA Players. — Tyson Whiting

Ed (1996)

In this film, Matt LeBlanc (who is basically channeling Joey, because what else is he going to do, he is Matt LeBlanc) winds up as an errand boy for a professional minor league baseball team. One of his errands has him cross paths with the titular Ed, a chimpanzee who, it turns out, is really, really good at playing baseball for unsaid reasons. Hijinks ensue. This film has everything — a fart-off, some light animal torture, a magical coin (?), and yes, a meta Friends reference — all of it terrible. In fact, we called it the worst sports movie ever made.

But am I going to sit here and pretend it wouldn’t be awesome to play minor league ball with a farting monkey? No, reader. I am not.

— Ryan Simmons

Slap Shot (1977)

Nobody wears a helmet. Fighting, while not exactly legal, is certainly encouraged. As is putting on the foil. Winning captain has to strip down to his jock strap. Don Cherry would spontaneously combust, leaving a technicolor apparition muttering about “Old Time Hockey” for all eternity. — Paul Flannery

White Men Can’t Jump (1992)

Blacktop basketball, Jeopardy!, and undefeated Wesley Snipes drip. This movie has everything anyone could ever want in a movie, and also two-on-two basketball should be an Olympic sport. — Michael Pina

Brewster’s Millions (1985)

Quasi-sports movie with Richard Pryor portraying a pitcher for the Hackensack Bulls and John Candy serving as his catcher. I’d happily work to spend $30 million in 30 days and have no assets to show for it to inherit $300 million. — David Fucillo

Space Jam (1996)

There is no better time to do this than the present. With talks of wanting to raid Area 51 and kick it with aliens, we can surely assemble a group of five extraterrestrials, have them take the talents of guys like Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, or other NBA stars, and do a live-action remake of the original Space Jam. Only difference is that LeBron James replaces Michael Jordan. — Harry Lyles Jr.

Luck of the Irish (2001)

This Disney Channel classic has a description as follows: “A teenager (Ryan Merriman) must battle for a gold charm to keep his family from being controlled by an evil leprechaun.”

Do I need to explain anything else? — Whitney Medworth

Blades of Glory (2007)

It’s really hard for me to comprehend why we haven’t seen an all-male figure skating pair since this movie came out more than 10 years ago, but hey, I’m not in the movie business. Not only was this a highly underrated Will Ferrell film in my humble opinion, the sports world deserves to see two men complete the Iron Lotus (successfully, I feel like I need to add) on live television, dammit.

youtube

— Morgan Moriarty

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digitalmark18-blog · 6 years

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Top 7 Essential Questions to Ask When Hiring an SEO Company… And 3 Costly Pitfalls to Avoid

New Post has been published on https://britishdigitalmarketingnews.com/top-7-essential-questions-to-ask-when-hiring-an-seo-company-and-3-costly-pitfalls-to-avoid/

Top 7 Essential Questions to Ask When Hiring an SEO Company… And 3 Costly Pitfalls to Avoid

Hiring the right SEO company can rank among one of the top business decisions you’ll make. The right SEO company can help your business dominate search engine rankings and drive an ongoing stream of highly targeted traffic to your website at zero cost per click.

Hiring the wrong SEO company however, can cost you severely. In addition to the fees you’ll pay them, poor SEO tactics can cause your business to suffer from lost revenue opportunities and can severely damage your company’s brand, not to mention bruise your professional reputation.

What are the key credentials you should look for in an SEO company? What questions should you ask to help you determine if they have the industry experience, talent, and technology needed to grow your business? How can you be sure their tactics won’t put your business on Google’s blacklist?

Below are the top seven questions to help you hire the right SEO company and avoid some costly pitfalls.

#1: Who will be my designated contact?

It’s unlikely that the person selling you will also perform your SEO work or serve as your day-to-day point of contact.

A professional SEO company will assign you at least one designated contact who will be available to you by phone, email, or in person. You may find it helpful to have a designated contact in or near your time zone. Ask to be introduced to your designated contact and their location up-front to make sure you’ll be able to work well together.

Blog post ideas. Questions about a PPC campaign. Reverse-engineering a competitor’s SEO strategy. New products or services to add to the website. These are just a few of the topics your service experts should routinely discuss with you.

#2: How long will it take for SEO to produce results?

Achieving top organic search engine rankings for highly competitive keywords takes time, technical experience, cutting-edge tools, hard work, and often out-of-the box creative thinking.

To avoid disappointment, the smart move is to work with an SEO company that’s willing to perform an up-front technical analysis of your website along with competitive keyword research. Then provide you an honest assessment with reasonable goals and a clear action plan.

Beware of any SEO company that guarantees page #1 Google rankings.

Google clearly states that no company can guarantee a #1 ranking on their search engine. Any company that makes such a promise is either intentionally trying to mislead you or is simply incompetent. Either way, they’re setting themselves (and you) up to fail.

Get an honest assessment about the competitive nature of your target keywords and the amount of time and work required to achieve top organic search engine rankings.

#3: Can you show me case studies of real clients in a related industry?

Ask the SEO company to share real-life performance results they’ve achieved for businesses similar to yours. If all their case studies are about dentists and you run a contracting business, they may not be a good match for you.

Check out the results and stats of those case studies. Google page #1 rankings are a great start, but also look for increases in site traffic, leads, and quality conversions.

More than just a star-rating, you should also be able to read feedback from actual clients, whether found on the company’s website, on Google, or through Clutch.co, the leading review site for verified agencies. Read the feedback their clients have shared about what it’s like to work with the company.

#4: What’s included in my proposal?

Before you sign a contract, you should be able to receive a proposal that outlines the current state of your website and a clear SEO strategy the company plans to implement.

Recommended for You

Webcast, August 21st: The New Rules of Content Optimization for 2018

The first step in this proposal is a technical SEO audit, which reveals technical errors that may prevent your site from achieving top SEO rankings. Their SEO experts will correct these errors and tune your website to top performance.

From there they should identify the primary keywords that will not only deliver site traffic but also conversions.

#5: How familiar is the SEO company with your industry?

Your SEO company should be able to understand your business’s unique demographics and needs in the digital marketing space. If you’re a local B2C business in a small town, for example, your SEO strategy should focus on Google Maps results for keywords related to your products or services. If you’re receiving traffic without conversions or unqualified leads, you may need to reevaluate your partnership.

On the other hand, if you’re a large, national B2B corporation, you’ll need a different strategy. The SEO company you’re interviewing should be able to provide insight into what marketing tactics will work best for your business.

#6: Can I meet the team?

In addition to the salesperson, it’s helpful to meet members of the team who’ll be working on your account. From technical SEO, to content development, to link-building, to performance analysis and reporting, getting SEO right requires a multitude of skillsets. Get to know their experts’ professional backgrounds. See how long they’ve been with the company. Are they certified in Google Analytics? If you’re using PPC, are they certified in Google AdWords?

You’ll also want to know the day-to-day activities of the team working on your account. What is each person’s role? Do they specialize in one thing, or do they work on multiple areas at the same time? Ideally, each person will be a specialist in one particular area. That way you’re getting the best content, the best optimization, and the best PPC management.

#7: How long has the SEO company been in business?

Working with a startup has its risks. You can’t be sure that company will still be around a year from now. A professional SEO company will be able to demonstrate a strong track record of success.

Have they worked with web design/development teams?

Have they developed long-term, successful digital marketing strategies?

Are they experienced with SEO, PPC management and social media marketing?

Do they have the capability to create high-quality content that converts visitors into sales?

Do they understand how to leverage the power of social media to boost search rankings?

If the SEO company you’re vetting can’t answer all of these questions without hesitation and to your satisfaction, keep looking. Remember, you’re looking for an SEO company that will work as an extension to your team and a true partner to your business.

BONUS: 3 Costly Pitfalls to Avoid When Hiring an SEO Company

Still wondering if you’ve made the right decision? How can you be certain you’ve selected the best SEO company for your business? See the most common mistakes businesses make when hiring their SEO company.

#1 Opting for the quick fix

It’s easy to be tempted by an SEO company that promises fast results and offers cheap rates. The truth is, no matter how good an SEO company might be, nobody can guarantee top organic SEO results in the first month or two. Web crawlers of primary search engines don’t work that fast. Attracting quality traffic – visitors that actually convert into customers – takes a concerted effort over time.

In contrast, an agency that knows SEO will be laying the groundwork for significant improvement during that first 30 days that will come to fruition over time. The payoff won’t be instantaneous but will be genuine in terms of gaining loyal customers.

#2 Hiring an SEO company inexperienced in your industry

Hiring an SEO company with little/no experience in your industry means you’ll likely end up frustrated as you spend your valuable time and a good portion of your SEO budget educating them. They’ll be learning on your dime and may end up making mistakes that embarrass you and your company.

Although SEO basics span all industries, the strategy and execution behind industry-specific keyword research, backlinking, and analytics is best left to experts with prior experience in a field related to yours.

Conversely, hiring an SEO company with prior experience in your industry means they’ll not only be able to hit the ground running, they’ll be able to bring you fresh, actionable ideas to propel business growth.

#3 Not asking about analytics

Your ability to meet your business goals is in part directly related to your ability to measure SEO effectiveness over time. Ask prospective SEO agencies how, when, and what they provide in terms of performance reports. Ask to see examples.

A professional SEO company will be able to deliver statistics beyond Google rankings and website traffic. They’ll also track your site’s effectiveness at attracting new viewers, how many visitors return for more information, how many complete forms or call in, and most importantly: how many convert to customers.

You might be shocked at how many SEO companies don’t provide their clients direct access to their analytics and effectively keep them in the dark about the performance of their SEO program.

Have you been through the SEO company hiring process? If so, would asking these questions have influenced your purchase decision?

Author: Sam Saidman

Sam Saidman is a Client Success Manager at AIS Media, a leading digital marketing and SEO agency helping clients increase search rankings, web traffic, and conversion rates. AIS Media was recently recognized with a 2018 Search Engine Land Award and Clutch Top Digital Marketing Agency Award. With over five years… View full profile ›

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Source: https://www.business2community.com/seo/top-7-essential-questions-to-ask-when-hiring-an-seo-company-and-3-costly-pitfalls-to-avoid-02096816

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touristguidebuzz · 8 years

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Flight Review: South African Airways Business Class (A340-300) From Dakar to Washington, D.C.

On a recent mission to discover the most interesting ways to redeem Etihad miles for award flights, several members of Team TPG traveled to Serbia, Morocco and Senegal, with me flying aboard South African Airways’ A340-300 in business class between Washington, D.C. (IAD) and Dakar (DKR).

South African Airways (SAA) operates flights between Washington, D.C. (IAD) and Accra, Ghana (ACC) on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and to Dakar (DKR) on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, with both of these flights then continuing to Johannesburg (JNB). I looked up my flight online ahead of time and was excited to see it would be my first time flying aboard a four-engine plane, SAA’s Airbus A340-300, one of the most beautiful aircraft in the world — to an #AvGeek like me, anyway.

In This Post

Booking

I booked this flight using 84,444 miles transferred from the Etihad Guest program. For the round-trip itinerary — with one leg in economy and one in business. I used the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card to pay for the additional $592 in taxes and fees, which earned me 3x Membership Rewards points (1,776 in total) for the purchase. If the Amex Platinum card’s 5x bonus category on airfare purchases had been in place at the time of booking, I certainly would have used that card instead.

Another thing to note about booking this specific flight: since SAA is a Star Alliance partner, award seats are available to book through United, so if you were to book your flight that way, each leg would cost 80,000 United MileagePlus miles, plus about $18 in taxes and fees on the outbound flight and about $100 for the return flight — still much less than the taxes and fees Etihad charged for my ticket.

My reservation confirmation from Etihad.

Airport and Lounge

This flight proved to be one of the most… interesting… I’ve ever had. The peculiarities started at the airport in Dakar (DKR), which was, quite frankly, a disaster. It was very hot, poorly lit and appeared as if it was going to fall apart at any moment. Luckily, an entirely new airport is under construction at a different site.

Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport (DKR) has seen better days.

My flight was scheduled to leave at 1:55am local time, so I was only expecting to see a deserted terminal with just a few other passengers waiting — I couldn’t have been more wrong. I quickly learned that flights arrive at and depart from West Africa at all hours of the day, so even though it was late, there were still crowds of people waiting to check in for their flights.

Even though it was just before midnight, the terminal was surprisingly busy, with many people checking in for departing flights.

I made my way over to the South African Airways Premium check-in line and waited for at least 30 minutes in line behind a family of six before I was able to check in. The process was pretty smooth once I made it to the desk though. The agent spoke perfect English, quickly found my reservation and printed my boarding pass. I was a little concerned, however, when I saw my bag being taken off the conveyor belt, thrown onto a cart and wheeled away, but when I arrived in Washington, D.C., it was there waiting for me. I think there might have just been a mechanical issue with the belt at DKR.

I was repeatedly told that taking photos in the terminal was “forbidden.”

Along with my boarding pass, I was given a hand-written entrance ticket to the Business Lounge at DKR.

My Business Lounge access pass had a decidedly retro look.

Upon entering the lounge, I was overjoyed to feel the air conditioning, given the oppressive humidity in the rest of the terminal. The lounge itself was fairly large, with plenty of red leather sofas and chairs. While the lounge overall was pretty outdated, I found the seats to be very comfortable for my hour-long visit.

There weren’t many lights on inside the lounge, but I enjoyed the air conditioning.

I was repeatedly told, even in the lounge, that photography was forbidden within the airport, so I wasn’t able to take a ton of photos. I did manage to get one of the refreshing Senegalese beer I enjoyed before boarding my flight.

A cold beer was exactly what I needed after my lengthy check-in experience.

Boarding

Boarding was scheduled to begin around 1:00am, so I headed to my gate by 12:55am, expecting to have just a few minutes to wait. As I arrived at the gate, I realized we wouldn’t be boarding on time, since the only employees there were actually security personnel — who patted down each and every passenger and inspected each carry-on bag one-by-one. It took me about 20 minutes to get through all of this.

Next, I discovered there was no advanced boarding for business-class passengers. While I don’t have much experience flying in business class, I figured I’d at least get to board before the passengers traveling in the economy cabin, but there was just one simple call, after which everyone in the gate area rushed forward, becoming part of a massive crowd.

After my boarding pass was scanned by the gate agent, I walked out onto the tarmac and got on the bus that would shuttle us to the aircraft. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity for every single passenger to get on the one, very crowded bus, we finally headed to the massive A340-300 around 2:15am.

The Airbus A340 is an incredibly long, four-engine aircraft.

Not only was I very excited to get off the bus because it was very hot, but I was also very excited to be right there on the tarmac in front of such a huge plane — the largest I’ve been on to date. SAA’s livery looks beautiful on this very long plane — it’s a shame I wasn’t able to get this close to it when it was light out. Economy passengers boarded through the rear door, while business-class passengers entered through a door toward the front of the plane.

I boarded the A340 through the forward door.

Cabin and Seat

After being greeted by the friendly flight attendants, I made my way to my seat and was once again surprised by what I saw — a half-full business-class cabin with passengers still sleeping and others clearly just waking up after a nap. This was perfectly normal, given that this flight had just come in on its first leg from Johannesburg (JNB). I’ve just never been on a flight that was already in progress by the time I boarded.

The business-class cabin on South African Airways’ A340-300 consists of two separate cabins full of 38 lie-flat business-class seats arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration. The majority of the seats are in the front section, while just 12 are located in the rear section.

The design of the cabin is dated, but the seats were comfortable.

Each seat is 23.7 inches wide and offers 73 inches of pitch. And all of them turn into fully lie-flat beds.

The business-class cabin is divided into one large cabin with a mini-cabin behind it.

A large pillow and bottle of water were waiting for me at my seat, 3K. Oddly enough, I was never given an amenity kit — I think because the flight attendants didn’t seem to know who the new passengers were and so many of the people who had already been on the flight were moving around the cabin.

I was assigned seat 3K, a window seat near the front of the cabin.

The seat was noticeably old, but I found it to be comfortable. I also had tons of legroom and couldn’t even reach the seat in front of me without getting up entirely. There was a small cubby at the bottom of the seat in front of me that I could fit my shoes in, which was very convenient.

I had to get out of my seat to reach the headphones that were stored in the seat-back pocket in front of me.

One of the things I liked about the seat was a pre-set ‘relax’ setting, which was perfect for eating and watching movies on the in-flight entertainment system. The seat controls were loud and the seat itself moved slowly, but I had no trouble getting comfortable.

Here’s the seat in ‘relax’ mode.

When fully flat, the seat made a nice, comfortable place to sleep for a few hours. One minor annoyance was the built-in headrest at the top of the seat, which put me in a slightly awkward sleeping position, but since I was so exhausted it didn’t seem to matter. These seats also aren’t the most private in the sky, with only a small divider between them (there was no one sitting next to me on this flight). The bedding kept me very warm throughout the flight.

I appreciated the nice bedding, but it was almost too warm.

Food and Beverage

Because of the odd timing of this flight, passengers who joined it in Dakar weren’t given a full meal service, just a snack that was likely served as an appetizer with the dinner the other passengers had received shortly after departing Johannesburg. I was very hungry and tired at the time, and frankly didn’t pay much attention to what I was eating. It all tasted fine, but the warm parts of the snack did have a sort of rubbery texture. I really enjoyed the glass of South African red wine I was served, and how it helped put me right to sleep.

The snack was underwhelming. The wine, however, was excellent.

While the snack wasn’t memorable, the omelette I had for breakfast was. This meal was served about 1.5 hours before we landed in DC, and came with a delicious piece of sausage — just what I needed after an exhausting night of traveling. I ordered a glass of orange juice and a strawberry danish, which was also excellent. This was one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had on an airplane.

This photo really doesn’t do justice to how great that omelette tasted.

In-Flight Entertainment and Amenities

I have to concur with TPG’s thoughts on the in-flight entertainment on South African’s A340 aircraft: it’s slow, outdated and the screen itself is very small. I would have preferred to have it mounted somewhere in front of me instead of having to pull it out from the side, as it’s hard to have both the tray and the IFE screen out at the same time and can lead to accidental spills.

The screen and IFE system could use some updating.

The IFE screen looked like it belonged on a jet in the 1990s, not something you’d see today.

The screen was anything but high-definition.

Even though the screen itself was very outdated, the IFE system was loaded with a decent amount of content and I was able to find a movie to watch before I dozed off.

The IFE actually had a decent selection of movies to choose from.

The headphones provided were nothing to write home about, but they did the trick for the one movie I watched on the flight. They also have the dreaded (in my opinion) three-prong connection, which made it difficult to plug in without being able to see the jack.

The headphones weren’t equipped with noise-canceling technology either.

Like I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t given an amenity kit when I boarded, but I’d received one on my flight to Dakar in business-class aboard the airline’s A330, and it’s the same kit that’s found across the entire fleet. The list of products wasn’t extensive, but I liked the toiletries from Crabtree & Evelyn of London.

The contents of South African Airways’ business-class amenity kit.

Overall Impression

My experience aboard a South African Airways A340-300 was certainly different than TPG’s when he flew nonstop from New York (JFK) to Cape Town (CPT) via Johannesburg (JNB). Despite it being one of the most unconventional flights I’ve ever experienced, I was able to sleep comfortably in the lie-flat seat. The flight crew were extremely friendly and accommodating, always eager to help out if I needed anything. If you’re traveling between the US and West Africa, SAA provides a perfectly comfortable option as long as you’re aware of the peculiarities that come along with joining a flight that’s already begun in another city.

Have you ever flown in South African Airways’ business class aboard the A340-300? Tell us about your experience, below.

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xpresslearn · 8 years

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90% off #GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert – $10

Go from complete novice to expert in Git and GitHub using step-by-step, no-assumptions learning

All Levels, – Video: 6 hours Other: 10 mins, 150 lectures

Average rating 4.5/5 (4.5)

Course requirements:

Basic computer skills Ability to install software on your computer Admin rights may be required for software installation

Course description:

This course will comprehensively cover the GitHub hosting service as a companion to the Git source control tool, which means no prior knowledge or experience is required. Students will emerge at the end with a very solid understanding and hands-on experience with Git and GitHub.

Course Organization

The course is divided into four major components:

Introduction and Setup Learning Git Source Control All About GitHub Bonuses

Each one of the above components spans multiple sections in this course.

New! Closed captions throughout the course!

Introduction

The Introduction provides a welcome to the course including some useful tips for getting the most out of taking the course and how the course is designed. That is followed by the Core Concepts which go over some critical theory before diving straight into Git.

After the introduction and core concepts, the first thing we do is a Quick Installation for both Windows and Mac. The Bonus section has a more comprehensive, step-by-step process for those that prefer it.

Learning Git Source Control

In The Basics, we walk through all the foundational commands needed to start a new project managed by Git (or enable Git for an existing project) all the way through making commits, including common file operations like moving and deleting files. We also cover how to exclude the wrong files from accidentally being committed and how to review your repository’s history.

With a strong foundation in place, we explore some more Advanced Git topics like comparing differences, branching and merge resolution, tagging special events, saving work in progress, and even a bit of time travel.

All About GitHub

The main part of this course is all about GitHub. We will explore GitHub indepth from a source control hosting repository perspective.

In Welcome to GitHub we start off exploring some of the basic features of GitHub by creating a fresh repository and associate our local repository with it. Then, we prepare for the remainder of the course by setting up SSH Authentication, which we will use from this point forward. After that, we continue looking at the GitHub Repository, including many of the same operations we performed locally, but done directly within GitHub. Then in GitHub Repository Branches we dive into how Branches on GitHub and our local system work with each other.

After we have comprehensively covered how GitHub repositories work, we focus on how GitHub Tags and Releases work and their relationship with local tags in Git. We can then use tags/releases while Comparing Differences on GitHub.

We start tying things together in Social Coding where we join other projects on GitHub by forking and then submitting our contributions back using pull requests.

Once part of a team, you might use GitHub Issues to track defects or enhancement requests.

Sometimes you just need to share small parts of a file or a set of files, but don’t want to bother with a full Git repository. That where GitHub Gists help out — share just a snip of code or entire files.

Finally, group related GitHub repositories with GitHub Organizations and manage permissions and access using teams.

Bonuses

The bonuses sections and lectures provide additional information, more comprehensive instructions, or non-critical lectures.

Course Features

All tools have installation and configuration sections to ensure no one is left behind. Presentations provide audio/video training of conceptual ideas. Since few like slide-ware presentations, slide-presentations are kept to a minimum.

Screencasts provide a video of the instructor’s computer system with any actions, commands, or screens displayed and narrated. There is nearly 5 hours of screencast based video training in order to step through each command or action in sufficient detail.

All videos are available in high quality 1080p / Full HD resolution for sharp and clear viewing on modern desktops and tablets.

Several

Reviews:

“Great course to dive into Git and GitHub and get a comprehensive understanding how to use these tools. The author’s language is precise, short and easy to understand. You should only have general basic knowledge about using the command line and computers (But I can’t imagine any programmer who doesn’t have this.). I deducted half a star because I think some kind of “cheat sheet” or handout with condensed information about the learned commands and workflows would have been useful. But well, of course, you can find similar things via your prefered search engine – or you simply follow along with the course and write down what you need. Another point for me is that I work with more than one computer and with different operating systems at home and at university. The course only covers the configuration for Windows systems and Mac. I am missing the Linux section. It’s not a big deal because the commands stay the same. But the configuration for such an environment matters. You have to think about different sync and merge tools, ssh-keys, and your workflow to stay in sync with your own work. And what happens if you put your local repository within a sync tool like Dropbox and use it with your different machines? This question is not covered directly but you can figure it out by using the knowledge within this course. To conclude, I am thankful that I have found this course and it helped me a lot!” (Helge Drews)

“Awesome Course !!!! It helped me a great deal.!!!!” (Smruti Ranjan Tripathy)

“This course explains the material in a very understandable way.” (Russ Brewer)

About Instructor:

Jason Taylor

With nearly 20 years of programming and software development experience, I started out teaching myself programming while in High School. I put myself through college working for a local Internet Service Provider as a programmer. Before finishing college, I developed and sold an award winning website to a Dot-Com start-up. After college, I have worked at several companies ranging from start-ups to large enterprises focusing on Java and client-side technologies (HTML/CSS/JavaScript). Throughout my career, I have opportunity to learn many software development best practices and exposure to several version control systems.

Instructor Other Courses:

Vagrant Quick Start: Virtualized Development Environments Git for Geeks: Quick Git Training for Developers Jenkins Bootcamp: Fully Automate Builds Through Deployment …………………………………………………………… Jason Taylor coupons Development course coupon Udemy Development course coupon Software Engineering course coupon Udemy Software Engineering course coupon GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert course coupon GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert coupon coupons

The post 90% off #GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert – $10 appeared first on Udemy Cupón.

from http://www.xpresslearn.com/udemy/coupon/90-off-github-ultimate-master-git-and-github-beginner-to-expert-10/

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lesterwilliams1 · 8 years

Text

90% off #GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert – $10

Go from complete novice to expert in Git and GitHub using step-by-step, no-assumptions learning

All Levels, – Video: 6 hours Other: 10 mins, 150 lectures

Average rating 4.5/5 (4.5)

Course requirements:

Basic computer skills Ability to install software on your computer Admin rights may be required for software installation

Course description:

Course Organization

The course is divided into four major components:

Introduction and Setup Learning Git Source Control All About GitHub Bonuses

Each one of the above components spans multiple sections in this course.

New! Closed captions throughout the course!

Introduction

Learning Git Source Control

All About GitHub

The main part of this course is all about GitHub. We will explore GitHub indepth from a source control hosting repository perspective.

We start tying things together in Social Coding where we join other projects on GitHub by forking and then submitting our contributions back using pull requests.

Once part of a team, you might use GitHub Issues to track defects or enhancement requests.

Finally, group related GitHub repositories with GitHub Organizations and manage permissions and access using teams.

Bonuses

The bonuses sections and lectures provide additional information, more comprehensive instructions, or non-critical lectures.

Course Features

All videos are available in high quality 1080p / Full HD resolution for sharp and clear viewing on modern desktops and tablets.

Several

Reviews:

“Awesome Course !!!! It helped me a great deal.!!!!” (Smruti Ranjan Tripathy)

“This course explains the material in a very understandable way.” (Russ Brewer)

About Instructor:

Jason Taylor

Instructor Other Courses:

The post 90% off #GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert – $10 appeared first on Udemy Cupón.

from Udemy Cupón http://www.xpresslearn.com/udemy/coupon/90-off-github-ultimate-master-git-and-github-beginner-to-expert-10/

from https://xpresslearn.wordpress.com/2017/03/04/90-off-github-ultimate-master-git-and-github-beginner-to-expert-10/

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lewiskdavid90 · 8 years

Text

90% off #GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert – $10

Go from complete novice to expert in Git and GitHub using step-by-step, no-assumptions learning

All Levels, – 6.5 hours, 150 lectures

Average rating 4.4/5 (4.4 (190 ratings) Instead of using a simple lifetime average, Udemy calculates a course’s star rating by considering a number of different factors such as the number of ratings, the age of ratings, and the likelihood of fraudulent ratings.)

Course requirements:

Basic computer skills Ability to install software on your computer Admin rights may be required for software installation

Course description:

Course Organization

The course is divided into four major components:

Introduction and Setup Learning Git Source Control All About GitHub Bonuses

Each one of the above components spans multiple sections in this course.

New! Closed captions throughout the course!

Introduction

Learning Git Source Control

All About GitHub

The main part of this course is all about GitHub. We will explore GitHub indepth from a source control hosting repository perspective.

We start tying things together in Social Coding where we join other projects on GitHub by forking and then submitting our contributions back using pull requests.

Once part of a team, you might use GitHub Issues to track defects or enhancement requests.

Finally, group related GitHub repositories with GitHub Organizations and manage permissions and access using teams.

Bonuses

The bonuses sections and lectures provide additional information, more comprehensive instructions, or non-critical lectures.

Course Features

All videos are available in high quality 1080p / Full HD resolution for sharp and clear viewing on modern desktops and tablets.

Several

Reviews:

“Clear instruction down to the point. Explained the idea before the action so the audience would know the concept behind it. However, suggested not to use the edit tool and P4Merge and just uses the standard vi editor–cannot make them work on my Mac.” (Daniel Deng)

“This course has answered several questions that I had with Git. Well worth it to spend the time and follow along with your own install.” (Curtis Crum)

“q: is there a way to remove the *.orig file with a git revert or other git command?” (glenn opdycke-hansen)

About Instructor:

Jason Taylor

Instructor Other Courses:

Vagrant Quick Start: Virtualized Development Environments Jason Taylor, Sr. Software Engineer, Technical Trainer on 14 Udemy Courses (41) $10 $20 Maven Quick Start: A Fast Introduction to Maven by Example Git for Geeks: Quick Git Training for Developers …………………………………………………………… Jason Taylor coupons Development course coupon Udemy Development course coupon Software Engineering course coupon Udemy Software Engineering course coupon GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert course coupon GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert coupon coupons

The post 90% off #GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub – Beginner to Expert – $10 appeared first on Udemy Cupón/ Udemy Coupon/.

from Udemy Cupón/ Udemy Coupon/ http://coursetag.com/udemy/coupon/90-off-github-ultimate-master-git-and-github-beginner-to-expert-10/ from Course Tag https://coursetagcom.tumblr.com/post/156150186988

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