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sharkfish · 6 years ago

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ps i loved this one

(rereading bookmarks edition)

i’ve been rereading stories from my bookmarks as a comfort thing. i’m getting real deep in there to stuff i haven’t (re)read for years, and damn do i have good taste. the ones i’ve read recently that you should, too:

(under the cut so i’m not that asshole that makes you scroll past an endless post)

A Change of Scene by SurlyCat

When Dean goes over to see his Dom on Christmas Eve, he isn't expecting Cas to play naughty Santa, and neither of them is expecting how it turns out for them.

ooooomg fuck me up with that sex to lovers thing featuring bdsm. yessssss

A Room of His Own (or not) by Valinde (Valyria)

Dean took a deep breath and reassessed the situation. He was in bed with a guy, sure, and technically they were snuggling, but it was Cas. The guy had absolutely no reference on what was appropriate physical contact between two dudes sharing a bed in the... normal, completely unsexy, no-funny-business, way.

cas is fallen, dean is confused (what else is new), A+ cuddling. that’s the fic.

Boys On Film by LoversAntiquities @tragidean

But maybe that’s what it is—maybe Castiel’s finally realized something Dean is too chicken to admit, despite the fact he’s been jerking off to the idea of Castiel fucking him for the past few weeks. The idea warms him as much as it pains him to think about, his friend not being able to talk to him about something like that. That has to be it—it’s the only explanation. Castiel likes him.

“Or maybe he knows you do cam shows.”

Dean chokes on his burger.

idk what to say, i love a good sex worker fic and here you go. @tragidean is always here with that first-class content.

Castiel's Angel by Valinde (Valyria) @valinde

The angel took a deep breath and looked down at his hands. He was fidgeting Cas noticed. Usually he was so bizarrely at ease in his human form, lounging around and tossing winks and smirks at anyone with a pulse. That more than anything had Cas straightening on his stool and wishing he was a little less tipsy.

“Ineedyoutogroommywings,” Dean muttered in one long, almost unintelligible, string. He was blushing.

all my fellow wing hos should flock* to this fic. i also love me a good switcharoo with angel dean (and hunter cas, as this is an alternate canon universe). and dean gets all claim-y, which is also my jam.

*this was unintentional but a pretty funny joke

For Science! by pm_lo

Selected transcripts and supporting materials from Dr. Castiel Williams and Dean Winchester’s seminal study on physiological and psychological sexual response by gender designation.

i believe this was the first abo fic i added to my bookmarks. story time: many, many moons ago, i kept track of my reading list. i was doing that “50 books a year” thing so it was mostly for tracking that, but i had another tab for fics, because i read few enough that i could track them. i rated things and sometimes left notes, and by all the abo ones i was like “don’t tell anyone i read this.” yes, i shamed myself for liking abo. it was a dark time in my life.

anyway, then i read this, and was like, all right i can see what’s going on here.

this is a great fic for multiple reasons, and the format is one. it’s written as dialogue-only transcripts from their experiment. it’s hard to make that kind of format work, but pm_lo ain’t fucking around.

Just a Stranger On the Bus by Amelia_Clark

December 31 9:32 PM When Castiel boards the bus in KC, they think it’s empty at first—but when they toss their backpack onto an aisle seat and climb in after it, there’s a muffled yelp from the dimness at the back of the bus. They turn in time to see a man in a faded Carharrt jacket, sitting up and yawning as he rubs sleep out of his eyes. The man’s hair is greasy and matted down on one side, and there’s drool on the side of his face; nonetheless, he’s ridiculously good-looking.

“Hey man,” he says. Castiel does not correct him. “This can’t be Chicago.”

the non-binary tag, just like the trans tags in general, are a house half-built and left to rot in the rain. even if that wasn’t true, this series is goddamn amazing. also there’s rimming. also there’s a line in there that said something like “they don’t dislike their body, it just never felt like theirs” and i had a lightbulb moment irt my own experience. did dean ever wear carharrt in the actual series? if not, mistakes have been made.

Just Turn Around and Go by PorcupineGirl @porcupine-girl

Dean should be happy. His best friend and housemate of five years, Castiel, is moving out to live with his boyfriend, Balthazar. Dean's career is going great, so he can easily afford the house on his own now. This is just growing up, moving forward to the next phase of their lives.

It would be awesome, if he weren't in love with Cas.

Well, here we go, he thinks as he opens the refrigerator and digs around for sandwich supplies. First day of the rest of your life. Time to move the fuck on. As he slams his meat and mayo and pickles down on the counter, he considers adding the bottle of whiskey he knows is hiding in the cabinet, but decides that he has enough self-respect to wait 'til five. Then he'll get fucking blackout drunk. Yep. Awesome.

y’all, do i even have to say anything about this? roommates to friends to a pathetic amount of pining without saying shit to disgustingly in love. also i think i cried, but i’ve been in tears so many times in the last week, who’s to say.

Plus One by ceeainthereforthat @ceeainthereforthat

Castiel Novak might have to attend three weddings in two months, but he’s not about to let his brother play matchmaker. His family’s Internet streaming company is too important to let a relationship steal his time, but he knows exactly what to do–hire someone to pretend to be his boyfriend.

Dean Winchester has worked five-star hospitality long enough to know how to fit in with Castiel’s crowd, and this job could score him the connections to make his acting career take off. It’s a business deal, no matter how they’re drawn to each other. When the lines of their contract start to blur into real feelings, can they withstand Castiel’s family and jealous fans working to split them up?

there are a lot of great fake dating stories out there, but this one takes the cake (or, at least, a slice of it). also, i cried a lot rereading this, both “ohhh god i love their love” tears and also “ohhhh god this hurts so bad” tears.

Should've Just Asked by Annie D (scaramouche)

Despite their age gap and differing social circles, Castiel has struck up a warm friendship with Mary Winchester, a wealthy widowed socialite. When Castiel needs a place to stay, Mary invites him into her house, where there’s loads of spare room. Castiel’s aware that they make an odd pair, but he doesn’t fully realize how things look to outsiders, especially to Mary’s eldest son. All Dean Winchester sees is that his mom has apparently hooked up with a hot young guy (who is totally Dean’s type) and that makes things… weird.

they’re both oblivious idiots in love, cas is grey-ace, dean’s a total dork, it’s all just very lovely (and frustrating in the way oblivious idiots can be!!!).

PS - annie d is writing marvel fic lately and i’m sure it’s fantastic if you’re into that kind of thing.

Support Your Local Gay Beekeeper by Powerfulweak

It’s not like Dean goes on Grindr very often, just when he’s bored and alone. The blue-eyed guy's profile reads "Beekeeper, 29, 5'10, Single, I watch the bees." Dean is intrigued. He has to send a message.

this is a series that starts with some great phone sex and then goes on to very, very awkward sex injuries. a goddamn cringefest that had me in complete horror imagining it. but it’s fun! they persevere! people so rarely write about Sex Going Wrong and i love @powerfulweak for taking the bullet for us on that one.

Take Me Home Tonight by Persephoneshadow @persephoneshadow

“Come on, we’re finding you someone to…engage with sexually or whatever,” Dean explains, chancing another swig of beer before going on. “Anyone in this bar, no limits, who would you would be your top choice to bang?” “Well, you, ideally.” Dean spits out some beer before collapsing in on himself, legitimately choking this time. “Excuse me?!” ---- Or the one where Cas wants to have sex and Dean is there to help.

your classic denialist “i’ll be your wingman” turning to “actually imagining someone else touching you makes me want to punch someone.” which is dumb, because cas actually wanted dean all along.

Words with Friends by betts

"Dean Winchester is as straight as an arrow. He’s a lady’s man of epic proportions: the king of the one night stand, the messiah of the friends with benefits paradigm, the emperor of perpetual bachelorhood.

Except, apparently, when it comes to his best friend, Castiel Novak."

***

Wherein a longstanding acquaintanceship leads to friendship, then best friendship, then sexting, then dirty talk, then mutual masturbation, then, inevitably, fucking.

look i think you’re always in good hands with @bettsfic. but this one has some good sexting and phone sex right at the start, which i’m totally into, and then it gets even better. cas is a lil bossy, by which i meant to say he’s the kind of bdsm geek who has equipment installed in his bedroom for sex purposes.

You're The Only Stranger I Need by lyndsie_l

When Castiel receives a text from a stranger, he finds himself engaging in conversations daily. He's drawn to the outgoing college student and longs to interact with the other man as often as he can. Slowly, he finds himself falling in love with the other and can't imagine ever meeting a more beautiful person.

The only problem?

He's never actually met this other man.

be still my heart! a long distance/texting/phone sex thing! i want to read it again right this second. cas is such a cool nerd, dean is a brat, it’s a good time all around.

if you enjoy these fics (and you should), please give the writer some love via kudos and/or comments. <3

ps - as always, if i didn’t tag the writer and you know their tumblr, please tag in the comments. i don’t think there’s a writer alive who wouldn’t be happy to be on a rec list. :)

#sharkrecs #sharklist

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neth-dugan · 7 years ago

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Nine Worlds - Thursday

It’s been a week after it all ended I’m writing this up. I was pretty darn tired after the convention and work didn’t help much. There are also issues that arose within the convention that I wanted to think on some, wanted to read different voices. But we will get to that at the end. Each day is getting its own post so I may do that in a separate one.

At large, I had a fantastic time and loved it. In many respects it feels like going home, going to a place where I feel safe and accepted. I don’t feel uncomfortable for my size. I don’t feel weary about how men will treat me. I don’t feel scared to talk about my sexuality or the need to explain it every single bloody time. I know everyone is a giant nerd like me and so when I’m nervous and just babble about Star Trek too long or something, nobody will judge me for it. I understand not everyone has had the same experience as me there but for me this is it. This is why I will go back every year. This year I was roomies with both @knittedace and @laalratty which was pretty cool.

PRIORITY ACCESS

In the lead up to this year I’ve had some kind of viral thing. I had to take time off of work due to dizziness, had an inner ear viral thing that later turned into a more normal cold but was mostly gone by the con. But I did still get a few light headed moments and conventions are tiring which makes these things worse. On registration I tore off a priority access sticker in case I needed it. Still on its backing sheet I stuck it into my phone just in case.

I ended up needing it. I used it pretty sparingly and even so felt bad, though the access people were all ‘yeah, we don’t want you falling over’. But it did make things a lot easier a few times when I was on my way to a panel but had to go slower or just stop for a while. And I was no doubt on the lower ends of folk with access needs. I was going to put a gif here but the ones that fit best would probably make others feel not great.

THURSDAY Though Nine Worlds officially starts on Friday, there are usually a couple of events on Thursday evening and lots of us turn up that day if we live far away and want to get to early morning events on the Friday. I left around noon on a train to London and wasn’t able to sit comfortably as a bloke was man spreading and I didn’t feel comfortable asking him to stop, and there was no other seat. Whilst I was on the train I found out via twitter that there was something going with the Intoxication panel. The moderator of that was on one of my panels last year and I have them on Facebook (who swallowed their post) and I was not pleased about what I was hearing.

I got a text from @knittedace saying that she and @laalratty were at the train station waiting for me, they got into London at a different station but the tube needed intersected with mine and there they were. Complete with a sign with my name on it.

.... I couldn’t find a gif with someone holding a sign at arrivals.

We got to the hotel, and the staff there seem to actually like us and not look down on us which is great. I recently found out that one of the people involved since the beginning drew up some training for them when we first arrived around equalities and such which is pretty awesome. In any case, we go up to our room to find the pull out sofa bed already made up and this was to be my bed for the weekend. I’m not used to sleeping with others, and I was still a bit ill so it seemed for the best. Whilst my roomies went out to check something out locally and then get drenched in the rain I stayed behind, read, rested up. But, eventually, it was time for sign up to start. We went to the lobby, waited in line and before long had our goodies, overlays, pronouns and the like. All set up and ready to go in time for the opening events.

Whilst @laalratty was off to the quiz, me and @knittedace decided to go to the Cheese and Cheese event. In which there is cheese to be eaten and cheese to to be read out. We also found @unwoundbobbin who I knew mostly from Twitter and had met at last year’s con. She was going to go to the quiz at first but we convinced her otherwise! And so off the three of us went to consume multiple kinds of cheese. Before the session proper started the three of us and others were playing Slash with my customised deck. Some hadn’t played it before, but it’s easy to pick up on.

It was tons of fun. There were the traditional readings from the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for opening lines. A hilarious story about Biden and Obama after they leave office and various other things. The rule is only published works, unless it’s something you yourself wrote. So people can’t pick on fanfic writers they don’t like. @knittedace read a fantastic Doctor Who crack fic, edited down for time but still glorious. Someone then went to read a story they’d written as a teenager which inspired me to go read the oldest published bit of fan fic I have on the internet. It is overly descriptive, you can’t tell which fandom it is let alone the characters, and definitely cheesy. Seriously, I love that session. Thankfully I didn’t laugh-cough my lungs up like last year but I still laughed a LOT. There was also a medallion that each reader wore as they read their thing out. And as the session went on, we collectively and without discussion started going magical/mystical/heavenly choir heralding of the prestigious undertaking whenever someone put it on.

After it ended we went to meet up with @laalratty whose team came third in the quiz. And for a while we played more Slash! I love this game and can only really play it at conventions so I treasure it. Also, the way that me, @knittedace and @laalratty play it there are basically no rules. Just fun and taking turns. I love it so much. Eventually people agreed it was time for bed though and so we went. Slight problem - I couldn’t get to sleep. I was tossing and turning for ages. I’d start to nod off but weak up scared I was making noises (hint: I apparently snore a bit) but also the mattress and pillows aren’t anything like mine. It got to 3am and I had enough.

I have distinct memories of being told that if you can’t sleep, don’t stay in bed because you then don’t link it to sleep. So I pulled on a skirt and shirt in near utter darkness, and got out of the room as silently as I could. It turns out that @knittedace was awake and so heard me leave but I wasn’t aware at the time. I went downstairs, haunted reception in my bare feet, slightly surprised a cleaning person in the loo and just hung around until I could barely keep my eyes open. Went back to bed and got a couple hours sleep after I eventually fell to sleep.

And that was Thursday! I’m probably not going to be as detailed in the next few days but who knows. But most of this day was meeting up and things starting.

[GO TO FRIDAY HERE]

#nine worlds #nineworlds #was watching west wing which made typing this all take way longer #sorry #will post another tomorrow #I need to sleep for work

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tessatechaitea · 5 years ago

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Cerebus #1

This is the Biweekly version of Cerebus because I do not have access to what you humans call "money."

When I first encountered Cerebus, I must have been twelve or thirteen years old. It was probably 1984, possibly 1985. I had just purchased the Elfquest Role Playing Game and my mom was driving us home as I eagerly dove into it. I had only been reading Elfquest via the collected color editions even though a kid in my 6th grade class had mentioned to me that the series came out in black and white issues every few months. I probably didn't really believe him at the time because I rarely believed anything anybody told me if I didn't already know it. How I learned anything at all, I'll never know. Unless maybe I haven't learned anything? Anyway, as I perused the gaming book, I noticed a picture of Rayek speaking with Ekuar. What the hell? Rayek was dead, wasn't he?! What is this? Suddenly there were pictures of other elves I didn't recognize, elves in furs riding elk. "Oh my God! Those are the elves at the end of Elfquest Book Three!" I somehow didn't say out loud, completely boring my mother with my passion for all things elves. I was seeing spoilers! I shut the book, turned to my mother, and said, "We have to go to a comic book shop!" I don't remember if I already knew about Brian's Books on Calabazas Boulevard or if we looked it up in a phone book. I feel like we immediately went there because we were on El Camino already. Just trust me about the geography; it all works out! I could go into deeper details but I'm no Alan Moore or James Joyce. I'm not going to write a book that describes my hometown so well that any casual reader could suddenly find their way around the place. Brian's Books was my first real comic book shop. I had been reading other comic books picked up, half bent over, from the racks at the local 7-Eleven. But learning about Brian's Books changed that. Never again would I own a creased comic book! I went there to pick up the single issues of Elfquest that Dan assured me existed. One full shelf at Brian's Books was dedicated to Elfquest. He had copies (mostly reprints, probably) of many of the nearly twenty issues (I don't think the entire story had been completed at the time. But it was close!). Directly across the aisle from the Elfquest books was a number of shelves full of a comic book with a funny looking aardvark wearing a helmet and wielding a sword. I was instantly intrigued. But I never picked it up. At the time, I had a weird thing about adults knowing I was reading things that were kind of adult. I guess I was embarrassed for some reason. Maybe I thought I'd get teased. It was like that with Piers Anthony's Incarnation of Immortality series. I felt odd picking that up, as if I were trying to get away with being cheeky or naughty. Cerebus looked adult in that way that would embarrass me if my mom saw me buying it. So I didn't pick it up. Also, it was well into its 60th, 70th, or 80th issue (I don't remember exactly but it was pretty high up there already. I suppose it was being published for about 8 years by then with a year or two of those being bimonthly? So maybe around 80 or 90?). To me, all comic books were one continuous story. It was inconceivable to begin reading that far into the story. Not that I would have tried anyway; did you see that cover with that buxom woman in the chain mail bikini?! My mom would definitely ask me embarrassing questions! Several years later, at a different comic book shop in Saratoga (possibly one of the ones I was picking up Magic the Gathering cards at), I saw Swords of Cerebus. It was Cerebus but collected in one book and starting at the beginning! And I had stopped caring what mother thought about what I was reading! I believe I purchased the first three Swords of Cerebus collections and fell in love with it. It was hilarious and fun and it was spoofing Conan, books which I had been reading without fear of embarrassment for years. Probably because the covers had skeletons and fighting on the cover and not Conan ravishing topless women. Begin Digression: I got into He-Man and the Masters of the Universe because I saw a Skeletor figure in the toy department at Mervyn's with my grandmother. It reminded me of the cover of one of the Conan books I'd been reading at the time.

I wanted to say it was Conan of Cimmeria but then I looked it up online and discovered this was the cover of the version I read. Not the one that reminded me of Skeletor!

It's possible Skeletor just reminded me of a scene in Conan of Cimmeria with a skeleton on a throne that maybe he had to battle. Or it was just another of the books. Anyway, I begged her to buy Skeletor for me and she did and I played with just Skeletor for I don't know how long. This was before the cartoon even existed. Believe it or not, the figures did come first! End Digression. Not long after I purchased those Cerebus books, I discovered the huge Cerebus phone books. I don't know exactly when Dave Sim began publishing those but I believe a few were already available when I discovered them. I just happened to stumble upon his initial try at compiling his stories (Swords of Cerebus) first. At that point, it was over. I bought all that I could find and finally began reading the Cerebus monthly issues. It was some point during the "Mothers & Daughters" saga. If I had begun at "Melmoth," I'm not sure I would have continued with it! But will get to that eventually! For now, let's remember how the whole thing began.

One dollar. Can you believe it?!

This is Cerebus before he loses his helmet, his necklace, and 2/3 of his nose. You know how people sometimes have some major body changes or their heads kind of reshape as they age? I figure this is late teenage Cerebus who matures across the next twenty or so issues until he finally assumes his adult form. That's the in-continuity reason for his appearance change. I know the real reason is that Dave Sim refined his style while gaining valuable experience and practice over time. I don't remember when it happens but at some point Cerebus goes from looking like a slightly amateurish independent comic book to a gorgeous, expressive, Gerhard-backgrounded beauty of a book. Elfquest didn't go through nearly the same dramatic difference in its twenty issues. I guess when you've got three hundred issues to write, you have to get started before you're really ready. Unlike Wendy Pini who was all, "I only have to do twenty of these?! Let me get in some practice first! I don't want Cutter looking like a completely different character a third of the way through the story!" I'm not saying there aren't obvious aesthetic differences between the elves in Issue #1 and the elves in Issue #20! I'm just saying those differences are way less dramatic! The original Issue #1 came out at the end of 1977. I think these first issues were published every other month. According to a note from Sim's wife at the time, Deni Loubert, Cerebus came about as a logo for Aardvark-Vanaheim Press. And it was meant to be Cerberus but she spelled it wrong and also I guess Dave Sim couldn't draw a three-headed dog so he drew an Earth pig. I don't know. I'm doing a synopsis of the "Note from the Publisher" on the inside front cover which is just about as long as my synopsis and totally different. Because I have a habit of explaining things poorly, partially because I'm dumb and even more partially because I think it's funny. If you want the truth, get off the Internet and go fucking meditate. This biweekly issue also includes the introductory essay to the first Swords of Cerebus compilation written in 1981. Dave Sim also explains the origins of Cerebus, more accurately than I did although nowhere near as succinctly.

You don't have to read all that. I just wanted to show you how much Dave Sim had to write to get across the same idea that his then wife took a few small paragraphs to say. This theme will reappear later (much later, thankfully. I'll have my work cut out for me then).

As you can see by having not read that previous essay, Dave also explains his process. If you're interested, go ahead and maximize your browser so you can read the essay. If you're not interested, I won't bore you with another shitty synopsis. The issue begins with a narrator explaining Cerebus's arrival on the scene. Not an omniscient narrator. It's the voice of just some jerk in the city who was all, "That weird little guy who arrived at dawn? He'd be remembered as the finest warrior even though he was short and deformed." I like to believe that the person telling the story is Techot Thal, the guy who gets his hand cut off by Cerebus on the next page (the narrator talks about Techot in the third person but Cerebus does that with himself as well, so why can't Techot be telling the tale?). He probably begs for gold crowns outside of the local tavern and when somebody asks him about his hand, he begins the story of Cerebus. He probably tells all three hundred issues of the story. Unless he's telling it to a woman and then she walks off disgusted around Issue #186.

The first page tells the potential buyer everything they need to know about the comic book they're about to read: whimsical with pretty accurate depictions of horses.

Cerebus has come to town to do a Conan parody. Remember the part of the first Conan movie where they raid the tower and kill a giant serpent and steal a jewel or something? That's pretty much the plot of this issue. I'm not saying Oliver Stone and John Milius stole the story from Cerebus! It was just easier to say, "Hey, remember that scene in that movie that came out after this comic book?" I figure more people will identify with that than if I'd said, "Remember that Conan story by Robert E. Howard that you probably read when you were a twelve year old nerd who couldn't find anybody to play Dungeons & Dragons with them? Oh wait. I bet a lot of you would have identified with that too! I shouldn't be so quick to assume shit. Cerebus teams up with some thieves to raid a wizard's tower to steal the Flame Jewel. They've got it all planned but Cerebus is less a patient strategist and more a Leroy Jenkins kind of aardvark. He rushes into the tower heedlessly. Maybe his plan is to get his comrades killed so there's more Flame Jewel for Cerebus.

Do we ever find out who Clovis is and how many body parts he has?

Cerebus and his comrades are attacked by a shadow monster on their way into the tower. It's the first real example of Cerebus's skill with a sword as he defeats the monster. But it also shows that he's not overly powerful, and that he just barely wins the battle. He is vulnerable but strong willed and skillful! There remains doubt as to whether Cerebus can succeed at this mission! Also, it's just the first issue. It's not like the reader knew the story was going to go for 300 issues yet. It was possible, picking this strange new comic up off the shelf, Dave Sim would have realized how much work it was by the end of it and just let Cerebus die on the last page.

The wizard gets the first mention of Tarim (also his incantation earlier mentions "Terim" (which might be important later?)).

As of now, you'd think Cerebus worshiped somebody named Clovis and the humans worshiped somebody named Tarim. But we'll see later that Cerebus is into Tarim too. And maybe Clovis is just some hero myth of the barbarians? Next, Cerebus is attacked by an animated skeleton! They fight in a pitch back corridor because Dave Sim had yet to partner with Gerhard and drawing backgrounds is probably boring and/or time consuming. After defeating the skeleton and a ceiling of hallucinogenic petunias dropped on them, Cerebus's companions suggest they flee the tower. But Cerebus forces them to go on, seeing as they promised him a pouch of gold for helping them get the Flame Jewel. What a shrewd negotiator! Even if the Flame Jewel winds up being a cheap knock-off or legend (which it totally will be!), Cerebus still gets paid! Eventually, Cerebus encounters the wizard and his pet dragon (which I misremembered as a giant snake. Eh, it's similar enough to the Conan story!). Cerebus realizes the dragon is an illusion and closes his eyes as he approaches the wizard. He's all, "I'm just going to keep walking forward swinging my sword like this and if some dumb wizard just happens to get in my way, it's not my fault if he loses his spleen!" Cerebus, ignoring the beast so that the beast must ignore him, marches up to the wizard and kills him. He sure does understand magic! The thieves pay Cerebus after which Cerebus is all, "You guys should check out the Flame Jewel now! And also remember this old aardvark saying, 'No takesies backsies.'"

Ho ho! What a twist! What a wise aardvarkian warrior! What a realistic looking horse!

Cerebus rides off into the sunset leaving the thieves to declare their hatred for aardvarks. Because even thieves in fantasy novels only consider white men as individuals. Everybody else simply represents their entire race. Unless they do something kind or good or smart. That's when they declare them an anomaly. At the end of the issue are the "Aardvark Comments," the letters pages. I will be reading and discussing these to some degree since so much of the controversy that Dave Sim eventually had to deal with began life in this section. But that's a topic for another time, something like 185 issues from now. Here's another bit at the end of the Biweekly edition of Cerebus: The Single Page.

Another reason to love Dave Sim's independent spirit and artistic ethos.

Dave Sim had no need to put other people's work in the back of the Cerebus Biweekly to fill space or to sell issues. He did it simply to support other independent artists. How many mainstream companies would simply use this as an excuse to get people to send them free art just so they could see it in print? Sim is offering artists $150.00 for their efforts. Seems like a pretty generous offer for what basically amounts to exposure. In his later years, he might let his perception of reality as a conflict between men and women ultimately shape his spirituality and the way he read The Bible and The Quran (I mean, the scripture depicts two voices of God, a bad female one and a good male one? Come on, Dave! Hoo boy!) but he was always true to his independent publishing beliefs. Cerebus #1 Rating: B. A solid B effort here at the outset. I can't begin by giving this issue an A knowing how fucking terrific this thing gets not too far down the line. Besides, it doesn't deserve more than a solid B. The art tells the story of a better than amateur but not quite yet nailing it artist developing his style. The story isn't much more than a Conan fanfic rip with a talking animal shoved into the lead. It's got a few moments where the wit really shines and you can see shadows of Sim's really clever writing. And I don't mean to suggest the art is in any way bad; he's got some terrific panels and creatures in this thing. It's just it gets so much better! And the lettering! Come on! I never comment on letterers but Sim, having complete control of his story telling, knows exactly how to visualize the dialogue and sound effects. This isn't the kind of comic book where you think, "I have to read #2!" Mostly because it's a complete story in itself. But it is the type that will make you remember it when you see #2 on the shelf causing you to automatically pick it up.

#Cerebus #Dave Sim

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beta-synch · 8 years ago

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A Punderful Proposal (SansxReader One-shot)

Hey, everybody! This is somethings I wrote up based on a dream I had a while back. I wanted to write out the idea, cuz I’m a sucker for fluff. Hope everyone enjoys!

Ao3 Link

Title: A Punderful Proposal Pairing: Sans/Reader Word count: 2598 Warnings: Fluff overload. Terrible shitty puns and jokes. No pronouns used for Reader. Otherwise, none.

——

Laughter rang out as the sun shined brightly from the cloudless sky. Waves rolled softly back and forth on the golden sand. The heat was eased by a gentle, cool, ocean breeze.

It was a glorious summer day and you and all your friends had been able to organize a beach house getaway for the next couple of days.

You never expected to become such great friends with all of these wonderful Monsters and their little Ambassador. It stared with Alphys. You had helped her find the local nerd shop and ended up in a very long discussion about anime inside the shop. Through her you met Undyne, when Alphys had invited you out for lunch one day to meet her girlfriend. Next had actually been Toriel and Frisk. You were invited to a sleepover at Alphys’ that Frisk had been invited to as well, and you instantly loved the determined child to pieces and Toriel became a pseudo-mom to you. Finally, you met Papyrus, and in turn, Sans. Undyne was taking you to one of their training session and Papyrus had dragged Sans along this one time because Undyne had said you would be there. Papyrus was the coolest, sweetest person you had ever met, and Sans…

Well…

Something seemed to just click with you two.

Maybe it was the way you treated his brother. Or maybe how friendly you were with his friends.

Or maybe the mutual love of puns.

“the beach is quite the sand-sation, isn’t it?”

“I sea what you did there, but don’t star fishing for compliments.” You giggled. He laughed and planted a kiss on your cheek.

“stars, you’re wonderful.” He sighed dreamily, “how did i become so lucky to be allowed to date someone like you?”

“Sans…”

“i know, i know… no self-depreciation. but still, i sometimes still wonder how you’re real. you’re so incredible and beautiful and smart and funny and i love you so much…” He pulls you into a hug that you quickly return.

What ever it was that clicked between you two, it grew and grew. You became closer and closer, Sans eventually admitting to you his darkest thoughts, and you in turn being a light to guide him back from them. When you were having a hard time and stressing out over everything, he would pull you back and help you unwind. Mutual give and take. There were bumps here and there as with anything, but neither of you wanted to leave the other.

Two years in and Sans realized he loved you far more than a friend. It took another year though for Sans finally find the courage to ask you out. Part of it was the fear you wouldn’t return his feelings. Another, bigger part was that he didn’t think he deserved you. He was still trying to recover from everything the resets had done to him. He was getting better yes, but he was still a mess sometimes. Even if his HP had finally stared rising again, it was still rather precariously low at the time, and he had been sure the heartbreak of being rejected by you would have dusted him where he stood. He couldn’t do that to you.

You had figured out Sans feelings for you a little after he did, and even though you returned them, you were going to wait for Sans to ask you out. You dropped little hints that you returned his affections, but never pushed him. You waited for him to accept that it was ok to take this chance with you. To take a chance at letting himself have a bit of happiness. When he finally did, via a pun in true Sans fashion, you had laughed with the biggest smile on your face and said yes.

You ended up admitting that you had been waiting for him to ask and explained why you had done so. Because Sans deserved to be happy too. You wanted him to believe he deserved it. He asked if he could kiss you right then and there. You answered by taking his face in your hand and pressing your lips to his.

It’s been three years since then and the two of you couldn’t be more of a happy couple if you tried. Papyrus was over the moon with how happy the two of you were, so relieved that his brother was no longer on the verge of Falling Down and so very excited about you joining the family. (The two of you had also given Alphys and Undyne plenty of material for their growing Doujinshi and Fanfiction archives.) Everyone couldn’t have been more happy for the two of you.

“Shell we?”

“we shell.”

You both giggle like the dorks you were.

~~~

It was a great time. You got roped into many shenanigans with your friends; making sandcastles (and burying a sleeping Sans in the sand), collecting shells, playing a rather erm… passionate game of volleyball with Undyne and Papyrus.

“I’M SO SORRY ______!!! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT YOU WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO HANDLE A SPIKE FROM UNDYNE!!!”

“Pap, I’m fine. Got the wind knocked out of me, but no harm done.” You try and comfort the tall skele, despite the ball shaped bruises on your arms stating otherwise. Papyrus tearful shuffles in place, still guilty for the incident. You sigh and reach up to take his face in your hands. You gently pull him down to your level and place a chaste kiss on his forehead.

“It’s ok, Pap. It was an accident, and no one is mad. No more tears, ok? We’re supposed to be having fun.” You coo, softly wiping away his tears. He sniffles, but nods and gives you a small smile. “Now, come here.”

You pull him into a hug and he returns it, burying his face in your shoulder. You hear him mutter a ‘thank you’ and something else you almost didn-

Did he…

Did Papyrus just call you his sibling?

You pull back from him, wide-eyed. Even after so long of Pap saying he considered you such, that’s the first time he’s actually called you it. It seems he finally registered his own words as his face begins to tint orange.

“I-I MEAN- THAT IS- UM-” you cut off his embarrassed stuttering by making little keening noises.

“Oh my god, Pap! You’ve never called me that! I’m so happy!” You sniffled, your heart about to burt with joy.

“NOW LOOK WHO’S CRYING.” Papyrus chuckles. You do as well at the turn of events.

“I’VE- BEEN WANTING TO CALL YOU THAT.” He admits. “FOR A WHILE NOW.”

“You have?” You tip your head in curiosity. “What changed?”

“NYEHEHEHE.” Papyrus holds a finger up to his lips and winks. “SORRY, DEAR SIBLING, BUT THAT, I CANNOT SAY.”

You blinked in confusion. Papyrus? Keeping secrets?? What has the world come to.

“DO NOT WORRY THOUGH! YOU WILL KNOW WHY SOON ENOUGH.”

“Ok then, Pap. I’ll trust you on that.”

~~~~~

It was two days in of your three day trip, and the sun had finally set. Everyone had gathered outside around a bonfire to relax after the long day of playing.

Well, almost everyone. Frisk had passed out on one of the couches, completely tuckered out, and was put to bed. But that didn’t explain who else was missing.

“Where’s Sans?” You ask, looking around for your missing boney boyfriend.

“I think he said he was going up to the Cabana.” Toriel offered. “Though, he has been gone for a while…”

“I’ll go get him.” You say, standing from your seat. “I heard the Cabana has a really good view of the stars, so he probably wanted to see them and lost track of time.”

“Alright, call if you need anything.”

You then turned from the group to head up the cobblestone path to the Cabana. You didn’t notice the faint giggling of your other favorite skeleton.

~~~

“What’s gotten into you Pap?” Undyne quirked a brow at her friend. Papyrus continued to giggle like an excited child.

“OH THIS IS THE MOST WONDERFUL JAPE! AND NO, I WILL NOT BE TELLING YOU WHY. YOU WILL GET TO HEAR ABOUT IT SOON.”

“Aww, not even a hint?” She tried elbowing him in the side, but he avoided it and rolled his eyes.

“ONLY THAT THIS IS SOMETHING THAT SANS HAS BEEN PLANNING TO DO FOR A WHILE.” Alphys blink in confusion for a second, then her eyes went wide as she gasped.

“Y-You mean he’s-!? Right n-now!? Oh my gosh!!!” She bounced excitedly in place. It didn’t take Undyne much longer to figure out what was mean either.

“Ooooh-ho-holy cheese balls, really?! The nerd is finally going through with it?! Why the heck ain’t we up there?!” Undyne hopped up to go march after you, but Papyrus’ voice stopped her dead.

“NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING.” All eyes turned to Papyrus. “SANS HAD ENOUGH TROUBLE CONVINCING HIMSELF TO DO THIS WITHOUT ANYONE PRESSURING HIM TO DO SO. HE DOES NOT NEED IT NOW. I WILL NOT HAVE ANYONE RUIN THIS FOR HIM.” He was entirely serious about this, and though he didn’t say it, he was also prepared to forcefully keep his friends from spying on Sans and you. Sans almost didn’t end up asking you out all those years ago because their friends kept nagging him about it. He was not letting Sans get cold feet because of stage fright or nerves. Not when Sans was so close to what used to be nothing but an unachievable dream.

“Alright Papyrus.” Toriel, ever the voice of reason. “We’ll stay here and wait for the good news.”

~~~~

“why did the proton blush? it was positively attracted to the electron.”

You snorted and laughed. Ok, so you had found Sans at the Cabana, just like Tori had said. You had initially just sat and started making small talk, then Sans threw some puns, then you did, and now the whole thing has dissolved into a joke war. By now, the stars were in their full glory.

“Ok, I saw this one on the Internet and I thought of you.”

“awww, babe.”

“So, two fonts, Arial and Calibri, were in the midst of a bad breakup. Calibri said, ‘I’m sorry, you’re personality is too bold.’ Arial responded, ‘You’re just not my type…’”

You both dissolved into a fit of giggles.

“ok, ok, I got one. two nuclear technicians got married. she was radiant and he was glowing.”

Oh? Relationship jokes now? Well ok then.

“I bet they were a fastidious couple. She was fast, he was tedious.”

“an invisible man marries an invisible woman. the kids were nothing to look at either.”

“When a psychic showed me the person I’ll marry, it was love at second sight.”

“what do you call a melon that’s not allowed to get married? a cant-elope.”

You throw your head back and laugh, your side starting to get a stich. You two continued this trend of marriage, wedding, and relationship puns for a bit. But you started to get curious. He’s never made these kinds of puns before. You laughed until it was quiet.

“Sans…?” He seemed nervous now. “What’s wrong?”

“nothing, i just…” He takes a deep breath and steels himself. “knock, knock.”

“… Who’s there?”

Wait. Was this…?

“marry.”

Being alone with Sans in a beautiful place. The theme of the puns.

“I’VE BEEN WANTING TO CALL YOU THAT. FOR A WHILE NOW.”

Your eyes are wide and your hands are trembling.

“M-marry who…?”

He slids off his chair and down on one knee in front of you. Out of his shorts pocket he pulls a little black box. His own hands shake as he holds it out to you. You can hear the soft rattle of his bones.

How long were you waiting, Sans?

“Marry… me…?” He opens the box and inside is a simple but absolutely gorgeous ring. Nothing more than a simple gold band with a single small gem embedded in it, and you think you see engravings on the inside. But you really didn’t want anything else, Sans and you were both simple people. It sparkled in the moonlight and your breath had left you. You brought a hand to your mouth, your eyes going misty as you continued to gaze at the ring.

The silence stretched for several more seconds and Sans didn’t seem to take that as a good sign. He started to pull back, tears beginning to fill his sockets, and your brain finally caught up with you to say something, you idiot!

“What did the melons say when they were being married?” You blurted out quickly, making Sans freeze.

“w-what…?”

You carefully pluck the ring from the box and slide it onto your finger. Then you take Sans’s face in your hands and peck him quickly on the lips.

“Honey, I do.”

He blinks dumbly at you for a few seconds. Then you giggle and your words finally register. All the tension falls out of him as he starts tearfully laughing. You pull him to you and he wraps his arms around your middle, face pressed to your stomach.

“you can’t go doing that to me babe.” He blubbers between watery chuckles. “i thought i messed up. thought you would…”

“I’m so sorry, Sansy.” You apologize, pressing kisses to the top of his skull. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I love you too much… I don’t think it’s possible for me to say no to you.”

“you did just say yes to marrying me.” Sans mutters. That sentence them seems to strike him all over again, his arms wrapping tighter around you as he begins to laugh in ernest.

“you said yes!! you said yes!!!!” He cheers. He pulls back suddenly, only to jump up on his feet, take your face in his hands, and smash your lips together. You’re quick to return it, crushing him to you the best you can. When he pulls back, he gives you the biggest, most joyful smile you’ve ever seen on him. You laugh as he nuzzles his face to yours.

“You’re never getting rid of me, you know.”

“i should be the one saying that.” He chuckles, then gets this almost wistful look. “i don’t know if i’d be able to live without you now.”

“Sans.”

“i know, self-depreciation. but…” Sans gently takes your hands in his and presses a kiss to your fingers, just below your ring. “we’ve got the rest of our lives for you to keep reminding me.”

All you could do was pull him into another kiss.

Your ring continued to glitter in the moonlight.

~~~~~~~

’WHAT DO YOU MEAN “SANS PROPSED LAST NIGHT”?! WHY DIDN’T ANYONE WAKE ME UP?!’ Frisk furiously signed.

“No one knew he was doing so except for Papyrus, and he wasn’t letting anyone see Sans propose. So you weren’t the only one who didn’t get to see, my child.” Toriel soothed, not looking up from cooking breakfast. Frisk stomped their foot once in frustration, then rushed over to you and Sans, who were eating breakfast together in the living room. They nearly tackled their skeleton uncle, causing him to grunt and try to not fall over.

“whoa there kiddo, easy on these old bones.”

'I had better get to be the Ring Bearer at the wedding!’

“Sure Frisk, whatever will keep you from bearing grudges.”

Papyrus then looks up from his breakfast with a flat face.

“IT SEEMS I HAVE BEEN UNDER A MILD FORM OF INSANITY. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME STOP THIS WEDDING.”

#sync's writings #undertale #sans #sans x reader #papyrus #Undyne #Alphys #toriel #frisk #one shot #proposal

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tech-latest-blog · 5 years ago

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Back in the days if someone told you that esports was a really a thing then you would have probably laughed and didn’t bother to give a second thought to it. I mean clearly, we think that gaming is a good pastime, nothing more than that. Well, this ignorance tends to take people’s minds away when they hear that some kid bagged a record-breaking $3M by winning a Fortnite World Cup at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in the US. Which leads to believe that it is now a real thing. Esports is growing rapidly and has a lot of scope for you gamers out there but much like every other thing, there’s more to it.

Winner of the Fortnite World Cup held at Arthur Ashe Stadium. 16 year old, Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf won $3M

In the process of discrediting esports being a real thing, people just don’t know the effort that Professional Gamers put in this craft. Much like any other professional sport it also requires to evolve with the skills of gaming day by day. Much like professional athletes, professional gamers also need to put around 6 hours daily to be well updated with the competition. Also, like any other sports it is constantly evolving so missing out even a week of practice will put you backward and can have a huge difference. Professional Organizations have a whole systematic approach where they monitor the diet and sleep patterns too, to see if the player is healthy all the time.

A Note to Kids and their Parents

Well, if you are a kid and aiming to take professional gaming as a career then there are some points that you need to know,

The very important thing is education. Do not let gaming hinder your studies as no matter how hard we try to believe that education is not everything, in reality, education is very important. So keep that in mind that you at least complete your high school before trying to get really into professional gaming.

Secondly, the Gaming industry is constantly evolving and is all about trends. Some games gained huge success overnight and then vanished like they never existed. So, you need to be careful and think just because you are good at one game does not mean that you will be good at others too. I mean you can be but again as I mentioned, it will require more time and effort. Also, you need to be aware of every genre of gaming, whether its action, arcade, racing, sports or any other. Just pick one or two genres and try to be the best in those and then also work your way to other genres as well.

Some other aspects are, you keep a good track of your diet and make sure that it is healthy. Not like a classic nerd gamer who just munches lays with cola. No not like that! Instead, follow a healthy diet so that you don’t feel sleepy all the time. Also, make sure that you have a good sleeping pattern and you do not end up waking 2 in the afternoon every time. Sometimes it is okay to play at midnight and then wake up late in the morning. Just do not make it a habit.

Game titles are expensive and it becomes really hard to convince your parents to spend money on them. The best suggestion that I would give is to have a passive income source. It can be anything like writing on the internet, participating in local gaming tournaments and many other things. It also kind of gives leverage to you to convince your parents into your aim.

When it comes to parents and esports, that’s where things get a little bit messed up. The majority of the parents do not want their children to pursue gaming. In fact, parents get worried when they see their child who plays too many games. They become nervous when their children present their idea of pursuing.

Well, no need to worry about anything parents. The esports industry is rapidly growing it is not impactful here in India but it will get here soon. Many organizations here in India have well equipped “gaming houses” which is the training gym of gamers.

If your child expresses to make a career in esports then do not straightaway reject it. Sit down and discuss it with them. Tell them if they want to do it then much like any other sports, they need to be amazingly hardworking and talented. Ask them to teach you a game and see how well aware they are. If your child really shows potential then encourage them. Be with them at big events and see if they do not make any mistakes on the paperwork (as they are still children).

Right now there is a huge scope in the whole esports industry and Its hard time that we realize that esports is a real thing!

Talented gamers out there start preparing and working hard and their parents start encouraging them.

The post Esports: Is it worth the time? Its Future appeared first on Tech Latest.

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networkingdefinition · 6 years ago

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Mobile Phones Quotes

Official Website: Mobile Phones Quotes

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It is not a brand that will be seen by consumers. The Nokia brand is available to Microsoft to use for its mobile phones products for a period of time, but Nokia as a brand will not be used for long going forward for smartphones. Work is underway to select the go forward smartphone brand. – Stephen Elop • Mobile phone technology can help to bring financial services to the 80 percent of African women who do not have a bank account and bolster the growth of the world’s poorest continent. It’s not just about empowering women, it’s about economic growth. Unless we can make access to finance easier for women in their businesses, we will be missing out on a significant portion of growth within our economies – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala • Mobile phones … they’re not for communicating, they’re for broadcasting. Broadcasting The Show Of Me. – Adam Nevill • Mobile phones amplify human talents for cooperation. – Howard Rheingold • Mobile phones are misnamed. They should be called gateways to human knowledge. – Ray Kurzweil • Mobile phones are one of the most insecure devices that were ever available, so they’re very easy to trace; they’re very easy to tap. – Evgeny Morozov • Mobile phones are the only subject on which men boast about who’s got the smallest. – Neil Kinnock • More and more we’re negating the validity of first-hand experience of people from other countries and other cultures… whether it’s on TV, the Internet, mobile phones or whatever – the world system we live in so values second-hand information. – Nitin Sawhney • Motorola has led the mobile phone industry in turning our vision of low- cost, yet quality, handsets for the developing world into a reality. In so doing, Motorola has played a major role in transforming the mobile phone from a luxury item for the few into an affordable tool for the many. – Rob Conway • My mobile phone battery runs out all the time because all the messages come straight to me. – Ed Balls • Now that mobile phones and the internet have altered the epistemic selective landscape in a revolutionary way, every religious organisation must scramble to evolve defences or become extinct. – Daniel Dennett • Old women with mobile phones look wrong. – Peter Kay • Power is not just for TV sets and charging mobile phones. This electricity is critical to the industrial development of this area. If there is electricity, small scale industry will grow. – Narendra Modi • Previous technologies have expanded communication. But the last round may be contracting it. The eloquence of letters has turned into the unnuanced spareness of texts; the intimacy of phone conversations has turned into the missed signals of mobile phone chat … (‘you’re breaking up’ is the cry of our time). – Rebecca Solnit • Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete. – Matthew Parris • Sending a message on a mobile phone is not the most natural of ways to communicate. The keypad isn’t linguistically sensible. – David Crystal • Smart mobile phones connect you with 1 billion users worldwide, basically for free – you don’t pay for the phone, you don’t pay for the Internet, you don’t pay for the wireless connectivity. Social networks let you add a new customer or a new agent, again for free. – Geoffrey Moore • So actually I only got a mobile phone the day after I left being Prime Minister. – Tony Blair • So heedless have we become of our own image that second-hand mobile phones now invariably come with a SIM card chock-full of discarded intimacies. – Will Self • The advent of the mobile phone was a disaster. We are forced to listen, open-mouthed, to other people’s intimate conversations. Increasingly, we are all in our virtual bubbles when we are out in public, whether we are texting, listening to iPods, reading or just staring dangerously at other people. – Lynne Truss • The best mobile phone had the best mathematician. They know how to fit a huge amount of data into a small amount of space. How to do things efficiently, how to do them cleverly. – Marcus du Sautoy • The biggest opportunity in 2013 is in Africa. It has seven out of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world. In Nigeria alone there are 100 million people with mobile phones. In total, 300 million Africans – five times the population of Britain – are in the middle class. – David Miliband • The brand is only as good as your products, so.. if people have a good experience on Virgin Atlantic or if they have a good experience on Virgin trains or.. if they have a Virgin mobile phone and they can get straight through to our people and they’re well looked after and then they’ll try the next product that we launch. – Richard Branson • The institutions are working better now, the banks are much more functional. At this time, 1997, there were no mobile phones! It’s a whole different thing now with mobile phones: technology has created a form of regulation, because people can actually talk to each other a lot more. – Rem Koolhaas • The mobile phone acts as a cursor to connect the digital and physical. – Marissa Mayer • The mobile phone is very dangerous. If you’re walking and looking at your phone, you’re not walking – you’re surfing the internet. – Mohsin Hamid • The mobile phone, the fax, emails. Call me old fashioned, but what’s wrong with a chain of beacons? – Harry Hill • The mobile phone… is a tool for those whose professions require a fast response, such as doctors or plumbers. – Umberto Eco • The Muslim women that I have met are super-powerful and amazing and smart and they are, they’re not allowing themselves to be held back by the laws that exist. And you know, the Internet exists now, and mobile phones are freeing up stuff. I have a really good friend who’s from Iran and a really good friend who’s from Kuwait, and they talk about getting music on the black market and how that’s such an intense, amazing experience. And how they value the music so much more, because it’s such a risk to own it. – Larkin Grimm • The table was her stage. The mobile phone was the microphone. And the new moon was the spotlight. That kind of magic only Nana could make it happen. – Ai Yazawa • The two parts of technology that lower the threshold for activism and technology is the Internet and the mobile phone. Anyone who has a cause can now mobilize very quickly. – Howard Rheingold • The uptake on mobile phones in Africa is phenomenal. – Ethan Zuckerman • Then you get these articles about how unhealthy life is in the city. You know; mobile phone tumours – far more likely in the city. Well you know what, so is everything else! Including sex, coffee and conversation. – Dylan Moran • Theophilus Crowe’s mobile phone played eight bars of “Tangled Up in Blue” in an irritating electronic voice that sounded like a choir of suffering houseflies, or Jiminy Cricket huffing helium, or, well, you know, Bob Dylan. – Christopher Moore • There is a generation of skimmers. It’s not that they don’t want to read in-depth content, but they want to evaluate what the content is before they commit time. Especially on a mobile phone – you don’t have the phone, or cellular data, or screen size to be reading full-length content. – Nick D’Aloisio • There may be rhetoric about the socially constructed nature of Western science, but wherever it matters, there is no alternative. There are no specifically Hindu or Taoist designs for mobile phones, faxes or televisions. There are no satellites based on feminist alternatives to quantum theory. Even that great public sceptic about the value of science, Prince Charles, never flies a helicopter burning homeopathically diluted petrol, that is, water with only a memory of benzine molecules, maintained by a schedule derived from reading tea leaves, and navigated by a crystal ball. – Simon Blackburn • Think what we would have missed if we had never … used a mobile phone or surfed the Net — or, to be honest, listened to other people talking about surfing the Net. – Queen Elizabeth II • Today one can read the Gospel also on so many technological instruments. You can carry the whole Bible on your mobile phone, on your tablet. It is important to read the Word of God, by any means, but by reading the Word of God: Jesus speaks to us there! And welcome it with an open heart. Then the good seed will bear fruit! – Pope Francis • Today, most young women are exposed to technology at a very young age, with mobile phones, tablets, the Web or social media. They are much more proficient with technology than prior generations since they use it for all their school work, communication and entertainment. – Susan Wojcicki • Twitter is about the democratization of access to a platform that allows anyone in the world – who has a mobile phone and access to SMS – to have a voice and be heard. – Shailesh Rao • Until relatively recently, mass political movements were still about basic rights of food, shelter, education and self sufficiency. The reasons fewer people vote these days, or turn up for political meetings, is that for the vast majority of us those rights have been fulfilled. These days it’s in the adverts for mobile phones or foreign holidays where phrases like “Join the Revolution!” and “Cry Freedom!” are bandied about for a generation which knows nothing of their provenance. Just as now we have luxury illnesses to replace real ones, so now we have luxury politics. – John Diamond • We believe that within five years, 96 percent of British consumers will have access to the Internet, whether it be through a personal computer, a set-top box or a mobile phone. – Richard Branson • We once believed we were auteurs but we weren’t. We had no idea, really. Film is over. It’s sad nobody is really exploring it. But what to do? And anyway, with mobile phones and everything, everyone is now an auteur. – Jean-Luc Godard • We try to ‘self-medicate’ ourselves against boredom with mobile phones in any given moment of free time. – Alex Bogusky • We use similar products. Our focus industry is healthcare and hospitality. But we haven?t done anything interactive. The first day full of seminars is full of things I thought would be useful: quick service restaurant and mobile phone applications. Businesses are providing more services and products by self-service means. – Milton Jones • When I first went on Britain’s Got Talent I was famous for my cheap suit, my wonky teeth and the fact that I sold mobile phones for a living. – Paul Potts • When I think about, say, 1995, or whever the last moment was before most of us were on the internet and had mobile phones, it seems like a hundred years ago. … Time passed in fairly large units, or at least not in milliseconds and constant updates. A few hours wasn’t such a long time to go between moments of contact with your work, your people or your trivia. – Rebecca Solnit • When I was a student I did a report on Madagascar, and ever since then it was my biggest dream to go there. Three years ago I went, and it was so different. We live in this high tech world with Facebook, Twitter, and mobile phones, and there you land and you have nothing. Yet the people live and get by every day walking in the roads, living this super simple life, and they’re still happy. It is an experience that keeps you humble, puts things in perspective. – Irina Shayk • When thinking about how to deploy kind of professional and social networking into your business, it’s really not a question of if, it’s a question of when. And the reason is, just think about the fact that those businesses that adopt new technologies to operate efficiently and use them to get a competitive edge are the businesses that in fact, you know, it becomes one more competitive advantage. Whether it’s a fax machine or a mobile phone or a new way of doing financing or any of these things, you know, these are key things to do. – Reid Hoffman • When you get a mobile phone it is almost like having a card to get you out of poverty in a couple of years. – Muhammad Yunus • Woodstock happened in August 1969, long before the Internet and mobile phones made it possible to communicate instantly with anyone, anywhere. It was a time when we werent able to witness world events or the horrors of war live on 24-hour news channels. – Richie Havens • Yelp is in a very nice spot: local data, and especially review data, is one of the killer apps on mobile phones. – Jeremy Stoppelman

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jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'i', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_i').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_i img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

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jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

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equitiesstocks · 6 years ago

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Mobile Phones Quotes

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char27martin · 8 years ago

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List Factors: How to Build Your Own Email List

If I could point to one external factor that has had the biggest positive impact on my career as an author, it would be my email list—and I’m far from alone. Most writers today know they should probably have an email list, but misinformation and confusion abound about what exactly that list should entail, why it’s so crucial and, of course, what to do with it.

Why You Need an Email List

The Internet is always changing. From Facebook to Foursquare, Pinterest to Periscope, it sometimes seems as if a new social media platform pops up every minute. Who can keep up? The beauty of email is that it’s evergreen. While websites, forums and social networks might come and go, email has solidified its place in how we communicate.

Email is a direct line between you and your readers. There’s no “middleman” to get in the way. In a digital world where social networks change their algorithms, sites get hacked and servers crash, direct communication is invaluable. You can export that list and take it with you wherever you go. As long as you build that list correctly, it’s yours and no one can take it away from you.

The connection you make via email has the potential to be far more personal than sending a tweet or posting on your blog. Email lets you talk directly to readers as individuals. You become a welcome presence in their inboxes, where you’ll find a higher level of engagement. Email list subscribers aren’t just people who might pick up your book and read it someday. Many will become dedicated fans who happily receive (and read) your messages every time you send them.

How to Create Your List

To set up a list of your own, simply follow these steps.

Step 1: Choose a system.

First, choose an email system. This is not a piece of paper with a list of addresses on it. It’s not a Google Form or other online survey where your readers enter their email addresses. And it’s definitely not that widget you add to your website that says, “Get blog updates via email.”

To build your email list the right way (and comply with anti-spam laws), you must use an email marketing software (EMS) system. That’s a fancy term for a simple system that allows you to collect email addresses and send messages to the people on that list. An EMS also allows you to set auto-responses or schedule a sequence of messages in advance.

Leading EMS systems include:

MailChimp (mailchimp.com): A popular choice, MailChimp is user-friendly and free up to 2,000 subscribers to any given list, but can get pricey after you exceed that limit. Also, integrating it with wordpress.com websites can be tricky.

Aweber (aweber.com): Reliable, known for customer service, and fairly inexpensive, this system is slightly more advanced than MailChimp, but easy to learn.

Constant Contact (constantcontact.com): This system offers add-ons (for additional fees) that provide more hand-holding than MailChimp or AWeber. Try before you buy with a free 60-day trial.

Infusionsoft (infusionsoft.com): Offering integrated email and shopping carts, this service is powerful but expensive, and has a steep learning curve.

convertkit (convertkit.com): Equipped with a user-friendly interface, great customer service, and integration with major shopping carts and blogging platforms, ConvertKit will even handle your migration from another EMS (with certain plans).

Step 2: Put the form on your blog or website.

Once you have selected your EMS system and completed the basic setup, the next step is to place a sign-up form on your website inviting readers to join. Follow the simple instructions to design the form in the EMS system you’ve chosen, then insert the embed code on any page of your site that allows for HTML. I recommend these optimal locations (choose one, all or a combination):

In the home page header or just below. This is the most highly trafficked and visible area of your website. If most of your visitors come to your website via the home page, it’s essential to have an email form here (though if your newest blog post doubles as your home page, you can sidestep this option and put your email form at the top of the sidebar).

In the sidebar. Depending on your site’s design, visitors who click to a subpage or blog post through an outside link may not see the sign-up form in the header. This is why it’s also smart to include a form in the sidebar, preferably at the top.

In the footer of each post or page. This might not be the most visible area of your website, but visitors who take time to read an entire post and then sign up will be more committed and engaged.

Dedicated “squeeze page.” This page exists solely to house your email form. Here, emphasize the benefits of joining—what readers will get when they sign up. You can also include a few testimonials about your work or blurbs about your book. Then link directly to this page (keep the URL simple: yourwebsite.com/join or /newsletter) in your social media profiles, email signature, author bio, etc.

Step 3: Offer incentives for opting in.

One of the best ways to entice people to sign up is by offering a freebie that readers can download as soon as they join—say, a sample chapter of your latest book, deleted scenes or other bonus content.

A good opt-in offer will feel valuable to your readers while also providing an immediate benefit. Choose something that is useful or entertaining, but also fast to consume and leaves them wanting more. Your goal is to deliver great value but also build a relationship with your subscribers so they will want to keep hearing from you.

Step 4: Welcome new subscribers.

Most EMS systems allow you to create an automated welcome email that will go out as readers confirm their subscriptions. Use this email to deliver your freebie, but realize, too, that its impact extends far beyond the opt-in offer itself.

Your welcome email lets you set the tone for all subsequent communications. Use it to establish expectations so subscribers know exactly what they will receive from you going forward. Let them know how you’ll send emails or newsletters, what kind of information you’ll share and anything else key to your message.

Finally, consider asking subscribers to reply to you with an answer to a specific question. Ask them about their favorite books, or ask something that relates to your own book or subject matter. For instance, if you write dystopian young adult fiction set in a world with various factions, you might ask your readers which faction they would belong to if they lived in that world, and why.

While only a small number of subscribers may reply, these answers can give you insight into your readers, offer a chance to genuinely connect and even inspire future newsletter content. With an email list, most of the communication goes from you to your readers, but encouraging your readers to message you can create a more interactive and personal relationship.

How to Stay Connected

Once your list is set up and subscribers have started to join, all you have to do is continue the connection. Some authors send email only when they have news about their books, upcoming signings or events, a new byline to share, or something else to promote. Others send regular newsletters on a monthly basis, or even less frequently.

Personally, I’ve had success with my own list (at DIY MFA) by challenging this paradigm. If you email your readers infrequently, subscribers might forget about you altogether. When they finally hear from you and all you do is promote your next book, they may unsubscribe or, worse, mark your email as spam. Think of your emails as opportunities to offer continued value to your subscribers. Don’t wait too long to send updates. I’ve found it beneficial to email my subscribers every week or two.

Don’t let this schedule scare you, or feel pressure to go overboard creating new material for your newsletter. Instead, think of your list as an extension of your overall online strategy. Find creative ways to expand on content you’ve already created for your blog or social media, but up the ante and offer more value via email.

Remember that subscribers have invited you into their inboxes. They are not random visitors dropping by your website; they want to engage with you on a deeper level. If you’re smart about your content strategy, you don’t have to drive yourself crazy to give these committed fans a little something more. (See the sidebar at left for ideas.)

If handled correctly, an email list of loyal subscribers can become one of the most valuable assets of your author platform—one that allows you to connect with your most loyal readers. These are the people who will buy (and actually read) your work, recommend your books to friends and attend your signings. Not all of your subscribers will be die-hard fans, but some will. Treat them like gold.

This is a guest post by Gabriela Pereira—author, speaker, and self-proclaimed word nerd—whose new book DIY MFA: Write with Focus, Read with Purpose, Build Your Community shows you how to recreate the Master of Fine Arts experience without going back to school. As the founder and instigator of DIYMFA.com, Gabriela’s mission is to empower writers to take an entrepreneurial approach to their education and professional growth. She earned her MFA in creative writing from The New School and teaches at national conferences, local workshops, and online. She also hosts the podcast DIY MFA Radio, where she interviews best-selling authors and book industry insiders about the art and business of writing.

The post List Factors: How to Build Your Own Email List appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/online-exclusives/dec-17/list-factors

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fadingfartconnoisseur · 8 years ago

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How Travel Taught Me How to Not Give a F*ck

I vaguely knew about Mark Manson. He was a friend of friends, a fellow blogger, and someone I knew who wrote well researched (and always a little controversial) posts. When he and his wife moved to NYC, we finally met in person (I actually met his wife first). We became friends – we’re both nerds, entrepreneurs, writers, poker players, and lovers of whiskey. I blurbed his book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. It’s a phenomenal book about focusing on what matters. Chelsea Handler and Chris Hemsworth (aka THOR) are huge fans. Mark is a phenomenal writer and, and in a long overdue post, he finally wrote something for the site. In this post, Mark talks about how travel made him the person is today – and laid the foundation for the book.

I have vomited in six different countries. That may not be the most savory statistic for a travel article, but when you’re huddled over a drainage ditch, spewing up what for all you know could have been sautéed rat meat, these moments have a way of staying in your mind.

I remember getting a flat tire in the Indian countryside and the locals being flabbergasted as I changed it myself. I remember staying up until 4AM in a hostel arguing with a drunk English kid who thought 9/11 was a hoax. I remember an old Ukrainian man got me drunk on the best vodka of my life and claimed he was stationed in a Soviet U-Boat off the coast of Mississippi in the 1970s (which is probably untrue, but who knows).

I remember climbing the Great Wall of China hungover, getting ripped off on a boat trip in Bali (spoiler alert: there was no boat), sneaking my way into a five-star resort on the Dead Sea, and the night I met my wife in a Brazilian night club.

Since selling my possessions in the fall of 2009, I remember a lot of things. I set out with a small suitcase to travel around the world. I had a small internet business, a blog, and a dream.

My year (maybe two) long trip turned into seven years (and sixty countries).

With most things in life, you know exactly what benefits you’re going to get from them. If I go to the gym, I know I’m going to get stronger and/or lose weight. If I hire a tutor, I know I’m going to learn more about a specific subject. If I start a new Netflix series, I know I’m not going to sleep for the next three days until I finish it.

But travel is different.

Travel, unlike anything else in life, has the beautiful ability to give you benefits you didn’t expect. It doesn’t just teach you what you don’t know, it also teaches you what you don’t know you don’t know.

I gained a lot of amazing experiences from my travels — experiences I expected and looked for. I saw incredible sites. I learned about world history and foreign cultures. I often had more fun than I knew was possible.

But the most important effects of my years of travel are actually the benefits that I didn’t even know I would get and the memories I didn’t know I would have.

For example, I don’t know the moment I became comfortable being alone. But it happened somewhere in Europe, probably in either Germany or Holland.

When I was younger, I would consistently feel as though something was wrong with me if I was by myself for too long — “Do people not like me? Do I not have any friends?” I felt a constant need to surround myself with girlfriends and friends, to always be at parties, and always be in touch. If for some reason I weren’t included in other people’s plans, it was a personal judgment on me and my character.

But, by the time I returned to Boston in 2010, that feeling somehow stopped. I don’t know where or when. All I know is I flew home from Portugal after 8 months abroad, sat at home, and felt fine.

I don’t remember where I was when I developed a sense of patience (probably somewhere in Latin America). I used to be the guy who would get angry if a bus was late (which often happens in Latin America), or I missed my turn on the highway and had to loop back around. Sh*t like that used to drive me insane.

Then one day, it just didn’t. It ceased to be a big deal. The bus will eventually come and I’ll still get to where I need to go. It became clear that my emotional energy was limited and I was better off saving that energy for moments that mattered.

I don’t recall exactly when I learned how to express my feelings either.

Ask any of my girlfriends pre-travels and they’ll tell you: I was a closed book. An enigma wrapped in bubble-wrap and held together by duct tape (but with an extremely handsome face).

My problem was that I was afraid to offend people, step on toes, or create an uncomfortable situation.

But now? Most people comment that I’m so blunt and open that it can be jarring. Sometimes my wife jokes that I’m too honest.

I don’t recall when I became more accepting of people of different walks of life or when I started appreciating my parents or when I learned how to communicate with someone despite neither of us speaking the same language.

But all of these happened….somewhere in the world, in some country, with somebody. I don’t have any photos of these moments. I just know they are there.

Somewhere along the way I became a better me.

Last year, I wrote a book called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life. The premise of the book is essentially that we all have a limited number of f*cks to give in our lives, therefore we should be conscious of what we’re choosing to give a f*ck about.

Looking back, I think that it was my experience traveling that subtly, without me realizing it, taught me to not give a f*ck. It taught me to not give a fu*k about being alone, the bus being late, other people’s plans, or creating an uncomfortable situation or two.

Memories are made from what we give a f*ck about.

I have all the usual photos from my travels. Me on the beaches. Me at Carnaval. Me with my buddy Brad surfing in Bali. Machu Picchu.

I gave a f*ck about those.

The photos are great. The memories are great.

But like anything in life, their importance fades the further removed you get from them. Just like those moments in high school that you think are going to define your life forever cease to matter a few years into adulthood, those glorious peaks of travel experience seem to matter less the more time passes. What seemed life-changing and world-shaking at the time now simply elicits a smile, some nostalgia and maybe an excited, “Oh yeah! Wow, I was so skinny back then!”

Travel, although a great thing, is just another thing. It’s not you. It’s something you do. It’s something you experience. It’s something you savor and brag about to your friends down the street.

But it’s not you.

Yet these other, memoryless qualities — the outgrown personal confidence, the comfort with myself and my failings, the greater appreciation for family and friends, the ability to rely upon myself — these are the real gifts that travel gives you.

And, despite the fact that they produce no photos or stories for cocktail parties, they are the things stay with you forever.

They are your real lasting memories….because these things are you.

And they will always be you.

Mark Manson is a blogger, entrepreneur, and author of the New York Times Bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life. His book is one of the best books I read in 2016 and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s well written, funny, self-deprecating, and even works in a panda bear! You can read more of his work at MarkManson.net.

The post How Travel Taught Me How to Not Give a F*ck appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

via Travel Blogs http://ift.tt/2po6qOQ

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tamboradventure · 8 years ago

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How Travel Taught Me How to Not Give a F*ck

Since selling my possessions in the fall of 2009, I remember a lot of thing. I set out with a small suitcase to travel around the world. I had a small internet business, a blog, and a dream.