#but I WILL take points off if you keep submitting sources that don't exist

[clonerightsagenda]

Didn't add a generative AI statement to my syllabus because I thought "none of my assignments play to those tools' strengths, using AI wouldn't work and would be really obvious" but lo and behold the students are using it anyway. It's not working and it's really obvious.

[imjustli]

so ive been thinking a lot about God and like my christianity and everything and i've decided perhaps it'll do me good to get the perspective of someone else who's also christian ?

yeah . so there's no doubt in my mind that God exists honestly. i really do think he's up there. it's just that im not sure about a couple of stuff

like with job in the old testament. that dude was like the Ultimate follower of God. sooooo good at following all the commandments and everything. he loved God with everything he had

and then as a test God decides to allow the devil take it all away. just to see what job does. & satan takes all his money his animals his health. he even kills off his kids (all of which God authorized)

and yeah job is faithful to the very fucking end and gets everything back (twofold ? tenfold ? can't remember which)

he even gets new children. which is where my main problem is with the story tbh

what about his old children ? did God not consider the fact that job might miss them a whole fucking lot ? that he might not want new children just his old ones ? and they died all because of a test of job's unwavering faithfulness . which God only engaged in to prove the devil wrong

why'd he do that anyway ? he's God . he knows the devil was wrong he coulda just ignored him ?? instead of letting him kill some innocent children for the sake of a test he already knew job was going to pass with flying fucking colors

like with abraham and isaac the kid was never gonna die and that was a test of Abraham's faith and like obedience but with job there was no hesitation

i feel dirty even questioning this rn bc im not supposed to have questions or opinions im just supposed to take everything as it is but i don't think i can do that

& i can ask this and people go "it's the old testament it doesn't matter" but then you have ananias and sapphira who died the fucking minute they lied and that's in the new testament . and that isn't exactly rampant in like present day but it is kinda scary

plus my mother's church always brings up 2 timothy 3:15-17 so like All scripture is still useful and applicable even the fucked up parts of the old testament that say to kill people for the littlest fucking things (not that they go through with it but y'know)

im not 100% sure what im asking here . i guess job's story (plus a million more in the bible) unnerve me. if someone as god-fearing as he was still gets subjected to all the shit he did just for a fucking test then what about the rest of us ? if i follow God's word to a T and he decides to test me by taking away people that matter so fucking much to me then am i supposed to be okay with that ??

all this stuff just makes it kinda hard for me to pray the way i used to y'know ? or to pray at all. it fucking sucks

I'll give this a go, but I was raised mostly atheist, and aside from choir and confirmation, my current university bible study group is the only christian stuff I've actually been involved in. So full disclosure, I have no idea what I'm doing. But I feel God's presence and i know Him about as well as I can as of now.

So first of all, there's 4 things I try to keep in mind when reading the bible:

The bible wasn't written by God, it was written by humans about their experiences with God

That was a really fucking long time ago

As such, the way my university priest put it, each passage should be read as part of the whole, rather than each sentance as exactly, verbatim, the word of God

Also, christianity/the bible/any at some point popular faith really, has often been used by powerful people as a tool to maintain/gain power, and that has caused alteration to the bible

I don't personally think that just going along with everything that happens to you as "God's plan" and never questioning it, is sustainable. Like yeah sure the bible says not to test God, but like. As stated previously, the bible has been used to keep people submitting to authority, so from an earthly source critical perspective, it should probably be questioned how much of this actually was in there from the beginning. And just in general being completely trusting can be dangerous, and sure God would have some understanding of that. He created us after all.

Not to mention, everyone probably has a very different relationship with God (like we've had an insane amount of wars over what relationship is the right one, but the answer is probably most of them), and those are deeply personal and connected to the specific circumstances of each person's experiences and understanding of themselves.

I doubt that was the reason Job got what happened to him, but I guess being a little to easy could be an option lol.

To be honest, there also are parts of the bible I just don't agree with politically, and the way children are often seen as accessories to the "main character" of a certain part is definitely one of them. I'm not sure there is any positive interpretation of this honestly, aside that it might just be a testament of the time. Though it's often still like that now, so idk.

Another option for why all of this happened to him, is that he simply deserved it. Like yeah sure, he is To be honest, there also are parts of the bible I just don't agree with politically, and the way children are often seen as accessories to the "main character" of a certain part is definitely one of them. I'm not sure there is any positive interpretation of this honestly, aside that it might just be a testament of the time. Though it's often still like that now, so idk.

Another option for why all of this happened to him, is that he simply deserved it. Like yeah sure, he is supposedly God's most loyal follower, but we never actually see that. It is written that he sacrifices a lamb for his children, etc, does all these rituals. But it's not really written why he actually deserves to have his prayers answered (full disclosure, while I was aware of the story, I've never actually read it. So I had a lot of homework to do for this post. I'll get to some of it further down, but I might've missed some).

I'm not sure I fully believe you need to earn God's love, or even His protection, but that is definitely an option. But what that means is that it's possible that the reason Job was tested, was to see if he would still be loyal if he didn't have everything he could want.

Also (NIV) Job 11:4, Zophar says to Job: "You say to God, 'My beliefs are flawless and I am pure to your sight'" [my swedish bible (B2000) says moreso something like: "You think you bring the truth, and that you are flawless in front of God". Which is another reason why each Bible verse can't be read verbatim. Since although those two says similar things, they are not synonymous]. And NIV Job 11:6: "and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin." [B2000: "He could reveal the hidden depth of wisdom -- there is wisdom in double measurements. Then you'd understand God doesn't demand all your debt."] These are both indicative of Job not actually being as good as he is portrayed, suggesting he kinda brought all his misery on himself (or at least some of it). Elihu also says something similar in chapters 33-37.

In Job 31, he talks a lot about why he doesn't deserve everything the devil did to him, but it feels kinda... idk. Less? Considering he starts of chapter 30 by talking about the people he disregards. Like he clearly truly believes he is in the right, but there's several chapters explaining why he's not.

I'm not sure where I heard this, but I remeber being told that the devil was originally just a personification of the greed and selfishness humans experience. But if that's who the devil is, it further suggests he let his greed (or judging by Job 38-39, it was moreso his hubris and self-centerdness) control him, and that's why he lost everything.

Yeah, the ending doesn't really sit right with me either. I guess he realised his mistakes and passed the test, and therefor deserved it all back. But like you said, the thing about his kids dying and him getting new ones doesn't really feel right. Human connection can be recreated but it will not be fully the same. I really don't have an answer for why this happened, other than that it's a really old story. I also wish we'd actually find out he'd learned.

I don't know if this makes sense, or if it's even what you were asking. I'm still learning what it actually means to be christian, at the moment i just have a vague feeling of a higher presence and a barely read bible, so I have a lot left to figure out.

To my followers and mutuals that have done the entire christian-thing for longer: do you have anything you'd like to add? Feel free to disagree with me completely

[totallyjazzed]

Analysing Copaganda (or "I watched seven seasons of Brooklyn 99 so you don't have to")

Introduction:

Several months ago my parents approached me asking if I wanted to watch Brooklyn 99, not knowing anything about it, my first instinct was to say no, but then I thought it would be interesting, to watch it and write a proper analysis for exactly what makes it propaganda and why it gives liberals brain worms. If you've spent any amount of time engaging with politics online for the last few years, you've likely already heard of Brooklyn 99. It's a sitcom written by Michael Schur, who previously wrote The Office (I'll get to that later), Parks & Recreation, and The Good Place. The show follows the lives of a squad of police detectives in Brooklyn and the wacky hijinks they get up to.

Brooklyn 99 has become famous, or arguably infamous, on Tumblr (and potentially other social media websites too) for being used as a "retort" to anti-cop sentiments (namely ACAB and any variation thereof), mainly taking the form of "the only good cop is Raymond Holt". In this essay (to use a funny Tumblr meme phrase) I will provide a brief overview of the show and the main characters, and analyse how the show, and each character individually, is pro-cop propaganda (copaganda).

The Show:

Brooklyn 99 is The Office, at least from what I understand about The Office. It’s a sitcom based in a workplace in which characters often pull pranks on each other and have wacky adventures pertaining to their job. The main thing that sets it apart from The Office is that the workplace in question is a police station, this makes it a cop show too. However, unlike more “classic” cop shows like CSI, Law & Order, The Wire, and so on, B99 doesn’t seek to glorify it’s characters as action heroes, but rather paint them as normal people living normal lives. This is far more insidious than the picture of the gnarled man of action who doesn’t play by the book, and by making the characters relatable the show gives viewers people to project onto, making them more vulnerable to the propaganda of the show.

Occasionally, in a break from the antics of Relatable Immature Prankster Archetype and Funny Overly Attached Best Friend Archetype, the show will attempt to say something about racism, or homophobia, or misogyny, or something like that, and while it usually feels well-meaning it often falls flat as it’s a watered-down safe-for-TV version of whatever the issue du jour is. 

In S4E16 (“Moo Moo”), Terry is harassed by a racist cop while he doesn’t have his badge, and is almost arrested until he manages to prove his cop status, the rest of the episode revolves around how racism is bad and that one singular racist cop is a problem, in the end Terry submits a complaint to the NYPD higher-ups and gets his job application denied, and the racist cop gets away with a slap on the wrist. Throughout the show, Captain Holt tells stories about how he suffered from racism and homophobia, and still does. Transphobia is mentioned once (presumably for brownie points) in a throwaway line about Ace Ventura.

At the end of Season 4, Jake and Rosa are framed for a series of bank robberies and sent to prison, and the first two episodes of Season 5 work to show that prison is bad and prisoners are mistreated, they also make abundantly clear that everyone in prison is a menace and deserves to be there (Jake’s cellmate is a literal cannibal and he’s shown to be one of the nice inmates), once the duo are released from jail, there are a few lines here and there about how prison is bad, but they’re only throwaways used to serve as one-off jokes and never again used as an actual critique of the prison system.

Police Brutality is never mentioned, the closest it comes to bringing it up is in S1E19 (“Tactical Village”), where Rosa is introduced to a sonic-blast weapon and aims it as Charles, this is clearly supposed to be a very harmful piece of equipment, but it's only appearance is treated as a joke.

There are also recurring gags about Defense Lawyers being “the enemy” because they only defend guilty parties (the show heavily implies that none of the squad has ever arrested the wrong person), which meshes with the harmful stereotype in cop shows of only guilty people saying for a lawyer or a warrant or whatever, which has been documented before by others.

The Characters:

Jake Peralta (played by Andy Samberg) is the Relatable Immature Prankster Archetype I mentioned before, he’s the office funnyman and usually responsible for the majority of the goings-on and goings-wrong in the show, while he does mature and evolve through the show he never grows out of this character. He’s the closest the show gets to the “gnarled man of action who doesn’t play by the book” character I mentioned before, not because he is that character but because he wants to be, his favourite movie is Die Hard and it’s the reason he joined the police, so he could be like the cool bruce willis man. He’s also the most unlawful character on the show, in S1E7 (“48 Hours”), he arrests a man with no evidence and the squad is essentially locked down until evidence can be found, in the end it turns out the man is guilty. Jake is scolded for this, not for essentially breaking the law, but for wasting everyone’s time when they had much better things to do that night. Jake’s character is propaganda because he’s the zany relatable one with a heart of gold.

Amy Santiago (played by Melissa Fumero) is the overly-organised hyper-nerd archetype, in direct opposition to Jake. Her dream is to be the NYPD’s youngest female captain, and she’s very “I want to keep the people safe” in her approach to policing. In S3E3 (“Boyle’s Hunch”), she is used as the face of the NYPD’s poster campaign, only to have her image vandalised, which is painted by the show as being very bad and sad. Amy’s character is propaganda because she’s the uptight peacekeeper who sticks to the rules.

Charles Boyle (played by Joe Lo Truglio) is the Funny Overly Attached Best Friend Archetype I mentioned before, often depicted as bumbling and naive, he’s an incredibly competent detective, arguably more so than Jake. He’s usually polite and friendly, and has moments of childishness that compliment Jake’s character. Charles’ character is propaganda because he’s the nice guy who just wants what’s best for everyone.

Raymond Holt (played by Andre Braugher) is probably the character most people are aware of, he’s a somewhat stuck-up man who embodies a lot of the same characteristics as Amy, he’s highly-educated, incredibly smart and quick-witted, and emotionally restrained. Originally presented as an outsider, being the new guy to the pre-existing friendgroup, he learns to relax and let go over the course of the show, and acts almost as a father figure to the other characters, primarily Jake and Amy. Raymond’s character is propaganda because he’s a black gay cop.

Rosa Diaz (played by Stephanie Beatriz) is tough, aloof, and often scary in the eyes of the other characters, she is shown to have problems with engaging with people socially, particularly romantically, and while her exterior is rough as uncaring, she’s shown to be fiercely loyal and have some not-so-tough secrets. In Season 5 she comes out to the squad as Bisexual. Rosa’s character is propaganda because she’s the no-nonsense tough cop who secretly has a heart of gold.

Terry Jeffords (played by Terry Crews) is a kind and caring man with a firm-but-fair attitude, acting as Holt’s second-in-command he also acts as a father figure to the other characters, he has two (eventually three) children which he is often seen gushing about. He is the most mature of the group, on-par with Holt in some respects but sometimes more so, refusing to take part in hijinks to focus on his job. Terry’s character is propaganda because he’s the physically strong and imposing, yet kind cop who just wants to provide for his family.

Michael Hitchcock (played by Dirk Blocker) and Norm Scully (played by Joel McKinnon Miller) are an inseparable pair of bumbling, lazy, oafs. Scully is fat, lazy, and old, Hitchcock is lecherous, lazy, and old. They’re propaganda because they’re the lazy incompetent cop archetype.

There are plenty of minor recurring characters, as well as Gina Linetti, a main character who left after Season 6, however as she’s a liaison and not a cop I won’t be analysing her in detail.

There’s a lot more I could have mentioned here, from the dirty cop that sense Jake and Rosa to jail, or the police commissioner who wants to spy on everyone’s phones all at once, Holt even says the line “I don’t want to live in a Police State”, but I’ve left them out for the sake of brevity.

Conclusion:

Brooklyn 99 is copaganda to it’s very core, this much everyone already knows, but unlike serious cop dramas and high-stakes high-action cop shows, Brooklyn 99 offers viewers an escape to a world where the police are the force for good that people want them to be. The premise of “The Office but police” suckers people in with nostalgia for the late 2000s/early 2010s back when things were “good”. Given Michael Schur’s previous work I imagine he and the other writers didn’t explicitly set out to make copaganda, but it’s undeniable that this is what was achieved. And now with the political climate being what it is and the threat of a potential Season 8 addressing this year’s BLM protests, it’s now more important than ever to be able to identify and root out police propaganda, no matter how unassuming, no matter the source.

[lotornomiko]

Dark Enchanted Forest AU That I don't Yet Have A Title For One

Gift fic for my best friend....she fangirls the darkness from my fic, Beyond Here Lies Darkness. It's a dark dark fic meant to cheer her up.

Everlasting night has fallen over the land, and been that way for centuries, courtesy of the Dark One, who demands a monthly tribute of female flesh. Princess Emma doesn't think this or the fact no one has tried to fight the darkness, right, and decides to go to it, as its monthly tribute, but really goes with the intention of being the savior that vanquishes the darkness once and for all. She's about to find herself vastly outmatched.

Even in the darkest hour, there is always some light, as Emma is about to discover first hand the truth behind the tributes, and just what that power inside her is, and what it means to the Darkness...

No Storybrooke, it's an Enchanted Forest AU...dark dark fic as my friend wanted.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26137747/chapters/63588682

This here is a gift fic dedicated to my bestie, Huntress...Recently I inadvertently spoiled something that has to do with the planned ending for my Beyond Here Lies Darkness fic. She was pretty devastated about it, to the point to try and cheer her up, I am trying to do a fic where the Darkness wins. It’s meant to be a dark fic, but it’s not set in Storybrooke, as I couldn’t see Emma Swan as ever truly giving in and submitting to the dark or forgiving it...however I started brainstorming, and thought maybe some crazy Enchanted Forest AU, where the curse was never cast, so Emma grew up a Princess..

This is meant to be a dark fic, so please be advised, there will be rape/non con/forced seduction (Whatever flavor you prefer to call it personally), and violence among other themes. If blatant dark themes are not your cup of tea, I strongly advise you to turn back. The first chapter may start off somewhat light, but I can guarantee it won’t STAY that way for long….

----Michelle

There’s the mad stampede of what had to be over one thousand hooves hitting dirt, stone, and whatever else lay covering an ill repaired and not often used path. Easily close to five hundred horses pounding down that shamble of a road, splitting the long abandoned pavement further apart. They brought with them the sound of thunder, and the desperate fury of the King and Queen’s army, that bright regime colored in soft blues and golds, and armed to the teeth for the war they were prepared to wage. For beneath the thin fabric of their kingdom’s color, lay the glint of the metallic, the armor each man wore, many covered from head to toe, the steel and iron painted with symbols that had nothing to do with their country, and everything to do with being wards of protection.

Those wards extended from every known corner of the land, some dating back hundreds, if not thousands of years in age. Dark inks and in some cases actual blood, used to create those desperate symbols in which they all pinned their hopes on, that desperate army continued on, pushing down that pathway that was looking more and more like the forest ahead of them was hell bent on reclaiming it entirely, the horses were worked to the fine lather of their limits, and beyond, several of the magnificent steeds suddenly just dropping down abruptly.

No one turned, no one even paused, horses made to go around, even jump over the obstacles of their brethren. With snorts of exhaustion, and even the occasional whinny of fear, these fine examples of flesh, were made to run, to give chase even at the personal cost to themselves. Those few horses who dared tried to slow down, were whipped by merciless hands, no quarter or rest given by an army in so fervent a pursuit.

Their quarry, not more than a few dozen kilometers away, flew with the grace and speed of something unholy. It was more than a self righteous fury, or that need to self sacrifice for the good of the people. It wasn’t even that self possessed determination, the woman already half caught and she just didn’t have the good sense to realize it. Her horse ran and it ran without tiring, the long bright gold of the woman’s hair streaming out behind her like a beacon, the only source of light in an otherwise in a never ending black that was the eternal night of this world.

That night had blanketed the world on a day none living had ever had the privileged to have seen. Not this generation, or the last, or the many that preceded them. The sun in all its rumored glory, had been lost, the world cast into this void of cold and dark, where each soul had been left, battered and afraid, clinging to what they could for comfort and warmth. They weren’t a forsaken people, though abandoned by all that was holy they were, the one being they could dare to compare to God, the very creature who had plummeted them all into this eternity of madness.

The Dark One.

It was a whispered thought in all their minds, that being of pure evil, a creature none had lived to see and talk about. Its menace however, was felt throughout the world, and not just for the sun it had stolen from them. The famine and the desperation, the sacrifices made, the tribute it demanded on a monthly basis, all the lives lost as a result. There was nothing but despair to be found, and yet a determined people kept trying, living and adapting through the many horrors, clinging to one another in these desperate moments, whole civilizations worth of people working to get by as best they could. Even with that horrible price looming over their heads, daughters, sisters, even wives, lost to that darkness.

No one knew WHY the dark demanded a new female be brought to it each month, just that it did, a life sacrificed every month for hundreds of years, so that everyone must else might keep on surviving.  It was a necessity that no one much liked, but the cost against going against the Dark One, had already proven time and time again too high. The greater good of the many was bought on the backs of that monthly tribute.

It was disgusting! Her stomach curled with just the thought of it, with how beaten down everyone, including her parents, were. A King and A Queen, not even they tried to defy the Dark One. They, ALL of them, just went on living that bleak existence, bartered off of a sacrifice that brought nothing but misery and more tears, no one was left unaffected, not a single family, not even that of the nobility. But the princess’ time had never come, not in all of her twenty one years of life. She was told to be grateful for the miracle of being overlooked, to just keep on living her life for as long as she still had it, but the princess simply couldn’t. She had seen the devastation done to those called upon, to the pain and heartbreak of their family and loved ones, to the resignation of the one marked for sacrifice. She couldn’t, wouldn’t feel grateful for being spared that, not when everyone should be doing more than just accepting the tribute as a permanent part of life. That it had been centuries however, since anyone had thought to hunt down and fight the Dark One, didn’t much matter. If everyone, including her parents, were too cowardly to face it, then let the princess herself be the one to put an end to this madness!

With that thought, that DESIRE in mind, she felt bouncing at her back, the stuffed quiver of her mother’s best made arrows. The princess was good with a bow, and stood a better chance of winning with that than with the sword she had stolen from her father’s armory. She had brought it all the same, though the young woman didn’t expect to win if it came down to a clashing of swords. The Dark One was fast, this ancient, evil entity one of magic and cruelty. The princess’ best chance, was to strike from a far, an arrow to that black heart that felt and knew nothing of love and good.

Behind her in vigorous pursuit was an army, the men that her parents had dispatched to stop her. She couldn’t help feel a small smidge of resentment that they could send out the military for this, for her, but not let loose the soldiers to take down the dark menace who had terrorized the world for centuries. She couldn’t hate them for it though, for no parent had ever found it easy to send a daughter off to the Dark One’s forest.

Her parents no different, no less loving than any other who had lost a daughter as tribute, not even their heart break could get the princess to stop. Her ambition, as mad as it was, was also an act of desperate and determined heroics, a savior needing to bring to end this never ceasing cycle of terror and cruelty, and with none in sight, the princess had appointed the only one who was still willing to try! It did not make for her being any less nervous and afraid, every step forward one step closer to what might be her spectacular victory, or an equally as unimpressive a failure.

The dark forest loomed in the distance, all gnarled wood, and menacing atmosphere. A bolt of stray lightning seemed to split the sky, but any rumble of thunder was lost to the sound of all those horses running. She urged her own ride faster, the stallion whinnying in a distress that didn’t have all to do with the fact they have been journey for more than two nights worth of time. He too was nervous, nostrils flaring as though the animal scented something foul. The princess could only whisper a prayer, fervently hoping she wasn’t about the be thrown from his back or worse.

Never once did it cross her mind, that there might be one more pair of eyes watching. Narrowed with a considering gleam that compelled the horse forward. The beast snorted and whined with its fear, its legs moving not of its own accord, bringing the princess, the tribute, closet to her ultimate destiny. The stallion picked up speed, the distance widening between it and the army in pursuit, and this time when lightning flashed, it struck down on the ground directly behind her, splintering it in such a way, that the first of the horses reared up in alarm.

The princess heard the cry, heard the man shouting in an effort to calm his horse down. She might have even spared a glance back over her shoulder, but the mist was upon her, swallowing her and her steed up. It was the shock of wet ice upon her, and impossible to see through, but the stallion kept plowing forward. Fear of a different kind caused her to try and pull on the beasts’ reins, the princess fearing they would stumble headfirst into the border of the Dark One’s forest, and smash against one of the many thick trees.

The horse seemed to ignore her, running forward even faster now. Long gone was the sound of the pursuit, the eerie quiet of the mist disrupted only by a night hawk’s screeching overhead. One hand’s fingers still tangled upon the reins, the princess began to unfasten the delicate in appearance cross bow from the topmost saddle bag. An arrow was quickly slid into slot, wires primed and made ready, the princess wide eyed and alert, fearing as though the entire forest would hear the terrified beat of her heart.

Abruptly, both wet and shaking from the mist, they found themselves THERE, not at its borders, but inside the deepest part of the woods. The princess couldn’t quite contain her gasp, the trees that surrounded her so tightly knitted together, that there was only one path, with no room for maneuvering, the horse padding to a stop. It panted from its exhaustion, pushed beyond the limits of its endurance, the horse’s legs actually shaking.  The princess had no way of knowing that the horse’s deathly pallor, wasn’t entirely all her own fault, but that a dark magic had also been at work. She just heard the tired exhale, the stallion close to breathing out its last breaths, and found herself to blame.

“I am sorry.” The princess whispered, stroking the horse’s coarse mane one last time, before sliding off its back. “And thank you...” She didn’t make to remove any of the saddle bags, knowing she needed to be light on her feet to be quick enough to stand a chance against that which she was hunting.

Her eyes used to the dark of night, were in no way prepared for the sudden burst of light in the distance. It wasn’t the sun though, wasn’t even the blaze of a fire, or the soft illumination of the kingdom’s many lamps. Each one was barely bigger than her thumb, and so low to the ground, as though to light the way for her feet. She thought that strange, and was made leery, realizing that someone, or rather some THING was expecting her now.

The shiver that went through the princess, didn’t have all to do with the cold left over from the mist. She found herself shaking with every step, though never once did she hesitate. It was simply too late for any second thoughts, and she was about to die a hero, not run away sniveling and crying like a coward. She followed the light, that continued to pop up just ahead of her. It was never enough to get her bearings, though it did keep her from tripping over the gnarled and exposed roots of several trees. She never once saw sign of a living thing, though she heard it all the same. Howls of what had to be wolves, sharp squawks of birds, even the buzz of insects. And larger yet, something big and heavy crashing about, something so immense in size, she hoped that it wasn’t the Dark One that she had to face.

She kept walking, her unease building from all the noise that the princess was hearing. It was making her border on hysteria, the princess starting to take aim in the direction of the worst sounds. She was no longer watching the light that guided her, the tip of her boot hitting something solid. She quickly spun in its direction, ready to fire off an arrow, and realized nothing was in front of her. Nothing that is, except for the half formed skull of some long dead human. Was it from the monthly tribute, or was it even older than that, some hero who had once sought to put an end to the very creature she too now hunted? It was too dark to say, and she was in no condition to want to truly contemplate either answer for neither would bring her any solace.

She moved on, stepping over the remains of the skull, but also keeping attuned to the sounds. It was so noisy, the loudest of sounds to perhaps cover what might already be upon her. She led with her crossbow, the pointed tip of the arrow ready and willing to spring free at a split second’s notice. It was getting harder and harder to NOT let loose with an arrow, her fear almost palpable, worries and insecurities trying to lay into her like a heavy cloak.

“This was a mistake.” They said. “You should have never have come. You’re not strong enough to do what needs to be done. You will NEVER be strong enough. No one will.”

She tried not to give in, didn’t so much as lower her crossbow, not certain if that was her fears talking, or that of the Dark One messing her with mind.

“I am not afraid of you!” She cried out in bold face lie.

“But you will be.” Immediate was her answer, the arrow flying towards the direction of that voice. She heard a telling thunk, realized it had not struck whoever had spoken, but instead had slammed into the bark of a tree. The princess swore in a way most unbecoming of a lady, and quickly reached towards the quiver on her back.  Laughter accompanied her movements, low but decidedly male sounding, and ever so amused. She loaded and primed the crossbow, shot it off in the direction where she thought the laughter originated from. That one went further, whistling through the air, until it abruptly went silent. As though it had been pluck mid flight, with no rhyme or reason as to what might have happened to it. The same result would follow with the next arrow the princess fired off, and the next, until soon all she had left was an empty quiver, the now made useless crossbow, and her father’s stolen sword at her hip.

She closed her eyes briefly for one moment, made dizzy and further afraid. She was certain she stood no chance at winning, not with a blade as her one and only defense. She reached for it all the same, the young woman determined to go down fighting rather than just lay down and die. It was a scream not a whimper, that escaped her, the princess charging blindly forward, swinging wildly. She was not expecting the metal to meet with her sword, or the sparks that resulted from the two connecting. It still wasn’t enough light, but she caught the shadowy figure of what had to be a man. The Dark One!? Or someone pretending to be him!? She wasn’t even sure the latter was possible, no one could be so daring, so INSANE!

The sword pushed at hers, the princess forced back several steps. With the connection broken, so too did the sparks leave them, that form once again lost to the darkness of the forest. She was literally left fighting blind, swinging her father’s sword about wildly, hoping against hope to hit against something. The only time that she did, was to meet that metal blade once more, sparks flying up to reveal bits and pieces of that shadowy form that advanced upon her unrelentingly. It never once made the starting move, always leaving the young woman to advance with the offensive,

“Stop toying with me!” She snapped, furious to realize that creature was only PLAYING with her. “Fight me fair, and fight me real!”

“Fair it can never be...” Came the dismissal. “But if it is real you be wanting, that I can do.” The satisfaction that slithered in that voice, was accompanied by the first true offensive move, the princess just barely getting her sword up in time. Her arms HURT from the effort, the blow that struck her father’s sowrd, felt to the marrow of the young woman’s bones. There was no time to recover, or reconsider her words, another attack coming, and another, her sword making desperate but ultimately paltry attempts at fending off the barrage. She was being driven back, step by step, and sapped of her strength and bravado bit by stinging. Worse, the only light that now was, came from the sparks of the two blades clashing, steel against steel grinding together, and each time her sword was a little slower, her arms just that much more tired.

She was LOSING. She felt it every time she got cut, small slices here and there that bled thickly, and strung sharply, but weren’t ultimately killing blows. It made her angry, and it made the princess ever more desperate, the young woman suddenly abandoning her defense, to stab her sword downwards, towards what she hoped was the man---the creature’s thigh. She heard a hiss, hers and his, each strike landing true. The princess fell back against a tree for support, her breath coming out in wild pants that were just short of hyperventilating. She had been stabbed, as effectively as he---IT had been, but only one of them was the worse for wear.

“Good form.”

“Go rot in hell.” Is what she spat out at it. There was a long beat of anticipation, one that went on for much too long. “What are you waiting for!?” The princess demanded, and pained as she was, she still managed to let the defiance gleam in her expression. “DO IT!” She had meant the last as a means to goad him into ending her at long last, and not the kiss she received instead.

She still couldn’t see him---it truly, but she felt it all the same, a hot heavy mouth pressing down against hers, lips that were firm and cruel, and unrelenting in their need to absolutely dominate. They didn’t ask, and they certainly didn’t beg, her surrender a demand it expected her to heed. The princess started to gasp in response, skin crawling in unease, and then thought better of it, biting down hard on the lip. She tasted the coppery tang of blood, heard a grunt that wasn’t wholly dissatisfied, the kiss continuing unabated.

Desperate, and panicked in a way that was wholly new to her, the princess tried to shove her attacker off balance. A growl was her reward, a body pressing against hers with an urgent grind that couldn’t hide the weapon still stuck inside. She let him have the kiss, let him think he was victorious, while surreptitiously making her move. This time when her hands landed on him, it wasn’t to push him away, but to signal her acceptance of the situation. Her soft little lips voiced a sigh, letting his tongue slip inside. It was her first experience with such a kiss, and she was charmingly clumsy in her deceit, her fingers stroking down, down his body, searching and exploring, and he didn’t seem to suspect a thing. Not until after her fingers closed around the hilt of her father’s sword, the princess somehow managing to wrench it free of the man—the monster’s leg in a less than fluid like motion.

There was a snarl, more furious surprise than any true pain voiced, the sword’s bloodied tip being pressed to the creature’s chest. The princess grip was a white knuckled one, her sword arm shaking from the effort to keep it up. “Any last words, monster!?”

The laugh that followed such words, was darkly sinister, rolling through her. She shivered in response, but did not let it destroy her defiance and determination. “So be it then!” She said, and used the last of dwindling strength to piece the Dark One’s heart.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To Be Continued….

Hmm….can’t really think of much to say at the moment.  Got a lot going on in real life, though I suspect we all do, cause of the virus...been trying to find my writing muse, but not having much luck on that front. This be a gift fic for my best friend, and I think I covered what I wanted to say in the author’s note before the fic started….

Later…

Michelle

]

[michaelandy101-blog]

4 Google My Business Fields That Impact Ranking (and 3 That Don't) — Whiteboard Friday

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/4-google-my-business-fields-that-impact-ranking-and-3-that-dont-whiteboard-friday/

4 Google My Business Fields That Impact Ranking (and 3 That Don't) — Whiteboard Friday

With so many customization options in your Google My Business profile, it can be tough to decide what to focus on. But when it comes to ranking on the SERP, there are actually only four GMB fields that influence where your business will land. 

In this brand new Whiteboard Friday, MozCon speaker and owner/founder of Sterling Sky, Joy Hawkins, takes us through the fields she and her team has found do (and do not) effect rankings.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hello, Moz fans. My name is Joy Hawkins, and today I’m going to be talking about which Google My Business fields impact ranking in the local pack. At my agency, Sterling Sky, we do a lot of testing to try and figure out what things actually influence ranking and what things do not.

We’ve come to the conclusion that there are only four things inside the Google My Business dashboard that a business owner or a marketing agency can edit that will have a direct influence on where they rank in the local results on Google. 

1. Business name

So to start us out, I’m going to start with the first thing that we found has impacted ranking, which is the business name. Now this is one that’s kind of frustrating because I don’t think it should have so much of an influence, but it does.

This year in the local search ranking factors study I actually put this as my number one. Of all the things that influence ranking, this one, in my experience, has the most weight, which is again unfortunate. So as a business owner, obviously you’re thinking, “I can’t really change my business name very easily”. If you do happen to have a keyword rich business name, you will see an advantage there.

But the real action item would be to kind of look to see if your competitors are taking advantage of this by adding descriptive words into their business name and then submitting corrections to Google for it, because it is against the guidelines. So I’m not saying go out there and add a whole bunch of keywords to your business name on Google. Don’t do that. But you should keep an eye on your competitors just to see if they’re doing this, and if they are, you can report it to Google using the Google business complaint redressal form.

Now one thing that’s kind of a tip here — it has nothing to do with Google — but we’ve seen the same thing on Bing, which doesn’t get talked about a whole lot, but on Bing you’re actually allowed to have descriptors in your business name, so go ahead and do it there. 

No impact: Q&A

Now I’m going to switch over to something that we found has not influenced ranking at all, which is Q&A. I kind of shoved it over to the section over there because it’s not actually in the dashboard currently. There isn’t a Q&A section in there, but it is on the knowledge panel on Google, and it is something that you should get an email alert about if somebody posts a question to your listing. 

So we did a bunch of testing on Q&A and found, despite putting random keywords and very specific things in questions that we posted and also in the answers, there was no measurable impact on ranking.

So, unfortunately, that is not one area where you can kind of manipulate ranking for your clients. 

2. Categories

Moving on to the second thing that we have found influences ranking — categories. Categories might sound kind of simple, because you go and you pick your categories. 

There are 10 that you can add on there, but one thing I want to point out is that Google has around 4,000 categories currently, and they keep adding categories, and then they also sometimes remove them.

So we have been tracking this month over month, and we usually find that there are about two to 10 (on average) changes every month to the categories. Sometimes they add ones that didn’t exist before. For example, we found in the last year there have been a lot of restaurant categories added as well as auto dealer categories. But there are also some industries like dentists, for example, that got a new one a couple of months ago for dental implants.

So it is something that you want to kind of keep track of, and hopefully we will have a resource published soon where we can actually log all of the changes for you. 

No impact: services

Now moving on to another thing that does not impact ranking, we’ll move over here to services. 

So the services section — at first glance it looks like an SEO dream. You can put all kinds of descriptive words in there. You can tell Google a lot about the different services you offer.

But we have found that whatever you put there has no actual bearing on where you rank. So it’s not something I would spend a lot time on. Also, it’s not very visible. Currently it’s not really visible on desktop at all. Then if you go onto a mobile device, it’s kind of hidden off to a tab. It’s not something we have found really has a lot of weight, so spend a few minutes on it, but it’s not something I would revisit quite often.

3. Website

Then moving back to the things that do impact ranking, number three would be the website field. 

So this is something where you do want to kind of think and possibly even test what page on your website to link your Google My Business listing to. Often people link to the homepage, which is fine. But we have also found with multi-location businesses sometimes it is better to link to a location page.

So you do want to kind of test that out. If you’re a business that has lots of different listings — like you have departments or you have practitioner listings — you also want to try and make sure that you link those to different pages on your site, to kind of maximize your exposure and make sure that you’re just not trying to rank all the listings for the same thing, because that won’t happen. They’ll just get filtered. So that is a section that I would definitely suggest doing some testing on and see what works best for you and your industry.

No impact: products

Now moving on to something that we have found did not impact rankings — products. 

So this is a feature that Google launched within I think about a year or so ago. It’s available on most listings. They are actually slowly rolling it out at the moment to all listings with the exception of a few categories that don’t have it. This section is kind of cool because it’s very visual.

If you’re a business that offers products or even if you offer services, you can technically list them in this section with photos. One of the neat things about the products section is that they are very visible on the knowledge panel on both desktop and on mobile. So it is something you want to fill out, but unfortunately we have found it doesn’t impact ranking. However, it does have an impact on conversions for certain industries.

So if you’re a business like a florist or a car dealer, it definitely makes sense to fill out that section and keep it up to date based on what products you’re currently offering. 

4. Reviews

Then moving back to the final thing that we found: number four for what influences ranking would be reviews (which is probably not going to be shocking to most of you). But we have found that review quantity does make an impact on ranking.

But that being said, we’ve also found that it has kind of diminishing returns. So for example, if you’re a business and you go from having no reviews to, let’s say, 20 or 30 reviews, you might start to see your business rank further away from your office, which is great. But if you go from, let’s say, 30 to 70, you may not see the same lift. So that’s something to kind of keep in mind. 

But there are lots of reasons as a business, obviously, why you want to focus on reviews, and we do see that they actually have a direct impact on ranking.

There was an article that I wrote a couple of years ago that is still relevant, on Search Engine Land, that talks about the changes that I saw when a whole bunch of businesses lost reviews and just watching how their ranking actually dropped within a 24 to 48-hour period. So that is still true and still relevant, but it’s something that I would also keep in mind when you’re coming up with a strategy for your business.

Conclusion

So in summary, the four things that you need to remember that you can actually utilize inside Google My Business to influence your ranking: first is the business name, second would be the categories, third would be the website field, and finally the review section on Google. 

Thanks for listening. If you have any questions, please hit me up in the comments.

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