#considering it feels like a very millenial website at times

[girlvinland]

I saw a comment on a post that was like “I can’t believe people over 30 use this app!!!” and I’m like 🤔 ???

[bonivers]

the astrology of social media

feeling the urge to talk about the astrology of social media so. here we go

i will be talking about what i consider The Big 5: facebook, twitter, tumblr, instagram, and tiktok

facebook: launch date was feb 4, 2004, therefore making fb an aquarius sun, and if you want to debate launch time, it is either a cancer moon or leo moon. i lean towards believing it is a cancer moon, because it is heavily used towards communicating with family and old friends. also, considering that aquarius is ruled by saturn, and so is fb’s mercury in capricorn, it is considered a site that offers more networking opportunities for career. i also find it interesting that fb is considered a site for the older generations (saturn energy)

twitter: launch date was march 21, 2006, making twitter an aries sun with a sagittarius moon. twitter is known for it’s arguments and blunt honesty, which is easily from the fire energy of aries and sagittarius. people are not afraid to call people out on this social media in particular. twitter is also well known for being more about connecting with people foreign to you, which is sagittarius energy at work

tumblr: launch date was feb 19, 2007, making tumblr a pisces sun with either a pisces or aries moon. pisces sun makes everything feel more hidden, hence the amount of privacy that can exist here. pisces energy is also a big fan of escapism so fandom does really well here. the way people connect on here tends to be with strangers that they find things in common with, and the idea of mutuals is commonly romanticized, as are most things on tumblr (pisces loves romanticizing). i lean towards believing tumblr has an aries moon, because there is this tendency for people to take things very personally when it may have little to do with them

instagram: launch date was oct 6, 2010, making IG a libra sun with either a virgo or libra moon. libra is ruled by venus so there is definitely more of a concern for aesthetics on IG. it is also more superficial, arguments on IG tend to be more passive aggressive than anything else. libra energy also has a tendency to mirror things, such as incorporating videos after seeing vine do it, stories after seeing snapchat do it, and reels after seeing tiktok do it. i believe IG has a virgo moon, because of the need for things to appear perfect. people tend to interact there more with friends, acquaintances, or friendly strangers

tiktok: the release date of musically was sometime in september 2016, but i will be using the date of when they changed the name to TikTok since i feel like there is more significance to this date: august 2, 2018. this makes tiktok a leo sun with an aries moon. leo is ruled by the sun and often is popular and well known, as tiktok is currently and has been for the past 2 or 3 years. i believe that is why there is such a big rise of influencers on that app - it’s a good place to find an audience. i think the leo energy combined with aries energy is also why tiktok’s algorithm is so good at finding videos people will personally enjoy.

other interesting things i noticed:

the apps that are considered more popular for young people (im talking more about gen z and young millenials) to use are twitter and tiktok. these are respectively an aries sun and a leo sun, which are both considered more youthful energy since aries is the beginning of the zodiac and leo is also more towards the beginning.

instagram’s libra sun is more middle ground, it is used by various ages but i find it more popular with older gen z and millenials in general.

the websites that are considered old (or in tumblr’s case “dead”) are facebook and tumblr. both are at the very end of the zodiac as aquarius and pisces so this isn’t surprising. people on these websites tend to be a considered older as well, especially facebook.

the websites most well known for calling people out and being argumentative over practically anything all have aries/mars energy in some capacity: twitter’s aries sun and tumblr and tiktok’s aries moons.

twitter, tumblr, and tiktok also all have mercury in retrograde which could account for the amount of things taken out of context and the amount of misunderstandings that frequently occur.

snapchat is a cancer sun with a libra moon. cancer is more homebody energy and libra deals with friends and i have noticed people say that they mainly keep snapchat around to talk to old friends from high school. also the fact that snapchat is widely used for its memories section (very cancerian). snapchat is commonly used when you first meet someone and might want to be friends or to shamelessly flirt with someone (libra/venus energy)

ao3 is a scorpio sun with a scorpio moon. i feel like i don’t need to explain why this explains the way that people are secretive about ao3 and what they read on there. in contrast, wattpad is most likely a sagittarius sun, which is why it is more publically well-known and talked about (movies have been adapted from there after all)

[fishmech]

tbh it's pretty unrelatable to me when people are I like "I realized I was trans because of porn" or "I realized I was trans because of this piece of media"

because for me it was like just a steadily increasing presence of out and semi-out trans people irl and online. like starting when I was like in freshman year in high school and someone who was an op on one of the IRC channels I was in decided to come out and change their name on chat and like, she didn't answer many questions but her fellow ops made sure the people who were angry about this had to keep their mouths shut and respect her, and she just continued to talk with this channel of most luck tween and teen webcomic nerds and just, be a person even tho it had been illegal to even be gay in some states just months before she came out to us.

of course before then, before I was 13, there had been people I'd heard of who were trans. People who ran websites or made art or whatever, but none of them were like people who I could just talk to. They certainly weren't people I'd already talked to before or sent silly little jokes on their birthday. So I never really connected my feelings on gender that eventually led to me being a nonbinary trans woman to any of them. But @sarah letting us know that after being @deadname (don't ask me why so many of the "staff" across the forum and chat preferred to use their real first names, when most of the user base preferred typical internet names, it was just a thing to do with these (late gen x/early millenial? in fact at those times today's oldest millenials were considered young gen x) people even tho it was kinda old fashioned) she was still just as good a part of the community meant a lot to me.

and afterward I'd find myself in a lot of communities where a lot of people eventually ended up coming out as trans. Practically every community I was active in in the 2000s led to a bunch of trans spectrum people happening and I'm no exception. The "Sarah moments" just kept happening more often - and with less backlash and eventually no backlash. That's what drove me, ongoing friendship and companionship, not any mere attraction to particular people or being a fan of something.

And tbh it's also why I don't relate to or even like a lot of stuff that purports to involve like people who are transitioning or have transitioned but only recently like, I know it's of course things people relate to today but it speaks very little to my own experience at best and contradicts my experience as like a valid thing to consider at worst.

Cuz I ended up having deep involvement with lesbian friendship/relationship/no not that ex the other one/etc networks way before I allowed myself to think of my presence as being more than token "straight" "guy" ally who happened to to relate hard to the shit people were talking about. I ended up being someone guiding maybe a total of hundreds of trans people in different directions through biomedical and social transition before I could accept I should do it. I gave an easy dozen people new names of which half have kept them, before I could name myself.

It's always about experiencing a community for me, not something simpler where frankly I could have figured out earlier.

[tvmoviechristmas]

The Christmas Listing (Lifetime, 2020)

Ugh, millenials.

Starring:  Lexi Giovagnoli, Travis Burns, Greg Evigan, Rachel O’Connell

Plot Synopsis: Julia Rogers is an uptight, hardworking realty owner who has lost her Christmas spirit. She will have to spend five days at a Christmas Inn with her business competitor, Chad Everest, in order to win over the badly needed listing of the Erickson Farmstead. While competing to win the listing, Julia and Chad discover that they have more in common than they thought. (x)

In My Humble Opinion: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should,” Jeff Goldblum famously explained about the problems inherent in bring dinosaurs back to life in Jurassic Park. If you swap out “scientists” for “programming schedulers”, you will also less famously get an explanation about the problems inherent in Lifetime’s 2020 Christmas line up. It feels like they were so obsessed with getting as many Christmas movies acquired for their schedule, that they didn’t stop and think about how these movies fell into their overall Christmas brand or how best to schedule them. It’s lead to a programming line-up filled with more misses than hits that has baffled me endlessly. What are they thinking? 

The Christmas Listing is Lifetime’s first Monday premiere in its new Christmas-overload line-up. More importantly, The Christmas Listing is the first time Lifetime has decided to acquire a movie that was clearly meant for the UP Channel. I say this for two reasons. First of all, this movie is made by a team that has had a lot of their previous movies premiere on the channel (including non-Christmas ones). Their website says they are “family-focused” so it’s not surprising that their output is more at home on the same channel that played 7th Heaven reruns than Lifetime which is supposed to be the channel that will let their leads have premarital sex. 

More importantly, this movie is of a quality level that is par for the course for UP and by that I mean it is over-the-top bad. There is a song that plays practically in full twice in the first fifteen minutes of the film. There are five montages. Twenty minutes of plot happens in the last five minutes of the film, even though the last five minutes of the film also include a montage. It is very low budget and it feels low budget and it is very, very bad. It’s ION but for families, and you know where movies like that belong? On UP.

However, The Christmas Listing is not on UP. It is on Lifetime. Why is that? Because Lifetime decided that they needed to premiere nearly 40 new movies this year, even though there was a pandemic and less content could originate in house. So in between their own movies (you can tell which ones they are because they all will have a very boomer-focused Jimmy Fallon referenced shoved in there to make you suffer), they have so many forgettable to downright terrible acquisitions. It has been a year of quantity for Lifetime, but even close to a year of quality.

That’s what happens when you recklessly just do what you could, instead of what you should. You create a line-up of movies that are off-brand or impossible to sit through. It’s better than killing a bunch of people by setting dinosaurs loose on them, I suppose. So there is that, but still. Next year, Lifetime, can you think of the consequences before you acquisition too many films?

Watch If: You once had a ton of fun decorating a ficus tree, if you have a future career as a babysitter or if DIY projects are your jam.

Skip If: You can compete with edible glitter, if you have left a Quacker Factory sweater in the lost and found or if you are a man who is fine with going bald.

Final Rating: ★ (★) ☆ ☆ ☆

If you like this blog, please consider donating to my Kofi page! You can also donate money to kbange@gmail.com through either Venmo or CashApp. Thank you!

[silenthillmutual]

I’ve talked a little about this on Twitter and Discord but haven’t really gone into it much here. I know my posts don’t reach that many people but I kind of wanted to address this thing that I see people talk a lot about when it comes to the American education system. 

I want to talk about the dichotomy between honors course students (including AP, DE, whatever else) and general course students.

I see a lot of people have a lot of really negative feelings about honors course students and while I can definitely understand where that comes from, what bugs me about it is that a lot of this is false consciousness. The Vox video on Tucker Carlson does a really good job explaining what this is, but I want to go into how this effects American education, ableism in the school system, and the capitalist exploitation of children.

Note: this is written entirely from experience, from an autistic + mentally ill person who did both general and honors courses; brief mention of suicide farther down.

As the Vox video says, “It’s a term from Marxist theory... When working-class people are tricked into accepting their exploitation.” This is done through manipulation by the people in charge, who suggest that your exploitation is the fault of other people on your level, or in a level below. In the video, the example given is a boss suggesting that one worker’s exploitation is the fault of women in the workplace taking maternity leave, while the other worker is told that their exploitation is due to millenials being lazy. 

This is a form of redirection meant to keep you from banding together. In the workforce, this is meant to keep employers from forming unions.

In the American public school system, this is fed to you by your teachers with the ultimate goal of both preparing you for future treatment from you bosses to prevent you from forming unions - perhaps even to keep kids from joining student government programs - and as a way to avoid complying with ADA.

People who were not in honors courses have been very vocal about being looked down on by kids in the honors courses and having been there, I can say that’s absolutely true. But the thing is this: no twelve year-old has an ingrained sense of superiority like that. Focus, Governor’s School, Advanced Placement, Honors, Dual Enrollment - they tend to parrot rhetoric they have been given from their teachers, parents, and school board that tells them they are in these classes because they are naturally smarter and more gifted, than kids who aren’t in these classes. And that isn’t where it stops; a lot of us were kept in these programs by fearmongering that we wouldn’t be able to get into a good college if we took the standard classes. We were told that kids in standard or remedial classes just weren’t trying hard enough - hell, if we took honors classes instead of AP or DE classes, there was this implication that we could be doing better, trying harder, and that what we were doing was easier. 

The high school I attended worked on a seven-point grading scale until I was a senior, which means that in order to get an A you had to score a 94 or above. Getting a score in the 70s was considered barely passing. You could get a 60 and have that be considered a failing grade. When they switched to the ten-point scale my senior year (100-90 A, 90-80 B, 80-70 C, 70-60 D, 60 & below F), they “remedied” this by introducing minuses into letter grades. 

The reason I bring all of this up is because there seems to be this misconception that the schools cared more about kids in honors classes - which is to say that they cared at all. 

They didn’t. 

In case I haven’t made this clear enough, honors student kids were not oppressing you. They might not have been nice, because they were taught not to be, but they were not oppressing you. I suspect that had i truly acted out during school I would have received slightly better treatment. When I look back at things that I did that were clearly autistic, I probably would have been criticized for them if I wasn’t in advanced placement classes. As such, they got ignored.

...but being ignored is not the same as being cared for. Make no mistake about it: The American public education system does not care about your mental health regardless of which classes you take. And I think that part of the reason they manufacture this dichotomy is so they can avoid having to comply with ADA.

Remember how I said that we were taught to think of kids in standard courses as being there because they weren’t “trying hard enough”? That’s because you don’t have to consider the potential for learning disabilities, Autism, ADHD, and other neurodivergent or mental health concerns if you can write off their poor school performance as a personal failing or laziness. Not only do you not have to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, but you don’t need to do any deeper digging into how the system is failing to educate kids if you can write it off as “well some kids just don’t try hard enough.”

And what better way to prove your bullshit theory that neurodivergent kids just aren’t trying hard enough than by creating a class of kids who do exceedingly well at school? By creating classes that are harder, with different books and a bigger workload? If you’re able to point at a subset of kids who are doing well at it, then you can say, “It’s just you. You’re just not trying hard enough.” 

Here’s the thing about honors+ courses: they were practically built to exploit neurodivergent and mentally ill kids. Introducing rigorous and unforgiving deadline schedules to autistic kids? And they already have problems socializing and making friends, so why not just shove more homework at them? You wanna make a kid with anxiety disorder cry? Tell them all about the websites they have to submit their essays to that will go through and electronically determine whether or not they’ve plagiarized on their paper. It’s a great way to torture kids who are just learning about citations, by threatening them with suspension and being removed from the classes they’ve been told give them their entire identity. And that “must prove you’re better than the others, that you don’t need help, that you’re just naturally gifted” competitive spirit - that can get really quickly and easily ingrained into obsessive-compulsive hypermorality. Load them up with paper topics and research expectations to totally take advantage of a neurodivergent person’s ability to hyperfixate. 

And then all that weird, obsessive, comfort in school and defensiveness of the biggest part of your identity between the ages of 6 and 18? Things you mock honors students for start to sound a lot like the things you mock autistic kids for.

The thing is, standard course students aren’t getting the help they need, because they’re being viewed as “just not trying hard enough”. The honors course students aren’t getting the help they need, either, because they’re being viewed as doing just find without it. Clearly, you’re capable of doing the work, you’re in honors classes, so whatever complaints you have must not be that big of a deal. You have anxiety? So what? You’re doing well in school, so you’re making a big deal out of nothing. Not fitting in with your peers? Who cares! You have school to be focusing on, and that’s more important. You’re having an emotional breakdown because you didn’t do so well on the test or your paper? Well just start earlier. Just try harder next time. Change your study habits. You can do this, you’re in an honors class after all! 

What’s that? You intrusive thoughts are to the point where you constantly feel like committing suicide? You think you need psychiatric care? Sorry, you can’t go to the hospital, that will screw up your GPA, and then you’ll be stuck in the standard classes, and you don’t want that, do you? 

Schools benefit from this. They don’t want to comply with ADA. They will fight you on every conceivable front they can, including outright lying about what college will be like to keep you from asking for extensions or taking care of your mental health. The education system is under-funded and teachers in addition to students are horribly exploited. 

They will tell you they do this to prepare you for the “real world”, which I can only imagine means this: the workforce will do its best to take advantage of you. And the school system recreates this, so by the time you get to the “real world”, you don’t question why you think of blue collar workers as lazy or your colleagues as getting promotions they don’t deserve. To keep you from unionizing because you’ve already become conditioned to this idea that it’s the people around you and not the people above you that are the source of your misery. 

Don’t fall for it.

[icelebrities-dalisa]

Michelle Phan: A Social Media Pheonix

If you’ve been on Youtube in the past 10 years, you’ve probably seen a makeup tutorial. Now, makeup tutorials have become an integral part of the online experience. If your algorithm allows for it, you’ll be exposed to them on the regular. And maybe, you’ll pick up a thing or two on the way. However, they have become such a large part of the social media community because they also serve as one of the best forms of product placement and marketing. By taking talent young makeup artists, or social media personalities, and fusing them with well-known brands, you create the illustrious influencers. A term we can’t seem to escape. Chances are, no matter what your interests are, you are probably following an influencer. They have ever so slyly or maybe very aggressively suggested that you take your hard earned money and shove it into the wallets of some rich person, by stating that this product really made their lives better and/or they simply cannot live without it. But where, oh where did this all start? Well, in the realm of makeup, it is said that Michelle Phan was a pioneer -- The OG. 

Now, I distinctly remember buying my very first lipstick and making the biggest deal, so you could say makeup and me get along. So when I started buying more makeup and wearing it on the reg, I took to the internet. Surely, someone had dealt with falsies that just. wouldn’t. stick. And maybe that someone had posted a video about it, and then maybe hours later you’re watching video after video of girls applying their make up in low-lighting, filmed on their MacBooks, straight out of Photo Booth. But then you see this one, cute girl, her videos seem a little bit higher quality, better lighting, editing, and a soothing voice to top it all off. You stay watching that girl. The reason Michelle Phan pulled forward above the rest was that she put more effort into her videos than anyone else did at the time. Makeup gurus now are still following her footsteps. She had a system and it worked. She went from being a broke college student to being an internet celebrity, influencer, makeup brand owner, entrepreneur and even published author almost overnight by doing what she loved. The Millenial American dream come true, complete with her very own fairy tale love story and hot European boyfriend. 

However, this dreamlife didn’t last for Michelle Phan. She was slammed with a lawsuit. Her mental health took a turn and she generally felt overwhelmed. Being an influencer is a lot more work than we think, and being a well-known, if not the most popular beauty guru, certainly had its drawbacks. Phan states that she didn’t stop working for ten years. So she took some time off, it was complete radio silence from someone who had been posting regularly for ten years. Her followers were confused, felt almost abandoned. But then she broke the silence and came back with a video that proved to be an emotional and humbling explanation to witness. She bared her soul to us. 

I think it’s very important that we as millennials, or, and more importantly, humans living in this Earth and connecting in this society continue to look for people like Michelle Phan to guide us and be our inspiration. She may be an influencer, but it takes a lot of guts to talk to openly about the dark sides of life. And she did so with beauty and grace. It certainly provided an outlet for millions of other people to say, hey, I feel the same way. It’s hard to believe that rich, pretty people have problems but they’re human just like us who struggle to keep a budget and sometimes, it’s even the same problems we have. But the important part is, she kept going. She came back. She left her subscription box, IPSY, started working on her own comic web series, started a website to help content creators find royalty-free music and more importantly, she rebranded her makeup brand, Em Cosmetics, and ultimately herself. 

If you follow her now, her content is a lot more relaxed and frankly, a lot more genuine. This isn’t an influencer looking for a big paycheck, it’s Michelle Phan. She abandoned her own old, tried and true ways, to become a better overall woman and human being. She connects with the world differently now, and we can all learn a thing or two from her. Mental health is a bigger problem than we let ourselves believe. It’s something we have to seek help for but instead hide under layers of (insert vice here), dark humor and perfectly crafted social media profiles. 

People who are willing to be open not only about their mental health but about the steps they took to heal, their failures and the steps they took become successful again, they are treasures in our society. Their honesty opens up an avenue of growth for others. 

She may still very well be considered an influencer, I mean, I will be the first to admit that I bought the Son and Park Beauty Water after seeing it in her insta stories. But I think, for the most part, her content now is far more honest and truthful and she mostly uses her platform to support her own brand. It’s admirable. It’s genius. She’s her own influencer. I’m glad to still be following her, after all these years. Seeing her growth inspires growth for myself. 

[borderline-rat]

Unpopular opinion maybe

But people on this website are very radical ?

And this is honestly making me feel extremely uncomfortable. Not because you have lived a bad experience with one situation automatically means it's gonna be bad everytime and for everyone, and that people being okay with these situations are necessarily arseholes.

I am, very obviously, not dismissing all types of traumas some of us can have lived, whatever they are. If you feel pain, if you feel bad, if you feel personally not okay for having lived those things, that's obviously legit and valid, and I respect your feelings and the behaviour that such experiences can lead you to have. Also, I am obviously not talking about illegal shit that some people apparently try to defend (I heard about those guys trying to make pedophilia look okay?!?!)

However. Not everyone is gonna react the same way you do to a situation, even if yourself find it triggering or not okay. Before I joined the Tumblr community, I viewed it as open-minded, welcoming, and as a safe place where you can find understanding people of all communities, minorities, fighting for their rights and validation. But in the end, I mostly see people who are blocked on their opinions, and willing to judge others very quickly, based on one post - or worse: the interpretation they will have of this post.

Let's remind us something. We're people on the internet. Thus we don't know who we are IRL. Millenials like us has been warned a lot about potential dangers of anonymity on the internet, but let's see it the other way around for a sec.

You don't know who's typing. You don't know their life, who they are, and their past. You can get glimpses of it. Maybe you can understand, more or less, depending on their type of posts. But you don't know them. The interpretation you have of one post doesn't make it the right one. Moreover, the 'group effect' you can lead by throwing stones at someone and gather many people around you to kick their arse alltogether is sick and dangerous. As someone who was a victim of this type of behaviour in school, I know what I am talking about.

What is my point with all this?

Don't judge without context.

You can have an opinion. You can apply it to you and your life all you want. But why would you call other people shite for not following your rules?

I personally apply a very simple motto to my way of living and seeing the world around me. It's derivated from a wiccan precept, and as a Jewish witch, it resonates deep in my soul.

"do what you want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone".

Which means, people around me can do things that I disagree with. For instance, I have a friend going to the army. I, myself, am against the concept of army. Will I kick him outta my life for this? No. He engages himself knowing the consequences. I know people being polyamorous. Even though I could never apply this way of life to myself, I don't think they're disgusting or doing things wrong. I just wouldn't do it myself. And that's fine. I know a lot of people here are against age gaps. Although I obviously think there's some limits to the thing, I don't, personally, see any problem with sexually major people spending time together (I heavily insist on sexual majority though). Yes, it can go wrong. But it depends on the context. It depends on who's involved. It depends on people.

(On a more personal level, I feel very sad of the whole age gap thing because my parents were 12 years apart each other. If they didn't got together at some point, I wouldn't be there. It didn't last between them and they broke up soon after I was born, but still. It's something that always has been triggering me, to know that I was not really supposed to exist. Those posts saying age gaps are always a problem are basically telling me I shouldn't be there.)

We can't make too many generalizations like this. It is dangerous and toxic. People are not a faceless mass. We are many. Some of us are shit. Some of us are dangerous. Some of us are predators. But not all of us, and we don't become inherently bad because one guy on the internet disagrees with us.

I wish people were more open minded and tolerant. While writing this post, I am actually scared of being considered as someone validating some unhealthy behaviours when in reality it's the exact opposite. I am saying some situations are indeed unhealthy. But they are this way because of people's behaviours.

So consider the consequences of dismissing other people on the base of your own experiences. Sometimes, it can mean you become very hurtful to people who literally didn't asked for shite.

Try to stay open minded. Try not to judge without context. Please. Otherwise we're just closing more doors and that's not how we get to understand each other. That's not how we get peace, as well as generally talking than personal peace.

Peace is not a closed door.

[pixelproductions]

5 Important Metrics for Measuring Digital Marketing Campaign Success

Understanding data is essential for successful marketing and these 5 metrics are important when measuring the success of your digital marketing campaign.

Are you craving ore organic traffic to your website?

What about improving the conversion rate?

How about a broader reach on social media?

Or, a higher email click-through rate?

These are all important goals and metrics for a digital marketing campaign, and in this article we’re going to expand on these points to break out 5 essential metrics for measuring the success of your digital marketing campaigns.

Why?

Because you simply can’t afford to play the guessing game when it comes to measuring your digital marketing campaign’s effectiveness.

No matter how intuitive you claim to be or how many times you chant, “I am making progress,” if the results aren’t producing ROI, trust me, you have got some serious problems.

So are you marketing without measuring?

Do you really think that if you run a digital campaign…

Voila, A promising number of leads will show up in your inbox.

That’s just day-dreaming. You simply can’t run a successful online business without a successful digital marketing campaign.

Anyone can set up their business’ website or run an ad on their Facebook page.

The real trick is understanding how beneficial it’s proving to be for the business.

This is where most people stumble. There are so many metrics and such a volume of data that deciphering which data is proving the campaign viability can be a real undertaking.

The key is to be able to see the shortcomings in your strategy and work on improving them.

To that end, we’re going to look at the best way to go about measuring your digital marketing campaign’s success?

1. Traffic

Your neurons will agree, after reading the world traffic, the two things, playing a jig-saw puzzle in your mind are “leads and sales.”

Call your “web traffic,” the base of your entire digital marketing campaign because, ultimately, the leads and sales are generated from the people who visit your page.

If a certain campaign is resulting in very few visits or none at all, chances are there’s something wrong with it. Here you have to do three things before disowning it.

Do the digital post-mortem of your strategy

Analyze the loopholes in your strategy

Alter your strategy and come up with a spellbinding one

Or if there’s a campaign that’s bringing in a lot of traffic, then you can:

Use that information to see what’s working for your business

Apply it to your other areas of the campaign, as well.

Bonus tip: Consider taking help of link building techniques to increase traffic and revenues.

Talk about traffic, it has several layers, waiting for you to discover. There are so many things to consider in traffic, like:

Which source is most of your traffic coming from?

Are they coming from search queries, or direct visitors, or are they referred to your site from other pages?

How much of it is mobile traffic?

Answering and analyzing all these questions will help you understand which elements of your campaign are proving to be most effective.

If you’re running ads for targeted traffic, you’ll have to observe your Click through Rate (CTR) to see how effective your campaign is in getting people to click on your ads.

High CTRs also result in lower Pay-per-click (PPC) costs. Consider Blenders Eyewear, who were able to double their CTR and reduce their PPC by 40% through a cleverly designed marketing strategy.

2. Average time spent

Your audience yawns will haunt you if the boredom hijacks them! I seriously mean it.

If you are getting a lot of traffic, but most of them are only spending five to ten seconds on your page before bouncing off, then your digital marketing campaign isn’t as successful as the traffic numbers might indicate.

This does say that “It’s not the game of traffic numbers only.”

The more time people spend on your page, means the more engaging your campaigns are turning out to be.

It’s your time to discover the secret behind these layers. Enlighten yourself regarding- what kind of content is more relevant or of interest to your target audience, and you can design future campaigns accordingly.

Moreover, you can add videos as it is one of the most effective, interactive, and engaging forms of content. Adding them to your pages can increase user engagement and consequently, the time users spend on your website.

According to research, 85% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase after watching a video about the product.

In many cases, longer visits don’t necessarily guarantee sales, but generally, people who are spending more time show more commitment and have higher chances of converting.

If your current campaigns are in the spell of yawns, this means that your content is not of any value to visitors.

Bonus tip: Improve your content strategy; you will experience an increase in engagement levels.

3. Conversion

Conversion had, has, and will have an ongoing digital affair with revenue.

Conversion rates determine how much of your traffic is converted into leads or sales. In case you haven’t noticed, the metrics mentioned here need to be used in tandem to judge:

The health of your digital marketing campaign

To find the possible problems

To decide how they can be solved.

Accordingly, conversion rates are an excellent way to measure if your digital marketing campaigns are engaging and convincing enough to generate sales, especially if you’re running an e-commerce business.

For example, Wayfair has designed their digital marketing strategy in a way to make the experience smooth and seamless for the customers. This lets them find precisely what they are looking for and so they are more willing to make a purchase.

Another aspect of conversion is the bounce rate. Out of all the traffic you get on your site, not everyone is converted into leads. Many visits but “bounce” or leave your page right after.

Ask marketers, and they will tell you, high bounce rates offer them misery. Needless to say, it is considered as a digital curse for your campaign.

Your bounce rate indicates that visitors are not enjoying your content, your traffic may be coming from the wrong sources, or that you have a poorly designed landing page.

Bonus tip: Do some detective work – Thoroughly analyze the page that has a higher bounce rate. Find out where the problem lies, look for the possible solution, and implement it.

4. Social Media Marketing results

Millennial need some digital breaths in the hustle and bustle of life.

Didn’t understand? You will see in a while.

It seems like Millenials have taken a pledge not to leave the social media ever again. This does say a lot.

If you are not getting the desired results on social media, don’t say that it is of no use for you. It is you who doesn’t know how to use it.

Social media marketing is one of the most critical aspects of the digital marketing strategy. According to lyfemarketing, social media takes up 33% of the time that average internet user spends online.

A couple of things will help you in determining the success of your current campaign. Moreover, it will help you in modifying your strategy

Firstly look into the Engagement rate and determine the type of content you should work on based on how it performs across different social media platforms. This indicates how responsive your audience is to your content.

Secondly, keep track of your number of followers. (Note: Measuring these numbers is essential to scale your business.)

Take note of details such as their origin, the kind of content they engage with, the time at which they are most active, etc.

Bonus tip: With the things mentioned above, keep track of your social media mentions. This includes reviews, customer feedback, and any post referring to you. Moreover, factors like post reach and likes/dislikes also play a crucial role in determining success.

Take a look at the sample below from Sprout Social. It shows five distinct social media metrics and a detailed plan for how the company intends to achieve them.

5. Return on Investment

You implemented a magnificent game plan, sounds perfect!

A couple of questions for you:

Do you feel that your plan has helped re-igniting the long lost sales opportunities?

Do you think your plan has converted cold leads into warm leads?

What about the promising ROI?

At the end of the day, every business wants profits. So, the best way to judge the success of your digital marketing campaign is to see how well it is generating revenues through your return on investment (ROI).

Bonus tip: Work on your cold leads, retain your current leads and enjoy the promising ROI.

This shows if all that money that you’re investing in digital marketing is churning out more profits or not. If it is, then that means your campaign is successful. Moreover, you can identify which campaigns are most effective and are generating the most sales and which need more attention.

As discussed above, social media networks help you to generate ROI for your business. According to Alexa, Facebook is responsible for 8% of all page views on the internet. This is followed by LinkedIn and Twitter, which are responsible for about 1% of all page views. This means that you’re likely to get a higher ROI on Facebook than other social media channels.

Peel, a phone case retailer, was able to increase its ROI three times by running a successful Facebook video ads campaign.

Parting Thoughts

Your digital marketing campaign is your digital seed. Sowing it and expecting the perfect outcome, without putting in work, represents that you live in la-la land.

Remember that your campaign would still fail:

If you don’t continuously watch its performance and success because consumer tastes and preferences are changing rapidly.

If you favor gut-driven decisions.

What might be exciting today could become boring tomorrow and drive away your visitors. So, it is vital to evaluate your campaign’s success continually.

Each of these metrics is important to consider when measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns. When you use all of them together, you can quickly find out what’s working and what’s not, and then incorporate all that information in your future campaigns and strategies.

As a rule, you should always set a goal for your digital marketing campaign before launching and decide how you’ll measure your progress. This will help you come up with the right strategies for the best execution, and you’ll see better results.

[z5061241]

Something Awesome Week 7: The tides hath turned

So this is probably the final week where I will purely be doing information gathering, next week I will be putting together all the information found into a nice, easy to view profile of Andrew.

Since last week was a bit of a flop, I re-checked the Tracelab’s OSINT criteria (here) and I found that it’s valuable to find out employer, family, and any vehicle information. Up until now, I had only been focusing on Andrew himself. The site reminded me that, when building a detailed profile, you need to consider more than just personal information, the context of work/family is important too because they can provide opportunities for exploitation. 

Thus, the goals for this week are: 

Gather more detail on the employers (maybe limit to only the past 2 for relevance). 

Find relatives, but no stalking them. Just basic name and social media profile link if found. 

Current Vehicle Information. 

Employer Deep Dive

Finding PwC’s information was easy as expected. Just Google and Glassdoor.

Name: PricewaterhouseCoopers

Business: Consultancy

Website: https://www.pwc.com.au/

Address: One International Towers, Watermans Quay, Barangaroo NSW 2000

Phone: (02) 8266 0000

Social Media (Australian Accounts): Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube

Manager at the time: Unknown

Estimated Salary at the time: $28-$32/hr

I decided to add two more fields (Manager, Salary) because I think for an attacker this information is important. The Manager provides an authority which can be exploited via social engineering and knowing the Salary allows you to piece together an idea of the target’s financial situation. In intelligence gathering, if you need to sway a target onto your side it’s common to bribe them - but how much is enough? This is why it’s important to have an idea of how much the target earns so you can use this information to your advantage.

Next up was Tutor Doctor. 

Name: Tutor Doctor (Tutoring Franchise)

Business: Private Tutoring

Website: https://www.tutordoctor.com.au/, https://northshore.tutor-doctor.com.au/ 

Address: None (Tutoring is done in students home, possible no address at all)

Phone: 0490 177 441

Social Media: Facebook

Manager at the time: Hugh Moore

Phone: 0490 177 441, Email: hmoore@tutordoctor.com.au

Social Media: LinkedIn (with public photo), Facebook

Estimated Salary at the time: $25-$27/hr

I quickly found that there are actually multiple ‘regions’ the brand is split up in and each seems to run independently. Luckily I found contact details for each region on the website and it was clear that each region was run by 1 person with a listed mobile number and website. 

I used the fact that Andrew went to Barker to narrow down the regions to either Hornsby or North Shore. This is where I ran into a dead-end, I didn’t know how to verify which one Andrew worked in. I decided to call the mobile numbers and act as though I’m an enquiring parent who has been recommended Andrew specifically; one of them will have Andrew in their system. I called Hornsby first since Barker college is in Hornsby however the person didn’t pick up, so I tried Hugh Moore in North Shoore (forgive the pun, it's late). Hugh didn’t even have to use any system, he remembered Andrew (from like years ago...must have been a fine tutor).  SideNote: I realize that this is probably going too far for OSINT and walking the lines of Social Engineering (which I wasn’t cleared to do) but my aims were not to get Hugh to give me Andrew’s confidential, personal details such as an email/phone number. If I’ve crossed the line here, I understand if I dock marks for it - sorry :(. SideNote 2: This did give me an idea of how I would use social engineering (if I was meant to/cleared to) to get personal information. I would call up acting like a technical recruiting manager from a tech company with an obscure name (the types that you forget after a couple of minutes). I would claim that Andrew is applying for a job at the said obscure company and he has listed Hugh as a Referee. After the chit chat of getting his referral, I would ask Hugh if had Andrew’s number or email address - “He definitely seems like a very promising candidate and I’d be happy to progress his application forward with your referral. Um actually, for the next stage, I need to call him to organise the best time for an interview however I think he’s forgotten to put his number on his CV. I was wondering if you had a phone number for him? “ Why would this work? 

People want to help people they know (Hugh would want to help Andrew land this job)

A phone number is not really personal information to a recruiter, might not sound any mental alarm bells 

People operate in patterns: For the duration of the call, I would be asking questions (about Andrew’s personality, work ethic - things that are personal to his character) and Hugh would be answering. When I slip in the question about getting a phone number, Hugh might not think twice about it at this point. Especially if I've built good rapport with him thus far and sold him the recruiter story.   

Feels almost evil to think of such things. So let's get back to proper OSINT :D :D. 

Family + Relatives

In the past, I’ve seen mentions of a Glen R Carmichael in the UNSW Deans list under CSE. It seems very likely that this is a brother. When looking him up I found he had an ABN, his facebook was private and he too was on the HSC Distinguished Achievers list. Unfortunately, this is where I uncovered something that didn’t match my hypothesis. Glen R Carmichael went to Covenant Christian School not Barker College. Weirdly, I couldn’t find a LinkedIn profile, so I couldn’t try and use that to find more similarities between him and Andrew.  For now, I’m going to put him down as a possible relative/cousin. Vehicle 

Trying to find Glen’s information took some time so instead of trying to find more people in Andrew’s family, I decided to move on to trying to find some vehicle information.  I read an article a few months ago about a man who created an ML project to look up car registrations in Victoria in real-time. Surely, I could do the same in NSW and maybe I could look up driver information too? Turns out you can search for vehicle registration’s via the number plate, but there’s no way of finding out who owns the car, or searching up drivers and then getting cars. Makes sense, it is kinda personal and only the po po should have access to that info.  Ideally, if Andrew had a public facebook profile there may be a post of him showing off his shiny new red P’s (as so many Millenials do). Usually, these posts will include the car (and most of the time the number plate too!).  A registration check gives you the following information: 

Model

Make (inc. year)

Colour

Weight

Registration Expiry 

CTP (insurer details)

Any concessions listed

You can also get a vehicle history report for $22. Since I don’t have any photos of his car or knowledge of any immediate family, I’m pretty sure its rather impossible to find any information on any vehicles he drives. All the resources under osintframework.com or the bellingcat doc are either only useful in the US or not related to what I’m trying to find. Facebook Events & Photos I had a brainwave one day while walking out of my thesis meeting and checking a facebook event I was invited to. Facebook events allow you to view the guest list if the event isn’t private, so even though I can’t see Andrew’s events via his profile, I can try and find events he has been to/going to go to and check the guest list! This is actually not a bad idea, because he is the Wellbeing head at UNSW SecSoc and in my past experience of societies, the exec committee usually come to the events.  On the Events of SecSoc page, I checked all the events since April and found that Andrew has been to 3 events of which he has actually hosted one event! 

On the sidebar I noticed the photos tab. After going through all the photos (not that many anyway) I actually managed to find a few photos of Andrew at those events! 

AWWW YEAAAA :partyparrot: 

What’s interesting is that Andrew isn’t tagged in any of these photos, but by knowing enough information about him I was able to place him at these events (OSINT is legit y’all). 

What’s more, I would like to explain the significance of the second photo. Something I learned from the first phase of research is that photos of personal tech and devices are very valuable. Even though the photo may not be clear, this photo combined with one in the album which exposes part of the keyboard is enough for attackers to identify which model laptop Andrew owns. This opens him up to all the vulnerabilities and exploits this model has. It also gives attackers an idea of the computing power Andrew has access to on a daily basis. BINGOOOO :P 

What’s the impact of having this data?

Employer Details: Gives an attacker more context on the target and opens up the attack surface. Finding people the target worked with creates opportunities for social engineering and more social media profiles to analyse. Knowing the position and company also provides an idea of the kind of financial income the target may have and whether or not that is exploitable. 

Family/Relatives: Very similar to the above when it comes to social engineering and social media. OSINT professional’s have a term for family members who post their entire lives (and yours) on social media: Chatterboxes. 

Vehicle: Even though I didn’t find Andrew’s vehicle, having such information is very useful. It can be used for many things such as, confirming that the target was in a location by finding their vehicle there, knowing whether rego has expired or not, etc

Events & Photos: The events and photos show where the target has been, what they are interested in and where they like to go. Using this information, I can say with some confidence that Andrew will go to a UNSW SecSoc event at the end of the term once his thesis and other course requirements are cleared. 

Note on Time Management

This week I managed to complete all my usual work by Tuesday night/Wednesday mid-day (counting time for tutorial). This was huge because It allowed me to dedicate a lot more time to this week’s something awesome and honestly, without it I probably would’ve run out of time and not found the facebook events and photos. Definitely going to run with a schedule like this next term :D 

[evicasti]

100 Questions

1.Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic?

-it depends on the situation.

2.What would you change about yourself if you could?

-the way I always overthink everything, how fast I catch feelings for someone, my shyness, and it keeps going…

3.What apps do you use most often?

-instagram, snapchat, vsco, facebook,…

4.What’s the nicest compliment you’ve ever received?

-based on the person who gave it to me, i don’t think it was sincere enough.

5.If you were a color, what would you be?

-yellow

6.What three things could you not live without?

-any type of art around me, my mom and my phone.

7.What was the last argument you had about?

-it was about racism.

8.How did you meet your best friend?

-at school.

9.Do you have any collections?

-i don’t know if it counts, but I collect drawings.

10.What would you never want to change?

-the size of my eyes.

11.What are your favorite words?

-all the words you could ever use to swear, i love swearing.

12.Do you think everything will work out for the best?

-I’ve stopped thinking and started hoping lately.

13.Who did you last say “I love you” to?

-Probs my mom or my cat.

14.What word (or sound) makes you cringe?

-the sound of nails passing through a chalkboard.

15.Do you always finish work on time?

-most of the times, yes.

16.Where did you take your first vacation?

-idk

17.Would you be described as spontaneous?

-yes, i don’t like following paths.

18.Do you read your horoscope?

-i believe in astrology, but not too much in horoscopes so I usually don’t.

19.If you could be an emoji, what would you be?

-😒

20.How do you react to criticism?

-it’s good as long as it’s constructive.

21.Would you rather be too hot or too cold?

-too cold by far.

22.Do you believe in ghosts/spirits?

-more than i believe in myself tbh.

23.How long does it take you to get ready?

-it depends on the place i’m going, but usually less than 2 hours.

24.Do you have a good relationship with your parents?

-just with my mom.

25.Is there someone that you miss?

-yes.

26.Do you regret anything you’ve done?

-i shouldn’t, but i do.

27.Would you live in a book/film if you could?

-i like to think that my life is my own film.

28.How would you prefer to die?

-with a shot straight on my forehead.

29.What do you think people notice about your first?

-i have no idea.

30.Who knows you better than anyone?

-my bestfriends.

31.What one word describes how you’re feeling right now?

-pathetic by answering this questions.

32.Are you often early, on time, or late?

-early if i care, on time if it’s obligatory and late if i don’t give a fuck.

33.What scares you the most?

-losing someone i love.

34.Would you go back in time if you could?

-just to feel some things again, but not to change them.

35.Do you believe in yourself?

-i’m working on it.

36.When was the last time you had a passionate kiss?

-march, 2017, don’t remember the day.

37.Is it easier for you to forgive or to forget?

-to forgive.

38.Who is the most intelligent person you know?

-A girl in my college called Monica.

39.What was/is your best school subject?

-it was biology, cause it was easy af.

40.What’s the most important quality in a partner?

-i don’t have a partner.

41.Are you in love right now?

-i think so, it’s very confusing.

42.Have you ever broken someone’s heart?

-yes.

43.Do you enjoy playing board or video games?

-a lot.

44.Who cares a lot about you?

-a guy i met at school, my best friend and my mom i guess.

45.How would you spend a million dollars?

-on a journey all around Europe and buying shit i probably don’t need.

46.What was the last dream you can recall about?

-my grandpa, but i still can’t remember what was it about.

47.Who was the last person who saw you cry?

-my sister.

48.Do you give second chances?

-oh i wish i wasn’t this stupid, but yes.

49.What’s the last thing you did before bed last night?

-i fed my cat.

50.Which was the best year of your life?

-i can’t remember.

51.How do you feel about being naked?

-i feel like a free elf.

52.Do you believe everything happens for a reason?

-yes, even though sometimes i don’t get the reason.

53.Could you live as a hermit?

-nope.

54.Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed?

-neh, it wouldn’t mean nothing.

55.How do you feel when you wake up?

-sleepy.

56.Is dishonesty ever okay?

-if you don’t want to hurt someone it’s understandable, but not okay.

57.Do you believe in love at first sight?

- i believe in attraction at first sight, love is something you work ok day by day.

58.What’s your current relationship status?

-hoping for the best.

59.Are you religious?

-no.

60.Spiritual?

-yes.

61.Who did you last have a deep conversation with?

-a girl I know.

62.Do you like your name and/or nickname?

-yes.

63.To get to know you, what should someone read, watch, or listen to?

-mostly my tumblr, it says more than it should.

64.What qualities do you admire in others? 

-self love, confidence, sense of humor.

65.How would you spend your ideal day? -in the woods with people i love, having a camping day or something.

66.What five things do you spend the most time doing?

-drawing, listening to music, thinking, watching netflix, singing.

67.What is the last song you heard?

-Get Away-The Internet.

68.When did you last laugh really, really hard?

-last week with one of my closest friends at his house.

69.Do you feel your outside appearance fairly represents the real you?

-sometimes, but i feel like i need some image changes to feel more confident.

70.What is one of your favorite quotes?

-I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.

71.If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

-Amsterdam, or Spain.

72.What’s the nicest thing you’ve ever done?

-i can’t remember.

73.Do you wish on stars, lucky numbers, eyelashes?

-yes, i’m a baby dreamer.

74.What’s your biggest pet peeve?

-people crave for attention.

75.How did you celebrate your last birthday?

-with friends and family, mostly family.

76.What age have you most enjoyed being?

-probably the first three years of my life bc i wasn’t at school.

77.Why do you love your favorite author or musician?

-because of all the polemic mesaages they send with their lyrics.

78.How do you feel about technology?

-it’s growing too fast, and i really think it’s going to destroy us because it’s out of our hands right now.

79.What season brings you the most joy?

-where i live there’s no such thing as seasons, it’s just a combo of rain and sun all at once. horrible.

80.Do you consider yourself detail-oriented?

-nop.

81.What TV show did you like best as a kid?

-barney and the rugrats.

82.Would you rather give a gift or receive a gift?

-both.

83. Do you often make jokes? 

-very often. seriously.

84.When did you last make a new friend?

-last week at my drawing class.

85.What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?

-Graduating and getting the hell out of my school by far.

86.Are you looking forward to something right now?

- i’m just waiting for someone who deserves all my attention.

87.Which website do you visit most often?

-tumblr and netflix.

88.Do you match the traits of your zodiac sign?

-very much.

89.Are you afraid of the dark?

-sometimes, darkness is intimidating.

90.What is the most trouble you’ve gotten into?

-not in the mood to talk about it.

91.If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be?

-stop cutting your hair that much.

92.Would you rather give up TV or the internet?

-i already gave up TV, sorry not sorry.

93.Have you changed a lot in the last decade?

-more than i could ever imagine.

94.If you could have any talent, what would it be?

-playing an instrument.

95.What’s the most painful loss you’ve experienced?

- my grandpa’s death.

96.When were you last embarrassed?

-last friday.

97.Would you like to be famous?

-if i get famous for doing something good and productive then yes.

98.Do you often sing in the shower?

-always.

99.If you could see your future, would you want to?

-no.

100.What are you most grateful for in your life?

-the way i get to understand different points of view and the way i never get embarassed for what i truly am and what i truly believe even if sometimes i feel like the worst. Basically to have the opportunity to be an open minded millenial.

Tagged: @marihasissues @girls-ongirls @rewindtheweek

[harrystylesadrift-blog]

Harry Styles kicked his solo career into high gear recently, dropping the track list and artwork for his impending album and performing on Saturday Night Live, for which he wore Gucci, of course. He wears Gucci for his first solo Rolling Stone cover, as well. The Italian brand seemed an obvious choice for Styles, who has been something of a poster boy for the brand. Take a look back at the budding sartorial relationship between Styles and Alessandro Michele's Gucci with this article we penned in 2015 ...

As indicated by the fashion press and documented by the many social media accounts and websites dedicated to charting the sartorial choices of Harry Styles, the ex-One Direction frontman has been wearing quite a bit of Gucci as of late. Alessandro Michele’s garments for Gucci, to be specific. Even for those who do are not fanatically abreast of Styles’s outings and corresponding wardrobe choices, the singer’s appearance at the American Music Awards last month was noteworthy.

The 21-year old heartthrob and the recipient of the British Fashion Council’s 2013 Fashion Icon Award stepped out in a floral suit from the Florentine brand's Spring/Summer 2016 menswear collection. Later in the evening, he changed into an all black Gucci suit with a flower tie from the house's S/S 2015 collection. Following the AMAs, it became clear that Styles either has a penchant for Gucci, a brand ambassador-type contract with the brand or a little something of both. Here is what we know …

Celebrity endorsements and brand ambassadorships are big business. They are hardly a novel practice, but they have certainly evolved quite significantly over the past decade, in particular, as millenials have taken hold of a huge portion of the market (there are 80 million in the U.S. alone). The resulting increase in fluency in terms of online and mobile platforms – for use in shopping and engaging in social media – and the fact that they’ve become more accustomed to traditional forms of advertising has forced brands to adapt accordingly, as such models become less novel and thereby, less effective.

Harvard Business Review stated earlier this year, “For brands to seduce the millennial consumer, they’ll need to differentiate themselves from the traditional advertising methods [that] millennials typically ignore.” Steve Bender, Executive VP of Strategy for GreenLight Media, a branded-content agency and studio, which recently teamed up with Under Armour for a branded video series, in lieu of the average campaign, echoed this sentiment, saying: “It’s really hard to get people to notice advertising anymore.” And he is right.

The result is that traditional ad campaigns and brand spokesmodel arrangements simply don’t cut it anymore. Such evolution can be seen in the once very effective advertising model of television commercials. Now, a huge segment of television watchers are either able to fast forward through commercials, or if watching television on a Netflix or Hulu-type platform, skip them altogether. With this in mind, advertising is becoming more integrated into the content itself. Hence, the rise of native advertising, product placements, social media ads, and the like, instead.

Styles in Gucci on Saturday Night Live

Such integrated advertising is not only being published by brand owners or advertising agencies. Each time we post a source identifying photo on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Snapchat – whether it be a Gucci bag, a picture of the Yeezy sneakers or a BluePrint juice – we are doing that brand’s job for it and the vast majority of people are not being compensated to do so (a big coup for the brands). Yet, our modern pastimes (namely, our engagement with others by way of an array of apps) have situated us to step into the shoes of advertisers, ourselves. We collectively have proven to be quite adept and also to come across as authentic (because most of us are not being paid) – which plays a truly key role in effective advertising.

As brands are forced to consistently evolve in terms of how they are reaching both existing and potential new consumers in terms of actual ad formats, celebrities (whether they are bona fide movie stars, musicians, or just influential bloggers or editors) are almost always in fashion for advertising purposes. They bring with them massive followings, which serve as attractive sources of press, revenue, and growth for brands. However, clicks, likes, and retweets are simply not enough. In order for advertising to be effective, consumers, especially now, need to gain some sense of authenticity from the campaign.

“Only 1% of millennials surveyed said that a compelling advertisement would make them trust a brand more. They believe that advertising is all spin and not authentic,” a Forbes columnist noted recently. As such, millennial consumers need to believe that the endorsement is real; that the garment, for instance, is one that the celebrity or “it” blogger actually wears, and is not just wearing in exchange for a paycheck.

Enter: the current form of the celebrity brand ambassadorship. While many brands – particularly sportswear and watch companies – employ traditional brand ambassadors, in the way that Nike sponsors Cristiano Ronaldo or the way that Kerry Washington fronts Movado, there are similarly many and maybe more brands that rely on a slightly different model. The modern version may take the form of an updated traditional brand ambassadorship (think: a celebrity appears in an ad campaign plus commits to attending its fashion shows and/or other brand events, wearing so many of its garments to other events, and promoting it on social media, etc).

It may also come in the form of gifting, which makes a lot of sense. In lieu of signing an expensive and often complex deal with a celebrity or paying to have that celebrity styled and photographed, etc. for a campaign, a brand can gift him/her some garments and accessories, instead. By doing so, the brand lets the celebrity and the paparazzi and/or street style photographers do the work. And with the celebrity wearing the garments in his or her daily life and presumably styling them himself, it feels more real, and consumers are more likely to be influenced.

So, enter: Harry Styles. If we consider Styles’s wardrobe for a moment, there has been an array of Gucci garments in it recently. There was the Gucci floral print shirt he wore to an event in June; the Fall/Winter 2015 geometric patterned suit in September. More recently, he wore a blue shirt from Michele’s Spring/Summer 2016 collection on the Late Late Show, one of the blooms print shirts in concert in San Jose, and a tiger-print tee while performing last month.

Don’t forget the red eagle print bowling shirt from Gucci’s 2016 cruise collection, the flora print Duke shirt, the Fall/Winter 2015 suit he wore in one of the group’s music videos, the damask print silk shirt with bow, the matte silk shirt with grosgrain bow that he wore in an album cover photo, and a number of other garments. The frequency with which he wears Gucci garments to public appearances, concerts and in official photos, suggests that the two may have a relationship of sorts and that Styles may be compensated for repping the house.

Rolling Stone editorial May 2017

While we do not know if such a deal exists, it seems unlikely given the number of garments he wears from Gucci’s most direct rivals. Consider all of the Saint Laurent looks he has worn over the past year or so – and continues to wear. The number is quite staggering – from the array of ready-to-wear, outerwear, boots, even a duffle or two. The fashion press has picked up on this. Glamour recently noted: “Harry often opts for Saint Laurent.”

MTV wrote: “Since late 2013, Harry has been fond of Saint Laurent boots.” Vogue took on his sartorial choices, writing: “Harry Styles is known for his fashion-forward approach to men’s style most notably, rocker-inspired looks by Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent.” A year ago, Details dedicated an entire article to Styles’s penchant for Saint Laurent. In short, he has become known for the frequency with which he wears Hedi Slimane’s clothes – which would likely be viewed as problematic investment for Gucci or any brand other than Saint Laurent (even though it is worth noting that Gucci and Saint Laurent share a parent company, Kering, and so, this may pose much less of a potential conflict).

As for whether a Saint Laurent deal is in effect: That is also unlikely (and frankly, it doesn’t much matter. Saint Laurent, like Gucci, is certainly reaping benefits each time Styles steps out in one of their garments, regardless of whether a formal deal has been penned). However, for conversation’s sake, as we have seen in the past, Saint Laurent is generally very up front and vocal about its partnerships with musicians. So, we can likely rule out anything between the two aside from some gifting, which is standard industry practice for brands as a way to increase press, and something for which YSL was known, at least prior to Slimane’s arrival.

Lily Allen famously admitted in 2007 that in exchange for attending a Saint Laurent show she was allowed to help herself to whatever she wanted in the brand’s flagship store. Under Slimane’s watch, the brand’s PR team also utilizes a gifting practice. As K-pop star, G-Dragon, who does a lot of Saint Laurent shopping (and was a supporter of Slimane when he was heading up Dior Homme in the 2000’s), said, Slimane give him first dibs on his entire first menswear collection. (It is worth noting that G-Dragon is also an international star and style icon in his own right).  

There is very likely some shopping by Styles going on, as well. He has, after all, been spotted in Saint Laurent stores all over the globe over the past couple of years, and he has to spend his One Direction paychecks some way.

This is probably the extent of the relationship – at least between Styles and both Saint Laurent and Gucci at this point.  

As for Gucci and whether the budding fashion romance between Styles and Gucci creative Alessandro Michele will materialize into a formal brand ambassadorship or ad campaign for Styles, we will have to wait and see. Unlike Saint Laurent, which regularly features musicians in its campaigns, that is not exactly Gucci’s cup of tea. However, as we learned this weekend, actor/musician Jared Leto has landed Gucci’s Guilty fragrance campaign, replacing actors Chris Evans and Evan Rachel Wood. This seems like something Styles could be positioning himself for in the coming seasons.

[32flavasshoetique]

Delicious outcome From an analysis that is statistical the typical porno Superstar

Delicious outcome From an analysis that is statistical the typical porno Superstar

Comes from a study that is deep the folks for the pornography markets.

It is possible to truly locate a information arranged on nothing these era, huh?

A statistically-inclined enthusiast for the kinky arts lately circulated the outcome from their substantial learn into porno stars. To gather their facts, he scraped 10,000 biographies from the websites person movie Database, which offers important data and movie records for just about any person who seems in virtually any main-stream film that is pornographic.

We had their outcome and plucked out these arbitrary knowledge, some of which were since unanticipated as being a upset dragon.

More common women porn superstar hair tone and bra dimensions correspondingly

The label will say the typical pornography celebrity could be a blonde with enormous bust, but brown locks is much more usual (39.1 % to 3percent) additionally the more bra size that is common.

The debut that is average for females

That era for females has-been exactly the same ever since the 1970s. People have begun getting back in young, though; the typical first era when you look at the ’70s was actually Exactly who states millenials don’t have a similar drive as seniors?

An average men pornography superstar is nearly 30 lbs much lighter compared to normal American guy

At -foot-10, 167. lbs, the ordinary men pornography celebrity is similar peak since the typical people, but notably less heavy. It is maybe perhaps not really a comparison that is totally apples-to-oranges since low porno superstar the male is considered straight down by each of their muscles tresses, but nonetheless.

The lightest is 7pounds. They need to truly form teams for a flick along.

percentage have actually a minumum of one tat

That’s about 9. percentage raised above typical, but about percentage less than I would personally’ve thought. Additionally, 43% have human body (non-ear) piercing, which will be 13% above medium.

This is certainly over the age of the typical novice mommy, but people, it’s strange in my experience to get more than that. Furthermore, best per cent of on-screen MILFs were over 40 and just percentage is over 0.

Boys render about one-third of exactly exactly just just what females generate

The pornography marketplace try busting the salary space very well, this indicates. Nonetheless, the small amount of people that go upwards as much as the top of the market makes it upwards in levels; for the 100 artists most abundant in loans on IAFD, 9are boys.

And throughout the normal men pornography super super star profession of 2years, that is a utter of 1,01women. The quintessential prolific feminine porno stars have intercourse with on average eight guys each year more than a 17.year profession, for a complete of 148.

It’s unusual for a female to just quit porn after one film

The figure is actually around 20 percentage. Nevertheless the most of female manage at the very least three movies and final on average 3 years. Those figures sounds about just like that which you discover professional football leagues.

All of those other common (phony) women last brands become like, Star/Starr, Fox/Foxx and flower. All of those other common (probably artificial) men last brands include James, Taylor, rock and Michaels.

The most typical (phony) first-name for females try Nikki

Accompanied by Jessica, Lisa, Kelly and Angel. The most frequent (perhaps artificial, possibly actual) first-name for males are David, accompanied by Tony, John, Mike/Michael and Steve. Them are doing the “Pet’s name + street you grew up on” move, unless porn stars disproportionately give their pets very mundane ’80s names and all grew up on Lee St so it seems very few of.

Sam try really a Midwest-born journalist that is classically-trained now residing and dealing in l . a . to be a creator, writer and business owner. So fundamentally, only a steaming that is whole of stereotypes.

Users, or “kinksters,” can find other people according to intercourse, range, fetishes, etc. therefore it’s effortless adequate to select the best individual who was additionally DTF. And unlike Tinder, you are sure that it is about gender through the beginning. That’s not saying you can’t see fall and someone in admiration (best wishes ideas were waylaid and all sorts of that jazz), but this will be an application for individuals searching for perverted intercourse.

In addition to their visibility pictures, it is possible to publish sensuous photo of your self and pick just who views all of all of them. You can erase photo you have delivered via information, but needless to say, individuals may do screengrabs, very don’t think as well secure giving gorgeous photos to complete strangers.

One best part with Whiplr was you can use if you’re unsure of what to say to someone that it offers icebreakers — lines. We know just what they feels as though creating the conversation that is perfect whenever we have actually a short-term head frost due to the fact people we’re looking at from the display is merely as well hot.

It could make better of us tongue-tied. I create internet dating recommendations for a full time income and I’ve have minutes whenever I’ve missing my personal marbles and disregarded every discussion beginning I’ve ever before find. And let’s only say I’ve stumble on a couple of.

You can find general public communities around the software where you could communicate with society about different information. Should you ever desired to know very well what Mr. gray is truly exactly about, next this is actually the place to begin the investigation. You’ll meet anyone from newbies to expert peeps that are BDSM.

Ever before desired a threesome? There’s an software for discovering that. You can forget fumbling at night when racking your brains on if several of friends and family could be upwards for this. Feeld can be a software for anybody to locate perverted intercourse you are, you need to be open minded— you can be straight or gay, but whatever.

Feeld let’s you choose whether you’re two different people interested in a differnt one to become listed on, or if you’re single trying to find two more singles, or a few. They is made by it simple to get the great threesome!

Often, studying the software now, your ponder exactly just just just what they’d have actually believed right back into the 70s, or 1980s if there was clearly “an software for that.” As well as what folks back once again within the 1700s will have stated:

The female porn star that are heaviest was 71pounds

“So, Mr. Darcy, how will you want a little romp with the chambermaid and girl Austen?”

The lot would, likely, bring fainted have they known where people ended up being proceeding. In those days your could potentiallyn’t also spend some time alone with any individual of this opposite gender, today you should use a software to get a threesome. Feeld assurances you communicate with genuine people. This means that: they’ve prohibited the spiders. Additionally they permit you to keep hidden from myspace pals.

Grindr is amongst the hottest homosexual hookup websites. Developed solely for your LGBT people, it is one of the better within the market. Grindr is about discovering anyone nearby — you can view just how a long way away everyone is, indicating it is possible to head to a dance club and find customers for the reason that nightclub.

leading porn that is male make love on display with on average 4 ladies each year

While sheer is about discovering some body quickly as the visibility should be erased, Grindr enables you to modify their settings therefore you’re looking for that you find exactly what. While Grindr can be utilized to find prefer, it is truly an software for hookups.

Lots of people don’t show their faces even on there — these are generally in search of discussions which attain dirty fast. This is likely not the app for you if you take offense to dirty talk. It’s additionally helpful in the event that you don’t would you like to roam the bars and pubs hunting for the next hookup.

Actually if you value the club world it is wonderful to learn which you don’t need certainly to placed all your valuable dreams into one evening associated with few days. It creates items a tad more relaxed, whether you’re looking really love or free video porn naughty america no-strings gender.

from 32flavas https://ift.tt/2xCUopV via IFTTT

[mrlnsfrt]

Upward, Inward, Outward

Our local church school Valdosta Christian Academy is celebrating its 50 anniversary and this got me thinking about the importance of good Christian education and also got me thinking about how much things have changed in 50 years.

I did a quick search to find out some of the things that happened in 1968, the year our Christian school was founded, originally in Lakeland (a city roughly 15 miles from Valdosta). I discovered all kinds of interesting things took place that year. One website had several interesting facts including that in 1968 McDonald's first began to sell Big Macs nationwide for 49 cents. It was also around that time that the Boeing 747 made its maiden flight and forever changed air travel. 1968 was also a year of terrible turmoil, it was the year that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. There were many more major events that took place and you can read about them here.

As I read about what life was like in 1968 and how the average cost of new house was $14,950.00 and the average income per year $7,850.00. Back then the average monthly rent was $130.00 and gas cost 34 cents per gallon. Those were different times when the average cost of a new car was $2,822.00 and the federal hourly minimum wage was $1.60 an hour (source).

Life has changed a lot here in the United States from 1968 to 2018. I was recently startled by some data about the generation currently attending our school. Our students are members of Generation Z. Gen-Z is the most diverse generation ever. Nearly half of Gen-Z workers will come from Hispanic and non-white backgrounds. The breadth of Gen-Z’s diversity extends beyond ethnicity. A study by the Innovation Group finds Gen-Zers are less likely to identify as heterosexual (48% compared to 65% of Millennials). 82% agree gender doesn’t define a person as much as it used to. Facebook even now allows more than 50 different gender identities. (source)

There is a lot of information about Generation Z out there, some of it is even contradictory so I won't dedicate too much time to it. But I do want to highlight how different things are, and they keep changing at a pace that seems to continue to speed up. So the question that comes to my mind is, "Do we still need Christian Education?"

I believe we do, more than ever. But can a Christian school, especially a small one, really prepare our children for the modern world?

I strongly believe so. I say this fully aware that we are preparing them for a world that will be, in all likelihood, vastly different from ours. We are trying to equip them, in many cases, to work in jobs that don't even exist yet. Science and technology are advancing at such a pace that what you learn seems to quickly become obsolete or at least outdated. 

In my personal life, I remember having to take a mandatory class in college that included a long section on how to use Microsoft Word. The very next year a new version of Microsoft Word came out, and what I had learned became outdated. 

So how do we prepare the children? If you are a parent where do you send your kids? To the new big public school? To the fancy charter school? There are so many options nowadays, should you homeschool? These are not easy questions and I do not claim to have all the answers. But I would like to share how I have approached this issue personally.

I have attended public schools and Adventist schools. I attended and Adventist University and my wife attended a state university. Both of us had positive and negative experiences both in public and private schools. Because I want to refrain as much as possible from sharing just my opinions let's talk about some principles.

Principles

When everything around us is changing we need an anchor point, a way of getting our bearings. This generation coming up now will face even greater difficulties than my generation, the Millenials, are facing. It is impossible for us to know exactly what the world will be like for them, or even for us. So how do you prepare for the unknown? Since it is impossible to know the details we focus on the principles. When you have good, solid, principles, you can apply them to varying circumstances. 

This summer while on vacation and stuck in traffic during a thunderstorm, while my wife and kids slept, I was listening to an interview with Ray Dalio. For those who may not be familiar with him, Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs. During his interview, he made several references to his book Principles, where he shares the unconventional principles that helped him create unique results in life and business—and which any person or organization can adopt to better achieve their goals.

His book is a #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER as well as a #1 AMAZON BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR. To give you an idea, Bill Gates said that Ray Dalio has provided him with invaluable guidance (source). 

Ray Dalio says the following about himself:

Whatever success I’ve had in life hasn’t been because of anything unique about me—it’s because of principles that I believe anyone can adopt. - Ray Dalio

 I agree with Ray Dalio that the right principles can shape a life for success. If you are searching for success in the world of business and investing, I would say you should check out Dalio's principles. But I have an even stronger suggestion for you. If your desire is for eternal life and success that goes much beyond our sinful world, check out the Bible.

In the Bible, we find God's principles for life here on earth that will ultimately lead to eternal life with Him. When I say eternal, I mean without end, it goes on and on and on forever! Whatever finite thing that can be given up for something that is infinite is worth giving up.

The biblical principles can be found throughout scriptures and can be expressed in many different ways. The principles themselves do not change, though their application takes on different forms as we apply them in different ways and under different circumstances.

Upward

The first principle or the top priority found throughout the Holy Scriptures is that God must be first. The Bible tells us that everything begins with God (Genesis 1, John 1,) and God tells us to put Him first, God must not only be first, He cannot share that place with anything else. In Exodus 20 we find the words of God Himself recorded, and He said:

You shall have no other gods before Me. - God (Genesis 20:3)

So the first principle is put God first. I like to think of this as the upward dimension of life. Our relationship with God will significantly shape all other areas of our life. Isaiah 6 illustrates this well. There we read of the prophet's experience when he, in vision, found himself in the very presence of God!

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”

And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. - Isaiah 6:1-4 NKJV

Isaiah finds himself in the presence of God! He witnesses God's power and greatness and holiness. In the presence of God, Isaiah does not only better understand God, but Isaiah also gains insights about himself. Isaiah better understands himself when He draws closer to God.

Inward

Our relationship with God does not only lead us to a better understanding of God but also a better understanding of ourselves. What is Isaiah's response to being in the presence of God?

So I said:

“Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” - Isaiah 6:5 NKJV

Isaiah does not become proud of boastful for being in the presence of God. Isaiah does not consider himself superior to others because of his privilege of being in the presence of God. Perhaps surprisingly Isaiah feels the opposite. He is humbled and made aware of how unworthy he is to be in Gods presence. Isaiah recognizes that he does not always speak the way he ought to and that his environment is not any better. Isaiah, being a prophet, chosen by God, is not proud but humbled by the vision of God in His Holy Temple. Isaiah is overwhelmed by who God is, by God's power and Holiness. 

Instead of being proud, Isaiah fears for his life for he knows that He is not worthy to stand before a Holy and Awesome God. Oh if more of us could have that experience. So many are proud of how close to God they are. They look down on others considering them inferior. At church sometimes it seems like that closer people come to God, the prouder they become, the more judgmental they become, and the more they point fingers. When I read about Isaiah's experience, as recorded in Isaiah 6, I see a holy man who feels unworthy, who is humbled and fears for his life.

If you are reading this and you feel proud of your holiness, and godliness, I am sorry to tell you that chances are you are not as close to God as you would like to think. As we advance upward, we also delve inward and recognize we are not worthy to receive the blessings we receive daily. Upward mobility translates into humility and never pride.

In recognizing his unworthiness Isaiah is overcome by fear. Then something happens,

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said:

“Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.” - Isaiah 6:6-7 NKJV

One of the seraphim comes to Isaiah's rescue. The angel himself is not able to save Isaiah but he brings a live coal taken from the altar. It is thanks to the sacrifice offered at the altar that Isaiah's iniquity is taken away and that his sin is purged. Isaiah now experiences salvation from God, he is now able to stand not because of anything he did but because of the offering from the altar. Isaiah has been saved by grace. 

Outward 

 Once Isaiah experiences salvation something changed, he now heard God’s voice, Isaiah became aware of a need.

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

“Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” - Isaiah 6:8 NKJV

After experiencing salvation the prophet became aware of God’s desire for someone to go for Him, Isaiah was willing and in God’s calling, he found his mission. Isaiah, after being in the presence of God and receiving salvation now wanted to go and do God’s will. Isaiah was willing to go for God and deliver His message.

When we seek God, we find God, we are humbled by Him, saved by Him, and sent by Him into all the world.

Conclusion

Learning math, science, reading, and history is great. But even more important is learning to connect with God on a personal level and learning from Him how to apply everything that we learn for the growth of His kingdom. Most school will give you the tools, a good Christian school gives you also a purpose and goal that is other focused. Science and math can provide you with how, and God will provide you with a why. And that is why we support our local Christian school, because it not only teaches our children math and science and English, etc. but also Biblical values for a meaningful life.

Our life is made up of three dimensions, upward, inward, and outward. God is the key, the focus, to figuring it all out. As we reach upward to something greater than ourselves we find God who helps us discover who we truly are. In the process of finding ourselves, we realize our need of God, our need to be saved. As we experience that salvation and a loving relationship with God we find our purpose, we discover our earthly mission, to go as God’s ambassadors revealing His character to the world and sharing the good news of Salvation in Christ Jesus.

[kawaiicollectivebarbarian-blog]

Job.

Motivation is actually something that can either make or crack your ambitions, and also I observe that when my personal sense of motivation is higher, my present standing" corrects up there with it. With that awareness, I started evaluating the amount of times when I was actually feeling enthusiastic, and the amount of times where I needed some, as well as dealt with to discover at the very least 6 main things that contribute to my motivation. Oh I have thus commonly been charged of assuming the globe focuses on me. As well as I do. My views are right, my means from doing factors are actually soo right, i am a lot better, a tougher employee, more ethical, even more enhanced, even more advanced, thinner, hotter and also much more stunning. If you want to develop confidence in your own self after that nothing at all is better in comparison to experiencing your fear and also performing one thing you think you can not do. You reside in for a splendid time in which you do not need to be terrified, through which you could enjoy thinking again. When http://elegantsisanatos.info/eco-slim-ce-ecoslim/ understand approximately what your intention is as well as you can easily view it in your mind, create this clearer as well as acquire excited regarding this. Do this throughout the day when you are actually functioning, think about it, do not speak about this, yet deal with everything day or even for a handful of days. This are going to not right away assist your condition but this are going to little by little start to change your outdated damaging thinking pattern along with a brand-new one. I am actually truly influenced by this suggestion and wants to ask that is it suggested to apply this pointer at early morning. That can be so tough to detach yourself from your reality as well as discover a technique to experience passionate when you are actually residing in far coming from best conditions. So usually our team enter into factors thinking were actually mosting likely to fall short, and just what perform you understand we carry out. Merely changing out perspective performs a good deal for opportunity of excellence. I needed to alter the way i think about myself and also repossess my life in a favorable method. We possess a specialized video clips section, scorching deals part to begin with & a discussion forum for writers If you are a Millenials which are birthed in the mobile 1st planet, you can regularly install our iOS app or Android app to keep tuned with the latest things off ShoutMeLoud. IITians have actually taken India through a tornado before couple of years as well as managed to earn a mark in almost every line of work you could consider under the sun. If you can not stay away coming from them, carry out not combat your thoughts or get upset and frustrated. I do not kick back thinking about choices like if I need to exercise, make a phone call, try some new meals or even just about anything where I may experience a bit of resistance from within. This trick is just one of those emotional life hacks that might assist you to avoid of some significant issue. You could possess goals, but they stay as goals, since you need to have loan and need to operate. Do something about it; don't invest very long thinking of making that additional ₤ 10 per day, pick a handful of and respond, if that doesn't operate leave this as well as go on. This pattern from minimal reasoning could be broken through identifying most comparisons are actually meaningless. Fully other to you assuming that this is actually late to become capable to begin working on your aspirations, some folks think this is actually too early. This could be actually a practical step as research studies are presenting that muteness is actually so much more essential to your human brains in comparison to you may believe. The crucial message I wish to make clear is to find one more publication if you're not experiencing interacted, motivated or encouraged through this ... I carried out, as well as that helped me recover that exhilaration, being actually publication number 4. When aiming to end up a project, steer clear of off people who grab you down or it will certainly eliminate your mood, or much worse-- your momentum. I believe I may do properly because of my mental guts and determination-- and also a whole lot of devotion and assistance of those around me," he included. When you can easily mix points up, yet stay pertinent in your particular niche, your blog posts will reverberate in the souls of your audience. That is actually why I've been gathering means to assist individuals experience really good as well as remain high energy time in, day out. His self-confidence in my potential sustained my need to strengthen and inspired me to come to be also better. Psychological diversions maintain our reasoning procedures externally level, which avoids us from ever exploring the depths from our minds. Throughout opportunities from wonderful challenges, it's tough to remain good - regardless of whether loved ones try to make you experience much better. If you remain restful as well as silence, even when you significantly want to claim one thing, you reinforce your personal persistence, command and self-discipline. If you're awkward with down time, think of this time as needed for your relaxation as well as development. This suggests to pay attention, simply listen closely, without judgment as well as without thinking or readying regarding your feedback or viewpoint. Your on a monthly basis's profit and also website traffic record encouraged me. Maintain looking into and always keep sharing. Exactly what you think you come to be." If an inventory of your mind returns more negative thinking in comparison to favorable, that's time to earn some changes. The Donald Trump inspired me to carry out that" defense may appear like an unique lawful theory.

[jaclynxxmarie]

It’s Not Just Avocado Toast

Millenials complain. A lot. They probably don’t consider their concerns complaints, but quite often they are. I’m a Millenial, so I can say that. In case you missed it, that’s a play on a common, eye-roll-inducing phrase used by, you guessed it, Millenials (but by Boomers, too) when they attempt to explain how they “get” how a person of color or LGBTQ person or some other minority demographic feels about something-- “I’m Asian, so I can say that,” “My cousin is gay, so I can say that.” Anyway, I thought it was funny, so I said it. Moving on.

Millenials like to complain. Specifically, Millenials like to complain about how older generations complain about Millenials. Many Millenials take offense at the assertions made by older generations and the media that Millenials are “ruining everything.” And, in some respects, Millenials are probably justified in those complaints.

But, not too long ago, there was a New York Times article suggesting that Millenials could afford to buy houses if they just skipped the avocado toast. Why? Because avocado is freaking expensive, and you’re buying it in droves. Millenials were outraged by such an assertion-- “or maybe it’s because we’re tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt,” “or maybe it’s because the Baby Boomers tanked the housing market,” “or maybe it’s because the minimum wage doesn’t correlate to cost of living increases.” Millenials explained away the assertion that avocado toast was the reason they could not afford to buy houses. They were really offended at the idea that their spending habits were the reason why they can’t afford houses.

And, again, maybe those complaints are valid. Maybe it’s not all Millenials’ fault. But, at least some of it is. I’m a big advocate for self-responsibility. I started working when I was 15. Why? Because I wasn’t legally allowed to start working at 14 (that’s my dad’s favorite line). Since high school, I’ve been responsible for any extras that I wanted. I have been blessed with hard working parents who did as much for their kids as they could. We never went hungry. We lived in a nice neighborhood. We went to Catholic school-- because all of that was really important to my very hard working parents, who each worked at least two, but often three or four jobs my entire life (not just my childhood. My entire life. As in still. At 60 years old.). But, there weren’t a lot of extras. Extras we had to pay for. I had to pay for concert tickets or to go to the movies or to go out to lunch or to get guac on the side (just kidding, I don’t even eat avocado, but the point remains). We had to work if we wanted anything beyond necessities. And we were, and continue to be, better off for it. 

Now that I’m grown, I recognize that I still have to decide which extras are worth shelling out for. I like to drink Starbucks, I like to get my nails done, and I like craft beer. I like to go on trips if I can and eat at different restaurants. I don’t care about having nice or new clothes. I’ve been wearing the same pair of yoga pants for six years. I buy dollar store makeup. I prioritize what I spend my money on based on what I care about.

And, if I cared about owning a house, I’d have to make a choice-- spend less on extras and more on achieving that goal.

So, Millenials are probably right-- it’s not just avocado toast. But it might also be that you pay for Spotify; that you use Blue Apron or some other meal prep service; that you use Pea Pod or Amazon Pantry or some other grocery delivery service; that you spend $100 a year on Amazon Prime so you can get “free” shipping on stuff that you probably don’t need in the first place; that you use Uber instead of walking or taking the bus; that you use Stitch Fix or some other service that frequently refreshes your wardrobe; that you recycle your cans and bottles instead of returning them for the five-cent deposit; that you insist on buying organic even though you probably don’t know the benefits or lack thereof to doing so; that you need Beats headphones because they’re “just the best”; that you need a tablet in addition to your smartphone because keeping a paper calendar is just too difficult to keep track of; that you pay extra for gluten-free bread even though you don’t have a gluten sensitivity or upgrade to almond milk even though you’re not lactose intolerant; that you pay to access Khloe Kardashian’s website; or, yes, that you get guac on the side even though you *know* it costs extra. None of those things are bad. But, they’re extras.

It’s a combination of things. The reason you, as a Millenial, cannot afford a house certainly has something to do with staggering student loan debt and a crummy housing market. And it’s not necessarily JUST because you spend too much money on avocado toast.

But, buying a house is a big decision, an important, adult decision. Making adult decisions means making adult sacrifices. And it means taking responsibility for your predicament instead of complaining.

I’m not an economist. I don’t do numbers. But, I do observe. And I see a lot of Millenials spending a lot of money on things that older generations didn’t even have the option to buy when they were looking for their first homes. I’ve got to believe that a big part of the problem is spending priorities and resource allocation.

If you want a house, save for a house. A way to start might be to cut out the extras, even if they don’t feel like extras. That might include making yourself breakfast instead of buying your weekly avocado toast.

[accentartandfram-blog]

Mistakes To Avoid When Buying Hospitality Artwork

Buying hospitality artwork is something that you should consider if you have a hotel or restaurant. This is because we are living in era of experiential guests who are otherwise referred to as millennials. They travel not only to have fun, but to experience new things. If the walls of your hotels from the inside to the outside do not look great, you may not be able to attract the millenials. Hospitality artwork will help a great deal in appreciating the look and style of your premises. You will be spoilt for choice when you start looking for this artwork on the market because choices that are available are countless. 

As you look for the right hospitality artwork to buy, there are a number of mistakes you need to avoid if you do not want to end up with regrets later on. The first mistake is thinking that any piece of art can qualify to be hospitality artwork. You need to be very categorical about the pieces of art you choose to use in your hotel. There are some artworks that will look great in musical halls and theatres but be less impressive when used in a hotel or restaurant. So make sure that you keep that in mind. 

Another mistake to avoid when you are looking for hospitality artwork is basing your decision on price only. While it is understandable that you will look for the cheapest artwork if you are operating on a tight budget, it will not benefit you in any way to buy the cheapest artwork that you do not even like. You also need to think about the quality and style of the artwork. Is it going to change the look of your hotel or restaurant for the better? If yes, go for it. But if you feel like the cheap artwork is not going to improve the look of your building in any way, just skip it and keep searching until you find what you are looking for. 

You also should not make the mistake of buying hospitality artwork without taking time to compare the available options. Take some time to visit a number of art galleries in your area and find out what they are selling. By doing so, you may land a better deal on the artwork as opposed to simply buying the artwork from the first shop you come across. As you visit the art galleries, make sure that you talk to sales representatives that are available and tell them exactly what you are looking for. They might make the whole process easier for you.

Last but not least, you should not make the mistake of buying the hospitality artwork from an artist or art gallery just because a friend recommended them to you. Your friend may have bought the artwork from the artist or gallery a long time ago, or the artwork that they bought may be very different from what you want to buy. If you choose a gallery they recommended because you do not want to let them down, you may end up with disappointments. 

Click here for more tips on buying hospitality artwork, check out our website today here accentartandframe.com

   `�u��|c�