#drafts dump(s) incoming

[happylandfill23]

sometimes i look through my drafts and i genuinely cover my mouth with my hand like girl you did NOT just say that

[ardentcounselor]

applejack, flurry heart, and queen chrysalis for dave (or karkat)

--🪼

Thank you for the ask Ori🪼!!!

Applejack - How important is family to your FO? How important is family to you? Would you ever start a family with your FO?: Family or rather the one relative who raised him has an incredible importance to Dave, the loss of his guardian ushering in an immense shift in his priorities. Lyofya values friends dearly but misses her lusus when she passes, the concept of raising a grub foreign to her due to the Alternian societal upbringing, but a possibility in the New Era (lol mk11 ref). I think Lyofya would want to be involved in the new world's youth, wanting to one day raise some grub or kid as her own, to which Dave is apprehensive due to his own tumultuous upbringing. It's a conversation they have, discussing what they're comfortable with and open to. Who knows... >wo (designs incoming perhaps?)

Queen Chrysalis - What would be the telltale sign(s) that your FO had been replaced by an evil changeling? What about your telltale signs?: Lyofya just needs to ask Dave when he last drew a comic, and if Dave says he last drew SBAHJ a week ago, she'd know he's not the real Dave. 1) he draws daily when he can, and never goes even 3 days without at least drafting something 2) she said any comic and she knows he has a ruwby rewrite comic he doodles once a week. he would ask her which comic she's referring to because he'd love to info dump about his latest bits. For her, Dave just needs to observe her idle 'animation', she stims with hand waggling if she's alone and if she is stressed but focused, she taps her thumb against each of her fingers.

<> FLUSHED MOIRAIL TIME

Flurry Heart - How much trust do you and your FO have in one another? Did it take a long time to gain their trust? How about for them to gain yours?: Lyofya first met Karkat in the woods, when he needed to walk off some anger and she was in the midst of a secret hunt. Karkat saw an animal in a trap that Lyofya was mid-lunge for, and she hurt him. Upon attacking him, Lyofya ignored his mutant blood color out of equal fear that she was doing something outside her blood caste's role (hunting when she should be counseling), forging an intensely person

[hungrydogs-if]

can you tell us a bit more about hdmc's rival clubs?

sure can!

the lost valley vipers are bros. they keep mostly to themselves towards the northern, more arid and deserted areas of san maro, aptly named - you guessed it - the lost valley. they're more of a recreational club and don't take part in crimes, mostly buying drugs for their own needs. they still hang out from time to time, but with the crackdown on motorcycle gangs in the more metropolitan areas of the city, they keep to themselves and their heads down. they're the newest club on the block that's known by the general population, and thus deserve an honorable mention. they also have ties to at least one hdmc member, which makes them a part of the inner circle.

the smaller rival clubs are insignificant in their respective ways. power hates vacuum, so they'll be chomping at the bits to keep hdmc from rebuilding by any means necessary.

the one that will show up most in this game is sadly the most despicable one. or at least their president is.

massive lore dump incoming?

tw arson, murder, squint and you'll miss it misogyny and queerphobia. not explicit though, just mentioned.

now then.

the águilas rojas weren't always as hated as they are. when they first started in the 50's, the president of the club only sought to bring together his friends in a hobby they all shared. it was a way to bring him some peace after fighting in a war he lost so much in, and brought together other veterans under him.

it's a feel-good story about a brotherhood that continued for years. weddings were attended. children christened. promotions celebrated. funerals mourned. when the president was to retire, his son was elected in his footsteps with a unified vote. or at least most of the members were unified, except one.

vaz is the conniving piece of shit that runs the áquilas today. for years he had licked boots and sucked up just so he could take the place at the helm. when this didn't happen, he decided the easiest way to obtain this power was to quite simply take it by force.

so he set fire to the president's house where the entire family was spending a night after an evening of celebrating a new child. he went to extreme measures, locking doors, windows, blocked fire hydrants.

seven lives were lost in the inferno. the next day when the club was weak, vulnerable, and mourning their friends and leader, and a founder many younger members considered their own grandfather, he fast tracked the voting and forced their hand.

now they control the majority of san maro's western parts and some percentage of the police force, but it's not enough. when hungry dogs started growing bigger and better, vaz grew infuriated. part ego, part narcissism, part rage towards an old member, vaz can't deal with being the second best.

and the club is forced to follow him. the vice president is a coward and doesn't stand up to the depravity, the members fear for their lives and the lives of their families if they voice their desire to leave. no women are allowed within the premises of the club unless they're there to please, and absolutely no lgbtqia+ allowed, not even mentioned.

"i run this club like a club is supposed to be run! what you are doing is a disgrace, a pathetic little playdate of weak mongrels you call friends. this is what true anarchy looks like. you are nothing but a fraud, a poorly thought out daydream trying to be something grand." - vaz, in his drafts, towards the hdmc.

[myriadimagines]

Babysitting Duty

Star Wars (Rogue One) One Shot

Pairing: Reader x Cassian Andor

Other Characters: K-2SO, Jyn Erso

Warnings: violence, death 

Summary: You’ve always felt like Cassian is constantly leaving you behind on missions. So when Cassian orders for you and K2 to stay with the ship during your mission in Jedha, you and K2 decide to disobey his orders, leading to some near death experiences and a surprising confession.

Original: Not Your Babysitter — Part 1 & Part 2 

Word Count: 2,469

A/N: the amount of time it took me to finish this was offensive. i literally started the draft back in september. i almost didn’t rewrite this one bc this didn’t have an actual request to go with it, but part 2 had a request so i just decided to combine both together into one. anyway!! happy new years!!! heres a one shot. as a treat.

reblog/feedback/comments are very much appreciated!!!

You button up your knapsack, shoving your blaster into your holster before you straighten, hopping off the ship. You see Cassian a short distance away with Jyn, the two of them crouched by the edge of the cliff staring off at the Holy City. It’s situated in the distance, Imperial ships looming in the sky, with a giant Star Destroyer about it all. 

Find Saw Gerrera, in a city swarming with stormtroopers. Sucking in a sharp breath, you think, shouldn’t be too hard, right?

You walk up to Cassian, who hands his binoculars to Jyn as he goes through his backpack for his supplies. He looks up as you approach, and you sit down beside him as you can hear him explaining to Jyn, “Kyber crystals. It’s the fuel for the weapon.”

“The weapon your father’s building?” K2 chimes in, and Jyn looks over her shoulder, glaring at the droid with a steely gaze.  

“Maybe we should leave target practice behind.” Jyn slowly says, and you raise an amused eyebrow as you look up at K2.

“Are you talking about me?” K2 asks you and Cassian in disbelief, and you can’t help but chuckle as Cassian nods.

“She’s right. We need to blend in. Stay with the ship.” Cassian orders, and K2 shakes his head. 

“I can blend in!” K2 protests. “I’m an Imperial droid. The city is under Imperial occupation.” 

“Half the people want to reprogram you, the other half want to put a hole in your head.” Jyn explains, and you can see Cassian bite back a smile. As Jyn and K2 continue to bicker, you give Cassian a nudge.

“So what’s the plan?” you ask, and Cassian presses his lips together. His gaze lingers on you, before he looks away, and you resist the urge to sigh as you already know what’s coming next.  

“Stay with K2. We need someone with the ship in case we need to make an escape.” Cassian says, and your shoulders slump. 

“So you’re putting me on ship duty.” you don’t even bother hiding the disappointment in your tone. “Again.” 

Cassian looks almost apologetic as he looks up to meet your gaze, and there’s something else in his expression you can’t quite decipher. You should know by now not to expect so much with Cassian, with him constantly sidelining you during your missions together with no good reason for doing so. He reaches out, his hand landing on your shoulder as he gives it a little squeeze, and he tells you, “We’ll be back soon.” 

He gets up, and you watch as he walks off, not even bothering to try and argue with him. You can’t help but anxiously chew on your lip, feeling a sense of helplessness wash over you as he walks further away from you. He follows Jyn as she dumps a bag in K2’s arms, and K2 flinches as he remarks, “I’m surprised you’re so concerned with my safety.”

“I’m not.” Jyn curtly responds. “I’m just worried they might miss you, and hit me.” 

Cassian pats K2’s arm as he passes, and K2 lets the bag fall out of his arms, quietly remarking, “Doesn’t sound so bad to me.”

The bag crashes against the floor, and an awkward, heavy silence fills the air as Cassian and Jyn’s footsteps fade away. You can see their tiny figures making their way across the desert landscape, and you let out a heavy sigh as you look over your shoulder to see K2 marching back towards the ship. You pick up your own bag, reluctantly dragging your feet back to the ship, and you perch yourself on the edge of the ramp as K2 fiddles with the controls in the front. He sits in  the pilot’s seat, staring out through the window, and after a few moments, K2 remarks, “I can practically feel your disappointment from here, y/n.” 

“Well, because I am disappointed.” you scoff, and K2 looks over his shoulder at you. “I shouldn’t be stuck here with you when I’m more than capable of being out there with Cassian and Jyn.” 

“You’re not the one who should be complaining here,” K-2 grumbles, and you turn to look at the droid with a raised eyebrow. “I’m clearly the more unfortunate in this situation.”

Your hands ball into fists, and had it not been for the fact that K-2 is made of steel, you would’ve punched him. 

“You know what?” you straighten, pushing yourself off the ramp and getting to your feet. You look at K2, placing your hands defiantly on your hips as you declare, “Screw Cassian’s orders. Let’s just go!”

“I would rather defect back to the Empire than do that.” K2 deadpans. Rolling your eyes, you let out an annoyed huff as K2 continues, “Do you know what your odds are of getting killed? In summary, they’re high. And if Imperial troops don’t get you first, Cassian probably will because you’re disobeying him. He already thinks you’re a troublemaker.”

“Excuse me?” you gape at the droid. Shaking your head, you snatch up your bag, fuelled with anger and spite that you can feel brewing in the pit of your stomach. You start marching in the direction of the Holy City, and you snap, “I refuse to sit around here anymore. I’m going to show Cassian tha—”

You jump back at the distant sound of an explosion, and your eyes widen as you can see a stream of dark smoke menacingly curling from the city into the sky. You instinctively reach for your blaster, and you turn to look over your shoulder at K2, who had rushed to trail after you in an attempt to stop you. You can see his eyes flicker from the city before back at you, and you don’t even need to try and convince K2 further as he remarks, “Let’s just go. Cassian and Jyn clearly don’t know how to stay out of trouble.”

—

The entire city is in chaos, the sound of blaster fire and sporadic explosions filling your ears. You and K2 duck into an empty street, avoiding as much of the violence as possible. K2 had made it very clear that your mission was to find Jyn and Cassian, not to join in on the fight, and for the first time today, you agreed with him. You keep your finger gripped around your blaster, and the two of you sprint past an abandoned tank, engulfed in flames and surrounded by the bodies of fallen stormtroopers. You hate how your mind jumps to the worst conclusions, but with so much death surrounding you and no sign of Cassian and Jyn, you can’t help but wonder how they’ve managed to escape all this.

A grenade explodes close by, and you find yourself blown backwards. You scramble to take cover by a collapsed building, and you raise your blaster just in time to fire at two stormtroopers approaching you. K2 calls out name, quickling pointing out an extremist rebel that’s about to  throw another grenade in your direction and you quickly shoot him. Shaking his head, K2 remarks, “I have to say, we’re not making a lot of progress.”

You survey the scene, before pointing at an alley to your right. “Come on, let’s go!”

You scramble to your feet, sprinting away from the main street. You can hear stormtroopers on your tail, and you and K2 navigate the narrow alleys, darting in between the buildings. You’re scrambling to find a way to lose the stormtroopers behind you, and you fire a few shots over your shoulder before your blaster is shot out of your hands. You swear under your breath, and you reach over to topple over a stack of crates at your side, trying to improvise as they tumble onto the path. It buys you some time as the stormtroopers stumble over them, and K2 picks up a blaster from the body of a stormtrooper nearby, and you duck as K2 shoots the rest of them dead.

“You’re welcome.” K2 says, lowering the blaster, and you simply roll your eyes. You dust yourself off, picking up another fallen blaster off the floor, and the two of you turn a corner, just in time to watch a KX droid fall front of you. You defensively raise your blaster, before realising it was Jyn who fired the blast, you can see her eyes widen in horror before she registers you and K2 standing behind it. After a pause, K2 demands, “Did you know that wasn’t me?”

You bite a smile, and Jyn relaxes. The both of you lower your blasters as she shrugs, “Of course.” 

You gaze wanders over to Cassian, who fiddles with his blaster as his eyes momentarily meet yours. Relief washes over you, but before you can say anything, Cassian turns away before he chastises, “I thought I told the two of you to stay on the ship.”

“You did. But having to sit with y/n is boring, and you were in trouble.” K2 responds, and you turn around to glare at the droid, mouth opening in protest. K2 marches past you as he sees one of the fallen stormtroopers struggle to get up, attempting to toss a grenade at the four of you. K2 catches it with ease as you shoot the stormtrooper, and Jyn backs away as K2 tosses the grenade over his shoulder, just in time to hit an incoming squad. You flinch as the grenade explodes, and K2 deadpans, “There are a lot of explosions for two people blending in. You’re right, we should just wait on the ship.”

Cassian resists the urge to roll his eyes, and he turns his attention to you. He shakes his head, before saying, “I expected better from you.”

“What?” you stare at Cassian in disbelief, and you can feel anger and frustration bubbling up inside of you. Pointing to K2, and you splutter, “You left me with babysitting duty, Cassian! You know, maybe if I was with you in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

You gesture wildly to the fallen stormtroopers around you just as K2’s head whips around in your direction. “You were babysitting? I’m the one who was on babysitting duty!”

“Enough.” Cassian waves his hand, quickly putting an end to you and K2’s arguing before it can further escalate, and you know K2 is biting back his remarks as much as you. You fold your arms across your chest, staring at Cassian, and he shakes his head. “Why can’t the two of you just follow orders?”

You grit your teeth, and you can feel months of accumulated frustration bubbling to the surface. You struggle to keep your voice steady as you retort, “Because your orders always consist of leaving me behind. I didn’t join the Rebellion to just sit on the ship with your droid, Cassian. K2 told me that you think I can’t keep myself out of trouble, but I’m a good fighter, and it’s about time you realised that.” 

Cassian’s jaw clenches, and he pinches the bridge of his nose as he tiredly mumbles, “K, that’s not what I told you.” 

“Well, that’s just how I interpreted the situation.” K2 defensively remarks, and you frown, confused at the exchange between the two. “And I was right. y/n almost got themselves killed. They almost got me killed!” 

“Wait, what did you tell K2 then?” you ask, and you can see Cassian gulp as he nervously avoids eye contact. You stare at Cassian, willing him to look at you insist, “Cassian, what’s going on?”

Cassian stays quiet, and if you didn’t know any better, you’d say he almost looks embarrassed. Jyn, from where she’s standing, looks between the two of you, before she remarks, “Oh, I think I’m beginning to see what’s happening here.” 

Cassian shoots her a look, before he suddenly grabs your arm, pulling you away from K2 and Jyn for more privacy. You reluctantly stumble after him, still feeling your residual anger, and Cassian lets out a quiet sigh as he fiddles with the zipper of his parka. After a pause, he finally admits, “I wanted you to stay behind because I didn’t want you to get hurt.” 

“How is that better from what K told me?” you huff, folding your arms across your chest. “So you really think I can’t keep myself out of troubl—”

“No, it’s more than that.” Cassian interrupts, borderline annoyed. Feelings are so frustrating, he bitterly thinks, and had it not been for the fact that he’s in love with you, he most certainly would’ve lost it by now. Shaking his head, Cassian finally reveals, “It’s because I care about you very deeply, y/n. And that might make me a selfish captain, but I don’t want to risk losing you.” 

You don’t respond, the gravity of Cassian’s words slowly sinking in. You open your mouth to respond, but find yourself at loss for words. Cassian himself can’t quite meet your gaze, almost too nervous to see the expression on your face, and you breathe out, “Oh.” 

“You should’ve stayed on the ship.” Cassian insists again, letting out a heavy sigh. You gulp, and you can feel your heart hammering inside your chest as he shakes his head. “I—”

“I don’t want to lose you either.” you blurt, and Cassian finally looks up at you, eyes wide. Letting out a shaky breath, you continue, “Do you know how nervous I get each time you go off alone?” 

Cassian blinks at you, before he softens slightly. “I’m sorry. I guess we’re both trying to figure this out.” 

You slowly nod, knowing that this, these feelings, are uncharted territory for the both of you. You let out a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of your neck as you ask, “Are you going to make me go back to the ship?”

“No. You should’ve been on this mission with me from the start.” Cassian shakes his head. He offers you one of his extra blasters before continuing, “You are a good fighter, y/n, I’ve always thought so.” 

Your fingers brush as you take the blaster from him, and you can feel your cheeks getting hot as he nods at you. His fingers linger on the blaster for a second longer than necessary, and the both of you exchange a shy smile as you fumble to tuck the blaster into your holster. 

“Are you two done having your little moment?” K2 asks, and you and Cassian look up to see Jyn and K2 awkwardly standing beside each other, Jyn impatiently tapping her foot as she raises an eyebrow at the two of you.

Leaning into Cassian, you quietly say, “Please don’t ever make me babysit K2 again.”

Cassian laughs. “I don’t plan on it.” 

tag list: @proudchocolateaddict​​ / @myfriendmagislit​​ / @dragon4123​​ / @fire--pheonix​​ / @natalia-helena-alianova-romanov / @fairytalesforever​​ / @emmacata​​ / @hauntedpocdreamer / @fangirlsarah16​​ / @adaleya​​ / @floup-doodles​​ / @batfam16​​ / @into-the-ironverse​​ / @lotsoffandomrecs​​ / @ruvaakke​​ / @911buttercup​​ / @azeret-mirror​​ / @randomfandomimagine​​ / @lotrfics​​ / @locke-writes​​ / @lovinghufflepuffgirl / @lxncelot​​​ / @captainshazamerica​​ / @ta-ka-shi-ma​​ / @interwebseriesfan24​​ / @sebstanismylife​​

[madamhatter]

ACT ???. BACKSTAGE your name is.....

Note: headcanon dump. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  several smaller ones drafted, decided against spam, and then bunched some together. 

got only another thing, a drabble, which it’ll come out soon enough..! had it for ~3 days and isn’t as long as this post. 

plumeria.

“And a good morning to you too.” Before the sun greeted the sky, Sophie Hatter had been minding herself to conversation with a newly made friend. Her hand briskly brushes against their cool form to then patting it affectionately. Turns out that her friend was much taller than her, which is quite a shock for how younger they were. Not surprising when she was talking to a blossoming plumeria tree. 

After the events in ACT I, SCENE I, and a great amount of guilt (which she easily crumbles under), Sophie ended up using a good portion of her earned bits from that week to purchase the plumeria she enchanted. The tree has been reserved to live comfortably on top of the apartment complex she lives in, which makes it an interesting sight. 

She has already constructed a large box (3.5 feet width), filled it with dirt, and transferred the tree into its happy new home. She thankfully did as her magic is, in simple terms, is very reactive. Not needing direct commands, or specific words/chants to use it, her own vocals can impact quite a bit. In this case, it’s the fact that the tree that had once fit in a pot was now already taking on a healthier size. It is has quite visible around the block as it’s already ~6 ft and can grow up to 20 ft. At this rate, it may happen exponentially. 

If it sounds like the tree is alone, don’t worry! One of the major projects Sophie had when she (recently) moved into her apartment was to create A) a reliable source of food and B) connections. So, there is a community garden on the rooftop as well, not taking up the entirety of the space (but could, depending on what’s wanted by the complex residents). She acts as the head gardener and spends a good portion up there to tend to vegetables, flowers, and the tree. Anyone in the apartment complex may freely tend to the garden (and take from it).

consumption/charity.

With her only stable income coming from her work as the Vermilion Detective Agency’s housekeeper, and her past history of her family’s ‘bread winner,’ she has spent scrupulous time organizing and budgeting out most weeks in advance. Considering Simeon’s work, which is high risk and high reward, that is not usually counted. She anticipates that there’ll be 'dry periods’ when there might not be available work or she’ll be decommissioned due to injuries sustained from her last job. In her opinion, it’s best to work in assuming conditions are worst than they are, which mean certain sacrifices are made.

For this headcanon, we’ll focus on food consumption. Sophie has notoriously bad health concerns when it comes to herself. This includes missing out on meals and not keeping track of what she has eaten. She is an avid baker and cook from being her family’s provider, but this doesn’t mean she makes things for herself. Honestly, the shame of her skills is that even if she could create as much, she A) can’t enjoy it/rationalizes that isn’t for her pleasure/source, and, in the case of food, B) not able to indulge. Sophie has a major case of “food intolerances” because of the limited availability (and variety) of foods in her childhood. 

All this in mind, Sophie tends to have extra ingredients available or a selection of them that she wouldn’t normally eat. (or can’t eat). There’s the fear that it’ll expire and she would’ve wasted money, so she pretty much returned to old habits: assume a bigger household. 

Sophie, essentially, has cooked larger meals and offered them out in her apartment. It originally didn’t start like this. She already offered meals already to those in the apartment complex out of compassion. She comes from a relatively small community and it’s always been integral to participate and support those around you; they can be as much as family to you, if you decide to make them so. But, back to topic. Considering how little she’s actually using, she isn’t wanting anything to go to waste

Want a plate in Sophie’s apartment? The first step would be you’d need to live close to her district, or in her district, and heard it by word of mouth (or from the source herself). She can’t go the extra mile and create new locations to serve food. Maybe in local spots, but she is still someone who’s living in poverty. The second step would be to know when. The best way to know? See if the plumeria tree is blossomed. 

It blossoms and closes according to when visits the garden. Its a part of her obligations to visit the roof-top garden everyday for about 1~4 times (when she wakes up, when she leaves, when she returns, and when she’s retiring for the day). It can be more times. Again, her speech leaves impact, and given how she speaks to the tree, the flower scan either be opened or closed. If it’s opened, she’s been at the apartment and hasn’t left. If they’re closed, she’s either (trying) to sleep or she’s left the apartment. The flowers aren’t always opened, which doesn’t necessarily reflect that she hasn’t visited. She’s possibly busy/stressed about something, rushing to get things done, or isn’t in the particular mood. 

Then again, if someone crashed in and is ridiculously malnourished or mentions they haven’t eaten (or lies about it), she will rush into that kitchen faster than they can blink. It’s always been a part of her character to be a ‘people-pleaser’ to some angle, usually seen as compassion. ..Add in the fact that her guilt can be used against her effectively and the person might not even be trying. 

rambling below. wasn’t proof-read. just me going. 

..Now that I think about it, this act itself is coping to the internalized and externalized exile she’s facing. She’s completely removed from her family unit (sisters), the one thing that kept her going, and her home and history has been destroyed. It’s already of her to genuinely fear loneliness and the inevitable ‘uselessness’ she will be because all she’s worked for has always been to benefit/aid her sisters. 

She believes the worth she actually feels good about ( read: the one time feels happy when she’s being used/taken advantage of) will expire as soon as her sisters don’t need her anymore. She spent her life being used and gotten used to it because she, as a child, *agreed/accepted* her shit fate in lieu that she’d be used to help/nurture/do everything for her sisters’ happiness/stability/etc. That is literally the reason why she rolls with it. Just for them. 

In her eyes, she’s *very* close to the point where her life is going to really have no purpose because she has reconstructed herself for her sisters-. and there’s the fact that if she successfully raised them and ensured them everything they need, they wouldn’t need her. she’ll be obsolete and she knows that. and it’s just a countdown until she’s truly useless, which then means she’ll be lonely because there’s no desirability/use to her. in her head, that’s how relationships work with her and has been the standard since she was a kid. 

providing to people is her life’s obligation because of how she’s been molded to see herself as.

This is a way to get some company and placate the terror of isolation she believes she is fated for. She might’ve reconstructed and gained control of her fate. But, there are certain things your life is barred to because what you perceive to happen/it to be. Basically, self-fulfillment prophecy. 

She still has that gap because of her own internalization, repression, and other co-morbid beliefs, trauma, etc.. She hasn’t gotten to that point, or is she avoiding it? She can physically and emotionally adapt well, but mental adaptation is the harder thing to do. 

It doesn’t help this is the idiot who doesn’t ask for help or admit to these things. Then there’s the problem of her not wanting to be alone, but she pushes relationships away because her feelings towards them are ‘this isn’t going to last and I shouldn’t get comfortable’ and ‘my relationships exist only for exchange in that I need to give and the person has to receive, or else something’s wrong.’  

this can go on, but, nah - this is going to get too off-topic.

tldr: she’s a dumbass who craves intimacy and company like everyone else but rejects most human desires/wants because she wasn’t treated like a proper human and normalized it for herself. sophie believes her relationships are based on ulterior motive + her needing to provide because that what she thought is normal for her. 

budgeting ( + peek into psyche )

Financial stability hadn’t been a staple of Sophie’s life. Emptied pockets and urgency had been, however, persistent conditions by which she coordinated herself and handling between the family shop and her family’s needs. Electricity was all too new in the valley, running water was a commodity that could’ve been easily revoked and it was harder to regain, warmth was at an all-time best whenever the Hatter sisters trio huddled together, and food was as much of a surprise for Sophie with each passing day. As she’s gotten older, she saw less of these impending fears, if only because she placed herself immediately into the workforce. No pay she made was her own, her stepmother pocketed it, but it was thankfully used for the family....with what little was left after Fanny did whatever she wanted with it.

However, those yesterdays were swallowed by a veil of smoke and ember, far too thick to navigate and too hard to breathe in. Instead of a family of the five remaining Hatters, all it was now in Sophie’s estranged life was herself in Topaxi. Her sisters were fortunately in apprenticeships in the empire and Fanny was recently remarried to some rich man -- to whom she never met properly as they gotten engaged and eloped during her disappearance. Even if she spent countless days in a cramped apartment, watching the paint chip away on her ceiling and only in the company of flowers and hats, she was still stubborn to fall on her oldest habit. Every pinch of money she made in her numerous jobs were budgeted with such precision that more than 60% of the funds were mailed out and sent to her sisters at the end of every month.

With the legally questionable yet financially beneficial jobs, it made things much easier to support her family. Her own safety, sanity, and security, however, weren’t priorities. Not that they did matter, anyways, since the importance of a job was customer satisfaction and a successful transaction.

Simeon stirs from their momentary silence, shaking their head at the sound of talk before them. It’d been another arrangement to do another one of those jobs, and it was becoming a routine that they weren’t at all fond of. Morals and better judgement rallied to put a stop in engaging and profiting from this field of world, but those wouldn’t produce anything worthy for her sisters to live off on. It didn’t matter what the self thought and wanted, what mattered was the others.

“Uhuh.” Don’t act as if you were originally listening.

misc.

Given her origins in [REDACTED], particular the location in the country, much of the advancements in Topaxi and in many countries weren’t available for her. She hasn’t ever needed to own a phone (or had one in her house home). There are certain things that are needing to get used to. One of the major points for this is that Sophie’s inadequacy with technology (even if it’s not ‘modern’ to our standards) does impact her. This does include a vehement dislike towards cars, which didn’t exist in the valley where she grew up in. She will pretty much refuse to enter one and would prefer handling foot traffic and relying on her knowledge to find barely-traveled routes. It isn’t necessarily labeled as a phobia, but she does have a great unease inside cars and tends to shimmy to the side, gripping the seat cushion. She would continue conversation but her inputs are not as verbose. She will not look out of the windows and try to keep herself distracted.   The only other time this reaction can be invoked if she’s shoved into any medical facility -- which spikes her anxiety. But, in that particular case, her hostility will appear and it’s not something that really, really comes out easily. 

Knowledge in obscure, if not concerning, topics happens to be ever true in this version than in her usual incarnation. Outside of what her canon establishes in understanding demonology, curses, and contracting, there is the additional compact of her understanding human anatomy. It’s, admittedly, something that doesn’t come out normally and this is mainly discussing the different systems that govern the body. She will share her techniques and skills when it comes to tending/first aid, and the information will out come, but it’s much more friendlier for normal people. It can easily have its tune changed.  Genuinely speaking, the application of this knowledge goes into explaining the limitations of the body and reactions that the body will have if certain bones, organs, etc. are damaged, removed, etc. If we need to go further in, this does include things like dissection and such.  Example of how it’ll be approached, here:   “Here.” Sophie tapped her finger to an image dedicated to the spinal cord as the image listed off the nerves associated with the system, injuries one could get, the name of each vertebrate, etc. “Theoretically,” she turned to Natsume, assuming he was paying attention and not returning to the devil spawns he called his cats.  “If you look at the top, you have the cervical vertebrae.” Sophie gently poked  Natsume’s spine with the tip of her scarred fingertips. “C6 is one of the points where you’d need to get in order to start the process. An injury here could be as harmless as you could expect but there’ll be paralysis from the neck downwards. It is very vital. Something like a hairline fracture could work if the person isn’t looking.” Just imagine it to get into more uncomfortable detail. Why does she know this? Good question.

Sophie’s been formerly cursed as an old woman like in canon. and, weirdly, embraced it faster than any person should’ve. It still impacts her in ways, but spoilers :). The main point is that she falls into the habit of speaking much older than she is. Doesn’t matter if you’re two years older, twice her age, or the one responsible for making the universe, she will refer to you as ‘young,’ among other things, and use titles of endearment.  As a reminder, she is 20 years old, physically that age and actually that age. It is weird but we’re rolling with it. 

Sophie can most likely outdrink you. 

Can make you a sweater. a cap too. 

Can lift quite well! Listen, she’s not ripped, but she can pick up above her weight (in terms of people). If she can’t completely pick you, she’ll drag you. 

ACHIEVEMENT: end notes. ☆ Read over one of Sophie’s extras.

UNLOCKED: ☆ encyclopedic oddity - Shorter GCD for ‘encyclopedic oddity,’ ability in which Sophie spills out strange and off-hand facts/accounts. May also ask her for facts please don’t ☆ the cratchit to your scrooge - sophie may be hired to take on accounting/budgeting work. just as the title suggests, she can also be paid horribly for this job.  ☆ home is where your favorite plate is - chance encounter to gain ‘full stomach’ buff when entering (or barging into) sophie’s apartment. the first question i ask is, how did you manage- ☆ you’re out of touch - sophie gains debuff, ‘you’re out of touch,’ and has lowered resistance to electronics and certain forms of technology.

[zannaleejoy-blog]

15 Tips For ACTUALLY Writing ✍🏼

Disclaimer: Some of these tips are ones I’ve come across on social media and some are from my own personal experience and research. These tips don’t necessary apply to novel writing just really for any kind of creative writing such as: comics, fan fictions, essays, scripts, etc…

Tip #1 Reward Yourself

 Working is a lot easier when you know there is something to gain from all that work. Whatever that may be. If you are someone who has an income and at least 20-100 dollars they can set aside. Pay yourself to write, for as many amount of pages, words, or scenes you write, pay yourself and use the money to buy yourself whatever it is your heart desires. And for those of you who don’t make much money instead- reward yourself with something you love to do. Maybe it’s playing video games for the rest of the day, or watching a YouTube video, or even taking a nap or just some time to yourself. Personally, I have a piggy bank that I put all spare money into and for every page I write at the end of the month I get that money. So if I write 15 pages in the whole month I’ve got 15 dollars to buy whatever it is I want, maybe more pencils or snacks!

Tip #2 Hold Yourself Accountable: 

If you are someone who gets embarrassed easily or who has a lot of guilt find a family member or friend who can make sure you are writing. For example: If you let them know your word goal everyday is 100 words have them ask you about it and be honest with both them and yourself. Heck, a friend on the Internet or posting on your favorite social media platform your success or failure can go along way to make sure you stick to your goals. I tend to post how many words I write in a day on Twitter. My followers tend to congratulate me on my success and I like to have that positive reaction daily so I stick to meeting my goals.

Tip #3 Writing is Practice:

 If you’re are scared that your writing is bad I can tell you first hand that not writing or being scared to write something bad is the worst thing you can do if you are fearful of sucking because you’re going to at least for a little while but the best part about humans is that if we were to do any one thing for days upon days we will inevitably get better at it. So if you write constantly than you are 100% guaranteed to get good. I have an old fan fiction that's been left on the Internet for years and I constantly go back to it to see my massive improvement and it excites me to think that I will continue to get even better.

Tip #4 Track Your Progress:

If you follow me on Twitter than you already know that I have a planner that has stickers for every 500 words I write in a day. I originally got this idea from Alexa Donne’s sticker method here on YouTube and have altered it slightly to fit my personal writing journey. I really like putting more stickers in my planner and it fulfills the child in me to see visually how much I’m achieving as well as I will purposely write more if I am close to receiving another sticker. Tally marks, or a spreadsheet on excel can also do wonders or anything that allows you to visually see your progress.

Tip #5 Set Low Low Word Counts: 

On days that I feel shitty I usually only expect me to hit 250 words because I know on my worst day I can achieve that- Also if I hit 250 I am only halfway to my regular word count of 500 so I strongly advise setting something stupidly achieve able. 20 words? 50 words? You can write that! So do that and when you've got the hang of it build it up. Just understand that the smaller the word count the longer it'll take to write it.

Tip #6 Writing Sprints: 

Writing Sprints are probably the only thing on this list I don’t practice mainly because time limits stress me out and I tend to work quickly anyway. However if you need that extra push or have very limited time to get some writing done than I encourage a writing sprint. 10 minutes to write 300 words? Or 20 minutes to write as much as you can. It prevents that critical side of you from coming out because like sonic you gotta go fast.

Tip #7 You’re Not Writing A Book:

 Now for my aspiring authors like myself understand that you, especially if you are on your rough draft, are a long way from publication and that's drafting is just putting words on paper, bad words, good words, little notes of incoherent babble. It’s a mess and you are the only person who will ever have to see it. It’s a story and it’s like telling one verbally you are just trying to convey the general message it’s sloppy and you’re mumbling and stumbling and repeating and backtracking. But as long there is a complete story no matter how sucky it’s still complete.

Tip #8 Quantity is 10x’s Better Than Quality: 

To add on to last point I suggest in prewriting and drafting to just put whatever the fuck comes to mind down. Especially in the prewriting phase when you are brainstorming and outlining just fit as many wild ideas as possible because in those times where nothing seems to be coming that will be your saving grace every single time. Because having too many ideas is better than none. When I was brainstorming I sat with my boyfriend when he was playing games and generated all kinds of ludicrous ideas but also came across a lot of awesome and happy accidents. You have to be brave and just dump whatever out and save it for later and dig through the trash.

Tip #9 Give Your Book Some Essence: 

Your book has a certain feel that only you know this comes from playlists for scenes, characters, and plot- you've got aesthetic boards for your characters, maybe you have vines that remind you of your characters. Find those things and jot them down, put them in a folder or document and hold them close. I have Pinterest boards for my characters and settings. I’ve got playlists, and these things fuel my writing and creativity. I understand my book and I am reminded that no one can write it like me.

Tip #10 Nothing is Set In Stone: 

Unless you are carving your book in a stone tablet or writing your book across the walls in sharpie than you can always go back, you can always fix and delete. We often rewrite from paper or go back into our word documents and mix things around. Write shit until you have the courage to fix it.

Tip #11 Write With A Person/Person(s) In Mind:

Writing for an audience is hard to envision for me, so instead I write for a person or a couple people in mind. Which falls in line with my writing, I’ve always written for people whether it be classmates, friends, or people on the Internet and soon when I write a book for everyone to read. Writing for me has always been about writing for others and getting through drafting and writing in general is trying to get reactions, laughs, and smiles out of my readers. If you write for someone who loves you then you will always feel comfort in pleasing them and that no matter what you write it doesn’t matter what others think because they will love it regardless. I often write for my boyfriend, mother, brother, and my best friend. The four people who are close to me and are guaranteed to enjoy my writing and I can guarantee that you too, have someone that will love what you write and you’ll want to please them.

Tip #12 Write For Children/ Write Silly:

If you feel like you have to write a story that needs to have complex prose and have subtleties and be nuanced which is nice and all but if you are struggling it’s okay to just write like you are writing for a young one, someone old enough to read but young enough to understand basic storytelling. And if writing once upon a time puts you in the mood to write more than all power to it. You can always delete that once upon a crap later. Just tell us the story. Hell I use to do this kind of stuff with outlining which was fucking hard for me at first when I was a hardcore pantser sometimes I would write really silly. For example, Henry eats food, and he falls dead, the village knows the food is bad, food is suspicious, main character Zora will find it out, it’s the storm the storm has ruined the food. Oh no! This is just a simple way for me to get many thoughts down and to easily expand and not feel like I need to write something perfect.

Tip #13 Write Dialogue First and Finish The Rest Later: 

It’s pretty self explanatory but you need to just get dialogue done first. When I wrote Dragon Age fan fiction this is when I first used this. It was a sure fire way for me to get words on paper because Dragon Age’s dialogue is a big part of the dragon age experience if you aren’t already aware. I usually get distracted by dialogue tags and description and slows me down significantly so write all the dialogue and figure the other stuff later.

Tip #14 Surround Yourself With Positivity: 

If you’ve got friends and family who support you like I am lucky enough to have people who support me, even if you don’t have people in your everyday life who support you then it’s a good idea to join a writing community whether it be on discord, Instagram, Twitter, whatever find your writer friends and hold them close because having some friends to cheer you on, support you, and fall back on does all the good.

Tip #15 Character and Setting Visual Stimuli: 

Because I am horrible with description of people and setting I found that have pictures of my characters and settings is the easiest way to describe when I can see it somewhere other than in my head. I strongly suggest utilizing this because you also add on your own little things if the picture doesn’t fit entirely.

[orbemnews]

The Ghosts of Brooks Brothers ENFIELD, Conn. — The bones of Brooks Brothers stores are scattered across 100,000 square feet here in a warehouse near the Massachusetts border, mixed in with a sea of cardboard boxes and junk. There are legions of mannequins, empty circular tables that once displayed neckties, posters of horseback-riding gentlemen from a bygone era. There is a whole section of Christmas trees and countless gold-painted ornaments of sheep suspended by ribbon — a Brooks Brothers symbol since 1850 known as the Golden Fleece. Blank order forms for tailors are strewn about. A neon sign that apparently still works. There is no apparel, but there are rows of heavy sewing machines that most likely came from one of the brand’s recently shuttered factories. And in the bathroom, a welcome carpet with Brooks Brothers written in cursive sits next to a toilet. The whole mass was abandoned here in the fallout of Brooks Brothers’ bankruptcy filing and sale last year, the scraps of a retailer that made nearly $1 billion in sales in 2019. Ever since, the couple that owns the warehouse, Chip and Rosanna LaBonte, has been scrambling to figure out how to get rid of it all. Junk removal companies have told them it will cost at least $240,000 to clear the space, which Brooks Brothers had rented through November. In order to pay the bill, the LaBontes are going to have to sell their home. The couple’s plight illustrates the far-reaching consequences of retail bankruptcies, which cascaded during the pandemic and affected everyone from factory workers to executives. Smaller vendors and landlords have often been left holding the short end of the stick during lengthy byzantine bankruptcy proceedings, particularly with limits on what they can spend on legal bills compared with larger corporations. And once bankrupt brands are sold, people like the LaBontes are typically left in the dust. “It is a very sad situation that unfortunately does happen quite a bit because it is just part of the bankruptcy situation as the statute is drafted,” said James Van Horn, partner and retail bankruptcy specialist at Barnes & Thornburg. “Unfortunately, creditors can become victims, and sometimes they have little or no options to recover what is owed them.” Retailers like Brooks Brothers were prominent among the more than 600 corporate bankruptcies in the United States last year, which had the highest number of filings in a decade, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The LaBontes, who are in their 60s, have been working with a liquidator to sell what they can of the Brooks Brothers detritus, and are about to list their home in Sherborn, Mass. While they have filed a claim in bankruptcy court, they are anticipating receiving less than 5 percent of what they are owed, if that — and confessed that the proceedings are hopelessly confusing. Most of all, they are angry and incredulous about the situation, especially as Brooks Brothers continues to operate under wealthy new owners. “We understand going out of business and the bankruptcy, but to dump their problem on us and walk away from it and make us incur this cleanup cost?” Mr. LaBonte said in an interview in Enfield. “Nobody would anticipate an expense like this — we don’t have rainy day money to deal with it.” The couple bought the warehouse in 2010. They said that it was their first foray into commercial real estate and that they worked on residential projects before that. They have other tenants and a self-storage section, but are frustrated about the mess and the fact they can’t use the space for anything else until it is cleared. Brooks Brothers, which was founded in 1818 and is the oldest continuously operated apparel brand in the United States, began renting the warehouse in Enfield in 2011, most recently at a rate of roughly $20,000 a month. (Brooks Brothers also has a corporate office and distribution center in Enfield.) The building, which spans about 375,000 square feet, is held by the LaBontes through KBRC Realty. It’s the firm’s sole holding and the couple’s main source of income. Today in Business Updated  April 2, 2021, 11:42 a.m. ET The office attire segment of retailing as a whole was battered last year as many Americans worked remotely, ditching entire portions of their closets. J. Crew and the owners of Ann Taylor and Men’s Wearhouse also filed for bankruptcy, while sales nose-dived at chains like Banana Republic. Temporary store closures added to the distress, along with the cancellations of special occasions like proms, graduations, weddings and other events. All that led up to Brooks Brothers’ bankruptcy filing in July, one of the most significant retail collapses of 2020. Brooks Brothers had dressed all but four U.S. presidents at the time of its filing, and prided itself on its American factories, which were also forced to close. But investors saw value in the brand, and the retailer was quickly purchased for $325 million by Simon Property Group, the biggest U.S. mall operator, and Authentic Brands Group, a licensing firm. The firms have been buying up a string of bankrupt mall retailers through a joint venture called the SPARC Group, including Lucky Brand denim and Forever 21, leveraging the combination of Authentic Brands’ expertise in licensing famous brand names in various lucrative and creative (and some say equity-destructive) ways and Simon’s real estate portfolio. At the time of the Brooks Brothers purchase, SPARC committed to keep operating at least 125 Brooks Brothers retail locations, compared with 424 retail and outlet stores globally before the pandemic. Under the new owners, Brooks Brothers switched to wire transfers instead of checks, but kept paying rent on the warehouse through November, sending even more goods there as it closed dozens of stores and shuttered its three American factories, Mr. and Ms. LaBonte said. But after Thanksgiving, it sent a letter to the couple rejecting the lease as well as the contents of the warehouse. According to a person with knowledge of the deal, the warehouse and its contents had not been part of SPARC’s purchase of Brooks Brothers. As a result, said Mr. Van Horn said, the new owner most likely has no legal responsibility to the LaBontes. A representative for SPARC stopped returning requests for comment. “They used it for all of their store fixtures, so tables, props, fishing poles, canoes, everything you would see that would go in and out of a store to decorate it,” Mr. LaBonte said. “There’s probably 20,000 square feet of Christmas trees — everything except the actual merchandise.” As to who would want it now: Customers have included local clothing makers looking for mannequins and a set designer from an upcoming HBO series called “The Gilded Age.” Last Monday, an older couple wandered through the space, looking at the Christmas decorations and empty gift boxes. Habitat for Humanity has been looking at the haul for several days and is taking some of the goods. Still, Mr. LaBonte estimated that somewhere around 30 percent of the leftovers have been sold. The liquidator paid the LaBontes approximately $20,000 to sell what they can through mid-April or so. The couple will not receive a cut, and will deal with what’s left. When junk removal specialists assessed the cost of clearing the space in December, one quote was around $243,000 while the other was closer to $290,000. “We’re just another Covid casualty to them, we get that,” Ms. LaBonte said of Brooks Brothers. “But I also don’t think they realized how much stuff was there.” The junk removal firms, which confirmed the prices with The New York Times, said that it was expensive to remove the volume of goods. The costs included labor, multiple trips to dumps, donation and recycling centers, and the use of specialized equipment such as a forklift, large dumpsters and an 18-foot box truck. “I’ve been doing this for seven years and I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Rick McDonald Jr., the owner of EastSide Junk, which provided the $243,000 quote to the couple. “They left an astronomical amount of stuff.” When Authentic Brands, the licensing firm, announced the purchase of Brooks Brothers out of bankruptcy last year, Jamie Salter, the company’s chief executive, spoke about the retailer’s legacy and its “incredible history.” The LaBontes, confronting a warehouse full of some of that history, were unhappy to see those comments. They put out a statement recently asking: “What kind of heritage can they claim when they operate like low-rent, fly-by-night bullies?” Contact Sapna Maheshwari at sapna@nytimes.com or Vanessa Friedman at vanessa.friedman@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #Brooks #brothers #Ghosts

[paulbenedictblog]

%news%

New Post has been published on %http://paulbenedictsgeneralstore.com%

Fox news Brooks: Four lessons I learned from the draft - NFL.com

Fox news

In case you are into the roster construction task, the NFL draft is equivalent to the Immense Bowl. The league's biggest player acquisition tournament gives deal of classes that aspiring group builders can consume to place their very gain philosophies down the street. Given time to think on likely the most significant happenings that took purpose this past weekend, right here are four classes that I learned from the 2020 NFL Draft:

1) By no manner too early to procure the subsequent franchise QB

The Inexperienced Bay Packers gain been perennial contenders at some level of the final three decades attributable to their stability on the quarterback purpose. The group transitioned from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers without skipping a beat, with a pair of Immense Bowl wins, 13 division titles and 20 playoff berths with No. 4 or No. 12 on the helm.

Even although the hand off from a 3-time MVP to a young quarterback who emerged as a two-time MVP himself used to be considered as controversial on the time, it be arduous to dispute the outcomes now. With that in mind, I'm in a position to't understand why the football world is miffed by the group's option to make consume of a first-spherical select on Utah Notify quarterback Jordan Treasure.

Obvious, the switch prevented the group from theoretically adding one other offensive weapon to the mix within the short timeframe, but the quarterback is largely the most impactful purpose within the game (and potentially in pro sports). And bringing in a young passer to learn within the support of certainly likely the most finest to ever enact it gives the Packers a chance to extend their championship window deep into the 2020s.

Sounds acquainted, finest-wanting? Here is precisely how the Packers proceeded when Rodgers surprisingly fell into their laps in 2005, with Favre quiet within the midst of a Hall of Standing profession. Despite Favre coming off certainly one of his worst seasons as a expert (NFL chief in interceptions with 29) on the age of 36, his decorated resume and legendary space as a Immense Bowl winner made Inexperienced Bay's different of Rodgers a huge shock.

On the opposite hand, historical Packers GM Ron Wolf established an organizational philosophy of valuing the quarterback purpose at a top price, and he passed on those classes to his successor Ted Thompson when Thompson worked as certainly one of his assistants. Paradoxically, Packers total supervisor Brian Gutenkast worked as a longtime scout below Thompson, and those quarterback classes are indubitably embedded in his group-building philosophy.

"Ron (Wolf) traded a first-spherical select for a quarterback that no-one wanted," Gutekunst acknowledged support in February on the NFL Scouting Combine, relating to Brett Favre. "Ted (Thompson) drafted a quarterback when he had a Hall-of-Standing guy sitting there who used to be going to play at least three more years. That is produce of how I've viewed it. My first 10 years within the league, it used to be (Matt) Hasselbeck and (Aaron) Brooks and all those guys. Ron used to be in a purpose to flip those guys into picks down the street.

"I factual think the quarterback purpose is so significant that it's good to well be by no manner no longer handle it whenever you happen to think you've a chance to gain interaction a player that could well play within the league."

And so remaining weekend, the Packers scooped up a young quarterback with a ton of doable. I gain no longer think somebody expects Decide to play finest-wanting away, but he can even scrutinize game action earlier than some some are willing to admit attributable to Rodgers' injure complications over the remaining several seasons and the truth that he'll be 37 in December. While No. 12 can even indubitably earn his MVP produce with more time in Matt LaFleur's plan, the percentages are in opposition to the passe quarterback taking half in a renaissance on the purpose in Year 16 and beyond.

True to be lunge, I'm no longer hating on Rodgers or brushing off his skills or esteemed purpose in NFL history, but we shouldn't ignore the passe's declining production and output since 2016. No. 12's completion proportion and passer rating gain been neatly beneath his lofty standards (65% completion price; 100.0-plus passer rating). Furthermore, it be been five seasons since he hit the marks in support-to-support years.

With Rodgers shedding some of his trademark athleticism, which performs a vital purpose in his game as an improvisational playmaker, the Packers wished to gain interaction a long, arduous watch on the 2020 quarterback class to gain a look at if there used to be a young quarterback worth taking as an apprentice.

Studying Treasure throughout the pre-draft task, there's a lot to love about his game and his doable as an eventual QB1. The Utah Notify product tests off a form of boxes as a mobile playmaker with A-plus arm skill and a artistic game. Treasure's been loosely when put next to Patrick Mahomes (who used to be when put next to Rodgers at some level of his pre-draft review) consistent with his capacity to carry out unheard of off-platform throws interior and outside of the pocket. Even although his turnover woes and disappointing 2019 campaign gain led critics to skedaddle holes in his game, a long, arduous watch at his sophomore season gives a undercover agent of what he can even turn out to be on the next stage with more self-discipline and a focus to detail.

Put in mind, Rodgers wasn't considered as a definite thing in 2005 and there gain been even questions about his long-timeframe doable following the vital two seasons of his profession in Inexperienced Bay. This capacity that of this the Packers' gamble on Treasure and his upside can even pay off handsomely down the street if he develops into a solid quarterback after likely serving a two-year apprenticeship within the support of Rodgers. The wage cap implications connected with dumping No. 12 earlier than the discontinue of the 2022 season makes it likely that Treasure will procure at least two seasons to work on his game below LaFleur's tutelage and the philosophical shift to a more speed-oriented manner (scrutinize AJ Dillon and Josiah Degura picks) could well support the youngster excel in a "stretch-bootleg" plan that mirrors the system speed by the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams with quarterbacks Jimmy Garoppolo and Jared Goff, respectively.

Pondering about Treasure's athleticism, arm skill and playmaking capacity when put next to the aforementioned QB1s, the Packers could well even gain a Immense Bowl-caliber quarterback in purpose to carry them via the next decade.

The Treasure select can even honest no longer unhealthy as a most normal one within the indicate time, but adding a young franchise quarterback to the roster paid mountainous dividends in Inexperienced Bay sooner than. It is some distance going to also happen all another time with the Utah Notify product in purpose as the heir obvious.

2) Eagles increasing a QB manufacturing facility

Treasure the Packers, the Eagles gain been met with quite the outrage over their components to draft a young QB with a top price select.

Presumably the indignation stems from who the Eagles took (Jalen Hurts) with their second-spherical different or hearing GM Howie Roseman's bodacious desire to make a "quarterback manufacturing facility" in Philadelphia, but the funding within the quarterback purpose is a finest switch must you see the panorama of the league. It be no longer a accident that the groups with the finest quarterbacks are routinely in playoff contention attributable to the QB1's impact on the of video games. Investing in a backup quarterback is love taking a undercover agent for insurance coverage in your condominium -- you gain no longer desire to pay the premiums, but you are grateful for the coverage when ache strikes.

Pondering about the Eagles' fresh history with their starter and his backups, the group indubitably understands the worth of a quality QB2 and the plan in which a succesful hold-in could well support title hopes afloat in dire conditions.

In 2017, Reduce Foles guided the Eagles to a Immense Bowl LII have interaction while incomes Immense Bowl MVP honors alongside the manner after Carson Wentz suffered a season-ending knee injure in Week 14. The following season, Foles all another time stepped in and engineered one other playoff speed after the franchise quarterback used to be sidelined in mid-December for the rest of the season with a support injure.

Even although Wentz started each game at some level of the 2019 odd season, he used to be knocked out of the Eagles' wild-card contest, forcing a 40-year-former Josh McCown into action to test out and spark the offense as an emergency hold-in.

With those recollections freshly etched within the minds of the total supervisor and head coach, the Eagles wisely made the QB2 purpose a priority this offseason. Nonetheless quite than spending gigantic money on a passe in free agency, they opted to search out a quality (and more cheap) backup within the draft. Pondering about the going price for high-discontinue backup QBs is within the $3 million-plus differ with the doable to succeed in into double digits, the Eagles are saving money and securing label lunge bet by investing in a young quarterback.

Imagine it this plan. For rather over $6 million, the Eagles gain locked up their QB2 for the next four years. Hurts will depend for factual below $1.1 million in opposition to the wage cap in 2020, per Over The Cap, which is a discount for a marquee purpose on the roster.

"For better or worse, we're quarterback developers," Eagles total supervisor Howie Roseman instructed newshounds after selecting Hurts. "We desire to be a quarterback manufacturing facility. After we accomplish these forms of choices, we always proceed to our suggestions and who we're and what we predict in, and excellent-wanting or wicked, this is who we're."

That assertion can even very neatly be laced with a twinge of conceitedness, but I understand and accept as true with Roseman's rationale in relation to devoting sources to the purpose. Quarterback play sooner or later determines the winners and losers on this league, and the wise groups gain a deep bullpen. The Eagles are simply going about their alternate in an unconventional plan.

That acknowledged, we gain viewed the New England Patriots succeed with a identical manner when they'd Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett backing up Tom Brady. The invested Day 2 picks (No. 62 total for Garoppolo in 2014; No. 91 total for Brissett in 2016) but gain been in a purpose to procure solid performance and label for his or her investments. The young quarterbacks helped the Patriots assemble a 3-1 file in 2016 at some level of Brady's suspension, and their particular particular person flashes as transient starters helped the group flip them for a draft select (Garoppolo traded to San Francisco for a second-spherical select) and a player (Brissett traded to Indianapolis for Philip Dorsett).

In Hurts, the Eagles are getting a twin-threat playmaker with a winning pedigree and impeccable personality. He led a pair of blue-blood functions (Alabama and Oklahoma) to the College Football Playoffs, while exhibiting unhurried improvements as a passer alongside the manner. With the Eagles intent on discovering a mobile playmaker to groom within the support of Wentz, Hurts used to be a logical different as a prospect.

"The keep the league is going, when he gets trip and instructing, he's going to be a precious player," Roseman acknowledged. "Our job is to carry out as many resources as we can and consume them to procure more label. That is indubitably what the draft is ready. It be about label."

While some Philly sports followers can even very neatly be pissed off that their group didn't handle more pressing desires with the different, the Eagles are hoping that their commitment to fortifying the quarterback purpose will pay dividends down the street.

"The draft is no longer about factual doing whatever is healthier for a bunch within the transient," Roseman acknowledged. "The draft is ready making wise, long-timeframe choices for your group consistent with the priorities that you just think [are] key to winning football video games. We gain received a form of football video games spherical right here the remaining three years, and I feel very assured that the decisions we accomplish are going to abet us neatly for the transient and the long-timeframe."

3) Teams building energy on energy

As a young player with the Inexperienced Bay Packers, I take into accout Hall of Standing government Ron Wolf telling me how he believed surplus at a purpose, particularly a purpose that is significant to the group's form of play, used to be serious to future success. He acknowledged stacking "energy on energy " permits a bunch to take in a vital injure to a key player, and besides gives the total supervisor with some doable alternate chips if they favor to them down the street.

From a game-planning standpoint, the addition of a blue-chip player at a purpose of depth enables the offensive or defensive coordinator to place in power a rotation that sooner or later wears opponents out. Final year, we watched the San Francisco 49ers add Reduce Bosa with the No. 2 total select to a line of defense that already featured four historical first-rounders. The 2019 Defensive Rookie of the Year enhanced the unit with his savage circulation flee talents and fanatical effort on discover how to serving to the 49ers field the NFL's second-ranked protection.

This offseason, total supervisor John Lynch tapped into the line of defense's superior depth and skill to swap out an rising celeb (DeForest Buckner) for a first-spherical select from the Indianapolis Colts that was the Reliable Bowler's change (Javon Kinlaw). Even although the passe's dominant performance received't be straightforward to change, the 49ers can even've landed an identical skill at a mighty more inexpensive label (Buckner signed a four-year, $84 million handle the Colts; Kinlaw's rookie contract is projected to be a four-year deal for spherical $15 million).

The Niners weren't the finest group to plan energy on energy within the draft. Here's a undercover agent at four different groups that added blue-chip avid gamers to already-loaded purpose groups:

Washington Redskins: DE Lumber Young. The pinnacle-ranked player within the 2020 draft didn't basically hold a purpose of want for the 'Skins consistent with the presence of Montez Sweat and Ryan Kerrigan on the perimeters, but Ron Rivera could well no longer circulation up a chance to add a premier circulation rusher to the rotation. As an A-plus athlete with a superb combination of size, energy and capacity, Young has gold jacket doable and his disruptive presence can aid the 'Skins shut the gap on their NFC East competitors. With four historical first-rounders joining Young on the frontline, the Redskins can even very neatly be in a purpose to gain a look on the blueprint that enabled the 49ers to switch to from doormat to contender in a pair of years.

Baltimore Ravens: RB J.Okay. Dobbins. It be arduous to upgrade a working game that is already considered as the finest within the alternate, but Dobbins will give the Ravens' offense plan more explosiveness within the backfield. The 5-foot-9, 209-pound workhorse is a dynamic runner with excellent imaginative and prescient, steadiness and body management. He completed his Ohio Notify profession as the second-leading rusher in faculty history on the energy of a junior campaign that culminated in a 2,000-yard season while leading the Buckeyes into the College Football Playoffs. Despite the presence of Worth Ingram, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill within the backfield, the addition of a blue-chip runner to a read-chance assault spearheaded by the reigning MVP (Lamar Jackson) can even accomplish the Ravens' working game downright frightening to shield in 2020.

Dallas Cowboys: WR CeeDee Lamb. When the Cowboys re-signed Amari Cooper to a lucrative extension, the group's work at huge receiver perceived to be completed. On the opposite hand, Lamb's finest-wanting draft-day slide keep the Oklahoma giant title squarely within the group's crosshairs, and Jerry Jones bypassed more pressing desires to add one other level scorer to the lineup. Lamb is a pure WR1 with unprecedented ball talents, hand-view coordination and working capacity. He's a rare playmaker in a position to snagging 50-50 balls alongside the boundary or taking a bubble cover the gap. With Ezekiel Elliott commanding attention as the Cowboys' major offensive weapon, Lamb can even join Cooper and Michael Gallup within the 1,000-yard club, with defenses forced to make a selection their poison when figuring out whether or no longer to discontinue the speed or circulation.

Miami Dolphins: CB Noah Igbinoghene. The Dolphins added Byron Jones to a defensive backfield that already featured a Reliable Bowler in Xavien Howard, but that did no longer discontinue GM Chris Grier and coach Brian Flores from selecting one other cornerback in Spherical 1. Igbinoghene is an explosive straight-line athlete with the tempo, quickness and burst to speed with vertical-stretch avid gamers on the perimeter. He's a brave competitor willing to switch nostril-to-nostril with the receiver on the street but quiet desires some skill refinement to be a high-discontinue playmaker on the island. That acknowledged, the Dolphins' components to make consume of an early select on a cornerback is one other example of a bunch stockpiling skill at a key purpose.

4) A 'avid gamers over system' manner

Most NFL groups title, have interaction into consideration and unhealthy prospects consistent with the avid gamers' particular particular person skills and traits (bodily and psychological) and the plan in which neatly those attributes align with the group's offensive or defensive schemes. Pondering about how most coaches and executives (in most cases stubbornly) adhere to this philosophy, it used to be refreshing to gain a look on the Dallas Cowboys' scheme for the 2020 draft continue their fresh transition to a "avid gamers over system" manner.

In theory, the components to label a player's skills over plan fit makes the review task so mighty simpler for scouts on legend of they will select avid gamers love they're filling out their Turkey Bowl squads on the park. Evaluators can simply give attention to figuring out the blue-chip prospects within the category and select out the "BPAs" (finest avid gamers on hand) when the group is on the clock.

The utilization of this philosophy locations the emphasis on movie undercover agent and the creation of real game plans to maximize a player's impact doable. Scouts are expected to bring the instructing workers the finest football avid gamers, and the instructing workers is predicted to plan or develop the playbook to swimsuit the influx of real blue-chip avid gamers.

Abet in January, Mike McCarthy clarify his group-building philosophy when he used to be requested how he would proceed about discovering avid gamers for his most neatly-appreciated defensive plan.

"I believe whenever you happen to've a system of protection where you wish a undeniable player to fit your plan, you are limiting your personnel division," McCarthy acknowledged at a press conference in January rapidly after his hiring. "We know what a Dallas Cowboys football player looks love. The length, the athletic capacity. Let's procure as many correct football avid gamers as we perchance can."

The coach used to be adamant about building a roster that facets as many stud avid gamers as likely -- irrespective of fit -- and his words gain been bigger than factual coachspeak consistent with what Cowboys government vp of player personnel Will McClay shared with newshounds this week.

"When he joined the group and we started speaking about avid gamers, certainly likely the most important issues out of his mouth used to be 'avid gamers over system,' " McClay acknowledged on Tuesday, per the group's web map. "Effectively, that rung a bell with me finest-wanting away."

One reason we can even honest no longer scrutinize as many groups deploying a avid gamers-over-system manner is that it locations a perfect bigger burden on the instructing workers to adapt in talk in self assurance to maximize the particular particular person and collective skill on the roster. Head coaches must be in a purpose to think outside of the sphere to make alternatives for the finest avid gamers to procure on to the sphere and must venture their assistants to gain interaction into consideration how a prospect can even impact the group in a purpose that can even honest no longer exist already within the fresh playbook.

"That used to be a definite thing to hear a coach articulate (avid gamers over system), on legend of most of it is system-based when they watch at issues," McClay acknowledged. "In suppose that opened the door for a form of issues."

Pondering about how many talented prospects are dismissed or devalued by groups attributable to strict schematic standards, the Cowboys' in opposition to-the-grain manner to the draft can even give them the leg up on the competitors. In a skill-pushed league with razor-skinny margins setting apart the winners from losers, the Cowboys are relying on their coaches to flip a series of blue-chip prospects into a championship-caliber group via schematic tweaks and on-field building.

If McCarthy and his workers can pull it off, we can even scrutinize more groups originate following the "BPA" mannequin.

Be conscious Bucky Brooks on Twitter @BuckyBrooks.

[junker-town]

How Christian Wood saved his NBA career and turned into a star for the Pistons

Wood went undrafted. He was cut by four teams. Now he’s finally having a breakout season for Detroit.

Christian Wood’s NBA career was hanging on by a thread. He had been cut by the Philadelphia 76ers (the first time) so they could bring back Elton Brand. He was waived by the Milwaukee Bucks so they could sign Pau Gasol. The Pelicans let him go following the Anthony Davis trade when they were forced to clear roster space for so many new players and draft picks.

Wood was onto his fifth team in four years as he showed up to Detroit Pistons training camp on a partially guaranteed contract. He would battle for the 15th and final spot on the roster with Joe Johnson, the 38-year-old guard coming off an MVP run in the Big 3. Johnson was fighting to prolong his NBA career; Wood was fighting to prove he ever belonged in the first place. If Wood didn’t stick in the league this time, it was impossible to know when or if he’d get another chance.

It’s inevitable that talent falls through the cracks in a league that only has room for 450 players. Wood knows this as well as anyone. A former top-100 recruit, Wood chose to play his college ball at UNLV. He would declare for the draft after a breakout sophomore year, with some outlets (including this one) projecting him as a first round pick. Instead, Wood saw his stock plummet in pre-draft workouts, showing up out of shape (with nearly 15 percent body fat) and with questions about his ability to buy-in to what an organization wanted from him.

He sat through 60 picks of the 2015 NBA Draft without hearing his name. A photo of him processing his heartbreak became one of the defining images of draft night.

This is about the saddest picture from an NBA Draft you'll ever see -- Christian Wood realizing he's going undrafted. pic.twitter.com/be7ttxLBuT

— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) June 26, 2015

Wood always had the tools to be an NBA player — blessed with a 7’3 wingspan, bouncy athleticism, and a smooth shooting stroke. He was simply raw and unpolished in a league that doesn’t have much patience.

This has been the year that he’s finally put it all together. Yes, Wood beat out Joe Johnson for the Pistons’ final roster spot, but he’s also done so much more: at this point, he might be Detroit’s best player and greatest hope to develop a future star. That is provided the team can keep him: Wood is going to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and he’s likely to get paid.

Since Detroit dumped Andre Drummond at the trade deadline, Wood has been nothing short of spectacular. In his last 12 games, he’s averaging 22 points and 10.2 rebounds per game on 54 percent shooting from the field and 37.3 percent shooting from three-point range. The stretch included a new career-high of 29 points against Oklahoma City, which he happened to break again the very next game against Utah by scoring 30.

This has been another lost season for the Pistons, the emergence of Wood is a real bright spot. This is how Wood’s breakthrough season finally came to fruition.

Wood is the total package on offense for a modern big man

Wood got his first real opportunity for NBA minutes with the Pelicans at the end of last year while Anthony Davis sat out amid his trade demand. He responded by playing like ... a rough facsimile of Anthony Davis. Even though it was only an eight-game stretch at the end of the season, Wood averaged 17 points and eight rebounds in 23 minutes per night. He’s carried that with him to Detroit.

Wood does not have a hole in his offensive game — he can do everything a front court player can be reasonably asked to do. Want a big man who can roll to the hoop and finish at the basket? Wood ranks in the 95th percentile as a roll man this season, grading out as “excellent” in such situations by Synergy Sports. Rudy Gobert still doesn’t know what hit him.

Christian Wood incoming! pic.twitter.com/1OyLFhN1kJ

— NBA TV (@NBATV) March 8, 2020

Want a big man who can pop out the three-point line and stretch the floor? Wood can do that, too. He currently ranks the 85th percentile on spot-ups (which also grades out as “excellent) and is hitting 37.5 percent of his threes on the season. He’s even starting to shoot off the dribble:

*George Blaha voice* Christian Wood for the long gun...and it goes!#PistonsNow powered by @RocketFiber pic.twitter.com/8PCliDShAU

— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) December 7, 2019

Want a big man who can crash the glass after missed shots and get easy points? Wood ranks in the 85th percentile on putbacks, too. Perhaps the most special part of Wood’s offensive arsenal is his ability to put the ball on the floor and create offense for himself. How many 6’10 bigs are attacking a close-out like this?

Christian Wood with an out of nowhere baseline dunk and then a tech for taunting his own bench. pic.twitter.com/jH5GvR7Wb5

— Tas Melas (@TasMelas) November 5, 2019

On the season, Wood is averaging 1.152 points per possessions, which ranks in the 94th percentile of the league. He hasn’t always had the minutes or opportunity to show the full extent of his talent, but when he’s on the court, there haven’t been many bigs better on the offensive end.

Wood is having a major impact on his team

Wood isn’t just putting up empty numbers — he’s thriving in every on-court and all-in-one metric there is that captures performance in relation to team success.

The Pistons have a net-rating of -3.3 as a team this year. Wood is the only full-time player with a positive individual net-rating. He’s at a +2.2 in his minutes this year.

Wood is also crushing it in just about every advanced metric this season. He ranks No. 21 in the entire league in this cumulative version of the catch-all stats, ahead of Kemba Walker, Paul George, Pascal Siakam, Devin Booker, and plenty more.

If you sort every NBA player w/ 500+ MIN on March 9 by the AVERAGE OF THEIR RANKS in 12 catch-alls (RPM, RAPTOR, BPM, PIPM, PIE and GmSc/36, as well as cumulative versions of each), this is the top 30... pic.twitter.com/rev7U9tZJU

— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) March 9, 2020

The secret to Wood’s success? That he rarely misses when he shoots. He has an enormous 65.4 true shooting percentage and makes 63 percent of his two-point field goal attempts. While he isn’t known for his defense, he also isn’t terrible on that end, either.

His length, quickness and competitiveness at least gives him an opportunity to deter shots at the rim.

I don't think anyone will block Giannis the rest of the season as monstrously as Christian Wood did here pic.twitter.com/aR92BMaFz8

— Mavs Draft (@MavsDraft) February 21, 2020

Wood is in for a payday in free agency

Where does Wood fit into the Pistons’ long-term plans? He should be at the forefront. Along with rookie Sekou Doumbouya, Wood could be part of a real rebuild in Detroit. He already knows what the home fans want to hear.

#Pistons Christian Wood on physical play: "I play in Detroit, so I gotta bring that Detroit grit and I'm gonna bring that every time. I did it last game; I'm gonna do it today and every other game I play in."

— Rod Beard (@detnewsRodBeard) March 9, 2020

The Pistons will have a high lottery pick in the draft where they will ideally land a playmaking point guard (LaMelo Ball, anyone?). Can Wood play center? He’s mostly played the four this season, but that’s also Doumbouya’s best spot. Don’t forget about Blake Griffin, either, who does his best work at the four and had a tremendous season last year before injuries sidelined him for most of this season.

Wood should be looking at an eight-figure annual salary in free agency. Unfortunately for him, there aren’t many teams with that type of cap space. The Pistons do have money to spend, though, and keeping Wood should be their top priority.

Development in the NBA doesn’t happen overnight. Christian Wood is proof of that.

[lulabo]

I discovered recently that, while I was aware of the cancellation of Selfie before the winter of my discontent in 2014, my hospitalization that winter meant I missed the last handful of episodes and was, indeed, unaware of their very existence in the universe. This means that last month, while wondering why ABC would deprive me of many more seasons of Eliza and Henry sharing deep and meaningful eye contact, I discovered new episodes I had not seen before! And thus did I lament afresh the cancellation of this show and the courtship of these two characters. (This post has been in my drafts so long that I was still pissed about the Beach Body phenomenon on my fb feed.)

So, fuck you ABC! Here is a catalog of things I would have wished to see in a 13 episode season 2.

201 “Giving Off Sparks”: I don’t know how Tinder works, and neither does Henry Higgs! For sociological reasons, Henry needs to be on the dating app where rejection is a mere swipe from acceptance. Reluctant to engage Eliza as his adviser, he instead turns to Charmonique. Eliza’s new look intrigues her colleagues but may be negatively impacting her sales.

202 “VIPs Don’t Get YIPs”: Terrence, killing it in the customer service department, wonders if he might find sales more of a challenge. He turns to Eliza, top! sales! rep! of KinderKare Pharma, though he discovers her on the edge of a crisis of confidence. Saperstein and Henry take the opportunity to observe their top! rep! in action.

203 “Now We’re Here”: Having seen Eliza at work and what her earning potential is, Henry tries to help her find alternate avenues of income to supplement her commissions and curtail her debt, leading them to explore the Beach Body world of Facebook.

204 “Take Your Kevin to Work Day”: Charmonique’s son’s school is closed due to cafeteria e.coli and comes to work with her. Hijinks ensue, primarily as a way to allow the cast to once again dance to k-pop or perform meaningful karaoke (in costume, for David Harewood).

205 “Two Bar Far”: She’s VIP, bitches: Henry and Eliza are invited to Rancho de Saperstein, but this time, Eliza’s asked to bring her plus one–Freddy! Henry’s romantic jealousy begins to get the better of him, and he and Eliza share a tense and loaded moment in the rain.

206 “Henry Digs Mario Andretti (Baby Baby)”: Eliza has to get to the birth of her niece or nephew despite having her license suspended just as Henry’s breaking in his new hybrid. Julie Hagerty guests as Eliza and Bethany’s mom Mary.

207 “Pickering”: Henry’s college roommate, Colonel Pickering, arrives for a surprise visit. He and Eliza get on like a house on fire and it makes Henry bonkers, mostly because Eliza asks a lot of questions about what Henry was like when he was younger. Pickering, having an “oh god I’m in a settled relationship what have I done” panic before his 40th birthday realizes that life with his live-in bf is actually way more awesome than pining for something he’ll never have, Henry, unless you make a move on how you feel. Guest starring Karl Urban as Colonel (Yes That’s His First Name) Pickering.

208 “Jump Back Hack” KinderKare’s email system has been hacked! The office is flooded with private, personal, and unprofessional missives sent far and wide. Joan becomes victim of a meme that is, retroactively, Eliza’s fault from her days BH (Before Henry(’s Tutelage)). As petty fights and hurt feelings fester among the ensemble, Eliza does her best to undo the damage and cheer everyone up, most likely ending the episode with a group singalong of Tiny Dancer.

209, “Do It for the Trope” Henry entreats Eliza to accompany him to a birthday party for former-almost-girlfriend, now engaged to a former-sorta-business rival from his days before KinderKare. Masquerading as his totes smart trophy GF, barely-concealed romantic tensions flare throughout the evening. When Henry escorts Eliza to her door, Freddy just inside, she reveals Freddy has asked her to move in with him.

210, “Thanks Schmanks” Colonel Pickering invites Henry to his yearly potluck Thanksgiving. When Henry arrives (classic jello mold in hand), he’s surprised to find that not only has Colonel invited Eliza and Freddy, he’s asked Henry’s siblings (guest stars Julia Cho and Ki Hong Lee) as well. Henry drowns his anxiety, which goes about as well as expected.

211, “She’ll Try to Teach the Things I Taught Her” Henry, blistering from having behaved so badly at Thanksgiving, decides to take a few of the million vacation days he’s accrued in the last several years. Eliza, unsettled by Henry behaving so badly at Thanksgiving, decides she needs a project and sets her sights on mentoring a junior sales associate she discovers sobbing in the bathroom, having been horribly dumped by her married boyfriend. She texts Henry that she’s got her own little Eliza (named, actually, Becca) to remake in her image, but no amount of stern and grammatically correct warnings prepares her for Becca hitting on Freddy. (Sample line: “Tai may have been way harsh to call Cher a virgin who can’t drive, but in the end, they were total BFFs.”)

212, “He’s the Nultimate” Freddy, desperate to get Eliza to forgive him for letting Becca kiss him, quickly runs through his limited arsenal of ideas and turns to Henry for help. Even Freddy can see that Henry’s suggestions indicate a level of interest in Eliza that is not strictly coworker/colleague, or even friend/friend, and he demands to know the extent of their involvement. When Eliza admits there once was a spark, Freddy asks her to make up her mind with an ultimatum: move in with me or break it off, this middle place is stressing the hair right off his head.

213, “It’s a Swift Song” Eliza’s been staying with Charmonique, who will not give her advice on who to choose, especially when she hasn’t told Henry there’s a choice to be made. Kevin, hanging out at Charmonique’s desk, inadvertently slips the truth to Henry that Eliza is deep in a three day cleanse to clear her mind and bare her soul before she chooses Freddy or Henry. Henry calls Eliza and leaves a message (which, who does that anymore, Henry) that is cryptic yet slightly romantic. Eliza, meanwhile, is drowning her sorrows in Pinkberry (because cleanses make her hangry) when it starts to pour. Coincidence! In walks Henry, needing a respite from the rain! He unthinkingly tells her he thought she was on a cleanse, then is forced to admit he knows about the ultimatum. Eliza bolts, and after a fraction of a second of hesitation, Henry follows her into the street. There they stand, soaked to the bone, making insanely intense eye contact, until Henry seizes the moment, and Eliza, and and the season ends with them kissing in the rain.

IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK ABC

[muabannhadatdananggiare]

Simple tips to Write Top-notch Papers and Essays More Quickly

Simple tips to Write Top-notch Papers and Essays More Quickly

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I’m not gonna lie: writing papers can draw. Even while an individual who essentially writes documents for a full time income these days (similar to this article), we nevertheless viewed every university paper with a tinge of dread.

In the end, composing a paper is not like working mathematics dilemmas or reading a chapter of a guide. Because difficult as those tasks could be, www.essayshark.com they constantly seemed more finite compared to the monumental task of “writing a paper.” You can’t simply start the guide and commence working: you need to brainstorm, research, outline, draft, edit, and add those citations that are pesky.

I developed a system for cranking out papers in record time as I moved through college, however. This I want to save money time on items that we enjoyed, such as for example composing because of this weblog and using long walks through the forests. Today, I’m going to fairly share this method to make sure you too can compose documents faster (with out a decrease within the quality of one’s writing).

Noise impossible? Keep reading to observe how it really works.

1. Comprehend the project

The ultimate waste of time whenever composing a paper would be to compose something which does not also answer the question the teacher is asking. Don’t forget to inquire of the teacher to describe any right an element of the assignment that’s uncertain.

In the event that project appears obscure, it is maybe maybe maybe not considering that the teacher is wanting to trip you up. Frequently, it is that they understand their industry therefore well so it’s simple for them to imagine some things are “obvious”…even if they aren’t to us non-experts.

Keep in mind: requesting clarification you stupid; what’s stupid is to complete the assignment without understanding it because you don’t understand the assignment doesn’t make.

Yet, whenever I ended up being an English TA in college, I saw this nagging issue on a regular basis. Pupils would invest hours investigating and writing a paper on a different subject than just exactly what the teacher assigned. It does not make a difference just exactly how good a paper it’s going to receive a bad grade is–if it doesn’t answer the question.

Most useful situation situation, the teacher is good and allows you to rewrite it, but how come all of that additional work? Additionally, asking the teacher for clarification programs initiative–that you worry about the project. Showing this known amount of engagement along with your projects can just only increase your grade.

2. Analysis with Ruthless Effectiveness

As soon as you realize the project, you’ll want to begin investigating. But beware! If you’re not careful, research is usually top techniques to procrastinate. “One more source” can easily develop into hours you could have already been composing.

To conquer the temptation to procrastinate on research, we use my approach that is favorite for all types of procrastination: establishing a period limitation. You shouldn’t spend more than 30 minutes per page of the final paper researching as I explained in my guide to library research. That is, in the event that paper is supposed become 5 pages, don’t save money than 2.5 hours on research (optimum).

Investing more time than this sets you at point of diminishing comes back. Don’t concern yourself with without having enough information. If you learn that you’ll require more details after you begin composing, you can do more research. The purpose of your initial research session is to offer you simply sufficient product to start out writing. Enter into the library or database, find your sources, bring your records, and then arrive at writing.

3. Create a Flat Outline

“It’s impractical to figure every detail out of one’s argument before you take a seat, have a look at your sources, and also you will need to write. Many pupils abandon their hierarchical outline right after their hands hit the keyboard.”

– Cal Newport, “How to make use of a set Outline to Write Outstanding Papers, Fast”

Ever I felt the system was broken since I learned the traditional method of outlining papers in 8th grade. We never created an overview with bullets and figures and letters before composing the paper. I usually simply made one up a while later because I happened to be needed to turn one out of using the paper that is final.

Beginning in university, we developed my outlining that is own technique had been even more effective. Since it works out, my method ended up beingn’t therefore initial all things considered. As Cal Newport describes, it is called an outline that is flat. In Cal’s terms, the flat outline works as follows:

Don’t develop an outline that is hierarchical. Instead, list the topics you intend to tackle within the purchase you intend to tackle.

Revisit the collection to get sources for the subjects that still require support.

Dump all appropriate quotes from your sources beneath the subjects.

Transform your outline that is topic-level into paper. Don’t begin from a blank display.

Is not this a great deal better? The outline that is flat since it mirrors the writing process. No body sits right down to write by having a perfect notion of just what they’re going to express. You will find just just just what you’re likely to state through the entire process of composing. The outline that is flat you simply sufficient framework to overcome the dreaded “blank canvas” while nevertheless making room for development.

4. Create the Perfect Writing Environment

Okay, so that you have rock solid knowledge of the topic, you’ve done your quest, along with your flat outline is ready. Now, you will need to sit back and write the sucker. Not therefore fast: where you compose is important.

Because after procrastination, the best barrier to composing a paper quickly is distraction. In the event that you don’t have a host where you are able to concentrate, you’ll waste hours leaping backwards and forwards involving the paper and whatever interruptions come the right path.

To ensure that you have actually the main focus of a zen master, you need to develop a writing environment that allows focus that is zen-like. For the full guide to making a distraction-free study area, always check our article out in the subject. In the meantime, right right right here’s a directory of the greatest methods:

Visit a place that is studious. This might be a peaceful area of the library, a coffee that is off-campus, and sometimes even your dorm space. You, that’s the place you must go wherever you know that people won’t distract or interrupt.

Ensure it is comfortable. You won’t manage to concentrate on composing if for example the seat feels as though a sleep of finger finger nails or even the dining dining table wobbles. Look after your base comfort that is physical composing other things. Caveat: don’t write whilst in sleep. Your sleep is just for sleeping and…you understand, that other s-word.

Block distractions that are digital. Dependent on how lousy your internet/phone addiction is, this may be because straightforward as shutting unrelated programs and placing your phone in airplane mode or since extreme as setting up a software such as for example cool Turkey Writer that blocks every thing on your pc unless you compose a number that is certain of. If you want the world-wide-web to create (possibly you’re writing in Bing Docs, for instance), you’ll be able to install an application such as Freedom or SelfControl to block distracting web sites.

Assemble your materials. Seated to create and realizing you left one of your sources back your dorm is a productivity killer that is definite. Make sure you have actually your personal computer charged, sources assembled, and coffee/tea during the prepared before your compose a term.

Placed on your power up playlist. Then i recommend using music that will get you in the zone to write if you don’t find it distracting. We have an albums that are few rotation that have me personally right into a mode of composing movement. As an example, when composing this informative article I placed on Muse’s The 2nd Law. You better think I felt willing to conquer the global globe with this in the back ground. If you’re trying to find a killer collection that is pre-made of music, check out Thomas’s Ultimate Study musical Playlist.

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[prasanththampi]

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CONTACT: DR. PRASANTH MBA PH.D. DME MOBILE / WHATSAPP: +91 9924764558 OR +91 9447965521 EMAIL: prasanththampi1975@gmail.com WEBSITE: www.casestudyandprojectreports.com

International Business Management Section A: Objective Type & Short Questions (30 Marks)  This section consists of Multiple choice and Short Note type questions  Answer all the questions.  Part One carries 1 mark each and Part Two carries 5 marks each. Part One: Multiple choices: 1. What is the series consideration for strategy implementation? a. Strategic orientation b. Location c. Dimensions d. Both (a) & (b) 2. The major activity in global marketing is: a. Pricing policies b. Product lines c. Market assessment d. All of the above 3. The third „P‟ in the international marketing mix is: a. Product b. Price c. Promotion d. Place 4. The European Economic Community was established in____________ a. 1958 b. 1975 c. 1967 d. 1957 5. Environment Protection Act on______________ a. 1986 b. 1967 c. 1990 d. None of the above 6. People‟s attitude toward time depend on: a. Language b. Relationship c. Culture Examination Paper of International Business Management 2 IIBM Institute of Business Management d. All of the above 7. Culture necessitates adaption of : a. Product b. Price c. Promotion d. Place 8. The legal term for brand is: a. Symbol b. Name c. Trade mark d. All of the above 9. FDI flows are often a reflection of rivalry among firms in____________ a. Global market b. Indian market c. International market d. None of the above 10. ISO certification is: a. Expensive process b. Elaborate process c. Evaluative Process d. Both (a) & (b) Part Two: 1. What do understand by „Inward-oriented Policies‟? 2. What is „Factor Endowments Theory‟? 3. Explain the term „Totalitarianism‟. 4. Write about „Persistent Dumping‟. END OF SECTION A Section B: Caselets (40 marks)  This section consists of Caselets.  Answer all the questions.  Each caselet carries 20 marks.  Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 200 to 250 words). Caselet 1 Examination Paper of International Business Management 3 IIBM Institute of Business Management THE EU’S LAGGING COMPETITIVENESS In a report produced for the European Commission, published in November 1998, it was argued that the EU lags behind the USA and Japan on most measures of international competitiveness. Gross domestic product per capita, sometimes used as an indicator of international competitiveness at the country level, was 33 per cent lower in the EU as a whole than in the USA and 13 per cent lower than in Japan. The EU‟s poor record in creating employment was singled out for particular criticism. As this appeared to apply across the board in most industrial sectors, it suggested that the EU‟s poor performance related to the business environment in general and, in particular, to the inflexibility of Europe‟s labour markets for goods and services. A shortage of risk capital for advanced technological development and high cost and inefficiency of Europe‟s financial services were also highlighted by the report. For one reason or another, European industries generally lag behind in technology industries. If measured by the number of inventions patented in at least two countries, the USA is well ahead of most European countries, as well as Japan. Despite these shortcomings, the report‟s authors focus attention on flexible markets, market liberalisation, and the creation of a competitive business environment rather than on targeted intervention by the EU or national authorities. Questions: 1. Is gross domestic product per capita a useful indicator of International competitiveness in the EU? 2. Is it fair to point the blame for the EU‟s poor international competitiveness at inflexible labour markets, regulated goods and services markets, and a general lack of competition? What alternative explanations might be suggested? Caselet 2 PERU Peru is located on the west coast of South America. It is the third largest nation of the continent (after Brazil and Argentina), and covers almost 500,000 square miles (about 14 per cent of the size of the United States). The land has enormous contrasts, with a desert (drier than the Sahara), the towering snow-capped Andes mountains, sparkling grass-covered plateaus, and thick rain forests. Peru has approximately 27 million people, of which about 20 per cent live in Lima, the capital. More Indians (one half of the population) live in Peru than in any other country in the western hemisphere. The ancestors of Peru‟s Indians were the famous Incas, who built a great empire. The rest of the population is mixed and a small percentage is white. The economy depends heavily on agriculture, fishing, mining, and services. GDP is approximately $115 billion and per capita income in recent years has been around $4,300. In recent years the economy has gained some relative strength and multinationals are now beginning to consider investing in the country. One of these potential investors is a large New York based that is considering a $25 million loan to the owner of a Peruvian fishing fleet. The owner wants to refurbish the fleet and add one more ship. During the 1970s, the Peruvian government nationalised a number of industries and factories and began running them for the profit of the state. In most cases, these state-run ventures became disasters. In the late 1970s, the fishing fleet owner was given back his ships and are getting old and he needs an influx of capital to make repairs and add new technology. As he explained it to the NEW YORK banker: “fishing is no longer just un art. There is a great deal of technology involved. And to keep costs low and be competitive on the world market , you have to have the latest equipment for both locating as well as catching and then loading and unloading the fish.”Having reviewed the fleet owner‟ operation, the large multinational bank believes that the loan is justified. The financial institution is concerned , Examination Paper of International Business Management 4 IIBM Institute of Business Management however , that the Peruvian government might step in during the next couple of years and again take over the business . If this were to happen, it might take an additional decade, for the loan to be repaid. If the government were to allow the fleet owner to operate the fleet the way he has over the last decade, the loan could be rapid within seven years. Right now, the bank is deciding on the specific terms of the agreement. Once these have been worked out , either a loan officer will fly down to lima and close the deal or the owner will be asked to come to NEW YORK for the signing. Whichever approach is used, the bank realize that final adjustments in the agreement will have to be made on the spot. Therefore, if the bank sends a representative to Lima, the individual will have to the authority to commit the bank to specific terms. These final matters should be worked out within the next ten days. Questions: 1. What are some current issues Facing Peru? What is the climate for doing business in Peru today? 2. Would the bank be better off negotiating the loan in New York or in Lima? Why? END OF SECTION B Section C: Applied Theory (30 marks)  This section consists of Long Questions.  Answer all the questions.  Each question carries 15 marks.  Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 150 to 200 words). 1. Imagine that you are the director of a major international lending institution supported by funds from member countries. What one area in newly industrialized and developing economics would be your priority for receiving development aid? Do you suspect that any member country will be politically opposed to aid in this area? Why or Why not? 2. The principle problem in analysing different forms of export financing is the distribution of risks between the exporter and the importer. Analyse the following export financing instruments in this respect: (a) Letter of Credit (b) Cash in advance (c) Draft (d) Consignment (e) Open Account END OF SECTION C Examination Paper of International Business Management 5 IIBM Institute of Business Management IIBM Institute of Business Management Examination Paper MM.100 Global Marketing Management Section A: Objective Type & Short Questions (30 Marks)  This section consists of Multi Choice & Short Note type questions.  Answer all the questions.  Part One carries 1 mark each & Part Two carries 5 marks each. Part One: 1. All the ethnocentric orientations are collectively called______________ 2. Which of the following comes under benefits of Global marketing? a. Endurance b. Sales Promotion c. Diversification d. All of the above 3. The Polycentric orientation is the opposite of ethnocentrism. (T/F) 4. NAFTA stands for____________ 5. ______________refers to the ability of the product and the company from that of the competitors a. Positioning b. Differentiation c. Customer value d. None 6. CAT stands for _______________ 7. Cave dwellers are______________ 8. LIFO stands for life in fire option.(T/F) 9. Starbursts are _______________ 10. _____________is an advantage over competitors gained by offering consumers greater value Part Two: 1. What are the implications of tariffs in the Global Marketing? 2. Write a short note on “Diffusion Theory”. 3. Discuss the concept of competitive marketing strategies. Examination Paper of International Business Management 6 IIBM Institute of Business Management 4. Discuss the importance of marketing mix. END OF SECTION A Section B: Caselets (40 marks)  This section consists of Caselets.  Answer all the questions.  Each caselet carries 20 marks.  Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 200 to 250 words). Caselet 1 The competitive advantage of nations and the competitiveness of locations have become important topics in economic policy. Competitiveness is productivity; competitiveness is what the world economic forum defines as the set of institutions and policies that determine the level of productivity. There is no single determinant of competitiveness, there‟s no single determinant of productivity. Things that matter for example are the macroeconomic stability of a country, the soundness of institutions whether the judiciary for example is independent or favors particular sectors or businesses, whether the government acts in efficient ways or in sectarian ways, other determinants of competitiveness involve market efficiency, labour market flexibility, and financial market flexibility. The whole growth competitiveness index that is the index that has been used over the least five or six years by the world economic forum captures the three big concepts: macroeconomic stability, government institutions and innovations. 1. What are the indicators of global competitiveness? Discuss the new tools to determine global competitiveness. Caselet 2 In this new millennium, few business houses can afford a turn a blind eye to global business opportunities. According to the latest Mckinsey Global Survey, top global executives believe that the growing number of consumers in emerging markets will be the most important trend for global business during the next five years. On 15th April 1994, trade ministers of 123 countries signed the final Act of the GATT Uruguay Round of negotiations at Marrakech, bringing the WTO into being on 1st January 1995. The object of the Act is the liberalization of world trade. By it member countries undertake to apply fair trade rules covering commodities, services and intellectual property. It provides for the lowering of tariffs on industrial goods and tropical products; the abolition of import duties on a variety of items; the progressive abolition of quotas on garments and textiles; the gradual reduction of trade distorting subsidies and import barriers, and agreements on intellectual property and trade in services. 1. Discuss the provisions of world Trade Organization (WTO). What are implications of WTO, agreements on international business? Examination Paper of International Business Management 7 IIBM Institute of Business Management END OF SECTION B Section C: Applied Theory (30 marks)  This section consists of Long Questions.  Answer all the questions.  Each question carries 15 marks.  Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 150 to 200 words). 1. By marketing in a foreign country must a firm automatically utilize geographic segmentation or some other segmentation basis discuss. 2. Distinguish between direct and indirect selling channels. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? END OF SECTION C S-2-300813

[bountyofbeads]

Mueller seeks Roger Stone’s testimony to House intelligence panel, suggesting special counsel is near end of probe of Trump adviser

https://wapo.st/2EzNBiq

EXCLUSIVE: Signs are building Mueller may be moving to charge Roger Stone .... Mueller sought Trump adviser's official testimony to the House Intel Committee on Friday. Me w @nakashimae @PostRoz @RoigFranzia @CarolLeonnig

Notably, Mueller's letter asking for Stone's testimony is the first time the special counsel has asked for anything from the House Intelligence Committee. The committee is likely to consider the request at a closed door meeting Thursday.

🚨🚨BREAKING MUELLER ALERT 🚨 🚨

Mueller seeks Roger Stone’s testimony to House intelligence panel, suggesting special counsel is near end of probe of Trump adviser

By Carol D. Leonnig, Ellen Nakashima, Rosalind S. Helderman and Manuel Roig-Franzia |December 19 at 5:48 PM EST |Washington Post | Posted December 19, 2018 |

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III asked the House Intelligence Committee on Friday for an official transcript of Trump adviser Roger Stone’s testimony, according to people familiar with the request, a sign that prosecutors could be moving to charge him with a crime.

It is the first time Mueller has formally asked the committee to turn over material the panel has gathered in its investigation of Russian interference of the 2016 campaign, according to the people.

The move suggests that the special counsel is moving to finalize his months-long investigation of Stone — a key part of Mueller’s inquiry into whether anyone in President Trump’s orbit coordinated with the Russians.

Stone, who has advised Trump on and off for decades and was in contact with the candidate during the 2016 campaign, has been a focus of the special counsel as Mueller probes whether the Trump campaign had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’s release of Democratic emails allegedly hacked by Russian operatives.

Securing an official transcript from the committee would be a necessary step before pursuing an indictment that Stone allegedly lied to lawmakers, legal experts said.

The special counsel could use the threat of a false-statement charge to seek cooperation from Stone, as Mueller has done with other Trump advisers, such as former national security adviser Michael Flynn and longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

It is unclear what aspect of Stone’s testimony Mueller is scrutinizing. But Stone has given conflicting accounts about what prompted him to accurately predict during the 2016 race that WikiLeaks was going to unleash material that would hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

In an interview Wednesday, Stone said he had not been notified of Mueller’s request. But he said he is confident that the transcript of his testimony will not provide the special counsel with grounds to charge him.

“I don’t think any reasonable attorney who looks at it would conclude that I committed perjury, which requires intent and materiality,” Stone said.

For weeks, the special counsel’s office has had access to an unofficial copy of Stone’s closed-door September 2017 interview, according to people with knowledge of the process. Mueller’s request of the official copy signals the special counsel could now be pursuing an indictment, several legal experts said.

“That suggests prosecutors are getting ready to bring a charge,” said former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner. “Prosecutors can’t bring a charge without an original certified copy of the transcript that shows the witness lied.”

The House Intelligence Committee, which has provided testimony of its witnesses to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for a declassification review, has not yet turned over the official Stone transcript to Mueller, according to the people with knowledge of the situation.

The committee is expected to discuss the topic at a closed-door business session scheduled for Thursday, according to one person familiar with committee plans. An agenda for the meeting posted online shows the panel’s first item to consider is the “Transmission of Certain Executive Session Materials to the Executive Branch.”

The committee’s incoming chairman, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who takes over from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) next month, has made it clear that he believes the committee should provide the special counsel with the Stone document.

“I believe that there’s ample reason to be concerned about his truthfulness, “ Schiff said Sunday on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.” “And I do think that with respect to Mr. Stone, and perhaps others, the special counsel is in a better position to determine the truth or falsity of that testimony, and that we ought to provide it to the special counsel.”

A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment. Schiff declined to comment. A spokesman for Nunes did not respond to requests for comment.

Stone accused House Democrats of “attempting to play frivolous word games, and hairsplitting about semantics over nonmaterial matters.”

“This has devolved into gotcha word games, perjury traps and trumped process crimes,” he said Wednesday. “I think people can see through the political motivations behind this.”

Stone added: “Where is the evidence of Russian collusion or WikiLeaks collaboration?”

Mueller has spent months investigating whether Stone knew of WikiLeaks’s plan to release hacked Democratic emails in advance of the November 2016 election and whether he lied to Congress about his knowledge and his contacts with the group. In July, the special counsel charged a group of Russian intelligence officers with hacking the emails and providing them to WikiLeaks.

Stone, who boasted during the race that he was in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has said since that his past comments were exaggerated or misunderstood. Both he and WikiLeaks have adamantly denied they were in contact.

Several weeks ago, the House Intelligence Committee provided transcripts of its interviews with Stone and more than 50 other individuals to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is conducting a declassification review before they are released publicly, according to congressional officials.

As part of that review, ODNI shares copies of the transcripts with other agencies, including the special counsel’s office, that might have an interest in protecting information in the interviews, officials said.

However, because the Stone interview was conducted in executive session, the transcript officially belongs to the committee and may not be released unless authorized by the committee, according to its rules.

In general, if prosecutors want to bring a charge of lying to investigators, they must obtain a certified “clean” copy from the transcriber or clerk who took the statement to present as an exhibit to a grand jury, legal experts said.

Charges of lying to Congress are relatively rare. But last month, Cohen pleaded guilty to such a charge as part of the special counsel probe.

Stone released written testimony he provided the House Intelligence Committee before his September 2017 interview, in which he wrote that he had no “advanced knowledge of the source or actual content of the WikiLeaks disclosures regarding Hillary Clinton.”

He told the panel that he based some his predictions on public information and tips from associates. He also said that he had an intermediary who provided him with information about WikiLeaks — but refused to name the person, indicating the person was a journalist with whom he had spoken off the record.

Shortly after his closed-door appearance, Stone wrote a letter to the committee saying he learned about WikiLeaks’s planned release from Randy Credico, a New York comedian who had interviewed Assange and is a longtime friend of New York attorney Margaret Ratner Kunstler, who has represented the group.

Credico has repeatedly denied passing any information from WikiLeaks to Stone. He said he may have speculated about the group’s tactics with Stone.

In recent weeks, Mueller’s prosecutors have been focused on another Stone associate who alerted him to an upcoming WikiLeaks release in 2016: conservative writer Jerome Corsi.

In an Aug. 2, 2016, email, Corsi wrote to Stone that the group planned to disclose emails that October that would embarrass Clinton, according to charging documents drafted by Mueller’s team and provided to The Washington Post.

“Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,” Corsi wrote in the email quoted in the draft document, referring to Assange, who has been living in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London since 2012. “One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.”

Corsi, who rejected a plea offer from the special counsel, said the email was based on his speculation of what WikiLeaks might be planning, not any inside knowledge.

The day after receiving the message from Corsi, Stone has said, he spoke with Trump by phone.

Stone has said he never discussed WikiLeaks or hacked emails with Trump. “Unless Mueller has tape recordings of the phone calls, what would that prove?” he told The Post last month.

“The emails prove nothing,” Stone added, “other than like every other politico and political reporter in America, I was curious to know what it was that WikiLeaks had.”

Both Trump and Stone have decried the Mueller investigation as a “political witch hunt,” and Stone has said Mueller is applying intense pressure on his associates as a way of punishing him for supporting the president.

Over the past several months, Mueller’s investigators have interviewed a dozen Stone friends and associates, focusing on individuals who discussed WikiLeaks with Stone before to the election. Some have provided testimony and records that contradict Stone’s claims.

Charles Ortel, a Wall Street analyst and conservative writer, told The Post that he was interviewed in New York last week by two FBI agents who asked about his 2016 contacts with Stone, Corsi and Credico.

Ortel said the agents were interested in an email from then-Fox News reporter James Rosen that Ortel forwarded to Stone on July 25, 2016. In it, Rosen wrote, “Am told WikiLeaks will be doing a massive dump of HRC emails relating to the CF in September,” referring to Clinton and her family foundation.

Ortel declined to disclose the full details of his FBI interview but told The Post that he did not know where Rosen had gotten his information about WikiLeaks’s plans.

Rosen, who no longer works at Fox News, has repeatedly declined to comment.

[keviniole]

From rooting for a Willie Mays trade to Bob Nutting: A Pirates’ fan’s emotional journey ends

In 1969, the Pittsburgh Pirates had the rough outlines of the team that would win the National League East title in 1970, 1971 and 1972 and the World Series in 1971.

Hall of Famers on the corner in the outfield, Willie Stargell in left and Roberto Clemente in right. Manny Sanguillen was the catcher. Richie Hebner was at third, Al Oliver at first. Steve Blass, who would pitch the clincher in Game 7 of the 1971 World Series in Baltimore, led the team with 16 wins.

It was a good team that was getting better. Its farm system was loaded and bringing more talent to the majors than the Pirates could possibly use. 

The 9-year-old me -- I turned 10 in October that year during the Mets’ improbable run to the World Series championship  -- dreamed about the Pirates’ winning it all again.

I was baseball-crazy and used to think that if the Pirates could just trade with the Giants to get Willie Mays, we really might just win it all.

Of course, the Pirates won the World Series in 1971 without having to trade for Mays. The Giants didn’t want to trade him in 1969, no matter how much a 9-year-old altar boy would pray every Sunday that summer that they would.

I thought about 1969 on Monday, when the Giants and Pirates did swing a trade for a star center fielder. The Pirates continued their salary dump when they traded Andrew McCutchen to the Giants for two prospects. McCutchen was the 2013 MVP and finished in the top five in NL MVP voting in 2012, 2014 and 2015. Plus, he’s as classy as they come and never complained despite signing an under-valued contract to stay in Pittsburgh.

The McCutchen trade was difficult to swallow for a lifelong Pirates fan, for a guy who as a kid fell asleep with the transistor radio on the pillow listening to Bob Prince, Nellie King and Jim Woods.

This was a team that in 2015 won 98 games and responded by signing Ryan Vogelsong and John Jaso, trading Neil Walker for Jon Niese and Antonio Bastardo and doing next-to-nothing else.

They went from 98 wins to 78. It got worse in 2017, as the team did little again to improve itself and the win total dropped from 78 to 75.

With the trade of Gerrit Cole to the Astros on Saturday and McCutchen to the Giants on Monday, and the likely trades of Josh Harrison and Francisco Cervelli soon, the Pirates look to be a 65-win team in 2018.

I’d be OK with blowing it up if I were convinced they were all in on winning. They give voice to it, but that’s all it is. It’s talk. When I covered minor league baseball many years ago, the owner of the team told me the ideal outcome in his opinion was to get to the finals and lose in the maximum number of games.

When I asked him why, he said that guaranteed them as many home dates as possible, generating the most income, but by losing in the championship, he wouldn’t have to pay for rings.

It’s difficult not to think that Bob Nutting, the Pirates’ penny-pinching owner, thinks along the same lines.

If the Pirates’ ownership and management team were all-in, no way would they have done what they did in the offseason prior to the 2016 season. They ripped apart a 98-win 2015 team that was more than good enough to win the World Series and they turned themselves into also-rans.

I’m no expert on other teams’ minor league systems and I know McCutchen is no longer the defensive player he once was. But the “haul” they got for him is quite unremarkable. As were the players they got for Cole and likely as will the player(s) they get when they get around to trading Harrison.

I don’t expect my favorite teams to win the championship every year, or even to contend. But I expect the ownership and management of the team to making winning a priority and to put significant resources toward that end when a championship is feasible.

The Pittsburgh Steelers do that.

The Pittsburgh Penguins do that.

The Pittsburgh Pirates most assuredly do not.

And so, along with the news of the trades of Cole and McCutchen and the impending deals to come, there is also this news:

I am done with the Pirates. I’m done giving my heart to a franchise that is not committed to excellence, which builds through the Rule V draft, and which doesn’t even have the highest scouting and development budget in baseball despite all of its talk about windows of opportunities.

Somebody needs to tell Neal Huntington that 2013 is five years ago, and that the Pirates didn’t win the division that year. They didn’t win the pennant that year. They didn’t win the World Series. 

Today is my last full day as a Pirates fan. It’s going to be hard to wean myself off of it. 

I was a year old and a few days when Mazeroski hit the home run in the ninth inning of Game 7 to beat the Yankees and win the World Series in 1960.

I was 12 when they won the World Series in 1971 on the back of an amazing postseason performance by Clemente.

And as an adult in 2013, I got chills watching the crowd at PNC Park roaring so loudly during the wild card game against the Reds that it shook up a classy veteran like Johnny Cueto.

I’ve loved this team with all my heart for all my life.

No more.

I love baseball. It’s a great game and I won’t give up on it.

It’s the Pittsburgh Pirates I’m done with.

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[flauntpage]

Jojuan Collins Carries the Football Hopes of L.A.’s Public Schools

It's a cool Friday night in early September and the Dorsey Dons have taken the field at Jackie Robinson Stadium, a well-manicured track and field adjacent to their campus in South Los Angeles. Stray palm trees pierce the skyline. Green pom-poms shimmer under the stadium lights. A DJ with a multi-colored disco ball on his booth has set up shop by the track near the 40-yard-line and blares songs like "Bodak Yellow" and "Niggas In Paris."

Early in the first quarter, Dorsey's 16-year-old running back is handed the ball behind the line of scrimmage. He bounces left, then strafes right and bursts through a hole before plowing into—and pushing back—a pile of four defenders. His name is Jojuan Collins, and this is what he does. It's why he had five scholarship offers, including ones from Oklahoma and Georgia, to his name before ever competing in a full varsity game.

Jojuan only began lifting weights this spring and yet his figure resembles that of a Navy SEAL. Veins snake through his forearms, while his calves better resemble those of Dorsey's offensive linemen than his fellow skill position players. He is still two years away from his high school graduation but that hasn't stopped his coaches from postulating that Collins will one day become the most sought-after football recruit in America.

Demian Becerra/Holy Mountain

Dorsey's opponent in this game is Junipero Serra High School in Gardena, a formidable private school in Los Angeles's South Bay region. Less than a decade ago, this matchup would have been heavily tilted in the Dons' favor. For decades, no program west of the Mississippi gave its student-athletes a better shot at playing professional football than Dorsey. Tonight, they are the underdogs. Dorsey is among the inner city public schools in Los Angeles that have had their talent cannibalized by private schools from as far north as the San Fernando Valley to as far south as Orange County.

Many observers point to Serra as the high school that changed everything. Tonight's game, then, is about more than the two teams on the field. It is the way things are now versus the way things used to be. It is also a perfect showcase for Jojuan's amplified blend of strength and explosiveness—traits that should be an either-or proposition but which he somehow makes an "and."

At first, it appears that with Jojuan in their corner, Dorsey can go the distance. Early in the first quarter, Serra jumps ahead 7-0, only for Dorsey to respond in kind with a 40-yard touchdown pass. Then the levee breaks. Serra pours on 21 unanswered points in the second quarter, then 16 more in the second half. The Dorsey line is stymied. Drives are snuffed out before they can ever begin. The Dons lose 44-7. The next week, Dorsey will fall to another private school powerhouse, St. John Bosco, 69-14.

By all accounts, Jojuan should be playing for one of those wealthy schools. In fact, he spent his freshman year at Santa Ana's Mater Dei High School, one of California's most established and financially blessed football programs. But Dorsey is his neighborhood school. It is exactly where Jojuan wants to be.

"[This is] where I should have come in the first place," Jojuan says. "This is my home. This is where I started."

Is Jojuan Collins part of a new generation of talented kids spurning the advances of big money football programs to stay home, or the last of a dying breed?

Demian Becerra/Holy Mountain

Little about Dorsey High School announces itself as one of America's great incubators of NFL talent.

Start with how they train. For much of this past summer, Dorsey's practice field was an unusable checkerboard of too-high tufts and vacant squares of dirt.

"Like a receding hairline on an old person—a patch of grass here and nothing there," says running backs coach Stafon Johnson. "We don't even have lines out there…[We tell the players] 'Go 15 yards!' 'Well, coach, where the hell is 15 yards?'"

Then there's the weight room. The ceiling tiles are water damaged or missing entirely, with rusted steel beams peeking through the gaps. Some of the light tube filaments overhead flicker in and out. Others are burned out entirely. It's been this way for a while now. Thanks to budgetary crises on both the state level as well as in the Los Angeles Unified School District, there's nothing anyone can really do about it.

That grime, however, is juxtaposed with a parade of white banners—a couple dozen at least—each embossed with an NFL shield, the color-coded name of a Dorsey football alumnus, and the NFL franchise for which he once played. Keyshawn Johnson's banner is on the wall opposite the entrance. He's joined by league stalwarts like Na'il Diggs, Dennis Northcutt, Rahim Moore, Sharmon Shah—who led the NFL in rushing touchdowns for the 1997 season playing under the name Karim Abdul-Jabbar—and current Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson, to name a few. That's not counting the part-timers, either, like John Ross, the ninth overall pick in this year's NFL Draft and a Dorsey Don for his first two years of high school. There are more banners than available wall space, a byproduct of Dorsey producing more NFL players than all but two high schools in America.

"They've had some legendary players go through that program," says Greg Biggins, a national analyst for CBS Sports and 247Sports.com who has covered high school football in Southern California for more than 20 years. "It is Los Angeles football."

Demian Becerra/Holy Mountain

In many ways, it is Los Angeles itself. To the west is Culver City, a one-time sleepy suburb that has recently blossomed into a chic boomtown. A few miles north is Mid-City, a highly diverse neighborhood favored by millennials. Due south is Baldwin Hills, an affluent, traditionally African-American enclave. And east is the University of Southern California, as well as some of the most gang-riddled streets in the city.

"Dorsey is right here in the middle," says defensive line coach Jovon Hayes. "It's like a melting pot of everybody."

A healthy chunk of the football team hails from the east side. Many are the sons of single parents. Most struggle economically. To them, Dorsey football is less an activity than a society, a place for belonging. Those affiliated with the program refer to themselves as the "Dorsey Dons Posse"—DDP for short—and their ranks span generations. The school's coaches are tacticians, the way they'd be everywhere else, but also fulfill a great number of functions that fall outside the job description.

"Sometimes, you have to be more than a coach," says Ivan Stevenson, Dorsey's defensive backs coach, who by day is a building inspector for the Los Angeles Fire Department. "Sometimes you're the father. You're the big brother. You're the uncle. You're the confidant. You're the counselor, without a PhD."

It's why all but one member of the coaching staff is a Dorsey alumnus, despite only one being a school employee. Officially speaking, a handful are in line for stipends, around $1,500 or so apiece for the season. They usually burn through that cash to subsidize equipment costs or buy dinners for hungry players, which effectively means they work for free. Even Hayes, the only coach employed full time by the school, also teaches history and economics during the day, and works the night shift at a group home for special needs children to make ends meet.

"If this wasn't my alma mater, I wouldn't be here," says Charles Mincy, the team's head coach. A ten-year NFL veteran with his own banner on the wall, he took over the program in 2016 and pads his income with the occasional substitute teaching gig. "I came back around to help because I didn't want the program to go into the dumps."

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Which is a very real concern. As recently as a decade ago, public schools like Dorsey retained an inordinately high percentage of the best talent in Los Angeles. It had been that way for generations, nearly ever since their governing body, the City Section, was established by the California Interscholastic Federation in 1936 following a dispute between Los Angeles public schools and the other members of the Southern Section, the oldest and largest athletic body in Southern California.

The result was that high school sports in the area became, in effect, Los Angeles versus everybody. In a region where the actual city of Los Angeles is dwarfed by the sprawl surrounding it, that means David vs. Goliath. At present date, the City Section has 70 high schools that field 11-man football teams, none of which are private, compared to the Southern Section's 396 member schools, some of which are among the wealthiest institutions in the state.

The City Section punched above its weight and by the 1980s, three of its schools became synonymous with the best talent: Dorsey, Carson High School in Carson, and Banning High School in Wilmington. Thirty years later, Banning battles irrelevance. Carson hasn't produced a top prospect since 2012. Dorsey is in far better shape, comparatively, but the production of NFL banners has slowed to a crawl. The blue chippers in their backyards began to suit up elsewhere—not for other City Section rivals, but Southern Section outfits recruiting several zip codes away from their campuses.

Hayes, who played at Arizona from 2006 through 2011, recalls being in college and noticing schools that were once blips on Dorsey's radar were beginning to crush the Dons on Friday nights. "Dorsey lost to who? They're horrible!" he'd think while checking box scores. His former teammates wondered the same thing. Then, on a visit home, he popped into the coaches' office. That's when he learned things had changed for good.

"They started letting us know that private schools are coming in and getting kids that normally would have come to Dorsey," he says. "[The coaches] were like, "'[Kids] aren't in city schools anymore.'"

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The first time I ever asked Jojuan Collins a question, his answer stretched on for nearly 15 uninterrupted minutes.

He sat in on a bench in Dorsey's weight room and, twirling a neon orange fidget spinner, meandered from Pop Warner football to his report card, school uniforms to religion. He sometimes talks this way, in long amiable strolls through and around the topic at hand.

There is an unusual lightness to him, the sort that would not seem to reconcile with a 16-year-old who runs so violently on the football field that a defender once slinked out of his way to avoid tackling him. He grew up in the Jungles, the once-infamously hardscrabble projects portrayed in the Denzel Washington movie Training Day. He was short until he turned 11 years old, and he was bullied in school. Then, seemingly overnight, he bloomed into a physical marvel, and so he was challenged to fights by teenagers who wanted to look tough.

Yet those closest to him never worry about whether South Los Angeles might harden him. Instead, they're worried about how gentle and trusting Jojuan can be.

"He has a very soft heart underneath all the muscles," says Joe Jenkins, Collins's grandfather. "His heart is made out of glass."

He sings tenor in the choir and his favorite pastime since the age of 12 is composing love songs with his older sister.

"You don't write with your brain," he says. "You write with your heart. Take out your heart and write with it."

Football was something of a happy accident. Tony Beavers, a family friend whom Collins affectionately calls his "Uncle Tone," is a Pop Warner coach and had tried for years to coax Jojuan into picking up a ball. It never stuck; his nephew preferred to skateboard and play Call of Duty.

That changed on January 8, 2011. Jojuan was ten-years-old and over at Beavers's house during the NFL playoffs. Seattle was playing New Orleans, and he feigned comprehension for the sake of impressing his uncle.

"I was like, 'Who are these people? Seahawks, I'm guessing?' Because it said Seahawks on the jersey. 'I'm going to act like I know who this is,'" he remembers thinking. "I had no idea what a score meant."

His attention waxed and waned until late in the fourth quarter, when Seattle's Marshawn Lynch took a handoff 67 yards for a touchdown. This was the famous "Beast Mode" run, the most iconic moment of the running back's career. Jojuan was entranced.

"I kept rewinding and [playing it back]," he says. "They were chasing me around the house trying to get the controller."

Sitting in the Dorsey weight room six years later, he breaks down the run's components from memory with impressive accuracy, right down to the model of gloves Lynch wore that afternoon in the Superdome.

"I've watched that game so many times, I know it like the back of my hand," he says.

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It wasn't long until he put on a jersey for the first time. Naturally, he chose 24 as his number, in honor of Lynch. At age 13, he was starring for the Inland Empire Ducks, one of the Southern California's premier Pop Warner teams, as both a running back and a linebacker. He was already pushing six feet tall and 200 pounds, and his high metabolism blessed him with the muscle definition of athletes well beyond his years. A nickname was born: "Man Child." Ferocious hits became his trademark.

"I'm talking about you've got to describe those hits with words like 'jarred,'" laughs Jadili Damu Johnson, a Dorsey assistant and Pop Warner coach who coached against Jojuan. "Ugly. Nasty."

Two years later, Jojuan says his preferred position depends on the day. "When I'm happy, running back," he says. "When I'm pretty pissed off, linebacker." But deep down, his heart lies on offense. And while he lives to emulate Lynch, every coach interviewed for this story believes Jojuan better compares to Adrian Peterson, the most physically gifted running back of his generation.

"He runs like he's the biggest kid on the playground," says Stevenson. "It's like a 'man amongst boys'-type deal."

Like everyone else who saw Jojuan play Pop Warner, the Dorsey coaches realized that Collins was special. While players from nearly every position are represented in the ring of NFL banners, running back was always the school's glamour position. Stafon Johnson, once a 5-foot-11, 225-pound jackhammer, parlayed his talents at Dorsey into a full scholarship at USC and a three-year NFL career with the Tennessee Titans before he returned to coach running backs at his alma mater.

"The natural power, the natural speed—stuff you can't teach," Johnson says. "He understands he's a [physical] specimen and he can do certain things, but I don't think he understands how good he could be."

The Dorsey coaching staff does. For the previous two seasons, the star of the program was a defensive end named Kayvon Thibodeaux, who transferred in midway through his freshman year from Junipero Serra High School in Gardena, one of the city's foremost private school powerhouses. It only took a handful of games for everyone to label Thibodeaux a program-changing talent. After less than a calendar year, he was named the top-ranked player in the class of 2019. His impact was made even more significant by the circumstances of his arrival: he'd left the neighborhood for a private school, like most prospects of his ilk now do, but then he returned.

Until, that is, Thibodeaux transferred again in May to Oaks Christian, a private school powerhouse located in Westlake Village. No one at Dorsey saw it coming.

But around the time Thibodeaux bowed out, Jojuan—an old Pop Warner rival of Thibodeaux's—arrived. Now he is primed to pick up where Thibodeaux left off, a throwback to an era where the best talent in the inner city played where they came from. It's not just the backstories that are similar, either.

"Big-time, big-time guy," Biggins says. "Everything is there for him to be a superstar."

Says Stevenson, "When it's all said and done, Jojuan will be the number one player in the nation."

Demian Becerra/Holy Mountain

It's hard to pinpoint when, exactly, the balance of power began to shift away from inner city. But the most commonly accepted flash point occurred in 2009, with the emergence of a wide receiver named Robert Woods.

Woods was arguably the most dynamic player the region had seen in years, an eventual All-American at USC who later became a second-round NFL draft pick and today suits up for the Los Angeles Rams. He also grew up right around the corner from Carson High School, where it was assumed he'd one day play.

Instead, he enrolled at Serra, then a nondescript private school in Gardena. Woods had family ties to the school—his older sister, Olivia, was two grade levels ahead of him—but it wasn't long before he was joined by a staggering amount of the city's top talent. Marqise Lee, another USC All-American and NFL second-round pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars, came in from Inglewood. Paul Richardson, now of the Seattle Seahawks, transferred in as a senior. On and on it went, until Serra became the de facto school of choice for the best players in the city.

An overwhelming amount of success followed: Serra went 15-0 in 2009 to win their first of two state championships in four years. From 2007 through 2013, the Cavaliers posted a combined record of 87-10. Their reach even extended nationally. Adoree' Jackson, yet another USC All-American and a first-round draft pick in this year's NFL Draft, moved all the way from East St. Louis to attend the school.

"I think with the success of Serra, the private schools started taking notice," Stevenson says. "All of these schools basically took a page out of their book: Tap into the inner city. You look at any successful private school program, they have at least five kids who are from the inner city on their roster, guaranteed."

Imitators bubbled up swiftly. St. John Bosco didn't post a winning season from 2005 through 2010. In 2013, they posted a perfect 16-0 record, won a state championship and graduated arguably the most star-studded senior class in state history by signing seven players to Pac-12 schools. They haven't won fewer than 12 games in a season since.

Chaminade, a private school in West Hills, hired a renowned City Section coach in 2009 and then went 47-9 from 2011 through 2014. Bishop Mora Salesian, in Boyle Heights, lept from a 2-8 doormat to three straight double-digit winning seasons. Traditional powers like Mater Dei and Oaks Christian added reinforcements.

Demian Becerra/Holy Mountain

"I call it, 'The private school year," says Junie Rivero, Dorsey's special teams coach. "All of them always have their year where they're super-hot and everyone wants to go to those schools."

Private schools have some structural advantages: they can use tuition to raise capital, are not subjected to public school budgets, and can enroll students from anywhere. But the institutional benefits of playing in the resource-flush Southern Section also worked in their favor. Even a few Southern Section public schools like Corona's Centennial High School, Calabasas High School, and Long Beach Polytechnic High School began to entice inner city talent to move to their districts.

"It's just not a level playing field," Biggins says. "The Southern Section has so many built-in advantages… In terms of city coaches, there are five stipends [per team] versus 12 for Southern Section coaches… 12 guys and a full-time strength and conditioning program, year-round, versus these guys who don't even have a weight room. How do you compete with that?"

Those edges come into play long before those schools ever meet on Friday nights. They are spoken of and leveraged every time a player like Jojuan Collins emerges as a middle school prospect.

"You go to a local Pop Warner game and there's, I guess you could call them, 'Friends of the program'" Biggins continues. "Every school basically has a guy who is kind of the one who is able to sell your program, talk about and once you get the kid on campus for what they call a 'prospect day,' that's when the selling starts to take place."

If that sounds eerily similar to college football recruiting, that's because it is. "That world can get to money, quick," Damu Johnson says. "Now you're seeing, in eighth grade… is there some incentive given to get this guy we know is going to be the number one guy in college at some point?... It's an actual business."

The points of entry are volunteer youth football coaches. The inducement? Funnel the best players on your team in exchange for a full-time paying position with the program.

"It's always tied to a Pop Warner coach," Stevenson says. "In the inner city, the drug game has dried up. Rap game is drying up. What's the next-best hustle for someone without a job? Hustle kids."

For the players and parents on the receiving end of those pitches, the result is an ecosystem shaped by perception and unverifiable promises.

Demian Becerra/Holy Mountain

"Your high school decision is pretty much based off of what you think you know and not exactly what you know," says Isaiah Smalls, Dorsey's star tight end who has made a verbal commitment to play college at Oregon State. "You just know what you see. 'Oh, that kid is getting scholarships at that school, I want to go there. I want to go to that school.'"

Sometimes the reality is different once they arrive on campus. Playing-time promises aren't fulfilled, or the academic environment wasn't what they were expecting. Perhaps they don't fit in culturally among students with vastly different backgrounds and home lives. In other cases, the tuition stops being affordable for students who are only on partial aid. A transfer becomes the best option, which is where things get more complicated.

For years, the CIF charter forbade transfers for athletically-motivated reasons. Then, in April, a rule was revised to permit athletically-motivated transfers, theoretically paving the way for players like Jojuan to switch schools more easily.

But schools still have recourse to contest transfers, usually through claiming "undue influence"—that is, some illegal enticement to lure a player elsewhere. It's the sort of accusation that, wielded by a private school against a city school, would seem baseless.

Yet according to James G. Schwartz, a Bay Area attorney whose firm has handled CIF-related cases for more than 15 years, "the committee looks at transfers with a jaundiced eye." Appeals of blocked transfers, meanwhile, are extraordinarily difficult to win. In his time dealing with the CIF, Schwartz has seen everything from appellate panels composed of members who did not understand the charter to rules that went completely unenforced. The letter of the law, then, matters far less than who is enforcing it and how inclined they are to hammer a point home.

"Whether or not...after 15 or 20 years, they're going to change their mindset, I don't know," Schwartz says.

The endgame dramatically favors the first school where a player enrolls—which, in Los Angeles, increasingly means somewhere in the Southern Section. Consequently, Biggins says, "I feel like it's easier for kids to leave [the inner city] than come in, which again goes with [it] not [being] a level playing field."

The costs are not just borne out on the field.

"For some of these kids from the inner city, let's be honest: This is their only ticket to get into a college," Stevenson says. "It's the only ticket." Constricting their freedom of movement, or eligibility thereafter, jeopardizes that. The system has yet to correct itself. Dorsey estimates they had five incoming transfers contested in the past calendar year alone.

"The playing field is like politics," Stevenson says. "It's never going to be even for the guy who puts on his work boots every day versus the guy who puts on his wingtips every day."

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By the time Jojuan finished eighth grade, he had established himself as one of the most sought-after middle school prospects. The legend of "Man Child" had spread.

"When you look like a man already, then people are going to know who you are whether you've taken a snap or not," Biggins says.

Consequently, Jackie Jenkins had no shortage of private schools interested in Jojuan, many of which offered significant financial aid to defray expenses.

She saw Mater Dei, a private Catholic school in Santa Ana with annual tuition cost of $16,050—the number drops to $14,650 for Catholic students—as the best opportunity. Founded in 1950, few schools in Southern California have married academics and athletics so successfully. Every year, Mater Dei places alumni in colleges throughout the country, to say nothing of their healthy representation in the University of California system, USC, and Stanford.

The football team, meanwhile, has produced two Heisman Trophy winners and, as of this writing, is the number one-ranked team in the country. Its star wide receiver, Amon-Ra St. Brown, is regarded as one of the two best high school seniors in the country at his position. Its star quarterback, J.T. Daniels, rivals Kayvon Thibodeaux as the best high school junior at any position.

It seemed to be the best of all worlds, a private education with the type of football program that could nurture Jojuan's talent enough to punch his ticket to any college he wanted to go to.

Jojuan was excited, and bewildered. For all his prowess on the field, he says it took until high school for him to understand exactly what he could do. The prospect of being able to attend a school like this, all the way in Orange County, seemed unbelievable in the truest sense of the word.

"This high school does all this stuff and they want me to come here?" he says, recalling his mindset at the time. "Me? Out of all these kids?"

His mother was warier. A year earlier, she had Jojuan repeat his eighth-grade year. His grades were flagging and she wasn't comfortable sending him to high school. "If you bring their report card with D's on it and C's, that's hold-back material for me," she says. "He wasn't doing what he was supposed to do."

Demian Becerra/Holy Mountain

Denverly Grant, a friend of Jojuan's uncle Tony and the mom of a Pop Warner teammate, offered to take him in and homeschool him alongside her own children for the next year. With Grant, his grades began to creep upwards. Still, the prospect of thrusting him back into a regular environment at such a competitive school concerned Jackie. She wondered whether Mater Dei was the right fit. She also wondered how she, an in-home care nurse and a single mother to three children, could ever turn it down.

"When you are living in low-budget or whatever, when someone comes to you and tells you that your son can go here, what are you going to do?" Jackie Jenkins says. "Are you going to say, 'Hell no?' You're not going to say that… I felt like that was a chance of a lifetime. I wanted my son to be involved in that."

And so he went. On the field, things went well. Jojuan thrived as the star running back on Mater Dei's freshman team, and made a brief cameo on varsity to end the season. His physique and skillset already manifested enough for the first wave of scholarship offers to roll in. A larger role beckoned.

He came to appreciate the school's diversity. Perhaps his favorite aspect was the social environment, which was unlike anything he experienced.

"I was always one of those shy kids and I started opening up," he says. "I'm going to different neighborhoods, [hanging with] people I've never met before and I'm trusting them. My life and everything, it was just amazing, because I used to go around and see, 'This is what this is like. This is what this is like.'"

Jackie understood that while maintaining his grades in a public school environment had been challenging enough for her son, the rigors of Mater Dei would place even greater demands on Jojuan. It would also be difficult for her to watch over him. The campus was a long drive away from the family's apartment and she was working long hours.

She gained comfort in the knowledge that there were multiple coaches from Jojuan's Pop Warner team who either coached at Mater Dei or had children there. She claims she made repeated requests to the Mater Dei coaching staff asking that if her son's grades were suffering, they bench him so he could have extra time to focus on his studies. She trusted them to keep a mindful eye on her only son.

"I thought we were a big family," she says.

However, she alleges, Mater Dei staffers would often minimize the degree to which Jojuan was struggling academically, and even went so far as to tell her that benching him would be tantamount to a forfeit. Jackie claims that it took until nearly the end of the semester for her to learn that Jojuan was failing nearly all of his classes.

Citing California's Right to Privacy laws as well as school policy, a Mater Dei representative declined to address specific questions about Jojuan Collins, instead providing VICE Sports with a statement that read in part:

"We treat all of our students with the same caring and compassion regardless of their athletic ability, while also striving to include and provide every student with a space and facilities that allow them to reach their fullest potential both on and off the field. While we are extremely proud of our rich athletic tradition at Mater Dei, we hold our students to a higher standard both academically and personally. The student in question was a freshman and per CIF rules all freshmen are eligible to play football at the start of the season. We provided [Collins] with the maximum opportunities to receive academic guidance and assistance provided to any MD student."

For his part, Jojuan accepts that, regardless of the time commitment that football represented, at least some of the responsibility for his low grades falls upon him. "I tried to pull my grades up," he says. "I wasn't able to. I made some bad decisions."

With finals looming, Jackie decided to withdraw Jojuan from Mater Dei in December. It meant forfeiting the entire semester's worth of credits, something she believes was fait accompli with how low his GPA already was. "At this point, what the heck would a final do for you?" she says.

Almost immediately, she received offers from other private schools interested in Jojuan's talents. She claims some went as far as to offer to relocate her, as well admit Jojuan's younger sister. Jackie wasn't interested.

"It's like, you know what? I've had enough," she says. "My thirst was already quenched. I didn't want anything else to do with a private school."

This time, Jackie opted to enroll him at Dorsey, just a few minutes down the road. It would take months for him to be declared eligible at Dorsey. But when the season began in August, Jojuan was decked out in his new green and white #24 jersey.

He says he has no hard feelings towards anyone at Mater Dei. His family, on the other hand, still feels misled.

"Simply because it was a private school, I just thought that he had a better shot at education," Joe Jenkins, Jojuan's grandfather, says. "I can only say that Mater Dei disappoints me. The reason they disappoint me was I had a child who is very good in football and it ended up Mater Dei giving me the impression that he was better at football than he was learning. I think it should have been the other way around… All they want is football out of you. They don't really want to work with you. They just want football."

Demian Becerra/Holy Mountain

Jojuan ended the Serra game averaging six yards per carry. It was not enough. This is the new order of things. It's what's supposed to happen now that the private schools have won.

"The City Section is dying," Stevenson says. "The well is getting dry because everyone's getting pulled out."

Financially, there is no putting the genie back in the bottle. The most sweeping legislative change capable of leveling the playing field—a mandate that students play for the high school in their most immediate neighborhood—is impossible. There's no telling whether there's enough documented impropriety to investigate Pop Warner recruiting and school transfers, or whether such a probe would amount to anything.

So, as is too often the case in areas without resources, the undue burden of survival falls on individuals to succeed where the system has failed. For Dorsey, that means it's up to the DDP to keep them afloat.

"As long as the dudes right here, in this room here [stay], we're going to be alright," says Mincy, the Dons' head coach. "As long as we've got those community people holding this thing down, we're going to be OK. But once they go... I'm trying to find ways to get these dudes compensated for their time just so it doesn't blow up."

"How long can you do it with your money?" Stevenson asks. "How much can you do with less resources? How much can you tell a parent, 'We're going to provide X, Y, and Z for your kid,' and you go get your bank account statement and you're like, 'Shit, I'm behind on X-amount of bills because I did this?'"

He doesn't have an answer. But he doesn't see himself anywhere else. "I can't preach about kids leaving the area and I leave also," Stevenson says. He knows, however, that the same doesn't necessarily apply in return.

Demian Becerra/Holy Mountain

It has only been six months since Kayvon Thibodeaux left. Who's to say Jojuan Collins won't do the same?

"At the end of the day, you always have it in the back of your mind," Stevenson admits.

Jojuan says his loyalties lie with Dorsey. He has seen the other side of things and believes that what he needs was in his backyard all along. If that makes him the start of something bigger, so be it. For now, he's just like any other 16-year-old, taking comfort in finally being back home.

"I'm able to walk in my neighborhood and get that feeling like, 'This is where I started. This is where it all went down, and this is where I'm going to end my high school [career]," he says.

As of this writing, Jojuan has as many touchdowns (11) as the Dons' second- and third-placed players combined. His grades have rebounded. There is work to be done, still, but his mother believes that there is no place better equipped to support him than Dorsey.

"All we can provide is a family atmosphere," Stevenson says.

Jojuan Collins Carries the Football Hopes of L.A.’s Public Schools published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv