#everything she wants is in all my spotify recaps what can i say

[haradrimculture]

@pscentral event 17: vibrance

WHAM! 1981-1986 Michael was keen to create music targeted at a more sophisticated adult market rather than the duo's primarily teenage audience, and therefore, he and Ridgeley officially announced the breakup of Wham! in the spring of 1986. [wiki]

[alittlefrenchtree]

(Spotify part 2)

Oh cool, thank you! I really like the context notes each time. It adds some narrative behind your songs; it makes it personal, I think. Not that songs can't be personal in themselves, but I don't know. It's just nice to see how these musics and you met.

Well, I might share it yep. It would only be fair, after all. Probably not anonymously 'cause, at this point, I'm not sure that it changes anything (and even if it did, it wouldn't really matters I guess).

Ophelia: Of course you have. I love this song too (which appears in my 2023 playlist as well, by the way). It's very catchy. I can listen to it many times without getting bored.

Katoum: Well, I already know the guy, so it's hard to judge your explanation. But it seems clear to me, for what it's worth. In fact, I'm glad that you mentioned him. You reminded me that I didn't listen to his album enough; and that's a shame, 'cause it's actually good? I mean, of course, he is technically not a singer (some could say that he is since he literally made an album but, yeah, it's not his first job), but I like most of his songs.

(And we can't even compare him to Trivia, who is already well-known for her singing ability. She showed it several times, including at two - if I'm not wrong - concerts. Of course, it was also for the Z-Event, but she is just so talented. Oh and her work with PV Nova? Amazing.

Blinding Lights and Toxic are obviously in my 2023 recap. I will put the links - in case some people were lost here, in the French side of Tumblr, and wanted to discover a really good singer. I may not be utterly objective 'cause, well, I love her. But honestly, you could make an unexpected discovery).

https://open.spotify.com/track/51HwpMwkMJacQ32ircRGMZ?si=GeiaguXoSjWobdaBUuVIhw&context=spotify%3Aplaylist%3A37i9dQZF1Fa1IIVtEpGUcU

https://open.spotify.com/track/0PG40nP8ZNcRz6xEF4xfnh?si=XcaEL2wvS0ixMmA_wToN1Q&context=spotify%3Aplaylist%3A37i9dQZF1Fa1IIVtEpGUcU

Mh yes, that's understandable. He makes it hard not to like him, I guess. By the way, it's ok for him to be handsome and charismatic, I can live with it. But he shouldn't be allowed to have that voice as well.

I still listen to the 2021 Z-Event karaoke sometimes (my favourite one, I think). It makes me feel nostalgic - obviously - but that's also very pleasant to hear (and also funny at some specific moments).

And, well, from what I remember, I was quite surprised by ZeratoR back there. I didn't know that he sang, or at least never heard him (I don't have the chronology and so don't remember when the album goal came; but anyway, as he said himself, it's almost common for a famous video maker to do some songs now, mostly for fun, so it's hard to know at what point it is serious). His Graver dans la roche cover was definitely something.

So, yeah, I don't really follow ZeratoR (I guess that - for once - everything is perfectly healthy. 😌 ) I watch Twitch sporadically, following my current random interest (streamer or even video game), so nothing surprising here. But I'm still interested in some of his projects - and this one is definitely one of them.

Now, which are my favourite songs from him? I'm trying to drop some titles, but that's not that easy. I would mention Anonyme, Katoum, Ralentis and The Void (don't get me started on Antoine Daniel's voice 'cause fuck, it doesn't help).

Oh and the two last ones - I Say and Décennies - are not bad either. And let's not forget Lyrics, which I'm listening to right now (and probably a good one to discover his album as a non-French speaker, so I will put the link too; I seriously doubt that any lost soul will ever read it but, just in case, a link doesn't hurt).

https://open.spotify.com/track/04OhfYHHYCEap1coJgObAd?si=mcYjSkPhS3CJgnHXyQVLxA

https://open.spotify.com/track/2fqK2DYGXwysdU27vYlj9o?si=xWM9vdBlSKKpCZcxT57kfg

Belobezvodnoe & Moskva: Ooh it's interesting again! Not for the same reason I guess, 'cause I know nothing about Thylacine (not even his name). I also missed Arrête avec tes mensonges (like pretty much all the films this year). My last time at the movie theater was in September (if I don't forget anything), and it wasn't even for a discovery; so my true last time was in July with the last Pixar, Elemental (a very good surprise, by the way, I don't know if you saw it), which was a long time ago now that I'm thinking about it.

(Time flies again).

(I should take a cinema subscription. Well, it's not that easy of course; it's expensive. But at this point, it appears to be that or nothing. At least, with a subscription, you're quite "forced" to go (if not, it feels like a dumb waste; it's partially irrational, but it's here and it's a good motivation in itself) and - more important - you can go like that, just to give it a try. You can't waste anything else but time - which seems freeing. It's just about you and your envy. Nothing more, nothing less).

I don't even know what Arrête avec tes mensonges is about, but the soundtrack seems to have some potential. It's relaxing, but not only. The two songs that you mentioned are quite different, so I don't imagine the same things for both of them. I'm curious to know if I get them like we're supposed to - like they're used in the movie.

Anyway, thank you again. It influenced my Spotify recommendations in a nice way. It was like: "Wait, you like instrumental songs? Like really, you couldn't say it earlier?", and then Spotify suggested other instrumental stuffs.

Scar Tissue: It happens sometimes. Spotify Wrapped shouldn't be surprising (at least for our most listened to songs) but somehow it is. I don't know much about Red Hot Chili Peppers. I know well the few songs I downloaded like... a decade ago (omg 🫠). But this one wasn't in my playlist, so it feels like my first time. It's a nice one.

Weed For Speed: Ah, a song from You Suck At Parking (perhaps a bit of ZeratoR influence again). I see what it is (Z-Lan oblige, even if I didn't follow the whole thing), but nothing more.

(No context but it reminds me Etoiles and his nightmare (also known as the puzzle). I'm not gonna lie, it was quite funny to watch. But it was way less after on Trackmania. He was just a bit disappointed by himself, if I'm remembering well).

But to talk about the song itself, it seems quite unknown. Less than 1k plays on Spotify? That's not much (it doesn't even appear when you search the title only). Anyway, I like the vibe. It seems to be a good focus music (well, it's a video game song after all).

Your whole playlist: Mh, I literally have nothing to say since the link doesn't work. 🥲 It's not the first time I see that. It may be linked to your confidentiality settings on Spotify? The playlist may have to be publicly shared on your profile to work? I don't know.

But think is : when I just click on the link, it opens my Spotify application and shows me my own playlist. So then, I tried to open without being connected and had a message like "your link is broken", or something very similar.

So, to me, the easiest solution is to create a new public playlist with all the songs on your Spotify Wrapped. I don't have a better solution, at this point. But, well, you'll see what you want to do again.

And that was probably too long again (with a very approximate English, which wasn't even necessary). But, well, here it is I guess. I liked to listen to these few songs and see a bit of your pov. :)

omg please never do that again 😂 and by "that" i mean totally break my brain the first time i read this on a week day at 5am. For the first part I was like who the fuck i'm talking to and then it became pretty obvious - or at least 99.9% obvious (no offense but only you could right this 😘) but I had no idea you were following here? (or i feel like i didn't know, but maybe i should have?) Give me a quick second while i second think each of the 11,845 posts i ever shared on this website? 💀💀💀 bit of self-consciousness going on there but we're going to be fine. i think.

I'm not going to answer to everything but DM me your secret identity when you have a minute? it will be easier to talk, even if my brain doesn't fully grab the concept of writing in French on tumblr dot com 😅

Just a few things that could be interesting for general audience:

I've tried something else for the whole playlist, maybe it'll work better here? Otherwise I have no idea.

Also, as not-so-anon said, listen to Trivia (aka LittleBigWhale) :

[morningsound15]

i seem to remember you giving some podcast recs that i wanted to check out, but for some reason i can't find them on your blog anymore. am i mistaken? if not, do you think you could repeat them?

omg hi! sorry tumblr was NOT showing me any asks i’m really sorry idk when you sent this but yes! i love this question i love podcasts, and i think i’ve rec’d a few individual episodes? but i’ve definitely not made a whole post so i’m so down for this

idk what sorts of podcasts you listen to but i basically divide my podcasts into shit i listen to for education (leftist podcasts, news podcasts, etc,) and shit i listen to to keep myself sane (pop culture/movie/music podcasts, gay podcasts, tv recap podcasts of shows i used to watch) so i’m gonna give you a lot! basically my whole podcast queue list lol

i’ll link you to their online pages (if they have some! either youtube or a digital library) but most of them are on spotify i believe, a lot of these podcasts also have patreons and i personally listen to all of them through apple podcasts\

(under the cut because it’s LONG hope this helps!)

shit for education:

in a clump right off the top:

-- Revolutionary Left Radio - #1 essential listening for people interested in socialism, leftism, communism, marxism-leninism, etc. current events analyzed with leftist theory, great interviews, honest perspectives from organizers.

-- Red Menace - featuring the host of Rev Left, a podcast that mainly deep dives into leftist theory and texts (specifically marxist-leninist theory, but also mao, fanon, stalin, etc.) if you are new to theory and have trouble tackling difficult texts, this is the podcast for you

-- Guerrilla History - from the host of Rev Left, a podcast that looks at revolutionary uprisings from the perspective of those on the ground, using the past to help make sense of the present

and then some others:

-- 5-4 - "A podcast where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court decisions that have made this country –by a wide margin– the worst country in the world" all about the us supreme court and the decisions that keep us strangled. great legal analysis highly recommend for people who care about the courts

-- Bad Faith - featuring former bernie sanders press secretary briahna joy gray and chapo trap house host (i know guys i know) virgil texas, this is a more accessible introduction to thinking outside of the american political binary. for people who liked bernie and need to figure out where to go next, this podcast might be helpful, or it just might feed your petty soul

-- Citations Needed - if you only listen to one american news podcast, let it be this one. with a focus on american news and how our news industry manipulates us into supporting imperialism and mass death

-- Death Panel - on pop culture and politics, particularly focusing on the healthcare industry in america and why it’s designed to kill all of us.

-- Decolonized Buffalo (youtube) - with a focus on decolonial theory and current events

-- IT’S GOING DOWN - with a focus on revolutionary anarchist, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist grassroots revolts and social movements across north america.

-- Millennials Are Killing Capitalism - i really recommend everyone follow the host of this podcast josh briond (@ jos.hau on insta and @ queersocialism on twitter) because they have been fundamental to my personal journey into leftist literature, their podcast is incredible and their pop culture takes are always fire. interviews, theory, essential takes on the news.

-- Moderate Rebels (podcast / youtube) - if you want to learn about international news/foreign policy from an anti-imperialist source, Moderate Rebels is the best recommendation i can give you. greyzone reporters Max Bluementhal and Ben Norton host a weekly news podcast that is essential listening if you want to understand what it is to live in the core of the world’s imperialist center

-- Radical Reflections - for an international perspective on revolutionary history, from a comrade based in scotland

-- The Black Sublime Podcast - for a black, queer perspective on pop culture, politics, oppression, and liberation

-- The East is a Podcast - for a perspective on leftist theory, history, and revolutionary movements centering people from the (quote unquote) ‘east’. recent episodes cover such topics as (including but not limited to) china, india, paul robeson, war, decolonization, palestine, iran, tunisia, and strongly centering muslim writers, thinkers and scientists

-- The Minyan - jewish comrades! (specifically marxist-leninist)

-- The Red Nation Podcast -- indigenous comrades (mostly in north america - USA/Canada). essential listening for anyone living in emperial/colonial powerhouses in north america. The Red Nation also has great educational resources

-- Useful Idiots - standard news podcast from people much smarter than me who hate the political establishment almost as much as i do. they have some really good interview episodes

-- Working Class History - some really cool episodes on important events in working class history! great episode on The Exotic Dancer’s Union aka the first stripper co-op in america

shit for sanity/fun:

-- Bad Romance Podcast - comedians jourdain searles and bronwyn isaac watch terrible romantic comedies and then tell you all about them

-- Buffering the Vampire Slayer - THE buffy rewatch podcast! they’re deep into season 6 at this point, but features great (gay!) content, buffy analysis, excellent guests, interviews with the original cast, and an original song every episode based on that episode. this podcast brings me only joy

-- Girls on Porn - a porn review podcast featuring only ethically-made porn, tackling kink, fetishization, racism in the porn industry, and so much more

-- GLEEwind - don’t judge me lol i like recap podcasts and this one has the right amount of fun with the right amount of will schuester hate

-- How Did This Get Made? - funny people (and great actors) Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas watch truly awful movies and then talk all about it

-- Keep It! - for everything in music, tv and celebrity culture featuring Ira Madison III, Louis Virtel, and Aida Osman. great interviews, always makes me laugh

-- Las Culturistas - bowen yang and matt rogers’ weekly culture podcast, also featuring great interviews and a lot of survivor talk

-- Popcast - i don’t like the NYT but i do sometimes like their music podcast, they review new shit, big shit, and all the shit you might be hearing about from the music world

-- Still Processing - again, do not like the NYT but DO like what jenna wortham and wesley morris have to say about what’s happening in the world

-- The Big Picture - another movie podcast! this one features great interviews with actors and directors, as well as takes on popular movies that i generally agree with (although way too much love for marvel movies for me)

-- Why Won’t You Date Me? - nicole beyer’s hilarious podcast where she talks to other comedians about their dating woes. surprisingly heart-felt, always hilarious

[drunklander]

Drunj!Der Yells About Outlander

Thoughts on Ep. 401

Oh hey, y’all. We’re back for another season of that show we keep watching in hopes it’ll get back to its season one glory Outlander! Since I’m incapable of keeping my Opinions to myself and have no filter after a few drinks, I’m gonna do drunk recaps that no one asked for or wants again this year. Because why not. So buckle up, randos, because under the cut you will find nothing of substance, zero insights and absolutely no analysis!

Before I dive into the stream of consciousness, quasi-incoherent beat-by-beat nonsense, I just want to say that I overall liked this episode. I definitely enjoyed it more from the comfort of my own couch than in the theater with thousands of screaming sycophants at NYCC. It definitely had me singing along to the Federalist Papers part of Non Stop all day though. A series of scenes, tangentially related, introducing the Colonies to the public. Some are obviously just there to just set up the plot of the season or like check a residual box from last season. But some are solid world-building and character moments. And, because it’s Outlander, some are like *side eye*.

But I’m for real excited for the first half of this season! The second half of Drums is a dumpster fire (fucking Rogergate...) and it seems like the show is going to stick pretty close to the book, so I’m going to try my hardest to not let preemptive feelings about that nonsense cloud potential enjoyment of the first bit. Because dammit, I love me some domestic!Frasers. So yeah, happy end of hiatus, y’all!

Ok I don’t want to start off on a downer note, but jfc. I get what they were going for with the 2000 B.C. stone circle stuff, but omg no. I don’t care if certain indigenous peoples really did make stone circles and dance around them as the sun rose. I know they’re trying to show the universality of circles and these time portal thingies or whatever, but by making the parallel with the druids at Craigh na Dun, it’s basically being like “Oh hey! These Native American folks from *checks notes* North America are just like the white folks we’ve been hanging with for the last three seasons!” It came off to me like erasing the unique cultures of the diverse peoples of North America in favor of framing them as a generic group of “natives” who do the white people stone dance. And in a season that’s going to deal heavily with multiple tribes, this really isn’t giving me much confidence in how they’re going to handle the rest of the Native American characters.

I’m really hoping someone else will articulate that better than I did. Because I feel like I’m not communicating well what my actual issue with the sequence was.

Petition to make Jamie wear a hat at all times to hide his horrible bangs.

Gavin Hayes has to be being hanged for literally the dumbest crime ever. But he seems pretty chill about it so...

Ok I never liked book!Bonnet as a character (like obvi he’s a terrible person so I was never going to like him as a person, but I was always annoyed that he was still around rather than appreciating him as a villain), but even from that presumptuous “yeah can I snag some rum too, bruh” in the jail, I’m like solidly on board with show!Bonnet.

Jamie tried to save Hayes, but you see Hayes straight up killed a guy. Sure it was in self-defense, but, y’know, ye olde times and he did kill the dude. Sooo...

I want to feel for Lesley, I really do, but I’ve never actually given a shit or been given a good reason to give a shit about Rupert and Angus 3.0 so, sorry for your loss?

Unpopular opinion alert (should be the standard disclaimer on all of my #hottakes) but I really don’t care for the new theme music. Every time they change it, I find myself wanting the OG season one music back with just the images updated.

The bald eagle for the title card just gives me such mixed feelings that have nothing to do with the show. Like here’s a symbol of my country and it *should* invoke good feelings, but *gestures at the current political climate* every national symbol at the moment feels tainted by the growing white nationalist movement that’s being spurred on by the current administration.

Time for some post hanging brewskis. We are here to mourn Gavin Hayes. Who died only so the new villain could be introduced. Let us bow our heads.

Marsali and Fergus win the prize for least subtle “can we be excused to go bang” ever. Rock on, Fersali.

I fucking LOVE that they changed the tavern scene so everyone sings with them like they know what’s going on rather than how in the book it was like them making fun of the red coats as part of Gavin’s song and then Fergus passed around a hat for coins. But by having everyone in the tavern in on what’s going down and earnestly participating, it establishes that 20+ years after the failed Rising, after the Clearances, after everything the Scots went through at the hands of the English, they were not truly defeated. They may have moved across an ocean, but they are still Scottish and they still practice their traditions and dammit I’m having feelings about those resilient motherfuckers.

The scene with Jamie and Ian is very well done and I’m SO glad they included it because they did in fact include his rape last year, but fuck the show for including that rape in the first place. A very similar version of this scene could have been done without the rape, there’s enough trauma involved in being kidnapped, taken across the ocean, held hostage by a batshit lady and knowing that everyone else she kidnapped ended up dead for one 16 year old kid. With Jamie’s rape we got two episodes of trauma and four of recovery. With Mary, Fergus and Ian, we get three child rapes that could have all been avoided (especially Ian’s, but the plot points that come from Mary’s and Fergus’ could have definitely come about without them actually being raped), and they all just got one brief scene to express their trauma and then everything’s hunky dory again. (We know they’re going to include Bree’s rape, also fuck them very much for that, it’s completely unnecessary, and I’m guessing we’ll spend some time with her on her recovery. But that’s a rant for when we get there...)

For real though, Jamie parroting Claire as he comforts Ian is super sweet, but it makes me skeptically nervous for how he’ll react to Bree’s. Since in the book, it’s...not great.

Stephen Bonnet is so delightfully smarmy. Also, how fucking naive is our main squad now all of a sudden that they don’t realize from the jump what a sociopath he is? C’mon, y’all. Like I know Jamie came close to being hanged or whatever, but literally everything about this dude screams that he’s bad news. He is not subtle in his I’m a straight up unapologetic and charismatic good guy criminal. And like, he’s a friend of Gavin? Come the fuck on, squad. HOW DO YOU NOT SEE THAT HE IS FULL OF SHIT. *gets Det. JJ Bittenbinder on the horn*

For real though, dodgy accent aside, I fucking love Ed Speleers in this role. Why the fuck do they have to include the rape. Can’t he just be a bastard without being a rapist? Why must you make me rage, show. I just want to enjoy a decent villain.

Jamie and Claire are doing their best Jean Ralphio and Mona Lisa Saperstein trying to talk their way through this checkpoint.

“You’ve never parted with the ring from the first?” Yeah, I don’t get it either, Bonnet my dude. I don’t get it either. #FuckFrank

Bonnet talking about circles fascinating him makes me think he’d do well in a group of stoners having what they think are philosophical conversations at 3:00 a.m. “But like guys, have you ever like thought about...the rhombus?”

For real though, him being real with Claire about this drowning stuff makes him an infinitely more interesting villain than Black Jack ever was. Black Jack was kind of a crap villain tbh. He was horrible and did horrible things, yes, but like that was it. He was just horrible. Bonnet’s like oh I’ll charm you, be real with you and then fuck you up in the course of one episode and not give any of it a second thought because I have not a single fuck to give about anyone but me. I’m just out here living my best life, sorry not sorry. *puts on shades, drops mic, walks away*

For real though, his “be wary of thieves and outlaws” line might as well have been “it’s me, I’m talking about me.” And these dorks don’t even pick up on it. GUYS YOU ARE KILLING ME, YOU DIDN’T USED TO BE THIS SHITTY AT JUDGING SOMEONE’S CHARACTER.

I’m guessing this is the official christening-their-new-continent-bang because it’s too cold to do River Sex™ in Scotland. But I’m looking forward to getting the rest of Ch. 16 once they get to the Ridge. (We all saw those strawberries in the promo...)

The book lines still feel shoehorned in rather than organic to the show, but not as much as 95% of A. Malcolm felt. So I guess I need to just accept that the writers are going to keep doing this and I just need to stop expecting them to actually do their jobs and adapt for the adaptation...

For real though, I know Spotify doesn’t exist yet but jfc Jamie and Claire’s secksi time playlist literally just has this one song and guys, there’s a whole world of songs for smushing out there. My man Doug Judy would be glad to broaden your horizons.

Claire’s I just had sex smile as she looks out over the valley made me literalol.

Cool that we get woke!Jamie saying that the American Dream is a nightmare for the Native Americans after Claire’s Americana 101 speech, but this is a woman who lived in wicked racist 1960s Boston. She knows that things aren’t nice and rosy in America in the 18th *or* 20th centuries. Her speech makes me hate S3 a little more for focusing on Frank’s manpain instead of Claire and her and Joe’s time in the hospital, where the show could have explored gender and race in the 20th century to set up a contrast for how things will be this season in the 18th. Claire went through enough shit last time she was in the past, and so far this time, to know that the past isn’t idyllic. She knows enough about US history and 20th century America to know this mythical origin story she’s spouting is nothing but a fairy tale. I get why she might cling to that ideal, this is the first time in her life she might get to settle down and build a home with the person she actually wants to build a home with, but her whitewashing history like this strikes me as a way too naive for her.

The green screen as they stare out at that very much not actually there valley is killinggg me.

Ok for real though, this cut from them in the Uncanny Valley to the room getting ready for dinner is the most jarring of the episode. Like, I’ve come to terms with the fact that this is just a series of independent scenes rather than an actual, cohesive whole, but jfc. Who actually is Lillington, how do you know him? Nope? No info? Not important? Just need to get it out there that you have jewels so the last scene in the episode can happen so the ring can be taken so the rape can occur? Cool. Cool cool cool.

Ok so show!Claire makes me sad with being insecure/self-depreciating about her appearance. Like with saying brown is a dull color when Jamie calls her mo nighean donn the first time and when she asks Joe if she’s sexually attractive and when she dyes her hair before going back through the stones and now with the mutton dressed as lamb thing. (Claire, girl, how are you that up on Colonial fashion that you know what’s “age appropriate” already? Wouldn’t think there was much fashion gossip along the road from Georgia to North Carolina, but whatevs.) I know three of these four things are straight from the book, but in the show it hits me differently. Book!Claire is kind of a bitch when it comes to looks. Her parting words in her letter to Bree were “try not to get fat.” She like judged the crap out of that rando lady in Edinburgh before she went to the print shop just to make sure she didn’t look too old. So when she has these aforementioned moments, they land differently. Now I’m not saying I want show!Claire to be like book!Claire, quite the opposite. I’m glad they cut that other stuff. But now whenever show!Claire has a moment of self-consciousness, all I want to do is be like woman, you are a fucking smokeshow. Fuck the patriarchy for making you feel like you aren’t stunning exactly as you are. #LadyBonerForBeauchamp

Oh Governor Exposition. How nice of you to join our merry band of randos for dinner!

Man, I’d love to be so rich that I can pull a Baron and casually just happen to have 100 pounds on hand to buy a giant ruby at a random dinner party.

John Grey, who was shunted from shit post to shit post, totes is special enough to get Scotland’s Valjean to England’s Javert cleared. I mean, obvi.

Oh hey, Jamie remembers he has a daughter! Showed more emotion in that scene about how America would become her country than in the scene with the photos. Fuck Sam et al. for the disaster of a performance choice in ep. 306, don’t @ me.

OH HAI ROLLO I LOVE YOU YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD DOGGO I WANT TO SNUGGLE YOU WHO’S A GOOD BOY YOU ARE

“I dinna ken. But she’ll be saying it in Scotland, won’t she?” I do love Young Ian a lot. I know that’s in the book. But dammit I love John Bell in this part a crapton.

Casually lol’ing that they crossed the ocean because Ian was taken and now that they have him, they’re just going to send him alone off to sea again.

The first time I saw the episode, when Lesley gave his “my place is at your side” speech I was like crap, we’re going to be stuck with this guy aren’t we. BUT WE’RE NOT! (I am a terrible person.)

Fergus and Marsali are totes going to be the new Jenny and Ian, aren’t they? The characters who just show up once or twice a season when the core squad needs something and that’s it? Because they get tossed aside in the books like that. That makes me super sad (and I hope I’m wrong) because of how they changed show!Fergus and show!Claire’s relationship from the book that we won’t get to see more of them together. Le sigh. I hope they at least let Bree have a scene where she meets Fergus and learns she has a brother. Especially if she’s not going to go to Lallybroch to meet the Murray squad because Jenny isn’t in this season. Part of what I loved about the Lallybroch part in the book was Bree realizing that she wasn’t just gaining a father but a whole extended family. I hope they kind of transfer that over to her meeting Fergus and Young Ian in the place of [insert Murray kids who let’s be honest we really don’t care about here].

Hey remember that time Jamie was wicked opposed to Fergus and Marsali getting married for literally no reason? That was fun. But yay for Germain!

Holy motherfucking green screen, Batman. Please can we get to the woods soon? Or some other location where it’s not this fucking jarring?

Claire America-is-the-land-of-milk-and-honey Fraser suddenly is overly-on-the-nose indignant about slavery. Cool. Cool cool cool. Again, you know what would have been cool? Seeing her with her best and only friend in the 1960s more last season because he was a Black man. If they had let Joe be a fully formed character, navigating racist af Boston as a doctor, rather than just being Claire’s sounding board and martini maker, we could have seen how Claire being exposed to his reality shaped her views on race in America. But nope, that would have taken air time away from Frank’s manpain. (Seriously, my recent re-watch only highlighted just how much they screwed over Claire’s character last season.)

I’ve always loved that Jamie gives Claire the medical box. It’s just such a simple way to demonstrate that he *gets* Claire. (*side-eyes a certain other husband who patently did not*)

Jamie’s bangs are an affront to anyone with hair. Someone please give that man his hat back!

“This ring is all I need.” Aaand that’s when we all knew that Jamie’s ring would be the one stolen.

“Not for a single day.” Uh, *casually points at the episode in season three when she retcons her entire life in Boston to be not as bad as it was because Jamie’s been such an asshat to her*.

Ok. Holy shit this final scene. I love everything about this final scene. Except the song. This show is not subtle. It’s never been subtle. But holy shit, playing the iconic Ray Charles version of America the Beautiful at the end of an episode called America the Beautiful to be like welcome to ‘Murrica, fuckos, is like even less subtle than they usually go. I 1000% LOVE the choice to cut the audio from the end of the fight scene and just have the visuals, it just would have worked much better if they’d scored with with a regular instrumental piece.

Gah, Bonnet is such a smarmy motherfucker! The nose wipe before he coldcocks Jamie is just perf.

Claire’s face in this entire scene, holy fucking shit. *throws all the awards at Balfe*

And then Lesley dies and I’m a terrible person because I’m happy we don’t need to be stuck with him all season. But holy shit Bonnet when he pauses right before he cuts his throat and then kills him, I love show!Bonnet so much more than I ever gave a shit about book!Bonnet.

And honestly, Claire’s face when he’s killed right in front of her. *throws more awards at Balfe*

GUYS I FEEL MORE EMOTION ABOUT CLAIRE TAKING OFF JAMIE’S RING THAN I DID ABOUT CLAIRE LEAVING BREE BEHIND TO GO BACK THROUGH THE STONES HOW IS BALFE SO GOOD AT MAKING ME FEEL FEELINGS

I’m so fucking glad they changed which ring gets taken. There was an interview where they were like “oh we did it because it has to be visually distinct so Bree can get raped!” and I’m like a) fuck you for including that and b) right decision, wrong reason. This is the right reason for the change.

But even as I say that they made the right call in which ring to have stolen, it’s still a fact that they fucking chose to have one stolen at all. The writers and production team decided that Brianna needed to be raped so a ring must be stolen. Because Diana never wrote a character she didn’t want raped and the Outlander producers never read a rape scene they didn’t want to include. Fuck them all very much for that.

Fuck Them Very Much for That, the title of my memoir.

Oh god her face right at the end when she sees that it’s fucking Fred’s ring she’s left with and not Jamie’s fucking murders me.

*THROWS AN ENTIRE TROPHY STORE AT BALFE*

[dyke3vader]

Jared’s Spotify Playlist

Okay... I hate to be that one person, but I’ve been listening to Jared’s spotify playlist nonstop for a little while and... I know we know this already, but all these songs are just... So... Kleinsen?? Not just kleinsen, but like... accurate to Jared’s experience with Evan? Lemmie elaborate. I’m highlighting three songs, cause I’m lazy in class (I’m ignoring Friday, cause that’s just a bop)

Song 1: Dirty Work by Steely Dan

The lyrics... Literally describe the whole ‘Jared writes the emails for Evan and doesn’t want to, but he does it cause he loves him’ deal. Just look at the lyrics;

Times are hard You're afraid to pay the fee So you find yourself somebody Who can do the job for free

[...]

[Chorus:] I'm a fool to do your dirty work Oh yeah I don't wanna do your dirty work No more I'm a fool to do your dirty work Oh yeah

Like, come on that is literally a song about Jared doing this shit for Evan. ‘Times are hard, you’re afraid to pay the fee’ Is Evan’s fear of telling the truth because he dug himself a huge hole. The chorus?? It’s Jared being a big softie for Evan.

Song 2: Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus

I actually really love this song, and loved it before this. I never really pinned it as a Kleinsen song until now. It just hit me when I heard the first verse and chorus yesterday.

Her name is Noelle I have a dream about her She rings my bell I got gym class in half an hour Oh, how she rocks In Keds and tube socks But she doesn't know who I am And she doesn't give a damn about me 'Cause I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby Yeah, I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby Listen to Iron Maiden maybe with me

Now. Evan does not wear keds or tube socks(I don’t think), but the way he pines after Noelle is kinda reminiscent of a certain Jared pining on Evan, especially about the line ‘and she doesn’t give a damn about me’. Cause he probably thinks Evan only hangs out with him cause of the emails(although that’s party his fault.) The chorus may also allude to Jared’s secret insecurities about being a  bad person. Later in the song there are lines that really make me feel things;

Oh, yeah, dirtbag, no, she doesn't know what she's missin' Oh, yeah, dirtbag, no, she doesn't know what she's missin'

It’s almost as if he knows that he’s horrible, but like always, he’s covering up all his insecurities with humour. ‘Haha, she doesn’t know what she’s missing out on(but I know that she probably does know what she’s missing, she just wants to miss it, I bet)’ If you catch my drift.

Song 3: Rich Girl by Hall & Oates

NOW THIS IS MY FAVORITE TO COMPARE TO KLEINSEN

There’s just... So much to analyze! Let’s get started.

Don't you know, don't you know That it's wrong to take what is given you So far gone, on your own You can get along if you try to be strong But you'll never be strong 'cause You're a rich girl, and you've gone too far 'Cause you know it don't matter anyway You can rely on the old man's money You can rely on the old man's money It's a bitch girl and it's gone too far 'Cause you know it don't matter anyway Say money but it won't get you too far Get you too far

This is basically Good for you rewritten. Evan took so much from the Murphys, but they gave it. The premise is that the Murphys gave Evan more than they ever gave Conner, and Evan could’ve done the good thing and declined, live the life he was supposed to. But he didn’t. He just injected himself into their lives because that’s what he wanted. He wanted things to be better. He wanted things to be easier. It wasn’t his fault that the Murphys were giving him everything he ever wanted, right? 

Jared definitely thought different. ‘You can get along if you try to be strong, but you’ll never be strong because, you’re a rich girl, and you’ve gone too far.’ This... Is where the deep stuff comes into play. The first part of that lyric about being strong is like Jared saying ‘This whole problem could be fixed-it wouldn’t have even happened if you just tried harder to be strong and honest.’ It’s kinda jabbing at Evan’s anxiety but Jared usually pokes fun at inappropriate stuff to hide that he’s hurt so :’)

High and dry, out of the rain It's so easy to hurt others when you can't feel pain And don't you know that a love can't grow 'Cause there's too much to give, 'cause you'd rather live For the thrill of it all, oh

These relate to the fact that Evan doesn’t have any blame pinned on him right now. ‘High and dry and out of the rain.’ He had no repercussions headed towards him right at that point. ‘It’s easy to hurt others when you can’t feel pain.’ Ahem. Did you mean; ‘And you say what you need to say, and you play who you need to play, and somebody’s in your way, crush them and leave them behind.’  I’m just saying... That’s exactly what Jared was thinking during Good for you. Alana and Heidi were less... blunt? They were obviously saying things that seemed brash, but Jared just had literal venom in his voice. Cause that’s what he does. He fakes anger to his pain. Yay.

'Cause you know it don't matter anyway Say money but it won't get you too far Say money but it won't get you too far Say money but it won't get you too far Get you too far

It’s just saying... how all of the lies, the bonding with the family that isn’t yours... It won’t get Evan far because no matter what happens, someone is going to mess up and Evan’d going to get left behind. Who’s going to be left? No one. Because he left them behind. I feel like Jared would be singing this... Or listening to this... Rage tears spilling over and muscles tense... It’s just... :’)

idk if Will Roland thought about the pain these songs would bring me, or if he even thought this in depth about it, but i did and maybe that was a mistake. wHOOPS. 

Recap; 

I love Kleinsen

This playlist has a ton of Kleinsen proof

I’m sad now 

[actutrends]

#159: Are You A Maximizer Or A Satisficer?

| By John Petersik | December 16, 2019 |

Have you ever thought about your approach to making decisions? It turns out that humans tend to have two distinct styles (and they even have fancy psychological terms to go along with them). The funny revelation is that Sherry & I each exemplify a different one. So this week we’re sharing what we’ve learned about each type of decision maker, and how it can impact everything from how we choose items for our home to how we booked our first international family vacation. We’re also outlining five ways you can refresh a room without spending ANY money whatsoever. As in zero dollars (Sherry would add a “holla!” right here). Plus, the new kid-friendly kitchen activity that we’re loving, the exciting-ish conclusion to our Color of the Year predictions, and how far people will go for bread.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

If you want a great primer on Maximizers vs. Satisficers, Gretchen Rubin has a blog post all about them and this article from Psychologist World goes into the topic with even more depth.

Plus, you can hear the original segment where my maximizing tendencies came to light in Episode #156 when we were talking about how we were reducing the stress of our master bathroom renovation.

image source

And if you have any “must do” suggestions for Costa Rica (specifically the region around Manuel Antonio National Park, please let us know!). We’re headed there for our first international family trip after Christmas and we’re psyched for some adventures!

Updates

Here’s Pantone’s official announcement about their Color of the Year 2020: Classic Blue where you can read more their choice.

And if you want to hear all of our original Color of the Year predictions, hit up Episode #147. And in Episode #149 and Episode #151 Sherry got to bask in the glory of being spot on with her predictions.

image source

You can also hear our full discussion about holiday traditions from around the world in last week’s show, Episode #158.

Pictured above is a photo from Philadelphia’s Mummers Parade that we heard about after the original episode aired. I have to say it’s much more extravagant than we pictured! More info here.

And here is some info that debunks the myth of the German pickle ornament and below is a video that makes me feel like I’ll never say Newfoundland correctly 🙂

Zero Budget Ways To Update Your Spaces

As promised, here’s a recap of the five ways that you can refresh or tweak your rooms without spending a single dime (because sometimes you have an itch to change things up, but it doesn’t mean your bank account has to feel it).

1. Take things out

We’ve talked a lot about simplifying and minimizing the past couple of years, and it still amazes us how paring things down can bring renewed focus and appreciation to the things still left. Plus, the extra breathing space in a room will help it feel different even though you didn’t actually bring anything new in.

2. Rearrange or reorganize existing furniture or items within a room

Whether it’s trying a new arrangement or simply switching art, pillows, or plants around within the room – a little shuffling can give it a feeling of newness and might just unlock a better or more functional layout along the way.

We talked about how we rearranged our beach house backyard furniture, which you can read more about it in this post, but below you can see the new layout complete with the conversation area that didn’t exist before. And again, we didn’t buy anything additional – just redistributed what we already had. Only took about an hour of trying a few things and seeing what we liked best.

We also talked about doing this in our master bedroom, where we recently moved two existing dressers to act as our nightstands. That easy change not only proved to be more functional for us, the layout also feels a lot more balanced in person because the mirror above the dresser on the right mimics the window on the other side of that wall.

3. Shop your house

Instead of buying something new, see if you can steal something that you already own from another room. It could be as big as a rug (Sherry often moves rugs around when she stages homes for sale) or as small as an artwork or lamp swap. That painting above our bed used to hang over my desk in the office, but last year we moved it upstairs to mix things up. We like it so much better up there and the spare mirror we hung in the office offers me a better view out the windows from my desk (even if it’s just a reflection).

4. Use your leftover supplies or materials

Dip into your craft closet or paint cabinet and see if there’s a project you can drum up using the fabric, ribbon, spray paint, wood, etc. that you already own. We love little projects like painting the back of a bookcase, a small piece of furniture, or even a pillow (yes, a pillow)

Sherry also mentioned how people are using Ardex feather finish to give old lamp bases a concrete look. We have yet to try that ourselves, but we did use it to give our old laminate counters an update and to make a new top for a coffee table.

5. Add greenery

Last but not least, take some clippers to your yard and bring back a branch, a bloom, or any other greenery that you can pop into a vessel that you already have on hand (pitchers work, as do old vases – heck, even a drinking glass!). You may be surprised by how much life and “newness” it adds to a room without spending a single buck.

Also, if you missed our original discussion that spawned this topic, you can check our conversation with personal finance expert Tanja Hester in Episode #157 (which is where she mentioned that she decided not to spend any money on her home anymore, so that she could achieve a big financial goal).

We’re Digging

There’s the toy & game closet that we have in our foyer, although it’s an older picture from before we moved all of the games to the top shelf to keep the pieces from getting “repurposed” for other activities (or, you know, lost). No more Scrooge McDucking with the Monopoly Money before school.

And as Sherry promised in the episode, here are some of our favorite family games these days (these are all games that we can play with our kids aged 5 & 9).

Sequence

Ticket To Ride

Low Down

Uno Flip

Exploding Kittens

Bears Vs. Babies

Tenzi

Set

Those are some of the pancakes we made using the Foodstirs pancake art kit (I made the chihuahua, and our daughter made that happy little pancake with hair on the right). We’ve asked for a couple more of their kids’ baking kits for Christmas presents for the kids from the grandparents, so that should be fun.

If you don’t want a kit, you can buy Foodstirs baking mixes a la cart too (everything’s organic and non-GMO) so we may use those to restock our pancake mix to make more beauties like the ones you see above.

If you’re looking for something that we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we’ve recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to SnapPower for sponsoring this episode. Use the code YHL15 to get 15% off your entire order of easy-to-install nightlights, guidelights, and more at SnapPower.com.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

More posts from Young House Love

The post #159: Are You A Maximizer Or A Satisficer? appeared first on Actu Trends.

[maddielivesinbooks]

Hey y’all. Just wanted to say that this is formatted a little differently than all my other blogs, mainly because I didn’t have time to write this as the weekend went. There might be less content, but I do have lots of pictures, and I did some fun things that I can’t wait to write about. I hope you like this recap-style blog, instead of my usual play by play.

Friday

I wake up at 5:30, in my own bed, with my cat. I decided to come home this weekend, because I was having a bad week, mentally and physically. Being home is nice, except for the part where I agreed to wake up early and go to school with my mom, a teacher. 

When we get to school, I read a little. I’m still working on The Lady Rogue by Jenn Bennett. I’m still enjoying it, but it’s a little slow, and I feel like some plot points are a little too convenient. Also, it’s not that spooky, except for a few great witch moments.  I really want to read something spooky. Luckily, I also brought His Hideous Heart edited by Dahlia Adler, and House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig home with me. Most exciting for me is my hold on Riley Sagar’s Lock Every Door on audiobook finally being available. It’s about a woman who ends up apartment sitting at the swankiest, creepiest apartment complex in all of Manhattan. Things go awry when a girl goes missing and the main character begins digging up things about the building’s past. I love Riley Sagar, and I can not wait to start this. I am desperate for a mystery.

After a full day of hanging with some very funny and cool and excitable middle schoolers, my mom’s friends (whom I love very much) and I go shopping in this cute little town not so far from the school. We eat delicious food, and then walk towards the shops. That’s when I see it. In the distance, lit up by the setting sun, a beacon of hope. The huge sign for a used book store.

I duck in there, where the cashier tells me they close at 6. It’s 5:30, and I don’t waste any time. I head to the bargain basement, where I find two books, for around four dollars each. We love a bargain. The first one is Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter, which I lost my mind over when I first read it March. I blogged that experience, so you can read about it here. The other one I grab is Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, a book my grandma recently read, making me want to finally pick it up. I loved Ng’s previous book Everything I Never Told You and I am very happy to finally add this to my collection. 

We end the night after dinner, and I pretty much conk out when I get home. I did manage to start Lock Every Door, and I love it already. I also got through a huge chunk of The Lady Rogue, and I only have about 60 pages left. 

Saturday 

I pretty start listening to Lock Every Door the minute I wake up. I listen to it as I get ready to go out, and as I make my breakfast. I listen to it when I go to my grandma’s to help rake leaves. Riley Sagar is so good at drawing the reader in with tone and setting. This book has all this gargoyle imagery that really spooks me. I’ve realized I prefer reading mystery/thrillers on audiobook because it’s much harder to skip the last page and spoil myself. 

After doing homework, I attempt to start His Hideous Heart. My plan is to read the original Poe tales first, and read the retellings after. Problem is, I fall asleep reading the first Poe story. Oops. I decide to just read the retellings, because October is almost over, and I have to much too read to worry about stories I’m not that interested in. 

I go out to dinner with my family, which is very nice. After that we go to Lowes, where my parents look for paint, and I browse their Christmas display while listening to Lock Every Door. I am a big Christmas lover, and unlike most people, I was excited to see all the trees and lights. Here are some pics, for those of you who are like me. We also go get some groceries, including the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies, because I am dying to bake. 

When we get home, we light the fake fire, and I make my parents watch the Halloween classic, Hocus Pocus. Its very nice and cozy.

Sunday

I don’t have many plans for today, which means more time to read. What I do have to do is homework. Plus I want to visit my grandma and make myself some cookies. Luckily, I can listen to Lock Every Door as I do most of this. Let me tell you, this book fucking rules. I am so deep into it and I have no idea what is happening. That’s a sign of a good mystery. And I don’t trust any character, another sign of a great mystery.

Before I do anything, I make it my mission to finish at least one story from His Hideous Heart. I accomplish this, because the story was very short. It was She Rode a Horse of Fire by Kendare Blake, inspired by Poe’s story titled “Metzengerstein”. It was very okay. I thought it was super spooky, and I was very intrigued, but it didn’t make a huge impact or scare me too badly. 

After visiting my grandma and making the biggest, most chocolatey mug of coffee you’ve ever seen, I read a chunk of this book, Victorian Women. It’s sort of a huge bummer. Did you know that some men would be like yeah I don’t have kids, I only have a daughter. I even read about a dude who said his wife miscarried when she had a girl. After giving up on that, I make my cookies and listen to more of Lock Every Door. I want to yell about this book. There is just so much fucked uppery happening.

(Here’s a random pic I took)

After dinner, I curl up and finally finish The Lady Rogue. My feelings are conflicted. I really, really like Jenn Bennett. But this book was really, really boring at points. I felt like it got really close to being really creepy and mysterious, but it always pushed away from that and brought us back to reality. Despite that, it was really fun, and I really like the protagonist, Theodora. I’m settling on 3.5/5 stars for now. 

Confession time: You know had I said I’m glad I’m listening to Lock Every Door on audiobook because it makes it easier to not read ahead and spoil it? Well when there was about an hour and a half left in the book, I looked up spoilers. I regret deeply, but am also deeply satisfied because I did not see that shit coming. I keep listening to it, trying to figure how this book is going to get from where we are now, to the ending I read about. The stupid thing is, I don’t even finish it before going to bed. I am a loser and a wimp, but I know myself, and I know I will not be able to sleep if I read right before bed.

So this is where this post ends. I hope you enjoyed it, even if the format is a little wonky. For this week’s spooky rec, I thought I’d just link a playlist of the music I’m loving the most this October. Click this Spotify link and enjoy. Thanks for reading! 

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Boo! Bitch Blogs #3 Hey y’all. Just wanted to say that this is formatted a little differently than all my other blogs, mainly because I didn’t have time to write this as the weekend went.

[itslikethatfrenchthing]

030: WHAT ARE YOU KNOWN FOR? BUSINESS CONFIDENCE + THE SECRET TO BEING KNOWN FOR SOMETHING SPECIFIC

  iTunes | Stitcher | Soundcloud | Overcast | Spotify | TuneIn | Castbox

Today’s talking point:

How can I effectively market on Instagram? How do I get followers who are engaged and willing to purchase from me?

To answer this we first have to cover how to get clarity around what specifically you are known for in your business. If I were to ask two people in your audience: “what does she do?”, would a new follower have a different answer than somebody who has been following you for years? 

Word of mouth marketing is so important, and it is so valuable if your audience can definitively say - she does this. 

P.S. Click here to grab your FREE step-by-step Boss Traffic Flow Checklist!

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Our most loyal followers will also be our biggest referrals - you want to make it easy for them to talk about you. In order to be seen as an expert, you have to make it clear what you do. The success of your business hinges on your clarity around this question and your ability to communicate that clearly to your ideal customer. 

I'm going to give you some clear next steps to figure this out if you've not nailed it down yet, and some ways to fine tune and develop what you've already declared as the thing you're known for. So there's something for everyone here. 

#1 | The Customer Journey

Where do people start with you? When you think about your ideal customer, where are they at the beginning of the journey with you? Hone in on the beginning part of what you're known for and where you want to take people. 

It’s important to know where your customer is, so you can create leads and target content to fit their needs (and later they will dive deeper into your content where you are specific about what you teach).

Determine what your ideal customer needs when they start their journey with you

Create content like blogs, freebies or podcasts to draw them in

Start the conversation 

Dive deeper (this is where we go into advanced strategies)

For example, I don't typically start the conversation with really advanced SEO strategies or funnels. My Instagram Stories typically start around how to get consistent with your content, getting clarity on what you're going to create content on and how to speak to your ideal customer. 

Get clear on where your audience is starting with you. Create content, create a freebie around that. And when you come in contact with someone brand new to your world, that's where you start them off. 

#2 | Talk ALL The Time

Talk about what you're known for all the time. This is something I've gotten really good at over the last 12 months, but I really didn't know how to do this in the very beginning. Once you get comfortable and confident with what you're known for, I want you to talk about it a lot, weave in those topics into everything that you do.

Be diligent about taking the opportunity to talk about what you're known for. Avoid sending a mixed message and only talk about your area of expertise.

Make sure that the podcasts you talk on share a similar audience

Don’t talk about ALL the questions you get (only what you’re an expert at)

Guide the conversation to what you are known for

You'll do a better job and you'll find people who want to invest in you or at least people who want to join your community and start their journey with you at the very beginning. 

#3 | Stick With It

Now my multi-passionate business owners, listen up. If you want a little tough love from someone you trust, just know that if you are constantly dabbling in a bunch of things, you will never be known for something specific. 

You can be multi-passionate, but make sure you focus on what you are known for. If you dabble in a multitude of different things, when you ask someone what you’re known for, their response would be unsure, which doesn’t serve anybody.

So, you can be passionate about a lot of things, but when it comes to your business, narrow it down. It doesn't need to put you in a box. It will actually allow you to transform your life on a whole different level if they know why they're coming to you in the first place. 

#4 | Don’t Be Afraid To Ask

Don't be afraid to ask people to share with you what they think you're all about. Why not go to two or three of your customers or two or three of your raving fans and say, will you do me a little favour: Will you tell me in two or three sentences what I'm best known for? 

It's going to be very eye opening for you, and you'll probably get a mix of the mindset, inspiration, motivation as well as products and strategies. But if all three people come back to you and there's no specific similarity in there, if there's no specific method or framework or topic, then you've got some work to do. 

#5 | Make a Framework

Consider putting together a framework and method, the basics or a blueprint or something that you can start the conversation with and you can go back to it. It's like the foundation. 

You're not going to think of this overnight. You may need to play with a few different ideas and have three or four different frameworks or models or ideas out there. Focus on the one that your audience really gravitates towards, that's it, grab it and then make it better and refine it. I think this really, really helps. 

RECAP

A quick run through:

Where do people start with you? Get clarity.

Talk about what you do a lot in a lot of different ways. Don't be shy about it. 

Stick with it. Remember, you don't always have to be known for this one thing it might change over time. But think about where you are at right now with your expertise then stick with it and expand it.. 

Don't be afraid to ask people what they think you're known for. This could be really eye opening. 

Think about this idea of a framework, blueprint, method. What might that look like for people just coming into your world? 

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Tool Recommendation of the Day: Anchor

Want access to a library full of online marketing resources plus weekly bitesized breakthroughs to help you boss your online presence? Find it here.

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[lafemmeneisha]

The artists I can’t wait to hear from in 2018...

I know that consistency hasn’t been my thing recently... It’s been about two weeks since I’ve made a new blog post and it’s been about a week since the Grammy’s but, do you guys really want another Grammy’s recap? Do you want to hear about how hilarious it was to watch Tony Bennett stay in frame while Kendrick Lamar and Rihanna tried to maneuver around him in order to win their award? Or when little Beyonce (Blue Ivy) told big Beyonce (Beyonce) and bigger Beyonce (Jay-Z) to stop clapping after Camila Cabello’s speech? Or how Cardi B and Bruno Mars had the best performance of the night while Bruno deserved all of the awards that he got? 

Right, you don’t want or need that! So, in honor of being so late with my Grammy’s info, how about we talk about my favorite artists from 2017 that I can’t wait to see in 2018? Let’s Go!

Joe Hertz:

http://pigeonsandplanes.com/music/2017/03/joe-hertz-simple

Let’s talk about my favorite UK producer, at the moment, Joe Hertz! The first song I ever heard from this amazing artist was called Stay Lost off of his Chapter One EP and I immediately fell in love. Now, I will say that I was very late because this EP came out in 2016 but, since then, he’s released 2 more EP’s and several singles. With over 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, I don’t thik that we can call him a “budding artist” anymore. I can’t wait to see what Joe brings me in 2018!

Demi Lovato:

Let’s be real, Sorry Not Sorry is a bonafide jam! Demi’s latest album, Tell Me You Love Me. This album made it to the top of the charts in 12 countries and with singles like Sorry Not Sorry and Tell Me You Love Me (with the gorgeous Jesse Williams as the love interest in the video), I’m super excited about the fire that she could bring in 2018. Also, Demi Lovato has some of the best vocals in the game! See below: 

Goldlink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Qtv9Ut3Zw

My fellow DMV came out of the gate running with his first album! He even got nominated for a Grammy with his song Crew! He reminds me of everything that I love about my area while bringing continued innovation to rap. If his 2017 album, At What Cost, is one of your top albums from last year, then you’re poorly mistaken. The man sings, he raps, he can dress and he’s very intelligent. I’m very excited to see what he has in store for his fans this year. 

Kaytranada:

http://www.factmag.com/2016/05/11/kaytranada-99-9-interview/

According to Spotify, Kaytranada was my most played artist of 2017! This Canadian producer has produced hit after hit after hit while continuously pushing his own limits while working with some of the hottest artists. His latest album, 99.9% literally has a song for every mood! His single Got It Good featuring Craig David is the song that I put my makeup on too when I’m getting ready to go to a party. You’re The One featuring Syd reminds me to be my prettiest self on the days when I’m just not about it. I listen to Glowed Up featuring Anderson .Paak when I want a poppin beat and some real rap. Like I said, Every. Single. Mood. Kaytranada’s last album came out in 2016 so, I would dare to say that we’re past due for some new fire tunes... I’ll be waiting. But, until then, I have this to keep me warm:

--

The F.E.M. Blog

[ladystylestores]

The TechCrunch List reveals investors who founders love to work with – TechCrunch

Editor’s note: Get this free weekly recap of TechCrunch news that any startup can use by email every Saturday morning (7am PT). Subscribe here.

We’re pleased to kick off this week’s newsletter by sharing an important new project: The TechCrunch List. It’s a database of investors who have shown a commitment to first checks and leading rounds from seed through growth, based on founder recommendations we’ve received as well as learnings from our own research.

Our goal is to quickly help founders talk to the investors who are serious about writing them checks when they need it most. You can filter by industry vertical, round size and location to find the best people for you. Today you’ll see 391 investors based on more than 1,200 recommendations across 23 main verticals. Since launch on Tuesday, we’ve received another 600 recommendations and counting fast, so we’ll be providing another big update next week.

My colleague Danny Crichton, who leads the project, has written up an FAQ for people who want to know more about the methodology, or how they might submit a recommendation. For Extra Crunch subscribers, he also put together a list of the 11 investors who have had the most positive recommendations, and an explainer about why certain investors earn great ‘founder NPS’ scores.

Now stop reading this for a minute and check it out.

Image Credits: Dani Padgett / StrictlyVC

Brad Feld on how to influence your odds of success

Connie Loizos caught up with long-time VC Brad Feld of Foundry Group, who has a new book out about startup ecosystems. Some of it is theoretical, as you can read about in the full interview, but Feld connects his points to more tactical advice. Here’s a great example:

TC: Your new book talks about complex systems. How do founders balance the need to manage these complex systems with the fact that controlling these complex systems is sometimes out of their hands?

BF: The first step is getting rid of the notion that you can control the systems, and instead focus on what you can influence [because] in the context of what you can influence, that starts to become a place to focus where you put your energy.

An example of this would be in the current moment. If you have existing investors, and if you have not asked your existing investors directly how much money they have reserved for you for future financings and what you need to do to get that money from them, you’re not focusing on what you can influence.

The worst thing your investor can do is say, ‘I’m not going to tell you that.’ But if your investor is really on your side and wants to see you be successful, it’s likely your investor will say, ‘All right, well, you know . . .’ There might be some wishy-washy [talk] and [dollar] ranges and non-committal language, but you’ll at least have a frame of reference whether that’s zero dollars, a little bit of money, or a lot of money. And you can start to understand, ‘Well, what do we need to do given this moment?’

Edtech goes back to school

Natasha Mascarenhas surveyed eight leading edtech investors for Extra Crunch about the latest changes happening in the space, especially as its importance has grown during the pandemic. “Investors differed on which subcategories benefitted the most,” she writes, “but it’s clear that the pandemic didn’t lift up the entirety of the edtech space. One investor noted that the pandemic made them even less interested in ISAs, while other venture capitalists noted how valuable the financing instrument is now, more than ever before.” She also took a look at a flurry of acquisitions happening globally in the vertical.

(Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

A pledge to support international students

The Trump administration backed down from forcing international students to leave the country if their courses went online-only this week, shortly after being sued by some leading universities and 17 state attorneys general. Following the push against most worker visas and other anti-immigration measures, everyone affected expects more problems. To that end, resident TechCrunch immigration legal expert Sophie Alcorn cofounded a new effort to support international students. Here’s more detail:

We proudly announce the Community for Global Innovation (CFGI), a movement centralizing how companies and individuals around the world can stand in solidarity with international students and the belief that everybody deserves a chance to succeed. CFGI is a constellation of top startups, VCs, professionals, nonprofits, international students and grads. We pledge to support international students, create awareness and effect change.

Through the platform, companies take the CFGI Pledge to support international students: ‘If you’re international, no problem. In our team, everybody has a chance.’ We also teamed up with Welcoming America, a leading U.S. nonprofit, accepting donations to make the U.S. more inclusive toward immigrants and all residents. We’re actively seeking the support of volunteers, corporate donors and community members such as international startup founders who know it’s time to share their stories.

An immersive chat future

Podcasting, social audio and virtual reality are combining into a potentially new trend, Lucas Matney writes for Extra Crunch this week. “As audio-centric platforms garner investor interest, virtual reality founders of old are trying to push 3D audio as the next evolution, presenting the tech in a way that looks entirely different from today’s voice chat platforms. Though some of these efforts have been in the works for a while, the fledgling platforms are a lot more interesting, as social efforts like Clubhouse take flight and investors continue to eat up audio startups.” Top early examples so far include High Fidelity and Teooh. 

Around TechCrunch

Ready, set, network! CrunchMatch is now open for Early Stage 2020

Everything you could possibly want to learn about fundraising will be covered at TC Early Stage

Marketing, PR and brand building, oh my! TechCrunch Early Stage goes down July 21 and 22

Here’s your chance to meet with Sequoia’s partners at TC Early Stage

Sign up for next week’s Pitchers & Pitches competition on 7/23

TechCrunch talks virtual events and event technology

Learn how to build a company that puts profits and users first, and VCs last, at Disrupt 2020

Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd is coming to Disrupt 2020

Emily Heyward will teach you how to make your brand awesome at TC Early Stage

Across the week

TechCrunch

US beat China on App Store downloads for first time since 2014, due to coronavirus impact

China Roundup: Tech giants take stance on Beijing’s data control in Hong Kong

Legal clouds gather over US cloud services, after CJEU ruling

India smartphone shipments slashed in half in Q2 2020

Equity Monday: India’s digital economy attracts ample attention, three funding rounds and earnings season

Extra Crunch

Extension rounds help some startups play offense during COVID-19

How Thor Fridriksson’s ‘Trivia Royale’ earned 2.5M downloads in 3 weeks

Investors are browsing for Chromium startups

As companies accelerate their digital transitions, employees detail a changed workplace

An unsurprising wave of video-focused startups is trying to make video calls better

#EquityPod

From Alex Wilhelm:

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This week was full of news of all sorts, but as we recorded, both Danny and Natasha “not Tash” Mascarenhas were still locked out of their Twitter accounts after a proletariat revolution on the social platform saw the ruling Blue Checkmark Class forced into silence. That’s not really what happened, but it sounds better than what actually went down at Big Social.

Anyway, Twitter accounts or not, the three of us gathered to parse through a wave of news:

The new TechCrunch List that Danny spent a very long time compiling has arrived! It’s live! You can find it here. It is good.

And, if you want to know which VCs were even more fêted by founders, head here. (If you are irked that you did not make either list, please email Danny, not the show!)

Moving on, Google is putting billions into Reliance Jio after every other company in the world did the same. Google is buying a bit less of the Indian telecom than the search giant, but between the two of them it’s been more than $10 billion in dealmaking. Perhaps Reliance Jio is done raising money? At last?

Udemy is hunting up more capital at a higher valuation, reports say, providing Natasha with the perfect moment to let us know what is going with edtech.

Turning to funding rounds, I was hyped about the Macro round that TechCrunch covered this week, Danny wanted to chat about The Browser Company’s similarly sized $5 million round and Natasha talked us through LiteBoxer’s combined $6 million in new capital.

Closing, we talked about IPOs for a hot second. The IPO window is open, and now that nCino and GoHealth have gone public, we want to know who is next.

It was a lovely time and there is a bit of show news. Namely that Equity is coming back to YouTube either this week or the next. So if you want to see us talk, soon you will be able to! Again!

Oh, and follow the show on Twitter. If you can, that is.

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PT and Friday at 6:00 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

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from World Wide News https://ift.tt/32zvdCg

[lightmusick]

3AM

It’s 3AM and I’m up! Like all the way up. Just thinking. I do this a lot. Thinking about everything. Past, present, future. Grateful for right now. But nobody wants to talk to me at 3AM. So, I grab my journal. That’s where I recap, reflect, and respond to life at this hour. Still working on this novel, Bobby Abstract is straight, new EP on the way, yea, check, check, check. But what about the family? My Uncle says family treats you worse than anybody. And he’s right. Why? IDK. I think it’s because we expect more love from family and when it doesn’t go that way we’re more hurt as a result. So, we distance ourselves from our sister, or brother or mother, etc. I love my family regardless. All I can do is pray we stay close and get closer. What else. Oh, she smilled at me. So, I smilled back. “You just gone stare at me all day?” she says. “Oh, pardon me. What’s your name?” “Katrina.” she said. “I’m David, you like Zebra Cakes?” All we could do was laugh lol!

From the desk of David Gift a.k.a. Dave a.k.a. Fellowsoldier a.k.a. Clutch a.k.a. A Child of GOD

#TeamJESUS Hit the Link in our Bio to see our #new #video🙏 🎆

#spotify #google #amazon #itunes #tidal #music #apple #chh #hiphop #realhiphop #love #facebook #rappers #rapper #faith #Jesus #JesusChrist #worship #gospel #trending #instagood #amen #art #artist #Still #DavidGift #LightMusick 💯 (at City of College Park, Georgia)

[jhpaulsen]

Delving Deeper into Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why

The first three paragraphs are a relatively spoiler-free review, but be warned, there are many, many spoilers later on in this post. 

13 Reasons Why is Netflix’s latest must-binge series. It’s based on a book with the same name, optioned (a while ago) by executive producer Selena Gomez. She was originally slated to play the role of Hannah Baker, a high school junior who commits suicide – but not before recording 13 tapes, one for each reason why she took her own life. Hannah was eventually played by newcomer (and Australian, though you would never know it) Katherine Langford, and she was terrific. This is not hyperbole -- she absolutely crushed it.

In fact, the entire ensemble was well-cast and gave strong performances, with the usual caveat that some of the actors looked a bit too old to be in high school. I’d like to give a shout out to Dylan Minnette, who played Clay Jensen, the main protagonist, with just the right amount of awkwardness and determination necessary to pull off such a complicated role in a series that jumps around frequently in time.

A unique premise is only as good as its execution, and the series fared pretty well in this area. There are some plotting issues, but they are fairly minor, and become an afterthought since the directing, editing and writing are so strong.

**SPOILERS BELOW**

I spent last Thursday watching the final five episodes. In this age of binge-worthy television, I couldn’t imagine having to wait three months for this series to reach its conclusion if it were shown on a weekly basis. I jumped on the freight train in first episode and by the end of the first tape I knew I was going to try to complete the series within a week. I think it actually took three days.

I’ve heard complaints that the series should have been shorter, maybe 10 episodes, and while I agree that there are tapes that dragged a bit and/or could have been combined, I never finished an episode thinking, “Well, that was a waste of time.”

I normally wouldn’t write a post to discuss a show that I liked, I’d just tweet out my recommendation and move on with my life. But I feel compelled to write about a couple of the show’s plot points that haven’t necessarily received the coverage that I think they deserve based on the reviews I’ve read and heard. (I read a few finale recaps and listened to an hour podcast – Talking TV With Ryan and Ryan – which is a spoiler-heavy recap with a plenty of discussion about the pitfalls of a second season.)

Hannah Baker Equals Frustration!

Langford did a terrific job portraying Hannah, but that didn’t stop her from being a frustrating character to watch. Two examples jump out: 

1. How Hannah treated Zach Dempsey

In Zach’s tape, we learn that he returned after Marcus mistreated Hannah at the diner. He knew Marcus acted like an asshole, so he returned to stay with Hannah to support her. It was a stand up move, but the next day he squanders that goodwill by mentioning her “great ass” before saying that there’s so much more that he likes about her. I’m paraphrasing, but that was the gist. Zach’s comments were poorly phrased, but the sentiment was positive, wasn’t it?

Hannah didn’t see it that way. As soon as she heard “great ass,” she was seeing red and she let Zach have it in front of the whole cafeteria. I thought she was too hard on him given the nature of his crime and the capital that he had earned at the diner the night before.

Zach is not the sharpest tool in the shed, and Hannah should have realized that his heart was in the right place. She could have explained her point of view in a much better manner to avoid alienating a person who was just reaching out in his own clunky way to say that he liked her. 

2. Going to Bryce’s house

In tape #12, Hannah explains how she ended up going to a party at the house of a known rapist.

After she loses $743 of her parents’ money, she goes down this dark path…

It seems like no matter what I did I kept letting people down. I started thinking how everyone’s lives would be better without me. And what does that feel like? It feels like nothing. Like a deep, endless, always blank nothing. And for those of you who will now be looking for signs everywhere, what does it really look like? Here’s the scary thing – it looks like nothing.

It wasn’t a short walk. I walked forever that night, through my old neighborhood where the houses were nicer than the one I lived in now. All the way up to the hill, where the rich people lived. Where you (Bryce) live. And from blocks away, I heard it. The music, the murmur of voices. The siren call of a party. You’d think I’d know better than to follow that call after Jessica’s party, but my feet followed it. My mind and heart were still in the big, blank nothing.

She ends up in the hot tub in her underwear, remains in the hot tub as the two other couples run off to the house, and the rest is history.

WHY WOULD YOU GO TO A PARTY AT THE HOUSE OF A KNOWN RAPIST?

I realize, for story-telling purposes, that there had to be something to push Hannah over the edge, to the point where she would seriously consider committing suicide. But for an otherwise intelligent, street-smart girl to wander into a party at Bryce’s house and stay, alone, until the end – it was a bridge too far.

(For those who may accuse me of victim-blaming, I’m really not trying to blame Hannah for what happened at the party. She should be able to get in the hot tub at the party and leave when she wanted to. Bryce is a narcissist, a probable sociopath, and an all-around disgusting excuse for a human being who should be locked up for a couple of decades...at least. I just think it was an extremely out-of-character decision for Hannah, given the information she had.)

Mr. Porter, Worst Guidance Counselor Ever? 

I’ve heard a few people complain about how Mr. Porter handled his session with Hannah. Some said he didn’t want to hear about the assault, others went so far as to call him the worst guidance counselor ever.

Here are a couple of key parts of their interaction:

Hannah: I need it to stop.

Porter: You need what to stop?

Hannah: (crying) I need everything to stop. People…life…

Porter: Life? (gives her tissue)

Cut to Porter/Clay conversation, cut back

Porter: Hannah, what did you mean when you said you needed life to stop? Because that seems like a very serious thing to say.

Hannah: I know. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that, I guess.

At this point, Porter should not have let Hannah leave without bringing in a suicide counselor of some sort. She could be in crisis, and even though she said she didn’t mean it like that, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Instead, they go on to talk about the “best ass” list, and what happened at the party (with Bryce) a week ago.

I don’t agree with the assessment that Porter did not want to hear what Hannah had to say about what happened to her at Bryce’s house. He ignored his phone twice, stuck it in the drawer and hung up the phone when it rang. He pressed her multiple times about the identity of her assailant. Hannah even got up to leave in the middle of the session, and Porter convinced her to stay.

Porter: Did he force himself on you?

Hannah: I think so.

Porter: You think so, but you’re not sure. Did you tell him to stop?

Hannah: No.

Porter: Did you tell him no?

Hannah: No.

Porter: Maybe you consented and then changed your mind.

Hannah gets annoyed at this point, and won’t give Porter the name of her assailant unless he can promise that he’s going to go to jail. He says that can’t make that promise, so they’re at an impasse. He says that if she won’t pursue charges or tell him who raped her, then she has one choice: to move on.

Initially, I thought he did a decent-to-good job given the information he had, but I watched it again with my wife, who is an assistant principal at a high school, to get her take. She was less positive about his interaction with Hannah. She said that he asked most of the right questions, but that he didn’t give Hannah space to talk. Instead, it was like he was going down a checklist.

To “move on” is a logical piece of advice, but Hannah didn’t necessarily need logic at that point. Porter got off track by focusing on what happened at the party instead of Hannah’s earlier statement that she needed “life to stop.”

Hannah acts as if she’s accepted the fact that she needs to move on, but viewers know that at this point she has decided to commit suicide. She gets up to leave quickly, and Porter once again tries to get her to stay. But his phone rings (for the fourth time) and it sounds as if it’s his supervisor since he says “Yes, sir.” during the call.

Keep in mind, Hannah is standing just outside his door waiting to see if he’ll come after her. When he doesn’t, she wanders down the hall, talking into her microphone.

Porter failed Hannah by not immediately arranging for suicide counseling. Instead, he got off track with the discussion about the party and when that conversation ended, so did the session. Keep in mind that Hannah was recording the whole thing. Was she really looking for help or was she just looking for an end to her story?

A Second Season?

I’ve heard rumblings about a second season, which is a terrible idea. This series worked in large part because of Langford’s performance and the time-jumping story structure, which relied on Hannah’s tapes. I don’t see how Langford has a continued presence on the show, or how they carry the show’s unique structure into a second season.

They may try to turn Alex’s gunshot wound (suicide attempt?) into Hannah Baker, Part II. Miles Heizer was one of the best parts of the ensemble, so if a second season lost both Langford and Heizer, they’d be hard-pressed to carry the story forward.

Sometimes it’s okay for there to be 13 episodes of a great series and then that’s it.

One final note: The series soundtrack and musical cues were pretty great, so if you’re interested in hearing more, there’s this playlist on Spotify.

[makeitwithmike]

Making stuff is hard ️

By Crowdfire

or How to Kill My Darned Creative Block

Illustration by Kirtana Krishnan

Anna Pickard, Chief Wordsmith at Slack, states most elegantly —

Words are hard.

As a copy writer, my day starts with a blank page — it’s up to me to make sure it doesn’t remain so. Whether I’m writing a product feature release post or an article on company culture, that blank page needs to be filled, day to day, week on week.

But sometimes, when things get rough, the blankness remains — large, looming and so blindingly white. It’s a struggle to write something meaningful with a value proposition that’s actually going to create any impact.

There are days when I feel like I can write pages, and I do! I write and write and write, and I exhaust my words.

Then there are days when I run dry as an empty inkwell, with the insides unyielding and solidified.

I’m sure you have these days. If you create, then you do. If you use your hands to make art, if your voice makes music, if you’re the face behind your vlogs, if you use your skills to build something, anything, then that block is frustrating and just as inevitable.

So how do you defeat this? How do you keep creating? How do you look your art in the face and say, “Not today, bub.”

I’ve figured out a few things that work for me. They might not work for everyone, but maybe it’ll guide you in the right direction. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Breathe.

I find myself being overwhelmed 95% of the time, especially when I set off on a task that seems daunting. I tend to give up even before I start (I know I’m not the only one).

What helps me the most is meditating. I use Calm to slow down my mind, get some clarity and find my focus.

Here’s a simple breathing technique you can try:

Breathe in through your nose and count 1 (in your mind) on the in-breath

Breathe out slowly and count 2 at the end of the exhale.

Focus on the in-flow and out-flow of your breath.

Do this a few times (5 minutes should work!) and you’ll feel refreshed, calmer and a lot more positive about tackling the task at hand.

Creating creates stress and breathing reduces stress! Don’t take my word for it. The American Institute of Stress has an entire web-page dedicated to focused breathing.

Take a break.

If it’s not happening, don’t force it. Step away from your desk, easel, camera, phone, musical instrument or workshop.

Art is not something that you wrest from yourself in haste, but a gift you give unto existence, willingly and with grace. Even if you’re making a living out of it.

Forcing something might not produce anything beyond the mediocre so consider working on something else or diverting your mind.

Go for a walk. Give your mind some space to breathe and refresh itself. Enjoy the scenery outside the window or walk around the block, once, twice. I hear showers work, too, by the way

Read fiction.

I’m guilty of thinking (sometimes) that if I’m not reading a non-fiction book, then I’m wasting my time. Not true.

Reading fiction opens up a vein of creativity by taking you to a completely different place. You never know what idea might strike while you’re eyes deep in a Murakami or a Jeffrey Archer tale.

Immersing yourself in someone else’s creative output leads to sparks in your own. Steve Jobs said, “Creativity is just connecting things,” so when you’re reading fiction, you’re feeding your brain more sources to foster that connection.

Take 10 minutes out and read a few pages of Enid Blyton’s Enchanted Forest or a Harry Potter novel.

After all, “Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.” ― Albert Camus.

Listen to music.

There’s a reason people say that music heals. Try playing some light music in the background, or, better yet, plug in to your favourite Spotify playlist and tune everything else out.

Listening to music while you’re stuck can put you in the right mood to continue or give you just the boost you need to complete your project. The right music can help you get laser-focused and set the mood every time you start making…stuff.

My go-to playlist is this brilliant piano soundtrack that calms me down and helps me focus my attention on the task at hand. Don’t play anything that might put you to sleep or worse: amp you up that you start breakdancing on the floor.

Talk to a friend, a colleague or a confidant. And share your work.

Now this works like a charm. Any time I get stuck on a sentence, or a paragraph or even the basic outline of any story, I immediately text my best friend and ask him for help. We talk about what I’m trying to achieve, what my end-goal is and what I want people to take away from my post.

Even if I don’t get valuable input from him, talking about it clears out some of my confusion, and disintegrates my maker’s block by margins. Not just him. I talk to my boss, my product manager and my designer friend to get their views on my piece. Each of them has something different to say and that gives me a lot of options to work with and a lot more avenues to consider.

Approaching people whose opinions you value and sharing your problem can greatly pierce that nasty mind trap. So, go ahead, and ask for help

Break it down.

Come back to your desk with renewed focus, vigour and energy. Don’t tackle all of it at once. Try to divvy up your work in smaller, digestible chunks.

Complete one part at a time. Maybe paint a quarter of the canvas today, maybe sketch out just the outline of your plot, maybe record a few minutes of video.

You’ll get a lot done by doing a little at a time.

These are just 5 strategies that I turn to every time I face a block. But everyone’s different and everyone has their own way of overcoming the struggle of the blank canvas.

We held a Twitter chat some time back on creative blocks. Check out the recap here and see how people all over the world defeat their own blocks. Their answers might just surprise you and you can add more resources to your list of How to Kill My Darned Creative Block.

So, how do you do it? What strategies do you use to keep making stuff, even when you think you just can’t make anymore? What activity helps you plod on toward your final output? I wanna know! ⬇️

*This post is part of an ongoing series about Bite-sized Productivity

Ann is a Content Crafter at Crowdfire. She tried to breakdance once. It did not end well.

Making stuff is hard ️ was originally published in Going Big — The Official Crowdfire Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post Making stuff is hard ️ appeared first on Make It With Michael.

from Making stuff is hard ️

[adventuresaroundasia]

I’ve noticed that the more I travel and the busier I become, the more impossible it becomes to keep up with my travels in real-time. Well, never fear monthly recap posts are here!

Merry Christmas from China!

Yes, I know the month is half over. But you know what? I was busy!

I considered abandoning writing this December review altogether, especially considering I gave you all a yearly review already, but then I realized I’d be giving up on the one thing I do on this blog with actual consistency.

So, here we are! At least December was interesting.

Where I Went

I stayed in Beijing the whole month of December right up until the last few days where I took a flight home to Seattle!

Highlights

Wonder why it took so long…

1. So… I’m No Longer Single

Yeah, THAT happened.

Remember that one time I published an article about my quarter-life crisis and had a job and a plan just one month later? Well, I guess all I need to do is publish a viral article on Huffington Post and Matador Network about how travel is ruining my love life, and then the sexy traveling men come running!

If you read my writing with any consistency (or follow my Snapchat), I’m sure you know exactly who I’m dating. If not, you’ll figure it out when I head to Sumatra with him in two weeks.

So, what’s changing now that I have an actual real relationship and not just 3-6 month casual flings? Well, we’re going to write a couples blog together!!!

… Just kidding.

Pretty much nothing with change except for the fact that I’ll be going on my annual Chinese New Year trip with him instead of solo. There will probably also be less self-deprecating jokes about my 5-year single cat lady status.

Edmonds Washington on a rare clear day

2. I Went Home to Seattle

At the very, very end of the month, I headed home to Seattle for the New Year. Since I wasn’t allowed to go home for Christmas, my family had a fake Christmas for me (on January 1st, I’m a cheater!) where we ate Thanksgiving food and exchanged gifts from me and one of my aunts who was sick and wasn’t able to make the real Christmas celebration.

I’ll spill more Seattle details in my next monthly recap (in two weeks) since most of the fun stuff happened in January. But I will say that it was so nice to go home! The air was fresh and crisp (and not polluted), and it was great to see my family and a few friends after such a long time apart.

As usual, I kept forgetting I could drink water from the sink and flush toilet paper. I also had trouble sleeping on my bed because it was too soft. #ChinaProblems.

Wandering Houhai Lake

3. My Sexy Man Came to Visit Beijing

Okay, I’ll stop.

But in all seriousness, after almost two months of not seeing each other, a quick visit in December was a great boost to my busy work life. We exchanged Christmas gifts, tried out my favorite restaurants, and had a great time despite the cold and pollution.

My favorite day was probably the one we spent exploring my neighborhood Beijing. After a morning brunch with all of my roommates at Cafe Zarah, I took him to Houhai lake. While unfortunately, it wasn’t frozen enough to ice skate on yet, we walked around the whole lake and even saw people swimming in the freezing water!

Then I took him to my favorite cat cafe for a quick coffee and a hutong Christmas market filled with vendors selling mulled wine, jewelry, locally made products and some pretty awesome homemade peppermint chapstick. Afterward, we ate dinner at my favorite Sichuan restaurant, Zhang Mama, and had alcoholic pie shakes (yes they are as good as they sound) for dessert at Rager Pie!

An EPIC seafood dinner!

4. Office Christmas Party

With admissions season being very intense, having a fun little Christmas party was exactly what I needed! We did an office Secret Santa where I was tasked with finding a gift for a young Chinese coworker. I know she has a penchant for good Baijiu (strong Chinese liquor), so of course, I gifted her a bottle!

She absolutely freaked out, trying to figure out who gave her the gift. My coworkers had a great time teasing her, telling her the head boss gave it to her. Eventually, she discovered it was me after a day of accusing all the coworkers.

In addition to cake and pizza for lunch, the head boss took all the college counselors out for a fantastic seafood dinner. We ordered a giant platter of delicious lobster, crabs, shrimp, crayfish, regular fish and more. We made a pretty good dent, but we definitely needed at least two more people to finish it off!

After an awkward and tense last few months at work, the Christmas party and seafood dinner smoothed things over a bit. We also got to celebrate getting a kid into Princeton! While he wasn’t one of my students, I did spend 5+ hours coaching him for his admissions interview, so it was great to get a shoutout from my manager when he got in. At least I know I’m kind of valued!

Me not crying in the office on Christmas

Challenges

1. Not Going Home For Christmas

Like I said last month, I wasn’t allowed to go home for Christmas due to the whims of my boss and manager and rules that didn’t make any sense. While I was perfectly fine working Christmas eve (seriously, it was a slow day), and spending the evening watching a movie while munching on a Turkey and mashed potato pie from Rager Pie (and a pecan pie for desert!), the pity I got from others was really annoying.

It felt like everyone was absolutely shocked I couldn’t go home, especially since I was one of the only ones. All of my roommates flew home, except one, and pretty much all of my foreign coworkers too.

Every student who came to the office was shocked to find me there. Every Chinese person I encountered that weekend asked me why I wasn’t going home. People assumed I at least should have some grand Christmas dinner at one of the foreign restaurants, or a potlatch with all my friends.

Well, you know what people? I had no friends to hang out with on Christmas and I was FINE WITH IT. I didn’t even mind looking at everyone’s Christmas pictures and snaps on social media. I just wanted everyone to stop pitying me and let me enjoy my Christmas pies and massage in peace.

and we celebrated with a lot of seafood

2. The End of Admissions Season

IT’S OVER.

US college admissions season is finally over. All of the millions of essays and stress are OVER. This should be in my “Highlights” section, but since admissions season lasted until January 1st (with a second deadline for some schools on January 15th), I don’t officially get to celebrate until my next monthly recap.

Last month was pretty stressful getting everything done, and I wanted to bang my head on my keyboard more than once. I had students changing their intended major half-way through a 200-word essay (SERIOUSLY??). I had kids giving me 800-word essays for a prompt that only allowed 450 words. I even had to edit a recommendation letter from a parent about her son (?!) which is NOT in my job description. She just needed help getting it down from over 1,000 words to 600. At least she loves her kid?

3. Absolutely Horrifying Pollution

What’s new? We had a 3-day red alert in Beijing, which meant that all the schools were closed… but I still had to go to work! The WHO recommends PM2.5 levels stay under 50, but for a Red Alert in Beijing, the pollution forecast needs to be 300+ for 4 consecutive days.

Guess how high the pollution was in Beijing? BETWEEN 600-800!!!!

At least it wasn’t as bad as surrounding Hebei province, that had some cities with pollution over 1,000! Let’s just say I lived in my pollution mask and had my air purifiers on constantly. I also developed excruciating headaches, but now I’ve discovered the headaches are actually from me needing new glasses (I think).

A giant roomie brunch!

My Most Popular Post

You all seemed to really love my post on eating like a local in Beijing’s hutongs. I absolutely love Chinese food, and the hutongs, so a hutong food tour was right up my alley. It was so fun to discover all of these incredible places to eat right near my apartment, and I loved being able to share all of them with you!

Best Instagram

Just when I was starting to run out of decent photos of myself, an angel in the form of my friend Sarah delivered a bunch of cute shots of me in Vietnam. This photo of me temple hopping in Hue Vietnam was the post popular!

I loved exploring all of the many temples in Hue Vietnam. I only had one day there which definitely wasn’t enough. I guess I’ll just have to go back!! Thanks to my friend @peachelette for taking this incredible photo!

A photo posted by Richelle (@adventuresaroundasia) on Jan 7, 2017 at 8:52pm PST

Song of the Month

For those of you who watch my Snapchat, this song might sound a little familiar. I started most of my Seattle snap stories with this one and I’ve had a lot of people ask about it. Thank god for Spotify Discover!

What I’m Reading

This last month I read 1.5 books and a manuscript for a book my friend is writing! Here’s my take on the two books you can actually buy and read.

1. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale is one of those “school books” I should’ve read growing up but never did. But when I discovered Hulu is making a tv version with Elisabeth Moss as the lead, I figured I should probably get around to reading the book.

The Handmaid’s tale is INCREDIBLE, and it’s by far the best book I read this year. A patriarchal totalitarian Christian dystopia, this book really made me understand what it must be like to live as a woman under the Taliban or ISIS. The story centers around Offred, a woman who grew up in modern New York and experienced the Gilead revolution.

Separated from her husband and daughter whilst trying to escape to Canada, Offred becomes a “handmaid”. Due to a nasty strain of syphilis, most of the population is infertile, so handmaids are given to the commanders to help them bear children. Not a concubine or even a sexual object, Offred’s sole purpose is to help repopulate the world.

Seriously, everyone should read this book and then watch the show when it comes out!

Who needs babies when there are cat cafes?

2. What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding- Kristin Newman

I’m not quite finished with this book yet, but I’m already obsessed! Written by a screenwriter for shows like How I Met Your Mother and The Neighbors, Newman chronicles her comedic and romantic travel adventures for the last decade and a half.

After spending all of her 20’s in serious relationships, Kristin takes her 30-something commitment phobia to a new level, having wild, sexy, and hilarious adventures abroad. I actually can’t put this book down!

Hello Houhai!

The Best Blog Posts

Here are my absolute favorite blog posts of the month!

Six Ways Living Abroad Made me a Worse Person– Matador Network

I really enjoyed this post by Isabelle Sudron on Matador because it’s so relatable! As an expat, sometimes it’s hard not to fall into the trap of not learning the language, only associating with other expats, basking in unknown privilege, and judging your friends back home. I consistently work not to fall into these traps, but sometimes it can be hard!

Asia is Not Your Dumping Ground– Adventurous Alexis

I see this less in China (Chinese people kind of treat their own country like a dumping ground), but I encounter this phenomenon a lot in Southeast Asia. Entitled backpackers and tourists arrive and drink themselves sick, refuse to respect the culture, experiment with illegal drugs, dress inappropriately, and trash pristine beaches.

Southeast Asia might be like a Disneyland for adults but it’s also home to many people with way less privilege than you. When you visit someone else’s’ house, you respect it.

Enjoying latte and a pasta at Cafe Zarah

How Moving to Mexico Helped My Family Cut Bills by 55%– Tim Leffel

Shocked? I’m not.

Every time I go home people still don’t understand why I’m living and working in China. They see the smog and the culture difference and assume I’m sacrificing a lot to live here. But I feel the same way when I see my friends cutting coupons back home.

People are shocked when I explain how I’ve saved almost $20,000 USD in 1.5 years without even really trying. I live in downtown Beijing in a pretty nice apartment (with 5 roommates… hey, rent is expensive!), I eat out, I get $5 coffees and drink craft beer or nice cocktails at hidden hutong bars. I travel to places like Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines during my holiday breaks. I take taxis whenever I feel like it, and I even have a bi-weekly maid.

Sure I have to wear a mask a few weeks out of the year, but I have a pretty great life in Beijing!

Pin me!

What’s Happening in January 2017?

Well, January is already half over, but it’s going to be a great month! I got to spend the first half of it home in Seattle, and now I’m back in Beijing for just a week and a half. Chinese New Year is early this year, so at the end of the month, I’ll be heading to Sumatra Indonesia! This will be my first time in Indonesia and I’m so excited!

While most people go to Bali, I just didn’t quite feel like going to a touristy island. I don’t know why, but I just never found Bali super appealing. I would go live there for a few months as a digital nomad, but I wanted to go somewhere a bit off the beaten path this time around.

I went to Thailand but skipped Phuket and Koh Phi Phi. I went to Cambodia and spent only 2 hours in Sihanoukville oh the way to Koh Rong. I visited the Philippines and skipped Boracay in favor of Siargao and Siquijor… I guess you can say it’s a pattern.

Happy New Year Everyone! How was your December?

  This Beijing Life: Month 16 I’ve noticed that the more I travel and the busier I become, the more impossible it becomes to keep up with my travels in real-time.