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lol-jackles · 6 months

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https://twitter.com/CineGeekNews/status/1735028345794855200

Warner Bros Discovery currently has an over 60% Probability of Bankruptcy.

I honestly am not sure if this is good or bad for the SPN revival. On the one hand, WB is NOT going to want to spend money on such a niche IP (that will really mostly only draw ppl who were already fans) if they are in such dire straits financially. On the other hand, they could bring in money by selling the IP to another studio who would obviously then want to actually do something with it since they spent money on it. But that also depends on another studio or streaming service wanting to do something with it which will be tougher. Netflix would make sense since they currently have SPN for streaming, except they will be losing their streaming rights at the end of 2025. A revival wouldn't even be released until then so why would Netflix want to put money into a revival of show that will, at that time, be streaming on a competitor (most likely Max since it will revert back to WB). Amazon is a possibility since both Jensen and Kripke are there (especially if they want to bring Kripke on for it) and Kripke seems to have some sway over there. But again, unless they buy the rights to SPN to stream on their platform, why would they want to make a show that will inadvertently benefit their competitor?

Thoughts?

https://www.macroaxis.com/invest/ratio/WBD/Probability-Of-Bankruptcy#google_vignette

[full disclosure, I sent this same ask to someone else as well, I'm not trying to spam people with it, I just wanted both your opinions!]

I went cross eyed reading the article, it looks like it was written by an A.I, which is not out of the realm of possibility given how many "journalists" are fired and Sports Illustrated was busted for using AI to write articles.

It really does not take much to avoid bankruptcy. Usually when a company is going to go under, the signs of it are obvious inaction for a long time and it inevitably dooms the business. The prime reason why WBD is not going broke is because they took immediate actions after the merger. What happens is the profitable parts of the business stays, while losses are either "turned around" or the business gets eliminated. Sometimes things like streaming subscribers will drop a quarter or two. Maybe a movie or two never gets released. But housecleaning is far more important than anything right now so that money is not wasted. The result is growing cash flow without losing much of the business.

Remember what I've said that cash flow is king? You can run a non-profitable company indefinitely with positive cash flow, but run a profitable company into the ground without cash flow. AT&T generated next to no cash flow. WBD exists for the very purpose of dismantling the legacy Time Warner conglomerate, that was the intention when AT&T sold it to Zaslav. It’s why they removed HBO from the name of Max. His job is to clean up its balance sheets, prepare its parts for sale, and pay himself handsomely in tune of $200 million last year. I begrudgingly admire Zaslav’s sticking with his controversial strategy, which saw other studios eventually following that same strategy.

By 2023, WBD paid off $12 billion in debt. That was a demonstration of faith by management in the turnaround efforts or else they would have kept the cash "just in case." The interest on the debt alone is eating $2 to $3 billion in free cash flow. Thats a lot of free growth in their bottom line when debt is paid down. Against all odds, WBD's streaming service HBO Max (and then just Max) is creating most of the cash flow improvement with $5 billion in cash flow. Advertising is growing in this segment at a robust pace. That said, the content decline for third-party licensing will have implications now that the strike is over and WBD has to start spending money on new contents on their prized IPs i.e. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, DC, etc.

For niche IPs like Supernatural, I see 50% chance of WBD still licensing it to Netflix because third-party licensing is the new king. WBD will also offload low-performing shows in the same bundle with higher-performing Supernatural because it will allow WBD to continue their 'creative accounting' to avoid paying residuals to low-tier actors. Then I can see Netflix doing what they did with Gilmore Girls and produce a revival limited series for Supernatural, which will increase viewership for the OG SPN and continue to help retain subscribers.

On the other hand, WBD is rebooting every niche IP under the sun and I'm pretty certain they will make the same attempt with Supernatural. The strike is over and WBD need to make new contents to attract back subscribers they lost over two quarters during the strike. When SPN goes back to Max in 2025, an announcement of a reboot/revival will mean free marketing from devoted fans and ensure continual interest and viewership of the OG SPN.

#WBD #SPN revival specultion #cash flow

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somanyerikas · 3 years

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Nostalgia sells - or does it? About BBC’s rehiring of a previous showrunner for Doctor Who as a marketing strategy

All, right, this is the one where I deal with my issues about RTD’s rehiring from the standpoint of BBC’s business strategy . Brace for passive agression, swearwords, brief history of british television and numbers. So, so many numbers.

Allright, so I already wrote a post about my problem with RTD’s (re)hire from the creative standpoint (it’s here in case you’re interested), but hey, I can bitch about it all I want, but we all know what caused the BBC to make this decision, right? You’ve heard about it for sure. The Dropping Ratings. You’ve read about it on so many posts, lots of them probably oh-so-gladly conflating this fact with their own opinion about the deteriorating quality of the show. (Don’t worry, we’ll get to that.) So Obviously the execs at the Big BBC Quarters needed to do something about it, and what better way to go than rehire a guy who’s run at Doctor Who is a warm childhood memory for so many in it’s fanbase? After all, it’s what we’re seeing nowadays: from Star Wars return to wave of 80′s nostalgia to every old blockbuster star doing a comeback, there is but a single conclusion - nostalgia sells.

Or does it?

Part One: Moving with the change; or very much refusing to.

Let’s start this off with some facts about the ratings for Doctor Who. (Well, I warned you there’s gonna be numbers, didn’t I. Stick with me, I’m going somewhere with this I promise.) In it’s beginnings, in the sixties and seventies , the series flown high, averaging a viewership from 8 up to 10 million viewers per season. Collin Baker’s series 17 brought in a record of 11.21 milion viewer asses in front of a good ol’ TV screen, real champagne opener here. But, as it happens, things were downhill from here. During the eighties, the rating started dropping steadily, reaching an all-time low of 4.15 milion couch-warming bottoms in 1989, the last season of the classic era.

Years passed, 16 of those years to be exact, and here comes our saviour RTD. Under his wings, the revived series premiered, bringing in over 10 milion viewers to the premiere episode of season 1, Rose. A viewership this high did not last for long, but still, RTD’s seasons averaged between 7 and 8 milion viewers per season, which seemed pretty respectable. But then, as the story likes to repeat itself, not unlike the bbc execs just did, along came the decline again. Ever since 2010, the ratings began steadily dropping again, from 7.95 in 2010 to 5.46 in 2017. Then DW experienced an unexpected peak in 2018 with the premiere of Jodie Whittaker’s first season, which averaged 7.96 viewing asses, but then continued the dropping trend on the next season, averaging 5.40 viewing butts.

So what went wrong?

You see, part of the reason that Doctor Who was bringing in such great viewership numbers in the 60′s and 70′s, was that, to put it simply, BBC did not have much competition. Or, to be exact, only had one competitor. ITV was literally founded in order to break BBC’s monopoly over British television. But in the 80′s, with the launch of Channel 4 and Sky, the british viewers had more and more options to choose from. So logically speaking, they no longer had to watch BBC’s programming just because there was nothing else on. There was more and more new programes to boredom-watch. And here’s something y’all need to know about the tv industry: the boredom-watchers, the casuals? That’s the most important demographic. As hard as it might be to swallow, us hardcore fans, forum dwellers and Ao3 gremlins, we’re not as big of a group as we’d like to think. Loving fans are important to the tv execs as providers of word-of-mouth advertisment, but the real numbers come from the casual, everyday viewer who will just put on the next episode cause the other one was kinda fun I guess. Or more fun than the other options, anyway.

And this is why, by the way, when someone is conflating low viewership with the show Dissapointing The Fans, they’re full of shit. I’m sorry, but we’re really not that much of a force here, definitely not enough to make such a big impact on the numbers. Another factor, that some of you probably noticed already, is that the numbers I’m quoting are from british tv only, while the online fandom is very much international, so our opinions matter even less to the british execs, I’m sorry again, hard pill to swallow I know, but true nonetheless.

But I digress. So, to sum up the previous paragraph, Doctor Who’s viewership decline in the 80′s was the effect of the changing landscape of the TV industry, with which the BBC struggled to come to terms with.

Sound familiar?

Let’s move on to the 2010′s, shall we?

2010 was is actually a good marker of a year to choose, because it marks one important thing that begun a big change in the industry. This was the year in which Netflix expanded their services overseas, from being a DVD rental company to providing VOD services. Over the next decade streaming services grew in importance, from being an add-on to your cable TV that you didn’t really want but they were throwing it in for cheap, to very much self-sustainable media services you might very well buy instead of buying the cable. And if you look at the numbers for Doctor Who viewership declining over the last 10 years, that’s precisely what’s been happening. It’s not that people don’t want to watch Doctor Who on tv, they don’t want to watch tv in general. Do you know what was the most popular channel in Britain this year? Can you guess? Fucking Netflix that’s what. It’s just slowly-yet-steadily ceasing to be the way we use home entertainment anymore. Again, not much to do with the audience approval, because for that matter, let’s see about the specific episodes that saw the spikes in viewership.

Rose, which i mentioned at the start of it, was for the longest time the unquestionable queen when it comes to viewership, at 10.81 milion. The next episode, The End of the World, pulled in 7.97 - almost 3 millions worth of lost viewer-butts in one week? Is it because it was so much worse than it’s predecessor? No, it simply did not have the smell of Newness, the Event You Must See, and as such brought forth less of the casual viewers who were simply curious about The New Thing. The next season followed the similar formula, peaking at the premiere, when the marketing was at it’s strongest, going down during the season, sometimes rising slightly for the finale, sometimes not. The most popular episodes are, of course, the specials - yet again, the vibe of The Event To Be Seen worked here, but one more thing working to their advantage is they often aired in spaces between seasons, serving as both a long-waited Crumbs of Content for the fans, and the basically stand-alones for the casuals. Do you know what the single most watched episode of revived DW is? No, it’s not Tennant’s goodbye with the role (yeah I know, I thought it had to be that as well). It was Voyage of the Damned, between seasons 3 and 4. The perfect standalone for the casual watcher. And last but not least, you know one more special feature that brought, maybe not as much, but definitely more than expected? The 1996 movie Doctor Who, with 9.08 million. Again, a perfect standalone.

But the standalones aren’t the only way to grab the viewership. The currently-highest viewing non-special episode of DW? The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Jodie Whittaker’s introduction. In 2018 no less, in the year when the streaming was the ruler supreme, this episode brought a whooping 10.96 million buts to the good ol’ TV again. Let me reiterate: this episode brought in more viewers than Rose did in 2005, while having WAY more competition and way less favorable circumstances of release that RTD’s debiut did. Not only that, it managed to bring on some numbers for the entire season as well, not as good of course as the premiere (because again, the Event vibes faded), but still brought a better average than the last six seasons did. (Again, let me reiterate: more than the last SIX seasons. More viewership than any series since 2010, since the Streaming Wars.) So clearly, this must be the way, right? Catering to this Weird New Trend, that saw directors notice there do in fact exist other actors than white men, that surely brought in some profit, even Marvel does it now, right? Out with the old, in with the new!

Part 2 The Deceitful Charm of Nostalgia

Well, it turns out the whole Doing New Things deal didn’t work out that well after all, now did it? The second season penned by Chibbnal averaged 5.40 milion, that’s 2.5 million drop from the previous one! It must mean it didn’t work, right? Well, yes and no. As much as the refreshment of the formula as simple as Let’s Put A Woman In It absolutely worked for one season, it very visibly did not hold up for longer. An Event-Episode is something that can still happen on TV, Event-Series? That’s pretty much reserved for streaming now, if you think about it, and it’s honestly kind of a miracle that Series 11 did as well as it had. Two consecutive Event-Series on network tv? Flat out impossible.

So how to make those ratings great again? How to get those butts in seats of the Good Ol’? Well, the execs of the BBC have a plan for that. They brought in a devouring beast, and it’s name is: Nostalgia.

Without a doubt, there is a number of people who feel nostalgic about RTD’s era of Doctor Who. It’s a lot of people’s fond childhood memory, or the series they started with, and judging by the numbers, there should be quite a lot of them. So the new plan, as it appears, is to get to those who maybe lost interest in the show and lure them with the promise of the thing That Is Totally Like The Thing You Used To Love, Remember? (This is why I don’t actually think that RTD will be allowed to do anything new and interesting, that’s not what they hired him for. And that’s why I think this is bad from the creative standpoint.) So there are two questions here: One, will the people be lured? And two, for how long?

Nostalgia as a marketing strategy is something that you’re probably sick of seeing already (I know I am). But it has very much been effective on many levels, especially the eighties-baiting, Stranger Things style, can bring a new IP up to relevance. But what about old IP’s that want to have a comeback?

It’s kind of dificult to find another TV show that I could compare to Doctor Who. Most series that have been running for that long are mostly soap operas, that operate on slightly different rules, and are also targeted to a different audience. So as much as the movie series is still not exactly the best comparison, when I think about a big IP, campy sci-fi, family-oriented (at least in theory) on its path back to relevance, I think about Star Wars, obviously. The Force Awakens gambled on that nostalgic feeling and won big, but the next two movies, while still financially successful, were nowhere near the astounding success of the first one. And that’s because - you guessed it - it created the Event You Must See again, The Great Comeback, but merely two years later, the comeback became old news. So what we can gain from that is that nostalgia can create an Event as well as a new trend, if not better. But the question remains: how long will that last?

That is, after all, the main difference between a movie franchise and a TV series in the traditional, network TV sense of the word: movie franchise must bring in the viewership every year or two, and TV series must bring in viewers every week for at least two months. Is RTD’s Nostalgia Vibes enough to provide for that?

I’ll say this: I’m absolutely certain that the 60th anniversary will be very popular. I still don’t think it will break any records because, as I’ve been trying to explain for this whole post, it is not 2007 anymore no matter how much the tv execs would like it to be. But ironically, the almost-certain success of the special is the very thing that could undermine the effect of bringing their precious Nostagia Boi back onboard. Remember, the first Event Episode is The Big Oof. That’s the one that gets asses to the Good Ol’, if anything ever does. After the first big event one, that’s the point when things start going down. They’re wasting their Special Event Boi for something that already would be an event, dear fucking gods, I hate your plan and I would still execute it better. Either have RTD be the Anniversary Guy and then hire someone new, use that hype and keep it going, OR have RTD come in after the anniversary, then at least you get the Event Effect for the premiere of his first return season. Fukin’ amateurs.

But even if they did that, here’s the thing: do you think that the people who departed from the show years ago actually want to watch another three to five seasons of The RTD Show? I mean, I’m sure the thought warmed some hearts, for sure. A number of people will definitely gladly watch the anniversary, probably the first few episodes of the first return to the basics, but after that? In the world when, due to streaming, they have an easy way to revisit the actual thing they’re nostalgic towards? I honestly don’t think so. And you’re not really gonna get many new people by going back, if that nostalgia factor isn’t there. And then there’s casual viewers, the backbone, as we established. And here’s the thing: lots of those people don’t even know who the current showrunner is, cause they’re not Terminally Online like we are, and the second thing? Lots of those people ARE JUST NOT WATCHING NETWORK TV, IM SORRY GARRY. They’re just. They’re just not. I don’t know how to spell it out better. Even my mum has netflix now. Your biggest base is in another castle mate, gotta get moving and gotta get moving quick, cause here’s another thing: all the nostalgia in the world will not do SHIT for you if your target, people who were kids/teens when the RTD era was airing, PROBABLY DON’T EVEN HAVE A FUCKING TV ANYMORE CAUSE THEY MOVED OUT OF THEIR PARENTS FLAT AND LOTS OF YOUNG PEOPLE JUST DON’T BOTHER. Just. I’m sorry but you’re trying to resuscitate a decade-deceased corpse there buddy. It just won’t work. The times have changed and you gotta swim or drown, and it’s just not gonna be 2005 again, no matter how hard you pretend it is. It’s not your content it’s your business model. Just push more marketing for your iplayer or whatever, focus on streaming as your primary not your secondary cause that’s just what it is now, and maybe don’t rely on the viewer-counting systems of the yesteryear to evaluate your business. Or else you’re gonna get stuck sacrificing the creative growth of your show for a marketing strategy that probably won’t even fucking WORK.

There, I got it of my chest. Feel free to reblog, and also: you somehow got to the end of this, congrats! I’ll make numbers nerds out of y’all yet.

#it's like. my sister and I were #watching a movie lately. the one with multiple will smiths and the de-aging tech #(don't recommend it it's real boring)#but when Youngened Will Smith appeared on the screen my sister got my spiting my tea laughing by innocently saying:#"oh i don't know this actor. it's nice that they're giving opportunities to the young actors. great to see a new face in the biz''#and u know what #this rehire is the same fucking vibe to me #some cunts from marketing plastering make-up to an old man's face and pretending its 2005 still #anyway #doctor who #i guess.

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x0401x · 4 years

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Violet Evergarden Movie Summary

The initial plan was to make this a short bullet-point thing, but I felt like there was too much to clarify and I had no choice but use novel references to explain certain parts, so I decided to just write a normal summary. Many thanks before-hand to my friend Yuuki, who gave me all this info.

Apologies for taking relatively long with this thing. Not even I expected that I would end up writing this much. Buckle up for the ride, ‘cause it won’t be fun.

Nope, not kidding. It really won’t.

First thing I need to make clear is: this movie is one and a half hour long and divided into three parts and two different timelines: the times when Violet existed and the times after she dies. Already in the beginning of the movie, Violet is dead.

Yes, you read this right. She’s dead.

Now, I don’t mean that she’s dead in the literal sense. This is 60 years in the future. She might be alive or not, but it’s never said. However, the timeline of 60 years later is considered an era without Violet, apparently because she has retired and her “legend” is over, so to say. It’s also a time where Auto-Memories Dolls don’t exist. That’s one good punch in the face. Let’s keep counting.

The movie is sort of like a tale being read by someone else, which at some point goes into Violet’s first-person POV. The whole thing is kind of a look back on Violet’s life tragectory and how it took a new turn when she decided to continue looking for Gil despite all the mess of the TV series.

The era where Violet exists is an era where telephones are being introduced to the people, so Auto-Memories Dolls are starting to become unnecessary. I would argue that the creation of the telephone isn’t enough for an entire occupation to start disappearing so quickly, since new inventions are normally extremely expensive and not everyone has access to them (or even knows about their existence) so immediately after their conception. Realistically speaking, ghostwriters would still be important as long as there were still so many people unable to buy phones. Not to mention that this is a steampunk world where compulsory education doesn’t seem to be a thing yet, so even in the off chance that everybody can buy a phone, there would still be a lot of people who can’t read or write on their own. But all of this clearly went over the animators’ heads, so not only ghostwriters but also the mail business in general are nearing their doom in the movie.

The one looking back on Violet’s life was Ann, who was telling it all to her granddaughter, Daisy (who, by the way, is voiced by Morohoshi Sumire, the same girl who voiced the seven-year-old Ann). Ann had kept all the letters that Violet ghostwrote for her mother, as well as the newspapers about the CH Postal Company. Looks like the article was printed after Violet left CH, since she isn’t in the picture with everyone else.

In this era, CH’s main office has been turned into a museum. Nerine is shown working in it. Of course, she’s a grandma by then. Speaking of the CH personnel, Erica also quit being an Auto-Memories Doll and became a playwright like Oscar. She appears in the newspaper, though, so she probably a while left after Violet did. Taylor also appears there.

Back to Daisy, she was writing a letter to her parents, in order to learn how to properly convey feelings with written word. The message of this scene seems to be that, no matter the tools, what’s important is that we convey our feelings to the people we love.

As we see in the trailer, Gil’s mom has passed and Violet runs into Dietfried when visiting her grave on the anniversary of her death. To anyone who is wondering: yeah, Gil never went to see his mother and she died thinking that he was dead.

Nobody knew that Gil was alive. Not his mother, not Dietfried, not the Evergardens and not even Hodgins. No one.

Here’s what happened to Gil in the anime: he survived the incident at Intense, of course, but got separated from Violet in that explosion. His tag miraculously stayed on the same spot, though, as we saw in the TV series. Now, since this isn’t explained in the anime at all, I have to make it clear: the tag is that necklace the soldiers wear. It contains their names and ranks, so that their bodies can be identified even when they’re irrecognizable. Without the tag, the people who rescued Gil had no idea who he was, so he was sent to a different place to get treated. He ended up at a monastery hospital instead of the one in Enchaîné. I would debate that his uniform alone is enough to identify him as someone from the Leidenschaftlich Army, or maybe they could’ve just asked him which troop he belonged to after he woke up and relocated him to where his fellow men were, but who even cares about all these plot holes anymore? Definitely not me.

Anyway. After Gil was discharged, he ran the fuck away. Like, literally.

If anyone out there was hoping that Gil would finally have his moment to shine as the self-sacrificing, thoughtful and ridiculously kindhearted character that he is in the novel, I have bad news for you. What we had here was even worse than it being Gil’s excuse movie. It’s like the whole thing was made to drag his character so deep through the mud that he’ll never be able to get up again. There’s pretty much nothing in this one and a half hour that actually justifies what he did to Violet. I’ll elaborate on this as we go on.

Anime!Gil became a nomad and went traveling. He offed his ass to the island where that lighthouse displayed in the most recent official art is located (that’s why Gil and Violet were at the beach on the movie poster). He doesn’t have a prosthetic in the anime because, apparently, he was more worried about disappearing as fast as possible to somewhere he would never be found, and never attempted to contact anybody. So nobody knew that he was alive, hence the grave, which, as we feared, was not a fake one. His family really did think he had died.

This is a point that I have already addressed before, but that also means Gil really did abandon Violet to luck. If anything dangerous ever happened to her (as it did, and it was always very obviously likely to happen, since she was the southern army’s most outstanding soldier and quite literally fled from the military), he wouldn’t even know. If word ever got to him, it would probably be too late. And even if it weren’t, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to help her. More than allowing her to live freely, it felt like he was running away from his responsibilities regarding Violet.

Punch on the face count is currently at six.

By sheer coincidence, Violet learns that Gil is living in that island. She goes to see him and Hodgins goes with her after trying to stop her at first. When Gil finds out that they came to see him, he outright refuses to meet them. It pretty much takes the near entirety of the goddamn movie for them to see each other face-to-face. I say face-to-face because all of the following shit happens:

Hodgins goes to talk to Gil. It lasts about 20 minutes.

Gil talks to Violet from behind a door. This one is about 10 minutes.

Dietfried also comes to the island to talk to him. Also about 10 minutes.

At long fucking last, Gil goes to see Violet. But that, too, is only for about 10 minutes.

Hodgins gives him a speech very similar to what happens in chapter 8. Now get ready to fall back from your seats: Dietfried basically goes there to tell Gil that he won’t run away from taking over the family anymore, so Gil can live freely. Yes, Dietfried is officially a better Gilbert than Gilbert himself. I crave death.

So, after much ado, they come to a conclusion: Gil will stay in the island. In order to completely free himself of the shackles of his bloodline, he stays behind, living the way he wants to. ‘Cause all anime!Gil wants is to rot away alone by the sea, apparently. Now prepare yourselves, for it gets worse. Ready?

Violet stays with him in the motherfucking island.

That’s right, ladies and gents. Another fear became true. She quits her job at the CH Postal Company and goes to live with him. Well, at least, not as a housewife. She starts working with mail services in the island, and Gil helps her with it. Her life goes on like this and she dies in the island as well.

This is where the timeline after Violet passes away comes into light, parallel to the era when Violet was alive. Daisy talks about what happened after Violet left CH, as if it were a tale from the distant past.

That’s it.

The movie paints this as a happy ending. I can hardly see it as one. I know it almost looks like everything was solved, but it just got swept under the rug.

The main point that makes me sad in this ending is that Violet’s character development did a 360 degree flip. In the end, she threw everything to the air and went to live in someone who she always put before everyone else, even herself, but who didn’t do the same for her (in the anime). She’s gone to a crammed little island, where she led an uneventful life away from everyone and everything that’s ever had a positive impact on her. All she has is Gil.

Of course, he’s all she needs, but he isn’t all she should have, and that was the entire point of pushing her to go live on her own. Which is exactly what she earns in the novel: two loving parents, a father figure, a brother figure, a best friend and several other friends and acquaintances whom she formed a bond with. She has all she needs, so she doesn’t have to cling to Gil for any reason. There’s no emotional dependance on him anymore. She doesn’t need him to be whole. She just wants him because he happens to be the best person she’s ever met.

Anime!Violet is most definitely not whole. She almost got there, but then she backtracked completely. And anime!Gil... in my friend’s words, is a weakling. There’s nothing in him actually worth all this undying blind love. Sure, he’s full of regret and shit, but it’s too easy to only act upon it now, by vanishing into thin air like a coward.

The deal with novel!Gil is that he looks around at everything he has, everything that had been burdening him and killing him on the inside all his life, and decides to make use of it for Violet’s sake. He continues being family head and working in the army, amassing money and connections in order to have every means possible to protect Violet should anything happen to her. And as it turns out, he does end up having to use those means, more than once, but he will keep this up for as long as he needs to, because he lives for her now. That’s what makes him worth all the blood, sweat, tears, mental sanity and even body parts that she gave away for his sake: he pays it back. Every cent.

Punch in the face count ends at twelve. Thirteen if I include the fact that the movie ends with a last shot of Violet after she and Gilbert do a pinky swear. Looks like they were really trying to buy everyone with tears.

Oh, well.

I hope this has been a good enough summary. Sorry if I rained on anyone’s parade. I’m pretty sure we won’t get a remake ever, so I really wish we all can get over this soon.

#violet evergarden #fyeahvioletevergarden #kyoani #kyoto animation #violet evergarden movie #summary #gilbert bougainvillea #claudia hodgins #dietfried bougainvillea

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tinyshe · 3 years

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What Will Segregated Society Look Like for the Unvaxxed?

August 09, 2021

Story at-a-glance

High-profile restaurant chains like Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality will require staff and indoor diners in New York City and Washington D.C. to show proof of COVID “vaccination,” starting September 7, 2021

Vaccinated-only bars and restaurants have also popped up in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Boulder, St. Louis and New Orleans

A growing number of private companies are also requiring workers to participate in human medical experimentation or forfeit their job. High profile examples include Facebook, Google, Twitter, Lyft, Uber, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Washington Post, BlackRock, Ascension Health, Netflix, Walmart, the Walt Disney Corporation and Morgan Stanley

PayPal is vowing to block transactions and cancel accounts held by “extremists” and anyone endangering “at-risk communities,” which could include just about anything, including anti-vaccine rhetoric

CNN anchor Don Lemon has suggested unvaccinated people ought to be barred from buying food in grocery stores and have their driver’s license taken away

In 2020, the proposition that COVID-19 countermeasures would come to include forced vaccination and vaccine passports, resulting in a segregated society where only those participating in the COVID injection experiment have human rights, was labeled a wild conspiracy theory unworthy of discussion.

Fast-forward to August 2, 2021, and Forbes announces, “No Vax, No Service: Here’s Where Bars and Restaurants Across U.S. Are Requiring Proof of Vaccination.”1

No Jab, No Dining

According to Forbes,2 high-profile restaurant chains like Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality are leading the way, requiring all staff and indoor diners in New York City and Washington D.C. to prove they’ve received the required doses of COVID-19 injections, starting September 7, 2021.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio hailed the decision, saying others will follow — and indeed, they did, with de Blasio himself announcing August 3, 2021, that proof of vaccination will be mandatory for all indoor dining, visiting gyms and going to movie theaters in the city:3

“This is a miraculous place literally full of wonders,” Mr. de Blasio said. “If you’re vaccinated, all that’s going to open up to you. But if you’re unvaccinated, unfortunately you will not be able to participate in many things.”

Several New York City eateries were already checking vaccination status, and during the last week of July 2021, the San Francisco Bar Owners Alliance urged its 300 members to require proof of COVID-19 injection or a negative COVID test for patrons wanting to have a drink indoors.

Several Los Angeles restaurants, bars and comedy clubs are also following suit, as are more than 60 establishments in Seattle. Vaccinated-only restaurants have also popped up in Oakland, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Boulder, St. Louis and New Orleans.

Since COVID countermeasures are a global lockstep operation,4 the same segregation trend is emerging in other countries as well. On the other hand, in Florida, where I live, businesses are prohibited by law5,6 from requiring customers to show proof of participation in the COVID jab experiment.

No Jab, No Job

A growing number of private companies are also requiring workers to participate in human medical experimentation or forfeit their job. As reported by Axios,7 this includes Facebook, Google, Twitter, Lyft, Uber, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Washington Post, BlackRock, Ascension Health, Netflix, Walmart, the Walt Disney Corporation and Morgan Stanley.

As mentioned, Florida prohibits businesses from requiring customers to provide proof of COVID “vaccination,” but it does not bar companies from mandating vaccination for its employees.

For now, Disney’s jab mandate only pertains to salaried and nonunion hourly employees, but according to Yahoo! News,8 Disney is in negotiations with union officials who represent theme park employees and members of its movie and TV production crews. The goal is to extend the vaccine mandate to union employees as well.

In May 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decreed that it is legal for companies to require employees to get the COVID shots.9 This despite the fact that the four available COVID injections are only authorized for emergency use and are as yet unlicensed.10 Testing is not expected to conclude for another two years.

No Jab, No Business

Private companies also have the right to not mandate COVID shots, of course, but standing up for workers’ right to choose could hamper their ability to conduct business at all, as PayPal is now vowing to block transactions and cancel accounts held by “extremists” and anyone endangering “at-risk communities,”11 which could include just about anything at this point.

Seeing how the White House is promoting the idea that people who question the safety and effectiveness of COVID shots are “killing people” and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) labels anti-vaccine rhetoric as a form of hate speech, is it a stretch to suspect PayPal will start taking down the accounts of so-called “anti-vaxxers”?

Business owners and self-employed entrepreneurs who speak out against other official narratives probably face the same risk. Venture capitalist David Sacks recently commented on the situation:12

“When I helped create PayPal in 1999, it was in furtherance of a revolutionary idea. No longer would ordinary people be dependent on large financial institutions to start a business …

But now PayPal is turning its back on its original mission. It is now leading the charge to restrict participation by those it deems unworthy … [W]e are talking about … shutting down people and organizations that express views that are entirely lawful …

If history is any guide, other fintech companies will soon follow suit … When … your name lands on a No-Buy List created by a consortium of private fintech companies, to whom can you appeal?

As for the notion of building your own PayPal or Facebook: because of their gigantic network effects and economies of scale, there is no viable alternative when the whole industry works together to deny you access.

Kicking people off social media deprives them of the right to speak in our increasingly online world. Locking them out of the financial economy is worse: It deprives them of the right to make a living.

We have seen how cancel culture can obliterate one’s ability to earn an income, but now the cancelled may find themselves without a way to pay for goods and services.

Previously, cancelled employees who would never again have the opportunity to work for a Fortune 500 company at least had the option to go into business for themselves. But if they cannot purchase equipment, pay employees, or receive payment from clients and customers, that door closes on them, too.”

If this trend continues, which it probably will, might people who question COVID shots and/or refuse to participate in human experimentation be barred from having a credit card or a bank account?

No Jab, No Food

Some are promoting even more severe punishment for the unvaccinated. Yet, it’s not enough for some thought leaders that unvaccinated individuals can’t enter a bar or restaurant, and might lose their ability to send or receive money for goods and services using PayPal (and potentially other digital transaction services).

For example, CNN anchor Don Lemon recently suggested unvaccinated people ought to be barred from buying food and have their driver’s license taken away.13,14

Why is fascism so commonly associated with genocide …? It is because it needs a unifying force powerful enough to sweep aside all resistance. ~ Charles Eisenstein

I’d like you to conduct a thought experiment, and think this through from start to finish. What would your life be like if you were:

Barred from driving

Barred from working and earning a paycheck

Barred from sending or receiving money online

Barred from having a bank account and credit card

Barred from eating food at a restaurant (assuming you somehow got the cash to pay for it)

Barred from buying food in a grocery store (again, assuming you somehow got the cash to pay for it)

Are Lemon and countless others actually saying it is acceptable to make half the U.S. population homeless and starve them to death in order to, theoretically, prevent the spread of an infection that, so far, has had a 99.74% survival rate?15

Mob Morality

To understand what’s really happening and what Lemon’s rhetoric is accomplishing, I highly recommend reading Charles Eisenstein’s article “Mob Morality and the Unvaxxed.” It’s an excellent and thought-provoking piece. Here’s a few chosen excerpts:16

“We would like to think that modern societies like ours have outgrown barbaric customs like human sacrifice … we don’t actually kill people in hopes of placating the gods and restoring order. Or do we? …

Not just any victim will do as an object of human sacrifice. Victims must be, as [legal scholar Roberta] Harding puts it, ‘in, but not of, the society.’ That is why, during the Black Death, mobs roamed about murdering Jews for ‘poisoning the wells.’

The entire Jewish population of Basel was burned alive, a scene repeated throughout Western Europe. Yet this was not mainly the result of preexisting virulent hatred of Jews waiting for an excuse to erupt; it was that victims were needed to release social tension, and hatred, an instrument of that release, coalesced opportunistically on the Jews ...

‘Combatting hatred’ is combatting a symptom. Scapegoats needn’t be guilty, but they must be marginal, outcasts, heretics, taboo-breakers, or infidels of one kind or another … If they are not already marginal, they must be made so …

[D]efying left-right categorization is a promising new scapegoat class, the heretics of our time: the anti-vaxxers. As a readily identifiable subpopulation, they are ideal candidates for scapegoating. It matters little whether any of these pose a real threat to society … their guilt is irrelevant to the project of restoring order through blood sacrifice …

All that is necessary is that the dehumanized class arouse the blind indignation and rage necessary to incite a paroxysm of unifying violence. More relevant to current times, this primal mob energy can be harnessed toward fascistic political ends …

Sacrificial subjects carry an association of pollution or contagion; their removal thus cleanses society. I know people in the alternative health field who are considered so unclean that if I so much as mention their names in a Tweet or Facebook post, the post may be deleted …

The public’s ready acceptance of such blatant censorship cannot be explained solely in terms of its believing the pretext of ‘controlling misinformation.’ Unconsciously, the public recognizes and conforms to the age-old program of investing a pariah subclass with the symbology of pollution …

This program is well underway toward the Covid-unvaxxed, who are being portrayed as walking cesspools of germs who might contaminate the Sanctified Brethren (the vaccinated).

My wife perused an acupuncture Facebook page today … where someone asked, ‘What is the word that comes to mind to describe unvaccinated people?’ The responses were things like ‘filth,’ ‘assholes,’ and ‘death-eaters.’ This is precisely the dehumanization necessary to prepare a class of people for cleansing …

To prepare someone for removal as the repository of all that is evil, it helps to heap upon them every imaginable calumny. Thus we hear in mainstream publications that anti-vaxxers not only are killing people, but are raging narcissists … and tantamount to domestic terrorists.”

Dangerous Territory Ahead

If deep down in your gut you sense that we’re speeding into dangerous territory, you’re probably right. The “vaccinated” public are actively encouraged and manipulated both by media and government officials into literally despising and wishing death upon the unvaccinated, and this is indeed a very dangerous thing. It breeds mob mentality devoid of reason and logic, which can have tragic consequences.

“Why is fascism so commonly associated with genocide, when as a political philosophy it is about unity, nationalism, and the merger of corporate and state power?” Eisenstein asks.17

“It is because it needs a unifying force powerful enough to sweep aside all resistance. The us of fascism requires a them. The civic-minded moral majority participates willingly, assured that it is for the greater good. Something must be done. The doubters go along too, for their own safety.

No wonder today’s authoritarian institutions know, as if instinctively, to whip up hysteria toward the … unvaccinated. Fascism taps into, exploits, and institutionalizes a deeper instinct.

The practice of creating dehumanized classes of people and then murdering them is older than history … The campaign against the unvaccinated, garbed in the white lab coat of Science, munitioned with biased data, and waving the pennant of altruism, channels a brutal, ancient impulse.”

The Constitution still offers some measure of protection in the United States, but it may be naïve to assume it will be adhered to in the long term unless we the people demand it. In Australia, military are now roaming the streets of Sydney to make sure no one strays beyond their front door, as the country has implemented one of its strictest lockdowns yet.18

Fanning the flames of anger and hatred, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stated that vaccinated Australians might be able to regain some of their mobility once the vaccination rate reaches 70%, and broad lockdowns may be avoidable altogether if the vaccination rate hits 80%.

"If you get vaccinated, there will be special rules that apply to you,” Morrison told reporters. “Why? Because if you're vaccinated, you present less of a public health risk.”

A rational person might question whether Morrison would actually hold true to his word. A person blinded by anger probably won’t, but will instead direct their frustration onto the holdouts that prevent the vaccination rate from reaching that magical threshold where they believe freedom will be restored.

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staticscreenwriting · 4 years

Text

California Summer - B.H. Smut [two]

Synopsis: Kings Cove California is Billy Hargrove’s hometown. It’s also a popular summer vacation destination for rich couples and their spoiled kids. (Y/N) is one of those rich girls. Proper, sweet, innocent. Only that all bores her to death and Billy is just the adventure she’s been looking for. It’s all fun and games. A summer fling. Not strings attached. Right?

Inspired by the song “Young & Dumb” by Cigarettes After Sex.

Part 1

A/N: There is smut in this, babes. Please if that is not for you, don’t read it. Also do not interact if you’re under 18, that’s just not cool. Kay, thanks ♥

[additional note: I am German. Sometimes I get the tense wrong or make mistakes. I am useless when it comes to punctuation. Go easy on me, please.]

The air is hot and sweltering on Tuesday. A blue sky filled with thick grey clouds. There’s a sizzling in the air. A promise of rain. A promise of a storm.

Billy steps out of his car and onto the white gravel driveway of the (Y/L/N)’s holiday estate. It’s a grand house. These people are rich and they want you to know it. Nothing is subtle or modest. It wants to be seen, to be stared at, to be wanted. This house demands your attention. Thinking about it, Billy thinks it’s fitting that (Y/N) lives here. She too, demands people’s attention. Undivided.

He steps up to the door, his black polo shirt proudly displaying the “ Franklin and Company cleaning and maintenance service” logo in his right chest. Mr Franklin said company uniforms are a good way to increase the team spirit. Billy suspects it’s just another way for those rich assholes to further distance themselves from peasants like him.

The doorbell chimes up in some melodic little tune. Even the god damn doorbell is over the top. A deep disdain settles inside Billy’s bones, takes residence in his heart. He wonders if those people truly know what suffering means. He wonders if financial stability and a luxurious lifestyle can soften the blow of a heartache. Wonder if he’d still be this bitter, if his heart would still feel this heavy, if he was the one living in a house like this.

When the door swings open, Billy is greeted by Mr. (Y/L/N) and his smile that’s just too big. There’s a certain size a smile should have and his smile exceeds that size. It’s unsettling. With his bright white teeth and the moustache, he looks like some kind of cheesy 60s Batman villain.

“ Hi, Billy. Good to see you. So here’s the thing — “ he then starts to proceed a dramatic monologue about the broken filter system of their pool. Billy only half listens, his mind wandering through the halls of this mansion. He wonders if she’s home. Wonders what her room looks like. Wonders if she can still feel his lips on hers. Taste him. Feel him inside her.

As they walk through the main living room, Billy’s eyes fall onto a picture on the mantlepiece of their elaborate fireplace. (Y/N) smiles brightly back at him from the photograph, draped in a long white dress and long opera gloves. It almost looks like a wedding gown only she looks way too young in this picture and there’s no husband to be seen. She smiles so big, so radiant but there’s something in her eyes. The same riddle he’s tried to figure out that day he picked her up in the rain. A kind of sadness that is both so familiar, and so foreign to him.

“ Joan and I are gonna be out all day but if you need anything, my daughter (Y/N) should be around. She’s a nice girl, I’m sure she’ll be pleased to lend you a hand. “

Billy has to stop himself from choking on his own spit. If only this man knew what his girl gets up to when dad’s not looking.

“ Alright, that’s fine. “

“ Good. Good. Now if you’ll excuse me. “

“ Sure, yeah. Have a good day.”

Mr. (Y/L/N) walks back towards the entrance hall, this house has a goddamn entrance hall. A second later his wife steps up next to him, big floppy hat on her head, fancy-looking silk scarf around her neck. That one probably cost more than Billy pays in rent every month.

The way the interact makes him feel uneasy. There’s no affection there, no kindness. It all is very stoic and structured and empty. He wonders if rich people are all this hollow, if it comes with the territory. If maybe there are certain expectations put on you when you’re loaded and to fulfil those you have to lose part of yourself in the process.

“ Bunny, we’re off “ (Y/N)’s father yells up the stairs to be met with her voice calling down a disgruntled “okay” a few seconds later.

Bunny. They call her bunny. This day is getting better and better. With a smirk on his face, Billy grabs his tools and drags himself out towards the pool into the hot California sun.

The filter is fixed in a matter of minutes, then he cleans the pool, mows the lawn, scraps dirt out of the rain gutter. All while the hot sun is beating down on him, burning his skin and making him sweat. What he wouldn’t give for a bit of rain or a dip in the ocean.

Just as he’s packing up his tools, a loud banging sound from the inside catches Billy’s attention, followed by a string of curses. There’s no doubt in his mind it’s her. Her voice still fresh on his mind as she whispers dirty words into his ears while he dreams.

Rounding the corner, he catches sight of her, sitting on the bottom step of the stairs, rubbing her knee and contorting her face in a display of pain.

“ Are you okay? “

“ Yeah, just tried taking two steps at once and uh — didn’t go so well, “ (Y/N) replies as she gets up and dusts herself off.

Whenever Billy thinks of her, his mind always wanders back to that first night he caught sight of her. Her flowy skirt, the flower in her hair, the too big denim jacket. Something about her then looked almost ethereal. Like she didn’t belong with anyone around her. Like she didn’t belong to this place. To this earth.

Looking at her now, Billy almost can’t believe it’s the same person. She’s wearing cut off jeans shorts, socks with that frilly lace stuff stick out from her beat-up tennis shoes and the I ♥ New York shirt that’s draped over her body is at least two sizes too big and has no doubt seen a few years pass already.

“ Look at you, Mr. Polo shirt! “

“ Stop! “

“ It’s cute! “

“ It’s company policy.”

“ Aw no, does it limit your freedom for self-expression? “

“ Why are you taking the piss? I saw the picture on the fireplace. Cute wedding dress. Prom? “

(Y/N) does that thing that’s neither a scoff nor a laugh and yet both at once. She walks up to the fireplace and takes the frame in her hands. There it is again, the sadness in her eyes. Even though she’s smirking there’s a fundamental sadness so deeply engrained in her beautiful eyes that Billy almost regrets having mentioned the photo.

“ Not prom, goof. My cotillion”

“ Your what now? “

“ My debutante ball. It’s a formal presentation of young women to introduce them into society. “

“ Sounds like a cattle auction to me. “

This time she fully scoffs, no laughter or smirk anywhere in sight. “ You might have a point.”

“ So what they like, offered you or — “

It’s such a strange concept, Billy isn’t even able to wrap his head around it. A formal presentation of young women already sounds wrong. Just thinking about her being paraded around leaves a sour taste on his tongue.

“ Kinda yeah. I mean it’s nothing sexual or anything but uh — well. There’s a bunch of girls in matching dresses who all get introduced individually. They put a real emphasis on who your parents are so people are immediately aware your family is loaded. Then the dad’s guide the girls across the stage and hand them over to the escort. Usually, an equally rich male around the same age who’d be a wonderful addition to the family. Then there’s this specific curtsy every debutante has to perform …”

“ Are you fucking with me right now? “

“ Absolutely not. It’s a real big deal. They have a serious committee and everything.”

“ Well you look miserable in that picture. “

“ Oh I was. I didn’t wanna do it in the first place and then my dad also told me that I couldn’t have my boyfriend at the time be my escort because apparently he wasn't good enough or his family wasn't prestigious enough. I really liked that boy too. I was so sad. “

“ Why’d you do it then? “

“ Well all my friends did it and then dad also pulled the mom card so — “

As those words fall from her lips, her eye glass over a little, as if she just started dreaming or let her mind wander someplace else. Billy always felt like it was weird, the way he observes people, the way he notices things. But when you grow up in a house that’s so loud and so angry, you start to notice the quiet things. It’s a survival instinct. Noticing the little things can save your life.

“ The mom card?”

“ Yeah. Said my mom always wanted to see me as a debutante. Said I should do it to honor her memory. Even had her own cotillion dress shipped in from my grandparents place to use the fabric for mine. “

Dead mother. There it is. One little puzzle piece to slide into place. A step in the right direction in figuring out the riddle that’s her mind. Dead mother. It’s not a pain he knows but one he can imagine. His own mother was the best person he knew, an angel in his eyes. He loved her more than he ever loved another person. Then she left and ripped his heart straight from his chest. Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like losing your mother to death but he does know what it feels like having a mother one day and then not having one the next and feeling so terribly alone in the world.

“ So Joan’s not — “

“ She’s my mother too. Mom died when I was 6, dad and Joan married when I was 10. She’s been in my life not longer than my mother was. I love her so much but I also miss my actual mom. “

He doesn’t know what make the words fall from his mouth so easily, as if they don’t weight a million tons on his heart. But something tells him that he can be honest with her. Maybe it’s a certain comfort that two people can only find in shared pain.

“ My mom fucked off when I was 9. Just up and left, to be with some guy she’d met at her job as a waitress. A fucking dentist of all people. Haven’t seen her since. “

“ Fuck, that sucks. “

“ Yeah it’s whatever.” Billy shrugs. It’s not whatever and they both know it but it’s one thing to tell her about his mother, it’s another to open up his entire chest and let her see all the cracks in his heart. That’s a vulnerability he’s not willing to show her.

“ Well this is turning into a gloom-fest, huh. Do you wanna get outta here and do something? “

He really does. The heaviness on his heart feels suffocating. Like someone is squeezing his chest, breaking ribs in the process.

“ Sure. What’s your plan?”

“ No plan. How about the beach? “

Billy smiles at her suggestion. “ Sounds good. “

“ Man, your car is clean. I didn’t even notice the first time. “ (Y/N) remarks as the drive along the sleepy town of Kings Cove. The windows are rolled down and a soft wind sweeps through them, making (Y/N) hair fly around her face. Her feet are kicked up on the dashboard and her red lips are pulled into a teasing smirk.

“ It’s my baby, I like it when she’s clean. “

“ She? “

“ Mmh.”

“ Does she have a name? “

“ No. You wanna make a suggestion?”

“ Hmmm how about — (Y/N) ?”

“ That’s your name. “

“ It’s a good name !”

“ Not naming my car after you.” Billy chuckles.

“ Okay. How about Lilly? “

Billy shrugs. Honestly, he has no interest in naming his car but if it makes her happy, he might as well entertain the thought. “Sure, fine with me.”

She’s quiet for a moment before she speaks up again. “ You wanna know what Lilly needs? “

“ No. “

“ Some decor. Some personality. Like some dice hanging from the mirror or — or a dashboard dancer. Like a hula girl. “

“ Absolutely not. “

(Y/N) gasps “ I know! A dancing Elvis. You know the ones! You need one of those. “

Billy has to wince at the thought of a cheap plastic figure vaguely resembling Elvis stuck to his front window so it can dance on the dashboard.

“ Or I could not do that. I like my car the way it is. Thank you very much. “

(Y/N) just smiles and maybe that’s enough for right now. There are more secrets hidden in the corner of her lips, in the glint of her eyes, in the way the sun falls on her face. But those can stay there for right now. All that matter in that moment is the cheesy Don Henley song playing from the stereo and the red of her fingernails tapping along to the beat and the way life feels weightless then.

“ This is so beautiful. “ (Y/N)’s words are hardly louder than a whisper. Her voice is overtaken by a peaceful sense of awe and admiration. Her bare feet are buried into the still warm sand as the sky around them shines in hues of pinks and oranges.

“ I can’t believe you get to see this every day of your life. You can just decide you want to watch the sunset over the ocean and do it. “

Billy shrugs as if it’s nothing when in reality he knows exactly how much this really means. Living in Hawkins, away from the ocean and his home and his heart, it made him realise how much he really loves this place. How his heart will forever be bound to the sea and the waves and the freedom it gives him.

“ I guess it’s pretty cool. “

“ You guess? Billy this is — this is spectacular. Sitting here and just taking it all in makes me feel fearless and invincible and brave. Like the world is so big and vast and there’s so much still for me to discover and experience and I can actually do it. “

“ What’s stopping you ? You got all the money in the world. “

He wonders if she can hear the spark of resentment that his voice carries. Billy doesn’t put it there on purpose, it’s just something so deeply edged into his genetics it’s hard to get rid off. Life’s hard for everyone, he knows that. The logical part of his brain does. But being financially stable surely helps soften the blow.

“ Not if you ask my parents. They’re just waiting for me to find a suitable husband whos family is at least as rich as mine if not richer. Then settle down in a nice big house, pop out a few kids — be miserable forever. “

He doesn’t know what to say to that. There’s a certain familiarity in her words. Billy knows exactly what it feels like being stuck in a situation that makes you miserable and to feel like you will never get out of it. Even though both their situations couldn’t be more different, there’s a shared sense of captivity.

“ I’m sorry, I’m being a huge whiny bitch about this. Poor rich girl with her rich girl problems. “

Though her words are meant to sound airy and light, they are all but that. There’s a heaviness to them. A sincerity.

“ Don’t be stupid. This is your future. Your life. You get to bitch about it. If not about that then what about? “

Billy succeeds in making her crack a smile. A small success in the grand scheme of things, but a success nonetheless.

“ What would you wanna do? If your parents had no say in it ? “

Her sight settles on the setting sun, her chest heaves with big breaths. As if she’s trying to catch the moment in her lungs and keep it there forever.

“ Last year I started studying photography in New York. My parents thought I was working an internship at a family friend’s firm. I wasn’t. When they found out they made me drop out and come back home. That’s why I wasn’t around last year. That’s what I wanna do. But my parents they are — my dad grew up during a time when art wasn’t a career that could really put food on the table. He’s a businessman, a hard worker. He sees numbers before anything else. And I don’t think he’s doing this to be mean or anything. It’s just what he knows. Dreams were not something he could chase and survive it. It was eat or dream. I think he wants to spare me that life. I just wish he would take the time to even as much as look at my pictures. They’re good. “

“ You should show me some. “

To be quite honest, it’s not about the pictures. Billy has never been a particularly artsy person nor does he care for photography. But this is important to her, this is where her heart is. No one has ever believe in him, he knows the empty feeling that comes with that realisation. If he can be the one person to show her that her dreams and her talent matter, then it’s worth it.

“ Yeah? “

“ Sure, why not? “

“ Alright, I will. Think I can mix in some naughty ones. “

Billy raises his eyebrow. “Oh really? “

“ Mmmh.”

Her lips don’t taste like slurpee this time. They taste like summer heat and salt and warmth. A little like cigarette smoke and mint chewing gum.

Her fingers tangle in his locks, tugging deliciously as her tongue curls around his. It’s softer than the kisses in his kitchen, not fueled by lust but by a shared comfort in each other.

“ What was that for? “ he asks as they pull away, far enough to talk to each other but close enough to breath in each other’s air.

“ For listening. And for — caring.”

Billy’s lips decent back on hers, then her cheek, her neck. Her skin feels soft and warm underneath him. He can feel her pulse quickening as he softly sucks at the delicate spot where her neck meets her shoulder.

“ You can’t leave hickeys!”

“ Why not? “ he murmures against her.

“ Got this thing at the country club in a few days. My dress doesn’t have a turtleneck. Dad’s gonna kill me if he sees it. “

Of course her family frequents the country club the town over, it’s so fitting. Billy’s been there a few times, tending to their greenery and fixing stuff. It brings good money and he got to eat their for free which was nice. But looking at all the rich people in their fancy clothes drinking champagne by the pool was — strange. Johnny works there as a waiter part time and always has the most ridiculous but funny stories to tell.

“ Aw, daddy’s little girl not allowed to kiss boys? “ Billy mocks, not making any attempt at moving his lips away from her neck until she nudges him off and pushes him down onto the warm sand.

“ Oh I do more than just kiss them. “ (Y/N)’s voice is laced with lust and passion and sultriness.

Soft warm kisses wander down his neck, as her hands leave trails up and down his stomach underneath his shirt. In a swift motion she pushes the fabric up, to pepper gentle kisses on his chest, his stomach, down to the edge of his pants.

Billy can feel the blood rushing through him, can feel the adrenaline flowing through his veins. A tingling sensation builds up. Is there anything better than a girl sucking you off with the sun setting over the ocean in the background? Not really, he’s fairly sure about that.

(Y/N) hands fumble with the zipper of his jeans before she pulls them down just enough for his dick to pop out.

The way she looks up at him, eyes filled with a mixture of mischief and innocence. The way she bites her lip in anticipation — it kills him. This is his day of reckoning. This is the end and god does he love it.

Billy is fully aware of what's happening as she swirls her tongue around the head of his dick but his mind is swimming, his heart is pounding. Maybe it’s her or maybe it’s the moment, he doesn’t know. All he does know is that sometimes life can be real fucking sweet. Especially when your cock’s soft and warm in a pretty girl’s mouth.

She hollows her cheeks, goes fast then slow, moves her hand along her lips in a perfect rhythm of pure lust. It’s wet and warm and tight and perfect.

An alternating pattern of kitten licks and deep strokes drive him crazy. She swallows around him like the goddamn patron saint of sucking cock, takes him so deep he’s fairly sure they should grant her some award for it.

When he feels the tidal wave of passion crash onto him and pull him under, drown him in ecstasy, he buries his fingers into her hair, pulls her closer, moves his hip faster — fucks her mouth. And she moans, every once in a while looking up at him with those eyes — those damn beautiful eyes. And there’s a smirk playing on her lips, around his dick, every once in a while. She enjoys this too and that’s what sends him over the edge.

Billy cums just as the sun sets behind the horizon, that one moment when the world is pure gold. He doesn’t see that though, doesn’t realise. All he sees is her eyes and her smile and the way she wipes her lips and all the riddles he wants to solve that live in her heart and all the things he wants to explore with her.

“ You’re welcome.” she says and giggle as she crawls back up to lay beside him, propped up on her elbows, eyes set on the horizon.

“ Uh-huh. “ Billy’s mind is still hazy, words can hardly form least of all make sense.

“ I can’t believe you get this view every day. “

He’s not sure whether she’s talking to him or to herself, maybe a little of both. What he’s sure of though, is that his view is much nice right now. Her, free and wild and — beautiful, sitting and watching as the world turns pink and orange and gold for one last time before nightfall.

It’s quiet for a moment as they catch their breath, as she takes it all in and Billy tries to shake off the fogginess in his brain. It’s quiet and peaceful and safe and comfortable.

And then she speaks up again.

“ You should come to the country club thing. “

And his heart sinks because — absolutely fucking not.

#billy hargrove x reader #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove smut #billy hargrove imagines #billy hargrove fanfic #billy hargrove fanfiction #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things fanfic #stranger things smut #stranger things imagine #stranger things imagines

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omoi-no-hoka · 4 years

Note

I read your post on how you got started in the translation industry and I was wondering if it is possible to get an entry/basic level translation gigs in Japan with N3-level proficiency or if even those want at least N2 proficiency. Also since you've been living and working in Japan for a long time, what advice would you give those wanting to work in Japan in regards to avoiding black companies?

Finding Translation Work in Japan

Hi there! Thank you for your ask.

To be honest, “translation” is so very broad that I can’t give you a simple “yes” or “no” as an answer. My answer is “Maybe” with the following caveats. For the sake of this post, I’m going to assume that your native language is English, or that you have native-level proficiency, and you plan to do English↔Japanese translation in a Japanese workplace.

Field of Translation

This is perhaps the biggest factor. I understand that in order to translate legal or medical things, there is a particular certification that you must obtain. This requires N1/native level proficiency in both languages. I have thought of attempting to obtain the medical one, but I’m not ready for it. I would need to study a LOT of terminology in both English and Japanese.

As for other fields, I think it really depends on the company and how much they are willing to teach you on the job. Also, depending on the field, many field-specific terminology may be katakana words derived from English, meaning that while they will be new Japanese words for you, they will not be entirely new words.

But if I were to work in, say, the banking industry doing translation, I would certainly have a hard time learning all the words, especially if I didn’t already have some sort of background in banking in English.

For example, I specifically work as a translator for a company that provides services to other very big companies that you have heard of. Technically, I work for an anti-malware software company and the technical support aspect of it. When a product is updated, I will translate internal manuals and things like that. I also translate the Big Wig conversations, which are done in English since the client and our company’s HQs are in America, so that our local guys know what’s going on. I also create/translate/edit/take minutes for presentations given to Big Wigs. I also handle all IT issues in our project, because our IT ticketing system is 100% in English. ANYTHING English-related is funneled to me.

Contractually-speaking, I do not work for any other clients. But since I’m the only translator in our company in Hokkaido capable of interpretation as well, I am often asked to assist under the table. (Translation and interpretation are two entirely different beasts, btw.)

While I don’t have a background in IT or computers or anything like that, since most of the terminology is in katakana and I’m not absolutely clueless about computers, my learning curve wasn’t too sharp. I struggled more with bullshit corporate acronyms and the formalities of Business Japanese (sonkeigo and kenjougo).

A person holding an N2 is considered capable of Business Japanese. Even if you have extensive knowledge in the field of translation, you will have a VERY difficult time adjusting to the Japanese-language workplace if you are not good with Business Japanese. From that standpoint, I cannot recommend someone at N3 to enter a Japanese company to do translation. It will be grueling. I was N1 when I joined the company, and I still had difficulty composing emails and other workplace-related words I hadn’t come across.

Start with Freelance Translation/Proofreading

There was a year or so where I had N1 but was still teaching English. I found freelance English-Japanese translation jobs online. Lots of them were one-shot things, like “translate this brochure about our little tiny town” or “I am a researcher who has written a paper on Persian-French relations during the 16th century, and I need someone to proofread my English.” Lol that one was pretty specific and paid very handsomely. By doing well on a job, I established a relationship with that client and I would get more work either from them or someone they knew. Prices are fixed before translation.

The average price for translation is 3-7 yen per character (if the original text is in Japanese) or per word (if the original text is in English). The price increases depending on the complexity of the material. The brochure about the little town was 4 yen per character, but the research paper was 9 yen word (despite the fact I was only proofreading instead of translating because it was incredibly complex).

Proofreading goes alongside translation. I didn’t really do much of that, but you can see a price range of 1-5 yen per character/word. If you are N3, proofreading is great way to get your feet wet!

NOTE: Do not take on proofreading or translation jobs for a language that is not your native language. No matter how good you think your Japanese is, it will not be good enough to proofread. Even if you have an N1, you will miss things. Even I, as a translator with almost 3 years experience in my field, always have a Japanese coworker proofread everything I translate into Japanese, and 9 times out of 10 they fix at least one thing.

How to Avoid Black Companies

In Japan, some companies are labeled ブラック企業 “black kigyou,” which means that they violate labor laws in some heinous fashion. Denying pay, benefits, or leave, forcing employees to do grueling amounts of overtime that can lead to 過労死 karoushi (death by overwork), etc. These companies will rob you of your sanity at best and your life at worst, and are to be avoided at all costs.

When I was searching for a position teaching English, I googled reviews of each big Eikaiwa school, like AEON or whatever else there is. Many previous teachers air their grievances on places like glassdoor.com. It was easy to learn which schools I should avoid.

Also, I applied online to many different big Eikaiwas. Three of them (sorry, I can’t remember which) immediately emailed me back and said I was hired, without an interview or anything. That should be a HUGE red flag to you right there. Why are they so desperate to hire that they’ll take you without even giving you an interview? And even if they do later say, “Your hiring is dependent upon an interview,” that means that their initial contact email was fraudulent.

Research the company as best you can. See if you can find someone who has worked for them. Beware of smaller, private companies. They tend to fly under the radar and are prone to be even shittier. Then again, there was a woman who died of death by over work a few years ago and she worked for the biggest advertising firm in Japan.

Here’s an article from Business Insider about karoushi and black companies.

A 2016 report examining karoshi cases and their cause of death found that more than 20% of people in a survey of 10,000 Japanese workers said they worked at least 80 hours of overtime a month.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry defines the threshold for karoushi as greater than 80 hours of overtime a month. Since this article was posted in 2018, a new law regarding overtime has been implemented by the Japanese government. Now there is a legal cap on overtime of 100 hours per month (and 720/year) for busier months, with the general upper limit set at 45 hours per month (360 hours/year).

Even if a company isn’t black, be prepared for overtime. My company makes sure that every employee adheres to the 45 hours per month limit...as best they can. If you follow this blog you know that I have done 60 and 70 hours of overtime in certain months, because I am our only translator and when shit hits the fan I’m the only one who can handle it.

However, my company is very good about making sure that I receive all of my overtime pay. Every single minute of overtime I do is properly reimbursed. Sometimes this means that if I work 60 hours one month, I will only report 45 that month, and then report 15 extra hours the next month. Or I will take a couple days off but claim that I worked (with my bosses’ approval, of course).

I can’t speak for other companies for sure, but I fear that when this law was introduced in 2019, many companies did not change their business models and instead forbid employees from reporting overtime that exceeded legal limits, meaning they would be going without compensation.

So be aware that if you are going to work in a Japanese company, you are likely to have overtime. Some people don’t, and congratulations to them! But it is an extremely real possibility. Make sure that you can handle it physically and mentally, and that you are being properly compensated. After my first month of Big Overtime, my boss told me, “I’m surprised that you managed to do all that. I thought that Americans had a poor work ethic compared to Japanese people, but now I see that’s not true.”

kinda racist, but thx

If you have an interview and it goes well and you receive a contract, ask to take the contract and have time to think about it. Then, have a Japanese person you trust read the contract and make sure there is nothing shady hidden in there. Contracts and legalese are difficult enough in my own native language--I don’t trust myself to catch something in Japanese.

If your friend thinks that the contract is fair as well, and if you feel like the company has a good atmosphere, take the job. That is what I did, and I am glad I did.

Translation and Interpretation

A lot of people don’t know the difference between “translation” and “interpretation” and use them interchangeably, but they are actually entirely different tasks that require different skills.

Translation: the conversion of written text from one language to another.

Interpretation: the conversion of spoken word from one language to another.

You will most likely be hired as a translator, because translation is much cheaper than interpretation. However, if your company is like mine, you will have interpretation work to do as well. You may be asked to take part in meetings and facilitate communication between the English-speaking and Japanese-speaking people, or act as a guide to a client from American headquarters, for example.

With translation, you usually have the blessing of time. You can look up a word you don’t know, you can think about the grammar, you can think about tone.

But with interpretation, you need to be:

Listening to Speaker A’s English and mentally summarizing their words

Starting to say Speaker A’s words in Japanese while holding on to the bits that will come later because English and Japanese word order is so different

Continuing to listen to added speech from Speaker A as you concurrently are relaying their previous speech in to Japanese and retaining the parts that you can’t say yet because of word order.

Then do it all for again for Speaker B’s reply, and repeat.

Basically, your mind has to be doing three things at once. Does your head hurt? Mine does. If I have to do simultaneous interpretation like that for more than a couple hours I literally develop a headache.

I will NEVER recommend an N3 person attempt interpretation in a business setting. Nor N2 for that matter. It is hard and you do not have the benefit of time to think and double-check things.

Also, many people don’t understand exactly how difficult it is to do interpretation. I have to sometimes just say “Sorry, pause” to the speaker because my head can’t retain any more, especially if figures and data and dates are referred to. Thankfully my coworkers have come to understand my method and are just happy that I can facilitate communication for them.

If you have any other questions regarding job hunting, please let me know and I’d be more than happy to offer what advice I have! 💖

#Anonymous #work in japan #life in Japan #expat in japan #japanese translation #japanese interpretation #job hunting #job hunting in japan #japan #ask me anything #asks are open

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dpanuncialwriter · 3 years

Photo

Librarians, Start New Game

November-December 2019, American Libraries Magazine

For librarians at universities with videogame design programs, maintaining a large, accessible gaming collection isn’t a Final Fantasy. It’s a Call of Duty. Beginning a collection may be as easy as pressing start to play, but storing and preserving complex materials is a tough battle—and academic librarians want to level up.

The University of Michigan’s (UM) Computer Video and Game Archive (CVGA) in Ann Arbor boasts more than 8,000 videogames and 60 consoles dating back to the 1970s. “Because we have such a large collection, there are many examples from which to pull and get inspiration, things [students] would never be able to afford on their own,” says David Carter, videogame archivist at UM. “Almost nobody has a collection this big, especially a college student.”

“[People] don’t think of libraries as a destination for digital scholarship,” says Anne Morrow, associate librarian and head of digital scholarship services at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library, which has more than 500 videogames and serves almost 400 game design students. “There’s an incentive to see what the obstacles are for bringing these types of original work into the collection.”

Objective: playability

As the owner of more than 2,000 commercial games, 300 student games, and 40 consoles (some as old as the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System), the University of California, Santa Cruz’s (UCSC) Science and Engineering Library prioritizes authentic playability. Its goal is to provide students with not only a game but also the console it was made for, a compatible controller, and an era-appropriate TV to play it on.

With so many moving pieces, says Christy Caldwell, science and engineering librarian at UCSC, “providing usage of increasingly ‘antique’ [materials] is an ongoing challenge.”

UM has the same goal. “We don’t have to do a lot of tracking down, thankfully,” says Valerie Waldron, UM computer and videogame archive manager. About half of its collection is donated, and as with other academic libraries that own game collections, staffers turn to eBay if they need to repair or buy a missing item. Or they get creative.

“Something broke on our Atari 7800, and we actually 3D-printed a replacement part,” Carter says.

Why is maintaining playability of older games important? Students are mainly studying design and software. “What does the game look like, and what does the controller feel like?” Caldwell says. “Are you seeing something similar to what someone who played the game earlier would have seen and experienced?”

Students are also looking at artwork, game mechanics, subjects, and even source code as inspiration for their own games. “They’re using [archives] for competitive intelligence, and looking at what’s been done already,” says Tallie Casucci, assistant librarian at Marriott Library.

Space is another issue. At Marriott Library, students must go to different floors to pick up a videogame, grab a console and matching controllers, and actually play, since the stations are separated and require checkouts for loss prevention. “It’d be nice to have everything all in one place,” Casucci says.

In Ann Arbor, the CVGA houses both the collection and spaces to play the games on consoles, since the collection doesn’t leave the library. “It’s a very crammed room,” Carter says.

Save game?

UM staffers say they have two missions: to serve the teaching and research needs of faculty and students in order to promote usage of the games, and to preserve those games. “There’s an inherent tension. Usage is the enemy of preservation,” Carter says. “Academic usage trumps preservation. We don’t want to have something just to have it and not let people use it.”

After students from the Entertainment Arts and Engineering program at Utah lost all the materials for Erie, a popular student-made game from 2012, Casucci and Morrow investigated their options. With help from an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant, they published an ebook this fall on how to best archive, preserve, and disseminate student videogames.

“People have been looking at digital preservation seriously, [but] we haven’t made progress with objects that are really complex, like videogames, that have many interactions between files,” Morrow says. “We thought about the existing services in a library and how games might be supported by those services.”

“In our case, it would be the sheer number of analog games to process and store that would be difficult, especially year after year,” Caldwell says. “You’re asking people in cataloging who have never even played a game to suddenly start cataloging media. You need to support them.” The best way to do that, she says, is to develop accurate metadata and consistent, detailed cataloging practices.

But academic libraries still need to strategize.

At Marriott Library, Casucci and Morrow created a tiered retention system for archiving student games, through which students can choose the process that best suits their needs. In earlier tiers, students can contribute visuals such as screenshots or game trailers. As they go further into the system, students can contribute their games in their entirety, allowing future students complete access to its features.

Commercial games have not been forgotten. Carter and Waldron are finding ways to preserve legacy formats of videogames like floppy disks and cartridges. “We’re trying to discover ways of taking the game off its original format and creating an image for it,” Waldron says. “There are still a lot of things to work out, like how to store it properly, retrieve it, or put it back in its original format.” As for regular discs, UM keeps multiple copies and stores them in archival-quality sleeves behind the circulation desk.

According to Heather Maxwell Chandler’s Game Production Handbook, after producing a videogame, developers organize the game’s source assets and archive them in a closing kit—a common practice in the industry to help developers install updates or patches to their games. UCSC would like to implement closing kits down the line.

“The faculty wants to have a record of what students have created,” Caldwell says. “They want students to be inspired by what other students have done and build on that work.”

Carter and Waldron say that videogame preserving and archiving has been underdeveloped in libraries because it is still an emerging format. “Until recently, the history of the videogame industry has been left in the hands of private collectors,” Carter says. “Not to discount the work that private collectors have done—that’s one portion of preservation, but you need academic libraries in the mix.”

“For a long time, [game companies] weren’t really interested in preserving their games, either,” Waldron says. According to Kotaku, this is due to legal gray areas, lack of industry support, and turnover of games. “I think that’s slowly starting to change.”

Conquering copyright issues

Potential copyright problems exist in every layer of videogame collecting, especially regarding older materials with expired copyrights. In October 2018, a decision from the Library of Congress and US Copyright Office allowed institutions to lawfully own copies of older videogames if they were acquired from the original companies in order to make preservation copies—a separate challenge for librarians and archivists as many companies are no longer in business or have discontinued server support.

“Assuming that all videogames are governed by terms of use, it’s likely that any exceptions one would expect in the copyright law are not allowed,” says Carrie Russell, senior program officer and copyright specialist at the American Library Association. “If students are doing close analysis of the games or something similar, it’s likely that license terms don’t forbid just studying and researching the game unless the research involves the need to circumvent digital rights management (DRM) that may be employed by the rights holder.”

DRM is a form of copyright protection licensing for digital media implemented by embedding code that prevents copying, specifying a time period in which content can be accessed, or limiting the number of devices content can be installed on. For example, games with expired or maxed-out licenses may not be library friendly.

Another consideration is that certain PC games come with keys—a string of unique characters—that a user must input in order to play. “But then that [game] is registered, and it’s only good for one use,” Carter says. “If someone donates a PC game to us, if they’ve used the key, we can’t use that game. We have to somehow get another key.”

Currently, libraries’ and archives’ rights to preserve videogames are allowed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. “That exemption, however, will expire in 2021 and need to be requested again,” Russell says.

Student-made videogames are easier to preserve since students get to decide what university libraries can keep. The student work that libraries archive mostly consists of digital files. They can either archive the entire game or different elements of it, like an abstract, artwork, or gameplay footage.

“We never make the students put up everything,” Caldwell says. “They could say, ‘I don’t want to upload my actual code. I’ll upload my abstract.’”

Students can claim complete copyright of their games or use a Creative Commons license, which allows others to share, use, and build on their work. They can even decide if they want their work to be available to university affiliates or the public.

Librarians, too, try to educate students about the importance of archiving their work at the library, studying other games, and how copyright plays into both. “You have to believe that [students] are going to use [the collection] responsibly,” Caldwell says.

Next-level libraries

Librarians agree they’re just beginning to assimilate game scholarship into academic libraries; progress will continue as the industry and programs evolve.

Caldwell says librarians should be working collaboratively to keep games accessible by lobbying for copyright law exceptions, partnering with game companies, and improving metadata and catalog descriptions.

“Games are to the 21st century what films were to the 20th,” she says. “How long did it take libraries to start collecting film? I think what we can do is start working together sooner, because we’ve already lost so many games.”

UM also wants to encourage students who may not be game design majors to help normalize videogames in the library. “In humanities or social science classes, instead of writing a paper, students are creating games,” Carter says. “We’ve been working with the design lab [at UM] to figure out ways to support the lighter-weight aspect of game creation.”

“[Games are] a part of society,” Waldron says. “It speaks to what our culture is in any given era, like any other format.”

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ayesha432 · 3 years

Text

How To Target Prospective Customers on Instagram?

Instagram is the most popular social networking platform amongst millennials and young people. With 800 million monthly active users, Instagram has expanded beyond just showing off the latest fashion trends; it now caters to a wide range of niches. In a recent poll of over 2500 micro-influencers, 60% said Instagram is the best channel for engagement.

Instagram users are also in a purchasing mood, and people share more on this social platform about the current trends–which is why it is the finest outlet for promoting your brand and attracting more ideal customers.

So, how can you make the most of your social media optimization services by leveraging Instagram to generate traffic on your website? What’s the best way to use it to its full potential? Here are some Instagram tips to help you attract your ideal customers:

Switch To Business Mode First and foremost, we strongly advise that you switch your account from personal to business mode. Making the switch to Instagram for business will not just help you establish a stronger presence on the platform. You'll also be able to get vital information about the performance of your account. You'll also see a couple of contact buttons beneath your bio and can easily commercialize your business.

Here's how to go from a personal profile to a business page in only a few clicks:

Go to your profile's upper right corner and tap the three lines. Tap the ‘Settings’ button and select ‘Account’ from the drop-down menu. Switch to a professional account by tapping on ‘Business.’ If you'd like, you can connect your business account to a Facebook Page associated with your company by following the instructions. This is an optional step. Include information such as your company's category, contact information and tap ‘Done.’ Also Read : Social Media Marketing: Solving The Most Common Challenges

Start with Bigger Marketing Personas If you own a business, you most likely already have a buyer persona, a profile of an ideal consumer to whom you want to sell your product.

There's no need to reinvent the wheel for determining your ideal Instagram audience. Inquire with your social media marketing agency about the usual customer. After you've dug into your Instagram analytics, you'll be able to add more subtlety and detail to these clients' profiles based on your social data.

First, you must ask yourself the following four questions:

What exactly is my product? What kind of audience do I want to reach? (Or, for whom is my product intended?) What exactly are my target audience's pain points? And how am I going to reach out to that audience? Analyze Your Competitors’ Audience With practically every other business establishing an Instagram account, you won't be the only one selling the product/service you do. So, if you are unsure of who your target audience is, you will find success by analysing the audience of your competitors.

Who is commenting on your competitors' Instagram posts? What kind of content is appealing to them? What sparked their interest? These questions can be answered by doing a competitive analysis. Another reason to keep your competitors near is that you can find your ideal audience on their profile. Navigate to your competitor's profile and click on followers. Start by looking at their followers' accounts and following them back.

NOTE: Just don't follow more than 50 people each day, or Instagram will assume you're a spammer/robot.

Engage With Your Audience It may seem obvious, but engaging with your followers is essential for converting them into customers. The followers who engage with you the most on social media are usually your most loyal audience, and they are the most likely to make a purchase from you later on.

While it might be tough to keep up with the flood of comments, following, and likes, responding to these interactions will benefit you in a variety of ways. The more you "like" comments, answer questions, and follow individuals back, the more your followers will engage with you, the higher the Instagram algorithm will position your content on the feed.

Establish a Rapport With Influencers. Influencers are persons who are well known in your industry. These influencers are your best bet if you want to advertise on Instagram and get more people to notice your brand.

Consider your connection with influencers to be a network – tap three to four influencers and you will engage their followers. Influencer marketing works in the same way as word-of-mouth marketing. Consumers trust reviews and comments more than the actual description on your website.

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slime-smile · 3 years

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im reading this bookthat was written in 1968 and im telling p much everyone i talk to bout it, as we kno i suk at articulating clearly what’s going on in my mind but. well one thing i’ve talked about semi-frequently w one of my friends is how we’ve stagnated significantly in our culture, science, politics, etc. or like the socio-political problems from the 60s/70s gavent improved and if anything the issues are exacerbated. horading of wealth, developing scoiety in service of “productivity” and maximalizing c apitalisms profitiability, atomization, racial/wealth/class inequality. but well anyways. the book that was written in 1968, by René Dubos, So Human An Animal. it’s about how humans have biological needs that are rooted in our evolution, and although we progress farther into a technicized, refined, society and lacquer them in a culturally acceptable veneer, we still have these needs. and technology and its proliferation have removed us ever further from nature even tho our biology is inextricably bound w it. and also he says we have now advanced so far as a society that we should be able to use our technological advancements to ensure a society which provides the best quality of outcomes for the most people, yet we focus our technology on maximizing wealth productivity etc etc. it was written before we went to the moon but again published in 1968 so we ere trying to make it happen. and he wqas like we shouldnt be wasting our time or energy trying to leave the planet. it’s a waste of scientific resources. and also it’s a pipe-dream to believe we could ever colonize other planets. and again. 1968. and now we have ultra wealthy ppl who could definitely use their money to provide greater qualities of life for millions of ppl instead figuring out how to squeeze maximum amountsof labor out of ppl to maximize profits and then using this money for vanity trips to spacde. sorry but there really is no reason to go to spacfe other than to prov e that we can. and creqating a viable atmosphere on mars is impossible. like i mean we can do it but it wont be self-sustainig. and we’v e already polluted space. there’s so much trash in spacfe. and now we want to go ruin another planet? because we feel we’ve ruined this one.....?? and actually the reason i even started writing this post or thinking about this stuff is bc i was thinking about how we are social animals, we need small communities and ties to those around us, like meaningful relationships that are based purely on enjoying the company of the other person and not money or status or whatever we think we can get out of them. (which the book talks too about how society is progressively atomizing as a result of being oriented around capitalism’s goals and how as ppl isolate themselves to deal with stress their main connection to their community occurs via money, exchanging money, (like groceries and shopping and services etc etc).. so basically what i want is just to connect to other ppl.. in person... because i like them and enjoy them. and i wish it was easier lol

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lanaisnotwool · 4 years

Video

youtube

422 Get a College Education for FREE - Interview with Grant Aldrich

https://moneyripples.com/2020/09/15/422-get-a-college-education-for-free-interview-with-grant-aldrich/

Is it possible to get a college education for FREE?

Grant Aldrich is on a mission to make college more affordable and accessible for everyone.

http://OnlineDegree.com has now become a leading educational platform to help millions of people go back to school who’ve been unable to take that first critical step.

Grant firmly believes in the benefits of utilizing open source or Open Educational Resources (OER) for students. By using OER in higher education, student’s costs of learning are kept to an absolute minimum.

OER has given OnlineDegree.com the ability to achieve its goal of making the offering completely free for students and sets a positive example to encourage the adoption of these materials worldwide.

Basically the mission is to make college more attainable for everyone. Learn more about this in the episode.

BLOG TALK RADIO

Chris Miles (00:05): Hello, my fellow Ripplers! This is Chris Miles. Your Cash Flow Expert and Anti-Financial Advisor. Hey guys, I’m welcoming you out for a wonderful show. A show that’s for you and about you. Those of you that work so freaking hard for your money, and you’re ready for your money to start working harder for you. Today! You want that freedom. That cash flow. That prosperity. Right now! Not 30 or 40 bazillion years from now, but today. So you have that life that you love. To be able to do what you love. To be with those that you love. But on top of that, it’s just not about prosper yourself, right? It’s much, much deeper than that because as you become financially prosperous, you can create your own ripple effect through people’s lives. You can be a blessing in the lives of others. And that is the world I’m here to create. So thank you so much for allowing me to create a ripple effect through you with this show.

Chris Miles (00:50): And, and of course, thank you guys for also keeping that ripple effect going. Cause you guys keep sharing. You keep bingeing and everything else. So thank you so much for joining us today. You guys are a big part of this I couldn’t do without you. Hey, as a reminder, check out our website, MoneyRipples.com There is an ebook, Beyond Rice and Beans, Seven Secrets to Free Up Cash Today. That you can download for free. And by the way, it’s like a whopping 28 pages because I put page breaks in it. So it’s like a 15 minute read. Great stuff in there, but you also check out on our blogs. There’s actually some of our YouTube videos that are up now of this very show. So if you actually want to watch the show, you can actually start watch on YouTube as well. So check it out.

Chris Miles (01:29): Alright! So today I’ve got a special guest and you know, I keep finding some interesting people and this is definitely no exception. You know, this was somebody who reached out and said, Hey, you gotta have Grant Aldrich on your show because you know, it’s funny, my wife had actually even brought up about, you know, doing online degrees, but even like having ways to have it paid for. And I thought that was intriguing. And within the same week that she said that someone says, Hey, you need to have Grant on your show. So that’s what I got. Guys. I have grant here with us and just to let you know, grant actually runs a company OnlineDegree.com and now he founded this one. It was a real purpose driven mission, right? The mission is this, to make college more accessible and affordable for everyone.

Chris Miles (02:13): Now, after graduating college with an overwhelming amount of debt. Grant was actually determined to change how students embark on their college education. He has spent his entire career working at startups with nearly 15 years of experience and two prior exits to a publicly traded company. He’s also been a board member and donor to a number of non-profits and advisor to many public traded companies and a guest speaker at seminars and graduate school courses. And today, well, especially when I bring him on and say, all right, whether you’re someone you’ve got kids or whether it’s yourself and you’re thinking about going and get your degree again, how can you do it in a way where you don’t have to go to pay millions of dollars to make crappy amounts of money? And so that’s why we have a Grant here on our show today. So grant welcome!

Grant Aldrich (02:54): Hey, Chris! Thanks for having me!

Chris Miles (02:55): Absolutely, man. So tell us about your story and what inspired this. Like you mentioned that you went through a lot of debt, right? You know, tell us more about that.

Grant Aldrich (03:03): Yeah. I left college with just an immense amount of debt and I seemingly made all of the right choices. So I took a traditional path. Graduated high school. Went to the best school I could get to. And I even came in with AP courses and all kinds of things that had me graduate as a sophomore. So I had a year already finished and I still graduated with just a ton of debt. And that left a real mark on me for many years because I didn’t pay it off until my late twenties. And I was in a position recently where I had exited my last company and I really was sitting around trying to figure out, what do I want to do to make a big difference and enjoy my work far more than I had before?

Grant Aldrich (03:50): And I just kept coming to higher Ed. My parents were teachers and a bad taste in my mouth that had been sitting there for so long and everything just kind of came together to try to make higher education, more affordable, more accessible.

Chris Miles (04:04): Yeah. How did that even come to be for you guys?

Grant Aldrich (04:08): You know, this was definitely a meandering approach. I just started with the mission. And I think that’s a really cool thing to do as an entrepreneur. You just start with a mission. I want to make college affordable and accessible. And I didn’t know how we were going to do it. It was definitely something I stumbled upon and tried to figure out. And finally, we came to, we’re going to create a modern alternative to the community college. And so people can come on the platform. Get started in 60 seconds. Take as many college level courses as they’d like. Earn credit towards their degree at universities across the country. We do it all for free.

Chris Miles (04:44): Now, how is that possible?

Grant Aldrich (04:45): It was just to kind of complete it. Not only do we provide all this for free, we provide support services. We organize discounts for our students on their behalf. So for example, you come in, take a bunch of units that can lower the cost of your degree, but then we go above and beyond that and get the universities to give you another discount. So you may get 10%, 20% off the cost of your degree just from coming through our program. And so to answer your question, how do we do it, you kind of have to look into the dynamic of how the system works. So the benefit for the student is probably obvious, right? I’ve got, instead of just making this big leap to go back in getting your degree, paying full price and having to just figure it out on the go, we provide an option to wait in the pool where you could save a bunch of money sometimes up to 30% 40% of your degree.

Grant Aldrich (05:34): And to give it a kind of, you know, kick the tires a bit, see what classes are of interest, you know, get used to learning in an online format. Prove you’ve got the time management, all that. That benefits probably obvious. What people don’t realize, it’s an immense benefit for the universities as well. So for the universities, it’s a little known fact that they are desperate for good students. And when I say good, I mean, students who will finish their program. Who are prepared when they show up. Who don’t need a lot of orientation programs on how to learn online and how to make sure they work courses into their daily life. It’s really valuable. So inherently when you’re going through progressing through the courses, you’re making yourself a better student. So the entire platform is sponsored by the universities to make it a true win-win for the student and the school.

Chris Miles (06:26): Interesting. Yeah. I can see when they’re college, that’s a big deal. Especially if they want that, the impressive numbers show that people actually graduate and finishing complete. Right? Versus, you know, it’s like, you know, University of Hawaii, where people used to go on vacation, then drop out. You know.

Grant Aldrich (06:41): Yeah. I wish we all could go to University of Hawaii and just skip class all day.

Chris Miles (06:45): That’s the one place you won’t go to do online education.

Grant Aldrich (06:48): No! Definitely not! Yeah. More like, you know, upstate New York where it’s nice and cold. Right? But yeah. So the whole process, getting people back to school and doing it this way has just been really successful. It’s just really worked because it’s really created a whole new paradigm.

Chris Miles (07:05): Yeah. And who funds this? Like how is this funded?

Grant Aldrich (07:08): All by the university partnerships. So, you know, when I first started, I looked at doing a non-profit. And the problem is, is that, there’s actually a lot of rules on how non-profits were able to generate revenue. And so I didn’t want a system where we would be, couldn’t do tuition. Right? I wanted no tuition. That was a key thing. And I didn’t want to be dependent upon donations. And so if you’re non-profit, you take revenue in certain ways you can lose your non-profit status. So I decided, Nope, we’re just going to keep it. We’re a benefit Corp. And we’re going to make it funded completely by the universities.

Chris Miles (07:41): Great! And now, I know what you have as a tagline says, The First Years For Free. Is it just the first year or is it the entire college experience? And how does that work?

Grant Aldrich (07:50): It could actually be more than the first year. You know, we’ve tried, because we’re a new concept and it’s a little different. And you know, I made that comparison to a community college, which is something everybody knows. But we are different because you know, when you come on our platform, you could take one course. You could take all 15 that we offer. And you could then still get the discount on different schools. So it’s far more flexible than a community college. In terms of that flexibility, you don’t have to go to class. It’s all online at your own pace. So the goal was to make something where I looked at the community college systems thing. This is a very rigid system. What if I don’t want to get my full associates degree? What if I just want to get a little bit, save, and then go to the right school of my choosing? Or what if I want something that’s more accessible from my heavy work life and my family life and all these things. So really that’s what I tried to design a better system for. And so, yeah, I mean, anybody can come in, they can take one class or you can save up as much as 40% on your degree, depending on the school you go to. And the discounts that we have.

Chris Miles (08:52): Wow! That’s incredible! Well, like you said, it’s great that people have working schedule if they already have their own business or they’re already going, you know, they’re working all the time. Like they don’t want to spend a lot of time. They want to be able to do at their own pace and that sort of thing. Right? It sounds like you’ve definitely provided a solution for that.

Grant Aldrich (09:07): That’s it. This is built for the working adults. So something people don’t realize is that working adults have become the real students in higher education. Not the 18 year old. And there’s an estimated 35 to 40 million of those adults who are not taking that first step. So I really tried to create a solution that just met all the impediments that were stopping people from getting started. And yeah, you’re right. One of them is that, Hey, we’re busy. Adults are busy. We’ve got kids, got jobs, you’ve got responsibilities. We can’t leave all of that three times a week to go to class in the middle of the day. Not conducive for what we’re doing. It’s gotta be 30 minutes while we’re cooking dinner. 30 minutes on the couch at night. That has to be conducive to that learning environment. And then of course the cost. If you’re not 18 years old, you can’t amortize the cost of a degree over your lifetime like you can when you’re young. We’re thirties, forties, we have to be able to get an affordable degree that will actually help us get a better career. That’s not going to break the bank. And so I think really what we’ve done too, is balanced the ROI of getting a degree now. And the cost.

Chris Miles (10:13): Right! Exactly! And that’s been one of my biggest hangups with school, right? Cause I dropped out of college with what, not even a class. It was a project, one project away from getting my bachelor’s. Right? And then I decided to go into being an entrepreneur just to gain that experience that was going to go to the business consulting. So I was going to finish my MBA. And by after I went to the business, I said, well, what the heck? These degrees seem worthless, you know. In comparison to how much time and money I have to put into this, versus I can just go out and make money no. You know, as an entrepreneur. And that definitely was more enticing. And this kind of seems like it’s a good hybrid between the two. It’s like saying, Hey, do I want to get the ROI? Plus the time I have to put, by the way, I did try to actually go and finish my degree. Five years later. And they said, all right, great, well, you just have to take another semester and a half of full time credits. Cause it had been over five years. I said, well, forget that, you know, there’s no reason I should get a sociology degree and have to spend a year and a half going full time to school when I was already retired, you know? So, Oh yeah. Make logical sense at that point, right?

Grant Aldrich (11:17): Oh yeah. Well, you know, the other problem is, Is that so many schools out there are not adult friendly, which is what you’re kind of touching on. And so the other thing that we’ve done is we’ve tried to only partner with schools that are adult friendly. And so to that point, you know, what does adult friendly mean? These are schools that aren’t going to give you a lot of sweat for being five years out of the classroom. They look past that. They’re far more accommodating to the modern adult or working adult. And so they view a lot more support for working adults. The classes are online. The restaurant pays, you know, all those things that help and not give you the experience that you had. But you’re right, you know, for a bigger perspective, not everybody needs to get a degree. Some careers, you should have it because you had the edge for your job and you can get that big promotion.

Grant Aldrich (12:01): Or if it’s a necessity. Like if I want to be a teacher. But for you and I, you know, we’re both entrepreneurs. What’s great is that what we’ve now branched out to is into certifications. And so in addition to degrees, we offer discounted certifications with credit universities that are better than anything else out there. Where, let’s say you want to be a bookkeeper. Well, you can get a certification with a certificate from the university, for your clients in book keeping with Quick Books and all of this. To basically just prepare you for a career as being your own boss. So that way, you know, you’ve got something. You don’t have to be a CPA. You’ve got something. When you go into that room, when you’re pitching your new clients, you know, I’m certified by University of X and it looks really good. So I’m glad we’ve really added that. So I think it’s complimented the situations that you’re talking about, where not everybody needs a degree.

Chris Miles (12:50): Right. That’s true. Now you mentioned, of course it’s perfect for the working adult. What about for those that are the typical young adult college age? You know, is this a good fit for them? Cause I know again, a ton of people that will say, how do I pay for college? How do I save for college, all this kind of stuff. And so I guarantee you there’s many, many listeners saying, all right, I may not need a degree, but what about my kids?

Grant Aldrich (13:12): Yeah. You know, it is. Although it hasn’t been open for them. I’ll explain why. When we first got started, I had the working adult in mind. So we purposely excluded it to anybody who was under 18 or any international students. And my logic was, was that I wanted to make sure we came out of the gate for our first MVP product, that we had a really good experience for that core demographic. And since then it’s just exploded. And so now we’re going back and saying, okay, we can expand now and go into high school students international because we get so many students knocking on the door saying we want it. In fact, for every one adult now that we have in, three knock on the door that we turn away who are either international or under 18. And so it’s a big problem. Yeah. So we’re working on now working out the intricacies of now opening up the platform for all those people. It’s not ready yet. Soon!

Chris Miles (14:07): Soon. So if they got somebody who’s in their mid teens, this is probably the perfect time.

Grant Aldrich (14:12): Yeah! So I would say, you know, check back maybe after the summer. We’ll be good to go.

Chris Miles (14:16): Okay. That’s pretty soon.

Grant Aldrich (14:17): Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very actively working on it.

Chris Miles (14:19): That’s great! Awesome! Well this is fantastic! I know it’s a, just like incredible niche, you know, that just to see that that’s even available and even possible for people to even get, you know, the ability to even take some courses and essential, not only have they come out of pocket initially. Right? I think that’s just incredible. So if people want to learn more about it, where should they go?

Grant Aldrich (14:40): Well, Chris, thank you man! And you know, it really is trying to just spread the word about it that, you know, in addition to what we do, there are a bunch of other little known secrets on how you can save college. You know, cause I think so many people fall into the trap where they just go in the front door and they just accept the fact, that’s it got to pay full time tuition. And the only ways to save previously were scholarships or community college. And both of those have tons of problems. They’re terrible options for an adult to try to do. And I can go into that later, but anyhow, yeah. So to come on, just go to OnlineDegree.com you can follow the project if it’s not something that, you know, if you’re not interested in certification or degree and we’ve got all kinds of info there on ways you can save. It’s really cool. So let’s say that would be a good one. And I’m also available on LinkedIn, you know, people want to connect.

Chris Miles (15:24): Great! Okay. We got to open it up for a few more minutes for sure. So grants or whatever you’re talking about right there. Like what are the non traditional ways that people might miss out on? You don’t have to give all the details, all the secrets, but just give us a few.

Grant Aldrich (15:38): Yeah. You know, you almost have to look at going back to higher ed as like you’re hacking your way through. And I mean that in a good way. Yeah. Cause you’re taking pieces off the shelf from numerous destinations. So what’s kind of good by starting in our platform is that we provide a good base. So, okay. Let’s say we aggregate all the adult friendly schools. So you know, which ones are the ones that are going to treat you the way that you would assume you’d be treated, going back to school. And so you start there and then we can map out what courses you can take for free. Then we can look at what kind of discounts are available that you can take advantage of at the different institutions. And then from there, we also compliment that this is something that most people don’t know, there’s these exams you can take where it’s not like an AP exam.

Grant Aldrich (16:23): It’s not as hard as that is, but they’re all about subject matter expertise where you can test out of a course. And so you can take, instead of taking, let’s say a full semester, long class on, you know, we can make this up, but history one. You can take, we have a history course. So this isn’t exactly the same. You can knock it out with our history course. But to give the example, you could take a prep course, right online, just short term. Take this exam and then remove the requirement when you come to school. So little techniques like this, just chip away at the amount of units you have to take at the actual university. Cause at the end of the day, you have to get, let’s say 120 units to get your bachelor’s degree at a college. And each course is three, four units, et cetera. The more that you can finish for free or at a discount rather than paying full price for tuition at that school, the better.

Chris Miles (17:13): That’s true. I remember, cause I lived for two years in Japan during my college years. Right? So I came back my sophomore year of college and they said, Hey, you can test out of this. And so I essentially got like 16 language arts credits. You know, for no charge. I was just able to get that knocked out. Right. And you know, kind of accelerate a little bit to the bachelors. I still had to take a bunch of more courses, but at least I was able to say, all right, well that’s off the list now. I’ve got plenty of, almost had too many credits by the time I was getting my bachelors, you know?

Grant Aldrich (17:43): That’s fantastic! Yeah. That’s a good example actually. Right. You know, you don’t take a language class if you’re comfortable enough with the language. You could test out of it. Yeah. Great example.

Chris Miles (17:51): Yeah. Awesome! Well, great! So again, everybody check out OnlineDegree.com you know, just, yeah. If that’s something that either for yourself or for someone you know, check it out. See what resources are available. Reach out to them and see if that’s something that’s a fit for you and something that could actually be the very thing you’ve been looking for. So Grant, I really appreciate your time today. It’s been awesome!

Grant Aldrich (18:11): Chris, thanks a lot for having me on!

Chris Miles (18:13): You bet, man. And everybody else, make it a wonderful and prosperous week and we’ll see you later.

#Chris Miles #Anti-financial Advisor #Cash flow #Cash flow Expert #Debts #Entrepreneur #Financial Freedom #Money Ripples

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didanawisgi · 3 years

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China's push to control Americans' health care future

U.S. officials say the Chinese government is trying to collect Americans' DNA, and they believe a recent offer from a Chinese company for assistance in COVID-19 testing was suspicious. Jon Wertheim reports.

For all the polarization that grips Washington, here's a source of rare consensus: the emerging threat of China's push to acquire our health care data, including the DNA of American citizens. U.S. officials tell us the communist regime's aggressive collection of our most personal information presents a danger both to national security and our economy. As alarm bells ring across agencies, parties, and presidential administrations, different branches of government have taken action over the past year to stem the tide of our medical data flowing to China. The quest to control our biodata – and, in turn, control health care's future – has become the new space race, with more than national pride in the balance. Our investigation begins with an unsolicited and surprising proposal that came from overseas at the onset of the COVID crisis.

Early last March, the state of Washington was the site of the first major coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. As COVID rates and the need for tests were spiking, BGI Group, the world's largest biotech firm - a global giant based in China - approached the state of Washington with an enticing offer.

In a strikingly personal letter to the governor, BGI proposed to build and help run state-of-the-art COVID testing labs. BGI would quote "provide technical expertise," provide "high throughput sequencers" and even "make additional donations."

It seemed like an offer the state couldn't refuse, especially given the desperate need. But officials were suspicious about BGI and its connections to the Chinese government.

Bill Evanina: They are the ultimate company that shows connectivity to both the communist state as well as the military apparatus.

Bill Evanina recently stepped down as the top counterintelligence official in the U.S., a veteran of both the FBI and CIA. He was so concerned by BGI's COVID testing proposals, and who would ultimately get the data, that he authorized a rare public warning: "Foreign powers can collect, store and exploit biometric information from covid tests."

Bill Evanina: We put out an advisory to not only every American, but to hospitals, associations, and clinics. Knowing that BGI is a Chinese company, do we understand where that data's going?

Jon Wertheim: Tens of millions Americans getting COVID tests this year, you don't think a lot of them are thinking, "Boy, where is this data going, what third party's involved in this?"

Bill Evanina: I would proffer no one's thinking that. But this shows the nefarious mindset of the Communist Party of China, to take advantage of a worldwide crisis like COVID.

Evanina suspects these lab offers are modern-day Trojan horses. BGI comes to the U.S. bearing gifts, but harboring other motives. It's unclear whether BGI, or any COVID tester, would get DNA from nasal swabs, he says, but the labs are a way to establish a foothold, to bring their equipment here, start mining your data, and set up shop in your neighborhood.

Edward You: You have to take a step back and ask yourself who has access to that data.

Supervisory Special Agent Edward You is a former biochemist turned FBI investigator.

Edward You: And with that, there's a very uncomfortable truth that comes out, that in the last decade or so, you'll see that China has heavily invested, through the purchase or acquisition of actual companies, access to our data.

Jon Wertheim: If the question is where is this data going, all roads lead to China?

Edward You: They are the biggest player right now.

The authoritarian government of China and its leader Xi Jinping have been boldly open about their ambitions to beat the west and reap the benefits of advances in DNA science and technology. The communist regime even has a published manifesto with a catchy name.

Edward You: They have something called Made in China 2025. And in these national strategies, they absolutely call out wanting to be the dominant leader in this biological age. So wanting to be the leader and being able to develop vaccines, precision medicine.

For all the classified briefings about China that Bill Evanina received, the threat really hit home when he called home.

Bill Evanina: This is the argument I would have with my dad. Is ten years from now-- my dad gets a phone call and is told, "Hey, by the way, we understand you're gonna develop hypertension. And you're on the verge of Parkinson's. Here are three medicines you should take moving forward to help alleviate some of the symptoms." My dad's gonna be like, "Well, how do they know this?" And the company's from China. Because they've already micro-targeted my dad based upon his DNA. And my dad says, "Okay, (CLAP) I'll do it."

Jon Wertheim: The devil's advocate argument would say, "Listen, if you're able to pinpoint something in my DNA, I'll sign up for that."

Bill Evanina: That's exactly what my dad said. (LAUGH) So my argument is, to him, from a long-term existential cost to our nation, do we want to do that? Do we wanna have another nation systematically eliminate our health care services? Are we okay with that as a nation? If we are as a nation, then so be it. But that's what's happening.

Our dependence on China during COVID - for PPE, for masks - will pale in comparison to our potential health care dependence going forward, according to Edward You of the FBI.

Edward You: What happens if we realize that all of our future drugs, our future vaccines, future health care are all completely dependent upon a foreign source? If we don't wake up, we'll realize one day we've just become health care crack addicts and someone like China has become our pusher.

Jon Wertheim: Health care crack addicts, you say?

Edward You: Right. If they're in a position to be able to offer you personalized, effective, low-cost health care, would we be in a position to say no, I don't think so?

Jon Wertheim: How close are we to that?

Edward You: I don't know how close we are, but I can feel it breathing down our neck.

Jon Wertheim: This sounds a little xenophobic. I mean, if China is the industry leader here, why wouldn't you do business with them?

Edward You: Well, at the end of the day, it's not about the Chinese people. It's about the Chinese government.

He says China's government understands that their future success hinges on accumulating large amounts of human DNA.

Edward You: They are building out a huge domestic database. And if they are now able to supplement that with data from all around the world, it's all about who gets the largest, most diverse data set. And so, the ticking time bomb is that once they're able to achieve true artificial intelligence, then they're off to the races in what they can do with that data.

Jon Wertheim: You're saying biggest data set wins?

Edward You: Correct.

Think of DNA as the ultimate treasure map, a kind of double-helixed chart containing the code for traits ranging from our eye color to our susceptibility to certain diseases. If you have 10,000 DNA samples, scientists could possibly isolate the genetic markers in the DNA associated with, say, breast cancer. But if you have 10 million samples, your statistical chances of finding the markers improve dramatically, which is why China wants to get so much of it.

Edward You: It is one-sided, though. China passed a law last year. The Chinese government has absolutely clamped down on any access to their biological data or their biological samples. So it is a one-way street.

Jon Wertheim: So, their data's not leaving China but they're sucking it in from all over the world?

Edward You: Right.

It's not just DNA, according to Bill Evanina. He and his colleagues have been tracking China as the country uses less-than-honorable methods to vacuum up all sorts of data from outside their borders.

Bill Evanina: They do it both legitimately and illegitimately. They steal some data, but they're very strategic in how they acquire it from around the world.

Jon Wertheim: You're saying at least in some cases, China's hacking to get this information.

Bill Evanina: China is number one in the world at any kind of hacking capability, and they're brazen about it.

In December, John Ratcliffe, then the director of national intelligence, went so far as to name China as the number one national security threat to America, citing specifically, their theft of data and technology.

Bill Evanina: You have probably five or six health care companies the last five years who have been, I would say, penetrated, exfiltrated, hacked by China.

Jon Wertheim: What's the likelihood you and I have been hacked by China?

Bill Evanina: 110%.

Jon Wertheim: Personal data?

Bill Evanina: Personal data. Current estimates are that 80% of American adults have had all of their personally identifiable information stolen by the Communist Party of China.

The concern is that the Chinese regime is taking all that information about us - what we eat, how we live, when we exercise and sleep - and then combining it with our DNA data. With information about heredity and environment, suddenly they know more about us than we know about ourselves and, bypassing doctors, China can target us with treatments and medicine we don't even know we need.

Edward You: Think about the dawn of-- the Internet of Things and the 5G networks and the-- and smart homes and smart cities. There are going to be sensors everywhere. It's gonna be tracking your movement, your behavior, your habits. And ultimately, it's gonna have a biological application, meaning that based on the data that gets collected, they'll be able to analyze that and look at improving your health. That data becomes incredibly relevant and very, very valuable.

Jon Wertheim: You're describing data almost as-- as a commodity.

Edward You: Data is absolutely gonna be the new oil.

All this may sound like a premise for a dystopian futuristic science fiction movie, but U.S. government officials say the picture gets even scarier given how China is already using DNA strategically against its own citizens today.

Sophie Richardson: These are some of the most serious abuses that the Chinese government has committed in modern history.

Sophie Richardson, director of the China program for Human Rights Watch, says China has rounded up more than a million Uyghurs, Chinese citizens who are a Muslim minority, and jailed them in camps. The U.S. government calls this a crime against humanity.

Sophie Richardson: They're being subjected to political indoctrination. They can't use their own language. They're not allowed to worship. Those people are highly restricted in how they can live their lives.

Jon Wertheim: This is a population under constant surveillance?

Sophie Richardson: Yeah. It's-- it's a region that's awash in surveillance technology, ranging from, you know, facial recognition software, surveillance cameras, data doors, Wi-Fi sniffers.

Part of the social control includes the forced collection of DNA. Under the guise of free physicals for Uyghurs, Richardson says China is actually collecting DNA and other biometric data that's then used specifically to identify people, target other family members and refine facial recognition software. And those, national security officials say, are just the uses we know about.

In response to the Uyghur repression, last July, the U.S. Department of Commerce sanctioned two subsidiaries of a Chinese biotech company. That company? BGI, the same one offering Washington state the COVID testing lab.

Edward You: Those companies were identified to have been facilitating the collection of genetic information of ethnic Uyghurs. If anything, that should serve as a warning signal for all of us that that is potentially what can happen if our data gets out of our hands, how it could be used.

It's not a coincidence BGI is involved in the Uyghur crisis given the company's close relationship with the communist regime. In 2010, after receiving $1.5 billion from China's government, BGI was able to expand dramatically.

Bill Evanina: They're monstrous. They have contracts with over 60 countries globally to provide not only genomic sequencing, but also to provide analytics.

Jon Wertheim: They say, "We're a private company." Are they?

Bill Evanina: There's no such thing as a private company in the Communist Party of China.

Under a series of laws unthinkable in western democracies, Chinese companies like BGI are obligated to share data with the Chinese regime. It's as if, say, Google, Amazon and Facebook had to turn over their data to the CIA, on demand.

Jon Wertheim: So you're trying to tell me that the Chinese government, whether it's biotech or-- they can say, "Hey, we want your information. Please provide it."

Bill Evanina: Absolutely. You must provide any and all data that's asked for by the Communist Party in China. Which, the scary part is, sometimes it's not all their data. If you are in a joint partnership, a joint venture, their data is now susceptible to go to the Chinese Communist Party.

As BGI touts on its own website, the company has been steadily developing partnerships with hospitals and biotech companies inside the United States, giving BGI — and by extension, the Chinese government — potential access to our DNA data, sequencing technology and analytics.

Jon Wertheim: How does BGI partner with U.S. companies?

Bill Evanina: So they do it, first of all, with money. So investment. I wanna invest $10 million, $20 million, $80 million in your company. Every company says yes, come on in. At the same time they're gonna have an unwritten rule that they're gonna be able to take that data and your sequencing capabilities. And what they don't know is China's keepin' it and they're givin' you a copy back.

BGI declined our request for an interview and said in a statement, "the notion that the genomic data of American citizens is in any way compromised through the activities of BGI in the U.S. is groundless." They said they are "a private organization" founded "to benefit human health and wellbeing."

Remember BGI's proposal to build COVID labs for the state of Washington? 60 Minutes learned that the company made similar proposals to more than five other states, including New York and California…. And, after federal officials warned against partnering with BGI, each state said no to BGI's labs.

It's not just China that's recognized what a valuable commodity your DNA can be. As you'll hear: some of the fastest-growing U.S. tech companies are in this space, as well. In fact, you may have already surrendered your DNA by spitting in a tube.

#china #fifth generational warfare #geopolitics #wuhan virology lab #covid-19 #biological WMD

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zampanobra · 3 years

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An Elegy For Cyberpunk

The genre isn't gone, but the silver lining sure is.

William Gibson's Neuromancer is one of those books that I can't remember ever not having read. But I do remember that it wasn't long after I read it that I was introduced to Shadowrun, which quickly supplanted D&D as my go-to RPG. I'm not sure how well I understood what was going on in the plot, and was probably too young to understand a lot of what was going on. (Later on, when I started to understand self-loathing, it made a lot more sense.)

Even then, I loved the world, the technology, and the aesthetic. Gibson is fantastic at showing an entire scene through a couple of hints. He doesn't lean into a lot of what we've come to think of as "cyberpunk" aesthetic, and I prefer his much more understated settings more than a lot of his more over-the-top progeny.

Aside from how it looks, though, a common trope is its focus on people on the fringes of society--the "low life" going along with the "high tech." It's not always criminals, although these lines get a tad blurry due to the increasing corporate dominance that is another common trope of the setting. This is even more the case in the Shadowrun RPG, where your characters ("runners") are mercenaries for hire by all the corporations vying for an edge, where law enforcement has itself been privatized, and where governments' roles in their citizens' daily lives are steadily eroding. (Although a dragon is elected president of one of the major North American countries, so there is that.)

Those familiar with this setting and the tropes associated with it may have raised an eyebrow when I said that there was a silver lining associated with cyberpunk. I'd even venture to say there's an actual optimism in many of these stories.

The Cyber Trickles Downhill

There's a public intellectual of sorts named Eliezer Yudkowsky who started a ~~cult~~ website called LessWrong, and who talks a lot about technology, science, and what-not. He has various "laws" attributed to him, one of which is that "Every eighteen months, the minimum IQ necessary to destroy the world drops by one point." The idea is that, over time, increasingly powerful technology will be in the hands of everyday people. It's kind of like the cliché about how we all walk around with smartphones that are orders of magnitude more powerful and capable than the computers used to send people to the Moon.

Unfortunately, this is not how it generally works out. When better computers and connectivity end up in people's hands, so does a great deal of capture: DRM, surveillance (both corporate and governmental), monopolization, and more recently the move to software-as-a-service (where you have to pay a subscription to keep using something on your personal devices). You can get around much of these, but only but devoting significant time and effort to doing so, and you may often have to do without some aspects of those services. It's rarely going to be as convenient as the more intrusive version, and in some cases you may be outright prevented from communicating with people without using it. And this is without getting into situations where your information is turned over to third parties without your even having an option. In my own life, two of our doctors' offices use third-party portals that include some aspect of record keeping, schools and daycare facilities use them, and I'm of course subject to any of the national things like credit reporting agencies.

Meanwhile, things like artificial limbs and the like have generally made their greatest advances in times of war. Prosthetics in at least some form go back to Ancient Egypt, but a formal industry focused on their production would not come into being until far later. In the United States, it was the Civil War that would drastically increase demand, with thousands of amputees surviving the war and seeking prosthetic limbs: one study estimated that 70,000 men lost limbs during the war. Part of this was the development of the Minié ball, a more modern bullet that caused more irregular wounds to flesh and was heavy enough to shatter bone. Medical science being what it was, doctors generally decided that amputation was a better approach than trying to piece the patient's body back together. After the war, the federal government created the means for the prosthetic boom by agreeing to provide prosthetics for any veteran who needed them.

One veteran, James Hanger (who had himself lost most of a leg) was dissatisfied with the available options, and so developed an artificial leg that hinged and was shaped more like a human leg. He went on to establish the American Artificial Limb Company after the war (which still exists as Hanger, Inc.). Mass production of artificial limbs wouldn't come about for another 60 years or so. Nonetheless, this next development was again spawned by the same combination of factors: a massive conflict leaving thousands upon thousands of amputees (World War I in this case) combined with the federal government providing the money. (War is, indeed, a racket.)

Little seems to have changed into the present, when it's now the perpetual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with military-oriented welfare programs being the only ones not under constant attack by austerity.

So it is that cyberpunk's dream of widespread limb replacements seems unlikely without coming on the heels of years of additional thousands of traumatic amputees and billions of dollars in subsidies. Under our current system, after all, there is no incentive to continue improvements to artificial limbs without government footing the bill, and the government in turn seems largely unwilling to pay attention to the needs of its citizens that don't have any connection to the military.

The other technologies that epitomize the cyberpunk genre are equally captured. All the improvements to computer technology in the world don't help without the infrastructure to connect them to each other, and service providers have made sure that they can maintain their monopolies (the lucky few have two options). So it is that we get things like data caps, which Comcast introduced for its customers just a few days ago as of this writing, during a time of pandemic when more and more people are reliant on broadband internet access to work and go to school.

In a similar vein, computer and communications technology has become only selectively easier to use. The basics are much simpler, to be sure, but the kinds of things depicted in cyberpunk--hacking and maintaining some semblance of privacy to name two prime examples--are harder and harder. Privacy in particular requires a near constant battle against the hydra of corporate interests that are constantly trying to chip away at it. And not just in terms of taking data itself, but even the expectation of privacy.

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube--they're all predicated on making us share. And of course we do exactly that. Why wouldn't we? We have an innate need for community and connection. But just as advertisers long ago figured out that they could turn our own wiring against us, so-called social networks (anti-social networks?) took our desire for connecting with other people and purified it until it became a freebase. It's difficult to avoid and even harder to quit.

It takes money, knowledge, and work to even slightly escape, and even then it's not really possible unless you happen to only interact with similar privacy-minded folk or cut yourself off from society entirely. It takes almost nothing to be entirely mapped.

Meanwhile, the task is made that much harder by the fact that it's not entirely clear why our data is worth anything. The conventional wisdom is that it's for targeted advertising, but I have to wonder if that's actually worth anything anymore. Then again, it could be completely ineffective but still something companies want to do, since marketing believes that someone has to see a product multiple times before they'll actually seek it out. Plus, there's always the possibility of Facebook et al. cooking the books, as they did in the case of view counts on videos some years back.

Regardless, this lack of knowledge makes it harder for us, because we can't target our defenses. We don't have a clear idea of what's valuable and what isn't, what data is already out there and what data is still being sought. We can't, for example, make digital chaff to flood the collectors with junk.

Chains of Chrome

I'm told that essays should have some part of the author in them, and I can't help but notice that this approach--intertwining personal anecdote with the overall point--is used all over the world. Maybe it's a matter of not getting outside my own writing, but it seems to me that simply what I'm writing and how says more about me than talking about the smells in the bookstore where I bought my first copy of Neuromancer, or some story about my relationship with the friend who introduced me to Blade Runner. I personally have more faith in readers than that.

Having written what I have already, is it really surprising to know that what draws me to the genre more than anything is freedom? It may seem strange to associate freedom with the extremely powerful corporate entities and material conditions of most cyberpunk. But notice, these stories don't focus on the corporate bureaucrat trapped in a structure they'll never escape. Instead, it's the technologically-enhanced ronin, whether their particular weapons are blades or computer viruses. They ultimately answer to no one but themselves, and can generally find a way to live their own lives within the cracks in the business edifice. Sure, drama demands that this not always be true in some way, even if it's as simple as the criminal's reputation.

It's not difficult, then, to see the appeal. I have no skills to sell even if there were still a market for such things (instead of credentials). Mercenaries are rightly outcast, since chances are they'll be put to worse use than even a state-sponsored military. There's a reason that Blackwater has had to change its name two or three times by now.

Cyberpunk allows us all of the freedom of a new frontier by finding that frontier within an existing structure. Its characters aren't constrained the way we are in our daily lives, and can overcome both human nature and human society through the technology available to them. What is now considered experimental or only the purview of DARPA is to them a child's toy, with far better ready for purchase on the streetcorner.

In many ways, cyberpunk is a product of its time, when technology seemed to offer at least as much possibility as threat. Now, we don't really trust technology to be enough. We see the slow-motion apocalypse of climate change and don't believe that we can invent our way out of it; recognizing that even if the device existed, someone would figure out how to capture its benefits. I'm not sure it'll be anything so stark as having clean cities and then a burned wasteland surrounding them, but we'll only be saved to the extent that we're useful.

Cyberpunk showed us an increasing commodification of our lives, but even those imaginations couldn't foresee the degree to which this would be true, while they simultaneously underestimated its subtlety. The trackers on every website that form pieces of the economic puzzle that is ourselves feel too small to fight, and so we sell ourselves in a thousand pieces. Even being a corporate spy in a future dystopia is more honest.

#cyberpunk #inequality #tech #computer

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overdrivels · 4 years

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@romancedeldiablo just reminded me the entire cybersecurity/information security industry is having the greatest field days ever since this whole Covid-19 triggered a mass work from home exodus.

I have so much to say about it and all the security issues that are occurring. This mostly pertains to the US. This isn’t meant to scare anyone, they’re just food for thought and a bit of explanation about my industry.

PSA: Not all hackers are bad, just a reminder. There are very legitimate reasons for hacking such as compliance and research. When I talk about hackers here, I’m talking about the bad ones who are exploiting without permission and for malicious reasons.

The main thing about this whole working from home thing is that most organizations don’t have the infrastructure to support their entire workforce. Not every company uses Google Drive or OneDrive or DropBox.

This means that companies with on-premise servers, isolated servers or networks are screwed. Imagine trying to connect to your friend’s computer who lives on the other side of the world and controlling their mouse. Can’t do it. Gotta download something on both ends to do it. Now imagine that for 500 people at home who are trying to connect to a single server. You’d need to open that server/network up to the internet. That has its own risks because without controlling WHO can access the server, you’re basically allowing anyone (hackers especially) to go in and take all your data.

But then you ask, “Isn’t that what passwords are for?” BITCH look at your own passwords. Do you really think 500 people will have passwords strong enough to withstand a rainbow table attack or that the server won’t shit itself when receiving 500 connections from unknown locations by means of a not-often used method? Hackers only need to exploit one password (for the most part) while the company needs to ensure ALL 500 are protected. That’s difficult as all hell and if it were that easy, I wouldn’t have a job.

Then there’s shit like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and RADIUS servers that’ll secure the network connection so it can’t be hijacked and do authentication respectively. Here’s the problem. VPN solutions need to be downloaded on the client system (your computer). When your organization has very technically illiterate people, that becomes a nightmare. ‘Cause you have to set up their accounts on the VPN system and set the permissions for each of them so they can only access what they’re allowed to access otherwise Bob from sales now has access to the HR system with everyone’s social security numbers. It’s very time consuming and can get very complicated. Even worse is that VPNs often require licenses. When you only have 50 licenses and suddenly 500 people want access, you’re screwed. But you can always purchase more licenses, no problem. Here’s the rub. Suddenly, this VPN tunnel needs to accept connections from 500 people. This tunnel is only strong enough to accept 50 concurrent sessions. When 10x that amount get on, guess what? The tunnel shits itself and basically the company has DoS’d itself. Now no one can get any work done until IT figures out how to get 500 people on a system that’s only capable of supporting 50.

Fuck, almost forgot about RADIUS. There’s DIAMETER, too, but shut up about it. It’s an authentication system but depending on how it’s set up, you’ll have to also set up the users. That’s an extra step and it’s a pain in the ass if RADIUS somehow isn’t connected to AD and the user has different passwords and shit.

Not to mention hackers suddenly gaining access to all this information because they’ve already infected people’s home computers and routers prior to the work from home stuff. There’s very limited way for IT to control what happens on a personal computer, so these personal computers can have no anti-virus or security software. This means all data is in danger because someone decided Windows Defender is annoying. (Windows Defender is pretty great, btw.)

Physical robberies are occurring a little more because there’s no one to protect the stores and such. Physical security is taking a hell of a beating.

There’s been an increase in phishing scams around COVID-19. Unemployment sites are probably being (and probably already have been) hacked and the data is being stolen. I think there were some people who were creating fake unemployment sites to steal PII. There are e-mails going out to people saying stuff like, “Your computer has been infected with the CORONAVIRUS. Click here to clean it up.” And you’re wondering, “What sort of morons…?” Don’t. It’s very easy to give in to your panic. Hackers don’t hack computers solely. They hack into human emotion, into the psyche. Anyone can fall for their shit.

The thing with Zoom? Basically they’re so insecure, people are hacking them without issue. How? Because people are silly and put out links, chat logs are saved onto insecure machines that have already been hacked, there are a bunch of exploits available for Zoom, etc.

Healthcare organizations. Oh boy. So, we all know healthcare organizations are working their damnedest to save people suffering from COVID-19. Every second counts and any delay in that process could mean life or death. They work hard. Here’s the thing. There has always been a delicate balance between security and usability. Too secure and it’ll make it difficult for the end user to do their job. Usable without security just makes it easier for an attacker to do their job. Why am I talking about this?

Healthcare organizations usually hold sensitive information. Health information. Social security numbers. Birth dates. Addresses. Insurance information. Family member information. So much stuff. They are a beautiful target for hackers because all that shit is right there and it’s accessible. Healthcare organizations, by and large, do not put a lot of emphasis on security. That’s changing a bit, but for the most part, the don’t care about security. They do the bare minimum because guess what? Every additional control can add time to a doctor or healthcare worker’s routine. Computer lockscreen every 5 minutes? Now the doctor has to re-logon every 5 minutes. This adds about 15 seconds to their rountine. Multiply that several times over for every patient that comes in assuming a doctor will need to log in at least 3 times during a single visit. That can clock in at at least an hour throughout the day. A hour that they could’ve spent doing something else. So imagine more controls. Password needs to be reset. Need to badge in. Log into this extra program to access this file. Call IT because this thing locked them out. Each one of these normal controls now feel insanely restrictive. The ease of use isn’t there and so organizations might look at reversing these security controls, potentially making things even less secure than before in the name of efficiency.

Don’t @ me about HIPAA. I will start rants about how non-prescriptive and ineffective it is to actually get proper security implemented.

LOL @ internet service providers. Internet speeds are dropping due to the amount of traffic they’re getting. Commercial internet really wasn’t prepared for this. Those poor bastards.

Some organizations outsource their IT teams. Those people (Managed Service Providers aka MSPs) are not prepared for this nonsense. It’s popular now to go after these guys for hacking. An MSP usually works for multiple organizations. So, why try going after 50 organizations individually when you have just one organization with poor security controls managing everything from one place? You’d logically go after the one rather than 50. It’s easier.

MSPs are now overworked because they also have to work from home to connect to systems that can’t support so many people connecting to it on personal computers that the MSP can’t log into like they normally would to fix any issues. This makes them tired. What happens when you’re tired? You make more mistakes. And that’s exactly what hackers go after. Once they’re in the MSP’s system, the hacker can now potentially gain access to the 50 clients’ systems. Easy win.

Shadow IT and alternate solutions. This is another doozy. Imagine all your files and shit are on your company’s network. No one is able to access it because there isn’t any VPN or remote sharing system or FTP server set up for this stuff, but you still need to do your job. So, what do you do? Obviously, you start making stuff on your own computer using whatever you’re comfortable with. Google Drive. Dropbox. Box. Slack. That shitty PDF reader you downloaded three years ago and didn’t update.

Now imagine sharing it through things like your personal e-mail which may or may not have been hacked without your knowledge. Or maybe the recipient’s been hacked without anyone’s knowledge. Maybe your files are normally encrypted if they’re on the company network. Now you’re off of it and nothing’s encrypted. Maybe you forget it delete a file or 80 off of your system which has been infected. Or maybe you pasted shit on pastebin or github and it’s available to the public because that’s just easier. Now anyone searching can find it. This is how database dumps are found sometimes and they’re really entertaining.

Shadow IT putting in alternate solutions without the company’s knowledge is always a fucking nightmare. I get that people need to do their jobs and want to do things a certain way, but can you not be selfish and put everyone at risk because you decided your way or the high way?

That sounds awfully familiar…it feels like a situation that we’re going through right now…hey, wait a minute…

Long story short, this whole working from home thing opens up a lot of security issues. Most companies are ill-equipped to handle IT issues, let alone cybersecurity/information security/IT security issues, but because of that, we’re seeing a lot of interesting things happening. Such as finding out New Jersey’s unemployment system runs on a 60+ year old programming language.

Holy shit I can talk about this all day. I’ve definitely glossed over a lot of stuff and oversimplified it. If anyone wants me to talk about any specific topic related to this or cybersecurity or information security in general, drop an ask. I’m always, always more than happy to talk about it.

#drivels drivels #BACK ON MY BULLSHIT #EXCEPT THIS IS REAL LIFE BULLSHIT

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legion1993 · 4 years

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We Are What????

Title: we are what????

Pairing: Jensen x reader

Fluff sq: long lost sibling

Tags: tabooo, long lost brother and long lost sister loosing virginity to eachother, long lost brother and long lost sister married in vegas, long lost siblings learning the truth after its too late, long lost sibling sex

***NOTE: INTENDED FOR 18+ DO NOT READ IF UNDERAGE DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT DO SO UNDER THE TUMBLR GUIDELINES. PLEASE DONT READ IF UNDERAGE. I AM NOT JOKING. 18+ READERS ONLY STORY CONTAINS TABOO, LONG LOST SIBLINGS LOOSING THEIR VIRGINITY TO EACHOTHER! AGAIN DO NOT READ IF UNDERAGE***

rating: 18+

summery: not telling

created for @spnfluffbingo

fluff 2020 masterlist

it had been the best vacation, it had been the best vacation you had taken to date. the events went as follows:

you were on vacation this was well deserved, this was your 3 weeks away from the busy of running your own business.

your co ceo thought you deserved a vacation after you worked your ass off for almost 3 years to get your company to where it is today.

you were in Vegas, you were gonna dance, gamble, and drink and just enjoy yourself. You were now 5 days into your vacation and sitting at one of the blackjack tables you meet a very interesting opponent.

YN: “do you come here often?”

jensen: “nope I can only come here when my brother is home to watch the place. I’m Jensen by the way but everyone calls me Jay.”

YN: “YN it’s nice to meet you. Do you normally play blackjack?”

Jensen could only laugh as he played his turn.

Jensen: “no normally I play poker but I figured I’d switch it up. I’ll stand. So YN what brings you to Vegas other than obviously to get your butt kicked at blackjack.”

YN: “I’ll stand as well. My Co ceo of my company thought I could use a vacation after 3 years of building the company non stop. So she sent me here to have the time of my life for 3 weeks with possibility of extension.”

the dealer: “reveal your hands one at a time.”

jensen reveals a hand of 19. You smile darkly.

YN: “I hope your not too disappointed with this.”

You say as you reveal your hand to be 21.

YN: “blackjack. I win!”

the dealer: “congratulations to YN our winner for the 5th night in a row. Do you want to cash out or do you want to bank for more play time later?”

yN: “I’ll bank I owe my opponent an apology drink!”

that was your first mistake. After several drinks you both were hammered. Walking back to the hotel cause through the drinking you both discovered that you were staying in the same hotel.

you stopped at the wedding chapel. You both went to get ready and graciously paid the people for their service.

officiant: “Jensen and YN you have come here tonight to be joined in the eyes of God and the church. You may say your vows when your ready.”

Jensen takes your ring and slides it on your finger.

Jensen: "YN I've only known you a few short moments but it feels like a lifetime. It feels like destiny. I promise to evermore love, honor. Cherish and protect thee now and evermore!"

you took Jensen's ring and placed it on his finger.

yN: "Jensen, I feel the exact same way and I know that right now we are probably doing something that when morrow light breaks through will seem like a bad idea but I now and ever more will love honor cherish and protect thee forever with all my being!"

officiant: "then I hear by pronounce you husband and wife. Jensen you may kiss your bride!"

Jensen dipped you as he kissed you. Then you both signed some papers and were led to where both your bags were on a trolley and being taken to the honeymoon suite.

graciously tipping the bellboy who loaded the bags into the doorway for you both and then left. Jensen picked you up bridal style and tis is how you lost your virginity.

Jensen and you tore each other's clothes off then while he had you pinned against the wall, he slid his cock into your pussy.

pounding you against the wall, in the shower, in the kitchenette, on the table, on the couch, on the floor and finally on the bed. Yes you both christened that honeymoon suite.

for the next morning at yonder Light breaks through the window. you both woke to an array of feathers everywhere you both were snuggled together and then it sunk in. Both of you sitting straight up and looking around the room.

jensen: "what happened last night?"

yN: "I remember the blackjack game and nothing after."

that's when you looked at your finger... Holding it up for Jensen to see.

yN: "clearly something else happened last night. Cause I don't remember getting married."

jensen: "let's think rationally now. Is it really so bad honestly come on let's at least see what we can be as a couple before we jump to any conclusions. How bout this I'll go hone with you once we are done in Vegas and we will figure us out."

yN: "sounds good to me plus you are hot I'm not surprised either way that I married you."

Jensen could only laugh as he ushered for you to come back to the bed. You went back to the bed, Jensen's strong embrace wrapping around you immediately. You sat on his lap his hands roaming cross your skin.

Jensen: "now let's enjoy our honeymoon and make some magic of our own."

YN: "shouldn't we eat?"

Jensen: "we will order room service after we finish waking up. I say we clean up the place a bit and take a shower then call room service."

YN: "clean a bit first, then shower cause it makes no sense to shower then clean. Oh I should warn you thaw t my place is new and needs a bit of reno work…"

Jensen could only laugh.

Jensen: "that's okay it will be an amazing starter home for us or at least till we figure us out."

You went to your phone and connected to the Bluetooth speaker in the room. You played your Playlist as you and Jensen got to work. Cleaning, dancing, singing. Taking a shower you went in first Jensen called room service then joined you.

Things starting to slowly feel normal. Throughout the rest of the vacation you both spent time at the casino, doing shopping, both of you taking full honeymoon advantage.

The flight home was alot more enjoyable with someone to spend it with, you slept on his shoulder and he used your head as a rest spot as well his arm was around your shoulder.

It was the most comfortable ride of your life. The arrival back on your home soil was a relief to see that it was still busy beyond compare. You went and picked up your car (black 2019 Dodge Challenger) from the parking valet.

Jensen: "she is a beauty."

YN: "the GPS is already programed to take us home. Do you want to drive?"

Jensen perked up when he got back to you after having taken a lap round the car. He smiled.

Jensen: "I would love to but I have to ask how the hell did you afford this?"

YN: "Perk of having my own business and on top of that perk of being the world's best selling brand of sunglasses. Now get in and start her up!"

Jensen and you both got into the car and jensen took a breath as he started the engine. Jensen ran his fingers over the steering wheel and just completely fell in love with your baby.

Jensen: "damn YN she is a beauty. Now let's hear her purr."

Jensen sticks your car in drive and slowly brings you both out of the parade. Once the speed sign showed that he could go 60 he stuck you baby in gear and took off. he knew to obey the rules of the road but he still had fun with it.

Along the way your Playlist silently played in the background as you and Jensen played 20 questions. The more you both talked and the questions answered the more you both felt like you could actually pull this off, but of course you weren't gonna say anything.

Jensen: "this neighborhood is beautiful. How much further to your place?"

YN: "3 more blocks then it will be number 344 on your left."

Jensen slowly drove down the blocks he smiled to himself the thought that he was married and to a woman who makes the most amazing sunglasses. His hand remained in the wheel and the shifter but your hand floated to rest in his hand.

Arriving at your house in a matter of moments you noticed another car in the driveway that was not familiar to you.

YN: "that car doesnt belong to me.. someone unexpected is here."

Jensen: "relax YN lets grab the bags and walk to the door im sure its nothing to worry about."

Grabbing the bags you both went up to the front door, you saw it was open a crack… You both slowly walked inside.

YN: "hello, whoever is in here this house is owned…"

Steps came from the basement and down the kitchen floor standing now in the doorway to your kitchen was your mom.

Sheila: "surprise!"

You dropped your bags and ran into the embrace of the person who had sat there with you while you cried about your loveless life.

Yn: "I thought you weren't coming for a few weeks."

Sheila: "yes well when we last spoke you said you wanted to do some renovations on the house. But that you were gonna do that on your own after you got back from your trip. So i decided that i would be here when you got back to surprise you… dad thought you could use the help and if he wasnt busy running the store back home he would be here too…"

You and your mom oulled back when Jensen cleared his throat clearly wanting to get your attention. You pulldd back from your mom and went back to jensen. Who now extended his hand towards your mom.

Jensen: "ma'am my name is Jensen i am your daughters husband well kinda we…"

Yn: "twas a drunken wedding in vegas and one thing led to a really amazing vacation plus he is a loyal customer for my sunglasses. So i brought him home so we could see if we want to remain married or divorce. I gues thats my surprise as well… im really glad your here mom."

Sheila shoke jensens hand and then smiled as she heard a timer go off.

Sheila: "go on take your stuff to your room dears. ill do it all for you both not to worry. Now go upstairs and make sure only your laundry comes down to the laundry room.. lunch will be ready soon!"

You and jensen with your bags go upstairs to your room. Your king bed and furniture exactly how you left it.

Jensen: "renovations huh?"

Yn: "ya some painting and replacing carpet with laminate type thing. Paint every room in this house a different color depending on what the room is. Laminate to match each room. Im ambitious. Also restain the deck leading to the pool in the back. The pool cleaner and the lawn tendants should have been by and if not yet they will be by later. Running my own company comes with perks. Sorry im ramblin."

Jensen: "its alright i think its kinda cute. Now when do we get started on these renovations?"

You smile as you go to grab your laundry basket for yours and jensens clothes.

YN: "soon as i go pick up the paint i picked out what colors i wanted for each room before i left but now that im back i can get them and start painting and shifting stuff around and and and."

You now put your hands on the bed as you just stood there.

You were way passed overwhelmed, this made way for Jensen who had just finished getting settled in throwing his dirty clothes in the basket before coming up behind you wraping his arms around you like it was normal.

Jensen: “dont get worked up as part of seeing all we can be ill help you renovate the house. Tomorrow we will pick up the paint and whatever else we think we will need and we will be fine. For now lets get this laundry pile put together and taken down to your mom. Then you can show me kinda what needs to be moved and where it needs to be moved to for each room to be set up so it can be painted and then we will get the floors done once everything is painted. Room by room. This house will be prestige when we are done. It will reflect the woman you are. And i look forward to renovating this home with you.”

You smiled. As you threw several more things into the basket, then you came across the wedding attire that you both realized might need to be dry cleaned instead.

You put them off to the side and decided that you would hand them to your assistant the next time you would see her. You were not okay still, you had a lurking strange feeling in your stomach that something was terribly wrong.

Jensen was hot, sure neither of you rememebred anything except for what you all were told by the staff. You were now sure that something was wrong. It was something in Jensen’s eyes and nature that made your mind question what was happening right then.

But you ignored it, you felt happier than you had in ages.

YN: “ya i guess your right. Now lets go down to mom before she decides to think degenerates of us.”

Jensen: “technically we are married degenerates. But your right as well. Lets go.”

Jensen carried the basket following you as you both walked back downstairs. You showed him where to place the laundry basket then both of you went into the living room.

Your eyes floated to the table to the stack of coupons and various packages and other mail items on the coffee table in the living room.

Jensen: “damn girl are you always that popular?”

YN: “yep every day… but this is from the passed month excluding todays cause it doesnt come for another hour. This will be fun. Would you like to help me open this massive pile of whatever is in here?”

Jensen: “do you have a letter opener?”

You go over to the kitchen to your junk drawer and come back with your personalized black canary letter opener… you handed it to Jensen who marveled it for a few moments before kneeling down beside you as you proceeded to organize the mail into piles.

Jensen: “i hope one day soon to be moved in here permenantly with you. Honestly i feel so happy and we are probably gonna be expecting before we know it with how much we did not leave the bed during our time in Vegas…”

You smiled at that thought. You a mother how much of a quaint little idea that was. Damn your babies would be lookers. Jensen started with the parcels he opened them one at a time then you would go into the parcel and pull out whatever was inside.

Jensen: “i know you are thinking, you make this face when your focused or thinking i noticed it first when you were answering your emails and such while we were in vegas. Are you okay?”

YN: “hmm… yeah im okay just doing some planning in my head. Usually how i open my mail. Im sorry ive been so quiet.”

Jensen put his arm around your shoulder before you had finished speaking.

Jensen: “its all good i know you have alot on your plate. Just dont be afraid to talk to me if you ever want to.”

YN: "thank you. Now let's finish going through the mail and then I need to conference call with my assistant to make sure our week is on track."

Jensen smiled he could not believe that you were the one who made such amazing sun glasses! They were literally his favorite pair. You were the embodiment of grace and beauty, from Jensen's point of view you were an angel.You spent the rest of the day showing jensen how your life works.

Your mom ordered chinese for dinner with extra for left overs for the next few days. That was fine. Renovations went amazing! The next month was about getting settled in, sure the renos took longer but that was perfectly fine.

A room a week, the flooring would be done later.. once everything was painted. Jensen and you sat in on a few confrence calls from the house during the renos and then you decided to show jensen the company and how it works make him your temp secretary while you gave your current one the month off.

You woke up however one morning feeling off. You went to the bathroom and went through your morning work routine, shower, do your hair, make out with jensen. But this one morning you felt all bloated and gross.

You got into the shower and thats when it happened you got that nauseous feeling. The words "oh shit" went through your head as just as you knelt down beneath the waters flow you threw up instantly.

It was 5 minutes later that you were finally able to speak enough.

YN: "jensen…"

Footsteps were heard, jensen knew your routine, this was unusual. He came into the bathroom and opened the shower curtain to reveal you knelt down and a small pile of slowly washing awake puke. He shut off the shower head but kept the water flowing.

Jensen: "what happened?"

YN: "i was feeling off, but i didnt think i would vomit, can you call xavier and tell him that he has to handle everything today im not going in."

Jensen: "let me get you out of there after i help you clean all the vomit off and wash your hair, then ill clean the bathtub and then ill spend the entire day waiting on my girl!"

This was the first time that Jensen had used a pet name for you or referred to you as something other than YN. This was a good sign meant he was getting used to the idea but so were you for you were putty in Jensen's arms not cause of the nausea but cause of how he made you feel.

You watched as he cleaned the bathtub, wiped up the water off the ground, sprayed febreeze in the bathroom. You were not okay but you felt something new.

Another month would pass before this would ever occur again. Sure enough it did this time at work. Jensen against your pleading took you to the hospital. You were pleading that you were okay and didn't need it but you kept being shot down.

The doctors took blood work, had you peee in a cup, hooked you to a iv drip. They were doing everything they could think of. Till the doctor came in the room with a nurse with an ultrasound machine.

Doctor: "we are just gonna make sure everything is good with your abdomen. Don't worry bout a thing. It's painless. I'm just gonna unzip your jeans a bit and then lift your shirt a bit so I can put the jelly on."

You and Jensen complied never expecting this as a possible outcome. Never suspecting that this would be the moment you would be within the grasp of several doctors all of whom have looked after you since you were a child.

Doc: "ok lets see what this shows. And if anything else i would like to run dna matches on both of you. Just a precautionary measure. Nothing to… oh well this is definately the source… tell me YN when was your last period?"

You had to think about that cause you last had it during the vegas trip. Good thing showers exist… but anyway you were sure you knew the answer but you complied anyway.

YN: "I think it was during my Vegas trip but doc please tell me what is going on…"

Doctor turns the monitor to face you and Jensen whose face along with yours goes pale white.

Doctor: "congratulations your pregnant! But I want to run a blood sample on both of you to find out why there was an abnormality in your blood work."

Jensen and you get blood drawn while the fact that you were expecting a child while not even sure yet if your marriage would last.

Jensen: "what abnormality could be in your blood work?"

YN: "that's what you choose to discuss, not the fact that we are pregnant?"

Jensen: "I'm shocked probably as much as you but right now I want to address that I am thrilled about this baby. Even if we haven't figured us out we are parents to a brand new life we created in this short period together. I could not think of a better way to spend the rest of my life than with you and this child."

That of course is when the doctor returned.

Doctor: "so you both are the correct parents of this child but the abnormality in both your blood works showed several similar strands of DNA. You are siblings more specifically twins."

This made Jensen and you drop your Jaws, neither of you were expecting the news about the baby, but now finding out your siblings well that made you both shocked as fuck.

Doctor: "judging the reactions crossing both your features I am gonna gather that you both knew not of this."

Jensen: "are we done here can we go home now?"

Doctor: "of course just be sure to come back in 4 months for another check up for the baby. And congratulations as well as I'm sorry."

The doctor left, you and Jensen took all the stuff, now in the car with the papers of both results had to now find a way to break both news to your mother. Never thinking that anyone else would be at the house when your arrival home came round.

You pulled into the driveway, both of you holding the file with both sets of results. Walked inside to see not only your mom but your best friend and your father as well, your best friend ran straight for you as you did her, then you let her go and was immediately embraced by your father.

YN: "can everyone sit down and jensen will grab you all something strong to drink while we tell you something we just found out."

Jensen goes and pours some drinks for your father, mother and best friend as you both sit in front of them and begin the confrontation of a lifetime.Jensen: "for those who don't know me that I am meeting for the first time I'm Jensen YN is my wife. YN got a little sick at work so we just got back from the hospital. We found out 2 things while there."

Yn: "mom dad was there another child that you guys had along side me… Like am I a twin?"

Sheila: "yes you are, I am ashamed that you are just finding this out now. I never thought you would. We had to make a choice when you and your brother were born money was a luxury we didn't have a lot of. We could only afford to keep one of you so we made sure your brother got adopted into a good family who would give him the life he deserved. We kept you cause we always wanted a girl. Why do you ask?"

You pull out the DNA match results between you and Jensen and hand it to your parents. They look at the paper and immediately look at Jensen they begin to shed tears of joy toasting to Jensen the prodigal son!

But you both still had to tell them the other news. You were gonna let Jensen take this one cause you were still shocked to say the other set of news…

Frank: "what's your other set of news? Also what happens to your marriage now with this news as I assume you both have done the deed together…?"

Jensen: "dad, mom cause we did the deed and this entire marriage thing, consequences flurished before we found out about us being twins. We have to say we are still in shock but we are willing to make things work if you guys agree to help us…"

Jensen hands them the second set of results. You feel your hand drop to your belly Jensen's on top of yous as they look at those results. Your best friend doesn't look at the results cause she could tell from the moment she saw you..

Talia: "I'm gonna be an aunt yippee!!!"

Sheila: "Talia can you please give us a few moments to speak with our children alone."

Talia: "of course."

Talia leaves the room not straying too far so she can hear everything.

Sheila: "Jensen we are so happy you have found your way back into our lives. We hope you come to accept us as your parents and not as those that gave you up…"

Frank: "we understand the lure that you both had to eachother I mean you both look like supermodels good looks and all. Though we don't entirely approve of the way you came back into our lives son. We are proud of the strong people you both have become. YN my daughter we are honored to be your parents and now the grandparents to this grand baby that will grace this world soon!"

Sheila: "we are a family again!"

Jensen and you hug it out with your parents as you leave their embrace to go and sit on the steps with your best friend.

Talia: "so you married your long lost twin brother?"

YN: "drunk married my long lost twin yes but in our defense we were plastered. Neither of us were thinking straight and we didn't know we were siblings."

Talia: "how long till I get to meet my niece or nephew?"

YN: "7 months but in my defense neither me nor Jensen nor anyone else get to find out the gender for another 4 months. But how would closer to the due date you like to become a hired live in nanny type person just to help out around here once the baby is born what do you say sis?"

Talia just hugs you both of you just sitting there perfect harmony while Jensen is with your parents in the living room filling them in on his upbringing and stuff like that.

You were sitting there with your best friend reminiscing on a time when things were simpler..You both were called back into the room at that moment. Re-entering the room you go to stand beside your husband/twin brother.

Frank: “after so long we are a whole family again. Now our family is expanding and we are so grateful to have the opportunity to be with you all. Jensen, YN though the circumstances under which you met were not ideal, you both are not shunned, not disregarded in any way shape or form. You both did right in the eyes of god and the church. It is only fit that we offer to help you both in any way we possibly can with the preparations for the arrival of the baby. To Yn and Jensen may the odds be ever in your favor…”

This was now the time when you regretted showing your father the hunger games! But the toasts flew in and chinese was ordered, everyone except you drank. What happened after that is you and your twin brother husband person thing lived happily ever after.

#spnfluffbingo

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