#i do not know why the editor does not give me a community label option ? but

[kemifatoba]

C/O Berlin Magazine | It’s a space for everyone, and everyone can come in — Thoughts for the future

“I cringe when I hear words like ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion.” To quote the civil rights activist, philosopher, and writer Angela Davis, “diversity” and “inclusion” are terms that you, dear reader, might have also stumbled across in recent months, whether you wanted to or not. Inspired by global Black Lives Matter protests, mainstream media, corporations, and other institutions finally realized – in some cases as it seems overnight – that racism is also an intractable problem in Germany. Unfortunately, we need more than just hollow words and empty promises to solve this problem. You might be thinking to yourself: “But didn’t people take to the streets or write opinion pieces in newspapers to protest structural racism? And didn’t major institutions promise to offer diversity and inclusion workshops in discussion after discussion on television?” Perhaps, but don’t be fooled. Instead of critically questioning the role that white decision-makers play in perpetuating systemic racism, “society” was blamed. Over and over again, Black* people were asked to answer if they had really experienced racism through scrutiny of their real-life stories, while predominantly white “experts” were invited onto talk shows to discuss the so-called “racism debate”. Profound, structural changes are still lacking, at least as of the time this text goes to print. 

Presence equals power. This brings us to the current moment where you are reading these words about British photographer Nadine Ijewere’s solo show at C/O Berlin. Nadine Ijewere is the first Black woman to be given a space that has previously been occupied almost exclusively by white men. As such, this exhibition is significant not only for Black photographers, but for everyone more used to being treated as the object than the artist or curator in spaces like this where many people don’t feel welcome or simply don’t exist. As trivial as it may sound, visibility comes from being able to hang pictures on a wall—or write these lines.

Joy as an act of resistance. Nadine Ijewere belongs to a generation of artists and creatives who have realized that there are more options than simply following the traditional path. Knowing that society has long since changed—even if many gatekeepers in fashion, art, and the media still cling to the status quo—this DIY generation is creating its own platforms to elevate their own role models with an army of loyal followers. In their work, representatives of this generation create worlds that rarely center Eurocentric beauty norms. The same goes for this young British artist, whose work shows people in all their beauty and uniqueness. Her photographs regularly appear on the pages of British, American and Italian Vogue, i-D, or Garage, and she has collaborated with brands such as Nina Ricci and Stella McCartney. Ijewere proves that beauty is multifaceted and that fashion is fun and for everyone. 

More than a seat at the table. When artists like Ijewere make it to the top, it’s not because of nepotism, tokenism, or diversity as a trend, but despite all the obstacles that have been put in their way. And instead of assimilating after being accepted by the old guard, they continue to write their own rules. In Ijewere’s case, this means not only working with diverse models and teams, but also passing her knowledge on as a mentor to keep the proverbial door open. She’s less driven by the desire to stand out from the mainstream than she is to give back by inspiring younger generations, who are able to see themselves in magazines. “Within the time I have, I’ll use every opportunity I get and every space I can get into to expand the horizon of others.”

Representation matters. Celebrating Black people and people of color in a traditionally white space was also the goal of “Visibility is key – #RepresentationMatters,” a watershed moment for the German lifestyle magazine industry when it launched on vogue.de in spring 2019. The goal was to take first steps toward a forward-thinking future where inclusion and diversity would no longer be mere buzzwords, but lived practices. Part of that effort meant ensuring representation in front of as well as behind the camera. The results weren’t perfect and they might not have led to social change, but we proved that there isn’t a lack of creative talent among Black and Brown people in Germany. If anything, we proved that these talents are often denied the space to develop their full potential. 

Ideas for the future. As you see, dear reader, it takes teamwork to bring about long-term change, and for the first time the doors are open a bit. Nadine Ijewere's exhibition shows this, as does being able to write these very words in the C/O Berlin Newspaper. In the statements below, we asked German and international artists and creatives to envision a future where representation and inclusion are lived practices instead of rare exceptions. The results are ideas for a future that is reachable—as long as we all keep working towards it every day. Together.

Nadine Ijewere, artist Art is about art. It’s not about you personally. That’s why artists need to be seen as artists. We all get stereotyped and put into the same box—but we have our own identity. We are put into the same space just because we are Black, but we are all very different people.

Edward Enninful, OBE, Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue Nadine is one of the leading fashion photographers of her generation. She’s not only inherently British in her work, she’s also Black British. She really understands the complex mix of culture, fashion, beauty, and the inner working of a woman, so when you see her images, it’s never just a photograph. There’s also a story and a narrative behind it.

Benjamin Alexander Huseby & Serhat Işık, designers for the label GmbH Our work has always been about wanting to show our community and culture to tell our stories as authentically as we can. It was never about “diversity”, but about being seen. We want to create a world where not only exceptional Black and Brown talents no longer have to be truly exceptional to get recognition for their work, a world where we no longer are the only non-white person in the room because we built the motherfucking house ourselves.

Mohamed Amjahid, freelance journalist and author, whose book Der weiße Fleck will be published by Piper Verlag on March 1, 2021. It's time that Black women become bosses. Gay Arabs should get to call the shots. Refugees belong on the executive boards of big corporations. Children of so-called “guest workers” should move into management positions too. People with disabilities should not just have a say, they should make the decisions. Vulnerable groups deserve to put their talents and ideas to work in the service of the whole society. Not every person of color is automatically a good leader by virtue of their background, but all-white, cis-male executive boards are certainly incapable of making decisions that are right for everyone. That’s why we need more representation at the very top, where the decisions are made.

Melisa Karakuş, founder of renk., the first German-Turkish magazine For a better future, I demand that we educate our children to be anti-racist and to resist when others or when they themselves are subjected to racism. I demand that discrimination is understood through the lens of intersectionality and solidarity! I demand that even those who are not affected by racism stand up against it! This fight is not one that we as Black people and people of color fight alone—for a better future, we all have to work together. 

Tarik Tesfu, host of shows including the NDR talk show deep und deutlich When I look in the mirror, I see someone who grew up in the Ruhr region and loves currywurst with French fries as much as Whitney Houston. I see a person who has his pros and cons and who is so much more than his skin color. I see a subject. But the German media and cultural system seem to see it differently because far too often, Black people are degraded and made into objects for the reproduction of racist bullshit. I'm tired of explaining racism to Annette and Thomas because I really have better things to do (for example, my job). So get out of my light and let me shine.

Ronan Mckenzie, photographer The future of our industry needs to be one with more consideration for those that are within it. One that isn’t shrouded in burnout and the stresses of late payments, and one that doesn’t make anyone question whether they have been booked for the quality of their work or to be tokenized for the color of their skin. The future of our industry needs to go beyond the performative Instagram posts and mean-nothing awards, to truly sharing resources and lifting up one another. Our industry needs to put its money where its mouth is when words like “support”, “community” or “diversity” slip out, instead of using buzzwords that create an illusion of championing us. How there can be so much money in this industry yet so many struggle to keep up with their rent, feed themselves, or just rest without worrying about money is truly a travesty. If this industry is to survive then we who make it what it is need to be able to thrive.

Ferda Ataman, journalist and chair of Neue deutsche Medienmacher*innen A recent survey of the country's most important editors-in-chief revealed that many of them think diversity is good, but they don't want to do anything about it. This is based on the assumption that everyone good will succeed. Unfortunately, that’s not true. It’s not just a person’s qualifications that are decisive, but other criteria as well, such as similarity and habit (“XY fits in with us”). It's high time that all of us—everywhere—demand a serious commitment to openness and diversity. Something is seriously wrong in pure white spaces that can’t be explained by people’s professional qualifications alone. Or to put it differently: a good diversity strategy always has an anti-racist effect.

Nana Addison, founder of CURL CON and CURL Agency Being sustainable and inclusive means thinking about all skin tones, all hair textures, and all body shapes—in the beauty industry, in marketing communications, as well as in the media landscape. These three industries work hand in hand in shaping people’s perceptions of themselves and others. It’s important to take responsibility and be proactive and progressive to ensure inclusivity.

Dogukan Nesanir, stylist  The current system is not designed to help minorities. By giving advantages to certain people and groups, it automatically deprives others of the chance to attain certain positions in the first place. That's why I don't even ask myself the question "What if?" anymore. My work is not about advancing a fake worldview, but about highlighting all the real in the good and the bad. I strongly believe that if some powerful gatekeepers gave in, if representation and diversity happened behind the scenes and we had the chance to show what the world REALLY looks like, we wouldn't be having these discussions at all. I don't just want an invitation to the table, I want to own the table and change things.

Arpana Aischa Berndt & Raquel Dukpa, editors of the catalog I See You – Thoughts on the Film “Futur drei” In the German film and television industry, production teams and casting directors are increasingly looking for a “diverse” cast. Casting calls are almost exclusively formulated by white people who profit from telling stories of people of color and Black people by using them, but without changing their own structures in the process. Application requirements and selection processes in film schools even shut out marginalized people by denying them the opportunities that come with being in these institutions. People of color and migrants as well as Black, indigenous, Jewish, queer, and disabled people can all tell stories, too. Production companies need to understand that expertise doesn’t necessarily come with a film degree.

Vanessa Vu & Minh Thu Tran, hosts of the podcast Rice and Shine  It may be convenient to ignore entire groups, but we are and have been so much more for a very long time. We contribute to culture by making films or plays and bring new perspectives to science, politics, and journalism. We’re Olympic athletes, curators, artists, singers, dancers, and inventors. We dazzle and shine despite not always being seen. Because we have each other and we’ve created opportunities to do the things we love. We’ve created platforms for each other and built communities. Slowly but surely we are finally getting applause and recognition for the fact that we exist. That's nice. But what we really need is not just the opportunity to exist, but the opportunity to continue to grow and to stop basing our work primarily on self-exploitation. We need security, reliability, and money. That's the hard currency of recognition. That would mean being truly seen.

*Black is a political self-designation and is capitalized to indicate that being Black is about connectedness due to shared experiences of racism.

Written by: Alexandra Bondi de Antoni & Kemi Fatoba C/O Berlin Magazine April 2021

[recentanimenews]

INTERVIEW: After 13 Years, Indie RPG Masterpiece Ruina is Finally Available in English

All screenshots of Ruina: Fairy Tale of the Forgotten Ruins taken by author

  This article was made possible through the invaluable contributions of translators Dink and bool, and further aided by context generously provided by writer, translator, and RPG Maker scene dweller Kastel (@kastelwrites). Sections from their answers were excerpted for this piece and edited for clarity and content.

  Last year, at the start of the pandemic, a lapsed member of the RPG Maker community known as Dink stumbled across a screenshot while trawling Japanese free game websites: a black obelisk standing in the midst of ruins. “This is going to make me sound like I've been huffing paint, but this image spoke to something quite visceral for me — like I'd been waiting to find this game. Something about the sepia tones, the light and shadows, the elegance of its very archetype. I knew I had to play it.” Dink had stumbled across Ruina: Haitou no Monogatari (Fairy Tale of the Forgotten Ruins), one of the most acclaimed free RPGs ever made in Japan. Released in the antiquated RPG Maker 2000 engine in 2008 by developer Shoukichi Karekusa, it retains a strong cult following and has even been translated into Chinese. Yet unlike its RPG Maker siblings Yume Nikki and Ib, Ruina is practically unknown in English-speaking countries. Dink decided to change that.  “Once I realized that it had yet to be translated into English,” he said, “it was like I’d become possessed.”

  Ruina is unique. A role-playing game that takes direct influence from tabletop games and gamebooks, it boldly defies conventions established by classic console role-playing games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Rather than controlling the main character across a top-down map, the player slowly uncovers a hand-illustrated map of nodes. Survival in the dungeon requires the use of ropes, pickaxes, and oil for your lantern, resources that are all expendable. Your party members are valuable not only for their combat skills but for their out-of-combat abilities: thieving, sneaking, even swimming. Most of all, Ruina allows for choice and consequence, a phenomenon far more common in western RPGs than Japanese RPGs. Say you stumble across treasure in a dungeon, but are ambushed by thieves who want the treasure for themselves. Do you give the treasure to the thieves? Stand your ground? Or attack the thieves before they can do the same to you? Since your ability to save in the dungeon is heavily rationed, you may find yourself having to choose between restarting a save or living with the messy outcomes of your choices.

    There’s something to Ruina that grounds it in the Japanese RPG tradition, rather than a straightforward riff on Wizardry or Might & Magic. Those earlier games gave you several choices as to building your party, but little in the way of story or character. Ruina is a far more curated experience. On starting the game, you’re offered four “backgrounds” that align you with certain other characters, just one year before Dragon Age: Origins would pull a similar trick. Rather than being given the full freedom to explore a sprawling world, your options are limited to navigating a single, contained dungeon. The characters available to be recruited into your party have defined personalities and quirks — some are already good friends of yours, others are insufferable, and still others have significant flaws that speak to the kind of person they are versus their gameplay function. These are NPCs out of the Baldur’s Gate school, given the illusion of life, rather than the team of personalized murderers you’d recruit in an Etrian Odyssey game.

  Very little else in the Japanese games scene is like Ruina. You could draw comparisons with games like Unlimited Saga and Scarlet Grace, representing the legacy of controversial SQUARE ENIX auteur Akitoshi Kawazu. You could similarly connect Ruina with Yasumi Matsuda’s experimental Crimson Shroud, which takes influence from tabletop to the point that it has the player rolling dice in-game. But Ruina is more accessible and polished than a Kawazu game, and far more fleshed out than Crimson Shroud. Even Etrian Odyssey, with its comparatively barebones story and characters, doesn’t quite compare. Ruina stands alone in the Japanese free games community, a legendary title that people respect but don’t fully understand how to replicate.

    A few days ago I reached out to Kastel, an academic, writer, and translator who is very familiar with Japan’s RPG Maker scene, about where Ruina fit in Japan’s wider field of indie games. “I know many people in the furige (free game) scene who love the game to death,” they said. “But they also found it to be a hard sell due to its unique, almost western take on the scene. The fact that the game is even this popular speaks to something.” Despite its crunchy mechanics and niche inspirations, the game is popular enough to have spawned light novels, an honor not unique to it (other RPG Maker games have accomplished the same) but certainly significant. Kastel drew a comparison between Ruina and Darkest Dungeon, another weird and uncompromising game that draws from both Japanese and western RPGs. “Ruina is sorta different from everything, but you also see dungeon crawlers get inspired by it,” they said. “Not all games take direct inspiration, but you can’t help but see a little bit of Ruina here and there.”

  So why did it take so long for anybody to translate Ruina? Dink isn’t the only person to try his hand at translating it into English; just last fall, another forum dweller placed an ad recruiting a translation team to tackle the game. The unfortunate reality is that translating text within the RPG Maker engine into English requires intensive and repetitive labor. “There’ve been tools developed by vgperson [a prominent translator of RPG Maker games] for RPG Maker 2000 and some other machine translation tools for newer games, but they all remain difficult to use for translators,” Kastel says. “The way games are scripted uses events inside the map and developers rarely name them. So not only do you need to edit it via the appropriate RPG Maker engine, but you also need to go through each event contextless unless the creator actually notes things down.” So, the enterprising Ruina translator doesn’t just need to translate all the text in the game into English. It isn’t even a question of whether or not to manually edit the game’s many pictures and custom menus into English by hand. It’s the sheer difficulty of navigating between thousands of (often poorly labeled) events and variables in the RPG Maker engine, ensuring not to introduce any new bugs or errors in the process, while also finding the time to do all of the above.

    Dink was assisted by a friend of his named bool, who played through the game alongside the translation process and gave invaluable advice and fixes. “Uncovering the mystery in the game's story sort of ran parallel with the translation of the game itself,” bool says. “As the story progressed, the characters would decipher and learn more about the lore of the eponymous ruins within the game, and as the translation progressed, the same held true for us. It really captivated me to be a part of this process, and I started to look forward to each new area that I could explore and each new morsel of the story I could understand.”

  Without bool’s efforts, it might have taken far longer to put together something workable. As it was, it took four exhausting months. “I worked long hours — 12+ hours a day, 6, sometimes 7 days a week on top of my day job — and very rarely used my free time on anything else,” Dink says. “I did manually input the text in RPG Maker 2000, which has raised some eyebrows because there are some very nice tools available for game translation that would have saved me a lot of time. However, a huge advantage of working directly in the editor is being able to see the game more or less as it appears to players. A Notepad file streamlines the basic translation process, but it also heavily obscures context, whereas the editor allows you to see what switches and variables are being used, what music is being played, and sometimes even helpful creator comments, all in the same relative order you'd experience it from within the game.” Dink had one more secret weapon up his sleeve: the experience of working with the RPG Maker engine as an adolescent. RPG Maker has a reputation of being a tool designed to churn out Dragon Quest clones with ease; but nobody knows the intense difficulty of forcing the engine to do something, anything, like a former RPG Maker developer does. 

    The English version of Ruina, as it currently exists, is a workable but inevitably compromised version of the game. Running the game requires installing the Japanese RTP pack of visual and audio resources for RPG Maker to function, along with the use of the EasyRPG player to provide English-language player name entry. There’s the matter of the custom menus, as well. Several of the menus have been replaced with functional English equivalents, but by Dink's own admission they could use an expert's attention to better compare to the original. Other pictures, such as place name displays, have yet to be replaced by English-language equivalents at all. And the strict character limits of RPG Maker 2000 led to some creative truncating when translating from Japanese to English, especially with item and skill descriptions.

  But the existence of an English-language Ruina, one that renders the whole game playable from beginning to end with a readable script, is a miracle. Speaking for myself, I started the long process of learning Japanese two years ago in part so that I could one day play this game, never expecting there might one day be an alternative. Others in the Japanese RPG Maker scene, knowing the brutal difficulty of translating a game made in the earlier engines, were shocked that a game of Ruina’s complexity and length was successfully translated at all.  Speaking for themselves, Dink and bool insist that their own story doesn’t matter much. What matters is the quality of the original game and the hard work developer Shoukichi Karekusa put into its creation. Anything else is an addendum, another version of the game that — while it cannot ever be the original — might at least make something resembling that original experience accessible to others.

    Frankly speaking, I think there’s something to that. The “true” version of Ruina will always exist in its original form, released for free by Karekusa in 2008. It stands as the defining work of a creator who sought to create a unique experience combining the appeal of console and tabletop roleplaying games, with no concessions to market sensibilities. A creator who not only released their baby on the internet for free, but insisted that a game like Ruina must always and ever be free. An austere monolith, it stands side by side with Yume Nikki, Ib, and even Cave Story as one of the great works to come out of Japan’s independent scene. Now any English speaker can pick up and play this new version of Ruina, and learn what that monolith is and where it leads to.

  You can download the English translation of Ruina here. For those who want to learn more about the Japanese RPG Maker scene, I recommend checking out Kastel’s page here.

  Are you a Ruina fan? Let us know in the comments! 

    Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. When he is not working through exercises in Wanikani, he sporadically contributes with a loose group of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? You can find him on Twitter at:@wendeego

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a feature, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Adam Wescott

[dropintomanga]

Regarding That CODA Anti-Piracy Campaign

So I found out that this is a thing.

CODA (Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Agency) decided to do a manga campaign featuring 16 manga stories from notable mangaka (list of mangaka can be be found here) about anti-piracy in order to stop readers from reading manga on scanlation and/or unofficial raw sites. The theme of every manga in this campaign is basically read legal manga with lessons featuring each respective mangaka’s series and characters (i.e. Adachitoka and Noragami’s Yato and Yukine). 

As of July 3, 2020, all the comics are out. They give off important messages about anti-piracy with humor, anger, and grace. I just don’t know who they are trying to convince at this point.

A big problem is the issue of awareness and education when it comes to topics that no one may care about (yet). I see this in mental health. While we have things like Mental Health Awareness Month, suicide rates continue to rise, people with mental illness continue to be ignored and the mental health system continues to be in shambles. The problem with promoting “awareness” is that it doesn’t point out notable actions one can take after hearing about what they are now aware of. It just doesn’t feel measurable. There are fine people who want to know how to help, but you need to tell them how. 

Now there’s one CODA manga story that does tell people to look for legal manga apps/volumes containing an official sign of legitimacy, which is labeled “ABJ - Authorized Books of Japan.” But almost all of these stories don’t really provide useful advice on how to support the Japanese manga industry. They just tell you to do the right thing.

I worry about the hyperbole shouting in some of the manga. One manga has a character going “Do you want manga to be wiped off the face of the earth!?” in an effort to shame someone who read illegal manga on their phone. Another character in another manga said that the industry loses 3.2 billion yen per year (a number I find very hard to believe). There is a big danger to manga in Japan, but piracy is only part of the picture. 

There’s also something that bothers me - some mangaka featured in the campaign know that a good number of fans are naive about pirated manga and see the good in people. However, while there are multitudes of legal manga options available in Japan, the same can’t be said for most of the world that’s not America, France, England or any notable first-world country. Region locks are still a thing and Japan is super-notorious for this.

For an organization that’s focused on overseas promotion of content, region-locking shouldn’t be a thing if you do see the good in people who are willing to support manga as best they can.

I wish mangaka didn’t have to resort to drawing stories telling fans to not pirate their works. I know there are fans who wish a service that has everything (Spotify, Crunchyroll, Netflix, etc.) is the perfect solution. I just don’t know if it will make a difference because reading isn’t highly valued as a leisure activity overseas compared to Japan. The number of anime viewers still dwarf over the number of manga readers.  

I feel like nothing is going to change. However, I do have one suggestion that probably will never be taken. Train mangaka to be more of a visual online content creator-type a la Twitch streamers. With art streams being more of a thing on Twitch, the timing is perfect. This idea came to me as I listened to a fascinating podcast about the psychology of Twitch donations. Basically, it talked about why do Twitch users donate money and subscribe to streamers. 

There was this caveat about research on Twitch donations in that the people who donate/subscribe often make low-to-moderate income. So what compels them to give? Why are they willing to support streamers? While content is still a major reason, another key is an emotional connection that’s experienced via the visual medium that is the stream. There’s some kind of meaningful interaction via Twitch chat as streamers do mention users by name and thanking them for the support.

The researcher in the featured podcast believes the days of “the internet is always free” are becoming a thing of the past. This is true as more industries are figuring out how to make money via the internet that works for them and their consumers. The researcher also argued that having just content isn’t enough to make money on the internet. She said that if you’re not going to make easy all-in-one solutions (i.e. a Netflix-like manga app), then you better deliver added value to the consumer that isn’t just more content and makes them feel appreciative.

Right now, there’s very little-to-no visual emotional connection/community between the manga industry/creators and the fans at all. Everything’s all about content without feeling visual attachment to the manga creator. I see manga publishers promoting special editions with extra goods like OVAs/charms/etc. Those feel more like incentives than rewards as they don’t really change fans’ behavior. There has to be some added value alongside the manga in the form of community (this is one major reason why Crunchyroll has thrived). Maybe overseas fans need to feel that their voices really matter to mangaka or want mangaka on a video platform to acknowledge them in a para-social kind of way in order for them to provide some monetary support.

In Japan, mangaka get letters from fans and they talk about them from time-to-time. Sometimes, those letters do get mentioned online. I would love to see talks of fan letters via video form as a way to reach online audiences.

I do feel that manga publishers outside of Japan are trying their best as they do get mangaka and manga editors to come over to their countries. They are generating community as best they can, but they are still limited in scope since they don’t have control of what the entire Japanese manga industry says. I don’t envy anyone who works in manga because of this.

To be fair, I can’t expect every mangaka to start streaming on platforms like Twitch/Nico due to privacy reasons and general shyness. Sure, there’s Twitter, but how often does social media lead to donations? Rarely. Mangaka also have no time to worry about what overseas readers are into when they have to worry about their own country. Publishers may not also totally understand how streaming works as promotion and the intentions of its users. Look up Atlus Japan and Persona 5 streaming as an example of Japanese companies being unnecessarily wary of streaming. Japanese companies arguably want an absurd amount of control when it comes to promoting their messages to overseas audiences.

I don’t want to bring up Stu Levy, but he once tweeted years ago that the games industry seemed better to work with than the book publishing industry. I hate to admit that there’s a grain of truth in what he said despite whatever you think of him. Seeing Japanese manga publishers continue to struggle with how to handle piracy makes think about Levy’s words. 

I think a more reasonable goal at this point is to get fans to pirate less manga over time. You can’t expect every fan to quit pirating 100% right away. It never works that way. There will be relapses and we have to be forgiving of that. Relapse is part of the healing process. Shaming someone who may continue to make mistakes from time-to-time (instead of believing they can still heal via good planning) makes them go more all-in on hiding their “bad” behaviors. I mean, as someone with mental illness, I was afraid of making mistakes as I didn’t want to be yelled at. I was told that failure was awful. It made me feel I would never be loved if I wasn’t perfect despite my best efforts. Is this something we want manga fans to experience?

CODA’s manga website URL has the word “enlightenment” in it. The only enlightening thing right now is that we still haven’t reached a solid middle ground that truly bridges manga fans and the manga industry together and financially rewards both to create a manga ecosystem that’s as good as the anime ecosystem today.

[writtenbyhappynerds]

Unit 6: Making it Real

    When we say realism, we mean capturing both the voice of the canon characters while providing an OC who realistically fits into the narrative. This can be one of the hardest things to grasp as a writer, and a fanfiction writer on top of that because the cards are inherently against you. While your OC is your own character and can have whatever voice you want it to, the canon characters (cast) are voices you have to mimic. They are not and will never be your own voice, just an imitation of someone else’s voice. Some of the best fanfictions capture the voice of the cast extremely well which is why their fanfictions work. Because we as readers see how they have interpreted the cast and find it believable. There are many tips and tricks we as writers can use to mimic the voices of characters. To start, we are going to discuss some of the easiest mistakes and how to correct them.

    Just because a piece is a fanfiction doesn’t mean you can come up with ridiculous plot lines and reduce the cast to one-note personalities. It is very easy to rely on the most blatant part of a character’s personality to carry over their impression, but it isn’t enough to make realistic fanfic. In Harry Potter fanfiction, for example, Hermione Granger is often reduced to a clenched butthole who never stops screaming about homework. Hermione the canon character is a muggle-born witch who sees magic as an opportunity and wants to be the best she can possibly be, as well as a character who staunchly opposes injustice. She will not ignore injustice for the sake of academics, which is how organizations such as SPEW and Dumbledore’s Army were created. As a writer, it helps to flip back through Harry Potter and make notes for yourself on the themes of each character’s personality and flaws. For Hermione, instead of focusing on the academic, the writer needs to remember the bravery and the pursuit of injustice. They also need to remember how stubborn she is and how much she hates to lose or be proven wrong (See Harry beating Hermione in potions in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). If you’re including characters like Hermione in your fanfiction, it requires some research, and having a cheat sheet will be helpful in developing a more realistic voice.

    Some issues in realism also come from the writer having way more voices than what they know what to do with. This means that maybe you had one OC, but that OC interacts with a large group like One Direction or The Avengers. There’s an easy solution: Your OC does not need to interact and be best friends with every single character. That itself is unrealistic. Take your own friend group for example. There are some members of that group you text every day, there are some you only see at events, some you only see on weekends, and some who are around all the time. It is perfectly ok if you as a writer are uncomfortable, to have some characters back up and take on a lesser role at the start of a fic. As you grow more confident with larger groups, you’ll still have the option to reintroduce them, or you can even have a specific arc in the story with your OC and those background characters. What the Editor and I see all too often is groups being forced to stick together as a group. What happens then is that the watered-down personalities infect all the characters as a whole and decrease the value of the fic overall. Take One Direction for example. In these fics, because it’s so important for the group to stick together as a group, Louis’s personality is reduced to screaming about carrots. Liam screams about spoons. Zayn does it with mirrors, and Harry, his hair. Not only are these boys reduced to the bare bones of personality, but all the writer has also done is taken the most ridiculous parts of their personalities and made it represent their entire beings. It’s not realistic. What you can do as a writer is send them off to other places or keep them in the background. You have no clue how to write for Zayn? He’s gonna be on his iPad for this scene watching a movie. You don’t know what Louis would do during this part? He’s gone to the store or gone for a walk. The characters don’t have to be together all the time. The same is true for Avengers fanfiction, and I’d argue that it’s easier to do this for Avengers because you can be more creative with the excuses. Clint’s at the farm. Natasha and Steve are on a mission. Tony got dragged to some event with Pepper. Bruce is in his room- he asked to not be disturbed. There is no rule that says a group has to stay together at all times, and if you’re uncomfortable you can find ways for those characters to leave, or put them somewhere in the background where they won’t interrupt the scene.

    Let’s talk briefly about love interests. The notes for the romance chapter are already horribly long, as the Editor and I have been discussing all the common mistakes and errors we see in romance fictions, but we’re saving that for after Exam 2 since I already have to apply a curve to Exam 1 for everyone who didn’t study. I digress. Love-interests can get just as bogged down as regular members of the cast. We’ve previously discussed how characters wouldn’t drop their entire personality the minute their love interest appears. That still stands because it isn’t realistic. Another thing that isn’t realistic, is amplifying a rival’s personality to make your pairing better by comparison. I see you people, and making a character or member of the cast more obnoxious or annoying so your pairing looks better is unrealistic and needs to come to an end. For example, say you’re writing a The Vampire Diaries fanfiction and your OC is madly in love with Damon. Fine, whatever, I don’t care. What I do care about is you the writer making Elena more obnoxious or more of a bitch to force your Damon/OC pairing. That’s not kosher. In the real world, relationships can fall apart and come together for reasons other than this person is suddenly super annoying and controlling and I don’t know why but oh look this new girl I’ve never seen is totally nice and super chill. Relationships are a partnership, and as a shortlist, they can fall apart because of: differing levels of commitment, they’re no longer on the same page, they’re afraid of being alone (yes relationships can fall apart because of this), someone compares their relationship to everyone else’s, someone tries to rely on their body language as a form of communication and as such, they don’t communicate, someone sees their partner as inferior, and so on and so forth. Another helpful way to naturally push a breakup is that in many couples who have been together for a long time, what originally were quirks and cute becoming obnoxious flaws that are too much effort to deal with. An example of this can be found in Neil Hilborn’s spoken-word poem OCD, where he describes how his ex fell out of love with him because his tics that were at first fun and cute became annoying and too much to handle. It’s sad, but it is more realistic for two people or two characters to break up over these reasons than one character waking up and turning into a complete nuisance. We will cover more of this in the Romance Unit.

    We sometimes find an error in the Meet Cutes or the way in which the OCs first meet and interact with the cast. These can range from they came to the coffee shop I worked at to they saved me from xyz villains. However, if this story is taking place in the real world we’d appreciate a spoonful of realism. If a character is planning a trip abroad, they would not get to the airport 10 minutes before the flight leaves. That is a fun way to suddenly not have a trip abroad. It doesn’t build tension for the audience when things like this occur, it just sets up unrealistic circumstances and makes the entire scene less believable. The same is true for say, One Direction fanfics where the fan somehow miraculously sneaks backstage and meets the band. That wouldn’t happen in real life. I understand it’s hard to figure out how two characters can get into the same room, but you have other options. Going back to One Direction, a teenage girl becoming the personal assistant for five teenage boys is very unrealistic. I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t write those kinds of fanfiction. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t write One Direction fanfiction though! You just need something more realistic. You could have:

The daughter of an executive producer or choreographer or stylist for the boys who have to bring their parents something they’ve forgotten.

The store manager at a shopping mall who lets the boys sneak out the back of the store when they’re running from paparazzi.

They could be a musician who is trying to get signed to the same label as the band.

    So long as your fanfiction is realistic fiction, I want you to lean heavily on realism. This does not apply just to One Direction fanfic. Every universe has a set of stakes and standards. We covered this in Chapter One. What we need to do now in realism is to apply those standards and make sure that when two characters meet, it feels natural. It feels like something that could happen and not something that was forced to happen.

    Speaking of forced to happen, let’s delve into character flaws. We talked about in Unit 5 how some writers appear uncomfortable with seeing their characters struggle. What some authors fail to realize is a tougher uphill climb makes the view so much more worth it. Seeing your characters struggle is a fact of life: not everything comes naturally to you, so why would it to your characters? When I was first trying to force myself to give my character flaws I would scour lists online for “common character flaws.” There is an easier solution. Your character’s flaws can mirror the positive attributes of a character. For example, If your character is very loyal, they may be headstrong and unwilling to hear or believe criticism of the person or thing they are loyal towards. You can think of that in terms of a devoutly religious person who won’t hear criticism of their beliefs, or of a loyal friend who won’t believe the person they know did something wrong. A character who is very giving may not take time for themselves or would let themselves go without before seeing their friends suffer. A character who is romantic and loves to try and woo their significant other may be jealous when they can’t spend time with that person or may be needy, and struggle with being alone. As an easy trick, try and view your character’s positive attributes through a negative lens and see what flaws you can pull out, so like me, you can stop scrolling the lists online just to say your character bites their nails or smokes.

    The best example of flaws and consequences of those flaws is Percy Jackson. Riordan makes a point for the heroes to have “fatal flaws” with Annabeth’s being pride and Percy’s being loyalty. You see consequences for these flaws throughout the book, and you see bad things happen to the characters because of their pride or loyalty. Annabeth wouldn’t have gone after the spider alone if it weren’t for her pride. She wouldn’t have tried to hear and survive the siren’s song. She makes mistakes and falls down and even lands in Tartarus because of her pride, which makes her a more realistic character. The same is true for Percy, whose loyalty to his friends and those he loves forces him to act recklessly and to even defy the gods in the name of those he cares about. You can see it in Nic DiAngelo as well because his grudge against the demigods is what kept him out of the books for so long. Until such a time where Bianca could tell him to get over it and forgive. Flaws are important to have and vital to character development, but we should also see consequences for these flaws otherwise we won’t know they’re there. Remember, we as readers can only infer from what you give us, and we’re not doing character bios anymore. So if you want your character to have flaws, the only way we can see that is by consequence of their actions. It’s okay for your characters to fail from time to time. It makes the victories better by comparison.

    In the same vein of character flaws, let’s finally talk about Mary Sues. A Mary Sue is a character who can accomplish any task no matter how difficult with little effort and is adored by all. Depending on the story, we can see this play out in different ways. Often, we see authors try to disguise the character’s Mary Sue-ness by giving her some random flaw to prove she’s not perfect; however, that flaw doesn’t seem to impact her life in any way at all.  For example, in Avengers fanfics, our Mary Sue has some vaguely defined powers that allow her to do absolutely everything imaginable but may have a flaw that was added as an afterthought like being bad at math. This flaw may later be ignored as in another chapter she could/would solve a physics problem that stumped Tony Stark. Her flaw had no impact on her ability to be better than everyone around her, and this makes her a Mary Sue. As a side note, when you give your characters superpowers, the character should have a consequence or rule for using those powers. The book Magic or Madness starred a family of witches, who had to use their powers because they would go insane without them. However, using those powers cost them years off their lifespans. In Mary Sues, we see characters who make themselves the plot, instead of joining or coming along for a storyline that they participate in. We see this happen a lot in Victorious with Tori Vega. Anytime something, all of the characters turn to her to magically swoop in and save the day. For example, in the Great Ping Pong Scam episode (season 1, episode 11), Robbie ordered way too much caviar and now they’re unable to pay their bill. Don’t worry though, Tori has this shit handled. We see her borrow Jade’s dress and sing her way out of that situation. There was absolutely no reason for that to happen; we know Jade is a talented singer, she could have easily done that herself. Make it mean something, and make there be consequences for these characters.

    Another common trait of Mary Sues is a tragic backstory. The character might have lost their family, may have been abused, may have been homeless, had depression, been suicidal, or even all of the above. It’s not a bad thing to have a character with a tragic backstory. What makes that character a Mary Sue is when that backstory does not impact who they are as a person. The backstory is there for the audience to sympathize with the character, not as an internal conflict of the character herself, and more often than not the tragic backstory manifests itself in being closed off and, “refusing to trust people,” while still having a large group of friends like the Avengers or the cast of Harry Potter or the Heroes of Olympus. There are consequences for actions. Things people do and say can have lasting effects and carry on with someone for the rest of their lives. It can manifest in rational fears, and irrational fears and a character may have both healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms. If you write in a terrible instance that has occurred for your character, you need there to be consequences for the actions of both that character and those who hurt them. A good example is in Bill Willingham’s Fables: Legends in Exile in the characters Snow White and her sister Rose Red. The short and long of it is that Snow White was rescued by the prince, and abandoned her sister. Rose Red was eventually sent for, but only after a great deal of time had passed. This made her feel unwanted, and as revenge on her sister, she slept with Prince Charming and destroyed their marriage. Beyond that, years later, Rose Red still struggles with inadequacy compared to Snow White and still resents her for abandoning her. She can’t keep a stable relationship and feels she isn’t good enough for any of her potential love interests. Rose Red is a great example of a character still feeling the aftershocks of a traumatic event. She was abandoned, and she grew bitter, and she got the revenge she wanted but it still wasn’t satisfying and did more harm than good to her in the long run. To avoid Mary Sues, you need to make your characters have flaws, make them have secrets (beyond their superpowers that inevitably get revealed later in the story), make them have selfish moments, make them afraid, and make sure that if they experienced tragedy and heartbreak that it is something they’ve never forgotten.

    The next few notes are not specific to one genre or fandom but are aspects of realism that need to be addressed. First and foremost, it is biologically impossible for boy-girl twins to be identical. This is because when two haploid cells make a diploid zygote, which is how babies are made. Identical twins are always the same sex because they come from the same egg, and all the DNA is copied twice, making them completely identical. Because they are completely identical, they are the same sex. Fraternal twins, which are also more common than identical twins by a longshot, are made when two individual eggs are fertilized at the exact same time. They then grow together in the uterus and make babies who don’t look exactly alike. All boy-girl twins are fraternal because it is biologically impossible for them to be identical since they can’t have a difference in chromosomes while still coming from the same egg. The biology major in me is really coming through in this paragraph, and I apologize for that, but what we’re trying to say is that you can’t have a set of twins that are boy-girl twins and describe them as looking exactly alike. That is unrealistic. Fraternal twins are way more common, and more realistic than identical twins. Give them a shot.

    Song lyrics written out in their entirety are a very quick way to ruin the immersion and take your reader out of the story. Having a character sing to another character, very often it is in an unrealistic set of circumstances, and it comes across as cringy and extra instead of emotional. This is more abstract in terms of what is okay and what isn’t and it does go on a case-by-case basis. The good rule of thumb is if you the author have seen this happen in real life or it is something that can actually happen in real life, go ahead. But don’t put the lyrics of the song. Instead, while the character is singing describe how the character they are singing to is reacting. Romanticize the shit out of their surroundings, and make something that’s charming and sweet, instead of cringy. If you need help, our examples of good scenes that involve singing are:

Two people in love singing badly while they dance drunk around the kitchen.

A little boy or girl sharing their favorite song with a stranger to show the innocence of children.

Sports fans singing during a match or a game

The dying rebellion singing their battle cry only after loads have died as a means to try and reignite their hope.

The happy and alive rebellion singing at the top of their lungs because they’re young rebels with a cause and no one has died yet.

The old homeless man getting a guitar for the first time in 2 years and singing a cover of Creep that breaks your heart a la the Youtube video that will be linked below.

Nightmare musical numbers

Songs sung by two voices in two different time periods a la Bojack Horseman’s I Will Always Think of You

Sad reprises

    If it can happen in real life, go for it. But don’t tell me what the lyrics are. If you’re worried the readers won’t get it, put a link to the song at the very end of the chapter. Or, if music is a big part of your character, make a soundtrack and put it at the end of the story. A memoir I read recently, Rustbelt Femme, the author Raechel put her mixtape at the end of her book because the music was such a big part of how she came into her own identity and discovered her sexuality. This was something she wanted to share with her audience so in the book itself she would mention the bands or songs in passing, and at the end of the book, she put them in a list for people to listen to on their own. I can understand wanting readers to grasp the importance of the scene, but let them explore that in their own time. Don’t force it down their throats by putting song lyrics in the middle of a story.

    Next week we’re talking about crossovers. I am very excited, as I love a good crossover fanfiction. We’ll discuss how to make crossovers work, how some don’t work and why, and tie it back to both characterization and the Rules for the Universe. Xoxo, gossip girl.

Additional Reading (Listening): 

Neil Hilborn’s OCD 

Homeless Man Singing Creep by Radiohead. 

[gothify1]

Lately it seems as if there’s not a day that goes by where I’m not triggered by a blatant form of racial insensitivity, evident lack of diverse staff, or lack of awareness coming from fashion brands and design houses alike. In a time when we're reckoning with the legacy of iconic designers and brands, maybe the best thing consumers can do is take a step back and look at how we contribute. Sure, we can’t control what designers send down the runway, but one of the most fundamentally underrated ways to be an ally to the black community (and any community for that matter) is through how we spend our money. As we celebrate Black History Month I believe there’s truly no better way to appreciate and support black artistry than through shopping black-owned business and designers. Keep scrolling to find some of my favorite designers to shop this month and beyond. The first time I saw Brother Vellies in my feed, my heart skipped a beat. I saw a woman who looks just like me on social media (a rare occasion) wearing these incredible black feather heels. From that moment on, I was hooked. From its Instagram feed to how each product is made, Brother Vellies is thoughtful with everything it does. Founded by Aurora James, the brand is dedicated to sustainability and works with artisans in South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Morocco to make its handcrafted shoes. Basically, whenever I’m feeling philanthropic but need a pair of shoes, I’ll be spending all my money with Brother Vellies. Remember that iconic blazer look Beyoncé wore on her last On the Run II tour? That was from Queens-born designer LaQuan Smith. His glamorous and often sultry designs have not only caught the attention of the queen, but Cardi B, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, and other celebrities alike. If celebrities are not enough to immediately pique your interest, his previous collaboration this past fall with ASOS may do the trick. Featuring men’s and women’s clothing and plus-size options, the affordable collection toes the line between down to earth and just a pinch of extra. Not convinced yet? Check out his work below. Confession: I was hyperventilating at my desk when watching Carly Cushnie’s F/W 19 presentation. Something about her all-red layered look with velvet flare-leg pants and her Tibet Lamb Coat had me seriously re-considering my wardrobe choices. Her work often does that though; it’s so beautifully structured, minimal, and yet feminine you can’t help but to imagine how magical your life would be if you were just wearing one of her pieces. Imagine yourself sitting in Positano, Italy, with sun shining down on you while you’re drinking lemonade—but what are you wearing? Hopefully Fe Noel. The Grenadian womenswear designer from Brooklyn specialized in collections that practically scream "book a flight right now." Felisha Noel also recently collaborated with Afro-cuban American painter Harmonia Rosales. Rosales is known for reimaging iconic renaissance art pieces as black women, and we’re here for his jump from canvas to Fe Noel’s silk. After all, there’s no better way to celebrate black history than by recognising and reclaiming the beauty of black identity that’s been erased in larger historical narratives. CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner Telfar Clemens not only creates pieces that anyone can wear but continually pushes societal boundaries through challenging black and gender identity norms. After all, how many designers this past fall sent unisex clothing through a mosh pit environment while country music blasted in the background? Have you ever seen black cowboys sporting fringe? Probably not. If you’re looking for clothing that pushes boundaries and comes from a unique perspective, Telfar is your new go-to. Remember when we did that beautiful cover shoot with Yara Shahidi? If you haven’t been able to stop thinking about the printed silk suit she’s wearing, you’re not alone. The suit was part of a Pyer Moss collaboration with artist Derrick Adams that aimed to explore the idea of black life without persecution. In many ways, it’s easy to see why Kerby Jean-Raymond won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award, was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30, and has a Reebok partnership. But in truth, the accolades don’t even begin to speak to the gravitas of his work. Designing for both men and women, Kerby uses his collections to give voice to the African American experience one piece at a time. Ever since the designer made waves with luxury street label Off-White and stepped into his role as menswear artistic director for Louis Vuitton , Virgil has kept the industry’s attention. And the hype thus far is definitely worth it. Sure, everyone lost it over his debut this past June ,  but his most recent menswear shows for fall 2019 caught my attention. For Louis Vuitton, Virgil used a Broadway-like production to set viewers in an old New York with live jazz in the back while well-tailored suits and subtle American flag pieces made their way down the runway. For Off-White, set against a landscape that turned into a green screen, models wearing box blazers paired with football helmets made their way through a dystopian cityscape. While both his shows stayed true to the brand’s identity, it felt as if both were a reflection of his own experiences as a black man and the environments that shaped him. To me, that reflection in and of itself, is breathtaking. Maybe it was just me, but the 2019 Grammy outfits truly solidified my love for Olivier Rousteing at Balmain. How could one not be in a tizzy over Béyonce’s iconic look, Jorja Smith’s stunning gold sequin number, or even Kylie Jenner’s avant-garde look? I know he’s been the creative director for nine years—which means I’ve been high-key sleeping on him—but something about him taking the brand back to couture week has made me fall in love all over again. Maybe it’s couture or maybe it’s him, but either way this a brand and a designer you should be buying into at the moment. Next: 14 Editor-Approved Designer Bags So Good We Bought Them

[angrymusicians]

What Does The Active Directory Domain Services is Currently Unavailable Mean

The Active Directory Domain Services is Currently Unavailable Windows 10: When working with records and printers, there often occur more than a few problems in relation to the ultimate printing of the records. The challenge, nevertheless, is more standard even as making use of the MS place of business accessories be it excel or word records. The second you try to get a print out of the records, you to find the error announcing ‘The lively directory area services is presently unavailable‘; which means that the printer hasn’t been detected and thus the procedure can't be applied further.

Then again, the main issue doesn’t arise at the same time utilising more than a few different applications for some unknown motive and the printer is quite simply detected too. In case you are questioning why the error is ordinary within the case of MS place of job components most effective, the answer is the user permissions do not enable the printer to be listed in MC place of work because of which it are not able to be detected both. There is a couple of steps and fixes that you can take to eliminate this ‘provider presently unavailable’ difficulty.

Also, Read Xiaming VPN for PC, Windows 7, 8, 10, Mac, and Vista

It has been reportedly observed that this obstacle continues occurring with just about all essential manufacturers of the printer like HP, Canon, etc. But some users say it’s the home windows 8,8.1 and 10 error. However i've come across some customers of home windows 7, which are also going through the same error while seeking to print some document via MS place of job functions. It might not be the difficulty together with your printer, however as I already told it’s the user permission that doesn't permit your printer

approaches to repair “The lively directory domain offerings is currently unavailable” error

There are a number of ways to fix this obstacle, however we can  with basic troubleshooting as majorly all drawback get resolve by this step best. If it does now not work then, we will proceed with the principal ways.

General Printer Troubleshooting

In home windows Search (Win Button + W), seek for Troubleshooting.

2. Now under the proper panel of Troubleshooting manipulate Panel menu, click on on View all after which prefer the Printer from the Window that appears.

Three. Now comply with the basic Printer Troubleshooting steps. Most quite often your hindrance will get solved.

Verify and replace Printer Drivers regularly such hindrance occurs as a result of old-fashioned drivers or some hassle with drivers. It’s a general step; that you would be able to go for Driver Scan additionally.

These are all common steps for all the problems; now which you could proceed with the fundamental ways that are listed under to solve your hindrance. These methods will obviously remedy your issue.

Also, Read Download Solo VPN for PC, Windows 7,8,8.1,10, Mac, and Vista

Approach 1: utilizing Registry Editor and Giving Permissions

warning: be careful even as you're making the manipulations as errors could result within the approach getting affected. It's, for that reason, really useful to be cautious at the same time following the steps and making changes in the entries. Additionally, have a backup to your system as you proceed with the proceedings.

Press  Win + R and in the dialogue field that seems enter ‘regedit’ adopted with the aid of a click on ok.

2. Having run the regedit, from the left pane of the registry editor, go to the following:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersion

3. Next, there can be three sub keys in the present variant key- the gadgets, Printer Ports, and the home windows. Now, to get the permission, all you ought to do is click on each certainly one of them with a right click and from there choose permissions from every of them separately. Having accomplished that, the next home windows will open:

4. From here, you're imagined to choose the user account/usernames label on which the fix must be completed. Having finished that you are going to need to tick mark on allow in entrance of the ‘full control‘ choice. Subsequent, click on follow and adequate!

With this close the Registry Editor and restart your computer and unplug the printer and reinstall it again. The error is now gone, and the fix has been made. Now you could simply detect the printer on MS workplace add-ons, the permissions may also be transformed from the step followed above.

Also, Read Download and Install Touch VPN for PC, Windows 7,8,8.1,10, and Mac

Approach 2: gaining access to Permission utilizing other Working Apps like Notepad

In case the above approach doesn’t figure out or seems to be elaborate, that you could simply add the printer with the aid of alternative apps for which the printer is working first-rate. Right here, allow us to take the instance of Notepad!

1. Shut the entire administrative center add-ons for your computer and discuss with Notepad. Under the File Menu pick File>>Printer or you need to use shortcut Ctrl + P.

2. Now, from right here you are going to must choose the option of ‘in finding printer.’ Now effectively go along with steps to add the Printer that we more commonly use. If you are making use of community Printer, then you definitely need to pick it out of your community. When introduced it's going to work for workplace additionally.

System 3: Restarting Print Spooler provider

Open Run Command making use of Win +R. Now variety services.Msc and click on adequate.

Now Scroll all the way down to Print Spooler and determine whether it’s is going for walks and Startup variety should be computerized.

If not, right-click on Print Spooler and open its houses. Then begin the service.

If it’s already going for walks then, discontinue it and again start it. I've listed all of the methods, which will remedy this error The lively listing domain services is currently unavailable. Now you need to not be having any trouble whilst printing your records with MS administrative center or another app. If still, obstacle happens, first go with normal troubleshooting and driver scan and then the ways. Now try out and let me know which method works for you and type out your issues in feedback.

More info Clicks Bestoftool.com

[millerjpower]

Twitch Safety Tools for Smaller Streamers

Hate raids, doxxing, and follow bots are not a new thing on Twitch, but their reach and domination is increasing. More and more these things are affecting smaller streamers who never expected anything like this to happen to them. Especially now with the identity tags, marginalised folks with upwards of 10 viewers need to be on their guard and are scared to go live.

By no means do I think it should be the responsibility of the streamer to try and protect ourselves from this level of danger, especially when Twitch is owned by one of the most powerful companies in the world. However, at the moment looking after ourselves is the only option if we can't or don't want to leave the platform.

If you would like to read my thoughts on the current state of Twitch you can read them here. This post will just be going through my tips and tutorials for safety measures on Twitch without spending money or having a huge mod team.

Of course there are loads of tools out there, I'm not saying these are the ultimate ones but the ones I have found easy and useful.

Hate Raid Button

The number one thing that has helped me avoid the worst of hate raids is my hate raid button. You may have heard of the pricy hardware Stream Deck. Well there's a much cheaper way to achieve it to allow you to have useful moderation tools, change scene, and do all sorts of things at the touch of a well labelled button! I use Deckboard which is free, or £2.79 for the Pro version with more buttons. I use an old tablet to run mine, but you could use a phone or just run it on your computer.

I won't give a full tutorial of how to use it here as it is pretty self explanatory (although let me know if that is something you would want!), but I will talk you through the hate raid button I have made as it's a little more complicated.

Click an empty spot to make a new button, and name it what you want.

In the action menu select "multi actions" and press the button below "open editor".

Click "add action" then "Clear Chat" action

Click "add action" then Subscribers or Followers only.

Click "add action" then "Send Chat". In the "send" box spam an emote code 100 or more times (remember to put spaces!). This is so if any viewers have BTTV and doesn't get chat cleared, any nasty messages will be removed from their view.

If you can separate your follow alerts from your other alerts and make them two separate browser sources. Then you can click "add action" then "toggle source" and select each of your scenes that have alerts and then your follow alerts. When you press the button it will turn off your follow alerts so all the nasty usernames don't show up on your screen. If you can't separate your alerts, just select your alerts source on each scene.

Do the same if you have your chat on screen. Use "toggle source" to turn off on screen chat on any scene you have it.

Commander Root Blocklist

By now you've probably heard of Commander Root, and it's ups and downs. And while I use it and find it very useful, there are risks in using it. So I will explain it's uses and risks here.

I use Commander Root for it's blocklist manager. You can paste in lists of usernames to block, or select "block all known bot accounts" to block every bot on their list. This not only bans the accounts from your channel, but stops them from following you at all. And unlike on twitch, it can do huge lists at once rather than you having to go one by one.

You do this by pressing the green button "add new blocks" and then paste your list in the text box, or press "block known bot accounts".

I haven't had any problems with Commander Root blocklist, and I think it has really helped reduce my amount of hate raids. However, it is not recommended by Twitch and many people have had problems with it.

One problem you shouldn't ever have is losing all your followers. This is a problem with Commander Root's follower remover which I recommend staying well away from if you want to keep your legit followers.

However, Commander Root's blocklist can get you shadow banned from Twitch, meaning that you can only chat in channels where you're a mod or VIP for a while. Like I say this hasn't happened to me, but it can happen so it is your choice if you want to take that risk.

Another mild issue is, once you have used the blocklist tool once, it can take ages to load the page again. But, be patient! It will load eventually.

Twitch's offered alternative is that when you do get hate raids to clip them and report them to twitch. Twitch will then remove those accounts from the site altogether. This does work, amazingly! But I am not a fan of it as a method, as I want prevent hate raids not put a bandage on it after it happens. That said, plenty of people have had success with this method after waiting a couple days, so it is a good option if you don't want to risk the shadow ban.

Running a Mod Team

If you can, it is good to have a small mod team even if you don't have a huge audience. It means that if there is any trouble it doesn't need to throw you off what you're doing. Here are a few tips for running a mod team.

Make sure you have clear, easily accessible guidelines for your mods to follow. Mods are less likely to take action in a difficult situation if you don't explain to them what you would like them to do. By telling them something simple to follow like "we have a 3 strike system, break the rules once is a warning, twice is a time out, and three times leads to a ban" makes it so much easier for them to do their job. Explain your rules to your mods and why you have them so they can better understand how to protect your space.

Make sure your mods are people you can trust with that responsibility. If you're thinking of taking on mods you don't know so well, I recommend making an application form with questions like "why do you want to be my mod?" and "what important things do mods do?" so you know that they are there to be responsible.

Communicate with your mods. Make sure you have a group chat where they can talk about what's happening on stream and ask questions about mod procedures. If you would like them to do something differently, tell them! They're not psychic.

Treat your mods with huge respect! They are doing hard work for free and they don't owe you anything. If they can't make a stream, need a break, or just aren't feeling it for a little while you should affirm and respect that. Treat your mods to fun games nights or treats every now and again so they feel valued!

I hope you can find this useful! If you have any questions feel free to leave them in replies, or tweet at me on @PytharGames! If you would like to support my work and keep it free for everyone, you can tip or subscribe to support here.

[artdjgblog]

​Innerview: Carmen (Editor) / HOW Magazine​

April 2008

Image: Gummi Bears (Disney, 1985-1991)

Note: Email Q&A​

Question:

​My interest is piqued a bit about the year you took off–why you did that, how you spent it, how it affected you, what you learned, etc.

Answer:​

At the end of the past several years, I’ve been starting each new twelve month set with a list of what ​I​ learned in the previous. Items from this past year (2006) include: Things DJG Realized in 2007 -I found out that LOL in an email does not mean “Lots Of Love”. -I still get weird when I see LOL in an email even though I know what it means. -I realized I officially dislike the use of emoticons in emails sent to me. -I learned that internet “Phishing” does not involve jam bands and hippies. -I found out how to copy and paste pictures into myspace blogs. -I like to read about stuff on www.wikipedia.org. -I think that body spray is kinda cool. -I don’t think it’s cool to keep my mouth open when spraying Old Spice. -I am thankful for blow dryers with longer locks in winter. -I still love “Gummi Bears”, but it’s still not as cool as when i was eleven. -I love Chick Peas. -I don’t love Chick Pee. -I found out how I like my steak. -I don’t like pants pleats. -I can go on a diet and lose weight. -I like the way Chinese food smells in colder weather. -I feel that New York City is a very comfortable place because nobody stares. -I don’t like New Jersey (or turnpikes). -I can swim in the ocean and it is fantastic fun. -I found out the hard way that salt water really is salty. -I can wear flip-flops. -I don’t like the sound of flip-flops. -I like Branson. -I still don’t like to do laundry. -I learned what the clothing pattern “Hounds Tooth” looks like. -I can’t help but think of the ’84 Olympics logo when I see the pattern. -I don’t have to say “Yes” to everything. -I lose faith in my fellow man three days out of seven. -I am not a perfect person though either. -I get more and more irritated and more easily the older I get. -I have stopped sympathizing for those who know how to make terrible decisions. -I am trying to enjoy the little things in life…even if it’s a bad meal. -I have the same brain functions I had when I was five, just more polluted now. -I can’t stay up late like I used to and function properly. -I realized that sleep is an important ingredient to a healthy life. -I can get up at 5:00 am every day and enjoy it greatly. -I am a morning person when it comes to ME, alone and with a handful of hours. -I love to watch old movies in the early morning with a blanket and a kitty or two. -I am a “Glass Half-Empty” kind of guy. -I can never do, make or learn enough. -I study better and actually enjoy it now that my college loan is almost paid for. -I am starting to dress like my Dad and I like that. -I learned that Shadow meows quite frantically when ready to leave the basement. -I really warmed up to Alfred Hitchcok, Werner Herzog and David Lynch movies. -I can really relate to the movie “Punch-Drunk Love” and it is my favorite movie. -I love cashews. -I even like pecans. -I love squash. -I really like to hunt deer. -I enjoy writing. -I am no lecturer. -I get worn out easier now and realize when I need a break. -I feel more comfortable when I get to church late and leave early. -I can relate to the hit TV show “Friends” now (that I’m older) and actually enjoy it. -I like the original “Star Trek” series. -I like the television show “Angel”. -I love to start my Sundays with “CBS Sunday Morning”. -I am glad I no longer buy comic books regularly because I would be broke. -I still can’t get enough books, movies and music…so it all evens out the wallet. -I have stopped apologizing for my personal preferences in pop-culture. -I am getting more used to the idea of the MP3 and the digital music world. -I don’t really enjoy a live concert setting anymore in the majority of circumstances. -I learned to read and match the (+) and (-) signs on battery operated gadgets. -I love the feeling of coming home to my house, wife and kitties. -I still don’t know how to say properly for example, “Two pair, or two pairs of socks”. -I still have bad English and grammar…regardless of age, location and knowledge. -I have learned if it works, change it (especially in concern of my own work). -I learned that I am not a real graphic designer in standard weights and measures. Several important items stand out on this list that pertains to my year of slowing down the design machines and refueling… -I get worn out easier now and realize when I need a break-I can get up at 5:00 am every day and enjoy it greatly. -I have learned if it works, change it (especially in concern of my own work) -I don’t have to say “Yes” to everything -I learned that I am not a real graphic designer in standard weights and measures -I can never do, make or learn enough I ended 2006, my most fruitful in productivity and success, with extreme exhaustion and a head polluted with design takeover. And the near-death of my Grandfather frazzled me as well. Some would find a “head polluted with design takeover” as a good thing, and maybe when you’re naive to it…maybe? A realization of this can out-weigh on the full scale of the daily spectrum though. Also, a string of a few strung-out disappointing projects and disappointed clients pointed all arrows at the fact that DJG was starting to show some burnout and bitter. This scared me. Though, it was even scarier to just up and stop what I’ve started and worked so hard to build. Ultimately, my goal has always been to do the things that I’m doing full-time, and stopping all of a sudden would turn back the clock a bit on that. I just had to realize that what I had built was there all along and will always be, and only on the right kinds of full tanks of fuel. True, I’m a relatively young man, but in my early-early days of mining this strange, loopy-lop design odyssey, I never thought of burnout ever being an option on the design iron man meter. When you start to tackle anything, you’ll do most anything to make it happen. I had fire (and have had it for many years), even if it was threatened to be snuffed out by a couple of day jobs on top of it…i had a torch. I once swore that I wouldn’t stop until my skull was spilled (and I still believe this in some light). But, now it’s getting a little bit harder to perform with age settling in and being married…and trying to be more responsible. You know, life stuff? A major factor on most anybody’s tool belt is TIME. I just didn’t have a way to manage it properly anymore, even though I felt I had more than I used to. Add this to being a little annoyed and frustrated with the shaping of the design world and I didn’t feel too well about myself and what I was doing anymore. Back to my string of disappointing projects and clients…I know I can’t please everybody, but I do my best and give my all. Even though I make maybe twenty or thirty or forty bucks on average pop, I give everything I’ve got for something even so throw-away as a concert poster. I’ve somehow landed a comfortable position within the realms of the things I make, that I somehow have gotten a nice little pile of press, and I haven’t had much bad press at all (at least from all that gets passed down to me). And it’s not that I need press, but, it’s nice to share this stuff when I can, and again, ultimately I want to do this full-time and it’s hard to get there without press! Bad press and critiques are appreciated and needed for the most part, but there is a level of maturity and knowledge that must come with that from both parts. And I was on the receiving end of a couple that were pretty brutal and uncalled for, considering that I was getting paid twenty bucks or less. And being that I am extremely critical on myself, and at the same time really enjoy my little works, it can be hard to heal some sliced fingertips. People are taking themselves way to seriously too (though, haven’t they always?). It’s like they threw all their toys away right when the clock marked thirteen, along with any pinch of heart they once had…discarding and disguising all that miracle grow that helped them grow. The stress of cramming the work in-between the day job and life stuff and having to deal with people on top of that was beginning to roll me over. Situations like this should tell a person rather quickly which guns they need to stick with. Mine have always been constant cannons, so it was almost too late before it registered completely with me. And I must say this now, I’ve had some incredible clients and a few bad apples are just part of the crippled ladders in the design orchard. But, still they just hit at the right-wrong time for me. I pretty much can make whatever the heck I want and when I want and I pretty much have complete parental rights to my work. Though, that is getting increasingly harder with the land of computers and everybody thinking they are a graphic designer because they can change the decorations on their blog and have the ability to pass a digital file labeled “NOT FOR PRINTER” to the printer anyway without my consent (this is rare anyway as I don’t do a lot of professional print projects). That’s all fine and dandy and just the shape of things in a whole different story of communication all together. But, the idea of the graphic designer just doesn’t get much respect these days. Maybe it’s always been like this? I don’t know. I could just tell that in my little area this was true OR, I was just getting old and bitter. Also, with this web 2.0 world, or whatever the heck version it’s on now, my main work, the ageless poster piece, is starting to show it’s age as everybody gets their information from myspace and other blogs. I’m guilty just the same as I’m more of a comfortably spoiled house cat than anyone. So, really, I feel that most design work I see around has become more for decoration or afterthought (similar to the bulk of moviemaking). Though, isn’t all design decoration in some way? My primary area of work has been in the independent music industry. It’s a path that I happened to fall into and found a connection with. And after many lack-of-heart feelings coming home from well-oiled design studio meat market visits in design school, I wanted my own thing or a quick exit. I wanted what was coming out of my system, to be of my own system, as I’m very protective of my work like a mother bird. I wanted something that gave somebody a “something” and in-turn something that gave me back something inside…and all of that gushy stuff. The music scene in general hasn’t been in my heart like it once had when I started this. Maybe because I barely have enough time to slide down for design that it’s easy for me to neglect the music side? I still love music and devour it daily. Though, my first involvement was more one-on-one with bands and I was always going and going, which gets harder as I grow older. I really enjoy being at home now and ever since early childhood, I’ve enjoyed locking myself up or out, and making things. I don’t go to many concerts anymore because I tire easily, most live music settings push my buttons rather quickly, and I am not in a position to network like I once was. And thank the good lord of Full House that I don’t live in poverty anymore with about ten musician roommates. It was fun for the first few months and I consider those days very crucial and special to my development, in a strange way. Though, I consider all days very crucial to my development…in a strange way. It can be mighty discouraging when some musicians I work for tell me that they don’t see the point in trying to achieve an artistic endeavor on the side of a full-time day job. This is the biggest kick to the pants. The same person who shucked the day job responsibility and overall, ability to pay the rent and his graphic designer has told me this. It made me feel like a fool and worthless. Due to my situations and relationships (it’s certainly not my charisma or good-bad looks) I’ve never had to promote my design work at all (well, except for competitions and magazines which cost more money than what I make in a year). Getting the work has never been an issue for me. I’ve never had to promote myself or throw myself on inbox door stoops before now. People, projects and inquiries have somehow come to me. Though, an obvious global positioning has thrown a wrench in this and I don’t get out much. However, even when I used to get out, I didn’t work myself around by any means. I’ve always believed in the work speaking for itself and I’ve always believed that early success can lead to early exits. I’ve felt that I’ve needed to earn my design stripes on my painting shirt, like a Dalmation dog earns its spots. I’m now finally at the still sheepish point where I’m learning the values of shameless self-promotion and taking all that I’ve built and have been sitting on to work smarter, not harder. Though, I still plan to work my hardest. It’s hard though because whatever small amount of time I have, I try to make something new with that, as opposed to rubbing knee-caps. And I really don’t care to go to my own art openings or other shows because I’d rather be home creating or studying instead of looking at old news. I get a little strange at art shows. Sometimes I end up being disappointed all together. A like-minded friend, Chad T. Johnston (a writer) and I, have been working non-stop of late because approaching 3.0, we both feel that we have a lot more to say in this short life and we hope to whip our day job blues in order to work smarter, not harder and fill up the spit cans with what we’ve got to say. Through our conversations I’ve realized that I have said a lot in this small amount of time with design so far. And my lot is not full yet by any means. I’m still young. I took a good look at the past 6 years and realized that I’ve fulfilled most every goal that I had marked in my opening day cement. Though, I think that if I were to die today that I would day satisfied in certain lights, but not within my own personal paper trail I hope to leave imprinted on the Earth. I have much more work to do here. I suppose though I haven’t done too bad compared to other brackets. And some days it’s all just out of my hands. But, I don’t believe in sitting on them. Before 2006 hit, I used to think I could spin these design wheels fast and forever. I was wrong. Early last year I just didn’t care anymore for popping the bubbles on the asphalt. I’ve always been very much in tune with what I put to paper, but I also felt like the work was definitely headed in the direction of, more for me instead of for my clients. I enjoy making things for people greatly and the great relationships I’m able to share with my clients, beyond a poster, logo or CD design (heck, I get invited to birthday parties and everything). But, it can become dangerous for a designer when the work starts to take over and becomes more important than the cause…when the designer becomes the cause. Of course, why do the work at all if you don’t like it? I love what I do and it’s medicine for me in strange ways. And it means a lot to me when people stop to take a thought or a giggle home with them because of something I’ve bent my back over in the basement. It still baffles me that I have a small following of eyes attracted to my silly things and that people say there is “something” to the something I’m saying. Though, this can become dangerous when crossing personal paths upstairs. And I don’t know of anybody in this life who doesn’t have tugs of war of whatever sort they might be kicking out their insides. It’s a hard wrestle when you know you have the potential to be sitting on a bit more golden colored eggs than the average man-child in his basement, but not know how to get them to hatch and/or how not to suffocate them. And sometimes you want to settle for bronze because then so many people won’t see you standing there. Every semester for the past five years the handfuls of professionals and mostly students, randomly contacting me has swelled. This means so much to me that these little things that are trickling out are flying about and popping bubbles with their beaks to make new bubbles for thought and inspiration. At the same instance it gets me crazed because I have to keep this up, even when I don’t feel like it on some days. So, my portfolio has gained a lot of weight, but do I make any money? That answer is NO…and I knew that one coming in, so no surprises there. I’m in my seventh year of this game (in a professional manner) working full-time day jobs on top of my passions. Some past pavements even found me with a part-time job on top of the day-time job and then saving the nights and weekends for design (and a girlfriend too). So, the issue is not about a lack of work ethic, passion or drive, nor is it a lack of ideas or imagination. I’ve don’t believe in having a lack for any of that. And designers that do have an issue in those areas need to possibly reconsider what they’re doing. But, with me it’s been more the issue of a fire being lit. Interesting enough, it takes fire to keep it lit and to burnout with. It’s just a healthy balance that you’ve got to keep tending to. So, I realized that whether I made things for myself or for others, I would pretty much even it out as I don’t make any money and I’m still making and doing the things that I love and enjoy and need to be doing. So, there is nothing to lose there in some fashion. This is something I have learned…balance. Last year I still had a few loose ends and commitments to fulfill. But, after learning to finally say “NO” to a few new projects coming in (which is very hard for me), I started to just do things completely for myself, for me and the basement and my wife and the kitties to only see. I didn’t stop producing, I just took it a different direction. I’m also in the process of spitting out some writings and special little projects with a few others that will be trickling around one of these days. I suppose I’ve always felt more in kin with old folk artists or the older generation(s) of designers/illustrators than younger graphic designers in my approach and ethic. I’m not really sure, and I’m not a fan of labels other than a “maker of things”. I just wish to make the things that need to come out of me and share them with others if need be. Back to TIME…without having time to fully spend with the development for some of my more important design children, and with the lacking ability to muster through multiple all-nighters like I once did, I needed to find a healthier balance. I’ve learned that a lack of sleep will catch up with you eventually. So, I switched roles and started getting to bed early and up early. My day job doesn’t need me until 9:00am, so that gave me a solid four hours (I walk four blocks to work, so no travel time), minus thirty or forty minutes of dish washing, eating breakfast and getting ready. For the first four or five months I did nothing but read books for the first hour in the morning and the rest of the time I tinkered with little things here and there or filled up on movies. I also took back my time at the day job by not eating lunch with the rest of the office. Instead, I changed up my lunch time all together and started eating at 3:00 or 3:30 in the afternoon. Even this little shift in scheduling helps build self-control and strength. AND, i was tackling a diet and being that I like to be alone, it helped me to find some peace in the work place and to keep filling up the uncovered wagon w/sideboards at the all I can eat pop-culture buffet by way of books. It’s always been filling up. If I’m not doing anything, I have to be doing something. There is just not enough time in the day for everything I wish to devour. But, I try my best. It’s hard at first, but, after a week or so I looked forward to waking up at 5:00am. As I would hit the pillow, I couldn’t wait to get up for myself. In the past I had always hated going to sleep because it meant that I had to get right up and get to work for somebody else. I would roll off the couch in my janitorial outfit on a few hours of sleep and immediately walk out the door. Getting up for myself was like a new life for me, up with my own crickets. There is something almost dream-like about being awake in the early morning hours before most everybody else is crawling out of the sheets. It’s that time of day when the possibility of the prayers getting to the last of the line first, is a greater than. I’ve always thought that even though I can be too entertained when I’m alone and with my work, I’m still not completely alone in my scribbles in the big picture. I guess it’s my way of worship to a much bigger palette? There is almost a “last man standing” position of feeling, in a sense(s) to getting up in the early a.m. for me as well. It’s not too unlike an old “Twilight Zone” episode. It’s easy for me to day dream of being the only person left, just sitting in my basement making things because it’s so easy for me to spend a lot of time alone and I enjoy it. Though, then I get to the food issue. I don’t want to eat my cats or wonderful Millie. So, I would need a vast supply of well-kept hot dogs or something? Perhaps my farm boy roots are digging into me of late as well with getting up and into my fields early. I guess I’m a young whipper-snapper. I think that if I ever manned a fully-staffed studio, I would have it start really early and we’d crank out stuff like mad. My dirt feels fresher in the mornings without the junk clouds of the day following me. When I’m at my day job all I want to do is go home and make stuff. And I’ve been blessed with the jobs that I have had, as some have found me sweeping parking lots and literally digging thru junk clouds and bringing stuff home to create with. And…they’ve been pretty good jobs! Heck, at one of my janitorial positions, I had some free time on a few occasions to make posters. I’ve worked in data entry work the past two years and of late have been playing the spoiled meat in a cubicle sandwich. It’s a great job, but many days I can’t focus because I feel stuck and the fact that I’m too self-involved and can’t sit too still in my own mind or concentrate can boil quick. It can be triumphant, yet very troubling to carry this. My after school special isn’t reserved for a certain slot of time. I’m always on the inside jungle gym. Though, after an eight hour day of chasing another man’s dream, it can be hard to have the muster sometimes to come home and want to do much for me…especially the older I get. This happened just the other day as I couldn’t sit still at work for the pile I could be creating at home. I finally got home and I was so dog gone tired and defeated. Many days of this can ruin a man, but it’s got to be worth fighting for and in some odd cases can be fuel. And it’s alarming to see the time stack up and be filed away when you’re working for somebody else. It’s easy to put the personal goals and cares on another branch and just wish the weeks away fast. So, getting up early and wittling out a chunk of time on my tree, was a very crucial foundation to a much healthier life and helped dust the frame(s) for me. Another thing that I wanted to do was make overall life changes and diet. Working non-stop, not sleeping and not eating well starts to speak pretty quick and I wanted to whip this before it got serious later in life. Now, I’m not guaranteed the next paragraph, but I want to make this one I’m in right now lead up to it in whatever formal best manner that I know best. Though, shortly after taking grooming classes at age eleven in 4-H, I stopped tucking in my shirt and combing my hair. So, here I am. It’s taken me many months (heck, 29 years) of wrestling and hair tugging of who am I and what the heck am I doing. And I think that I don’t think I can turn it off. What is the conclusion? Well, I am not finished by any means. I always plan to be making my best work as I see myself a work in progress, though I see myself as my only competition too. I’m always cracking my whips. I am at my best when I am alone and making things and it can turn to bad as well. It’s just a matter of a healthier balance of everything else to where I don’t dive too far into DJG. Though, maybe if I just work hard enough I can get a special spot out by the back dumpster up there next to the much-bigger, name-tagged cubicles in design heaven? Who knows? I do know that I am just a man first thing. Second, I am a man who happens to make things. I believe I borrowed that from another man who made things once, but I can’t find whose fingernails it belongs to. Or, perhaps I need to stop thinking and just get to making? -djg

[robertshugartca]

Lately it seems as if there’s not a day that goes by where I’m...

Lately it seems as if there’s not a day that goes by where I’m not triggered by a blatant form of racial insensitivity, evident lack of diverse staff, or lack of awareness coming from fashion brands and design houses alike. In a time when we’re reckoning with the legacy of iconic designers and brands, maybe the best thing consumers can do is take a step back and look at how we contribute.

Sure, we can’t control what designers send down the runway, but one of the most fundamentally underrated ways to be an ally to the black community (and any community for that matter) is through how we spend our money. As we celebrate Black History Month I believe there’s truly no better way to appreciate and support black artistry than through shopping black-owned business and designers. Keep scrolling to find some of my favorite designers to shop this month and beyond.

The first time I saw Brother Vellies in my feed, my heart skipped a beat. I saw a woman who looks just like me on social media (a rare occasion) wearing these incredible black feather heels. From that moment on, I was hooked. From its Instagram feed to how each product is made, Brother Vellies is thoughtful with everything it does.

Founded by Aurora James, the brand is dedicated to sustainability and works with artisans in South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Morocco to make its handcrafted shoes. Basically, whenever I’m feeling philanthropic but need a pair of shoes, I’ll be spending all my money with Brother Vellies.

Remember that iconic blazer look Beyoncé wore on her last On the Run II tour? That was from Queens-born designer LaQuan Smith. His glamorous and often sultry designs have not only caught the attention of the queen, but Cardi B, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, and other celebrities alike. If celebrities are not enough to immediately pique your interest, his previous collaboration this past fall with ASOS may do the trick. Featuring men’s and women’s clothing and plus-size options, the affordable collection toes the line between down to earth and just a pinch of extra. Not convinced yet? Check out his work below.

Confession: I was hyperventilating at my desk when watching Carly Cushnie’s F/W 19 presentation. Something about her all-red layered look with velvet flare-leg pants and her Tibet Lamb Coat had me seriously re-considering my wardrobe choices. Her work often does that though; it’s so beautifully structured, minimal, and yet feminine you can’t help but to imagine how magical your life would be if you were just wearing one of her pieces.

Imagine yourself sitting in Positano, Italy, with sun shining down on you while you’re drinking lemonade—but what are you wearing? Hopefully Fe Noel. The Grenadian womenswear designer from Brooklyn specialized in collections that practically scream “book a flight right now.” Felisha Noel also recently collaborated with Afro-cuban American painter

Harmonia Rosales. Rosales is known for reimaging iconic renaissance art pieces as black women, and we’re here for his jump from canvas to Fe Noel’s silk. After all, there’s no better way to celebrate black history than by recognising and reclaiming the beauty of black identity that’s been erased in larger historical narratives.

CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner Telfar Clemens not only creates pieces that anyone can wear but continually pushes societal boundaries through challenging black and gender identity norms. After all, how many designers this past fall sent unisex clothing through a mosh pit environment while country music blasted in the background? Have you ever seen black cowboys sporting fringe? Probably not. If you’re looking for clothing that pushes boundaries and comes from a unique perspective, Telfar is your new go-to.

Remember when we did that beautiful cover shoot with Yara Shahidi? If you haven’t been able to stop thinking about the printed silk suit she’s wearing, you’re not alone. The suit was part of a Pyer Moss collaboration with artist Derrick Adams that aimed to explore the idea of black life without persecution.

In many ways, it’s easy to see why Kerby Jean-Raymond won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award, was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30, and has a Reebok partnership. But in truth, the accolades don’t even begin to speak to the gravitas of his work. Designing for both men and women, Kerby uses his collections to give voice to the African American experience one piece at a time.

Ever since the designer made waves with luxury street label Off-White and stepped into his role as menswear artistic director for Louis Vuitton , Virgil has kept the industry’s attention. And the hype thus far is definitely worth it. Sure, everyone lost it over his debut this past June ,  but his most recent menswear shows for fall 2019 caught my attention.

For Louis Vuitton, Virgil used a Broadway-like production to set viewers in an old New York with live jazz in the back while well-tailored suits and subtle American flag pieces made their way down the runway.

For Off-White, set against a landscape that turned into a green screen, models wearing box blazers paired with football helmets made their way through a dystopian cityscape. While both his shows stayed true to the brand’s identity, it felt as if both were a reflection of his own experiences as a black man and the environments that shaped him. To me, that reflection in and of itself, is breathtaking.

Maybe it was just me, but the 2019 Grammy outfits truly solidified my love for Olivier Rousteing at Balmain. How could one not be in a tizzy over Béyonce’s iconic look, Jorja Smith’s stunning gold sequin number, or even Kylie Jenner’s avant-garde look? I know he’s been the creative director for nine years—which means I’ve been high-key sleeping on him—but something about him taking the brand back to couture week has made me fall in love all over again. Maybe it’s couture or maybe it’s him, but either way this a brand and a designer you should be buying into at the moment.

Next: 14 Editor-Approved Designer Bags So Good We Bought Them

source https://gothify1.tumblr.com/post/183095827025

[liammcevoy]

This CNN’s “Reliable Sources”. The Weather Channel managing editor and anchor, Sam Champion and his husband and fine-arts photographer, Rubem Robierb, joined senior media correspondent Brian Stelter to discuss their personal journey of being gay, married and a part of the media.

Champion on if his sexual orientation hurt his career: “Oh, many times.  I think that in this business, there are people who will judge you for anything they’ll get a chance to judge you on… …I think that in the business, there were a lot of people who had suspicions about abilities based on something they didn’t approve of or something they didn’t like.”

Champion on the progression of same-sex marriage becoming legal nationwide: “When marriage and the ability to proclaim your love and share your love with your family and friends and your community, when that was something that was state by state and not available everywhere, you just didn’t feel solid in it.  …to the outside world, you know, to use the word husband, you almost felt like not everybody would understand.  And there was still kind of the feeling that was left for approval, you know, which shouldn’t be. I almost feel like we have been lucky.  We are very independent, strong people with strong families and a sense of community. But there are a lot of people in this country who haven’t been able to stand up and say who they are and who they love and feel that they were safe in this country. And I hope that changes today.”

Robierb on the feedback they received from sharing their engagement/marriage on television: “That’s when we got feedback from people that met us at the airports, on the street and congratulated us.  When you have that feedback, it’s fantastic, because you feel them — people — feel related with you and they feel good for you, because you maybe have a chance to express yourself in the way they don’t.”

This transcript interview was a very good read it is not something I would usually read. The pieces above are highlights of the transcript and these three stood out to me the most as the sent very powerful and encouraging messages. You can also check out the full transcript out in the link it isn't that long but could change your prospective.

“when that was something that was state by state and not available everywhere, you just didn’t feel solid in it.  … “ 

This bit stood out to me as it was very relatable to me when I made the decision  to go ahead and create a book on LGBT designers. Northern Ireland was the only place in the UK and Ireland that did not have equal marriage rights and its 2019, a country so unique but pull backwards with peoples views it really does have a negative impact on LGBT  people. When I was younger I didn't think I'd be accepted and there is a massive stigma as you do not learn anything about LGBT, it is not promoted when its talked about its labelled “wrong”. 

In the later stage of the semester we finally obtained equal rights for marriage in Northern Ireland. Why?, Well the UK Government give our government here the option to go back to work or else they would legalise gay marriage and abortion to match the rights with the rest of the UK and Ireland. Currently we are on day 1044 days without a government. Although I am happy it is real now there is still the worry that if and when are government get back to work could this change back to the stone ages again? Although now that it is legal I do feel  solid where I live and not ashamed. 

[meraenthusiast]

How to Retire Early – The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To FI

How to Retire Early In 4 Easy Steps [Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a Guest Article from Cashflow. He’s a police officer dedicated to blog about Financial Independence (FI) and retiring early. His goal is to reach FI by the age of 40.]

Ignore all of the noise and fancy words like tax-loss harvesting and geo-arbitrage. They can be off-putting and make things sound more complex than they need to be.

I’m going to show you in four steps how it can be possible to reach financial independence by the time you’re 40 years old while earning $40K a year.

This is the ultimate beginner’s guide to financial independence!

FIRE has a PR problem

But first, let’s take a step back.

There is this thing called “FIRE” that’s been mentioned in some mainstream media outlets lately. This is happening both in the US where it originates from and also across the pond in the UK. It’s actually spreading quickly and there is now a global FIRE community.

So what is FIRE?

“FIRE” stands Financial Independence, Retire Early. However, there are those who prefer Financial Independence, Recreational Employment instead.

Surely this is a good thing. Knowledge is spreading that there is another way to live the life you want. People can learn to improve their finances. They can provide in the present whilst also preparing for the future. Great right?

Not so fast.

The reception towards the FIRE community has so far has been mixed, to put it mildly. Just check out most of the comment sections and you’ll see what I mean.

The reasons people can be annoyed with the concept vary. Sometimes, they are literally keyboard SHOUTING as they vent their frustration.

It has been labeled too upper middle-class, to male, too white, too unrealistic, too impractical, and even selfish. That’s right. Selfish. How dare people withdraw themselves from the workforce at such an early age!

Truth is, I’m part of the FIRE community and I believe it has a PR problem.

I try to avoid the term and I dare not utter the words ‘retire early’ when talking to colleagues or family. It’s as if there is a degree of shame attached to it.

“FI” and “RE” are two different things. FI being the enabler and the RE being one of many different options you could pursue. The problem is that they are lumped together and to anyone new to the idea, it can be a massive turn-off.

I think it’s time the acronym ‘FIRE’ took early retirement.

It did its job by being catchy. It ignites the imagination and provides a hook for people to be intrigued.

We now need to be able to relate to the average Joe. Those who might not want to retire early. Those not earning six-figure salaries. People who might have children and childcare costs to contend with.

This article will do just that. It will show you in four steps how you can have the option to retire by 40 while starting on $40K a year.

Bear with me here. $40K is not a small change. I get that. However, it is far from six figures and a more realistic figure to aim for as a starting salary for most. The reason why I want to just get that point made now is so that you can read the rest of the post with an open mind.

Since I live in the UK, I will compare the numbers between the US and the UK.

The Four Steps To Financial Independence Are:

Earn

Budget

Protect

Invest

Step 1 – Earn

Aim: Maximize your earnings and develop multiple income streams.

Here’s the situation then. Let me introduce to you Amy and Adam. They are 25 years old and both earning an after-tax income $40K a year. Amy lives in the US and Adam lives in the UK.

They have a student loan debt balance of $40K.

For the first few years out of college they were getting themselves settled. They managed to pay off all their credit card debts, bought a used car for cash and lived with parents to save some money.

Amy and Adam both annihilated their consumer debts by using the ‘debt snowball’ method.

They don’t start their financial independence journey until 25 years old with an after-tax income of $40K.

Amy and Adam clearly had parents who taught them how to manage money and not to take on too much debt.

Amy Adam Location US UK Age 25 25 Student Loans Debt $40,000 £40,000 After-tax Annual Income $40,000 £40,000 After-tax Monthly Income $3,333 £3,333

It’s safe to say, they are far from rich, but not poor.

How did they secure such an income?

Action – Preparing to get a job

They both placed themselves in the best position to be employable in a competitive job market. This does not always mean getting a degree, although for some trades that’s a necessity.

I wouldn’t want someone to do brain surgery on me by learning through Youtube videos!

You could seek out internship programs, volunteer your time to shadow someone who works in an area you’re interested in, read and go on training courses.

The list is endless.

It is about self-development and improving yourself so that you have skills that are in demand.

Skills which someone is willing to pay for.

“Make sure you have a very particular set of skills. Skills you have acquired over a very long time. Skills that make you invaluable to employers.”

That last part sound familiar?

Action – Getting A Job

This is the traditional route to earning money. A contract between yourself and your employer; you sell your time and effort in exchange for money. It’s a straight forward transaction.

However, this first step can feel disheartening at times. Be prepared for the rejection letters or never hearing back after you send your resume (CV) off.

Remember, you only need one job out of the millions out there. Don’t give up!

After finishing college and waiting to join the Police, I needed a job to tie me over. I applied to many! I even got turned down for a job as a binman (garbage collector). A large part of why I kept getting rejected for jobs was because I didn’t tailor each resume to the job I was applying for.

Why would a graduate of finance want a job as a refuse collector? Surely this person isn’t serious or there is something wrong with him.

Looking back, I can completely understand why I got rejected so much.

Amy and Adam were smarter than me. They were better prepared and practiced the art of crafting a resume. They knew they had to stand out from the crowd and were confident and comfortable doing so.

Once they were happy with their main resume, they went out on the job hunt. I use the word ‘hunt’ deliberately.

Unless their skills were highly in demand and they already created a solid reputation for themselves, they knew that sitting at home in their sweatpants just wasn’t going to work.

A job was not going to look for them. They were far too inexperienced to be head-hunted.

They got out there. Networked, used social media, let friends and family know they were looking for work. They were being proactive and intentional about.

They were hungry for a job!

Once they found a job that could be the right fit, they researched the company. They tailored their resume to be specific to that particular job and that particular company.

They did this for every job they applied for.

Once they got offered an interview, they did more research. Joined forums, found people who were already with the company, got to understand the company culture and found out about the individuals who were likely to be interviewing them.

This helped them to be better prepared and be confident at the interview.

Amy and Adam clearly put in the work, smashed it out the park and got offered their jobs.

Action – Do Some Overtime, Get Promoted Or A Pay Raise

Many people on the path toward financial independence can quickly become distracted with new money making ideas. The reality is that our ‘job’ is likely going to be the source of most of our income for a while.

One other thing Amy and Adam weren’t shy about was working when there was paid overtime offered. They were doing their employer a favor and not only were they getting more money, they were storing away goodwill for when the next promotion or performance review came up.

Not all jobs offer paid overtime, but if they are available, they are a great starting point to earn extra income.

They also adopted a growth mindset. A strive for continual personal and professional development. This way, when it came to the annual performance review, both Amy and Adam were in a much better position to ask for that pay raise or promotion.

It is not about doing the minimum required and generally coasting along. If they can demonstrate that the value they add exceeds the amount that is paid to them, then it greatly improves their odds at the annual review. It places them in a much stronger negotiating position for a pay raise.

It seems so straightforward, but I see people everyday expecting a pay raise just for turning up to work on time.

Action – Never Turn Down Free Money!

Amy and Adam understood the terms and benefits of their employer pension plan. Yawn! Yeah, it’s downright boring!

However, they wanted to make sure that they were not missing out on any free money from employer matching. For example, Amy put 5% of her salary into her company pension and her employer did the same. The exact percentages vary between employers and pension plans.

If they’re in the public sector, then the amount that is contributed by their employer is likely to be even more generous compared to the private sector.

When faced with the choice of opting out of a company pension plan; Amy and Adam thought about it very carefully.

They were both very tempted to opt out of the plan because it meant more money in their bank account at the end of each month. After a momentary weakness, they snapped out of it and said to themselves:

“I’d be stupid to turn away free money!”

They didn’t want to get used to the extra money because they knew what they would be like. They’d no longer be able to go without it and the chances of them joining the pension plan later on would be pretty much zero.

They started contributing from day one and learned to live with slightly less money each month in exchange for much more money in the future.

Action – Generate A Second Income (a.k.a The Side Hustle)

Amy and Adam were killing it at work. They were getting pay raises and contributing into their pension plans.

However, they were young and there was only so much Netflix they could handle before their brains turned to mush. They decided to start looking for a second income.

Amy decided to find a roommate and started to make some pretty good money from it.

Adam on the other hand was a bit of an introvert and couldn’t stand the idea of having a stranger living with him. Instead, he started to look for a side hustle that would allow him to work from home. He’d actually become somewhat of an ebay expert.

As a result, once they were in their 30s, they were both making an extra 20% on top of their salary. This was in the form of paid overtime, bonuses and side hustles.

They might even decide to charge their kids rent later on in life!

Summary of Step 1

Prepare well to get the job you want.

Get a job.

Stand out from the crowd.

Maximize your salary through sales commission, bonuses, overtime, pay raise or promotion.

Understand your pension plan and take advantage of the benefits.

Diversify your income through other business interests (a.k.a the ‘Side Hustle’).

Step 2 – Budget

Aim: Reduce your expenses, optimize your taxes and increase your savings rate.

From my experience, the word ‘budget’ can send shivers down many people’s spines. People see it as:

1) too restricting. We all work so hard, who wants to live life constrained?

2) too boring. I’m weird and love spreadsheets. Most people hate them.

3) too time-consuming. Life is busy enough as it is. Sitting down once a month to go through the budget? 

4) too honest. We like to bury our heads in the sand. Ignorance allows us to continue spending. Tracking our expenses is such a buzz kill!

5) too difficult. The truth is, budgeting is a skill which needs to be taught and practiced.

Action – Spend with intention

Every time Amy and Adam spent their money, they do so intentionally. There were no accidental or spur of the moment purchases. They had an idea of how much they spent on average each month for different things.

It looks like this:

Type of Expense Amy (US $) Adam (UK £) Transportation 150 150 Rent / Mortgage 700 700 Utilities 225 225 Home Repairs 50 50 Communication 50 50 Groceries 240 240 Household Goods 50 50 Clothing 25 25 Eating Out 50 50 Recreation 75 75 Healthcare 450 0 Student Loans 425 180 Monthly Total 2,490 1,795 Annual Total 29,880 21,540

Amy and Adam’s expenses are low compared to the typical American or Brit. But typical people do not have the option to retire by 40.

Amy and Adam sure as hell don’t want to be typical!

They intend to avoid lifestyle inflation. So as soon as they get that bonus or pay raise, most of it is immediately invested.

Lifestyle inflation is when spending increases with income. Before you know it, the food bill is over $1k a month for a single person and you’re buying a new car every few years!

Action – Giving Money A Clear Job Description

They both budget to ensure that they do not take on any more debt.

Amy uses YNAB (You Need a Budget). It’s a budgeting app which I’ve personally used myself and recommend when first starting out.

Adam on the other hand made his own spreadsheet which at first he updated on a weekly basis, but over time found he only needed to refer to it once a month.

The process of keeping a budget is especially vital in the early stages of building wealth. Amy and Adam are effectively giving the money they earn a performance review.

They treat money like an employee. They make sure every pound or dollar earned is working hard to create value with minimal waste.

To come up with the above budget, they had thought about what they ‘need’ and what they ‘want’.

Needs are things like a roof over your head; food on the table, electricity and so on.

Wants are things like eating out, socializing and holidays.

The goal in setting a budget is to strip away all the noise; all the wants. Then slowly add them back in one by one until they have reached a balance that is right for them.

Interestingly, it would appear that Adam has the upper hand by living in the UK due to zero medical costs and lower student loans repayments. This is because student loans debt in the UK is repaid based on the amount a graduate earns. In fact, 83% of graduates never repay their loans before it is written-off by the government.

Action – Tax Optimization

With their income maximized and expenses minimized to a level they are comfortable with; that alone is not enough. Amy and Adam makes use of all the tax-efficient accounts.

For Amy, there are accounts such as ROTH IRA and 401(k).

For Adam, there are account such as ISA, LISA, and SIPP.

Once they begin to accumulate assets and their net-worth starts to grow, they will be considering the implications of inheritance tax and estate planning.

Action – Staying Out Of Debt

Like Amy and Adam, I don’t prescribe to the notion of ‘good’ debt vs. ‘bad’ debt. I am of the view that debt carries a certain degree of riskiness, from low risk to ridiculously crazy risk of losing money.

Financing a car would be classed as being ridiculously crazy when framed this way. As soon as someone drives that car out of the lot, they have instantly lost money.

Getting rid of the idea of there being such a thing as ‘good’ debt from their mindset has helped Amy and Adam make better spending decisions.

Be careful of using the term “it’s an investment” to self justify a spending decision that is a “want” and is a depreciating asset. It’s okay to want something and to buy it. Just do it intentionally.

Action – Geo-Arbitrage

It’s a fancy word which basically means move somewhere else that’s cheaper to live. Amy and Adam have decided to do just that. They live in a LCOL (low cost of living) area. For some, this could also mean moving abroad. Here are a few highlights when it comes to geo-arbitrage:

Housing Costs – this is the main expense for most. This is about moving to an area or country where accommodations are cheaper. It could also mean moving in with parents for a few years even if they charge a bit of rent.

Taxes – in some countries and states, you simply don’t get taxed as much. Of course, this might mean public services aren’t as good but that’s not always the case. It would depend on what you’re used to since everything is relative.

Childcare Costs – these costs can truly delay early financial independence dreams. But it doesn’t have to be that way. A country or state which subsidize childcare costs or even moving closer to family who can help with childcare can save thousands.

Education – it is an unfortunate reality that the quality of teaching can differ widely depending on the school and area. When contemplating private education, it is worth bearing in mind that they rarely provide value for money. It also holds true that education in many LCOL countries are actually much better than in the US or UK.

Medical – the US is infamous for its medical costs. I’m based in the UK and consider myself very lucky to not need to worry about this cost. It definitely makes reaching financial independence less complicated. The UK is not alone here; there are many countries with universal health care.

Safety – a LCOL area does not have to mean danger. It’s about striking a balance. Moving to a country that is on the government black list is not something I would consider no matter how low the cost of living is. It’s about finding the right balance for you and your family.

Earning – sometimes geo-arbitraging to a LCOL area can actually result in earning more. My point earlier about standing out and providing value to an employer can give immense leverage. Picture this. Earning a city salary, but able to work from home in the countryside, or move to the far east.

Quality of life – what is important to you and your family? Are there public parks nearby? Will geo-arbitrate result in less time spent commuting? Is the air quality good? Is there a community spirit?

  Action – Turbo Charge Savings Rate

The ‘savings rate’ is a number that provides a snapshot of how much someone saves as a proportion of their income. The higher the rate, the less they spend relative to their income and the quicker they will reach financial independence.

Due to Amy’s health insurance and student loan repayment, her savings rate is much lower than Adam. This is a clear example of geo-arbitrage in action. If Amy moved to the UK for work or through marriage, she could eliminate her medical costs.

Amy (US $) Adam (UK £) Age 25 25 EXPENSES Monthly Total 2,490 1,795 Annual Total 29,880 21,540 SAVINGS Monthly Total 843 1,538 Annual Total 10,120 18,460 SAVINGS RATE 25% 46%

Summary of Step 2

Be intentional with your spending – don’t be typical.

Budget – give your money a clear job description.

Be tax efficient – keep more money in your pocket!

No such thing as ‘good’ debt.

Geo-arbitrage your way to financial freedom.

Maximize your savings rate.

Step 3 – Protect

Aim: Protect your path to financial independence with an emergency fund and insurance.

This step is often neglected or missed out altogether. Amy and Adam learned from their parents that having adequate protection is important to safeguard their path to financial independence.

As a Police Officer, we are taught to have multiple contingency plans. In other words: what’s your backup plan to your backup plan?

The last thing Amy and Adam want is to start making good financial progress only for it to come crashing to a halt, or worse go back to square one because something unexpected happens. Unfortunate events in life such as losing a job and a sudden long-term family illness not only drastically increase your stress levels, but could seriously scupper plans for financial independence.

There are a number of ways to mitigate against some of these risks.

Action – The Emergency Fund

Start off with an emergency fund worth three months of expenses before overpaying on any debt. This gives Amy and Adam an invaluable safety net for surprise expenses without the need to take on any more debt.

Once that’s done, consider increasing it to six months worth of expenses. This will help cover for larger unexpected expenses such as a period of unemployment.

The money saved needs to be what is called “liquid”. This means it can be easily accessible. If it isn’t then it’s not much use in an emergency.

Don’t get back into debt because of an emergency!

Action – The Freedom Fund, a.k.a The FU Fund

The Brit in me prefers the more toned down terminology of the Freedom Fund as opposed to the F U Fund. For me, this is one or two year’s worth of expenses saved.

This is when Amy and Adam can start to feel truly liberated. A boss not giving you the time off to be with your family? Company won’t give you a sabbatical to care for an elderly relative?

Say hello to the freedom fund.

It gives you the power to hand in your notice. It’s amazing how differently employers treat valuable staff who they know are willing to walk away. They will do all they can to keep them.

There is no such thing as idle threats with a freedom fund. They can sense it in your confidence and body language. Having a freedom fund can completely change your outlook on life.

Action – Ignore The Insurance Myths

There are some in personal finance who are against insurance. Their reasons are many, but it mainly boils down to the following points:

Myth 1 – Money down the drain if a claim is not made.

Myth 2 – Better to self-insure by having an emergency fund and a freedom fund.

Myth 3 – All policies are expensive and provide poor value.

Myth 4 – Insurance companies can’t be trusted – they will try to avoid paying out by referring to tiny clauses hidden somewhere in the terms and conditions.

Let’s quickly tackle each of these myths.

Myth 1 – remember that insurance is not an investment or a savings plan. There are certain hybrid products which try to do a bit of both, but they are generally poor value for money. Understanding what the product is aiming to achieve will help you come to terms with the fact that if you don’t claim, it has still done its job. It was there to cover you in the event of a disaster. Be grateful that you didn’t have one. Don’t wish for one!

Myth 2 – what would you do if you had a young family and your partner was struck down with a long-term illness or worse? What size of emergency fund or freedom fund would you need to cover such an event? Six figures at least. That money should ideally be liquid, but even if it was invested, you would be at the mercy of the markets. Maybe forced to sell during a crash.

Myth 3 – certain policies certainly cost more than others. That’s because they cover more eventualities and therefore increases the probability of paying out. For some, it might be totally worth getting a policy that is more expensive because their circumstances are more unpredictable than most. Someone who goes skydiving every weekend will have a more expensive insurance policy. A policy that costs more than others does not necessarily mean it will always provide poor value. For some, a policy might be over-insuring while for others it could be just right.

Myth 4 – everyone will have heard stories about how someone had their insurance claims denied. For the most part, the story has been sold by the claimant to the news outlet. Chances are, they either failed to be truthful on their application or did not read the terms. The insurance company cannot defend themselves in the article because the information is confidential.

How many people do you know go to the press to tell them about that time they made a successful insurance claim? Stories about insurance claims are biased and unreliable.

Even if a claim has been unfairly turned down, there are appeals procedures and they are rare.

Action – Get Life Insurance

This is the main protection so I will go into a bit more detail about it. This type of insurance pays out in the event the person insured dies.

You can go for a term level policy which pays out a set amount if you die within a certain period of time for a set premium.

There are increasing term policies which increase the potential payout each year in line with inflation. However, your premiums will go up by at least the same percentage.

There are decreasing term policies, which are usually taken out with a mortgage. This is when the life insurance pays out just enough to pay for the outstanding balance of your mortgage.

Finally, there is also something called whole life policy. As the name implies, they are guaranteed to pay out because it covers the whole of your life until you die. These are generally poor value for money and should be avoided. They tend to be used to cover any potential inheritance tax, but there are other avenues to explore first because this is considered.

Once you have decided on the type of policy you want: 1) Term Level; 2) Increasing Term; and 3) Decreasing Term, you then need to decide on how long you would like the insurance to run for.

Longer term policies are more expensive. This is because as you get older, the chances of you dying increases due to ill health.

Unless you are choosing a decreasing term policy to cover a mortgage, you will then need to decide how much you want to be insured for. This is the amount that will be paid out.

There is no set rule to decide on this, but a general loose guide is 10 times the main earner’s income. You need to decide for yourself what amount would help your family get through what would be an already difficult time. A few points to help:

Cover mortgage debt.

Cover other debts

Cover dependent expenses, such as children until they are adults

Cover education expenses for kids

Cover loss of income

When taking out a life insurance policy, there are so many add-ons. These include:

Indexation – this is when you choose to have the amount of coverage that increases every year based on inflation. By choosing this option, your premiums will increase by at least the same percentage as your coverage increases. Any life policy with an indexation option is also called an ‘increasing term’ policy.

Waiver of Premium – this allows you to stop paying your insurance premium if you become seriously ill or disabled. In other words, you continue to be covered by the life insurance even when you cannot work.

Guaranteed vs Reviewable Premiums – guaranteed premiums mean that the premium you pay will not change for the entire duration of the policy (unless you select indexation). Reviewable premiums mean the insurance company reserves the right to review your policy every few years and adjusts the premiums you pay. Reviewable premiums tend to start off lower than guaranteed premiums but can increase significantly. It may be suited if you are currently very price sensitive but expect your income to rise significantly in the future.

When taking out insurance as a couple, the natural tendency is to take out a joint policy. This is a policy which insures two lives, for example for yourself and your partner.

However, this type of policy will only pay out once. So, in the event one of you dies, the policy pays out once and then terminates. However, when taking out single life policies instead, it means that each person being insured have their own policy. So, in the event your partner dies, the insurance pays out, but your life remains insured. This is perhaps useful if you have children.

What I have found is that getting two single life policies works out just the same as a joint policy.

On occasions, it has even been cheaper!

Action – Consider Critical Illness Insurance

This is a type of insurance which pays out when you fall very ill.

What does very ill mean?

They call is a critical illness.

The list of critical illness changes quite regularly based on medical advances, but think of it as a very serious medical condition. An add-on you can have to this type of coverage is called ‘Total and Permanent Disability’ coverage. This means the insurance company will pay out if you are unable to work in an occupation which you are suited due to training, education or experience.

Action – Consider Income Protection Insurance

This is a type of insurance that provides a regular payout until you retire, die or return to work in the event you become too ill to work. There are several differences between income protection and critical illness. The three main ones being:

Critical illness payout a lump sum whereas income protection provides a regular income.

Critical illness is usually a permanent illness whereas income protection will pay out even if the illness is recoverable.

Critical illness coverage will allow one claim whereas income protection can continue even after a claim.

Action – Consider an insurance broker

I used to think insurance brokers do not work in their client’s best interest. Surely, their interests are aligned to whoever provides the best commission.

While this can be true, it is up to you how you manage this relationship to your advantage. You would want to look for an all of market broker or a fee only broker (does not work on commission).

I used an insurance broker when we were arranging protection for our family.

I did my research and asked prospective brokers questions. If they stumbled on any of them, I knew they weren’t the broker for me. The terms above will hopefully give you a good head start.

Remember that if you are interested in any of the add-ons, to ask about them. I found adding them on did not affect my premiums but every provider is different. Check!

They can also secure deals even cheaper than going direct. It was significantly cheaper for me, so much so the underwriter was surprised they offered me such a price. I negotiated hard!

They can also work with underwriters directly to resolve any problems. If you find that you will be ‘rated’ (industry term for policies involving an individual with medical conditions requiring much higher premiums), your broker will explain everything to you and tweak your policy to make it affordable.

A broker is worth their weight in gold by ensuring that the policy taken out is suitable for you and will pay out in the event of a genuine claim.

Finally, if your insurance broker does not talk about a Trust, then find another. A trust is treated as a separate legal entity. Life insurance policies in the UK can be written into a Trust so that it remains outside your estate. This means it is not be subject to inheritance tax calculations. It is free to do with most big providers if you ask.

This alone can potentially save your family thousands in tax should you need to make a claim in the future.

If your employer provides insurance as part of your compensation package, or your pension has a ‘death benefit’ make sure you know the details. You don’t want to over-insure. However, it is worth remembering that the older you get, the more it costs to insure. So if you leave the company and go to one that no longer provides a similar level of benefit, then adding more cover onto your private policy will cost much more as you age.

Summary of Step 3

Have an emergency fund

Save for a freedom fund / F U fund

Ignore the insurance myths

Get life insurance

Consider critical illness coverage

Consider income protection coverage

Consider using an insurance broker

Step 4 – Invest

Aim: Invest wisely and with minimal fees.

Now we get to the really juicy bit. Some people skip the earlier steps and jump straight to here.

That would be a bad move!

Amy and Adam understood the importance of getting their financial house in order and having a solid foundation before they even considered investing.

FI Life Stages

To achieve financial independence, Amy and Adam needed to look at life as two distinct periods (FI Life Stages):

Period 1 – time period when work is a necessity.

Period 2 – time period when work becomes optional.

Period 1 is the wealth accumulation phase of life.

To be FI, Amy and Adam will need to have net-worth of at least 25 times their annual expenses. This net-worth number is also called the FI number.

The number 25 comes from what is referred to as the 4% rule of thumb. This percentage is also known as the retirement withdrawal rate, sometimes referred to as the ‘safe’ withdrawal rate. The idea is that they have invested enough so that they can spend at the withdrawal rate and not run out of money.

Net-worth is calculated by taking to value of total assets minus total liabilities (debt).

The number 25 is a loose guide and acts as a starting point. The number required for each individual will depend on a number of factors such as:

Asset allocation (the mix of assets that make up their net-worth)

The types of assets owned

Length of retirement

Investment costs

Taxes

Risk tolerance

Once someone has accumulated enough wealth by reaching their FI number, they are considered to have reached Period 2 of their life and is financially independent.

Action – Where are you on the path to FI?

The FI Life Stage could be broken down further in 18 checkpoints. This provides an opportunity for Amy and Adam to celebrate smaller milestones and to keep themselves motivated.

See where you are and track your progress towards financial independence by taking the FI Score Test [FIST].

Action – Understanding risk

There will always be an element of risk when investing. Risk is the probability of sustaining a loss.

The return Amy and Adam get from an investment is the reward for the risk they were willing to accept. Some types of assets are riskier than others.

The riskier the asset, the greater the potential for higher returns and losses.

This is the risk and reward trade-off.

When talking about risk, there are two components to consider. The first is something called risk tolerance and the second is risk capacity.

Risk tolerance is the emotional ability to remain calm and stay the course during periods of falling prices. It is how someone copes with the ups and the downs of investing.

I consider investments to be medium to long-term. I don’t invest expecting a return in one year.

Both the stock and property market goes through cycles of highs and lows. Knowing and expecting a crash at some point in the future helps to psychologically prepare for when it happens.

Someone’s tolerance for risk will determine their investment portfolio. If they are risk averse (someone who think they will lose sleep at night and sell at the slightest dip), then they should own relatively less volatile assets (they that don’t fluctuate in price much).

The cycle is inevitable and it happens because of human behavior.

To understand why that is, I encourage you to watch the video by Ray Dalio – How the Economic Machine Works.

Image Credit – Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Risk capacity is someone’s financial ability to survive an investment loss. Being able to tolerate a loss but not having the capacity (having enough money) will only result in financial ruin. A proper understanding of both tolerance and capacity are absolutely essential before anyone begins their investment journey.

So how does risk differ from volatility?

It is really easy to confuse the two things and even I am guilty of sometimes using volatility as a proxy for risk.

Risk is the likelihood of you losing your investment because you sell at a loss. One of the main controllers over risk is you. A loss is only ever realized if you sell.

Volatility, on the other hand, is a measure of how often and how much the price or value varies over time.

A stock or fund can be very volatile but not that risky once time horizon is factored in. This is the benefit of investing for the long-term and having an emergency fund. You are not forced to sell when market conditions are against you.

“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.” – Warren Buffett

Action – The art of simplicity

Some of the best things in life are simple.

Introducing complexity comes with increased costs, time and stress.

Amy and Adam don’t own any individual shares. If they changed their minds in the future, any individual stocks they own would only form a tiny portion of their net-worth. It’s what they call their ‘fun money’ to invest with. Money they can afford to lose.

Even veteran fund managers do not outperform the market in the long term. For the average person, we do not have the time, nor the knowledge to choose the right company and buy it at the right price.

So what does Amy and Adam invest in?

They invest in funds that track the performance of the entire world’s stock markets. They own the world.

It is like buying a tiny piece of every major company in the world.

Funds which track the performance of the world’s stock market are called index funds. They are passive rather than actively managed. That’s because they aim to copy the performance of a particular index or indices using predominantly computer software and algorithms.

Active investments on the other hand use teams of people to actively manage the fund. They spend time researching, use forecasting models and their own judgement to try and deliver higher than average returns.

As a result, active investments are much more expensive compared to passive investments. Half a percent may not seem like much, but when compounded over time; it makes a huge difference.

“There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.” – Warren Buffett

Action – Diversification: spreading your money

Amy and Adam are investing in the stock market through an index fund. This tracks the world markets so they are engaging in diversification. It means they are reducing their risk by not putting all your eggs in one basket.

In other words, the impact of one company going bankrupt or a country going through political turmoil will only likely make a negligible effect on their overall performance.

They could apply this same principle by investing in other types of assets on top of the stock market, such as property, bonds or building their own business.

This way, their wealth is not entirely reliant on one particular asset class.

Now that I have mentioned bonds, it may benefit to briefly explain what they are.

Bonds are like an “I O U”; a debt obligation. The return on bonds is generally much lower than stocks because there is less risk.

Bonds can be issued by companies or by governments. The more stable and trustworthy a company or government, the safer the bond will be. The safer the bond, the lower the return.

Remember the risk and reward trade-off I mentioned earlier.

As people approach retirement, it is not unusual to see them allocating a greater proportion of their wealth towards bonds. That is because the returns are much less volatile.

Once retired, people tend to need the stability of not waking up the next day with 50% of their investments wiped out and having to return to work because they no longer have enough money.

They do not have the luxury of time to wait for recovery phase of the cycle.

Action – Minimize Costs

Compound interest can work for or against you.

No matter what you decide to invest in, keeping the initial and ongoing costs to the minimum will ensure that you do not erode any future returns. Just a 2% difference in cost can reduce your return by six figures!

“The trick is not to pick the right company, the trick is to essentially buy all the big companies and to do it consistently and to do it in a very, very low cost way.” – Warren Buffett

Action – Review Your Investments

Amy and Adam reviews their investments at least once a year to see how they are performing. They don’t do it everyday, because the idea is to ‘set it and forget it’.

Two main considerations when reviewing their investments:

1) costs changes

2) market changes.

The first is self-explanatory. The platform they’re using may have increased their fees or the funds they are buying into are charging more. This could mean there could be better value alternatives out there. One thing to bear in mind are any exit and set-up costs.

The second element relates to rebalancing their portfolio of investments. The process of rebalancing involves buying or selling assets to get back to their preferred level of asset allocation.

This is important to ensure that the overall desired risk has not changed.

For example, imagine they had a 40/40/20 asset allocation, 40% stocks, 40% real estate and 20% bonds at the start of the year.

By the end of the year, the value of stocks have increased and the value of properties have also increased. This will mean that the percentage value of the bonds proportion would fall because of the gains made in the stocks and properties. Your new asset allocation could end being something like 45/45/10.

As a result, their overall portfolio would be riskier than it was a year ago. They would need to either buy more bonds or sell some stocks or properties to bring their portfolio back to the original desired level.

Action – Don’t Time The Market

Don’t try to time the market. This is when someone makes a decision to buy or sell based on trying to predict the future market price of an asset (such as stocks or property). When this happens, what they are doing is speculating. They are effectively saying that they know something that the market does not already know.

Let’s say Amy and Adam receive an inheritance or have a large lump sum to invest. What would they do with it?

Keep hold of it as cash and wait for a crash to buy?

Invest a smaller fixed amount on a monthly basis (also called Dollar / Pound Cost Average)?

Do they invest the whole lump sum?

Option 1 – I believe that most investors are not experts, and even experts cannot predict the future (heck, they struggle to predict the weather a few hours ahead of time!). This is not a strategy I would recommend. If they invest for the long term, even by investing at the peak would still provide healthy returns based on historical data. Time in the market is better than timing the market.

Option 2 – this strategy is called Dollar / Pound Cost Averaging. There are benefits and drawbacks to it. Investing a large sum of money all in one go requires Amy and Adam to overcome a psychological barrier: the fear that the price will drop soon and they could have bought it for cheaper.

Instead, they split the lump sum up into say 6 or 12 equal amounts and invest on a monthly basis.

The idea is that should the markets fall over the next few months, they would have only invested a portion of your lump sum instead of all of it.

Option 3 – while Option 2 has its main benefit of overcoming a psychological barrier, it is not the mathematically optimum strategy. That is because studies have shown that on a month by month basis, the market is more likely to go up than go down. As a result, the best financial decision here is to invest the whole amount in one go. Only hindsight will tell you if that was the perfect time; but in the long term, it doesn’t really matter.

Summary of Step 4

Track your progress towards financial independence

Understand your risk profile

Keep things simple

Diversify

Review your investments

Don’t time the market

How Amy and Adam Can Retire By 40

Using all the above principles, this is how Amy and Adam can retire by 40 or reach financial independence really early.

Assumptions for both Amy and Adam

Age Starting FI Journey 25 Annual After Tax Starting Household Income 40,000 Annual Income Increase 5.0% Age Start Earning Side Hustle Income 30 Percentage Value of Side Hustle Income Compared to Base Income 20% Inflation 2.0% Investment Growth Rate 8.0% Withdrawal Rate 3.5%

You’ll notice that I’ve used a conservative withdrawal rate of 3.5% instead of 4% to factor in a potentially longer period of retirement.

Results

Amy reaches financial independence at 40 years old with a net-worth of almost one million. Her average savings rate during this period was 49%.

Adam reaches financial independence at 38 years old with a net-worth of almost 900k. By the time he is 40, he has nearly 1.2 million. His average savings rate during this period was 60%.

Adam could afford to spend more and still reach FI by 40 if he chooses to.

The reason for the drastic difference between Amy and Adam are due to medical costs and student loans debt. Although they had the same amount, Adam was lucky due to the way student loans are repaid in the UK.

Final Thoughts – A Life Worth Living

The individual steps to reach financial independence are easy. What’s hard is having the perseverance and patience to complete the journey.

Earn: Maximize your earnings and develop multiple income streams.

Budget: Reduce your expenses, optimize your taxes and increase your savings rate.

Protect: Protect your path to financial independence with an emergency fund and insurance.

Invest: Invest wisely and with minimal fees.

Following these four steps consistently and over a long period of time will pretty much guarantee a comfortable retirement.

Whether or not this will be early will depend on when you start. You can be sure of one thing though: starting now will ensure an earlier retirement then not starting at all!

We could spend all day debating the expenses and assumptions used for Amy and Adam. They are not living a life of luxury, nor would anyone consider them to be living in poverty with those expenses.

For anyone earning more or in a dual income household, then it certainly makes the journey easier.

Remember, Amy and Adam are used to this low level of spending. They haven’t succumbed to lifestyle inflation.

Our expenses are also around 20k a year despite now earning much more. I’m so used to living on our current expenses that it does not feel like deprivation at all. Every time I get a pay raise, work overtime or get some extra income, I immediately put the money to work.

Getting to this mindset will take time and practice. I promise you, it will be worth it!

The whole point of the exercise was this:

Introduce the main concepts which could allow many people to reach financial independence earlier than originally planned.

If on a low income, the principles here can still help build wealth slowly over time. Just because I can’t run a marathon, it doesn’t mean I don’t try to keep fit!

You don’t have to aim for FI by 40. Choose a savings rate which you are most comfortable with.

Time is precious. I hope the article provides you with a solid foundation to kick start your journey towards financial independence.

No one said this would be easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it. It’s really important that you decide for yourself why you want it and your plans beyond FI.

Don’t end up with regrets that you spent too much time at work instead of spending time with the people you love.

It’s your life, your money and your time. It’s your choice to make work optional sooner, rather than later.

Retire by 40 Calculator

Have a play with the numbers yourself to see how you too can retire by 40. Change the fields in white.

This post was originally published on The Money Mix and is being republished with permission.

The post How to Retire Early – The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To FI appeared first on Debt Free Dr..

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Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Austin Smith

grew up on a family dairy farm in northwestern Illinois. He received a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MA from the University of California-Davis, and an MFA from the University of Virginia. Most recently he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University, where he is currently a Jones Lecturer. He has published three poetry chapbooks: In the Silence of the Migrated Birds; Wheat and Distance; Instructions for How to Put an Old Horse Down; and one full-length collection, Almanac, which was chosen by Paul Muldoon for the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets. His last collection, Flyover Country, was published by Princeton in Fall 2018. Austin’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, Yale Review, Sewanee Review, Ploughshares, New England Review, Poetry East, ZYZZYVA, Pleiades, Virginia Quarterly Review, Asheville Poetry Review, and Cortland Review, amongst others. His stories have appeared or will appear in Harper’s, Glimmer Train, Kenyon Review, EPOCH, Sewanee Review, Threepenny Review, Fiction and Narrative Magazine. He was the recipient of the 2015 Narrative Prize for his short story, “The Halverson Brothers,” and an NEA Fellowship in Prose for FY 2018. He is currently a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, where he teaches courses in poetry, fiction, environmental literature and documentary journalism. He lives in Oakland.

http://www.austinrobertsmith.com/

The Interview

When and why did you begin to write poetry?

I started writing poems quite young because my father is a poet, along with being a dairy farmer. Some nights he would come in from the barn, clean up, and we’d go into town to hear him read poems at the local art museum. Glancing down the page, I see that this answer I’m giving can apply to the second question, as well, in that it was certainly my father who introduced me to poetry, not only through his readings, but through the collections on my parents’ shelves. From a young age I felt a particular pleasure in looking at a poem, even, I think, before really reading them. The shape of the poem on the page, the prevalence of white space, the way the lines broke on the right margin like surf. It appealed to me immediately. I still remember distinctly the first line I wrote: “The fire is burning hot.” I was kneeling in front of the fire (of course). Something had changed: I’d gone from hearing my father read poems to trying to make a poem myself. I must have been twelve or so. I still have the notebook, labelled “Poetrey” (sic), various marks in the corners of the pages, some lost order that I was already putting the poems in. As to why I began to write poetry, that’s more mysterious. Of course, I was following my father (my favorite poem on this score is Heaney’s “Digging”), but at the same time, I was striking out on my own, trying to speak of the same place and the same livelihood in a different way.

2. How aware were and are you of the dominating presence of older poets?

Again. I think I touch on this above, but I can say more. I wouldn’t say that I felt that older poets were dominating presences. The poets who meant the most to me were the poets who meant the most to my father: Gary Snyder, Wendell Berry, W.S. Merwin, Donald Hall, Jane Kenyon, Forrest Gander, etc. Actually, my father and I have met and/or corresponded with many of these poets. I met Snyder when he came to Freeport, IL to give a reading, and visited us on the farm. My Dad and I have both corresponded with Berry, and I’ve corresponded with Merwin. We both know Forrest. The point being, it was clear to me early on that being a poet was about more than writing poems. It was a whole life, a way of being in the world. It had a lot to do with friendship, with the simple pleasures of sharing a meal and some drinks, trying to say something for the earth and our presence upon it. In other words, it struck me that to be a poet was to take up a kind of moral calling. So rather than their presence being dominating, I felt that a kind of gauntlet had been laid down that I better walk if I was going to call myself a poet. Now, whether I’ve actually managed to walk it is another matter, that I can’t speak to.

3. What is your daily writing routine?

Right now my routine is waking up, trying to write, realizing I have to get my shit together and drive an hour to school, and daydreaming about what I would have written had I been able to stay home. I’m teaching a lot at the moment so I’m hardly writing at all. Certainly no poems. An occasional short story. Anyway, when things are calmer I write in the mornings. After noon I’m kind of worthless. Sometimes I’ll work on poems at night: they seem to require less attention than fiction does. What I mean by that is that poems seem to exercise a different part of the brain. I think it’s actually best to be a little tired, a little distracted, when working on a poem. I don’t like to bear down on them too much, or exert too much control, whereas, with fiction, it’s quite a bit different.

4. What motivates you to write?

I don’t really know anymore. Actually, I’m concerned that I’m losing the will to write. I used to write so much that it bordered on obsessive-compulsive behaviour. I have, in a file cabinet at home, approximately 1700 poems. I don’t write like that anymore. I don’t feel the pull to write about everything like I once did. I used to have to write in order to feel that I had experienced something. In some ways I’m happier, not writing all the time, but when one has identified oneself as a writer, to not write is a terrifying thing. These days, what motivates me to write is the thought of sharing the work with a half dozen or so people (my parents, my brothers, several good friends). I’ve pretty much given up on the publishing world, selling a novel, going on book tours, all that bullshit. I’m more or less writing letters to people I love, only they’re in the form of poems and stories.

5. What is your work ethic?

Well, again, it used to be much stronger! I’ll say this, though: I work hard, harder than anyone I’ve ever met. I don’t say that to brag. I’m actually not all that proud of it. It comes, probably, from having grown up on a dairy farm, and watching my dad get up every single morning at 3:30 for thirty years without a single day off. I approach writing that way. I had a pretty woeful time in graduate school because I encountered poets who don’t think of writing in that way, and I judged them, thinking they were lazy, or fake. The truth is, they were just working differently. Anyway, I like that phrase, “work ethic.” It really is an ethics of work. For me, the ethics of work is the ethics of dairy farming. For someone else, the ethics of work may be very different. Who am I to judge them? I just grew up in a particular world that has guided the way I approach my work. And so I am always reading, always writing or trying to write, always bearing down on one page or another, either mine or someone else’s.

6. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

Haha, hmm. Well, I don’t admire too many. Hardly any fiction, most of it strikes me as absolutely inane bullshit that is only getting published because it might sell books. Only a few poets. Maurice Manning, for how he has blent his work and his life in Kentucky. Joanna Klink, whose poems strike me as truly vital and consequential. Ilya Kaminsky: I trust and admire his patience and his passion. My friend Nate Klug, whose poems are as perfect and precious as diamonds. Yea, that’s about it.

7. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

Read. Read until you find writers who make you so envious that you would die to write like them. Then try to write like them. Try to write like so many of them for so long that you eventually write like yourself.

8. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

Oh there are so many. I’m like Coleridge in this. I have a thousand ideas and hardly any of them ever come to fruition. I’m experimenting with several different novels, trying to get one to click and carry me forward. One is about the appearance of the Virgin Mary to a community of beleaguered farmers in the midst of the Farm Crisis of the 1980s (but it’s a hoax perpetrated by the mother of the boy who sees her). Another novel is about a young woman who marries into a dairy farming family and, over the course of several decades, tries to get to the bottom of a dark family secret. Another novel is narrated from the perspective of a farmhouse. There’s a linked story collection called BROOD XIII, following generations of a farm family, jumping every seventeen years with the emergence of the Northwestern Illinois brood of periodical cicadas. My third poetry collection will be called ALL THY TRIBE after a line of Keats’s. I’m working on a memoir about growing up on a farm, as well as a collection of essays oriented around specific substances (“Milk,” “Blood,” “Grain,” “Manure,” etc.). And I have a short story collection finished, which the NYC editors called “quiet,” which I’ll probably just self-publish online. Again, I don’t really care that much anymore about publishing, I just want to keep writing and sharing my work with the people in my life who matter most to me.

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Austin Smith Wombwell Rainbow Interviews I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me.

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The Top 10 Questions to Ask When Buying Event Management Software

Welcome to the golden age of event technology!

Back in the dark ages, event marketers had a slim handful of solutions to choose from. While these platforms were good, they were limited. The result was that it was difficult to find event management software that fits like a glove.

Today, event professionals have a vast ecosystem of event platforms to peruse—each of which is able to provide unique advantages. If you look at the event marketing stats, organizations are investing more so than ever on these platforms. But the explosion of options has given rise to a new challenge: Which event management software is the best for your organization?

To help you answer this question, we’ve put together ten other questions that should help you determine how you can find the event solution that fits like a glove.

What are my goals?

This is the most important question that you can ask yourself.

Repeat: The most important question.

What are you trying to accomplish with your event strategy?

Are you trying to create a stellar experience for your customers, employees, business partners or other stakeholders?

Are you trying to win big on ticket revenue?

Are you running an unpaid event and would really just like it if the house were packed?

Is the accumulation and retention of sponsorships a primary concern?

Is press and exposure your primary goal?

It may be that your event strategy is actually a mix of all of the above. It may be that your event strategy has to deal with something entirely different. Regardless of what your event goals are specifically, the understanding of them will enable you to choose event software that’s best able to help you accomplish them.

We generally shy away from using superlatives, but here’s one that we can share with complete confidence: No event management software can do it all. Some may be able to do a lot, but even then, they will have different strengths and weaknesses.

For instance, some event management software may come with easy-to-set-up event registration pages, but be lacking in comprehensive event promotion and analytics tools. Other platforms may come with comprehensive event marketing and analytics tools but are lacking in functions for engaging attendees.

At the end of the day, you will have to settle for an event management platform that can’t do it all. What matters is that your event software does what your goals require it to do.

How is my current event technology stack helping me achieve my goals?

Maybe you are already using event management software. Maybe you are currently using an assortment of tools to cover your event management needs. Are your tools enough? Or should you seriously consider another solution?

When choosing the right event management software for your organization, you’ll want to evaluate how your current technology stack is assisting you in achieving your business goals and whether or not a new event management solution will be able to better help you.

If you’re looking to get a better understanding of your tech stack, we recommend taking an event technology assessment. After running an assessment of your event technology you should have a better idea of how your current event technology is assisting you in achieving your goals, and where there is room for improvement.

What types of events am I running?

Piggybacking off your goals and event technology, different events require different needs. It will be a lot more helpful to have a mobile event networking app at a conference or tradeshow than it will be at an internal training event or activity. Likewise, it will be a lot more important to have a hefty suite of event promotion tools for an external event than for an internal event.

Consider INBOUND: A 25,000+ person annual flagship marketing event produced by the marketing automation company HubSpot. The team at INBOUND has deliberately grown their audience over the past several years to the point that the event now requires a lot more logistics management than it did initially. Knowing that they needed to streamline their processes, get more analytics out of their event, and drive more event growth, the INBOUND team chose an event management software that catered to these unique event needs.

INBOUND’s Branded event agenda in action. (Source: INBOUND)

Whether you find yourself with a diverse event strategy featuring many types of events or a leaner event strategy with a few event types in mind, the event management software that you choose should be tailored to the events you are producing.

What do other people think of the platform in question?

Phoning a friend is just as valuable when shopping for event software as it is when answering questions from Regis Philbin for the chance to win a million dollars.

Whether you are reaching out to your own network or beyond, it pays to get a second opinion. Initially, you may want to reach out to your network and ask what type of event management software your peers are using and how they like it.

After you’ve tapped your initial network, you may want to consult a third-party review site like G2Crowd or Capterra. The reviews on these websites are completely by software users for software users, providing a great resource for objective data.

A glimpse of Capterra’s Event Management Software category. (Source: Capterra)

After tapping your own network and the reviews available on third-party platforms, you may find yourself in conversation with several event management software providers. There are a lot of questions to ask these providers (some of which are included on this list), but one question you should seriously consider asking is if they are willing to put you in contact with any current customers. These customers should be able to give you a good indication of how the software is at the moment vs. when someone used or reviewed it a year ago.

Does the platform in question offer a free trial?

After all of your research, you still might not know if a product is a good fit for your needs. That’s where a free trial can help out.

Ask potential providers whether or not they are willing to give you a free trial, for how long, and for how many members of your team. The more you are able to play around with a platform, the better feel you will have for it. Ditto for your team.

If certain features are unavailable, or if the free trial itself is completely unavailable, ask why.

What degree of branding and customization does the platform in question provide?

We’re long past the days of bland user interfaces that communicate nothing about your brand’s identity to audiences. This is especially the case when someone is interacting with the digital content of your event brand.

An example of a drag-and-drop website editor. (Source: Bizzabo)

When selecting an event management software, check to see if it offers tools for easily putting your event brand front and center. These include:

A drag-and-drop website editor

A customizable event agenda module

Customizable email templates

A branded event app

A white label event app

Embeddable widgets that allow for customization

Exactly which branded features you need are up to you. Chances are that you will want the option to put your organization’ branding front-and-center, and you will want to be able to do so without a headache.

Speak with your event software provider to better understand the full extent of their event branding functionalities.

Does the platform in question integrate with marketing automation or CRM platforms? If so, which platforms does it integrate with? Do these integrations require additional fees?

No person is an island. The same could be said for event management software. The overall strength of an event management platform lies not in what it can do on its own, but in how well it can work with other platforms in your technology stack.

It is not uncommon for many event marketers to leverage a variety of different platforms to accomplish their business goals, including:

Event marketing automation software

CRM software

Business intelligence software

Customer success software

Fortunately, many event management platforms come with a variety of software integration functions via third-party integration platforms as a service (iPaaS) and native open APIs.

A visualization of how different platforms can integrate with event management software.

In researching an event management software, take the time to see how it will work with the other technologies in your organization’s tech stack. Doing so will likely make it easier to manage your event, prove ROI and maintain alignment with other teams.

What degree of analytics does the platform in question come with?

We’re in the midst of a data revolution. Through the grace of modern digital marketing, it is now possible to track activities and make data-informed solutions more so than ever before. Now, you can—and should—be able to expect the same from your events.

Depending on your goals, different metrics will be important to you. This will in turn influence the event software that you end up selecting. For instance, depending on the event management software you select you may be able to track analytics like:

Gross event revenue

Total registrations

Total check-ins

Event sponsors page views

Event sponsor links clicked

Promo code performance

Event app adoption

The number of messages sent by attendees in your event app

Event session and speaker ratings

Net promoter scores (NPS) on the event in general

What’s more, some event platforms enable event organizers to easily view metrics between events. This can be especially helpful when trying to analyze successes and areas of improvement in your event strategy.

In fact, there’s so much data that can be mined from event platforms that this is just scratching the surface.

An example of cross-event analytics. (Source: Bizzabo)

When shopping around for an event management software, determine which metrics you are aiming to track. Then determine whether or not the platform in question will be able to track them (and easily allow you to draw meaningful insights from them).  

What is the product roadmap of the platform in question?

Investing in an event software is a long-term commitment and, rightly, you’re going to want to select a platform that will be around for a while.

While it may be worthwhile to investigate an event software provider’s funding and overall business trajectory, one of the most useful questions that you can ask is about an organization’s product roadmap. Here’s why.

As we’ve mentioned above, no one event management solution is perfect. Each has its strengths and its weaknesses. However, these weaknesses might change in the future.

The first reason to ask about an event software provider’s roadmap is to understand whether or not the product will more closely match your event needs moving forward.

The second reason to ask this question is to gauge how an organization handles customer feedback. If enough people request a feature, will the organization consider adding it to their roadmap in place of another feature?

The third reason to ask this question is enthusiasm. If the provider that you are speaking with is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their product roadmap then you know that their heart is in it. A lack of knowledge or enthusiasm may speak to a disconnected and disinterested company culture that you should engage with at your own risk.

Does the product in question provide a structured onboarding plan for new users? If so, what does it entail?

When you purchase software, you’re purchasing more than a product. You’re purchasing a relationship.

So, how does your event management provider handle their customer relationships? Learning about how an organization onboards their new customers is a great way to open up this conversation, but it’s only the start.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many bells and whistles a program has. Nor does it matter how seemingly easy it is to play those bells and whistles. At some point, something’s going to go wrong. You or someone else on your team might hit a dead end with a product feature or something on the back-end of the product might break.

Having a dedicated customer success team to help you get the most out of your events and a customer support team to help you when things go wrong can make a world of difference in your experience with an event management solution.

Drill your prospective event software providers on how they approach their customer relationships. It matters.

Wrapping Up: The Right Questions for the Right Event Management Software

This is the best time to be in events. There are more solutions on the market than ever before. Many of these solutions are impressive in their own right. To find the solution that’s right for your needs, you just have to figure out the right questions to ask.

    https://js.hscta.net/cta/current.js hbspt.cta.load(430132, ‘f0783c9f-9f17-4df9-b5fb-861a71cb8240’, {});

from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/buying-event-management-software/

[djsamaha-blog]

7 Essential HTML Tags that Separate SEO Pros from the Rookies

For many websites, a #1 ranking is the best thing that’s ever happened to them.

Let me tell you a little story.

A company built a website. It was just another website in the crowded online world.

It was one of the millions of results crammed within these numbers.

Sadly, that poor, lonely website wasn’t anything more than a result. It was too far down the page list for anyone to find it.

Don’t get me wrong. The website had a great design with appealing website copy and even minor SEO preparations.

If anyone had found it, they probably would have purchased.

Yes. It was that good.

But, all of that copy and design is worthless if people can’t find the website.

If someone’s going to buy from it, they first have to visit.

So its marketers did some research and found that 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.

“Ah!” they said to each other, “We need our website to rank in search engines to generate passive traffic to our website.”

“But how?” they thought to themselves.

Well, the first thing they tried was paid search. They paid Google to place their ad at the top of the SERPs when consumers searched for certain keywords.

And while that helped, they didn’t seem to be getting the portion of the traffic they were expecting.

So they did some more research and found that organic results, instead of paid results, get 70% of clicks.

“Ah!” they thought. “We need to rank organically to generate more traffic.”

Again, they asked themselves how.

Eventually, the marketers found that they need to communicate with the search engines to increase their rankings. And to do that, they need to speak the language of SEO.

Namely, they need to know HTML tags.

Here’s what they learned.

1. Title tag

This is arguably the most important tag that you need to be familiar with when it comes to increasing your rankings.

For any search engine to rank your website, it needs to know what your content is about, what each page is about, and what your site as a whole is about.

The title tag describes the topic of each page or piece of content on your website. And it does it in a way that search engines can understand.

Here’s where the title tag will show on Google.

The keywords that you target with your content need to be in your title tag to tell search engines how they should rank you.

In the above title tag, for example, I’m going to guess that the keyword Smart Insights is trying to rank for is “digital marketing strategy.”

How can I guess this?

Well, if you notice the similarities between the meta description and title tag, both have that exact phrase.

And doing this is super important for your rankings. But we’ll talk about the meta description in more depth soon.

For now, let’s talk about how to include that title tag in your website HTML.

Here’s what it will look like.

Start the text with <title> and end with </title> to indicate to search engines the topic and keyword that you’re discussing on the web page.

Here’s how you can do this if you have a WordPress website.

Go to your WordPress dashboard.

Click on “Posts.”

Select the post that you’d like to add a title tag to.

WordPress makes this simple. Where the post says “Enter title here,” type in what you want as your title tag.

A quick note: Since you’re using WordPress, you don’t need to worry about adding the HTML tags yourself. Simply type in your desired title and WordPress will do the heavy lifting for you.

If you don’t use a WordPress website, then you’ll probably need to add in the title tags yourself.

2. Meta description tag

Right after the title tag, the meta tag is an absolute must for anyone who is serious about their SEO.

Think of the meta description as the synopsis on the back of a book. The title is the heading, and the meta description is the extra couple sentences of information that further describe what the content is about.

If you do this right, your meta description will not only help you rank well on Google, but it will also sell the “click” with compelling copy.

Here’s where the meta description shows up in a Google result.

As you can see, the focus keywords for the title tag are also in the meta description: “Digital marketing strategy.”

This is critical.

You need to have continuity between your title tag and your meta description so that search engines can easily recognize what you’re going to talk about.

Say, for example, that you use the phrase “digital marketing” in your title tag, but only use the phrase “SEO” in your meta description. Search engines will rank you lower because they can’t determine what the content is specifically discussing.

Is it about SEO or digital marketing?

Choose one and stick with it.

Here’s what the meta description HTML tag looks like.

Each web page should have one target keyword. And that keyword should show itself in the title tag and meta description.

Make sure you don’t say “digital marketing strategy” in your title tag, and then “a strategy for digital marketers” in your meta description.

Those are two different keywords and the inconsistency will confuse search engines.

Just use one or the other. You can sprinkle related keywords throughout the content to make it more contextual.

If you use a WordPress website, including the meta description is also super easy.

Go to the post where you want to add a meta description. On the right side, you will see a box that says, “SEO Description.”

Click it.

Type a meta description in the box that includes your target keyword and sits at or under 160 characters.

If you want to see what it looks like in a Google result, you can click the preview button.

3. Header tags

Header tags are really easy to include in your content.

They don’t go anywhere special. They go right into the content itself.

Actually, look above at the bolded text next to the number three that says, “header tags.”

That entire line is an h2 tag.

There are several different header tags. Depending on your format, you might have h1, h2, h3, and sometimes h4 or even h5.

These will get progressively smaller and make for great headings and subheadings to organize your content.

Here’s what the HTML tag looks like.

But the header tags don’t just help organize your content for readers. It also helps your SEO.

Think about it.

When you tag all of your topical headings throughout the post, you tell search engines exactly what your content is discussing.

This is how Google creates the snippets you’ll sometimes see when looking for a topic.

Since the author of this content organized it into easy-to-read steps, Google knows how to structure it when showing it to web searchers.

Including these header tags in any of your content is really simple.

If you’re using a visual editor, you can usually just click on the correct heading.

In an HTML editor, just include the tags <h1> for the front and </h1> for the end. You can do the same thing with all other header tags.

4. Image alt tags

Alt tags are an SEO opportunity that many people miss.

It’s easy to focus only on the words you’re writing for content and completely ignore the images.

But the reality is that people don’t only search in Google under the “All” tab.

Occasionally, people will also search under the “Images” tab.

And when they do that, the SEO game is a little bit different.

Search engines can’t read images, but search engines can read words.

This means that, to have a chance for your images to rank on Google, you need to include alt tags on all of your screenshots and photos.

That way, when someone is searching the “Images” tab, they can still find your content.

Here’s what the alt HTML tag looks like.

To include this tag on images in your WordPress post, click on an image and you’ll see this bar appear.

Click on the little pencil.

On the side, you’ll see an empty box that’s labeled “Alt text.”

Type something into the box that describes what the image is about.

This doesn’t necessarily need to include the keyword that you’re targeting for the overall content piece this image is housed within. It can play its own SEO game.

Save your changes and do the same to the rest of your images.

This will increase your chance of people finding your content organically.

5. Nofollow link tags

There are a few reasons you need to know about nofollow link tags.

First, let me explain what they are.

Nofollow tags tell search engines not to lend credence to the backlink that you’re creating for the website.

In other words, linking to a website or piece of content would normally increase that website’s domain authority. But with a nofollow tag, it won’t.

But don’t worry: The link will still work. It will still take whoever clicks on it to the appropriate place. It just won’t help the website’s SEO.

Here’s what a nofollow tag looks like.

But why do you need to know about nofollow links?

There are a few reasons.

If you’re working on a backlink SEO strategy for a website, you’ll need to know whether the backlinks you get are dofollow or nofollow. Dofollow will help your rankings more than nofollow links.

A small caveat here, though.

There are some arguments that nofollow links still help rankings, just not to the same degree. So they aren’t totally worthless. They’re just not as helpful as dofollow links.

Also, you might want to consider using nofollow links on your own website when you link to a website with poor domain authority.

This will ensure that the link doesn’t hurt your domain authority.

Here’s how you can do it on your WordPress site.

Click on the HTML option in your blog post editor.

Add the link you want to include with this clause.

Now the link won’t affect the other website’s SEO and it will protect you from a damaged domain authority.

6. Links and anchor text tags

Throughout your content, you’re probably going to link to different websites.

Whenever you want to include stats or images from different sources, you need to make sure that you’re giving credit where credit is due.

Usually, a link to that website will suffice.

But a lot of people don’t know about anchor text in the link tag.

Most people will just add the link and forget about the anchor text, which is unfortunate for SEO endeavors.

Here’s what the whole thing looks like as an HTML tag.

The actual link tag is this part: <a href=”http://example-website.com”>. And the anchor text is directly after it: This is a link to my website.</a>.

But why is anchor text so important?

Well, Google looks to anchor text to understand what the link is about. Where are you linking and what is the subject matter?

Your anchor text should answer these questions for Google.

Good anchor text does a few things.

If you’re linking to someone else’s website and you provide a good anchor tag, it will help their rankings more than the link alone.

And if you’re linking to a page on your own website, it will help your own domain authority because it keeps your content organized.

Search engines love organized content.

And that brings us to the last tag.

7. Canonical tags

The canonical tag is great for organizing your content and prioritizing one web page over a duplicate web page.

“But,” you think to yourself, “I don’t have any duplicate web pages.”

Well, I hate to break it to you, but you’re wrong.

Every website has duplicate web pages.

Since we’re human beings and not search engines, that’s difficult to understand at first.

Let me explain. A search engine could crawl the same web page using all of these different URLs.

And to us, all of those seem like the exact same web page. But to a search engine, each one is a duplicate.

That’s only a small sample of how many duplicates most web pages have. Your website could have hundreds or thousands of duplicate pages.

This becomes a problem when search engines are trying to rank your content. It confuses the search engine, and it ranks each one of these URLs separately.

To solve this problem, you can use the canonical tag to specify which URL Google should pay attention to above all others.

Here’s what the tag looks like.

Doing this will help search engines read your website and rank you better.

One final tip: Use software to add tags

This tip doesn’t have to do with tags, but it does have to do with SEO. Plus, it will help you implement a lot of these tags without trying to jump through a ton of hoops.

If you can read code like an expert, you might not need to worry about it. But a lot of marketers and SEO experts don’t know how to go into the code and change it.

Sometimes, it feels like fiddling around in a corridor that could break absolutely everything on our website if we’re not careful.

And because of that, we hesitate to change anything.

Instead, download a piece of software to make adding tags crazy easy.

Consider Yoast or Moz.

If you have a WordPress website, Yoast has a plugin that will make adding most of these tags very simple.

Yoast will even run an overall diagnosis of your content’s SEO and let you know how you’re doing. Then it will tell you exactly what you need to change to improve the SEO if it’s lacking.

Moz has a variety of SEO tools that will let you do the same sort of things.

Whatever you choose, if you’re nervous about building out your own SEO tags, download a piece of software that will help you do it.

Without optimized HTML tags, your website’s SEO is going to suffer. So you definitely need them.

But that doesn’t mean you need to suffer when adding them.

Conclusion

There are very few things as pleasing as a #1 ranking for us marketers.

Usually, it takes a lot of time. We spend months or years working on a website to improve its rankings and, in time, it finally rises to the top.

And accomplishing that goal requires the right HTML tags.

Why?

Well, it’s partly because search engines demand it and partly because so few SEO “experts” are doing it.

In the end, HTML tags end up separating the SEO rookies from the pros, and the right HTML tags often separate the #1 ranking from the #10 ranking.

HTML is the language that you can use to tell search engines exactly what your website is about and how they should rank you.

Anyone who isn’t using these tags is missing out on a significant portion of SEO opportunity.

The HTML tags you need to pay attention to are the title tag, meta description, header tags, image alt tags, nofollow links, anchor text, and canonical tags.

And don’t hesitate to download a piece of software to help you add those tags properly.

With all of that HTML-speak at your disposal, you’ll be off and ranking in no time.

Which HTML tag makes the biggest difference for your website’s SEO?

http://www.successwize.com/7-essential-html-tags-that-separate-seo-pros-from-the-rookies/

[easyweight101]

Neuro Clarity Review: Don’t Buy Before You Read This!

What is it?

Neuro Clarity is an all-natural supplement that boosts cognitive function. This product also provides users with reduced stress and anxiety with use.

Neuro Clarity is made using a blend of holistic ingredients designed to improve brain function without any stimulants. Neuro Clarity says it safely helps the brain become more efficient, improving memory, focus and more.

As far as mental support goes, Memotenz is the best supplement for bringing users the improved performance and cognitive effects that users are looking for in a daily pill. Click here for a closer look at what makes Memotenz so unique.

Do You Know the Best Brain Enhancement Supplements of 2017?

Neuro Clarity Ingredients and Side Effects

The Neuro Clarity website has provided a list of ingredients used to make this product. Here’s a quick glimpse as to what you can expect to find within the formulation:

St. John’s Wort Glutamine Phosphatidylserine Acetyl-L-Carnitine DMAE Bacopa Monnieri Gingko Biloba Vinpocetine

St. John’s Wort: A plant that has long been used medicinally, St. John’s Wort may be effective in treating some forms of depression, by increasing serotonin levels in the brain.

Glutamine: An amino acid produced naturally by the body. Glutamine is used to protect the health of the immune system, as well as improve mood, reduce anxiety and depression and improve athletic performance.

Phosphatidylserine: A substance found in all cells in the human body, this ingredient is used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, age-related memory loss and cognitive decline, ADHD and may help improve athletic performance.

Side effects may include insomnia and an upset stomach.

Acetyl-L-Carnitine: An amino acid found in the body, ALC is used to treat a variety of mental health concerns such as depression, memory loss, anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease and more. ALC is also key in helping the body produce energy, and maintaining a healthy heart and brain.

DMAE: A chemical used in the production of another chemical called acetylcholine, which is essential in helping brain cells communicate. DMAE may improve red blood cells function, ADHD, memory, mood and more.

Vinpocetine: A chemical substance used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and cognitive decline resulting from aging. Vinpocetine is also used to reduce brain damage resulting from stroke, or improving short term memory in healthy users.

Side effects may include upset stomach, nausea, sleeping problems, flushed skin, nervousness and headache.

Gingko Biloba: A supplement used to boost memory and sharpen the mind, gingko biloba has long been used in Chinese medicine, and is thought to boost blood flow to the brain.

Bacopa Monnieri: An herb used in traditional Indian medicine, bacopa is thought to improve memory and cognition, as well as treat and prevent symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

Click here for a look at the best nootropics, herbs and more for improving focus without the crash.

EDITOR’S TIP: Combine this product with a proven brain enhancement supplement such as Memotenz for better results.

Neuro Clarity Quality of Ingredients

The ingredient profile of Neuro Clarity looks pretty good. The supplement contains a well-rounded blend of ingredients with few side effects associated with use.

We like that this product contains ingredients like bacopa monnieri, St. John’s Wort and gingko biloba, and even phosphatidylserine and vinpocetine have minimal side effects and should be safe for most users.

The one concern we have about this product, is, there’s no official website, just the Amazon profile. While the label is posted online ad can easily be accessed, we don’t know if this product has undergone any form of clinical testing, and users will need to count on consumer reviews to get a sense of whether it’s safe or not.

Get the expert guide to the supplements that can give you the mental edge you need to power through the day.

The Price and Quality of Neuro Clarity

Neuro Clarity is sold on Amazon for $19.99, for a bottle containing 60 servings. If you decide to enroll in the ‘subscribe and save’ program, you can save a dollar per bottle. The savings seem a bit too minimal to warrant any automatic shipping, but some users may find it convenient.

Plus, the fact this is sold through Amazon offers more protection for consumers who may end up opting out of the subscription service.

There’s no official website for Neuro Clarity, so it looks like Amazon may be the only option for orders at this time. The company that makes this product offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee and free shipping to Prime customers.

Keep your brain running at full capacity. Click this link to learn more.

Business of Neuro Clarity

The business behind Neuro Clarity is known as Nutrition Essentials, and they have not provided any contact information to new or existing customers.

Aside from the Amazon page, there’s no clear way to get in touch with this company, and upon running a Google search, several unrelated results come up, due to the incredibly vague brand name.

Because we don’t know much about the company that makes Neuro Clarity, we don’t have a good sense of whether or not the product has been tested for efficacy and safety, we don’t know if the information on the label is accurate or anything else.

But, this product does have over 6,500 reviews posted on Amazon, which demonstrates some level of legitimacy. Many of those reviews are positive, so users are likely safe taking this product. It’s just a good reminder that users should do some research before purchasing a new supplement, and consult with their doctor if there are any concerns.

EDITOR’S TIP: For the best results, our experts recommend using brain enhancement supplements for at least 3 months. Save your money by buying a few bottles at once.

Customer Opinions of Neuro Clarity

There are a number of positive reviews on Amazon for Neuro Clarity, most claim this product hasn’t dramatically improved their brain function, but many users feel that recall and focus have been improved. Here’s a look at some of the many reviews we sifted through:

“I have not noticed anything major, but I’m able to rely less on autofill settings on my various gadgets and can recall my passwords. I don’t notice much else, but I think it’s doing something good.”

“This product helps me focus on running my business. Started taking his recently and ordered a year’s worth of product to save a few bucks. No crazy changes, but it helps with the brain fog for sure.”

“This product made my head hurt after the first few doses, and I was kind of tired. A week later, I noticed things got a little clearer. Patience is key, I think it’s helping improve my memory.”

“The pills are super hard to swallow. It’s helped me focus on work, as well as with my anxiety. I don’t think I’ll keep taking it because of the pill size, but it definitely does something.”

It doesn’t seem like Neuro Clarity offers users the kind of sweeping changes to their productivity or really battles severe cognitive decline, but the amount of people that like this product is really telling. More than half of the users reviews come from verified purchases, as well, so there isn’t the issue of the Amazon page being overrun with paid reviews.

We’ve put together an expert guide to the pills that best boost memory, cognition and mood, click to learn more.

Conclusion – Does Neuro Clarity Work?

Taking a closer look at Neuro Clarity, it seems this product could be beneficial to a wide range of people. Particularly healthy individuals who are looking for a boost when it comes to focus on work or school, as well as the ability to recall certain details like passwords or where they set down their keys.

Some people also claim this product improved issues like anxiety or improved their overall mood and well-being. Based on the information we found, it’s clear this isn’t for people with Alzheimer’s, serious depression or severe anxiety or ADHD. Those experiencing these problems will need to find another type of treatment that more aggressively addresses these issues.

One thing we did not like about Neuro Clarity was, there’s no official webpage detailing things like clinical trials or even providing a direct line of communication from seller to consumer. While the major presence on Amazon seems to help Nutrition Essentials find a way around this problem, and users can be comforted by the fact that such a large amount of users have also tried this product.

Overall, we think Neuro Clarity could be a good choice, but everyone’s brain is different and what works well for one person, may not be the best choice for you. The effects of Neuro Clarity seem to be subtle, but there. If you’re looking for something more effective, medication or a stronger nootropic may be a better option.

We’ve reviewed a wide range of supplements before discovering Memotenz best addresses the mental concerns many of us have when faced with growing older. With its natural formulation of gingko biloba, St. John’s Wort and bacopa monnieri, this product gives users improved thinking, recall and cognitive function with daily use.

The makers of Memotenz operate under strict FDA-guidelines to ensure they are putting out the best supplement possible. Click here for a deeper look into why Memotenz is the best solution on the market.

from Easy Weight Loss 101 http://ift.tt/2ouBnvz via The Best Weight Loss Diet In The World

[brendagilliam2]

Create responsive forms and tables

Don’t miss the Bearded team at Generate New York on 27 and 28 April. Not only will they run a workshop on ‘responsive web design for non-unicorns’, founder Matt Griffin will also talk about what it means to be a web designer in 2017 and show additional footage that didn’t make it into his documentary, What Comes Next Is The Future.

Get your ticket this Thursday 9 March, in our 24-hour flash sale and save 50%!

Some years ago we started a small web agency called Bearded. In 2010 responsive web design completely changed how we work. Ethan Marcotte’s simple yet groundbreaking approach pointed the way towards a web that embraces the constantly expanding world of mobile devices, ensures content parity, and takes progressive enhancement to its next logical step.

Responsive web design directly responded to the problems many of us had already felt in web design: it had become too brittle, too precious and too pixel-specific. The web wants to be fluid, and it needed a fluid solution. And that’s what we got.

We’ve made a whole bunch of responsive sites since 201. And you know what? It’s still hard. Making the mental shift from a fixed-width world to a flexible one requires us to rethink many design patterns and user interface conventions.

Not surprisingly, the hardest parts of RWD are things that have always been kind of a pain: tables and forms. Let’s have a look at why they are even more fun in a responsive environment.

Tables

The first rule of tables? Don’t use tables! But seriously, let’s think about this for a second. I like to think of tables as kind of a pre-standards-conscious proto-HTML. Tables, by their nature, attempt to do visual layout with HTML. Their rows and columns and endless table data cells break the cardinal rule of the post-web standards project world: the separation of style and content.

So before you start adding table tags to your markup, stop and ask yourself: is this tabular data? Tabular data derives its meaning from the comparison of similar facets of an information set. In other words, if the value in the information comes from comparing data across columns and rows. If this is the case, you may need a table.

Things that are not tables

If the data has significant value unto itself, maybe it doesn’t need to be a table. Or at any rate, not always. Some other options to keep your content out of tables? Headings and paragraphs, or bulleted lists where each item begins with a bold inline heading.

The Bearded team will give a workshop on how to improve team collaboration on responsive design projects at Generate New York

Things that appear to be tables

A good example of something that may initially look like a table, but is not actually tabular data? A calendar! A calendar seems tabular because the columns share a common set of designations: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and so on. It is a convenience that we can identify all the Wednesdays at once. This is why people use calendars.

However, the data you put on calendars (say a bunch of Broadway musical performances) is not intrinsically tabular. Comparing one day’s shows to another’s does not necessarily improve users’ understanding of the performances on individual days. A calendar is one way to display date-organised data, but there are others too.

So what does a calendar look like on a small screen? We’re asking the wrong question. The right question is: what does a list of events look like on a small screen?

This complex select UI allows users quick access to prioritised options (left), with modal access to additional options (right)

This is how we arrived at marking up our days and events using <divs> and <articles> rather than tables on the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh website. It’s much easier (and more semantically appropriate) to make a bunch of articles and divs look like a table, than to make a table look like a list.

Things that must be tables

As much as I hate to admit it, some information is tabular. When designing the fundraising event registration process for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, we used tables for event selection. Quickly scanning and sorting this list by location and date in order to choose the particular event you want to register for seems like a good use case for tables. But how to make them responsive?

For our work on the Leukemia Lymphoma Society websites, we tried a number of approaches for form validation

Our investigations into responsive tables started with Chris Coyier’s excellent April 2011 responsive data tables roundup. For several projects in the past few years we’d consult this article and inevitably, Coyier’s first approach was the winner.

On wide screens, you get tables. On smaller screens, you get each entry with all of the header labels restated for context. You lose the comparative feature of tables on small screens, but you do get the essential information in an easily readable way. In other words, we treat the tabular layout as a progressive enhancement. This is our favourite UI pattern for responsive data tables, and it seems like our friends at Filament Group agree with us. 

Tablesaw

In August 2013 the Filaments released Tablesaw on GitHub, which includes this pattern as one of its three options. Tablesaw is the starting point for the LLS example, and I highly recommend using it as a jumping-off point for creating your own responsive data tables.

So if Tablesaw works so well, why wouldn’t you just use that all the time and forget about it? Though some major interface or display tables (like the event picker example, or maybe a SaaS pricing matrix) make sense as custom HTML, what about when a site content manager wants to toss a table onto a page using their CMS?

If site managers are entering tables in the CMS using a WYSIWYG editor, there are some issues to surmount. First of all, Tablesaw does its magic by looking at the <thead> and using what it finds there to label the information further down in the <td>s on smaller viewport widths. If the site manager isn’t entering <thead> information properly, things won’t work.

It’s also important to note that Tablesaw only acts on tables with the right classes applied to them. You now need to decide if all tables are Tablesaw tables, or if that’s an option in the CMS controlled by the site manager, then apply those rules in your CMS so it outputs the right markup.

Additionally, there are some display issues to consider. Repeating the column headers in every cell tends to add a fair bit of height to the table. It’s not a very efficient way to display the data. A non-tabular approach using headings, lists and paragraphs could be an easier read on mobile, depending on the content.

This is why my first approach to tables is still ‘don’t use tables’. Tablesaw should be your safety net, not your go-to tool. But believe me, you’ll be glad it’s there when you need it.

Next page: discover how to master user-friendly forms…

Forms

It’s likely tables have been a thorn in your side on projects before. But their persnickety nature is nothing compared to our other good high-maintenance HTML friend: forms.

Because forms are so browser and device-specific in terms of how they react to styling, they can be a real challenge to work with. To paraphrase Luke Wroblewski, forms drive one of the most essential aspects of the web: the ability to generate revenue. Yet filling out a form is the last thing anyone wants to do on a website. Thus, forms make for a fun set of design problems. Let’s have a look, shall we?

Layout

When it comes to laying out forms, there are a few recurring patterns we use. For consistently short pairs of inputs, we use a pattern that we call two-up. It’s pretty straightforward. 

No matter the size of the viewport, these inputs appear side-by-side. For inputs that need a little more space, but can be next to each other when they have enough room, we use the pattern two-up wider. There are rarely situations where three-up – three side-by-side inputs – always works. So by default, we have that work on the wider principle.

At Bearded, we use certain responsive layout patterns over and over again for form inputs

One special case for three-up is postal code, city and state. Because of the nature of these fields, custom unequal widths better serve their purpose. Their styling works on the same principals as before, but with a bit more customisation for the unequal widths we want to achieve with postal code, city and state combos.

You might have also noticed that we’re starting the cluster with the postal code field. Both Luke Wroblewski and Brad Frost have shared a great approach where the postal code comes first, allowing us to autofill state and city, which is much more efficient for users.

Validation

No matter how good our forms are, sometimes users will have a tough time filling them out. This is where good validation comes into play. For input validations, we like to consider two components: messages inside the input and messages outside the input.

Inside the input

The thing to consider with messages inside the input is space. You can’t, for instance, prompt a user with password requirements inside an input. But there is likely enough room for ‘invalid’ – and there is definitely enough room for a happy green checkmark when they get it right.

One of my favourite parts of Work & Co’s Virgin America responsive redesign is how it deals with form validation. It’s good at communicating a helpful validation message succinctly (e.g. ‘bad email’).

Virgin America’s website offers helpful and succinct form validation messages with great personality

With responsive and small screens, brevity is important. The most brief response possible? Icons! And we designers do love our icons. The only problem is that most icons aren’t universally understood. For success with a form field, that green checkmark is probably fine. 

But how should we indicate failure? A red ‘X’? But ‘X’ in an interface means close or collapse. The word ‘invalid’ is OK, but a whole lot longer than most icons. If the tone and personality allows it, a frowny face seems relatively clear. But many brands aren’t as playful as Virgin America. 

In our work at Bearded we’ve settled on an appropriation of the ‘do not enter’ sign. Its similarity to iOS’s ‘remove item’ icon isn’t ideal, but it’s the best solution we’ve come up with so far.

One thing about responsive design and progressive enhancement, though: we can implement an icon where space is at a premium, and expand to an inline validation message like ‘invalid’ or ‘bad email’ when we can afford the extra width.

Outside the input

When we need to display feedback to a user beyond what we can cram inside an input (or when elements like selects are involved), it’s time to start using messages outside the input.

In those circumstances, you can use both kinds of validation. For example, you can add an inline ‘invalid’ message, then below the input tell users the longer story. In this space, you even have the luxury of providing links to enable users to perform alternative actions (e.g. ‘Sorry this email address is already used with an account. Try signing in’).

Regardless of your approach, form interactions are a subtle art. I would encourage you to run usability testing on your prototypes as you go. Spending a week trying things out with five users can give you a wealth of information about how things are (or are not) working, before you go live.

Dates

One of our favourite input use cases? Date selection. Why? Because it’s so hard to do well! Let’s say users need to select a date to make an appointment in the near future. Some things to consider:

Users must be able to input the date in a format the database on the other side will be happy with

Users need to know which day of the week a date is as they consider their schedule

Sounds like a calendar picker is the way to go. But calendars on small viewport are the worst, right? Luckily pickadate.js does a good job of handling this problem. With a few UI customisations, your calendar picker is good to go.

That’s great for near-future date selection. But what about selections in the distant past – for instance, birth date? You’d have to click your way back decades using the previous month button. How odious!

Thankfully, for this sort of interaction day of the week is irrelevant, so the only real challenge is formatting. So what to do? You could try to explain to users what to do using hint text. Except that, well, no one reads hint text.

OK, so we can force formatting choices with three select inputs – one each for month, day and year. That day select input with its 31 options is no picnic – but it’s a dream compared to the year select going back to 1915.

Fear not, for natural date entry is a problem that’s been solved. Date.js allows users to enter dates however they want. Slashes, dots, or hyphens; abbreviated or spelled out. What’s more, it confirms the output with you using a handy validation message, and tells you day of the week, for kicks.

So … dates? Feels good man. But let’s roll back to selects for a second.

Selects

Even for form inputs, selects are kind of a bugbear. Styling those son of a guns consistently across browsers is nigh on impossible. Chris Coyier has put together a great write-up of the common pitfalls and limitations. At Bearded, our standard approach to selects is to match up their height to other inputs, but otherwise pretty much leave them alone.

It’s worth noting that the Filament Group has made a heroic attempt at cross-browser select styling, available on GitHub. However, although I love the idea of gaining styling control over these little troublemakers, my personal feeling is that this kind of approach is a bit on the brittle side.

Long selects

The worst situation for selects? When they get long! The fine folks at Harvest were nice enough to release some of their custom select approaches to help you with this, in the form of jQuery plugin Chosen. One of these approaches provides a searchable select that helps users reduce the number of options in front of them. And thanks to Nathaniel Flick, they’ve been responsivised.

Chosen has some super-fun features, but it can, like any select-replacement approach, lead you down some rabbit holes. Be careful not to make things more complicated than you have to.

Complex selects

This complex select UI allows users quick access to prioritised options (left), with modal access to additional options (right)

Recently we worked on a project for a healthcare provider in which users needed to select from complex groupings of information. There was a list of doctors, their names, the doctor’s area of specialisation, their office location, and the date they last saw the patient.

Complex information like this will not fit into a standard select element, so we tried something else. The solution we came up with is something we called the prioritised selector. In it, we show the user the first few options, prioritised by some specific criteria (most recently visited, for example), as well as the option to view more.

When a user selects the ‘view more’ option, we open a full-screen modal interface that lets the user select from the full list. Though it adds an extra click when a user needs to access doctors they haven’t seen in a while, this ultimately seemed like the best approach for the use cases we were accounting for.

Let’s face it: these things are messy

Tables and forms are complex by nature. No matter how much we work on them, they might never be easy. And as the environment we deploy them into grows ever more complex, so will the design problems they represent.

But isn’t that the fun of web design? As we solve the problems that are there to be solved (and thus the threat of boredom and complacency rears its ugly head), the web always seems ready to mix it up again, keeping us on our toes. And thank goodness for that.

Words: Matt Griffin, Patrick Fulton

Matt Griffin is a founder at Bearded. Patrick Fulton is a developer, also at Bearded. This article was originally published in issue 272 of net magazine.

See Bearded live in NYC on 27 and 28 April, when they will be giving their hands-on workshop Responsive Web Design for Non-Unicorns, helping teams learn how to work together better on complex RWD projects.

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