planetpets

[life-of-an-asexual]

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[the-headbop-wraith]

1 _ 19 Brambles

Soft voices glide through the room, cutting and retuning to a new scene or tone or voice with rhythmic pauses.  It was a delicate matter to set one claw to the button of the remote and press with a stiff finger, cycling through the dull white noise that made up the blubbering television theme of each channel.  What was defined as ‘news’ was scarcely credible, many channels were dedicated to realty programs, infomercials that promised ‘satisfaction guaranteed or money back,’ and as always the static infused HBO special feature.

Therehad to be a better use for television. Humans just refused to find it, or the general population was content tonumb their minds into oblivion with this toxic waste of ozone.  Mystery huffed into the folds of the blankethe lounged over, and pressed his paw to the button again.  None of his companions had said anything, aslong as the soft background chatter remained below audible they were somewhateased by his habit.  The dog halflistened as Vivi went over the next destinations marked on the map, there werea few but they had lost time after the van was put into the body shop for repairs.  Mystery rolled over, sliding the telly remote along the sheet cover as he did, for ease of access and the minimal of movement required of reaching it.

The argument between Vivi and Arthur had been typical, Arthur on the opposing side wanting no pair of hands on the van aside from his own, and Vivi adamant about getting the exterior of the van patched up. Lewis had been like Mystery, huddled outside in the parking lot where it was relatively safe.  In the end, Arthur had folded under the assurance that nothing within the vans metal hull would be tampered with.  That had been the case of course from the beginning, even Vivi didn’t want the off chance of strange people poking through the vans back, and seeing the mess that none of them had made the effort to pick up.  There was no concern shed over the ward scripts, carved stones, and endless containers of sage and salt stashed in the cuvees – all over the floor.  Long ago Vivi had given up any attempt to explain these items to the inquisitive outsider.

“But the baseball stadium sounds more interesting,” Vivi said.  She and Lewis had the selection narrowed down – a hospital, a maternity store, and a bed and breakfast that was on their route.  Mystery personally preferred the bed and breakfast, and they might just stop in along the way since it was literally on one of their roads.  “A batter ghost?  Why is he there, and who is he?”  She scrolled through one of the tabs she had opened on the main page, there were a few pictures but nothing clear, no definite image of a spirit aside from a gray glob that could be easily be explained as lens flares or rudimentary odd shadows.

Behind her hovered Lewis, just above the head rest of the hard chair she had claimed.  Mystery had caught Arthur glancing over at Lewis a few times, from his position on the opposite side of the one bed.  It was probably difficult for him to wrap his mind around the sight, with Arthur being the analytical one of the group, struggling to rationalize whatever science there was into a free floating body.  To describe it, imagine bungee cords that are not visible, Lewis’ body was parallel of the floor but suspended a good two feet above the headrest and peering over Vivi’s fluff of blue hair and into the computer she held on her lap.

“What’s this activity about?” Lewis inquired. His body dips down, folded arms coming within inches of the headrest above Vivi.  He spoke aloud before she could read off the page, “‘Seen after games end on the field, sometimes caught in the stadiums big screen.’  Groovy.”

“There’s speculation he, or she – we don’t know – they could be a fan,” Vivi continued.  “There’s a case where one of the spectators suffered a concussion from a free flying ball, but they never went to the hospital and by the time they realized how serious the concussion had been, it was too late.”  She shifted in the uncomfortable seat, and Lewis raised himself a foot more reflexively.  “They could be trapped there or something.  What do you think, Art?”

Mystery recoiled from his leisure sprawl when Arthur jerked on the bed.  “Who- what?” Arthur sputtered.  He had met eyes with Lewis, when the free suspended body had shifted so Lewis could see him better.  Vivi kindly reminded Arthur the subject they were discussing, and Arthur set aside his notebook as he thought it over.  “Batter ghost sounds the most low key, but what about the rumors?”

Vivi tapped at the laptop, and Lewis shifted to view the key words she searched for.  “There are all the usual grainy shots, most caught when there’s a game. Lots of people, lots of cameras going off?”  She rubbed her finger over the scroll pad quickly, eyes flashing behind her magenta glasses.  “There are a few post game pics, but they don’t look any more better.”

“We could do with another low key investigation,” Lewis chimed in.

“You liked the ‘Owl Widow’ ghost?” Vivi accused, half a smirk on her face.  The Owl Widow had been horrifying as hell, but she was all bark and no bite.

“I can sympathize with anyone who would terrorize people that would hike all the way out to my house, to wreck the furniture and break the windows,” Lewis grumbled.  “But… she had such a gentle heart.  After all those years, it’s a tragedy.”

Vivi sighed and sank down in the chair, she pushed the laptop higher up onto her knees for Lewis viewing ease.  “She’ll be okay,” she persisted.  “Decades gone by and she just keeps on protecting those owls.”

Mystery folded his wrists together and pinned the remote under his lower paw. Those that study the occult would recall a myth which went, when a person and an animal die in each other’s company the souls are bound, and if the trauma of the event was powerful enough, a spirit would return.  The people of the town spoke of a young birder who had a favorite owl she took out to train.  It was believed that hunters may have mistaken her for some animal and shot her, and her owl, or some variation of the scenario.  Murder was suspected but due to lack of evidence ruled out, and the case was never solved.  However, not long following the incident hikers and campers began to tell stories about an abandoned home in the area, where dozens of owls would congregate to roost, and at night the shrill cry of a woman or a shrieking owl was heard within. Few would dare stay in the home, and those that attempted only made it a few hours into the evening before the ear splitting shrieks would drive them out into the night.

The Mystery Skulls had no problem with the Owl Widow and even believed the rumors false, until they as a group ventured up into the unexplored attic where the owls roosted during the day.  Vivi had no way of hailing the spirit, and the Owl Widow was as feral and skittish as any bird.  When the Owl Widow realized she was discovered, she abruptly vanished without a trace.  Later, Vivi learned that it was the local’s thrill seekers sport to stay in the home or try to draw out the Owl Widow for a good scare, and that was commonly done by vandalizing the home.  This disgusted Vivi and she refused to do anything more that would negatively affect the spirit.

Arthur climbed off the motels bed and gave Mystery’s head a warm rub as he waked by.  Mystery took his cue and climbed off the bed and followed his companion to the door, where Arthur pivoted and stopped him.

“Stay here,” Arthur urged, motioning the dog with his metal hand as his other hand took the door handle.  Mystery sat down and tilts his head as Arthur backed out. “I’ll be back in a gif, I’m just gonna check the laundry.”  Mystery raised an eyebrow as Arthur turned away and shut the door between them.

“Hurry back, then,” Vivi answered.  Mystery glanced her way as she resumed scrolling. “It irks me though.”  Lewis hummed in question and Vivi continued.  “This would be a lot of work running around, for one ghost.  Stadiums are huge, unless we find a binding object.”

“What’s the info on our subject?” Lewis asked, and pointed to the screen.  “Is there anything?  A name?”

“We could just use any old baseball I guess, if that’s what caused their death.”  Vivi was clicking links, hunting for a newspaper article in the cities historical database.  “There’s a lawsuit, but when s’there not?  Mystery.”  The dog looked up at Vivi when she called his name.  “Arthur said he wouldn��t be gone long.  Don’t worry.”

“That link there,” Lewis cut in, pointing to the un-highlighted title among the few darker cousin links on the screen.  “I got a good feeling about that.”

“Keep your socks on.  I got it.”  She clicked it and the two read silently to themselves.

Mystery shrugged his shoulders and returned to the bed. The layout of the motel room was as basic, dry, and boring as the thousands they had the privilege to stay in before – table, armchair, lamp, vanity desk, single bed – a picture print of a pasture with deer grazing in the tall grass, a distant lake and tall trees surrounding the scenery – framed and hung on the wall above the bed.  Mystery stretched out over the tussled sheets and adjusted his thin ankles over a stiff fold of the covers.  He raised the volume only slightly and resumed his meditation through channel surfing.

“There was also this guy that overheated and died while in the mascot costume,” Vivi mentioned.  “You’d think he’d come back as some sort of demon bonded to his costume.”

Lewis often wondered over Vivi’s unique style of thinking.  “What was the costume?”

Vivi fixed her hairband, then put her hands back to the keyboard and scrolled.  “A badger?”

“The stadium no longer sounds low key?” Lewis humped.  He rolled sideways in mid hover and folded one arm under his neck, as if to support his head by some invisible tabletop.  “None of the reports remark on any aggression, accidents?”

“No, you big chicken.”

“Bawk-bawk,” Lewis droned, void of any enthusiasm. “Is it too much to ask that we return to cases where some… angry thing doesn’t come crashing out of the shadows with a huge chip on its shoulder?  Have I mentioned, I would like that?”  He nods, as if agreeing over an important matter.

“Well…” Vivi let her voice trail off, and glanced up at Lewis.  They had those cases too often.  Failed cases she categorized them.  The encounters which were too volatile for traditional techniques and it was advised by any veteran paranormal investigator, that if you have no training in that particular field, you have no right to meddle with it.  In those instances it is strongly advised to pack up and book it rather risk harm, or worse.  It was another topic she wanted to ask Arthur about, but she wouldn’t bring it up with Lewis since he was in that realm himself.  

That place, it would have been one, it should have been a Failed case.  They just didn’t recognize the danger in time.  Another notch, a proud scar in their resume.  They never failed a case, but often the case did fail them, and she had failed them.

Packed up and ran away.  No matter what danger they left to those that came in their wake. Let the experienced, the demon hunters, deal with it.

“Huh?” Lewis asked, slanting one dark eye at her.

Vivi gave her head a shake and returned her attention to the screen.  “I thought of something.  Anyway,” she paused, noting she had exited out of some of the history articles. “Just a bunch of sightings. Nothing threatening.”

“Great,” Lewis chirped.  “What were you thinking, then?”

“I was wondering,” Vivi mumbled and curled down into the chairs back.  She looked up as Lewis peered down at her, prompting her to go on.  “Well….”

“Well what?”  There was something in his voice, something that had been absent until recent. Vivi had only realized it herself, but his voice was sounding more natural, vocal rather hollow.  Solid as if projected, rather than suggested through the vague scratch of an outdated radio.  The slight transition had been lost to her, while in constant company of her subject.  She wondered what sort of voice outsiders heard when Lewis spoke with them, or were they oblivious?  She could ask Arthur how much Lewis’ voice had changed.  “Vi?”

“Are you aware you’re floating?”  Vivi looked between Lewis and the floor, through the back of the chair she was nestled in.  “Can you do that intentionally or—” She winced to the audible thud that came. “Uhh….”

“I was not aware,” Lewis’ garbled voice came, somewhere beyond the chairs back.  “Thank you for notifying me.”

“Explain that to me.”  Vivi set the laptop down on the seat cushion and stood up, to peer over the chairs headrest.  “How can you not realize you’re free floating?”  She pulled back and sat on her knees when Lewis poked his head up, skull in place of a face, and he resumed a buoyant hover above the floor.

“I’m kidding,” he said, as he fixed the jacket collar.  Lewis felt his face, recognized the common distinction of solid spectral that symbolized his skull.  “My concentration broke—  I knew I was, but….” He fumbled, voice breaking off into scratches and he gave up. “Hard to explain.”  He winced and looked up to Vivi when she set her hand on the side of his skull.  The embers of his eyes brightened, most noticeably in Vivi’s glasses as she smiled at him.

“I get it,” she hummed.  “I’ll try not to do that again.”  

Lewis let his gleaming eyes dim and fall away from her tender gaze.  He pressed his cheek into Vivi’s palm and let his ethereal essence sooth out, calming from the choppy ripples that dug through his usual insubstantial eminence. Passive waves rolled through Vivi’s aura, strong, vibrant, and cool.  No wonder she had such power over the spirits; how could she not?  It was compelling and desirable, more than the once strong call that had persisted on him in that early time.  As the days ticked away the call became less, and less vibrant, until the draw had subsided into faint tugs; unpalatable and easily ignored.  Bleu Moyen.  High blue waves to dose his fires, severing his ties to the ravenous fury and blind ambition.  So clear. Everything became so crystal clear when he was with Vivi.

A low shudder burned in Lewis, when Vivi leaned over the headrest to kiss the upper edge of his jaw.  His eyes brightened in their dark sockets and a wisp of flame faded as Vivi drew back.  Lewis didn’t want to lose her, he could scarcely recall that time of the between. He only wanted to believe his feelings were genuine.

An interesting segment was on the history channel, describing ancient magicians of centuries past.  Mystery turned his ears up as the narrator described a priest of the pharaoh whom became famous for cutting the heads of various animals, and that animal would function normally, walk around, but without a head; after some time the priest would restore the head to the creature and it would resume life as normal.  This spectacle was never performed on a human, never a servant, the priest would always refuse, and what matter of the illusion was never discovered, though attempts have been made to recreate it.

By the programs end, Mystery was on his side fully content to watch out the conclusion.  No animals were harmed during the making of the program.  A hollow promise, but it had some effect of easing him a little to see the message and be reminded that some humans did care.  He rotates his head over to see Vivi more or less in the chair, she would be in the chair if Lewis wasn’t under her.  They had resumed discussion of what case was more favorable, but softer, as if Mystery wasn’t there.  He took a deep breath and let the air wheeze out of his nose.

Wait.

Mystery rolled over, off the bed and padded to the door.  He sniffed along the edge picking up Arthur’s most recent scent, and pawed at the scuffed up white paint of the door.  Mystery whined and looked up to Vivi and she peered over the computer in her lap, down at him.

“What’s up, Mystery?”

He barked and sidestepped at the door. Arthur.  How long has Arthur been gone?  Mystery resumed scratching at the door, and reared up on his hinds legs to take the L shaped handle between his wrists.

“He should’ve been back,” Vivi paused as she looked to the clock on the laptop.  “Forever ago.”  She stood up off of Lewis and crossed to the vanity desk, where the telly was stationed. She unplugged the computer, shut it, and stuffed it into her overnight bag on the desk.  She fished around for the room key as Lewis raised up from the chair.

“Maybe he had to re-dry the clothes,” Lewis suggested.  He stepped up beside Vivi and set his hand upon the shimmering surface of the mirror, and stared into the steady state of his skull and bright eye sockets.  He had worked on this off and on, he could ‘jolt’ his state back into his more favorable appearance with a flash of a thought.

“Or he could’ve gone for a walk.”  He briefly examined his face, the stubborn dark eyes, then turned to Vivi.  “Clear his head.  Think for a bit?  He’s been really quiet lately.”

Vivi’s attention was directed past Lewis, toward Mystery standing on his rear legs.  Mystery had tottered backwards with the door following his movements, and was now stepping out.  The door began to slip shut, but stopped when Mystery blocked its progress and gave a bark at them to hurry.  “Mystery doesn’t like to be away from Arthur for too long,” she said, as reason.  “I worry about him, I have to.”  Mystery ducked out of the doorway when Vivi stepped over to him.

“I know.”  Lewis snatched his sunglasses off the table as he followed Vivi out the door, and into the blazing sun of midafternoon.  Way past noon, the sky was getting the dusky soft purples that Lewis appreciated.  He wanted to converse with Vivi about the one time when the group managed to get hopelessly lost and spread out around the motel, only because they kept following each other around the main office building, with a length of the wall distancing them apart.  What messed them up was that they were just barely in ear shot, they could hear the nearest person but in all the confusion they never got it across, “Stay right there, I’m coming.”  They had run around in circles all day, but the scenario was straight from a cartoon and they had great fun anyway.

He decided not to encourage the memory.  It wasn’t so much for her benefit, but the thought of it pained him worse than….

“We just barely ate an hour ago,” Vivi mentioned. She and Lewis followed Mystery down the steps and through the small hallway that cut between the two halves of the motel.  As per destiny, the nearest convenience mart was adjacent to the motel.  Night or day, it didn’t matter to Arthur when he drank an energy drink.  Hell, he’d drink one before taking a nap.  Vivi would check there next.  “You didn’t have to come.”

Lewis gave a sheepish smirk, missed by Vivi. “Well, you didn’t stop me.”

Vivi could smell the warm scent of the dyer heaters as they walked along the wall to the laundry room; beside the kids play area, and the gated and tarped pool.  She pulled the door open and let Mystery and Lewis enter before she followed them into the cramped room.  “Not here?” she spoke, as she moved into the adjoining room with the washers and laundry detergent vendor.  

Mystery’s paws scratched and clacked on the cool tile as he wandered around, sniffing under a table and then at the edge of a wall. He turned to Vivi and gave some soft barks that echoed, unintentionally loud, off the walls.  Arthur hadn’t been here lately, but with all the oddball scents it was a trial to discern accurately a time.

The dryer was still thumping and rumbling. Lewis examined the timer and found it had fifteen more minutes.  “If you don’t think you’ll need me, can I have the room key so I can get this stuff up there?” he asks.

“Sure.”  Vivi pulled the car key out of her wrist sleeve and handed it over to Lewis. “We’ll see you back in the room in’a bit.”  She waved to Lewis as she returned to the glass door, Mystery scratched over the slippery linoleum to catch up with her at the door.  “Chao.”

“Good luck,” Lewis answered, as the door shut. A few minutes drift by and a thought occurred to Lewis.  When Arthur stepped out, Lewis wasn’t certain but he didn’t think Arthur had picked up the laundry bag.  If Arthur had come to the same conclusion, Lewis might run into him on his way to or from the room.

The room was still empty of Arthur and provided no insight of a short return.  Vivi shut the door and took the opposite path along the rooms, her eyes scanned about as she walked, in hopes to catch the faint blur of yellow contrasted on the open car lot below.  Mystery padded at her heel as they took the route for the back stairs that ran above the main office.  Below, a group of kids laugh as they race by, shoes slapping on the hard cement.  Vivi tottered at the rail trying to catch sight of the jovial youths; maybe Arthur was down there lost in his own thoughts and mildly discomforted from the innocent play.  It seemed like the situation he would be tossed into when he craved some seclusion.  The sounds fade somewhere, and if Arthur is below she cannot see him from the angle she’s at above.

“It’s a beautiful day,” Vivi murmured.  She paused on the steps to look out from the narrow arch and scanned the clear sky, the moist tinge still on the air from the recent rains.  “There was a park when we rode in, wasn’t there?”

Mystery stood sideways on the steps and stares at the sky.  He gave a soft yap.

“I know this deal with the van put us on a tight schedule, but we can do with a lil TLC.”  She continued down the steps, and Mystery followed.  “We’ve spent so many weeks cooped up together, I forget what open air feels like.”

The road that cut through this section of the city was not very busy, even throughout the day when people would be busy with errands. Vivi with Mystery crossed to the nearest shop mart with the highest gas prices she had seen in a hundred miles.  Down the sidewalk from their current residence, it was only a few blocks among the stores and cafes to the open flat of the body shop where the van was being adjusted.  The body shop was only going to fix up the ragged sides where the van had fallen and scraped, part of the deal was allowing Arthur to do the paint job himself.  That would leave the van looking half finished and metallic until they returned to home base.

As Vivi pushed the door of the convenience store open, a blast of balmy air hit her.  Immediately the clerk at the cashier counter piped up:

“I’m sorry, miss.  No dog’s allowed.”

Vivi let Mystery in anyway, and Mystery went on his way examining the racks assorted foods, and the doughnut case positioned across from the cashier counter.  “He’s a therapy dog,” Vivi answered.

The cashier, a tall woman with curly hair, hesitates as she looks back to the white dog free of a leash.  “Do you have papers?”  She seemed uneasy as Mystery sniffed along the corner of the tall doughnut case.  In Mystery’s defense, the doughnuts smelled exceptional that day.

“That depends,” Vivi rebuked.  She turned from the woman and looked over the near empty store, a few people drift around picking at the inventory in various sections – sweet, salty, and standard household goods.  “Did you see a guy come in here?  Shocked yellow hair, quail curl, orange vest.”  She turned to the cashier and the blank stare the woman wore.  Vivi motioned her elbow.  “Metal arm?”

__

Indeed it was a beautiful day.  Arthur was glad he had stepped out to enjoy it, get some fresh air.  He hoped the van was all right, he hated the thought of strange people putting their greasy hands all over his pride and joy.  Even if the van liked to break down in the harsh weather conditions, or guzzled gas like a leech did fresh blood, they didn’t pay for it.  He never asked how much it was going to cost, but Vivi had been the one driving at the time and she always insisted on these matters. Arthur gave up trying to fight her about it long ago.

He sighed and leaned back into the cool wall in the stores shadow.  It was cold only in the shadow, but standing in direct sunlight had warmed his chest too much and so here he stood in the shade, listening to the children in the nearby neighborhoods whoop and holler in play.  He put his hand back in his pocket, pushed the pack of gum aside, and pulled up the chainless pocket watch.  Four thirty-nine.  The laundry should be done by now, he didn’t want a collection of his pants in bacon ripple style.  Sickly yellow, bacon ripple style… whatever.

The watch went back in his pocket and Arthur brought the cigarette back to his lips for another draw.  His eyes half closed and he let the sizzle work in his throat. Two more minutes.  He calculated the time up in his head, two more minutes coupled with the walk back to the motel—, he forgot the bag.  Get the bag, go back down and collect the freshly dried pants and shirts.  Or he could forget the bag, have five more minutes to let his blood mellow.

“Arthur!”

He jumps in place and turns to Vivi’s accusing stare.  “Hey. I didn’t worry you, did I?” he rasped. Arthur took another breath and looked down from Vivi, to Mystery huddled behind her legs.  When Vivi began towards him, Mystery turns and bolts out of sight. Arthur backed up and hit the wall. He gets out a vague question as Vivi slaps the cigarette out of his metal hand.  “Whoa now!  What gives you the right—” He shut his mouth when Vivi grips the front of his shirt and heaves back a fist.

“You promised me you quit!” she snarled.

“I did!  I DID!”  Arthur tenses but makes no move to defend his face.  He probably deserved it.

It was on the prescription, among the long list of drugs compiled into his blood to keep his kidneys from shriveling up, his heart pumping, his capillaries clear of toxins.  They worried about toxins in his blood.  Arthur had laughed that day, it was so out of character they had to call in a psychiatrist to evaluate whether or not his brain had suffered mental trauma that was not foreseen since his earlier evaluations. Oh what medical science was blind to; oh what they were willfully ignorant of.  The only person that might’ve gotten the joke, wouldn’t have gotten it anyway.  That cruel irony made looking at her twice as difficult for the remainder of the month, but he found his way out of it.

The doctors advised Arthur to quit, obstructed capillary networks was what they labeled it.  It was common in amputees.

“Was this your first pack?” Vivi growled, tugging Arthur towards her.

He choked and spat out a no.  “I’m gonna stop though, I will!” he stammered, leaning back.  Why was Vivi so strong?  Arthur was no heavyweight, but she could pick up Lewis when he was alive.  “It always helped, with the… it just helped!”

“We have sage!” she hissed, face twisting, tears brimming in her eyes.

“But that’s so rude!”  Arthur cringed down fully expecting the blow to connect and knock some sense back into him.  He bought gum and sometimes chewed that instead, but it wasn’t the same.  He’d show Vivi once she calmed down.  He was hauled forward, staggering through the dark shade of his thoughts and awaiting the flash of light from her fist to cleave through his mind… but the harsh blow never comes.  Instead, soft arms wrap around him.  Arthur risks opening his eyes and stares down on the weed riddled pavement behind her blue heels.  His muscles remained locked, he didn’t dare move even when Vivi’s shoulders quivered. Arthur clenched his fists at his sides and rested his chin on the poofy sweater around her neck.

“I should have asked,” she mumbled into his shoulder.  “I should have asked you.”  She squeezed tighter around Arthur’s chest, as if fortifying his presence with her embrace. “Why didn’t I?”

“You…” he began, and hesitated.  Vivi said nothing, hadn’t calmed down, and Arthur went on, “already knew the answer.  Nothing’s changed.  This is fine.”

“No, it’s wrong.”  She pressed her forehead into the collar of that stupid amber vest Arthur always insisted on wearing.  “I wasn’t thinking about you, I wasn’t worried that….  Jesus, I don’t think.”  How could she forget?  Why had she been blind to this?  For all her intuition, her flexible and quick mind, how could she overlook such simple, yet crucial details?  Essential, yet fragile.  Delicate, but poisonous.  A balance that tipped dangerously.  

Arthur brought his arms up and wrapped them around her shoulders, gently.  “Vi, we’ve talked,” he insists.  “I told him I was solid.  I don’t have the right—” Arthur froze again when Vivi recoiled and pushed him back by his shoulders.

“That’s not an invitation!” She snapped.  “That’s submission!  That won’t do.”  Arthur let his head hang, but Vivi cups his chin in her fingers and pushed his face up. “No, Art.  Look, I’m not mad, I’m frustrated.  Well, maybe that’s not the truth.   I’m mad at me, not you.  But— Would you look at me!  I’m frustrated, that’s it.”  She stares into Arthur’s face as his eyes crease and his brows stretch, into a conflicted expression she was too familiar with.  “You’re not allowed to destroy yourself.  Are you listening?”  He nods, and tries to let his eyes drop from her steady gaze.  “What did I just say?”

“Don’t wreck myself,” he mumbled, below a breath.

“That’s good enough, I guess.”  Vivi sighed, and raised a thumb up to touch the lone tear that had made it past Arthur’s resistance.  “How do I save you?  How do I save my boys?”

“I miss Lewis,” Arthur says.  He shuts his eyes and begins to slip down to the cold ground, his knees fold up under him.  Vivi helps him down, pulling at his vest and trying not to grip the upper space of his left arm where metal met flesh.  “I’m keeping it together, pulling myself back.”  Vivi kneels in front of him and pulls him upright when he begins to sag sideways over his knees.  “I’m not gonna fuck this up too.  I can do this.”  He shuts his eyes and presses his metal palm to his forehead in an effort to cool his fevered brow.  “I can do this.  Just… just give me some time, and I’ll work it out.”

“Hey.”  Vivi brought her hands up and clasped Arthur around his forehead, his shocked blond hair folded under her palms as she held him.  Arthur tucked his eyelids shut and winced to her touch.  “Don’t push yourself so hard.  It’ll… you’re going to hurt yourself.”

“I know my limits,” he murmured.  Arthur feels his heart being ripped in two, skewered by icy teeth and shredded across his ribs.  “I can endure.  I can.”

“Don’t give me that,” Vivi hissed.  “You’re not impervious to— Art, wait!”  Arthur had ripped himself from her hands and managed up onto his feet, stumbling a bit as he spun away from Vivi still crouched on the broken asphalt. Vivi hopped to her feet and followed his stabbing steps. “Art’ur!”  She jerks back when he whirls on her.

“I’m not fragile, Vi!  God, I’m not going to come apart and scatter in the wind.” Arthur screams, his body movements erratic as he gestures with his hands; the prosthetic arm is dull and awkward while he’s amid a state of distress.  “My legs are strong, my mind’s still here!  I’m okay!  Just… chill.” He motions his arms, bringing them down to his hip level as Vivi watched.  “You don’t trust me?  Do you?”

Vivi searched for something else to focus on, and settled for the edge of the motels roof beyond the corner of the convenience store Arthur had hidden behind.  “Sometimes you forget Art,” she says.  “You’re so focused on anything else, you avoid the little things.”  She shakes her head and then looks back to Arthur.  “I don’t want to forget for you.  I can’t drag you down.”

Arthur stuffs his hands into his pockets and toes at the crumbling cement, trying to dislodge a thick stubborn stalk of a wilting weed.  He recollected on Vivi before the Cave, ambitious headstrong Vivi, always leading the way.  Lewis always right there for her, to grab her and pull her back from the edge of disaster when it suddenly opened up in her path.  And Arthur… him, always a step behind, the last one into the room, always lagging behind the others.  The first to run, or the one somehow caught.

“Vi,” he says, “you never dragged me.  If anything—” He stopped, and looked up at her.  “You brought me back.  You were there when I woke up.”

Vivi doesn’t meet his eyes as she moves towards Arthur.  She takes him by the wrist of his metal arm and pulls the hand into hers and examines the stiff, numb digits, Arthur had carved himself.  “I wasn’t always there,” she confessed.  “I didn’t want to be there.  Art?”

“Hmm?”  The air became chilled when a cloud, or the sun, had inched behind some obstruction that blocked the strong yellow rays.  He couldn’t feel Vivi’s fingers tracing the mars and etches in place of his metal palm, he could only detect the vibrations he had grown accustomed to when faint touch fell onto his false limb.  When he had built his first prosthetic and attached it, Vivi had never taken a second look at it.  He had always been gratified by this.  

“We should look for Mystery,” she suggests, and tugs him by the wrist with no force applied.  “I think he went this way.”

Arthur followed without protest.  “We should talk a bit.”

“We’ll talk a bit,” Vivi echoed, leading Arthur behind her by his hand.

“It’s such a nice day, or was,” Arthur muttered, and squinted at the darkening contours of the sky.

Vivi led their way towards a dark alley behind the convenience store, chain link fences and the clay floor packed down, overgrown with trees and weeds.  It looked more interesting and secluded than the open sidewalk beside a road.  “I thought we could hit the park tomorrow.” Vivi’s voice brightened a bit.

As they departed the wall and Vivi’s voice twittered with the prospect of a day for just them, a dark shadow rose across the glossy paint of the brick.  The shadow seeps from the walls surface and reforms itself, bright magenta illuminates along its outline and spreads across its torso and legs.  A gilded heart pulses at the broad chest as the dark hue fades by degrees, until it is restored to its pacified shape.

Lewis took a step from the wall and leaned back onto it, he crossed his arms over his chest as he watched Vivi and Arthur disappear down the alley.  He thought of following them and making certain Vivi was safe, but he decided that may have been a lame excuse to eavesdrop on following conversations. He’d… done enough of that.

“What happened to us?  I mean, why did we let this happen?”

Vivi’s words rattled in his mind.  He remembered Arthur then, catatonic, sleeping.  His aura had been in its most indolent in that state, and Lewis had for a moment believed Arthur had died, if not for the shallow movement of his chest.

The questions plagued his deepest contemplations, alternating, “Why did we? What happened?”  As if she were before him now asking the same question, inquiring for some form of answer he too yearned insight into.  There remained the questioned he flittered away from, the ones that he could ponder over for long hours, while time held him prison to witness superficial events from afar.  The locket thrummed at his chest, always steady, sometimes thunderous, and then at other times its as somber as a coo.  The questions in their most basic function nibbled at him:  What and Why?

It was all a ruse, he promised himself. He only intended to frighten them.  Get them to abandon his mansion and force them far-FAR away, never to return.  Leave him to sleep and forget, and fade away with each pulse of his heart.  That was his intent, he swore it was all that he meant to do. Play up the theatrics, convince them it was not worth their time or sanity.  He was incapable of killing.... unlike Arthur; it was beyond his nature, he swore it wouldn't go that far no matter how much… he suffered. The long, endless cycle of time tormenting his existence, abandoned and betrayed by someone he thought of as a dear friend. Something...  somewhere… it all went wrong.

  Reuniting with Arthur. The event brought something out of him, something he never genuinely contested before. Not with earnest. The unbridled horror in Arthur's features when Lewis emerged from his coffin, the unsightly attributes which cost everything he held dear and precious; his brazen perplexity upon seeing this… ghost. It pissed him off. He wanted to wipe it out, make Arthur taste some of that spite that curdled his soul. He couldn't stop, he absolutely could not stop himself. How far could he drive Arthur on before he broke? Arthur deserved the suffering, the torment and hostility unleashed by his failings. Nothing would make this right, but Lewis also couldn't elude that anger. It was as much of a part of him now as the locket affixed to his chest. Inseparable. 

And then she was there.  It had happened so fast and Lewis couldn’t bear it.  The ache in his hollowed chest when he saw her for the first time since….

He said goodbye.

Why he remained far past his expiration was never a controversy for him.  The question that stumped him when he was not careful, and it came upon him when his defenses were down: What was he now?

Lewis rounded the corner of the convenience store and walked across the parking lot.  He saw Mystery on the sidewalk beyond the gas pumps waiting for Vivi, or him, he was on the sidewalk beside the crosswalk marks that bridge across to the motel.  The dog perked up at Lewis’ approach, and Lewis said nothing until he reached his four legged ally.  “How’s it going?” Lewis rattled, his voice near toneless.

Mystery’s answer was to tilt his head and lower one ear at an angle.  He stood and pivots to cross the road, glancing around for any speeding traffic; there were no cars but Mystery was careful to look anyway.  He spins about when Lewis begins to walk off, and Mystery pads up to follow at a distance.

“I’m not going back to the room yet,” Lewis explained.  “Vi and Art are looking for you.”

Mystery’s steps slowed and he fell back.  That didn’t make sense, any one of them knew without a fail that if he was separated from his company, he would either turn up at the van or the current place of occupation.  He gave his head a shake as he resumed his quick pace, struggling to keep up with Lewis long stride.  It was evident Lewis was in no hurry, but Lewis probably wanted to be alone and Mystery knew he couldn’t allow that.

They came to the busier district of the widespread city.  Mystery recognized it down the road from the motel, an easy to and from for some of the better diners and the cafes.  Arthur was impossible when it came to the prospect of being stranded, and the distance to a place for a worthwhile cup of coffee.  Mystery woofed at Lewis’ back.  Lewis didn’t need a reminder that he was out in public, and not dressed for one on one interactions.  Numerous shops throughout the city block catered to tourists, featuring carved wooden animals, jewelry, or rugs and quilts.  The small clumps of people they passed would give Mystery odd stares, and Mystery began to wonder what for.  It wasn’t unusual for people to stroll around with a ‘pet’ off the leash, was there a city ordinance he was not aware of?

Then it dawned on him.  No shadow was cast under Lewis and he had no reflection in the shop windows.  Lewis was hiding.

This didn’t alarm Mystery, if it was Lewis’ wish to go unnoticed then he was entitled to that.  For Mystery matters were complicated.  Head up, chest puffed out, ears proud and forward facing.  He had someplace to be and that was where he was headed.  He observed that humans rarely bothered a dog with confidence, minding his or her own business and on their way to wherever dogs go.  What humans did not trust was a timid, confused, lost creature that scuttled away from attention or drifted around.  If he kept moving it would make tracking him difficult.  Even so, he had his collar and tags and people would regard that and conclude he was just a regular out for a walk.  He would be fine, and he had some notion of Lewis’ destination.

As predicted they arrived at the body shop where the van was left.  Show Car Remake and Renew, a general garage and minor vehicle repairs.  The main garage was a long gray building with a few windows along the uppermost walls, and the large shutter doors at the base drawn down and locked for the evening.  The far side of the lot was overnight parking, the cars and trunks caged in by tall barbed wire fence.  Mystery followed Lewis to the fence but was forced to wait, as his transparent companion slipped through the metal links and entered amongst the many vehicles.

Mystery lost sight of the ghost as his tall figure weaved around the portion of large vehicles and trunks.  Mystery spun around and looked back to the road as the first streetlamps snapped on, cars sped by and after a short time of waiting the street quieted.  It was getting late, the air grew colder.  He sat down and gave the spot behind his ear a dedicated scratch, working to straighten out the hair bent there.  He tensed when a white utility trunk drove by and seemed to slow down – at least to Mystery it looked like the vehicle was stopping – but no, the truck sped up and the dog let out a sigh.  Never was the best time to run off and get lost somewhere in a strange city, with strange people, and strange beliefs.

Vivi and Arthur would be wondering where he was, if they had managed to reach the room by now.  They shouldn’t worry, but Mystery admitted he was not immune to dangers, or the mild irritations offered by the few humans he could do without meeting.

The sudden awareness of a presence at his back caused Mystery to twist around.  It was only Lewis, slipping through the large chain links in the fence.  Mystery examined him over and noted the piece of cloth tangled in his hand.  Ah.

Lewis looked at the cloth between his fingers as he untangled it.  “Are you still afraid of me?”  Mystery raises his snout higher and glares through his spectacles at Lewis.  “Would it be enough if I apologized?”  He unfolded and refolded the cloth and straightened out the creases to the best of his ability.  It had been folded and pressed wrong for quite some time.  

Mystery give a soft woof and steps back from Lewis. They should head back now.  The dapper specter wouldn’t budge.

“You were there for Arthur,” Lewis whispered, traces of flames bud from his shoulders and hair.  “But not for me.  Why not? Why is it…?”  He tightened his fist around the sad piece of cloth, “Why did I have to be the one abandoned?” He looked down when Mystery stepped forward and set a paw on his foot, the white face looked up at him.  Before Lewis could utter a word, Mystery had whisked away and was already halfway across the parking lot, the faint tapping of his claws fade as the ghost stares after him.

He could have just haunted Arthur.  Or he could have remained in his mansion, his sanctuary from the world ticking by with the tempo of the seasons cycling through, worlds moving; moon sweeping through crescent to quarter, harvest and back to the new moon.  What time had passed while he had slumbered?  Existing but not in a state of present, not dispersing but not fully cumulative either.  A piece of himself was lost in every wedge of every day, not noticed and not missed. Small segments of his childhood, the places they frequented as kids, the warm smiles of his parents.  How could he miss what he couldn’t reflect with?  It may have been a process of Acceptance, or it just happened naturally.  He ceased to worry, and he couldn’t care.  The lethargy of simply existing drained him heavily, and he fed on the lone coal of his passion, his raison d'etre.  What purpose, and what meaning had come to him, when the cycle of existence had evicted a squatter?

It was Mystery’s aura that had stirred him. That wild, untamed thing – a font of composer and class, with a writhing tangle of insanity that clawed for escape. He would know it anywhere, it was the last, and first thing he had latched onto before the fulcrum of his final volition had scattered.  He didn’t remember much in that span of time between… before….

The light of the motel room was out.  The curtains were drawn shut, as Vivi had left them, and the walls would be absolutely silent, if not for the dull rattle of the heater.  Night was well upon the motel now, and Vivi and Arthur would not be far behind it. Without a thought Lewis pushed his palms into the cracked stucco of the wall, and allowed his unsubstantial shape to slither through the cold molecules of cheap drywall and plaster.  Mystery gave a soft yap at his back as he faded, and then, the room was opened up before Lewis.  The interior air warm from the buzzing heater in the wall, bags and a few essential supplies sat in grainy detail along one wall, the bed was overtaken by blues and yellows.  Lewis turns back to the door and pulls the handle, but stood in the way when Mystery tried to nudge through and enter with him.  Lewis picked up the piece of cloth he had dropped, but paused as Mystery searched for a way around him.

Somewhere in the parking lot below the walkway, Lewis could pick up on the soft warble of Vivi’s voice accompanied by the timid tones of Arthur’s speech.  “Hold on,” Lewis murmured, as he shooed Mystery out of the threshold.  “They’ll let you in, but I have something to do real quick.”  Mystery stiffened when Lewis gave his scalp a comforting rub, an action Mystery was unaware of how much he missed.  Mystery stepped away when Lewis straightened up and shut the door.

What… just happened?  

Mystery whined.  That was not fair!  He scratched at the door and sniffed at the crack along the frame and listened for the muffled sounds from behind the door.  He tugged at the handle, though he knew the door couldn’t be opened without a key.

“What up, Mystery?” Arthur was the first to ask. He stepped behind the dog and raised his knuckles to the door, rapping gently.

Vivi leaned down and hugged Mystery around his shoulders, plucking him up off his front feet as she rocked him.  “Did Lew leave you outside?”  Mystery whined and stared at Arthur, pleaded at Arthur’s back with his eyes.  “I’ll talk to him about it, and we’ll fix this.”  Mystery strained his whimpers, and Vivi took note of that tone in his voice. “D’you have a key, Art?”

“Hmm?  Yeah, sure,” he muttered, as he began digging through his pockets.  Arthur found the thin plastic card easily, and with one swipe the red light on the handle lock flicks to green.  “Lew?”  He asked softly as he pushed the door open, intent to enter before Vivi for once. “You left Mystery outside.”  The heater of the room chattered as it stuttered off, and the dark plain before Arthur was left with the reverberations of its silence, along with the strange emptiness of the room.  The scarce glow of the few streetlamps outside tumbled around his shoulders as he stood in the doorway.  He was startled only briefly by his own reflection in the mirror, directly across from the doorway.  “Damnit,” he gasped, and clutched at his chest as his heart pounded behind his ribs.

“Lew?” Vivi chimed in, as she and Mystery pressed in behind Arthur.  She shuffled to the tall lamp stationed in one corner of the room and flipped the light on, coating the walls and floor with its pale white coat.  “Are you here?”  She had the impression that he was hiding for some reason.  Vivi brushed past Arthur and crossed to the bathroom at the furthest side of the room.  Mystery followed, sniffing along the bed and the corner of the wall.  

There was nothing in the bathroom.  The light blazed harshly over the white walls and plastic floor, a few bottles of shampoo sat around but mention nothing of guests. Vivi was usually comforted by the fragrant soaps, but she had only noticed them now when she was uneasy.  It didn’t feel right.  The bathroom heater came on with the light, but the air retained a chilled quality.  The whole of the room felt reticent, inhospitable.

Vivi shut the light off and stepped out.  She felt unnerved and was not certain where this sensation had crept out from, but it was there and she couldn’t shake it.  She heard the door shut as Arthur entered fully, he cast his eyes over the walls and the short carpet as if anticipating Lewis to pop out from a surface at any given moment.  Arthur sprang in place when Mystery poked his head up from the opposite side of the bed.  Vivi shared a look with the white face, then their sight feel onto the bed.  

The scent of fresh laundry overpowered the room, and Vivi with Mystery examined the shirts, skirts, and pants laid out over the bed covers where they wouldn’t wrinkle.  Further evidence of Lewis’ presence was not visible, aside from the large leather jacket draped over the back of an uncomfortable armchair.  On the table rests the room’s twin key card, beside a pair of dark purple sunglasses.  There was nothing to suggest anyone had been in the room recently.

[dyscrasia-eucrasia]

Part 5

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Like every day, Angel woke up to an alarm at noon. And, like every day, he considered sleeping in. But he'd established that his Instagram stories started updating at 12:30, and he refused to break that routine. 

He dragged himself out of bed and over to the kitchen. He was in a bulking phase, which meant that at least he got to eat a lot of calories, but even then he had to check the notebook he kept next to the fridge to make sure he was hitting his macros. Breakfast wound up being oats made with peanut butter, greek yogurt, and protein powder. It was ugly to look at and nearly as bland, since there was no sugar to liven up the flavors. That was the sacrifice that he had to make for the sake of his physique - giving up basically everything that tasted good and living on a diet of peanut butter, chicken, and brown rice. 

After he finished choking down his breakfast, he had to take a minute to search his apartment for his wireless earbuds. He popped them in his ears, grabbed his phone, perched himself on the window sill, and proceeded to take a dozen selfies, all with slight variations, until he got the perfect one of himself turned just slightly towards the window, his earbuds clearly showing, the street outside visible but artistically blurry. It took him a few more minutes in Facetune to edit out the puffiness under his eyes and a blemish that was forming on his chin, not to mention lighten his skin and up the saturation of the blue dye in his hair. He needed a dye touch-up, but no one on Instagram needed to know that. 

It took him a few more minutes to craft his story post, carefully weighing the benefits of a filter that gave him dog ears and deciding how many emojis he wanted to use. 

Then of course there was the matter of what to say in the story. His first post of every day was a 'song of the day' post. It took him a minute to think of what song to use. Ultimately, he wound up writing: 'Listening to Bad Guy today! Love Billie Eilish!' and then took another minute to choose the exact font style, color, and positioning. 

He hadn't actually been listening to Billie Eilish. He liked her music, sure, but lately he had been on a nostalgic kick, listening to nu metal. But it wasn't #relatable to post about listening to Coal Chamber. How many people even remembered that the band existed? Certainly none of the e-boys that followed Angel's account. 

No, Angel's brand didn't work with a maligned, forgotten genre from the late 90s. He'd made a name for himself as goth-lite. Not really goth, but not an e-boy either. Rather, he was just a touch edgy, but still firmly in the mainstream gay community. 

All the more reason to keep Bacchus to himself. It was totally against his brand to go to shows with mosh pits. 

'Tell me what song you wanna see me pole dance to!' He added to the post, making a comment field for people to respond. Within seconds, answers started to pour in, mostly Top 40 sex jams. 

He spent a little longer scrolling through Instagram, commenting on videos from other dancers. Every comment was upbeat and encouraging, even if he thought their dancing was a bit shit. There was no room to be critical on social media. He had to treat everyone as if they were his best friend, even if he didn't know them. He was still building his following, and any drama could ruin that. 

His DMs were full, as usual. Most of them were thirst-DMs, a couple were shady sounding guys offering to be his manager. Nothing interesting enough to respond to. 

A notification popped up at the top of his screen from Grindr. He automatically tapped it to go to the app, only to be greeted with a blurry dick pic. He wasn't against dick pics, but they had to have a bit of effort put into them. This one was just lazy. The guy didn't even look like he was hard. 

He tapped the back button to look at the rest of his messages. A lot were dick pics. Some were asking for a hookup. One was a message from a guy he'd hooked up with a few days ago, saying that he had a nice time and asking if he wanted to get together again. 

The guy had been alright. A nice enough bodybuilder who had been surprisingly gentle and considerate during sex. But his personality had been as bland as the meal-prepped chicken sitting in Angel's fridge. Angel knew he could do better. But it never hurt to have the guy on-call as backup if he felt the need to get laid right away, so he snapped a selfie and sent it to him, with a short note that simply said, 'I had fun!' 

With that, he'd had enough social media, and it was almost time for his workout, anyways. 

Thirty minutes later, he met with his personal trainer. He paid a hefty fine for one of the best trainers in the city, someone he trusted to help him sculpt his physique without making comments about trying plastic surgery. His trainer was cute, nice, and painfully straight, which was something Angel had specifically looked for. He didn't want to be distracted by a guy who may or may not be interested in fucking. 

Like always, working out kicked his ass, and like always, he took a sweaty selfie in the locker room mirror with his shirt lifted to show his abs and posted it on his Instagram story. 

His day was far from over, though. He had to stop by the smoothie shop and take a photo of his smoothie - milk, whey powder, greens, banana, and peanut butter - and then go out and take photos around town until he found something that made it look like he was doing something interesting that day. He eventually found a corner of a building that had been tagged with a dozen Mothman stickers and snapped a selfie in front of it, captioned it 'Hanging out with my fellow spooky kids!' and posting it to his main Instagram. 

And then the boredom set in. He didn't really have anything planned for the day, and he still had plenty of time before he had to go to work. Sure, he could go home and put on some makeup and take artful thirst-trap selfies, but he'd done that so recently. He didn't want to make his Instagram nothing but thirst-traps - he had to make sure he was attractive to multiple types of brands if he ever wanted a sponsorship. 

The thing was, trying to be an Instagram star was lonely. He had friends, but they were either work colleagues - and thus rivals - or other micro-influencers. All their conversations were about collabs and SEO and ways to boost engagement. To outsiders he no doubt looked like he lived a lavish and incredibly fun lifestyle as a stripper, but they didn't see the day-to-day boredom or the awkwardness behind running into people who knew him from the club out in broad daylight. 

He wanted someone to talk to who wasn't a part of all that bullshit. 

Of course, as soon as he had that thought, he realized that he wanted to talk to Demie again. 

He wasn't sure if he should. He'd just called him that morning, after all. 

It wasn't that he was worried about coming off as desperate, but more that he was worried about scaring Demie off. He was absolutely certain that Demie was gay, but he was also sure that Demie was a country boy, and country gays were different from city gays. Country boys had such an endearing gee-shucks quality about them, like they were trying so hard to be beer-drinkin', truck-drivin' bros, but they were just a little too soft-spoken and shy for that. 

Demie - from what Angel could tell - was a guy who wanted to be cool to other men but who was also painfully nervous around them. 

It was absolutely adorable, and Angel wanted so badly to get him into bed. 

But getting that kind of guy into bed was a challenge. It was like hunting a deer. Move too fast or too loudly, and he'd run off into the woods. 

Or so Angel assumed. He'd never actually gone hunting. That was too much a white person thing to do. 

Fuck it, he decided. Demie was the first real connection he'd made in a long time. And it wasn't like he was asking for a hookup. He just wanted to talk. 

He settled onto a bench where he could still see the Mothman stickers and dialed Demie's number. The phone rang with no answer. No shit, it was a Monday afternoon. People with normal 9 to 5s worked at that time. 

Well, at least he could leave a message and give Demie his number. He realized he'd never actually told Demie how to contact him. 

Eventually the answering machine picked up. "You've reached Demie and Elaine," Demie's voice said. "If you're trying to sell us something we don't fucking want it. If you're trying to get on our property, we have guns and we're not afraid to fucking use them. Bye." 

"Wow, your answering machine is pretty aggro," Angel said. "This is Angel, but the way. I realized I didn't give you my number. So, y'know, just in case you want to get in touch…" 

He left his number and hung up. He sat staring at the Mothman stickers a little longer. He kind of wanted to send a picture of them to Demie, since Demie in a way reminded him of a cryptid - shy and kind of elusive. But of course, he couldn't, since Demie didn't have a cellphone. Still, he took a non-selfie picture of them anyways. Just in case he got to hang out with Demie sometime.

[thehanniecorner]

Yes, I realize that this post is coming out nowhere near January, but I have been finding it difficult to keep up with blogging lately, so it is what it is, right?  Hopefully, things have calmed down enough in my life that I can get back to writing semi-regularly, but no promises yet!  Regardless, I read a lot in January and am eager to share my thoughts with you.  Let’s get started!

I hope this reaches her in time – r.h. Sin

Rating – 1 Star

Unfortunately, I started off my year with what may turn out to be my least favorite title of 2020.  I hope this reaches her in time is a poetry collection, and while I like to pick up poetry once in a while, I didn’t connect with this collection at all.  First of all, it felt like there should have been a little more editing, as I found a number of sentences and word choices that I think might have just been typos.�� Beyond that, the poetry itself reminded me of the “Tumblr style” where poets just break a normal sentence into multiple lines to make the words feel deeper than they really are, which is not a style I enjoy at all.  The good news is, however, that my reading can only get better from here, right?

Emergency Skin – N.K. Jemisin

Rating – 5 Stars

After reading an incredibly underwhelming title, I decided to give N.K. Jemisin’s Emergency Skin from Amazon’s Forward collection a try, figuring that an author this popular couldn’t possibly let me down.  Thankfully, my instincts were right and I loved this short story so much.  Given how short this experience is, I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that this is a phenomenal science fiction story with the best usage of second person narration that I have ever seen in literature.  This was my first title by Jemisin and I can’t wait to read more of her work in the future.

Randomize – Andy Weir

Rating – 3 Stars

Since I loved Emergency Skin so much, I wanted to give another short story from the same collection a try, which led me to Andy Weir’s Randomize.  This wasn’t bad at all, but I didn’t love it to nearly the same degree as Jemisin’s work.  The hardest part for me is that the central premise, involving the security of gambling machines and whether they can be hacked or not, felt both flimsy and info-dumping in its setup.  The ending was pretty satisfying and I had fun reading this, but I came away from the story feeling like not enough had really been done with the universe.  I’m hoping to get to more of the Forward short story collection a try in the coming months, so I hope I enjoy the others more than I enjoyed this one.

Interview with the Robot – Lee Bacon

Rating – 4 Stars

I decided to pick up an Audible subscription recently in order to read more audiobooks, and Interview with the Robot was one of the Audible Original productions available one month, so I decided to pick it up.  This short audiobook with a full cast follows a robot who looks like a young child.  She gets apprehended by the police and has to tell her strange life story to a social worker in charge of her case.

While listening to this story, I had a smile on my face from beginning to end because it was just so charming and adorable.  That said, however, there were a few pretty good twists and turns that I didn’t see coming and definitely made me feel a lot of empathy towards the protagonist.  Overall, my main complaint is that it was just too short, at around three hours of listening.  I want more from this world in the future, so I hope some sort of sequel comes out eventually.

The Last Wish – Andrzej Sapkowski

Rating – 3 Stars

2020 is the year that I work my way into adult fantasy, and other than reading Game of Thrones last year, reading The Last Wish is one of the first titles that I have ever picked up in the genre.  This series follows Geralt, a witcher, which is a type of mutated human that fights monsters, as well as the many people that surround him.  This specific book is a short story collection that follows, for the most part, Geralt as he goes from contract to contract, killing monsters.

I love the lore and world of the Witcher universe, but I’m not totally convinced that I appreciate the writing style.  It’s hard to tell if this is because of the translation or this is the intention of the original author, but there was a lot of distance between the narrator and the events happening, which made me feel disconnected from the story.  I still intend to continue on, especially after I completely fell in love with the TV series, so I hope that I will connect more with future books and get used to the writing style.

The Outsider – Stephen King

Rating – 4 Stars

Stephen King is an author that I should read way more than I do, because I only pick up one or two of his books in a year, but I almost always enjoy them.  As it turns out, The Outsider is no exception.  This horror novel follows a group of detectives as they investigate the death of a young boy in a small town.  The obvious suspect is the town’s little league coach, as the evidence is quickly mounting up against him.  As the case opens up, however, conflicting details emerge and the truth becomes more difficult to grasp.

Overall, I really enjoyed the mystery and couldn’t stop reading for the entirety of this 600-page tome.  Stephen King has a way of making long books feel like they go by in an instant.  Unsurprisingly, however, the ending was incredibly underwhelming.  Additionally, The Outsider is connected to the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, which I didn’t know, and I got pretty spoiled for the events of that series, which is unfortunate.  On top of all of this, I would like to take a moment and point out that the graphic depictions of the child’s death did not really need to be so detailed, much less have those horrific details brought up at least a dozen more times over the course of the book.  It just felt gratuitous after a while.  I enjoyed this book immensely, but the details I mentioned above kept it just barely out of five-star territory.

Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire

Rating – 4 Stars

Since The Outsider was quite a lengthy read, I wanted to pick up some shorter titles again, leading me to finally pick up the start to a fantasy series that has been on my radar for a long time:  Every Heart a Doorway.  This series follows a group of children that found doorways to their own personal versions of Narnia and Wonderland.  At some point, however, their newfound homes kicked them back into the normal world and they have to learn how to cope with returning to their own life.  A halfway home of sorts was founded for children struggling with this task, and as it turns out, bringing a bunch of children together who have all gone to vastly different worlds can cause some pretty crazy antics and disagreements.

I love the characters, but didn’t find the plot of this overly engaging.  Given that my rating is still high, it’s clear that my disinterest in the plot wasn’t a deal-breaker by any means, but I just struggled to stay interested, especially given that I guessed the big plot twist almost immediately.  Since these books are so short, I will definitely be reading the sequels.  In fact, given how late this wrap-up is, I can say with great certainty that my February wrap-up will have a lot of news regarding my progress on this series.

Outer Order, Inner Calm – Gretchen Rubin

Rating – 3 Stars

I like to try reading books that push me out of my comfort zone, and it has been a long time since I read anything that might be considered a part of the self-improvement genre.  Therefore, as a chronically messy person, I thought reading Outer Order, Inner Calm might be an interesting adventure, given that the whole book is dedicated to getting rid of unwanted junk to keep life peaceful.

This was an incredibly easy read.  The writing style was simple and easy to digest.  Reading it was actually a pretty pleasant and relaxing experience.  That said, however, I’m not sure how useful I actually found the book, as the advice felt like it was playing it pretty safe.  For the most part, the tips went like “Get rid of things you don’t use anymore” and “Clean your house” with about 75 different variations, each.  I’m glad I read it, but I don’t think I got much out of it.

Everything My Mother Taught Me – Alice Hoffman

Rating – 4 Stars

My final read for the month of January was another short story from an Amazon collection like the Forward collection.  This is Everything My Mother Taught Me, and it’s my first attempt at reading Alice Hoffman.  This follows a young girl who is living at a lighthouse and trying to navigate coming of age with her dysfunctional mother around her.  I can’t say much more than that given how short the story is, but I did really enjoy this.  This is a common complaint for me with short stories, but the main reason it didn’t get five stars is because it just didn’t feel fully fleshed out.  When I read Emergency Skin, I felt like Jemisin did a phenomenal job of packing a full story into a short amount of pages, and Everything My Mother Taught Me didn’t manage this as successfully.  I’m still quite eager to pick up more books by Hoffman, however, as I enjoyed her writing style.

Well, now that it’s almost March, I have finally shared what I read in January.  What did you read in the first month of the year?  Let me know in the comments below!

  January 2020 Reading Wrap-Up! Yes, I realize that this post is coming out nowhere near January, but I have been finding it difficult to keep up with blogging lately, so it is what it is, right? 

[lady-divine-writes]

Klaine one-shot “Synced Up” (Rated NC17)

It's a morning of heartbreak for poor Kurt Hummel. After spending a magical night with a man he knows he's never going to see again, he loses his brand new phone. But things go from bad to worse when he discovers someone has found his phone ... and is taking pictures with it. (2345 words)

Notes: This is a variation of a K*urtbastian fic I wrote for an old Klaine Advent Drabble prompt 'cloud'. If you've read the original (Hidden in the Cloud) this one is completely different. But it's also inspired by real events (that didn't happen to me), Sex and the City, and, to a small degree, Cinderella xD

Read on AO3.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” Kurt grumbles as he storms off the elevator. He stomps down the hallway to his office and drops his bag on his desk, kicking his chair and the waste paper basket a la his stepbrother Finn Hudson as he goes.

“Language, Mr. Hummel,” Isabelle scolds playfully, following her cursing employee into his work space.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve lost my fu---” Kurt blows a breath between clenched teeth, stemming another tide of four-letter expletives. “I’ve lost my phone!”

“Oh, no!” Isabelle switches to serious mode, giving Kurt’s predicament the appropriate amount of gravitas considering how excited he was about upgrading. Kurt loved his new phone. He bought a Burberry case for it, spent the better part of one afternoon configuring it to perfection. Now three short days later it was already gone. “Do you have any idea where it might have disappeared to?” She watches Kurt root through his bag, pulling out the contents and laying them on his desk. She bites her bottom lip at some of them – an extra pair of underwear, balled up socks, a toothbrush, deodorant, a wad of condoms, and a bottle of lube that would choke a Rottweiler. She doesn’t know if he realizes what he’s revealing, if he’s just that comfortable around her, or so upset over the loss of his phone that he honestly doesn’t care.

Either way, Isabelle knows Kurt enough by now to know that he doesn’t normally carry those items in his bag.

Which means, despite losing his phone, someone got lucky last night.

“No.” Kurt shakes out his bag, sending the last scraps of old receipts and miscellaneous wrappers to the ground. When he reaches the bitter end with no phone in sight, he surveys the mess on his desk. “This is the seventh time I’ve been through my bag and nothing!”

“I just hope you lost it at home and not on the subway over here.” Isabelle sympathizes, but she’s also fishing for information on where her protégé spent his night.

Kurt plops down in his chair, holds his bag open at the edge of his desk with one hand, and sweeps his things back into it with the other. He doesn’t mention anything about the spare clothes or the condoms, but he doesn’t look embarrassed by them, either.

“Either way, there’s nothing I can do about it now.” Kurt closes his bag and shoves it against the wall.

The day is shot, and it’s only nine in the morning.

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do,” Isabelle offers, squeezing his shoulder.

He puts a hand over hers and pats it gently. “Thanks,” he says. “I will.” He flips open his laptop, preparing - albeit unenthusiastically - to get down to business. His computer comes out of hibernation, and already he has an alert in the bottom right-hand corner of his screen. Kurt glosses over it, but Isabelle notices.

“What’s that?” she asks, pointing a long, blush-painted nail at the tiny rectangular icon. Kurt’s gaze follows to the narrow box.

“That’s my Cloud alert. It shows up when my phone syncs to my computer,” he explains, positioning his cursor over it with a long, disappointed sigh. He clicks on it, and a larger box pops up. Kurt reads it, confused. “A new photo has been uploaded to my Cloud?”

Isabelle gasps. “That means someone has your phone!” she says, anxiously shaking Kurt’s shoulder. “And they’re taking pictures!”

“What the … no!” Kurt exclaims, opening his Cloud account to check. He knows this is his fault. How many times when he activated his phone did it ask him if he wanted a face recognition, pattern, password, pin, or some sort of swipe thing-y to unlock his phone, and he repeatedly pushed no? In fact, he was mildly offended that his phone would have so little faith in his ability to keep it safe. Obviously, the thing was right. “Oh, please be at home. Please just be Brian …” he mutters, praying that his phone slipped out of his pocket when he raced home to change and ran back out again, that it’s lying on the floor in his kitchen and that his cat took a selfie. Because if it’s not at home, it might be on the subway being violated by strangers. Or …

There’s only one other place he can think his phone might be. He doesn’t want to mention it, because he’s equal parts not entirely proud of it, and disappointed that he won’t get a repeat performance.

He may have left it at the apartment he stayed at last night.

An apartment not his own.

The apartment of a man he met at a bar, and then went home with.

A man he agreed to a one-night stand with before he realized – after dinner, drinks, and a lengthy conversation about school, work, books, movies, musicals, and future aspirations - this was a man he wouldn’t mind seeing again … a lot.

And the sex …

Kurt had heard of toe curling sex before, but had yet to experience it.

Ever since he moved to New York, he’s been waiting for his Sex and the City moment. He figured that, working for Vogue, it would come eventually. But five years had gone by, and not even so much as a pivotal Jimmy Choo sale.

Last night, he took a chance at going to the grand opening of a piano bar in The Village, some tackily decorated, wannabe “gin joint” with an obnoxious name to boot – Tramp Stamp Granny’s. He figured he’d do a write up on it for Vogue, that way he could get away with charging his drinks to his business account.

A foot through the door, he’d already decided he wasn’t going to enjoy himself.

But he saw a guy sitting alone, and they had a moment. The man bought him a drink, then he asked Kurt to dance. Kurt didn’t think it would turn into anything.

He was wrong.

He’d always pictured himself as a Carrie, and last night, he found his Mr. Big.

Kurt shakes his thoughts of the man from his mind. No use crying over spilt milk, or however that saying applies.

They agreed to one night, and that’s all he’s going to get. They hadn’t even exchanged numbers.

Which makes it fitting that Kurt lost his phone.

Kurt opens the picture.

No such luck on it being his cat.

It’s a picture of a hand (tres originale) wearing a black leather glove, and holding a parchment wrapped pastry - a cronut, he believes. Kurt has yet to try one since they became the newest, hottest trend in “expanding one’s bottom line”, not even when Vogue posted a review and Dominique Ansel, the chef who created them, sent seven dozen to the office. Too many carbs, too much sugar, too many empty calories. Yes, they smelled amazing, and yes, Kurt wept as he watched each and every one walk out the door with not a single bite of their flaky deliciousness entering his mouth.

He didn’t regret his decision to abstain, however, when he slipped into his Armani trousers later that night and they were a cinch to button.

But God, does it look good!

His stomach thinks so, too, because it growls loudly, reminding Kurt that he has yet to break into his morning bottle of kombucha.

“I know, right?” Isabelle agrees, putting a hand over her own groaning tummy.

Another alert box comes up on the screen and Kurt clicks it. A second picture opens, this time of a random Lord Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

“Awww,” Isabelle coos, leaning closer to the screen. “Cute puppy!”

“Yeah,” Kurt scoffs. “At least we know that the jerk who has my phone saw a dog today. Lucky him.”

A third alert box appears. Kurt stabs at his mouse pad to open it. He wants to be bitter, wants to be completely furious that this man, whoever he is, is having the day of his life in New York, and taunting the hell out of him with it, but the next image takes him aback.

It’s of the same gloved hand, but this time, holding a beautiful red rose.

Kurt examines the picture thoroughly, hoping to find out where this stranger is. But the frame is focused entirely on the opened flower, the gloved hand a blur in the background. To the right and left, up and down, not an inch of scenery can he see.

“Are you sure you don’t know who has your phone?” Isabelle asks, a secret smile on her lips, wondering if the underwear, the toothbrush, and the condoms might have something to do with the mystery man taking pictures with Kurt’s phone. “Because it seems to me like he might be flirting with you.

“I … wha---?” Another box pops up before Kurt can come up with an answer, and he opens it quickly. It’s a difficult image to decipher at first - the same gloved hand, index finger pointed, but the object hanging off it doesn’t register.

Until it does, and Kurt x’s out of the image in a snap.

Isabelle snickers. “Was that a pair of handcu---?”

“I know who has my phone,” Kurt interrupts, eyes wide as his boss doubles over with laughter.

“Shame on you, Kurt!”

“Shame on me why!?”

“You weren’t going to tell me about your friend with the metal jewelry?”

“Maybe. Eventually. Yes. I just …”

The phone on Kurt’s desk rings, and they both go silent. Kurt and Isabelle look at it in confusion, as if it’s never rung before. From the light blinking on the panel, he knows that whoever it is didn’t call his line directly, but had to be transferred by the receptionist. Most of the people who call his office are looking for Isabelle, so they know his extension.

Which makes the caller on line 8 an enigma.

Kurt reaches across his desk for the receiver and answers it.

“Kurt Hummel’s office. Kurt speaking.”

“Blaine Anderson,” a smooth, newly familiar voice informs him. “From the bar last night?”

Kurt grins. Okay, a cat selfie would have been adorable, but this outcome is so much better! “I remember you.”

“I found your phone.”

The sound of that voice, coupled with the last picture Blaine sent, makes Kurt blush all over. “I can see that.”

“I’m heading your way to deliver it, if that’s alright.”

Isabelle, sitting on the corner of Kurt’s desk and eagerly listening in, squeezes his shoulder again, nearly digging her fingernails straight through his shirt in her excitement.

“Thank you. You’re a life saver.”

“I was originally going to hold it hostage in the hopes of convincing you to have dinner with me, but I figured an important Vogue employee such as yourself might need his phone.”

Kurt fist pumps the air. Isabelle offers him a mimed high-five, then discreetly tiptoes out the door.

She’ll let him have his privacy.

She can grill him about how his missing phone relates to his night out - and that pair of handcuffs - another time.

“And you would be right,” Kurt says. Once Isabelle’s out of earshot, he adds, “But I thought you said you only do one-night stands?”

“So did you.”

“True.” Kurt bites his cheek. This could go one of two ways. He’s hoping it’s a way that leads to a second date with this interesting, gorgeous guy. “But, you know, it’s not a hard-and-fast rule. I’ve been kind of re-thinking it.”

“I have to admit, so was I.” Blaine chuckles. He has the kind of laugh Kurt can feel. It reaches through the phone, finds it way under his skin. “Maybe we can talk about it. Do you have time for a bite? I’m carrying a cronut that’s been calling your name.”

“Has it now?”

Blaine’s mention of a bite has Kurt’s toes curling again. If he remembers correctly, Blaine left him with a bite mark last night, somewhere in the vicinity of his left upper thigh.

“Yeah,” Blaine says, his voice low. “We seem to have that in common.”

Kurt bites his lips together hard to keep from squealing and making an ass out of himself. “I think I may have a few moments … for the sake of that poor cronut.”

“Hmm. Just for the cronut?”

“That, and to thank you for returning my phone.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Possibly turning our one-night stand into a one-night, one-morning, with-the-possibility-of-dinner-later stand?”

“That’s … uh … kind of a long title.”

“I thought of that,” Kurt says, his attention pulled by the sound of the elevator down the hall pinging as it stops on his floor. “Shortening it might not get my message across. And I wanted to be very clear.”

“That makes sense. Well, a morning stand with the certainty of dinner later it is then,” Blaine says, and God! Kurt can hear his voice coming from the hallway!

“Sounds like a date.” Kurt plants his feet flat on the floor to keep from leaping out of his seat the second Blaine walks in. He has to maintain some illusion of cool, calm, and collected, even if he’s vibrating like a teenager in heat. To that end, he turns his chair, putting the back to the door. His desk chair has a high back. Faced this way, no one can even tell if he’s in the room or not.

Yup. Now he’s the picture of total nonchalance. What a brilliant plan.

Before he can change his mind, spin his chair back around and find a more natural way to sit, he hears the door to his office shut with a soft click. Footsteps stop behind his chair. His cell phone materializes on the desk in front of him, followed by a white paper pastry bag, that beautiful red rose … and Blaine’s silver handcuffs.

A strong hand caresses his arm. Warm lips dance over his jaw, Blaine’s cheeky grin undeniable.

“I can hardly wait.”

[remelitalia]

How to Get Google to Instantly Index Your New Website

Do you want more organic search traffic to your site?

I’m willing to bet the answer is yes – we all do!

Organic search traffic is critical for growing your website and business.

Some research claims around 53% of your site’s traffic can be attributed to organic search.

But the stats don’t matter much if your site doesn’t show up in the search results at all.

How do you get your new site or blog indexed by Google, Bing, and other search engines?

Well, you’ve got two choices.

You can take the “tortoise” approach – just sit back and wait for it to happen naturally, but this can take weeks or months.

(Trust me, I’ve been there before – not fun.)

Or you can make it happen now, giving you more time and energy to put towards increasing your conversion rate, improving your social presence — and, of course, writing and promoting great and useful content.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather get my sites indexed as quickly as possible because it gives me more time to build my audience.

These strategies are exactly how I grew this blog to over 600,000 monthly visitors as fast as I did!

Want to do the same thing?

Stick around, because I’m spilling the beans on everything I’ve learned about SEO and how to get your website indexed fast in this step-by-step guide!

I’m going to walk you through how to get Google to index y our website quickly, which will bring you more organic search traffic and higher rankings.

Let’s get started!

Why Do You Need Google to Index Your Site?

First, the obvious answer.

If you want your site to show up in the search results at all, then it needs to be indexed.

However, you don’t want your site to be indexed just once. You want the search engines to keep re-indexing your site.

Search engines like Google don’t just update automatically.

They rely on spiders — little bits of computer code that each search engine sends out to “crawl” the web (hence, “spider”).

You want an efficient, frequent crawl rate.

The spider’s job is to look for new stuff on the web and update the already indexed version of your site. That “new stuff” can be a new page on an existing site, a change to an existing page, or an entirely new site or blog.

Once the spider finds a new site or page, it needs to figure out what that new site or page is about.

Way back in the Wild Wild West of the early web, search engine spiders weren’t nearly as smart as they are today. You could force a spider to index and rank your page based on nothing more than how many times a particular search phrase (“keyword”) appeared on the page.

For today’s content success, you can’t rely on these old school search engine optimization strategies.

The keyword didn’t even have to be in the body of the page itself. Many people ranked for their biggest competitor’s brand name just by stuffing dozens of variations of that brand name in a page’s meta tags!

Fortunately for Google search users and ethical website owners, those days are long gone.

Today, keyword and meta tag stuffing will get you penalized, not rewarded. And meta keyword tags aren’t really part of the algorithm at all (though there are still good reasons to use them).

If you’re not careful, you could get your site kicked out of the index altogether — which means your site won’t rank for any keywords at all.

These days, Google is more concerned with the overall user experience on your site and the user intention behind the search — i.e., does the user want to buy something (commercial intent) or learn something (informational intent)?

They even made Page Experience a ranking factor.

Don’t get me wrong — keywords still matter. Other factors are also important — up to 200 altogether, according to Brian Dean of Backlinko. These include things like quality inbound links, social signals (though not directly), and valid code on all your pages.

None of that will matter if the spiders can’t tell the search engines your pages are there in the first place, meaning they won’t show up in search results.

That’s why website indexing is so important.

To put it simply, indexing is the spider’s way of gathering and processing all the data from pages and sites during its crawl around the web.

Frequent indexing improves your search results.

The spider notes new documents and changes, which are then added to the searchable index Google maintains. Those pages are only added if they contain quality content and don’t trigger any alarms by doing shady things like keyword stuffing or building a bunch of links from unreputable sources.

When the spider sees a change on your website, it processes both the content (text) on the page as well as the locations on the page where search terms are placed. It also analyzes the titles tag, meta tag, and alt attributes for images.

That spider then adds, or “indexes”, that content into Google.

That’s indexing in a nutshell. It is an essential webmaster tool.

When a search user comes along looking for information by typing in search keywords, Google’s algorithm goes to work. The algorithm then decides where to rank a page in comparison to all the other pages related to those keywords.

How often your site is indexed can affect your performance in search results. You want to make sure all your latest content is available for those searching and Google’s spiders at all times.

That’s the short and somewhat simplified version of how Google finds, analyzes, and indexes new sites like yours.

Many other search engines, like Bing or Yahoo, follow similar procedures, though there can be variations in the specifics as each has its own algorithm.

What Website Indexing Factors Matter?

You want an efficient index rate for your website.

That means you want search engine spiders to find your new content as quickly as possible after you hit publish.

You can check how often Google is crawling your pages by logging into Search Console.

Not set up with Google Search Console yet? Jump down to Step 2 to learn how to get your website set up.

In Search Console, click on your website. Then click on Settings > Crawl Stats > Open Report. You’ll see some graphs like this:

The first graph shows how often Google is crawling your site.

That graph — the “Crawl requests” one — shows how often Google is crawling my site each day.

As a rule of thumb, the more crawling the better.

There are some cases, however, where too much crawling can overload your server resources. Typically it’s the result of a server misconfiguration instead of an issue with Google’s spiders.

This is very rare though, so you probably won’t need to worry about this. Google allows you to change the crawl rate (only down, not up) if this is happening to you.

So how did I increase my crawl rate?

I’ve been posting a lot lately and updating older content, so Google is eager to get all my updates and changes as fast as it can. It’s learning to check in with me more often.

I also switched to a new web host in April that is much faster than my old one.

The faster your site loads, the faster Google can come in and index it!

Google wants to recommend the best websites to its users. It looks for sites that offer a good user experience. While that includes many factors, quality content and site loading speed is highly important.

To put it simply:

Faster site = better user experience.

Better user experience = higher search result rankings.

More important than how often Google indexes your site is how many pages it’s indexing. You want to ensure as many of the pages on your site as possible are indexed.

(Don’t worry, your sitemap will take care of that, which I cover in detail in Step 7.)

But first, let’s start at the beginning. The following 18 steps will guide you through everything you need to know about getting your website indexed.

You don’t necessarily need to do all 18 steps to have a well-indexed website, but if you’re wondering how to rank higher in Google, this is the only guide you’ll ever need!

Step 1: Is My Site Indexed Already?

Unless you’re starting a brand new site, your website is probably already indexed.

If you’re not sure, here’s how to find out.

The easiest way to check this is to search site:yourdomain.com in Google. If Google knows your site exists and has already crawled it, you’ll see a list of results similar to the one for NeilPatel.com in the screenshot below:

If Google hasn’t yet found your site, you’ll get no results at all, similar to this:

If your site is already indexed, that’s great, but there is likely room for improvement.

The rest of the steps in this guide will help you make sure that your site is indexed to its full potential.

Step 2: Install and Set Up Google Analytics & Search Console

If you’re not already familiar with these free Google tools, here’s a quick breakdown.

Google Analytics: Measures stats about your website like visitors, time spent on site, what pages they looked at, where they’re from, etc.

Google Search Console (formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools): It allows you to monitor different aspects of your website like when it was last crawled, any indexing errors, security issues, etc.

Search Console also lets you manage some key aspects of how you appear in search results and manually submit sitemaps — I’ll cover all of this later on in this article.

But first, let’s get set up.

If you already have Google Analytics and Search Console, click here to skip ahead to Step 3: Create a content marketing strategy.

To set up Google Analytics, click here and sign in with your Google account.

This would be either your @gmail.com email address or your @mydomain.com email address if you use Google’s G Suite for Business service.

Then, click Sign Up.

Enter your website name and URL, then click Get Tracking ID at the bottom of the page.

You’ll see a page like this. Don’t panic!

There are a few ways to install Google Analytics on your website.

Google Analytics Setup

If you’re using WordPress or another content management system that is asking you for your Google Analytics Tracking ID, then you just need the number at the very top. In my case, it’s UA-98962030-1.

That’s not my real tracking ID! Just saying, don’t post that online! ?

The WordPress plugin Google Analytics by MonsterInsights is really easy to set up.

Just download it, upload the plugin to WordPress, activate it, and you’ll see this screen.

Press the blue “Authenticate” button and it walks you through the rest.

To set up the plugin, you need to have an Analytics profile already created, which we did in the previous step.

If you’re not using WordPress or want to add your Analytics code manually, here’s how to do that.

You need to put this code (in the red box) onto every single one of your website’s pages.

The easiest way to do this is to create one file with the code in it and then create a line of code on each of your website’s pages that pull in that file.

Piece of cake, right?

Don’t worry, here’s how to do that!

For this step, you need to be able to access your website files on your web hosting company’s server. This is commonly done via FTP.

Open up your FTP client (FileZilla is a great, free one) and login to your server. If you don’t have this information, you can create an FTP account in your web host’s cPanel, or just contact your web host to ask them for the information.

Your login information should look similar to this:

Once you’re connected, you’ll see a list of files and folders like this.

Open up a new text file (Notepad for Windows or TextEdit for Mac are fine for this). Make sure it’s set to Plain Text Only.

In TextEdit, you click on Format -> Make Plain Text to do that.

This is really important because word processors like Word can add formatting to the code that can mess up the coding on your site. When working with code, always use plain text.

Once you have your plain text document, paste the Google Analytics code. You’ll end up with this:

Save your file as analyticstracking.php. Make sure it has the .php extension on it and not .txt.

If your text editor saved it with the name “analyticstracking.php.txt” for some reason, just rename the file on your computer to “analyticstracking.php”.

Upload this file to your root directory via FTP (the first folder of your website).

You need to add one line of code for each page template you have. This “calls” the file we just made and ensures every page of your website that uses that template is tracked in Google Analytics.

To do that, download all your website PHP template files and edit them.

If you have one named header.php that loads on every page, you only need to do this once!

Download header.php.

Next, open up the downloaded file in your text editor.

Look for the </head> tag and the beginning of <body>, like this:

Insert one line of code right after the <body> tag.

Copy this code: <?php include_once(“analyticstracking.php”) ?>

And paste it here:

Save your header.php file, and reupload it to your website.

Done!

If you don’t have a header.php file, you need to repeat this process for each php page template you have on your website, like index.php, blog.php and so on.

If you use WordPress, you’re definitely at an advantage. All you need to do is install a plugin.

Okay, one more thing to set up and we’ll move on to Step 3.

Google Search Console Setup

Now that we have Analytics set up, it’s time to add our website to Google Search Console (formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools).

Click here to go to the Search Console. Log in with your Google account.

You’ll see this screen:

Click “Start now.”

You’ll then need to verify that you own that domain. There are a few ways to do this.

By default, it may show you a verification option through your web host.

Click on the dropdown to find your domain name provider.

If yours isn’t on the list, you can press Other (at the bottom).

Search Console then asks you to create a TXT record, which involves an edit to your domain configuration.

Is this a little over your head? Not to worry, I’ve got a much easier way!

If you still want to add a TXT record though, here’s how.

Click on Alternate Methods at the top.

There are two easy ways to verify your domain: with Google Analytics or via an HTML file upload.

I’ll cover both of them.

To verify with Google Analytics, just select it and click Verify.

Google will check your Analytics account to make sure you are who you say you are, and if you are, you’ll see a success message. Make sure you’re using the same Google account with Search Console that you do with Analytics.

The process is still pretty easy with the HTML file upload method.

Click to download the file to your computer in step 1, then open up your FTP program again. Upload Google’s HTML file to your root directory.

Next, visit the URL Google gave you to make sure the file is there. In my case, that’s https://neilpatel.com/googlefba739b2a6dd0306.html.

If you uploaded it correctly, you’ll see the filename in your browser window.

Go back to Search Console and click Verify at the bottom.

That’s it!

Make sure to leave the HTML file on your server. It ensures that your website will stay verified with Search Console.

There are two more really important things you need to do now:

Add both the neilpatel.com and www.neilpatel.com versions of your domain

Set a preferred domain

Why do you have to do that, you ask?

It can cause crawl errors, which we are trying to avoid!

Adding the other version of your URL is easy – repeat the same process that I just explained. In the example above, I verified my neilpatel.com domain. So I would go into Search Console and do the exact same steps but use “neilpatel.com” instead.

Once you have both “yourdomain.com” and “www.yourdomain.com” added to Search Console, you need to set the preferred domain.

To do that, click on your website in Search Console.

At the top-right corner, click the gear icon and click Site Settings.

Select if you’d like your URLs displayed with the “www.” or without.

I’m going to show you all the awesome things you can do with Search Console later in this article, so keep that tab open!

But now, we need to get back to marketing fundamentals and talk about creating an SEO strategy for your content.

Step 3: Create a Content Marketing Strategy

It’s for your own benefit to have a written content marketing strategy that’s focused on search results.

But don’t take my word for it.

From the Content Marketing Institute: 

“Those with a documented content marketing strategy:

Are far more likely to consider themselves effective at content marketing

Feel significantly less challenged with every aspect of content marketing

Consider themselves more effective in their use of all content marketing tactics and social media channels

Are able to justify spending a higher percentage of their marketing budget on content marketing”

All of those things are absolutely true. For me, I feel a lot more on track when I have a written plan of action that I can refer to and track my success.

My blogs and multiple businesses would not have grown as quickly as they did without having a written plan.

In addition to keeping you focused on your goals, a documented content strategy also helps you get your site’s pages indexed by creating new pages of content.

According to HubSpot’s “Not Another State of Marketing Report 2020” , 60 percent of content marketers said content is very important or extremely important to their overall strategy.

One study found that companies that use content marketing enjoy conversion rates that are six times higher.

Doing your best to publish valuable, interesting, and useful content and then doing everything you can to make sure that your potential customers see it.

Here’s an example.

When I create and publish a professional infographic on my site and it gets shared on another web page with a link back to my page, I get content marketing “credit” for both posts.

Since it’s an infographic, I’m more likely to engage my audience on both sites.

Infographics have one of the highest reader engagement rates. It’s been proven that most people spend longer looking at infographics than they do reading the text on the page.

But you’re totally reading this, right?!

Infographics get shared on social media about 3x more than any other type of content.

When you’re putting together your content marketing strategy, blogging definitely needs to be on the list.

But you also need to factor in content that you’ll publish on other websites. This not only helps grow your traffic but also helps with indexing speed and obtaining inbound links.

Here are some examples of offsite content to go into your plan:

Guest posts on other sites in your niche

Press releases submitted to sites that publish that kind of content

Articles on high-quality article directory sites (Note: Be careful here — the vast majority of article directories are not high quality and can actually hurt your brand, reputation, and SEO.)

Some reputable directories are Medium and HubPages.

Videos hosted on Vimeo or your YouTube channel

Of course, any content you put your name or brand on must be high quality and published on a reputable, authoritative site.

Otherwise, you’re defeating the purpose of search engine optimization and hurting your traffic and brand in the process.

Content that’s published on “spammy” sites with a link back to your site suggests to Google search results that your site is also spammy.

Examples of reputable sites to guest post on might be Forbes, Entrepreneur, Smashing Magazine, etc. These are well-known websites with a reputation for quality content, which is exactly what you want to be associated with your brand.

Not so good places to post? Sites full of low-quality red flags: cluttered with ads, lots of grammatical or spelling mistakes, or unknown in the industry you’re trying to target.

I don’t want to name any names here, but your common sense should be enough to tell you what a spammy site is. For example, a site named “neilsbestmarketingadvice101.tumblr.com” is probably not going to do much for you, right?

A well-thought-out content marketing plan helps you avoid getting tripped up in the mad rush to publish more content. It puts you in the driver’s seat of search engine optimization so you can focus on generating leads and increasing your conversion rate.

Creating a written content strategy doesn’t have to be difficult.

Here’s the framework I use for mine:

What are your goals? Specify SMART goals and how you’ll measure your progress (i.e., metrics).

Who is your target audience? Customer profiles or personas are essential to understanding your audience and what they want/need.

What types of content will you produce? You want to make sure you’re delivering the type of content that your target audience wants to see.

Where will it be published? Of course, you’ll be hosting your own content on your website, but you may also want to reach out to other sites or utilize platforms such as YouTube, LinkedIn, and Slideshare.

How often will you publish your content? It’s far better to produce one well-written, high-quality article a week consistently than to publish every day for a week and then publish nothing for a month. Consistency is key.

What systems will you adopt for publishing your content? Systems are basically just repeatable routines and steps to get a complex task completed. They’ll help you save time and write your content more quickly, so you can stay on schedule. Anything that helps you publish content in less time without sacrificing quality will improve your bottom line.

What tools will you use? Include the blogging/content tools and technology you’ll use and how they fit into your system.

Once you have your content marketing plan documented, you’ll find it easier to publish great content on a consistent schedule. This will help your site’s new web pages get indexed faster.

Step 4: Start Blogging

Why do you need a blog?

It’s simple: Blogs are hard-working SEO machines. Blog content gets crawled and indexed more quickly than static pages.

Blogs also bring in more traffic. Businesses that blog regularly generate 55% more visitors to their sites than those that don’t.

Blogging works for every kind of business, industry, or niche, as well as for almost all business models — even B2C and e-commerce sites.

Don’t be afraid of committing to a blog.

Yes, it does require consistent effort. You do have to write (or outsource) high-quality, in-depth blog posts on a regular basis.

The rewards, I’ve found, are absolutely worth it.

If you have an ecommerce site, blogging doesn’t have to be terribly complex or difficult.

For example, when you create a new product page, write and publish a blog post about the new product. Add quality images of the product and link to the product page. This helps the product page get indexed more quickly by search engines.

Another great blogging strategy for ecommerce is to write a post every time a customer asks you a question.

For more of a sales-oriented strategy, share that blog post link with other bloggers and influencers to get the word out. Maybe they’ll want to feature your product on their blogs, which again is a great source of links and traffic and will positively impact your crawl rate.

Step 5: Use Internal Links on Your Website

Internal links, i.e. linking to pages on your own website, is another great way to get indexed quickly and increase your position in organic search results.

One very obvious source of internal links is your website’s navigation.

It’s important to structure your website navigation in such a way that it makes sense to Google.

Your navigation should follow a predictable flow like Homepage -> Category -> Sub Page.

All elements should be obviously related. So if you are a web designer, your navigation might look like this.

Homepage -> Web Design Services -> WordPress Design

See how those are all related and make sense?

Another key factor is to structure your URLs properly. Google’s rule of thumb is for them to be as simple and straightforward as possible.

So if it makes sense to you, a human, it should make sense to Google too.

Another great way to link to your content is in blog posts.

People typically link phrases in their blogs over to relevant topics, like if I wanted to offer you more information on URL structuring.

Or, I could create a line like this:

Related: Does URL Structure Even Matter? A Data Driven Answer

This builds links, which causes Google’s spiders to come back and crawl those pages again. Also, it positively adds to the user experience. Your readers will appreciate the further resources.

Remember to keep user experience in mind at all times. It goes hand in hand with SEO. Google has all these rules and ways it works because it’s trying to deliver the best results to its users and give them the answers they’re looking for.

You should be focused on the same thing!

Step 6: Promote Social Sharing of Your Content

Naturally, getting people to share your content on social media is a good thing. Pretty sure I don’t need to convince you about that!

It exposes your content to new people, attracts them to your website, and it’s the kind of content people want to see the most.

But sharing your posts on social media also has SEO benefits, because it creates links back to your content.

Which, if you’ve been paying attention… tells Google’s spiders to go index your site

Bonus points if you already guessed that.

There is some debate out there about just how much social media links factor into organic search rankings.

Google has mixed statements on the subject, saying at first in 2015 they did not factor in social media posts to organic search ranking at all and then later saying they did.

“Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance our news universal by marking how many people shared an article.”

Matt Cutts of former Google fame said a few years back:

I filmed a video back in May 2010 where I said that we didn’t use “social” as a signal, and at the time, we did not use that as a signal, but now, we’re taping this in December 2010, and we are using that as a signal.

Bing, on the other hand, has been very clear about how it uses social media links in search result rankings, known as “social signals.”

Many marketers believe social signals are a considerable ranking factor, and I’m one of them.

Social sharing has helped me grow my blog significantly. When I started NeilPatel.com, I started from nothing and quickly grew my audience to 60,000 monthly readers within 2 months.

Now I average over 20 million monthly visits.

I attribute a lot of my success to social sharing and the positive SEO growth I got from social signals, links, and increased speed of page indexing.

When it comes down to it, social sharing has many other benefits for your website anyway, so just do it!

Step 7: Add a Sitemap Plugin to get Google to Index Your Site

First, let’s talk about what a sitemap is.

You’ve undoubtedly seen the word “sitemap” before – but maybe you never knew exactly what it meant and how it relates to search engine optimization.

A sitemap is a file that tells Google about the files on your website, including how they relate to each other. This makes it easier for Google to crawl and index your site.

The sitemap is basically a list (in XML format) of all the pages on your site. Its primary function is to let search engines know when something’s changed – either a new web page or changes on a specific page – as well as how often the search engine should check for changes.

Do sitemaps affect your search rankings? They can, but only slightly.

They do help your site get indexed more quickly with a more efficient crawl rate.

In today’s world of search, there are a lot of SEO myths you need to be wary of. But one thing remains the same: all things being equal, great content will rise to the top, just like cream.

Sitemaps help your content get crawled and indexed so it can rise to the top of SERPs more quickly, according to the Google Webmaster Blog.

In Google’s own words, “Submitting a Sitemap helps you make sure Google knows about the URLs on your site.”

Is it a guarantee your site will be indexed immediately? No. But it is definitely an effective webmaster tool that helps in that process.

Casey Henry wondered just how much sitemaps would impact crawl rate and indexing, so he decided to conduct a little experiment.

Casey talked to one of his clients who ran a fairly popular blog using both WordPress and the Google XML Sitemaps Generator WordPress plugin (more on that below).

With the client’s permission, Casey installed a tracking script, which would track the actions of Googlebot on the site. It also tracked when the bot accessed the sitemap, when the sitemap was submitted, and each page that was crawled. This data was stored in a database along with a timestamp, IP address, and the user agent.

The client just continued his regular posting schedule (about two or three posts each week).

Casey called the results of his experiment nothing short of “amazing” as far as search engine optimization is concerned.

But judge for yourself: When no sitemap was submitted, it took Google an average of 1,375 minutes to find, crawl, and index the new content.

When a sitemap was submitted? That average plummeted to 14 minutes.

How often should you tell Google to check for changes by submitting a new sitemap? There’s no set-in-stone rule.

However, certain kinds of content call for more frequent crawling and indexing.

For example, if you’re adding new products to an ecommerce site and each has its own product page, you’ll want Google to check in frequently, increasing the crawl rate. The same is true for sites that regularly publish hot or breaking news items that are constantly competing in search engine optimization queries.

But there’s a much easier way to go about the sitemap creation and submission process. If you’re using WordPress, simply install and use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.

Its settings allow you to instruct the plugin on how frequently a sitemap should be created, updated, and submitted to search engines. It can also automate the process for you, so that whenever you publish a new page, the sitemap gets updated and submitted.

Other sitemap tools you can use include the XML Sitemaps Generator, an online tool that should work for any type of website.

Once you have your sitemap, you want to submit it to Google Search Console, which we’ll cover next.

Step 8: Submit a Sitemap to Search Console

It’s crucial to ensure your sitemap is up to date with Google Search Console. I like to go in once every 2 weeks, or at the very least monthly, and update it.

Not signed up for Google Search Console yet? Head back to Step 2 to see how.

Click the URL to go to the Dashboard for that site. On the left, under “Index” click “Sitemaps.” You’ll see the sitemaps already submitted to Google as well as add a new sitemap.

For the next step, you need the URL of your sitemap. If you’re using a plugin for WordPress, that information will be available in the plugin’s settings.

Typically, the URL is yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.

As I mentioned above, you can also use a website like XML-Sitemaps.com to create one. To do that, just enter your URL and choose a change frequency time.

The change frequency just tells Google how often it should index your site. It’s merely a suggestion to Google, and it’s up to the spider to determine when it will come back to index your site again.

Once it gives you the sitemap.xml file, upload that to your website via FTP.

Once you have your sitemap URL, enter it into Google Search Console.

Once you submit it, you’ll see this at the bottom of the page.

Once Google is finished indexing it, the Processed column will change from Pending to the date it was indexed.

As you can see, only 294 out of my 473 web pages were indexed! Hopefully, the spider picks up more of them on this crawl. However, don’t be alarmed if you see similar stats — some of those pages are probably ones you don’t want to be indexed anyway (see Step 17 for details!).

Make a habit of submitting a new sitemap at least every month.

You can also use Bing’s Webmaster Tools to do the same for Bing. It’s good to cover all of your bases, especially since Bing is the second most popular search engine after Google!

Step 9: Create Social Media Channels

Do you have social media profiles set up for your site or blog? If not, now’s the time.

Why? Because as we learned in Step 6, one component of search engine optimization is paying attention to social signals.

Those signals can prompt the search engines to crawl and index your new site.

What’s more, social signals will help you rank your pages higher in the search results.

It’s obvious by now that a solid social media marketing plan helps SEO. But social profiles for your website also give you another place to add links to your site or blog.

Twitter profiles, Facebook pages, LinkedIn profiles or company pages, Pinterest profiles, YouTube channels, and especially Google+ profiles or pages  — all of these are easy to create and the ideal places to add links pointing to your website.

If you don’t want to create new profiles on social sites for your new site or blog, you can alternatively just add the new site’s link to your existing profiles to increase the crawl rate. 

I do, however, highly recommend creating new profiles for projects. Aside from being good for SEO, it will be great for branding.

This probably goes without saying, but if you’re making those social media channels, be prepared to update them regularly with new content, too.

Step 10: Use robots.txt

If you’re not an expert coder or developer, you might have seen a file called “robots.txt” in your domain’s files and wondered what it is and what it does.

The “what it is” part is very simple. It’s a basic, plain text file that should reside in the root directory of your domain. If you’re using WordPress, it’ll be in the root directory of your WordPress installation.

The “what it does” part is a little more complex. Basically, robots.txt is a file that gives strict instructions to search engine bots about which pages they can crawl and index — and which pages to stay away from.

When search spiders find this file on a new domain, they read the instructions in it before doing anything else. 

If they don’t find a robots.txt file, the search bots assume that you want every page crawled and indexed.

Now you might wonder “Why on earth would I want search engines not to index a page on my site?” That’s a good question!

In short, it’s because not every page that exists on your site should be counted as a separate page for search result purposes. (More on this topic later!)

Your first step is to confirm that your new site has a robots.txt file. You can do this either by FTP or by clicking on your File Manager via CPanel (or the equivalent, if your hosting company doesn’t use CPanel).

If it’s not there, you can create one quite easily using a plain text editor like Notepad.

Note: It’s very important to use only a plain text editor, and not something like Word or WordPad, which can insert invisible codes into your document that will really mess things up.

WordPress bloggers can optimize their robots.txt files by using a reliable WordPress plugin like Yoast’s SEO plugin.

The format of a robots.txt file is pretty simple. The first line usually names a user agent, which is just the name of the search bot – e.g., Googlebot or Bingbot. You can also use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard identifier for all bots. This type of WordPress plugin is an effective webmaster tool.

Next is a string of Allow or Disallow commands. These tell search engines which parts they should crawl and index (“Allow”) and which parts they should ignore (“Disallow”).

These rules ensure that only the pages you want to get indexed end up in search results.

So to recap: the function of robots.txt is to tell search engines what to do with the content/pages on your site. But does it help get your site indexed?

Harsh Agrawal of ShoutDreams Media says:

Yes.

He was able to get sites indexed within 24 hours using a combination of strategies, including robots.txt and on-page SEO techniques.

All that being said, it’s crucial to be very cautious when revising your robots.txt file, because it’s easy to make a mistake if you don’t know what you’re doing.

An incorrectly configured file can hide your entire site from search engines. This is the exact opposite of what you want! You must understand how to edit your robots.txt file properly to prevent hurting your crawl rate.

You may want to hire an experienced developer to take care of the job and leave this one alone if you’re not comfortable with the risk of hurting your SEO.

If you do want to try it out yourself, you can use the Google robots.txt tool to make sure your file is correctly coded.

Step 11: Index Your Site With Other Search Engines

You can also take the direct approach and submit your site URL to search engines.

Before you do this, you should know that there’s a lot of disagreement about manual site URL submission as a method of getting a site indexed.

Some bloggers suggest that it’s at least unnecessary, if not outright harmful.

In most cases, if your site has been up longer than a week, search engines have found it already. Submitting manually is pointless and paying companies to do it for you is robbery.

Manual search engine submission may also be harmful when you’re submitting your site to free submission sites that offer to list your site on multiple search engines. Those links can be low-quality and negatively impact your SEO.

See all these random directories and websites it’s going to submit your site to?

If those sites are seen as spammy by Google, having links to your site from them will hurt your SEO rankings. Google will penalize you for being “attached” to those sites.

Since there are other methods that work efficiently, most bloggers and site owners ignore this step.

On the other hand, it doesn’t take long and it can’t hurt your SEO as long as you’re just submitting to Google, Bing, Yahoo, or other very reputable websites.

To submit your site URL to Google, simply ask Google to recrawl your URLs via a sitemap update or use the URL inspection tool.

Note: Google used to let you directly submit URLs for indexing, but no longer does.

Step 12: Share Your Content on Aggregators

Content aggregators are websites that act as a search engine for user-submitted content.

What that means is people submit their content to these sites, then visitors can search and find content from people all over the world. They are huge networks of searchable content.

Well-known examples are Reddit and Medium.

Submitting your content on aggregators is a great source of links and new exposure, just like social media.

Some other aggregators you can share your content on are:

Quora

Slideshare

BlogEngage

Digg

Scoop.it

Medium is also a great place to share your content. For more detailed information, check out my full guide for growing your website traffic with Medium.

Step 13: Share Your Website Link Everywhere

Another simple way to get links to your new site or blog is through your own social status updates.

Of course, these links will be nofollow, but they’ll still count for indexing alert purposes, since we know that Google and Bing, at least, are tracking social signals from web pages.

The old saying “your network is your net worth” also applies here. If you’re just starting out, your first customers could come from family, friends or people they know, so don’t be shy about sharing your new website on your own personal social media accounts.

If you’re on Pinterest, select a high-quality image or screenshot from your new site.

Add the URL and an optimized description (i.e., make sure you use appropriate keywords for your site) and pin it to either an existing board or a new one you create for your site.

I love the way Whole Foods uses Pinterest to engage with its target audience (e.g. foodies and natural recipe seekers). They have boards for every topic, including current holidays and seasonal trends.

If you’re on YouTube, get creative! Record a short screencast video introducing your site and highlighting its features and benefits. Then add the URL in the video description.

Social Media Examiner suggests putting your URL in the first line of the description.

I also recommend using the right keywords in your title and descriptions.

If you have an existing email list from another business that’s related to the same niche as your new site, you can send out an email blast to the entire list introducing your new site and including a link.

Jon Morrow of Copyblogger fame did this with his new website, Unstoppable.me. He’s built an email list of thousands of people from his multiple businesses and successfully leveraged that to drive traffic to his new venture.

When he published his first post, he sent out an email to his subscribers from his other websites to let them know about his new site.

He also used his bio section on his site SmartBlogger to drive traffic to his new blog.

His first post on Unstoppable.me earned over 60,000 Facebook shares and 3,000 Twitter shares in just the first month.

Finally, don’t forget about your personal email account. Add your new URL and site name to your email signature. It’s simple, but it works.

Step 14: Set Up an RSS Feed

What is RSS?

RSS is an automated feed of your website content that’s updated when you publish a new blog post. It stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, and it’s good for both users and site owners.

How does it impact indexing and crawling?

Well, before we get to that, let’s clear one thing up now: Many think RSS is dead.

The number of users has been steadily dropping since Google killed Google Reader back in 2013. I think RSS is evolving, rather than dying.

RSS generally helps increase readership and conversion rate, but it can also help get your pages indexed.

To users, RSS feeds deliver a much easier way to consume a large amount of content in a shorter amount of time.

Users can subscribe to your RSS feed in their favorite RSS reader and receive your new posts automatically. Popular RSS readers are Feedly and Feeder.

As a site owner, you get instant distribution of new content and a way for readers to subscribe to you without having to give up their email address, which some people don’t like to do.

While you still want to focus most of your efforts on building your email list, offering an RSS feed subscription improves user experience by giving privacy-conscious people another option for subscribing to you.

When considering an RSS feed, there are a few best practices you should follow:

Decide if you want to show full post content or excerpts. If you write long content (over 2,000 words) you should most likely choose to feature only excerpts in your RSS feed.

Make sure your feed includes images, otherwise your subscribers could be missing out on valuable infographics or other graphics required to understand the post.

Setting up your RSS feed with Feedburner (Google’s own RSS management tool) helps notify Google that you have a new blog post or page that’s ready to be crawled and indexed.

To create an RSS feed for your site, head over to Feedburner. Sign in with your Google account.

Enter your URL into the box and click Next.

Give your feed a title and a Feedburner URL (this will be the public address of your RSS feed).

You’ll then see a success message with your new Feedburner URL. To get people to subscribe to it, just link over to that URL.

For example, you could have a button on your website saying “Subscribe via RSS” and link to that URL.

Step 15: Submit Your Website to Directories

You probably already know that submitting your new URL to blog directories can help your site “get found” by new potential users. Didn’t I just tell you not to do that a few steps ago?

Here’s the thing — it can your website be indexed faster — if you go about it the right way.

Once upon a time, free blog directories littered the digital landscape. There were literally hundreds – if not thousands – of these sites and most provided little to no value to blog readers.

The quality problem got so bad that, in 2012, Google purged many free site directories from its index, properly dropping the rankings of web pages with little content value.

Moz examined the issue by analyzing 2,678 directories, finally concluding that “[o]ut of the 2,678 directories, only 94 were banned – not too shabby.

However, there were 417 additional directories that had avoided being banned, but had been penalized.”

So what’s the answer?

If you’re going to submit to directories, then make sure you only submit to decently ranked and authoritative directories.

Best-of lists of directories compiled by industry and authority blogs can help you weed out the good from the bad, but make sure the list you’re using is current.

For instance, this one from Harsh Agrawal has been updated as recently as 2019.

Other options that you might want to explore are TopRank, which has a huge list of sites you can submit your RSS feed and blog to; Technorati, which is one of the top blog directories around; and — after you’ve published a decent amount of high-quality content —  the Alltop subdomain for your niche or industry.

Submitting to high-quality sites with decent Domain Authority ratings can not only open your content up to a whole new audience but also provide incoming links that can nudge the search engines to crawl and index your site.

An easy way to submit your site to several directories at once is to use a free service called Ping O Matic.

Ping O Matic notifies directories that your website has changed, and that they should go index it. It takes about 30 seconds to do, and here’s how.

Fill out your blog name, homepage URL and RSS URL (if you have one), like this. Under Services to Ping, select the directories that make sense for your site:

Click Send Pings and you’re done.

Step 16: Check for Google Crawl Errors Frequently

This step is really important for maintaining your indexing frequency. I like to check for crawl errors at least once a month for my websites.

To check for crawl errors, open up Search Console.

On the left, click on Settings > Crawl Stats > Open Report.

The crawl stats page is where you find out how often Google is indexing your website, and it’s definitely something to keep an eye on.

For example, if my results are going up that meaning Google is indexing me more often now — a good thing. But if your graph is trending downward, that may be a sign you need to post more content or submit a new sitemap.

Next, look under “Index” and click “Coverage.”

This screen will show you any errors the Googlebot ran into when crawling your site, like 404 errors.

Here’s what you should be monitoring at least once a month:

Crawl errors

Average response time

Crawl stats

Another great tool to take advantage of is the Structured Data Tester. Google uses structured data to better understand what your website is about.

Structured data basically means you’re providing relevant information to Google to help answer users’ questions.

Here’s an example. I searched for concerts near me.

This website used structured data to tell Google these listings would be helpful for me, and they display underneath their normal SEO page title and description.

So how do you get that too?

It’s pretty advanced, so this may be another item you want to outsource to a developer.

You can see all the options for structured data in Google’s Search Gallery.

Google also has a simplified tool for helping non-developers add structured data to their sites. Go to the Structured Data Markup Helper, and enter your website information.

Then you just have to highlight the element on the webpage that you want to turn into structured data.

From the menu that pops up, you can add attributes like Author, Date Published, Image, URL, Article Body and so on.

If you’ve implemented structured data, you can use the testing tool to validate it.

Again, this is pretty complicated stuff, so unless you’re a developer, it’s probably best to hire a professional to take care of this for you.

Step 17: Make Sure Pages that Shouldn’t be Indexed Aren’t

There are some pages you don’t want Google or other search engines to index. Here are the pages you don’t want to show up in search:

Thank you pages: These are usually pages that someone lands on after signing up for your mailing list or downloading an ebook. You don’t want people to skip the line and get right to the goods! If these pages get indexed, you could be losing out on leads filling out your form.

Duplicate content: If any pages on your site have duplicate content, or slightly varied, like a page you’re doing an A/B test for, you don’t want that to get indexed.

Say, for instance, that you’ve got two pages with the same content on your site. Maybe it’s because you’re split-testing visual features of your design, but the content of the two pages is exactly the same.

Duplicate content, as you probably know, is potentially a problem for SEO. So, one solution is to use your robots.txt file to instruct search engines to ignore one of them.

Here’s how to make sure that pages you want to exclude don’t get indexed.

Option 1: In Your robots.txt File

Remember that robots.txt file we made back in Step 10? You can add directives in it to tell search engines not to index a file or a whole directory. That can be handy when you want to make sure an entire section of your site remains unindexed.

To add this, open up your robots.txt file.

See Step 10 for how to do that if you need a refresher.

To block a page from being indexed, enter this code into your robots.txt file.

Disallow: /nameoffolder/

This blocks everything in that folder. Alternatively, you can just block one single file.

Disallow: /folder/filename.html

Save it, reupload to your server and that’s it. For more information on robots.txt files, check out robotstxt.org.

Option 2: Use a nofollow or noindex Links

This option is very simple. When you’re creating a link on your site, just add either a nofollow or noindex tag to the <a href=””> link.

First, let’s cover what they mean.

Nofollow: Tells Google not to crawl the links on that page.

That means is if I link over to your website from neilpatel.com and use a nofollow link, none of my link juice (or, domain authority) will be passed over to you.

Noindex: Tells Google not to index the page, even though the spider can see it. It won’t be added to search results.

You can use both at the same time.

Here’s an example.

If you’re linking over to a special landing page for an event you’re having for VIPs only, and don’t want that page to appear in search results, you would link to it with a noindex tag.

That would look like this: Check out my <a href=”/neilscoolevent.html” rel=”noindex”>super cool event</a>.

Even if people search for “Neil’s super cool event” in Google, that page won’t show up.

(You will, however, get a lot of Neil Diamond tribute concert options.)

Most often, you’ll want to use the noindex tag. You usually only want to use nofollow for affiliate links, links someone has paid you to create, or you receive a commission from. This is because you don’t want to “sell links”.

When you add nofollow, it tells Google not to pass on your domain authority to those sources. Essentially, it keeps the web free of corruption when it comes to linking.

If you want to make sure an entire page is excluded from search results from all sources, instead of just including the nofollow or noindex tags in your links, follow the steps below.

First, open up the page’s HTML.

If you use a CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress, you can edit this file using Yoast to add a noindex tag.

If you don’t have a CMS like WordPress, you can download the page you need to edit via FTP.

Not sure how to use FTP? Jump back to Step 2 where I explain it!

Click on the page you’re wanting to exclude from search results, and download it.

Open it up in a text editor. Notepad for Windows or TextEdit on Mac are great for this. Look for the </head> tag, like this:

Right before that </head> tag, you want to insert ONE of the following pieces of code.

If you want the page to be excluded in search results, but still follow the links on the page, use:

<META NAME=”robots” CONTENT=”noindex”>

If you want the page to be included in search results, but for Google to not follow the links on the page, use:

<META NAME=”robots” CONTENT=”nofollow”>

And, if you want the page to be excluded from search AND for Google to not follow links, use:

<META NAME=”robots” CONTENT=”noindex,nofollow”>

Like this:

Step 18: Make a Plan for Updating Old Content

So what have we learned about indexing so far?

Every time you update your website, Google wants to crawl it more often.

A great way to capitalize on that is to make a plan to regularly update your old content.

That’s actually what I’m doing right now with this mega post!

This post was originally published in 2015 and I make a point of updating it at least every few months, or when major Google changes happen, to keep it current.

Information gets outdated easily, especially in the fast-paced marketing world. Each month, I make a list of my older posts and select a few to update with fresh information and tips. By editing at least a few posts a month, I ensure my content stays relevant and helpful.

For the best impact on your indexing speed, try and update your website at least three times each week. Those three things could be posting one new blog post and updating content in two old posts.

Updating at least three times a week tells Google it better check in with you often to ensure it has the latest version of your site.

All that indexing, and new information, means that updating your old posts can increase your organic search traffic by 111%!

Here are some easy ways you can update your old content.

Check for outdated facts or terms: For example, this post referred to Google Webmaster Tools when it’s now called Search Console.

Link to fresh information sources: If you wrote a post about SEO in 2013 and used data from the same year in your post, that’s fine back then, but not in 2017. Update your points and supporting information to be recent.

Broken links/new links: Check for broken links and fix them, or change any links in your post to better sources, if needed. For example, I may redirect old links to fresh, new content on my own site.

Link to your other content: Include links to new posts or relevant content you’ve published since the original post. Most bloggers do it like this:

Related: Is SEO Dead?

Update your viewpoints: This is important. Go through old posts and update your recommendations to more current ones, if needed. Things change! So should the solutions you’re offering people.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this in-depth guide to getting your website indexed!

I know it’s a lot to take in. I didn’t know half this stuff when I started blogging.

With my first blog, I installed Google Analytics and that was it!

Of course, back then we didn’t have as many options for improving our SEO ranking or indexing, and it wasn’t driven by a complex algorithm like it is now.

That’s why I wrote this guide. It’s so important to educate yourself on SEO and indexing when starting a new website, especially with all the competition out there.

It is possible to rank on page one and “beat the big guys”, but it takes a lot of work and research to get there.

The best advice I have is this:

Keep learning and staying on top of industry news. Things change so quickly, especially when it comes to search engines.

Do your research on SEO and double-check any new suggested technique with your own independent research before trying it.

Mmake sure you’re updating your site frequently — not just with new content, but updating old posts too. It keeps Google coming back to crawl your site frequently and keeps those posts relevant for new visitors.

Next, make a digital marketing plan.

Write down your content marketing plan, including how you’ll monitor your indexing, analytics, and how you will update old information on your site. It wouldn’t have been possible for me to grow as quickly as I did without a written plan.

Finally, get professional SEO help if you need it. Not all business owners have the time to stay on top of marketing, especially since it changes so fast. A professional can often get results much faster — and actually save you money in the long run.

What crawling and indexing tactics have you tried? What were your results?

The post How to Get Google to Instantly Index Your New Website appeared first on Neil Patel.

Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/google-index/ via https://neilpatel.com

See the original post, How to Get Google to Instantly Index Your New Website that is shared from https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home/how-to-get-google-to-instantly-index-your-new-website via https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home

[gordonwilliamsweb]

The Hidden Deaths Of The COVID Pandemic

BROOMFIELD, Colo. — Sara Wittner had seemingly gotten her life back under control. After a December relapse in her battle with drug addiction, the 32-year-old completed a 30-day detox program and started taking a monthly injection to block her cravings for opioids. She was engaged to be married, working for a local health association and counseling others about drug addiction.

More From The Mountain States

View More

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The virus knocked down all the supports she had carefully built around her: no more in-person Narcotics Anonymous meetings, no talks over coffee with a trusted friend or her addiction recovery sponsor. As the virus stressed hospitals and clinics, her appointment to get the next monthly shot of medication was moved back from 30 days to 45 days.

As best her family could reconstruct from the messages on her phone, Wittner started using again on April 12, Easter Sunday, more than a week after her originally scheduled appointment, when she should have gotten her next injection. She couldn’t stave off the cravings any longer as she waited for her appointment that coming Friday. She used again that Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We kind of know her thought process was that ‘I can make it. I’ll go get my shot tomorrow,’” said her father, Leon Wittner. “‘I’ve just got to get through this one more day and then I’ll be OK.’”

But on Thursday morning, the day before her appointment, her sister Grace Sekera found her curled up in bed at her parents’ home in this Denver suburb, blood pooling on the right side of her body, foam on her lips, still clutching a syringe. Her father suspects she died of a fentanyl overdose.

However, he said, what really killed her was the coronavirus.

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Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

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“Anybody that is struggling with a substance abuse disorder, anybody that has an alcohol issue and anybody with mental health issues, all of a sudden, whatever safety nets they had for the most part are gone,” he said. “And those are people that are living right on the edge of that razor.”

Sara Wittner’s death is just one example of how complicated it is to track the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic — and even what should be counted. Some people who get COVID-19 die of COVID-19. Some people who have COVID die of something else. And then there are people who die because of disruptions created by the pandemic.

While public health officials are trying to gather data on how many people test positive for the coronavirus and how many people die from the infection, the pandemic has left an untold number dying in the shadows, not directly because of the virus but still because of it. They are unaccounted for in the official tally, which, as of June 21, has topped 119,000 in the U.S.

But the lack of immediate clarity on the numbers of people actually dying from COVID-19 has some onlookers, ranging from conspiracy theorists on Twitter all the way to President Donald Trump, claiming the tallies are exaggerated — even before they include deaths like Wittner’s. That has undermined confidence in the accuracy of the death toll and made it harder for public health officials to implement infection prevention measures.

Yet experts are certain that a lack of widespread testing, variations in how the cause of death is recorded, and the economic and social disruption the virus has caused are hiding the full extent of its death toll.

How To Count

In the U.S., COVID-19 is a “notifiable disease” — doctors, coroners, hospitals and nursing homes must report when encountering someone who tests positive for the infection, and when a person who is known to have the virus dies. That provides a nearly real-time surveillance system for health officials to gauge where and to what extent outbreaks are happening. But it’s a system designed for speed over accuracy; it will invariably include deaths not caused by the virus as well as miss deaths that were.

For example, a person diagnosed with COVID-19 who dies in a car accident could be included in the data. But someone who dies of COVID-19 at home might be missed if they were never tested. Nonetheless, the numbers are close enough to serve as an early-warning system.

“They’re really meant to be simple,” Colorado state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said. “They apply these black-and-white criteria to often gray situations. But they are a way for us to systematically collect this data in a simple and rapid fashion.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Sara Wittner completed a 30-day detox program and started taking a monthly injection to block her addiction cravings. Yet the virus destroyed the support system she had built, including stopping her in-person Narcotics Anonymous meetings and delaying that monthly shot of medication. Wittner died in April, and her death is just one example of how complicated it is to track the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic.(Courtesy of Leon Wittner)

For that reason, she said, the numbers don’t always align with death certificate data, which takes much more time to review and classify. And even those can be subjective. Death certificates are usually completed by a doctor who was treating that person at the time of death or by medical examiners or coroners when patients die outside of a health care facility. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines allow for doctors to attribute a death to a “presumed” or “probable” COVID infection in the absence of a positive test if the patient’s symptoms or circumstances warrant it. Those completing the forms apply their individual medical judgment, though, which can lead to variations from state to state or even county to county in whether a death is attributed to COVID-19.

Furthermore, it can take weeks, if not months, for the death certificate data to move up the ladder from county to state to federal agencies, with reviews for accuracy at each level, creating a lag in those more official numbers. And they may still miss many COVID-19 deaths of people who were never tested.

That’s why the two methods of counting deaths can yield different tallies, leading some to conclude that officials are fouling up the numbers. And neither approach would capture the number of people who died because they didn’t seek care — and certainly will miss indirect deaths like Wittner’s where care was disrupted by the pandemic.

“All those things, unfortunately, are not going to be determined by the death record,” says Oscar Alleyne, chief of programs and services for the National Association of City and County Health Officials.

Using Historical Data To Understand Today’s Toll

That’s why researchers track what are known as “excess” deaths. The public health system has been cataloging all deaths on a county-by-county basis for more than a century, providing a good sense of how many deaths can be expected every year. The number of deaths above that baseline in 2020 could tell the extent of the pandemic.

For example, from March 11 to May 2, New York City recorded 32,107 deaths. Laboratories confirmed 13,831 of those were COVID-19 deaths and doctors categorized another 5,048 of them as probable COVID-19 cases. That’s far more deaths than what historically occurred in the city. From 2014 through 2019, the city averaged just 7,935 deaths during that time of year. Yet when taking into account the historical deaths to assume what might occur normally, plus the COVID cases, that still leaves 5,293 deaths not explained in this year’s death toll. Experts believe that most of those deaths could be either directly or indirectly caused by the pandemic.

City health officials reported about 200 at-home deaths per day during the height of the pandemic, compared with a daily average 35 between 2013 and 2017. Again, experts believe that excess is presumably caused either directly or indirectly by the pandemic.

And nationally, a recent analysis of obituaries by the Health Care Cost Institute found that, for April, the number of deaths in the U.S. was running about 12% higher than the average from 2014 through 2019.

“The excess mortality tells the story,” said Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “We can see that COVID is having a historic effect on the number of deaths in our community.”

These multiple approaches, however, have many skeptics crying foul, accusing health officials of cooking the books to make the pandemic seem worse than it is. In Montana, for example, a Flathead County health board member cast doubt over official COVID-19 death tolls, and Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson questioned the death rate during an April broadcast. That has sowed seeds of doubt. Some social media posts claim that a family member or friend died at home of a heart attack but that the cause of death was inaccurately listed as COVID-19, leading some to question the need for lockdowns or other precautions.

“For every one of those cases that might be as that person said, there must be dozens of cases where the death was caused by coronavirus and the person wouldn’t have died of that heart attack — or wouldn’t have died until years later,” Faust said. “At the moment, those anecdotes are the exceptions, not the rule.”

At the same time, the excess deaths tally would also capture cases like Wittner’s, where the usual access to health care was disrupted.

A recent analysis from Well Being Trust, a national public health foundation, predicted as many as 75,000 people might die from suicide, overdose or alcohol abuse, triggered by the uncertainty and unemployment caused by the pandemic.

“People lose their jobs and they lose their sense of purpose and become despondent, and you sometimes see them lose their lives,” said Benjamin Miller, Well Being’s chief strategy officer, citing a 2017 study that found that for every percentage point increase in unemployment, opioid overdose deaths increased 3.6%.

var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1591383787034'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; vizElement.style.width='770px';vizElement.style.height='737px'; var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement);

Source: Health Care Cost Institute

Meanwhile, hospitals across the nation have seen a drop-off in non-COVID patients, including those with symptoms of heart attacks or strokes, suggesting many people aren’t seeking care for life-threatening conditions and may be dying at home. Denver cardiologist Dr. Payal Kohli calls that phenomenon “coronaphobia.”

Kohli expects a new wave of deaths over the next year from all the chronic illnesses that aren’t being treated during the pandemic.

“You’re not necessarily going to see the direct effect of poor diabetes management now, but when you start having kidney dysfunction and other problems in 12 to 18 months, that’s the direct result of the pandemic,” Kohli said. “As we’re flattening the curve of the pandemic, we’re actually steepening all these other curves.”

Lessons From Hurricane Maria’s Shifting Death Toll

That’s what happened when Hurricane Maria pummeled Puerto Rico in 2017, disrupting normal life and undermining the island’s health system. Initially, the death toll from the storm was set at 64 people. But more than a year later, the official toll was updated to 2,975, based on an analysis from George Washington University that factored in the indirect deaths caused by the storm’s disruptions. Even so, a Harvard study calculated the excess deaths caused by the hurricane were likely far higher, topping 4,600.

The numbers became a political hot potato, as critics blasted the Trump administration over its response to the hurricane. That prompted the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ask the National Academy of Sciences to study how best to calculate the full death toll from a natural disaster. That report is due in July, and those who wrote it are now considering how their recommendations apply to the current pandemic — and how to avoid the same politicization that befell the Hurricane Maria death toll.

Leon Wittner with his daughter Sara as a child. “We kind of know her thought process was that ‘I can make it. I’ll go get my shot tomorrow. I’ve just got to get through this one more day and then I’ll be OK,’” Leon Wittner says of his 32-year-old daughter’s struggle to beat her addiction after COVID-19 began impacting her sobriety supports. Sara Wittner died in April, and Leon Wittner suspects it was from a fentanyl overdose. But he also blames the coronavirus pandemic.(Courtesy of Leon Wittner)

“You have some stakeholders who want to downplay things and make it sound like we’ve had a wonderful response, it all worked beautifully,” said Dr. Matthew Wynia, director of the University of Colorado Center for Bioethics and Humanities and a member of the study committee. “And you’ve got others who say, ‘No, no, no. Look at all the people who were harmed.’”

Calculations for the ongoing pandemic will be even more complicated than for a point-in-time event like a hurricane or wildfire. The indirect impact of COVID-19 might last for months, if not years, after the virus stops spreading and the economy improves.

But Wittner’s family knows they already want her death to be counted.

Throughout her high school years, Sekera dreaded entering the house before her parents came home for fear of finding her sister dead. When the pandemic forced them all indoors together, that fear turned to reality.

“No little sister should have to go through that. No parent should have to go through that,” she said. “There should be ample resources, especially at a time like this when they’re cut off from the world.”

The Hidden Deaths Of The COVID Pandemic published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[stephenmccull]

The Hidden Deaths Of The COVID Pandemic

BROOMFIELD, Colo. — Sara Wittner had seemingly gotten her life back under control. After a December relapse in her battle with drug addiction, the 32-year-old completed a 30-day detox program and started taking a monthly injection to block her cravings for opioids. She was engaged to be married, working for a local health association and counseling others about drug addiction.

More From The Mountain States

View More

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The virus knocked down all the supports she had carefully built around her: no more in-person Narcotics Anonymous meetings, no talks over coffee with a trusted friend or her addiction recovery sponsor. As the virus stressed hospitals and clinics, her appointment to get the next monthly shot of medication was moved back from 30 days to 45 days.

As best her family could reconstruct from the messages on her phone, Wittner started using again on April 12, Easter Sunday, more than a week after her originally scheduled appointment, when she should have gotten her next injection. She couldn’t stave off the cravings any longer as she waited for her appointment that coming Friday. She used again that Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We kind of know her thought process was that ‘I can make it. I’ll go get my shot tomorrow,’” said her father, Leon Wittner. “‘I’ve just got to get through this one more day and then I’ll be OK.’���

But on Thursday morning, the day before her appointment, her sister Grace Sekera found her curled up in bed at her parents’ home in this Denver suburb, blood pooling on the right side of her body, foam on her lips, still clutching a syringe. Her father suspects she died of a fentanyl overdose.

However, he said, what really killed her was the coronavirus.

Email Sign-Up

Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

Sign Up

Please confirm your email address below:

Sign Up

“Anybody that is struggling with a substance abuse disorder, anybody that has an alcohol issue and anybody with mental health issues, all of a sudden, whatever safety nets they had for the most part are gone,” he said. “And those are people that are living right on the edge of that razor.”

Sara Wittner’s death is just one example of how complicated it is to track the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic — and even what should be counted. Some people who get COVID-19 die of COVID-19. Some people who have COVID die of something else. And then there are people who die because of disruptions created by the pandemic.

While public health officials are trying to gather data on how many people test positive for the coronavirus and how many people die from the infection, the pandemic has left an untold number dying in the shadows, not directly because of the virus but still because of it. They are unaccounted for in the official tally, which, as of June 21, has topped 119,000 in the U.S.

But the lack of immediate clarity on the numbers of people actually dying from COVID-19 has some onlookers, ranging from conspiracy theorists on Twitter all the way to President Donald Trump, claiming the tallies are exaggerated — even before they include deaths like Wittner’s. That has undermined confidence in the accuracy of the death toll and made it harder for public health officials to implement infection prevention measures.

Yet experts are certain that a lack of widespread testing, variations in how the cause of death is recorded, and the economic and social disruption the virus has caused are hiding the full extent of its death toll.

How To Count

In the U.S., COVID-19 is a “notifiable disease” — doctors, coroners, hospitals and nursing homes must report when encountering someone who tests positive for the infection, and when a person who is known to have the virus dies. That provides a nearly real-time surveillance system for health officials to gauge where and to what extent outbreaks are happening. But it’s a system designed for speed over accuracy; it will invariably include deaths not caused by the virus as well as miss deaths that were.

For example, a person diagnosed with COVID-19 who dies in a car accident could be included in the data. But someone who dies of COVID-19 at home might be missed if they were never tested. Nonetheless, the numbers are close enough to serve as an early-warning system.

“They’re really meant to be simple,” Colorado state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said. “They apply these black-and-white criteria to often gray situations. But they are a way for us to systematically collect this data in a simple and rapid fashion.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Sara Wittner completed a 30-day detox program and started taking a monthly injection to block her addiction cravings. Yet the virus destroyed the support system she had built, including stopping her in-person Narcotics Anonymous meetings and delaying that monthly shot of medication. Wittner died in April, and her death is just one example of how complicated it is to track the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic.(Courtesy of Leon Wittner)

For that reason, she said, the numbers don’t always align with death certificate data, which takes much more time to review and classify. And even those can be subjective. Death certificates are usually completed by a doctor who was treating that person at the time of death or by medical examiners or coroners when patients die outside of a health care facility. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines allow for doctors to attribute a death to a “presumed” or “probable” COVID infection in the absence of a positive test if the patient’s symptoms or circumstances warrant it. Those completing the forms apply their individual medical judgment, though, which can lead to variations from state to state or even county to county in whether a death is attributed to COVID-19.

Furthermore, it can take weeks, if not months, for the death certificate data to move up the ladder from county to state to federal agencies, with reviews for accuracy at each level, creating a lag in those more official numbers. And they may still miss many COVID-19 deaths of people who were never tested.

That’s why the two methods of counting deaths can yield different tallies, leading some to conclude that officials are fouling up the numbers. And neither approach would capture the number of people who died because they didn’t seek care — and certainly will miss indirect deaths like Wittner’s where care was disrupted by the pandemic.

“All those things, unfortunately, are not going to be determined by the death record,” says Oscar Alleyne, chief of programs and services for the National Association of City and County Health Officials.

Using Historical Data To Understand Today’s Toll

That’s why researchers track what are known as “excess” deaths. The public health system has been cataloging all deaths on a county-by-county basis for more than a century, providing a good sense of how many deaths can be expected every year. The number of deaths above that baseline in 2020 could tell the extent of the pandemic.

For example, from March 11 to May 2, New York City recorded 32,107 deaths. Laboratories confirmed 13,831 of those were COVID-19 deaths and doctors categorized another 5,048 of them as probable COVID-19 cases. That’s far more deaths than what historically occurred in the city. From 2014 through 2019, the city averaged just 7,935 deaths during that time of year. Yet when taking into account the historical deaths to assume what might occur normally, plus the COVID cases, that still leaves 5,293 deaths not explained in this year’s death toll. Experts believe that most of those deaths could be either directly or indirectly caused by the pandemic.

City health officials reported about 200 at-home deaths per day during the height of the pandemic, compared with a daily average 35 between 2013 and 2017. Again, experts believe that excess is presumably caused either directly or indirectly by the pandemic.

And nationally, a recent analysis of obituaries by the Health Care Cost Institute found that, for April, the number of deaths in the U.S. was running about 12% higher than the average from 2014 through 2019.

“The excess mortality tells the story,” said Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “We can see that COVID is having a historic effect on the number of deaths in our community.”

These multiple approaches, however, have many skeptics crying foul, accusing health officials of cooking the books to make the pandemic seem worse than it is. In Montana, for example, a Flathead County health board member cast doubt over official COVID-19 death tolls, and Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson questioned the death rate during an April broadcast. That has sowed seeds of doubt. Some social media posts claim that a family member or friend died at home of a heart attack but that the cause of death was inaccurately listed as COVID-19, leading some to question the need for lockdowns or other precautions.

“For every one of those cases that might be as that person said, there must be dozens of cases where the death was caused by coronavirus and the person wouldn’t have died of that heart attack — or wouldn’t have died until years later,” Faust said. “At the moment, those anecdotes are the exceptions, not the rule.”

At the same time, the excess deaths tally would also capture cases like Wittner’s, where the usual access to health care was disrupted.

A recent analysis from Well Being Trust, a national public health foundation, predicted as many as 75,000 people might die from suicide, overdose or alcohol abuse, triggered by the uncertainty and unemployment caused by the pandemic.

“People lose their jobs and they lose their sense of purpose and become despondent, and you sometimes see them lose their lives,” said Benjamin Miller, Well Being’s chief strategy officer, citing a 2017 study that found that for every percentage point increase in unemployment, opioid overdose deaths increased 3.6%.

var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1591383787034'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; vizElement.style.width='770px';vizElement.style.height='737px'; var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement);

Source: Health Care Cost Institute

Meanwhile, hospitals across the nation have seen a drop-off in non-COVID patients, including those with symptoms of heart attacks or strokes, suggesting many people aren’t seeking care for life-threatening conditions and may be dying at home. Denver cardiologist Dr. Payal Kohli calls that phenomenon “coronaphobia.”

Kohli expects a new wave of deaths over the next year from all the chronic illnesses that aren’t being treated during the pandemic.

“You’re not necessarily going to see the direct effect of poor diabetes management now, but when you start having kidney dysfunction and other problems in 12 to 18 months, that’s the direct result of the pandemic,” Kohli said. “As we’re flattening the curve of the pandemic, we’re actually steepening all these other curves.”

Lessons From Hurricane Maria’s Shifting Death Toll

That’s what happened when Hurricane Maria pummeled Puerto Rico in 2017, disrupting normal life and undermining the island’s health system. Initially, the death toll from the storm was set at 64 people. But more than a year later, the official toll was updated to 2,975, based on an analysis from George Washington University that factored in the indirect deaths caused by the storm’s disruptions. Even so, a Harvard study calculated the excess deaths caused by the hurricane were likely far higher, topping 4,600.

The numbers became a political hot potato, as critics blasted the Trump administration over its response to the hurricane. That prompted the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ask the National Academy of Sciences to study how best to calculate the full death toll from a natural disaster. That report is due in July, and those who wrote it are now considering how their recommendations apply to the current pandemic — and how to avoid the same politicization that befell the Hurricane Maria death toll.

Leon Wittner with his daughter Sara as a child. “We kind of know her thought process was that ‘I can make it. I’ll go get my shot tomorrow. I’ve just got to get through this one more day and then I’ll be OK,’” Leon Wittner says of his 32-year-old daughter’s struggle to beat her addiction after COVID-19 began impacting her sobriety supports. Sara Wittner died in April, and Leon Wittner suspects it was from a fentanyl overdose. But he also blames the coronavirus pandemic.(Courtesy of Leon Wittner)

“You have some stakeholders who want to downplay things and make it sound like we’ve had a wonderful response, it all worked beautifully,” said Dr. Matthew Wynia, director of the University of Colorado Center for Bioethics and Humanities and a member of the study committee. “And you’ve got others who say, ‘No, no, no. Look at all the people who were harmed.’”

Calculations for the ongoing pandemic will be even more complicated than for a point-in-time event like a hurricane or wildfire. The indirect impact of COVID-19 might last for months, if not years, after the virus stops spreading and the economy improves.

But Wittner’s family knows they already want her death to be counted.

Throughout her high school years, Sekera dreaded entering the house before her parents came home for fear of finding her sister dead. When the pandemic forced them all indoors together, that fear turned to reality.

“No little sister should have to go through that. No parent should have to go through that,” she said. “There should be ample resources, especially at a time like this when they’re cut off from the world.”

The Hidden Deaths Of The COVID Pandemic published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[dinafbrownil]

The Hidden Deaths Of The COVID Pandemic

BROOMFIELD, Colo. — Sara Wittner had seemingly gotten her life back under control. After a December relapse in her battle with drug addiction, the 32-year-old completed a 30-day detox program and started taking a monthly injection to block her cravings for opioids. She was engaged to be married, working for a local health association and counseling others about drug addiction.

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Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The virus knocked down all the supports she had carefully built around her: no more in-person Narcotics Anonymous meetings, no talks over coffee with a trusted friend or her addiction recovery sponsor. As the virus stressed hospitals and clinics, her appointment to get the next monthly shot of medication was moved back from 30 days to 45 days.

As best her family could reconstruct from the messages on her phone, Wittner started using again on April 12, Easter Sunday, more than a week after her originally scheduled appointment, when she should have gotten her next injection. She couldn’t stave off the cravings any longer as she waited for her appointment that coming Friday. She used again that Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We kind of know her thought process was that ‘I can make it. I’ll go get my shot tomorrow,’” said her father, Leon Wittner. “‘I’ve just got to get through this one more day and then I’ll be OK.’”

But on Thursday morning, the day before her appointment, her sister Grace Sekera found her curled up in bed at her parents’ home in this Denver suburb, blood pooling on the right side of her body, foam on her lips, still clutching a syringe. Her father suspects she died of a fentanyl overdose.

However, he said, what really killed her was the coronavirus.

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“Anybody that is struggling with a substance abuse disorder, anybody that has an alcohol issue and anybody with mental health issues, all of a sudden, whatever safety nets they had for the most part are gone,” he said. “And those are people that are living right on the edge of that razor.”

Sara Wittner’s death is just one example of how complicated it is to track the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic — and even what should be counted. Some people who get COVID-19 die of COVID-19. Some people who have COVID die of something else. And then there are people who die because of disruptions created by the pandemic.

While public health officials are trying to gather data on how many people test positive for the coronavirus and how many people die from the infection, the pandemic has left an untold number dying in the shadows, not directly because of the virus but still because of it. They are unaccounted for in the official tally, which, as of June 21, has topped 119,000 in the U.S.

But the lack of immediate clarity on the numbers of people actually dying from COVID-19 has some onlookers, ranging from conspiracy theorists on Twitter all the way to President Donald Trump, claiming the tallies are exaggerated — even before they include deaths like Wittner’s. That has undermined confidence in the accuracy of the death toll and made it harder for public health officials to implement infection prevention measures.

Yet experts are certain that a lack of widespread testing, variations in how the cause of death is recorded, and the economic and social disruption the virus has caused are hiding the full extent of its death toll.

How To Count

In the U.S., COVID-19 is a “notifiable disease” — doctors, coroners, hospitals and nursing homes must report when encountering someone who tests positive for the infection, and when a person who is known to have the virus dies. That provides a nearly real-time surveillance system for health officials to gauge where and to what extent outbreaks are happening. But it’s a system designed for speed over accuracy; it will invariably include deaths not caused by the virus as well as miss deaths that were.

For example, a person diagnosed with COVID-19 who dies in a car accident could be included in the data. But someone who dies of COVID-19 at home might be missed if they were never tested. Nonetheless, the numbers are close enough to serve as an early-warning system.

“They’re really meant to be simple,” Colorado state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said. “They apply these black-and-white criteria to often gray situations. But they are a way for us to systematically collect this data in a simple and rapid fashion.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Sara Wittner completed a 30-day detox program and started taking a monthly injection to block her addiction cravings. Yet the virus destroyed the support system she had built, including stopping her in-person Narcotics Anonymous meetings and delaying that monthly shot of medication. Wittner died in April, and her death is just one example of how complicated it is to track the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic.(Courtesy of Leon Wittner)

For that reason, she said, the numbers don’t always align with death certificate data, which takes much more time to review and classify. And even those can be subjective. Death certificates are usually completed by a doctor who was treating that person at the time of death or by medical examiners or coroners when patients die outside of a health care facility. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines allow for doctors to attribute a death to a “presumed” or “probable” COVID infection in the absence of a positive test if the patient’s symptoms or circumstances warrant it. Those completing the forms apply their individual medical judgment, though, which can lead to variations from state to state or even county to county in whether a death is attributed to COVID-19.

Furthermore, it can take weeks, if not months, for the death certificate data to move up the ladder from county to state to federal agencies, with reviews for accuracy at each level, creating a lag in those more official numbers. And they may still miss many COVID-19 deaths of people who were never tested.

That’s why the two methods of counting deaths can yield different tallies, leading some to conclude that officials are fouling up the numbers. And neither approach would capture the number of people who died because they didn’t seek care — and certainly will miss indirect deaths like Wittner’s where care was disrupted by the pandemic.

“All those things, unfortunately, are not going to be determined by the death record,” says Oscar Alleyne, chief of programs and services for the National Association of City and County Health Officials.

Using Historical Data To Understand Today’s Toll

That’s why researchers track what are known as “excess” deaths. The public health system has been cataloging all deaths on a county-by-county basis for more than a century, providing a good sense of how many deaths can be expected every year. The number of deaths above that baseline in 2020 could tell the extent of the pandemic.

For example, from March 11 to May 2, New York City recorded 32,107 deaths. Laboratories confirmed 13,831 of those were COVID-19 deaths and doctors categorized another 5,048 of them as probable COVID-19 cases. That’s far more deaths than what historically occurred in the city. From 2014 through 2019, the city averaged just 7,935 deaths during that time of year. Yet when taking into account the historical deaths to assume what might occur normally, plus the COVID cases, that still leaves 5,293 deaths not explained in this year’s death toll. Experts believe that most of those deaths could be either directly or indirectly caused by the pandemic.

City health officials reported about 200 at-home deaths per day during the height of the pandemic, compared with a daily average 35 between 2013 and 2017. Again, experts believe that excess is presumably caused either directly or indirectly by the pandemic.

And nationally, a recent analysis of obituaries by the Health Care Cost Institute found that, for April, the number of deaths in the U.S. was running about 12% higher than the average from 2014 through 2019.

“The excess mortality tells the story,” said Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “We can see that COVID is having a historic effect on the number of deaths in our community.”

These multiple approaches, however, have many skeptics crying foul, accusing health officials of cooking the books to make the pandemic seem worse than it is. In Montana, for example, a Flathead County health board member cast doubt over official COVID-19 death tolls, and Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson questioned the death rate during an April broadcast. That has sowed seeds of doubt. Some social media posts claim that a family member or friend died at home of a heart attack but that the cause of death was inaccurately listed as COVID-19, leading some to question the need for lockdowns or other precautions.

“For every one of those cases that might be as that person said, there must be dozens of cases where the death was caused by coronavirus and the person wouldn’t have died of that heart attack — or wouldn’t have died until years later,” Faust said. “At the moment, those anecdotes are the exceptions, not the rule.”

At the same time, the excess deaths tally would also capture cases like Wittner’s, where the usual access to health care was disrupted.

A recent analysis from Well Being Trust, a national public health foundation, predicted as many as 75,000 people might die from suicide, overdose or alcohol abuse, triggered by the uncertainty and unemployment caused by the pandemic.

“People lose their jobs and they lose their sense of purpose and become despondent, and you sometimes see them lose their lives,” said Benjamin Miller, Well Being’s chief strategy officer, citing a 2017 study that found that for every percentage point increase in unemployment, opioid overdose deaths increased 3.6%.

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Source: Health Care Cost Institute

Meanwhile, hospitals across the nation have seen a drop-off in non-COVID patients, including those with symptoms of heart attacks or strokes, suggesting many people aren’t seeking care for life-threatening conditions and may be dying at home. Denver cardiologist Dr. Payal Kohli calls that phenomenon “coronaphobia.”

Kohli expects a new wave of deaths over the next year from all the chronic illnesses that aren’t being treated during the pandemic.

“You’re not necessarily going to see the direct effect of poor diabetes management now, but when you start having kidney dysfunction and other problems in 12 to 18 months, that’s the direct result of the pandemic,” Kohli said. “As we’re flattening the curve of the pandemic, we’re actually steepening all these other curves.”

Lessons From Hurricane Maria’s Shifting Death Toll

That’s what happened when Hurricane Maria pummeled Puerto Rico in 2017, disrupting normal life and undermining the island’s health system. Initially, the death toll from the storm was set at 64 people. But more than a year later, the official toll was updated to 2,975, based on an analysis from George Washington University that factored in the indirect deaths caused by the storm’s disruptions. Even so, a Harvard study calculated the excess deaths caused by the hurricane were likely far higher, topping 4,600.

The numbers became a political hot potato, as critics blasted the Trump administration over its response to the hurricane. That prompted the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ask the National Academy of Sciences to study how best to calculate the full death toll from a natural disaster. That report is due in July, and those who wrote it are now considering how their recommendations apply to the current pandemic — and how to avoid the same politicization that befell the Hurricane Maria death toll.

Leon Wittner with his daughter Sara as a child. “We kind of know her thought process was that ‘I can make it. I’ll go get my shot tomorrow. I’ve just got to get through this one more day and then I’ll be OK,’” Leon Wittner says of his 32-year-old daughter’s struggle to beat her addiction after COVID-19 began impacting her sobriety supports. Sara Wittner died in April, and Leon Wittner suspects it was from a fentanyl overdose. But he also blames the coronavirus pandemic.(Courtesy of Leon Wittner)

“You have some stakeholders who want to downplay things and make it sound like we’ve had a wonderful response, it all worked beautifully,” said Dr. Matthew Wynia, director of the University of Colorado Center for Bioethics and Humanities and a member of the study committee. “And you’ve got others who say, ‘No, no, no. Look at all the people who were harmed.’”

Calculations for the ongoing pandemic will be even more complicated than for a point-in-time event like a hurricane or wildfire. The indirect impact of COVID-19 might last for months, if not years, after the virus stops spreading and the economy improves.

But Wittner’s family knows they already want her death to be counted.

Throughout her high school years, Sekera dreaded entering the house before her parents came home for fear of finding her sister dead. When the pandemic forced them all indoors together, that fear turned to reality.

“No little sister should have to go through that. No parent should have to go through that,” she said. “There should be ample resources, especially at a time like this when they’re cut off from the world.”

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/death-records-coronavirus-casualty-count-the-hidden-deaths-of-the-covid-pandemic/

[theonyxpath]

Yes, we stumbled back to a fully attended Monday Meeting today – the first one where we were all there in quite some time with GenCon and vacations and all. A good and informational meeting nevertheless.

They’re not all that way, though. We have 50ish of them a year, and sometimes the energy level all around is low. Sometimes the upset level is really high, like if we’re all under stress or if a social media flame-war is flaring around us. Sometimes I’m the crabby one, and so I set us off in the wrong direction. Feelings get hurt when you have a lot of intensely dedicated and creative folks trying to wrestle our schedules together and make them work.

But. Not today.

A lot of that, no doubt is because we’re seeing movement on projects that, for a variety of reasons, had been bogged down for a long time. Not everything that is lagging but most of the real long-term ones, so if we can catch up on the latest and keep getting tighter on the newer projects: we’ll be rockin’.

That’s the result of the very hard work our crew put forth in the first half of the year. Not just their personal work of writing, developing, editing, but their efforts at working together and helping our freelance talent focus and push their work forward. Helping others create is, it turns out, really difficult!

(Just as examples, I’m looking at WoD: Ghost Hunters, M20 Book of the Fallen, and Signs of Sorcery for Mage: The Awakening as the most egregious examples. Even Wraith20 has gone to press and the Scion core books are working together they way we have tried so long to make happen).

    Dystopia Rising: Evolution Mutant art by Aaron Riley

    Our Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter is also lurching forward right now into the wastelands of a Kickstarter’s time-frame – that very slow pledge time before things pick up close to the end. If you pledged; thanks so much and please tell your friends. If you haven’t, here are some reasons why we think this is a very cool game to play and might inspire you to check out the KS here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/dystopia-rising-evolution-tabletop-rpg

1- Characters don’t necessarily die forever when they are killed. The path to a shambling zombie starts with your first resurrection at the behest of an entity known as the Gravemind. This means, gameplay-wise, that you can play Dystopia Rising: Evolution with a sense of lurking doom ala The Walking Dead, or as a contrast, you can play balls-to-the-wall like the Mad Max universe because you can blow up real good and still come back!

Could the Gravemind be pulled from DR:E and used in any of our other games? Well, just as an example I thought of this afternoon as I thought about this blog, I’m wondering if the Gravemind could arise as a rival to the God-Machine in a Chronicles of Darkness chronicle. It is clearly messing with the order set down by the G-M…or is it?

2- As I think I mentioned last week, Eddy adapted the Storypath System to create a simple but strong system for finding, retrieving, and pulling useful items from scrap. If your thing is using your real world knowledge in a post-apocalyptic setting, this here’s a built-in framework in the game to really enable you to use that info. With physical items also being degraded by the Gravemind, being able to fabricate the things needed for survival is one of the best and integrated uses for a “crafting” system in a game I’ve ever heard of.

3- While Dystopia Rising: Evolution is definitely a grim and scary post-apocalyptic world, it is also a world where settlements are surviving and growing. There is a sense of hope and community that can serve as a counterpoint and a backdrop to the hard tales of hard survivors making hard decisions. Included are rules for those settlements and how they can work (or not).

4- You don’t have to take my word for it. As we’ve done with almost all of our recent Kickstarters, we are releasing a section of the book each week and before the end of the KS backers will be able to download the complete edited text and dig in for their favorite sections!

      Changeling 20th Players Guide art by Drew Tucker

    As if you have not heard enough about this damn Dystopia Rising: Evolution game, I do strongly suggest that if you want to know about the thinking behind the game – and this is some really fascinating, in-depth, discussions of both the reasons for the game design and the thinking behind the last ten years of the game world’s creation and growth – that you download and listen to last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast.

Eddy interviews the very people that started Dystopia Rising as a LARP over a decade ago, Michael Pucci and Ashley Zdeb, and then created a tabletop RPG version that Dystopia Rising: Evolution is the new edition of. Some of the highlights of what they discuss are:

Eddy admits to an error in the Kickstarter

The history of Dystopia Rising

How Eddy and Onyx Path came into the picture

Faithful licensing vs “throw it all away if you want”

Disability as post-apocalypse trope

The struggles of introducing inclusivity over the past decade

The push and pull of abstracted social tension vs community building

The switch from 20+ Strains to 8 Lineages

Here the link to our Onyx Pathcast page on PodBean, although you can find it at your favorite podcast venue too: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

This Friday, the Terribly Terrific Trio will be back together and taking an in-depth deep dive into Vampire: The Masquerade, which makes sense considering our long history with it and the advent of V5, so it should be a good…no wait, dare I say it? A GREAT podcast this week! Yes!

    Changeling: The Lost 2e art by Mark Kelly

      Finally, although I added some info about this in our On Sale section below, just a word that sometime this week DTRPG.com will be running a week-long sale for 75% off of Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Mage: The Ascension PDFs. Not just the 20th Anniversary ones we have created, but all of them back through time.

We’re thrilled to be able to work together with White Wolf to offer you folks this chance to catch up on anything you are looking for, particularly with all the discussion featuring WoD, by new fans and long-time ones as well, due to the V5 interest and publicity.

And we’ll have another, different, combined sale running the week after this one!

There you go, so much is going on you need a scorecard to keep track of our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

  BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

    The Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter funded in less than a day, and two sections of the Threat Guide companion PDF Stretch Goal have been added, which is a first-person guide with mechanics to the various threats facing survivors in the DR:E world, and we are shambling forward to open up a Community Content site for the game!

Dystopia Rising: Evolution will be powered by Onyx Path’s Storypath system, and includes all the rules you need to play as a survivor in the post-apocalypse, including rules for creating characters for up to 24 different Strains, variations on humanity that survived the Fall. It also has details on the powers of faith and psionics, along with advice on running action-adventure stories, webs of personal intrigue, or procedural investigations. And, finally, dozens of antagonists, including a variety of zombies and raiders to use in your series.

Throughout this Kickstarter campaign, we will be posting complete previews of the Dystopia Rising: Evolution manuscript as backer-only updates.

  ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

  ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

  OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

    DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

Starting later this week, DTRPG together with White Wolf and Onyx Path are having a one week massive 75% off sale on all Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Mage: The Ascension PDFs!

  This Wednesday the original Scarred Lands Trilogy: Forsaken, Forsworn, and Forbidden by Richard Lee Byers, will now be available in PDF/ePub and physical trade paperback format PoDs on DriveThruRPG.com!

    CONVENTIONS!

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

Eddy will be speaking at Broadleaf Writers Conference (September 22-23) in Decatur, GA. He’ll be there to talk about writing for interactive fiction, and hanging out with other writers who have far more illustrious careers. http://broadleafwriters.com/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference-speakers/

Eddy will also be a featured guest at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, and will sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention

Monica Valentinelli will be a professional guest at Great Falls Gaming Convention in Montana the first week of October. http://gfgr.org/guests-of-honor/

Dixie Cochran will be at High Level Games Con in Atlantic City October 12-14, running a Women in Game Design panel, Eddy’s RPG Developer Bootcamp, and possibly making a surprise appearance at another event!

  And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)

  Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

  Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

  Development

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Fetch Quest (Pugmire)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

  Manuscript Approval:

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

  Editing:

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau) (With Eddy)

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Jumpstart (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

  Post-Editing Development:

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

  Indexing:

Changeling: The Lost 2e

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

  In Art Direction

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – KS is going.

M20: Gods and Monsters – AD’d and Contracted.

Geist 2e

The Realm

Trinity Continuum (Aeon and Core)

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – Finals coming in.

Chicago By Night – KS art contracted.

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Fetch Quest – Finishing package design

  Proofing

Scion Hero – Putting in Neal’s changes

PTC: Night Horrors: The Tormented

Scion Origin – Doing Neall’s errata changes, and swapping out the font.

VtR: Guide to the Night

Lost 2e Screen – At WW for approval

Requiem Journals – At WW for approval

  At Press

Monarchies of Mau – Printing. Dice and buttons printing.

Cavaliers of Mars – At Studio2.

Wraith 20th – Prepping the interior Deluxe files, cover design sent to printer.

Monarchies of Mau Screen – At Studio2.

Cavaliers of Mars Screen – At Studio2.

Wraith 20 Screen – Printing.

Scion Dice – At fulfillment shipper.

Cav Talent cards – PoD proof coming.

SL Trilogy Pt 1,2,3 – On sale this Wednesday!

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Like every year for this week, it is worth it to celebrate the sacrifice made by all the special responders, fire-fighters, police, and other heroes who gave their lives trying to help during 911. We celebrate that they had that spark which exists in humanity that flares up in times of crisis and enables regular people to put the lives of terrified strangers before their own.

[fadingfartconnoisseur]

How To Pick a Travel Blog Name

We literally get hundreds of emails asking us how to pick a travel blog name and it’s understandable why. Before you start a travel blog, you need to think long and hard about what it will be called.

The name of your blog (also known as Domain Name) is the bit that goes between the “www” and the “.com” of your website URL, but it’s so much more than that. The name will become your brand, your business, your income and your means for travel, so it’s one of the most important aspects of a travel blog.

But you shouldn’t let picking a name stop you from buying your domain and getting started with travel blogging.

Bluehost has an excellent feature where you can purchase a domain and choose to pick a travel blog name later, that way you can start to build your blog, design the style and find a direction in your content and then choose a perfect name a little later down the road.

To learn how to start a blog without choosing a name first, check out our How To Start a Travel Blog post.

If you have a name in mind already, you can use the domain checker below to see if it’s available in the domain registry. There’s no need to search hundreds of different domain registries because they all pull from the same database.

If it’s not available at Bluehost, it won’t be available anywhere else. If your name is available, I recommend buying it right away. I once had the perfect domain name that I wanted to purchase and within a week it was gone. You never know. It’s very cheap to purchase domain names and some people buy dozens of them

In this post I’m going to show you how to pick a travel blog name by using concrete data of what works and what doesn’t. There are certain absolute no-no’s when it comes to buying domains and there are quite a few things to think about for brandability, SEO (Google traffic), and overall design.

Names To Avoid

In order to show you how to pick a travel blog name, I need to first start with the no-no’s of a travel blog name because these are pretty cut and dry. By listing names to avoid, it will help to narrow down your list of possible names for your travel blog.

Don’t be cliché

Your name needs to stand out in a market of millions of travel blogs, so it’s best to avoid the cliché terms that you see pop up in 75% of travel blogs.

Try To Avoid These Words

Nomadic

Nomad

Backpacker

Backpacking

Budget

Vagabond

  Wandering

Wanderer

Adventurous

Global

Travelling

World

  Unless you can think of something extremely clever and unique using the above listed words, I would avoid them altogether. Your name needs to stand out in the crowd and by giving it an overused, played out name, you’d be starting off on the wrong foot.

Avoid Dashes, Symbols, Numbers & Periods

Any post online about how to pick a travel blog name will tell you the same thing. Don’t use numbers, hyphens or symbols.

For pure branding and SEO reasons, you should always avoid using these characters in any blog name. Our good friend Johnny Ward of OneStep4Ward is a great example.

He regrets using this name because every time he tells someone his blog he has to say: “It’s one, step, then the number 4, then ward”. This makes it so much harder to remember the name of the blog.

Similarly, your blog shouldn’t have a dash in it because every time you tell someone your name, you have to say “dash”. When they go back to their computers later and try to remember your blog, they may forget where to put the dash, or that there’s a dash altogether. It’s just confusing.

Lastly, it’s just not good for SEO to have numbers, symbols or punctuations in a name because in some cases, your name could reflect a search term that someone is typing into Google.

If your name has random numbers, dashes and symbols, it could dampen the exact match possibilities for those searching terms similar to your name. Make your name as easy to remember as possible and don’t use hyphens, numbers or symbols.

Purposely Misspelling

Keeping on the “easy to remember” domain name theory, don’t create a blog that purposely misspells words to sound cool. WorldTravelz would be a horrible name choice because it would force you to explain to every person you tell that the word travels is actually spelled with a “z”, and Google wouldn’t rank you for any terms including “travels” because you misspelled it.

On top of that, Google algorithms hate misspelling and grammatical errors because it shows unprofessionalism in content. You’d literally be damaging your blog if you purposely misspell the domain name.

Too Long

There are so many reasons not to have a really long domain name.

They’re much harder to remember

It’s hard to fit a long name in a logo or header area of a website

Domains are limited to 63 characters anyways.

The most common domain name length in relation to .com registrations is around 12-13 characters; and containing 2 words. This can give you a bit of an idea of how long your domain should be.

GoatsOnTheRoad is 14 characters and 4 words, which is a bit long and cumbersome. The saving grace for our name may be that it’s easy to remember. If you have the perfect name that’s a little bit longer than 13 characters, go for it. As long as it’s easy to remember.

Still, I wouldn’t choose a name with more than 18 characters and 4 words.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that Twitter only allows you to have 14 characters in your handle, so if you want people to easily be able to search and find you, it’s a good idea to keep your name under 14 characters so that it can be the exact same on Twitter.

What a Domain Name Should Be

Now that we’ve covered things to avoid when thinking about how to pick a travel blog name, it’s time to go over some things to keep in mind that can help you choose the perfect name. Keep in mind that the domain name is a reflection of your brand and what you’re looking to share with your readers. Take your time and use these points to think up something great.

Always Go With .com

First and foremost, you need to pick a travel blog name that is available in “.com”. You can choose .net, .org, .travel, .tv, or .info, but .com is by far the most commonly used and thus, easiest to remember suffix possible in a domain name.

It won’t affect your SEO if you choose another ending, but it will definitely be harder for other people to remember. You can buy all variations of your name if you want to, but .com should be your primary focus. Click Here to check and see if your domain name is available in .com.

Check Social

When you’re starting a new travel blog, you’re also going to have to start all of your social media accounts. At the very least, you should be able to have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube using your name.

I’ve covered a lot about how to pick a travel blog name already, but if it’s already been taken on the most popular social media channels, then you may want to consider another name.

To check and see if your social media username is available, you can head to NameChk.com and type your proposed username in the search field at the top of the page and click enter. Then you’ll see certain social media logos fade in the table below and that will tell you they are unavailable.

The Dark Blue Icons Are Social Media Accounts That Aren’t Available For “goatsontheroad”

As long as you can get Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and (if you plan to create videos) YouTube, then you don’t need to worry too much about the others.

Your Name Should Describe Your Blog

A great name should easily describe what your blog is all about. Goats On The Road does a terrible job of doing this, but again, perhaps because it’s quirky and memorable, it worked.

But choosing a name that has nothing to do with the content you’re going to create is an absolute no-no. ThePlanetD openly admitted that they regret choosing that name. It’s simply because they both have names that start with “D” (Dave and Deb) and they were going for a Lonely Planet type idea.

Luckily, they still made it in the industry, but their name is not the ideal example of a descriptive blog name. Some great examples are sites like Expert Vagabond, Cheapest Destinations Blog, Art Of Scuba Diving and Neverending Voyage. These all do a great job of explaining the brand and the niche within the name itself.

Using Your Own Name

There are loads of blog names out there that use the founders name, like Nomadic Matt, Nomadic Samuel, Wandering Earl, Travel With Bender etc. While I wouldn’t recommend following the basic formula of “Nomadic + Name”, it’s still possible to think of a clever name using your own name and make it memorable.

A lot of people have a blog name that simply is their name, like YeisonKim.com. This is a very professional way to create a blog name, but it’s not overly catchy in most cases.

Many people start a self-named blog as a secondary portfolio for photography, videography and personal growth, after they’ve already created a successful online business elsewhere. That’s not to say that a self-named blog can’t be a great one.

Keep in mind that if you’re starting a travel blog as a solo traveller, that’s great, but one day you may find that you hire more writers, you find love on the road or you start blogging about other things besides your personal travel adventures.

Unless you’re sure that you always want your blog to include at least some aspect of your personal story, and you’re always going to be the sole contributor, then you may consider avoiding using your name in the title.

Every blog name needs to have longevity, which brings me to the next point.

SEO Driven Domain Names

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a term that you’ll become very familiar with as you grow your blog. It basically means “make Google happy”.

Many things that we do as bloggers is with SEO in mind. We structure article titles and content with SEO in mind, we add keywords and link back to our site using SEO tactics, so why not start off on a good SEO foot and choose an SEO based name.

If you’re going to be writing on a specific topic and you know that many people are going to search Google for that topic, consider naming your blog that key term. For example, if you’re going to write strictly about backpacking in Central Asia, then your domain could be BackpackingCentralAsia.com.

This would immediately give you an upper hand when competing with other websites for search terms including “Backpacking Central Asia”.

Many people create new niche sites using domain names based solely on a keyword term they found in Google that has many searches per month.

Maybe “How to pick a travel blog name” gets 10,000 searches per month in google, then it may be a good idea to buy the domain “HowToPickaTravelBlogName.com” and see if How To Pick a Travel Blog Name is available on all social networks.

Choosing an SEO friendly name and creating a niche site based around it can be a great way to get a lot of traffic quickly. Just keep in mind that if you’re going to start a blog based on a specific term, you better make sure that you’ll be able to create hundreds of articles around that term and you’re not going to limit yourself too much by choosing an SEO name that’s too narrow.

Names With Longevity

Do not choose a name that you could grow out of. TwentiesTraveller.com may sound cool, but it’s definitely a name that you’ll grow out of. What happens when you turn 30? Sure you can still write about what it was like to travel in your twenties, and you could hire writers who are still in their twenties, but it’s better to choose a name that can grow with you.

Similarly (and I can’t stress this enough), I wouldn’t recommend using words like “budget”, “broke”, “cheap” and “poor” in your name.

At first, you may be able to lock down a niche of budget travel and you may see yourself travelling on a budget for a long time, but as your site starts to earn more money, you may find (as we have), that it’s nice to get a midrange hotel sometimes and sleeping in a dorm isn’t sustainable long-term (10+ years). Your travel style may change.

You can technically change your name and rebrand yourself down the road, but it’s a pain in the ass. It can take forever to change your social media names, you’d have to start a new domain from scratch and redirect your old one and it’s just not worth it.

Try to think of a name that doesn’t pigeon-hole you into one particular niche, travel style or age range, unless you’re 100% confident that you’ll always be writing on that topic.

Destination Based Names

If you know that you’re always going to be writing about Southeast Asia, then you may consider something like SoutheastAsianTraveller. Similarly, if you’re focusing your niche even finer, you could be the ChicagoFoodBlog.

Narrowing your domain name down to a specific region, country or even city can be a great way to nail down a niche location. But keep in mind that if you travel to other areas and you want to write about them, it won’t really fit under your blog name.

Memorable Names

This has been a common theme throughout this article, but I need to highlight that one of the most important parts of how to choose a name for a travel blog is making it memorable.

I’ve already mentioned in this article that you should choose a name with longevity, it should describe your blog, it should be the perfect length etc., but when it comes to figuring out how to pick a travel blog name, all of those rules play second fiddle to coming up with a truly unique and memorable name.

If you have a name in your head that you think people will remember right away, it’s unique, clever and easily brandable (thinking about logos and niches) then you should go for it. Goats On The Road goes against many of the name rules that I’ve listed in this post, but I believe that it worked because it’s very memorable.

You’ll Also Need a Great Tagline

On our Home Page you’ll see our logo at the top with our name, and directly below that you see our tagline: “Turn Travel Into a Lifestyle.”

This simple 5 word sentence does a pretty good job about explaining what our blog is all about. Learning how to sustain travel so that you can turn it into a life, rather than a holiday.

Your tagline should be a similar length and explain exactly what your blog is about. It can take a really long time to think of a good tagline, but don’t worry, you can keep working on it as your blog grows.

Narrowing Your Names Down

The best way to come up with the perfect name is to use a mind map. Get a big piece of paper or a whiteboard and start mapping out what your blog is about. Who is your target audience? What topics will you cover? Where will you be blogging about? What are your core values?

Use the words that you see in this mind map to start a list of potential names. Then go through those names and slowly scratch out the ones that don’t seem quite right. Ask friends and family if you need to and also check if their available by using the domain checker below, if they’re already taken, scratch them out.

Once you’ve narrowed it down to two or three names, it’s time to make the final decision. Keep in mind that you can start a blog without choosing a name and after you’ve written some posts, designed parts of the website and found a direction, you may find it easier to come up with a final choice for your name.

Ready To Start Your Blog?

Now you know how to pick a travel blog name. I’ve given you the information you need to choose the perfect blog name. Using the points in this blog post, you should be able to come up with a unique and memorable name that has longevity and is good for SEO.

But remember, even if you can’t think of a name, you can still start building your blog today.

Check out our How To Start a Travel Blog Guide to easily (and cheaply) start your new travel blog in just minutes. If you can’t think of a name, don’t worry, we’ll show you how to easily start a blog without a name, and then you can pick one at any time down the road!

How simple is that? As an added bonus, for a limited time we’re giving away our $20 eBook on how to create a successful blog absolutely free for anyone who starts a blog using our guide. What are you waiting for?! Now is the perfect time to start a travel blog and change your life forever.

Who knows, by this time next year you could be getting paid to travel the world. Go for it.

The post How To Pick a Travel Blog Name appeared first on Goats On The Road.

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[nbjackson]

Clips: Why Do We Hurt Each Other? (Pacific Standard, 2013.04.15)

Shortly after reports started coming out — from professional journalists and citizen reporters alike — that two explosions had gone off in downtown Boston this afternoon near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, the world’s oldest annual marathon and one of the most high-profile road-racing events anywhere in the world, my friend and former colleague, Max Fisher, now the foreign affairs blogger for The Washington Post, tweeted out a message from his sister, a runner, that got me thinking.

“I have been running long distance events for many years and every time I go by a crowd I get that thought, someone could hurt me right now, this is just such a vulnerable position,” she wrote.

I get that thought a lot.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a little frightened by dark streets or unfamiliar places. When my mother told me about the neighborhood friend of hers who had to hold an intruder — drunk and shirtless, he broke through her basement window in the middle of the night before ascending the stairs toward her bedroom — at gunpoint until the cops showed up, I added my own home, at least when empty except for myself, to the list of scary places. And even in broad daylight, at least since that time I was mugged on the streets of Washington, D.C., at 6 p.m. by three men, I’m not particularly fond of passing someone I don’t already know on the sidewalk.

Some might say I’m not a very trusting person. But you guys haven’t given me a lot of reason to be. We hurt each other, all the time. The biggest predator of humans? Other humans.

Since the explosions were first reported, I haven’t been able to turn myself away from Twitter. It’s important to remember, as Charlie Pierce was quick to point out, that “nobody knows anything yet.” (And credit to Jake Tapper for noting, on CNN, that initial reports are almost always wrong — or at least not fully right.) Small details are starting to be verified (or at least corroborated) as the afternoon wears on — a couple dead, spectators near the finish line giving up their belts to staunch the flow of blood from missing limbs, dozens injured, the first explosion was probably a small homemade bomb placed in a trash can — but I’m interested in the bigger details. The small details will get sorted out, as they always do; the sidewalks will be cleaned; and we will mourn, as we should.

But just as many hoped the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting that left 26 dead in Newtown, Connecticut, would be a catalyst for a larger discussion about gun violence, I’m left sitting here wondering how things like this happen in the first place. (Citing a “special significance” to the fact that the number of people killed in Newtown matched the number of miles in a marathon, Boston Athletic Association president Joanne Flaminio announced last week that the city would honor the victims with a special mile marker — the city’s seal surrounded by 26 stars, one commemorating each life lost — at the end of the race’s 26th mile. Eight people from the community participated in the race, while a family from Newtown sat in the VIP section near the finish line. Reports say none were injured.)

Set aside the possibility of a police scan of every garbage can within a 10-mile radius of upcoming major events. Or the idea that we can put an end to violence by adding more metal detectors to the entrances of public buildings or scanners to our nation’s airports. (As far as I know, my muggers in D.C. didn’t have a knife or a gun, nothing that could have been taken or confiscated; a surprise attack and a couple of big boots to the back of the head is enough to convince just about anyone to give up his or her wallet.) We’re too often focused on technological solutions to stopping individual acts of crime, instead of attempting to identify — and fix — underlying societal problems. I want to know this: Why do we hurt each other?

It’s not a new question, of course. In fact, it’s a question with more answers to it than any other I can think of right now (though, admittedly, it’s hard to think of much else at the moment), a question that will be answered over and over again. It’s a question that experts across all disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences are studying — historians, criminologists, psychologists, and more — and we’ll continue to showcase their latest research and findings every day here at Pacific Standard as we seek to shed light on (and, when possible, propose solutions for) society’s biggest problems. And it’s a question that requires lots of answers, because, let’s not forget, all violence is not equal. Our courts make that clear. A violent action is the result of a complex cocktail of circumstances, and can be influenced by mental illness, drugs, feelings of revenge or retribution — or something else entirely.

Given all of that, physicists will probably reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity long before social scientists are able to boil down the nature of violence into a couple of neat takeaways — but I thought I would try by starting with a quick survey of some of the things we know we know. Because today, I need some answers.

Alcohol and Violence

More than probably anything else, alcohol has been closely tied to violence. Not only are people who consume alcohol more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior, but people who are the victims of violence are more likely to consume alcohol in excessive amounts. That’s true, too, for children and young adults. A report released in the U.K. found that “around half of violent crimes [in 2004] were thought to be committed while under the influence,” according to The Guardian. And almost 25 percent of assaults took place in or close to bars and pubs.

Desensitization and Violence

Even if you’ve never fought in a war, you know the sound an automatic weapon makes. I suspect you would even be able to figure out how to load and shoot one if the need arose. Numerous studies — conducted by the Surgeon General, the American Psychological Association, and the National Institutes of Health, and most often cited by those making the case that violent video games are damaging our fragile children — have shown that a desensitization to violence (by the time a child in the United States reaches the age of 18, he or she will have witnessed 200,000 acts of violence on television or in the movies, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics) makes us perceive actual violence as more acceptable.

Detachment and Violence

We know this instinctively — perhaps because almost all of the recent media-covered perpetrators of violence (the James Holmeses and Adam Lanzas) fit the stereotype — but studies confirm that those who are marginalized or isolated or otherwise without strong social connections tend to be more violent. When we don’t share ties to others, we care less about their well-being. When we exist as part of a strong social network or community, aggressive thoughts and actions are reduced.

Genetics and Violence

Several studies have tied biological factors to aggressive behavior. A team at the University of North Carolina made headlines back in 2008 when their research found that people with a specific variation of the MAOA gene were far more likely than others to participate in criminal activity. “I don’t want to say it is a crime gene, but one percent of people have it and scored very high in violence and delinquency,” Guang Guo, the sociology professor who led the study, told Reuters. Guo was hesitant to call it a crime gene, because it’s generally understood that neither biological or sociological factors alone can be directly linked to aggressive behavior.

I can go on. There are a lot of studies about the psychology of violence, all of them attempting to push our understanding forward just a little bit further. But no matter how many of them I’ve read — both prior to this afternoon and since the bombing — I keep coming away with the same old adage, a line that has been widely adopted, it seems, by the family therapy crowd: Hurt people hurt people. And any feeling that is felt strongly enough will find a way to be shared — whether we want it to be or not.

It seems too simple — and it is. But for right now, that’s all I need.

The note that Max Fisher posted by his sister, the runner? It ends like this: “Then you remember that marathons are a time of unity and celebration and no one would do that. I have five friends running the Boston right now. I hate having to text them anything but congratulations.”

[shtfandgo]

New Post has been published on SHTFandGO Survival and Emergency Supplier

New Post has been published on http://www.shtfandgo.com/2017/01/02/7-awesome-uses-for-baking-soda/

7 Awesome Uses for Baking Soda

I have it on good authority that some people actually bake with baking soda. That’s not why it’s stocked like a mighty brick in my house. Baking soda is one of those items that has about a hundred and one uses, only some of them limited to the kitchen. It’s nice and cheap, and while I don’t think it’s one of the things that runs off the shelves in any crisis – snow storm, hurricane, or larger – it’s hugely beneficial to have plenty of it on hand. To me, the price and the usefulness put it way up on any must-have list for preppers (or pretty much any adult).

First we want to be sure of what we’re talking about. On store shelves, baking soda is most usually going to be a box, although it can be found in big bags for those of us who use it a lot. It’s the one with sodium bicarbonate listed as the active ingredient, not cornstarch and 4-6 other things in a little round carton. That other one is what you use for bannock bread and microwaved mug brownies – baking powder.

Shoe satchels

Those of us who have ever had a fridge or dishwasher that’s been turned off for a while have probably heard of sticking an opened box of baking soda in there. Arm & Hammer even creates packages with a mesh-lined side flap for just that purpose. That same deodorizing capability combines with a low-level desiccant, and can be used to dry out and kill the sweat or swamp funk in our boots and shoes. This is the stuff that gets added to kitty litter boxes, after all. Stomping out smells is one of its great claims to fame.

The satchels can be made out of cloth, old socks whose mates have gone missing, coffee filters, or used dryer sheets. The imagination is really the only limiting factor here. As long as it allows easy airflow between the footwear and the baking soda inside, it’ll work. Add at least a tablespoon and a half of baking soda, tie up, and drop inside.

If you want to jazz up the shoe satchels further you can add all kinds of things from dried flowers and herbs (lavender, rose, rosemary, mints, eucalyptus) to bath crystals or salts.

This one works not only on shoes, but also on things like old gym bags, the lunch bag from two years ago, a small cooler, a tool bucket or box that has a case of the funk, or a softball bag that’s being repurposed.

Foot Soak

If the smell from shoes is originating because of the feet in them, you can combine baking soda with any number of things to create a foot soak.

Mouthwash, herbal teas, various oils like lavender or eucalyptus or rosemary, lemon slices or juice, Epsom salts (excellent addition), apple cider vinegar, and dried herbs like rosemary, mints, or plantain all get added. A simple soak of 1-2 cups in a gallon or two of warm water for 15-30 minutes can soften and rejuvenate feet, and help control various fungus that want to live in warm, sweaty environments.

Surface Cleaner

We know that baking soda is one of the things we can stock to use as a toothpaste alternate, or to concoct our own toothpaste. It cleans more than mouths, though.

Just sprinkling it on carpets and wooden decks or porches, letting it sit, and then sweeping or vacuuming it up works wonders for some odors and fungi. We can also clean our cutting boards by rubbing with baking soda and-or salt and a lemon, or just scrubbing with a brush and the dry ingredients and then letting it sit for a bit. The powders create a habitat that discourages many microbes, like the kind that live in tiny scratched crevices and outlive even dish soap and the dishwasher.

We can use that trick on dog bowls, sinks and counters, as well, using fresh lemons or limes or bottled lemon juice, or just scrubbing and allowing it to sit, then sweeping it and wiping it up.

Pipe & Drain Cleaner

Getting rid of shower and tub mildew and *that* smell in any pipe uses basically the same ingredients as above: baking soda, salt in some cases, and lemon. Vinegar of pretty much any kind can be substituted for lemon juice if somebody likes that price enough for a different smell, or wants to go with apple cider vinegar.

I like the method where you boil 2-8 cups of water to pour down the drain, then throw a cup of baking soda in and let that sit for 5-60 minutes, and follow it up with 1 cup of vinegar or lemon juice mixed with a cup of water.

There are a few variations, so poke around a bit. Some say to cover it to direct the reaction downward (not so sure about that), and some to limit the fumes in the air (just don’t use white vinegar). Some say to give it 6-8 hours, and some say to just wait until the bubbles stop. Some suggest just rinsing with tap water, and some suggest boiling more water to flush the remnants away. Up to you.

It doesn’t always work, especially in the bathroom where *somebody* sheds 2’ hair with every shower. Sometimes a repeat or upgrade to/of vinegar to the stronger cousins works. Every once in a while, you have to go to a snake or “real” drain cleaner, but a lot of the time, whether it’s a slow drain, a for-real clog, or a smell, the baking soda does the trick.

There are apparently schools of thought where this is bad and degrades things, so research that too.

Fungicide (Outdoor)

One of the things that helps baking soda kill smells is that the sodium bicarbonate is an antacid, a highly reactive one. A lot of growing things prefer an acidic environment. Fungi – from mold to mildew – is one of those things. The beauty is that baking soda is a stabilizing antacid. It’ll react with anything in an extreme, and go through a severe reaction initially (which can also kill bad stuff) but then it’ll self-regulate and return its surroundings to a near-neutral state.

No wonder this stuff is called miracle powder, right?

That miracle powder can help us in a big way with some common crop and garden pests – mildews.

We can add one tablespoon of baking soda to one quart of water (4 tablespoons/1 quarter-cup per gallon) and use it to treat black spots in the yard, roses, and berry brambles suffering from the various black fungus illnesses.

Powdery mildew on any plants can be prevented and treated with the same, however, the addition of a teaspoon of dish detergent and a teaspoon of vegetable oil per half gallon will help it stick better. Once powdery mildew gets started, it’s a constant battle, so having the spray last longer on the plants can save us a lot of time and heartache.

Creepy-Crawly Pests

Fungus gnats aren’t usually harmful, but they are annoying, and there are times there are so many that the soil-dwelling larvae stage start stunting plant growth because they’re consuming the tiny root hairs of plants. A teaspoon of baking soda with a teaspoon of dish detergent in a full gallon of water can also help remove or reduce the populations, without changing soil pH so much that acid-loving veggie plants and perennials can’t handle it and die, too. As with mildews, all soils in the area need treated and the treatment will have to be repeated to break the infestation completely since there are multiple stages and locations in the gnats’ life cycles.

Mixing baking soda 1:1 with powdered sugar and surrounding an ant hill with a 1”x1” wall of the stuff can help reduce those garden pests, too. I’ve had it decrease the visible numbers, but they seem to pop back up. Still, it’s nicer working in beds and playing fetch or weed-eating with a few less ants getting aggravated with you. A ring of baking soda will also help deter slugs. (Grits and cornmeal help with ants and slugs, too.)

Pest Sting & Itch Relief

Baking soda recently got crowned the Most Prized Possession in my house. I was attacked by some sort of not-bee striped flyer, and ended up with welts roughly the sizes of eggs, from dainty little quail all the way up to jumbos, with 3-6” red raised areas around the big welts. Yay! A poultice of just baking soda and water reduced the swelling and pain.

That poultice is best applied with large Band-Aids already open and waiting, especially if you’re trying to doctor your own elbow and thigh.

If the poultice is allowed to dry, it will come off in big flakes or shingles, and can actually help extract a broken-off stinger, fang or tick head.

Like the satchels, the poultice can be improved on. Chamomile tea is awesome, but any kind of tea contains fabulous stuff that helps reduce swelling and pain more and faster. Let it cool and add it to the poultice, open a bag to mix in before the water, or open a used bag to add to the paste. Aloe can be stripped and chopped and added, as can commercially available gel. So can witch hazel, chamomile flowers, lavender oil or flowers, fresh or dried plantain, Echinacea (purple cone flower), chickweed or jewelweed, and lemon balm.

Some people also apparently make their poultice with milk. Not my thing. Likewise, I’m not adding to the mess or pains by using honey or honey crystals in there, but there are proponents of honey as well.

Go as crazy as you like with that one.

Maybe the sting or bite isn’t making you crazy enough to coat your wounds with paste and Band-Aids. Sometimes we’re just hot and itchy and can’t really identify a single place to treat, and a shower or bath isn’t really cutting it.

Baking soda in a tub with or without soothing additives like oatmeal can help.

You can also make a satchel similar to the first use listed, although you’ll want it to be bigger. Again, alone or with things like chipped aloe, oatmeal, chamomile flowers or oil, or tea leaves from a regular grocery-store brewing bag (Camellia sinensis species) can be added. You use the satchel to dab yourself while you’re in the shower.

Baking Soda

There are just so many uses for baking soda, with these the very tip of the iceberg. Run any google search for uses, and you’ll find dozens more, from killing weeds to repelling rabbits and silverfish. It goes in laundry and it gets used for facial masks. Use it to deodorize dogs, make Play Dough, or get gum/caulk out of your hair. The stuff is so cheap, so easy to find, and does so much, it’s worth filling a box or drawer and keeping handy, especially if we live well outside shopping areas.

It’s not one that I expect there to ever be massive runs on, not like generators, snow shovels, tarps and plywood, peanut butter, and toilet paper. However, in a long-term disaster, we could potentially run out. For me, it doesn’t replace a fire alarm and fire extinguisher, some extra batteries that fit that alarm, or having spare oil and coolant in the truck, but it’s right up there with the food and water supplies as a must-have item.