#i know she does onboarding meetings with people and she did a review with me partway through the course so see how i was doing

[fingertipsmp3]

Just sent the email withdrawing from my course and now I’m nervous lol

[space-helen]

‘Meet My Sister’

Words: 986

Pairing: Pavel Chekov x Reader

A/N: Hope you enjoy!!

Request:  Oh I may have a Pavel Chekov request... reader is Pavels sibling and visits Pav on board of the Enterprise. He is VERY exited when he shows reader around the ship and "presents" them to his crewmates. He is very proud bc reader was the one who discovered time traveling which is now used in Starfleet (or will be used soon, whatever makes more sense). Does this even make sense?🤔 I hope so.. something cute with Pavel as the big teddy bear brother he is... I hope it's possible 🌹 - @hunters-rose

______________________

“Y/N!” you heard your brother call as you materialised onboard the Enterprise. 

“Pavel!” you called back and the two of you were crashing into each other's arms. You’d been separated for a long time.

“I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too.” you replied, pulling away and giving him a smile.

Someone clearing their throat caught your attention and you smiled at the man.

“Oh.” Pavel realised “This is Mr Scott, head of engineering.” 

You shook the man’s hand and he greeted you warmly. “Hi I’m Y/N. Pavels sister.”

“Y/N’s been heading the research into time travel.” Pavel blurted out and you felt your face get warm.

“I’d love to learn more. I’ve been following the progress.” Scotty admitted “However I need to get back to Engineering before Keenser blows something apart.”

You smiled “I’ll be sticking around for a while. I’m sure we can discuss it at some point.”

“I’ll catch you later.” 

You watched the man leave before speaking again “So when can I see my room?”

“I need to introduce you to others first!” before you could react his hand was around your wrist and he was dragging you through the corridors on the Enterprise. 

“Slow down.” you cautioned him.

“Doctor McCoy! Doctor McCoy!” he called down the corridor. The man in questioned turned around with a slight scowl on his face.

“What is it now?”

“Don’t be so grumpy Doctor.” Pavel tried to calm him “I would like you to meet my sister Y/N. She is heading the research and development of time travel technology within Starfleet.”

“Don’t you ever think that it’s going a bit too far?” the man questioned you with a raised eyebrow.

“Nothing is too far” you laughed “it will allow certain personnel to go back and review history and collect information as needed. Of course it needs to be left to the people most trustworthy.”

“Don’t you think the collection of information could be detrimental in some cases? Have we not documented things thoroughly enough?”

“As of the past few decades and possibly centuries we have. However we’ve seen certain illnesses or diseases return from seemingly nowhere especially on new planets. Take this for example, we could travel back to the british middle ages and take samples of the plague and study them properly in the future. Then if we come across something similar we have a base line and possible more effective cures. This isn’t a great need for planets like Earth but new planets we come across.” you paused briefly “Similar to how we meet planets that still have the common cold. We give them our cures and vaccinations to help out. Just because these thing don’t affect us anymore doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect others.”

“You’re a red shirt speaking like a blue shirt… are you sure you’re in the right colour?” The man joked.

“Well my original education was in medicine but I excelled at physics and engineering. You know Pavel graduated early and … well I also fast tracked through.”

“Of course you did.” he rolled his eyes “Well it was lovely to meet you but I have patients to see too. I’ll see you both around.” the man spoke quickly before fleeing down the corridor. 

Pavel stood next to you beaming. “What?” you questioned the man with a smile.

“The Doctor likes you.”

“He practically just ran away.”

“He told a joke. He likes you.” the man grabbed your wrist again “Let's go meet the Captain.”

“Woah. Not yet.”

“Why not.” the man continued to drag you through the corridors.

“He might be busy.”

“He’s not busy or doing anything important. If he was the Doctor would be on the Bridge.”

“What?” you asked, puzzled by the mans words.

“Doctor McCoy is always on the bridge when the Captain is in fear he may do something stupid. Since the Doctor is not on the Bridge the Captain is probably free and not dealing with important matters. He’s probably bickering with Spock somewhere.”

You laughed “I’ve heard a lot about everyone but this makes the ship sound crazier.”

“That’s because it is” he admitted. “Captain Kirk! Captain!” 

You sighed and looked up to see the Captain walking towards you. You knew the man’s face, there was no way you couldn’t know it.

“This is my sister-”

“Y/N” Jim held out his hand to you.

“Yeah” Pavel said puzzled “How did you know?”

“I stay up to date with her research. Who do you think okayed her coming on board?”

“That did not cross my mind. I was just excited for her to meet everyone.”

“Hi” you spoke “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“You two know each other?” he looked between the two of you.

“We’ve had some meetings together to discuss bringing my research and development onto the Enterprise.” you looked at your brother and raised an eyebrow “Did you think I was here for a vacation?”

His mouth was slightly agape “Yes I did. But if you’re staying longer that’s even better.” the man began to beam with a smile once again.

“I was going to tell you when I got here but you decided to take me on a wild ride around the ship.” you laughed.

“He’s just doing what big brother’s do best.” the Captain laughed. “Anyway it was nice to meet you and a bunch of us are grabbing drinks later you should join.” 

You agreed and the Captain re-admitted himself to the bridge.

“Do you have any vacation time?” Pavel questioned “I took a couple of days off to spend with you.” his eyes looked slightly sad about not being able to spend whole days together.

“I do. I don’t officially start work on the Enterprise for four days.”

“Excellent because there’s more people I want you to meet.” you smiled and rolled your eyes. Allowing your brother to lead the way.

Tag List: (open)

Star Trek AOS: @spaskaalekha @obiwansjedi

All Star Trek: @morganofthecoves1  @livenerdyandprosper @allthetrek​ @mrs-l-mccoy @huntheimpossible

Pavel Chekov:

[importantwagonpursemonger]

Itaewon Class: PSRY+ JYS OTP

Hi everyone!! I recently finished watching Itaewon Class series on Netflix. Loved it. So after finishing the series I went through social media for its reviews & reactions & came to know that many people did not like PSRY & JYS pairing. Many people were shipping PSRY & OSA. I totally loved PSRY-JYS pairing. Here are my thoughts about the so called love triangle.

For me PSRY & OSA pairing was dead in the water in epi 2 itself. They had cute moments in epi 1 but after the accident of PSRY father, this relationship also died romantically at least. OSA was not under any pressure to accept help from Jangga Co. Mr. Park had already paid for her college tuition. I know other expenses are there but her initial plan might have anyways been working part time to pay for her expenses. Chairman Jang did not pressurise her in anyway for accepting scholarship or job at Jangga Co. She was no threat to him at any point in the show. But she still accepted it & led a comfortable life working at Jangga even after she knew how they had killed Mr. Park & how PSRY had to go to jail because of them. His entire life was ruined by that family. She still continued to work for them. Life gave her many chances to become a part of PSRY's life as a romantic partner. But she never took that risk. She was content thinking that PSRY continued to “ like” her even though she was actively working with his father’s murderers

I never thought that PSRY was in love with OSA at any point in the story. He had a first crush on her & after he lost his father, he designated OSA as his first love & kept her in that box. She represented hope of a better future for him after he avenges his father. But he was so indifferent to her. He was so emotionally removed from her that her actions against him didn’t even evoke a strong response in him. Being a good person is all well & good, but he showed more passion in his dislike for the Jang family than he ever showed in his so called love for OSA. He mentions that he likes her a few times in the series but never actively pursues her. He never even discusses his personal issues & emotions with her. What she knew about him was what had happened in the earlier part of their acquaintance. Their relationship was stagnant after that. Their relationship dynamics never changed. So I never really bought into his love for OSA. So this leg of the love triangle never had any growth after the initial foundation & remained at the same state.

JYS came into PSRY's life like a storm- all thundering & extreme. She was a functioning high intelligence girl with sociopathic tendencies. She could never empathetic or sympathetic towards others. She reminded me a lot about BBC Sherlock who was also a high functioning intelligent human with no empathy & sympathy. He also said whatever he deduced about a person without thinking about their feelings. JYS is the same. She uses her intelligence to be an influencer & earns a living for herself while still being in school. She is aware of her own genius as well as faults & it never mattered to her how her truth bombs hurt another person. Her 1st interaction with PSRY didn’t leave an impression on her. But her 2nd interaction with him at the police station where she saw him lose his cool against the police & Jang Guen Won left an impression. She became intrigued by him. Then later on the more she spent time with him the more she liked him & fell in love with him. After knowing about his past & goals, she actively started working with him to achieve his goals. She did not expect anything in return from him. She was in love with him & wanted to do everything in her power to bring him success. Even after he rejected her love for him, she didn’t flounce off in hurt & rage. She continued working besides him & still showed her affections to him. She made him feel loved even if didn’t reciprocate her feelings.

JYS antis complain that she was transphobic, racist & a stalker. I do not believe the show depicted her actions in such a light. It is just that they have misinterpreted what was shown onscreen.

Transphobic- She did not care about Hyun Hi’s sexuality personally. But let’s look at the sequence of events for her advise for firing Hyun Hi. Hyun Hi was not making food as per the standards expected from her. JYS recognised this as an issue for DanBam's growth. She made her opinion about this clear to Hyun hi as well. On top of that she discovered Hyun Hi was a transgender. She personally had no issue with it one way or another but it would affect the business if the patrons had come to know because her cooking was not the reason people were coming to the pub. If she was a great cook, then it wouldn’t affect that she was a transgender. But because it was not, her being a transgender was another negative point for the pub’s success. That is why her natural conclusion was to fire Hyun Hi. Also the point that she asked Hyun Hi that why did she not go to a transgender club instead of the normal one was because Hyun Hi herself confidently came out & said she was a transgender. She didn’t try to hide it. So JYS made this catty remark to her not because she was transphobic. She did not show any discrimination against her. So I don’t know where people got the idea that she was transphobic.

Racist- Kim Toni did not look like a Korean from his appearance. He genuinely looked like an African national. His nationality was also from Guinea. Though his father was Korean, Kim Toni was not automatically registered as Korean citizen since he was born in Guinea. His citizenship was not Korean even though biologically he was Korean. Hence when the club security refused to let him enter the club, racially discriminating against him, JYS suggested going to another club instead of fighting with the racist establishment because they could not prove that he was Korean national. She was not being racist. If she was racist, she wouldn’t have hired him at DanBam in the first place itself. So this racist moniker for her is untrue.

Stalkery/Creepy/ Pushy love for PSRY- JYS has a very selfish personality when it comes to her loved ones. Since she does not emotionally connect to people in general, the people with whom she does connect are very important to her. She decided to quit going to university to work besides PSRY because she liked him. She vowed to herself to help him succeed in his life. She believed that she could bring both success & love in his life. She got jealous of OSA as she was introduced to her as love interest of PSRY. But she also knows that they are not together in a relationship. So why should she give up her love for a love relationship that is not even realised. She did not put any obstacles or did not do any scheming against them. She just loved him. She was pushy with him because like a normal person who has a crush on a person she also wanted to know more about him. After learning his past she cried for all the pain he has suffered & worked with him actively to bring down Jangga Co. She got rejected by him but she didn’t turn vengeful against him. She continued to love him & express her love to him constantly so that he knows that he is loved. Some people interpreted this as sexual harassment. I seriously don’t understand this pov as she herself has told PSRY many times that if he is so bothered by her love , he can ask her to leave anytime. She would have seriously left him alone if he had asked her seriously. So I don’t know why people make this an issue against her.

PSRY was not a kid. He was a grown intelligent adult who though idealistic was not weak or a pushover. He was quite ruthless at many points in the story- his insistence that detective should turn himself in so that his father’s accident case be investigated even if it caused his daughter hurt was one such instance. Him pointing out to Director Kang that only she had truly lost everything when their plan to dismiss Chairman Jang from the office was another. He continued with his plan to take down Chairman Jang even though he knew that JGS whom he considered as a brother was not onboard with it. His refusal to give up his revenge plan when OSA pleaded with him to do so. Other instances are also their. If he believed that someone has harmed him or his people he was ready to take action against them. He was even ready to fire JYS when she asked him to fire Jang Guen Soo so that they can stay in the same location & this was at a point in his life when he actually needed her intelligence & expertise to succeed. So if he had such an issue against JYS expressing her love to him even after his refusal, he could have done it since he was already in a successful position in his business life. He had no reason to tolerate her so called harassment. But he didn’t because he didn’t actually mind it even if he said so. He subconsciously liked it. The last person who had expressed love for him was his dad. After his death his life was utterly devoid of love & happiness. It was bitter. He was craving for love & sweetness in his life. That is why he even named his pub as DanBam which he had revealed to JYS in their 3rd meeting itself. He was always connected to her on an emotional level since his outburst at the police station. He instinctively trusted her. Though people saw JYS constantly pushing him to open about himself as some pushy obsessive move by her, PSRY opened up to her on his own. If he did not want to be open with her, he would have refused her. Also he had expectations from her that when she made a mistake he scolded her openly. With others he was cool & calm but with her he was all fire when he asked her to leave after she advised him to fires Jang Guen Soo. Even OSA noticed that he was emotional in his interactions with JYS. She had not seen such passion from him in her own interactions even after almost a decade.

I honestly think he was also very selfish when it came to JYS. He had come to know from JGS that she was working at the pub after ditching going to university but he still didn’t advise her against it. He said to her because he needs her for his business but I think he also needed her in his life emotionally. It did matter to him that she not leave him. When JGW had come to their pub to make a job offer to JYS & Seung koi had expressed his worry about it, the camera had panned to PSRY who was drying the dishes. For a moment his hands had stopped but then he once again resumed. He was definitely worried on a personal level about her leaving. When he had seen her being manhandled by JGW, he had punched him & worried more about her injuries than what she was saying. He was about to pummel JGW but stopped at her one command. Though he was affectionate with his people but I think he was extra affectionate with JYS. He used to praise her extensively if she did some good work, users to pat her hair, even allowed her to use his shoulder to sleep in the bus, side hugged her occasionally. He had immense trust in her that is why he went ahead with the investor plan even if he wanted to initially open other pub’s one by one. I think the audience had come to know enough about him by that time that he always did what he wanted to in his own time without paying heed to another person’s advise. Once he had made his decision he stuck to it. But he changed his decision for her. Even when it was proven to be a wrong decision later on, he didn’t allow JYS to accept the entire blame. He in fact brought her fully into his revenge club after they were able to handle the investor crisis.

PSRY was subconsciously close to her but passed off his gestures with her as those of a brother or business partner. He was oblivious not only to her feelings towards him but of his own self as well. So when she confessed her love for him he was blindsided. He did not go after her himself when in any other case he might have. He went after urging from Hyun Hi. He tried giving her explanation for his refusal- age, business, his so called love OSA, even JGS love for her. But she cut to the chase & asked him point blank whether he even sees a possibility that he might ever reciprocate her feelings, he tells her No & asks her not to like him. Up until that time he consciously never thought of her in romantic light. He had boxed OSA as his true love but was not in a relationship with her. He planned that he would be with her after avenging his father & JYS would be with JGS like a neat package. But this incident shook his dreams foundation. He became aware of JYS in a romantic light. He stopped his affectionate gestures like patting her hair. But you could clearly see a different kind of warmth in his gaze for her.

He continued his denial & worked hard to achieve his goals. He allowed JYS to be by his side even though he could have asked her to quit since he said he didn’t like her expressing her love for him. But he was never going to. He has always been selfish with regards to her even though he was selfless with others. He was just denying his feelings for her after 4-6 years of working together because he truly didn’t think that she would ever be lost to him. Even JGS sarcastically pointed out to him that why was he being selfish & not allowing her to leave him because his business needs her. Even when he knows that his denial hurts her. He was coming to realisation of his feelings for her slowly. That is why he couldn’t get angry at her & ask her to leave, couldn’t give a straight answer when OSA asked him whether he still liked her. Also please note that he knows her drawer password but she also knows his computer password when she was shopping from his computer. Their relationship has developed from strength to strength in the duration since they work together but his relationship with OSA was not only stagnant but actually more distanced after so many years. No wonder he realised his feelings for her when the answer to every love test question was her. So though his realisation was abrupt it was not unanticipated.

Also it was not like he had only JYS & OSA as romantic options. He was a good looking, fit, intelligent & rich businessman. He wouldn’t have any shortage of women if he wanted to date. But he had no desire to do so because he was already emotionally involved with JYS & busy in his revenge plans. But then he had no problem in going down on his knees in front of Chairman Jang when JYS's life was on the line.

The show could have delayed or scrapped the kidnapping plot but it is what it is. But when he talked to his father in limbo he realised that though his life has been a burden, full of hardships but he still wants to live it because JYS makes it worth it for him. He wanted sweetness in his life but he had not realised that she had already dissolved sweetness in his life by loving him through all the obstacles.

So therefore they are my OTP of the show & I was happy that they got their happy ending together.

Now if the OSA fans are going to defend her by saying that oh she was working on her own plan for taking down Jangga then I would say it was too little too late. By the time she did anything against him PSRY did not consider Chairman Jang as a worthy opponent & he would still be facing criminal charges for hiding his criminal son who had abducted JYS & JGS. It was anyways not going to be swept under the rug. So yes, she did help in bringing down Chairman Jang but her revenge also came from a selfish place. She knew that PSRY had dedicated his life to avenge his father’s death & his goal was also same as hers. Still she continued working alone in her own revenge. Where she could have worked together with him, she worked alone when there was no need. I don’t even know if she would have actually resigned in the 1st place if Chairman Jang had not told her how he saw her as a despicable person not even worth as a human to him. He had tamed her like the livestock that he saw her as. I think only after that she made the decision to be a whistle blower. God knows how long she would have wallowed in her own self pity, thinking of herself as a martyr had that conversation & the kidnapping incident not happened. So though I am happy that she got her own revenge & freed herself from Jangga company, I don’t think she would have done it if she has not realised how pathetic she was behaving from Chairman Jang'a pov. So she definitely was not the right person for PSRY. She was too selfish & distant emotionally to ever be the support & sweetness that he was craving for in his life.

Wow. That was a long post. But I had to get my feelings out somehow. Please share your comments if you agree or disagree with me.

[jazziehart]

Character Dissection [Rachel Berry]: Episode by Episode - Season 2B

Hello and welcome back to the second half of my Season 2 character dissection of Rachel Berry. Once again I want to leave a warning that my review of Rachel this season isn’t positive so if you are a huge fan, I think it’s best of you click off of this. If not, here are my thought on Rachel for the second half of Season 2 from The Sue Sylvester Shuffle to New York

Let’s start off with the superbowl episode of Glee the Sue Sylvester Shuffle. This episode is one of the 2, 90 minute episodes in Season 2. In this episode the Glee Club and the football team are made to work together after their personal conflicts are hindering the team. Rachel is very unhappy with the newest additions as are most of the club but she’s especially upset about Karofsky. Will soon asks her to perform a new duet she’s been working on with Puck, something that confuses and upsets Finn at first. The performance doesn’t go over well and ends with the clubs fighting. Sue soon decides to make the Unholy Trinity choose between Cheerios and Glee which proves to be a conflict for them but Rachel insists that she knows Quinn will choose Cheerios which pissed me off (avid Quinn fan here but I think you knew that). The Unholy Trinity do end up choosing Cheerios for awhile due to Quinn being scared to losing her status, Brittany worrying about the baby cannons, and Santana just liking being a cheerio more than being in Glee. The football team and Glee Club however seem to be really together, that is until the team gets slushied and quits on Coach Beiste. Rachel and Mercedes meet up with Kurt and Blaine who reveal that they only need 9 players and they come up with a plan, to have the Glee girls fill the team but not play the game, something that is accepted. Rachel is enthusiatic about playing and follows what she said she would do unlike some of the other girls who end up playing. Once Quinn, Brittany, and Santana rejoin the Glee Club, Rachel and the other glee girls help cheer on the game and that’s where Rachel’s storyline ends in that episode.

Up next is Silly Love Songs. Rachel is excited when Finn announces his kissing booth, declaring she will show up with a $50 to kiss him until he realizes that he still loves her, once again proving she isn’t able to give him the time to move past their incident or the space he needs to actually be with someone else who might be better for him. She is shown saying this at a sleepover where she’s with Mercedes and Kurt. I actually did like their friendship moments and the fact that Mercedes told them both not to emphasize on relationships and focus on themselves. Rachel does end up going to Finn’s kissing booth but only with a dollar. She is mad when he kisses her on the cheek instead of the lips which she was expecting. He soon gives her a delayed Christmas present, a gold star necklace. He tells her that he still needs space to get over what happened but it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care about her. Rachel upset accepts his answer and walks away. She later finds out that Finn and Quinn have kissed when she’s taking care of Finn after he gets mono. When Rachel realizes he cares about Quinn and not her she is unhappy but decides that Mercedes was right that she needed to be single for awhile. Some minor storylines she’s involved in are when Santana is insulting the club like she usually does and Rachel strikes back at her leading Santana to leave visibly upset. She also is seen confused by Puck singing ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ to Lauren but soon gets into it. Finally, she’s seen at Breadstix where Kurt says to her and Mercedes that this is the year for the singles. 

Moving onto Comeback. After losing Finn, Rachel decides she wants to make a comeback for her career and be trendy within the school so she enlists Brittany to try to popularize her looks. Funny enough this does work and people are copying Brittany but Brittany wore the leg warmers on her arms leading the other girls to do the same and once she finally wears the same look as Rachel, people can only credit Brittany with their ideas which makes Rachel hurt and upset. Brittany explains to Rachel that no one in school sees her as a trendsetter which Rachel is obviously hurt about but soon Rachel finds what she is a trendsetter in and that’s Glee Club. She gets a new idea that would continue throughout the season of wanting to do original songs. No one supports the idea at first but Finn tells her that he does in private. Rachel is obviously upset that he didn’t speak up but he tells her the only way to prove she’s right is to write a great song. He also says he liked the Rachel he saw in Glee Club and said that she’s making a comeback which Rachel is happy about.

Up next is Blame It on the Alcohol one of the more entertaining episodes. We start off with Rachel’s hilariously bad original song ‘My Headband’ which Finn tries to tell her gently that it’s bad. Rachel takes this opportunity to take Puck up on his offer for a party while her dads are out of town hoping it would help with her songwriting. She hosts a party which almost ends before it begins but with Puck breaking into the liquor cabinet, everyone drinks and has a good time. While drunk Rachel starts to hit on Finn leading Finn to walk her through the types of drunks saying Rachel was a needy drunk. She gets upset by this and decides to start a game of ‘Spin the Bottle’ which leads to her and Blaine kissing which progresses into more for Rachel. After the party Rachel drunkenly asks him out on a date which Blaine accepts. The two go on a date but have yet to kiss which Kurt believes is proof that Blaine is gay. Rachel tells Kurt that she’ll kiss Blaine again sober and they’ll see who’s right. Rachel throughout the episode continues to drink as do most of the other members of the club but it leads to probably one of the most iconic moments during the pep assembly where Brittany pukes on Rachel. Rachel swears off drinking after this happens stating it did nothing for her song writing. She then meets Kurt and Blaine at the Lima Bean where she kisses an unexpectant Blaine who declares that he’s definitely gay. Rachel actually takes this well thinking it could be a great song. 

Up next is Sexy. Rachel has joined the celibacy club for some unknown reason and she and Quinn are the only two members. Rachel is constantly asking Quinn about her relationship with Finn which Quinn doesn’t want to answer about since she agreed not to tell Rachel about their relationship since Finn didn’t want her to get hurt. Throughout the episode Rachel isn’t into Holly’s Sexy lessons even though she does join in on the number towards the end after Holly brings her and Quinn into the number. Puck soon joins the celibacy club much to Rachel and Quinn’s surprise and joins them in on the celibacy club’s number of ‘Afternoon Delight’. Other than that Rachel doesn’t have much of a storyline in the episode.

Moving onto one of Rachel’s most important episodes Original Song. This episode starts off with Rachel once again trying her hand at an original song delivering the slightly better ‘Only Child’. Finn tells her that her writing isn’t there and the song should be more emotional. Later on when news breaks that ‘Sing’ was taken away from the New Directions, Rachel once again tries to suggest original songs. This time she gets support from an unlikely source of Quinn who is trying to keep Rachel closer to keep her away from Finn. Once Quinn is onboard the entire club seems to fight over who’s going to get to write a song and the club now has decided to do original songs. Rachel soon notices how Finn and Quinn are with each other in the hall and decides to confront Quinn about it. Rachel finally asks her if she and Finn are together which Quinn tells her it’s true. Rachel is clearly hurt by it and adds that Finn had once chosen Rachel over her. Also hurt Quinn snips back asking how long did it last for. Rachel, playing the victim claims Quinn is being ‘so mean’. Girl you started it bringing up that he chose you over her which you know is a sore spot. Rachel claims she’s not going to give up on Finn that it isn’t over to which Quinn exclaims that it is and that Rachel keeps making the same mistakes looking to be with Finn and that if she keeps it up she’ll never Get It Right. This conversation inspires Rachel to write her original song of the same title. While at Regionals Rachel tells Finn that she means every word, once again trying to get Finn away from his girlfriend. The two really bond at Regionals and are thrilled when the New Directions win. The New Directions soon award Rachel the MVP award which everyone voted for her for, even Quinn. Rachel is touched by the award and the New Directions all hug her afterwards.

Up next is A Night of Neglect, probably one of my least favorite episodes of Season 2. Mostly because there isn’t too much of a plot involving the New Directions. Rachel’s biggest plot point is the fact that she wants the closing slot and like everyone else is pushing Mercedes aside. This eventually has Mercedes turn into a diva and make demands. Rachel eventually goes to talk to her and tries to encourage Mercedes that she is good enough and that she didn’t need to make the crazy demands to be respected. Eventually she convinces Mercedes to come back and allows her to have the closing number. 

Moving on to one of my all-time favorite episodes Born This Way. This episode actually focuses a lot on Rachel and her insecurity with her nose and how she contemplates getting a nose job. I just want to point out that this was completely out of character for her and a stark contrast to how she was in Acafellas where she rejected the idea of a nose job and told the club that their quirks were what made them special. I know she wanted to look more like Quinn which is unsurpisingly driving her nose job but it was a little strange that she considered it. Her nose was injured and the doctor did suggest it but she always seemed to want to keep her nose the same up until that point. Anyway, she asks Quinn to accompany her to the consultation which Quinn does (as it’s revealed in the episode that Quinn herself had a nose job so she’s not against helping Rachel do the same, sorry Faberry shippers this has nothing to do with Quinn being in love with Rachel). Rachel is admant about wanting to get the nose job not even Finn can convince her not to. But you know who arranges something that actually helps her decide against it? Puck. He enlists the help of Kurt who have a flashmob saying that Rachel is like Barbra Streisand and that she shouldn’t get a nose job which leaves Rachel convinced not to do it. She does have the septoplasty but avoids getting a nose job and wears a shirt embracing her nose.

Up next is Rumours which is one of Rachel’s worst episodes in my opinion. She starts off innocent enough asking Sam to the prom which he declines saying he doesn’t think he’s going to prom. Rachel keeps insisting that they go to prom which leads Sam to tell Rachel he’s just not into her like that. Rachel is shocked but soon reads an article in the Muckraker that she shows to Finn saying that Quinn was at a motel with Sam. While it looks bad on the outside, Quinn is actually helping Sam’s family out by babysitting his siblings. Quinn won’t say what’s happening leading Finn to accuse her of cheating, much to Rachel’s delight. Finn soon asks Rachel to stake out with him in an attempt to catch Quinn and Sam in the act. Their first stake out only sees Sam hugging Kurt goodbye which they mistakenly interpret as Sam having a relationship with Kurt as well. While I get Finn thinking this, Rachel should’ve known better. Quinn confronts Finn about staking out with Rachel and they perform a duet clearly upset with each other. Rachel comments that she thinks Quinn’s duet with Sam was better and Quinn knows exactly what Rachel’s doing and calls her out on it and insists that Finn and Rachel no longer sing together declaring that she doesn’t trust Rachel. Rachel and Finn once again stake out and see Sam and Quinn together. Rachel soon decides to sing a song mostly directing her attention to Finn to piss off Quinn who is upset by it saying what Rachel did was inappropriate and then Rachel goes off saying awful things about how Quinn’s a hypocrite which leads poor Sam to reveal that Quinn wasn’t lying but that his family lost their home and were living in a motel. Rachel and Finn go to make amends with Sam and it all works out. This episode is a good one but Rachel’s actions especially piss me off. This is probably her worst episode in my opinion.

Now moving onto Prom Queen. Rachel sees how upset Mercedes is about Prom and actually does a good thing and talks to her coming up with a plan of Prom on a budget for the two of them to go with Sam. Sam accepts their offer and the 3 of them were going to prom together. All is fine and well until Jesse comes back. Rachel is surpised to see him and Jesse admits he came back for her then asks her to prom. Rachel accepts and Finn soon finds out and is annoyed. Rachel tries to help him with picking a corsage for Quinn, something many Faberry shippers try to say is how they know Rachel loved her because she knew what matched her eyes. Honestly she only made the suggestion to Finn to get something that was green, Finn was the one who picked it out. Anyway Rachel is clearly in love with Jesse as they go on their date with Sam and Mercedes but still seems constantly torn between him and Finn throughout the prom. Jesse and Finn get into a fight over Rachel something both girls try to put a stop to. I feel awful for Quinn since Prom was such a big deal to her and to have it be ruined by the one person who you are insecure about sucks. When Quinn loses Prom Queen Rachel tries to go talk to her. Quinn blames Rachel because everyone knows Finn would rather be with her. She slaps Rachel clearly getting out her frustration for the night but soon apologizes. Rachel comforts Quinn who’s scared because she’s pretty much lost nearly everything she cares about. I know Faberry shippers look at this as a romantic moment between them and I’ve addressed this before, but Rachel only went after her because she knew Quinn was angry with her. She comforted Quinn because she wanted to be her friend. There is nothing romantic there. Sorry for my ranting about them. Anyway the two agree to support Kurt and go back to the prom. Rachel dances with Mercedes and Sam and Quinn dances the night away trying to forget what happened.

Moving onto Funeral. This episode Rachel is competing to be the star of the New Directions and tries to encourage Finn that he’s good enough. She kills her audition but is fighting with the others who want the lead, Santana, Kurt, and Mercedes which leads to Will nixxing the competition. Her only other storyline is with Jesse and her unresolved feelings for him. Jesse promises Rachel that she’ll win and Rachel is so thrilled with that they hug. Rachel is upset when the competition is taken away but agrees to help the club write a song for Nationals something she’s been looking forward to.

Finally, we close with the season finale of New York. Rachel is obviously enthuiastic about New York but makes an error that’s unlike her, saying she got tickets to Cats which had been closed for 10 years. It took Quinn of all people to tell her that. Rachel was Broadway obsessed why would she even think there was a chance that those tickets were real? Anyway she’s incredibly conflicted throughout the entire episode about following her career or getting with Finn. She originally chooses her career but that’s overshadowed when she and Finn kiss after their duet, something that ends up costing them Nationals. Santana is pissed and tries to attack Rachel after they lose. Finn and Rachel soon have a conversation about their relationship and Rachel gets back with him realizing she has another year to go after her New York dreams.

Let’s go to the overview. Rachel is once again selfish with many decisions she makes especially when it comes to Finn. She has somewhat of an obsession of getting him back and is willing to do whatever it takes, something that is constantly hurting Quinn who is his girlfriend for the majority of this half of the season. She is however a really good friend to Kurt and Mercedes which is something that wasn’t truly defined in Season 1 due to her not getting along with everyone. Overall this version of Rachel is still my least favorite even though Season 3 will be coming in a very close second. Stay tuned for the Season 3 post coming your way. Until then, be respectful and kind.

[annoyinglyjovialbird]

Voltron: Next Generation

Impending Difficulties: II

Word Count: 2929

Liz was in the observation bay, watching over Keith and his condition. A blast from the right sent Liz flying to the nearest wall. Keith, on the other hand, was strapped firmly into bed and his bed was stationary. With a growl, Liz stomped towards the bridge.

"Why. Do. They. Keep. Attacking. Us." Liz said with every stomp, yelling at the others. Shiro didn't want others knowing Voltron was in the bay, leaving the teen next to defenseless. Cake and Kova understood Liz's annoyance best. They were on near-daily trips outside to repair the Coeus's exterior. They were starting to run low. 

"Can I get cameras?" Kova asked. Liz rolled her eyes and brought up the camera feed from her console. While not as large as the previous attackers, it bore a striking difference. A Zaiforge cannon. 

"Oh, c'mon!" Liz threw up her hands. "I thought those were discontinued and destroyed after the war!"

"I did, too." Kova glared at the image. 

"Are you sure? Or is it another thing you're hiding from us?" Despite the comment, Kova remained level. Somewhere in between the chaos, Kova had suited up. 

"I'm heading out! Caleb, you're in charge!" She yelled as she ran towards the bay. Shiro was standing in the doorway, arms crossed and firm. Kova slid in between Shiro's legs, ramming her legs into the wall, but she had little difficulty outrunning Shiro. The Black Lion emerged from the bay, flew under the belly of the Coeus to surprise the Galra ship from behind. 

Shiro said nothing, watching as Kova dealt with the ship. The Coeus continued blasting, and the Galra ship retaliated. The Black Lion dug its claws into the Galra ship without much trouble. Leaving claw marks in its wake, the Black Lion stalked its way to the cannon, beginning to glow purple. A slice across the bridge between the ship and the cannon had made the cannon implode on itself. Those onboard cowered as the Lion flew away, batting the ship around with a giant paw. As soon as the ship stopped spinning violently, they fled the scene. With a sigh, Kova returned to the Coeus. She didn't say anything as she passed Shiro on her way to her room. She knew she was grounded and didn't need Shiro to say it. 

The other four sat in the bridge. Between the late-night attacks, the surplus of information bleeding from their ears to the floor, and trying to fight without forming Voltron is starting to wear on the teens. They sat in complete silence, Liz and Allie watching their pagers carefully. 

"Permission for a review of relevant information?" Cake asked, breaking the silence. He was looking at Caleb as best he could from his perch. 

"Granted." Caleb nodded, pushing a button on his console. "All staff, please report to the bridge." Caleb had the evilest smirk on his face as he said those words, trying to copy Kova's tone. 

Shiro and Kenny walked in at the same time. Kova walked in a few seconds after with a smirk on her face. She was re-braiding her hair. 

"What's this about?" Shiro asked. 

"Review of relevant information requested by Cake and approved by me." Caleb had turned off his console as Kova approached her own. She didn't reopen the files. Instead, she opened a document that contained most of the overlapping information and the chain of command. 

"The Fire is the revival of a resistance group formed during the War of the Universe. Formerly led by Commander Sendak of the Galra fleet, it was believed the group had died along with their leader. Almost ten years ago, it was discovered Ralan had taken over the Fire's operations after continuous reports of missing teenagers and people were brought before the Garrison council. All missing were of half-Galra status, leading to a recon mission led by Captain Keith Kogane from the Blade of Marmora and Katie 'Pidge' Holt, one of the founders of the Legendary Defender Program at the Garrison. Their reports were seriously underestimated from the real numbers, and when it was time for the real mission, the crew became overwhelmed and fled before it was destroyed. The only clue to the ambush came from Lance McClain, owner of McClain Farms, who had crash-landed on Earth on the first anniversary of the flight. Until recently, it was believed Ralan was in charge of the large numbers, and it was suspected that the missing half-Galra had joined the Fire."

"That's a bold assumption," Liz said. Kova had been placing all the information on the board for everyone to see, going over everything. "Why are they assumed to have joined the Fire?"

"Reasons," Kova, Cake, and Allie all said at the same time. 

"The Fire began as a group reinforcing the belief that the Galra were better than everyone else. The assumption isn't unreasonable, especially since Ralan was half-Galra."

"Ralan's successor is half-Galra, too." Caleb chimed in. This seemed to satisfy Liz, as she turned back to the screen. "The current Galra leaders should be aware of the situation, correct?" He looked to Kova, who had looked to Shiro. Shiro was staring at the screen, refusing to meet the teens' eyes. 

"Do the Galra representatives know about the half-Galra disappearances?" Kova was now glaring. 

"There have been no status updates to or from the Galra representatives," Shiro replied. Kova was about to explode.

"If the Galra weren't informed, then what about the others in the Coalition?!" Allie's outburst gained everyone's attention. "The Altean Emperor would be the first to know about Ralan's background! There's an entire village filled with half-breeds from all over the galaxy! Their entire lives and livelihoods were in danger then, and still are in danger now, but trying to keep this yourself has just-just, uh," Allie noticed the eyes on her, her tirade coming to an end. Such a small girl, such strong opinions. "I'm going to get my, uh, med bag." She slinked to the door and scurried away. 

"That was," Caleb began. 

"Unexpected." Kova nodded. "Nonetheless, she's right. If Daibaazaal wasn't informed, then it's safe to assume the other planets in the Coalition weren't either. Anyway, without Allie here, we can't continue. Meeting adjourned."

"Aww, but I wanted to ask my question!" Liz complained. The pager lit up and made a sound. Staring at it, Liz turned to the others. "I think he's waking up."

————————————

"D-do I have to?" Allie was clutching the handle of her med bag tightly. 

"You're the one with relevant medical training onboard." Kova was walking beside the girl. "I'm on the other side of the door if anything happens."

"What if he becomes belligerent?"

"I'm shocked you know the word." Kova sighed as they became closer to the observation bay. "As I said, I'm on the other side of the door." Allie nodded and stared at the door between her and her patient. 

"He killed a man!" Allie protested again. Kova put an arm around Allie's shoulders, bringing a blush to the girl's face. 

"So have I," Kova whispered into Allie's ear, making the girl's face beet red. Smiling at her reaction, Kova kept her arm around her shoulders. "He's out of practice. I'm not. He'll be down in a tick." Kova's confidence reassured the younger girl. She nodded, gathering her courage, and the door opened. 

During the earlier encounter, the straps that had been used to keep Keith in bed had tightened. The spike Allie and Liz saw, upon closer inspection, was caused by a strap cutting across an exposed patch of skin of his arm. While expected he would feel pain, the teens were better safe than sorry to unstrap Keith. 

Allie whimpered as the door closed behind her, trying to take deep breaths to calm herself. Before she could treat him, she had to unstrap him. 

"He's unconscious," she whispered to herself. "He's not dangerous at all." Approaching Keith's bedside, Allie made quick work of the strap buckles. The two over his torso fell unceremoniously, Allie catching the buckles before they could hit the floor. She began rolling them up just in case of further use. 

Caleb appeared beside Kova. Kova had her arms crossed while Caleb had a hand on his hip. They both stared at the girl and the unconscious man in the hospital bed. 

"Do you think he'll wake up?" Caleb asked. 

"Depends on who you ask." Kova rolled her neck. "The soldier knows it could go either way, the pilot wants to learn all his tricks, and the kid doesn't have anything nice to say."

Caleb scoffed. "When does she ever?"

"I want him to wake up for Dad's sake, but I also want him to lose his memory. I want to start over with him."

"Dad and Pops would understand if you chose them." 

"They made the choice ten years ago. It's done."

A loud clang on the tile distracted the teens from their conversation. Allie had dropped the buckle and straps that went over his legs. A loud curse left her mouth as she picked it up from the floor. Now set aside, all that was left to do was care for Keith's injuries. Taking a closer look at the two-inch smear across his right bicep, Allie figured a cleaning and disinfecting should bring the cut closer to an inch. Pulling her bag closer to her, she looked up at the man's face. One glance. It was all it took. From facing the ceiling one second to turning his head and glaring at the young Altean. 

Rightfully terrifying, Allie screamed. Her arms went over her head as Keith ripped the sheets away from his body. 

"Allie!" Kova yelled. Caleb ran off to grab Shiro, who was likely sulking in his office on the other side of the ship. 

Keith, by the looks of it, was trying to regain his senses. A foot out of bed and he lost his balance. Kova ran, or slid, to the girl grabbing her by the arms and pushing her back. Realizing it was Kova and not an insane maniac, Allie followed Kova's movements. With the med bag in hand, the door slammed in between Kova and Allie. Allie stood in shock at the events, jumping at Liz's touch. She was looking the younger girl over for injuries. Finding none, Liz led Allie to the window. 

"Keith," Kova said. She had dressed in her armor so the retired soldier couldn't grab onto anything. He didn't seem to appreciate it. Keith's pupils and irises had turned into dark slits across the width of his now glowing yellow sclera. His teeth were bared at the teen. They circled each other, neither attacking. 

"He, uh, he isn't really going to attack her, is he?" Allie asked, looking to Liz. 

"He isn't in any condition to fight. Kova would know this." Liz could offer. 

The pair were circling each other, Keith's steps becoming steadier with every step. He unleashed a snarl, lunging towards Kova. With a handspring and a roll, Kova had managed to get away from his hands. Keith, once again, didn't seem to appreciate this. A guttural growl escaped him and he lunged again. Kova could only outrun for so long, especially when he was in this state. Kova was on the furthest wall from the door. Keith, on the other side of the bed, began to climb over it towards the teen. 

"Keith Kogane," Kova tried reasoning again because that worked so well the first time. "I don't want to hurt you." A laugh escaped him, shaking him. His body tensed. Caleb had just arrived with Shiro in tow. Waving to her, Caleb signaled to the door. Kova saw this, looking for anything to escape the predator in front of her. 

Thank Allura for hanging lights. 

As Keith dove forward, Kova jumped onto his back and grabbed the light, using it to swing across the room. She landed in a crouch behind Shiro, who had been pushed into the doorframe. Keith unleashed another snarl, every intention to run after the girl. He was met with a silver and blue arm holding him back. Following it upwards, Keith's heavy breaths slowed. 

"Keith," A voice above him said. "You're my brother. I love you." Keith met the voice's eyes. With a blink, pinkish tones returned to his skin, his eyes returned to a blue-gray that matched Kenny's. 

"Shiro?" Keith's eyes were wide, holding the tall man at arm's length. Shiro smiled at the astonishment in Keith's eyes. The men stood there, staring at each other before embracing each other. The pair stood in silence, no one having the nerve to interrupt them. At least, no one but Kova. She stood up from her crouch, grabbing Allie by her upper arm and all but dragged her to the open doorway. 

Kova appeared behind Shiro, holding fast to Allie. "As tender as the moment is, he's still bleeding out. Minor injury, but an injury nonetheless." This broke the spell between the two. Keith stared at the Altean, who looked petrified, then to the teen wearing paladin armor. Shiro's paladin armor. 

"Who are you?" Keith asked. Kova ignored him, grabbing his shoulders and pushing him towards the bed, which now met the wall closest to the doorway. Keith repeated his question. Kova once again ignored him, motioning for Allie to come closer. As Allie got closer, Keith grabbed a hold of the girl's wrist. Allie screamed, dropping her med bag. Shiro kept the others from intruding, looking between Kova and Keith. "I'm not letting her anywhere near me until you tell me who you are and where I am!"

"I'm the pilot of the Black Lion, and you are safe." Kova stood firm, maintaining eye contact with Keith. 

"Be." Keith squeezed Allie's wrist, exciting a yelp. "More." His eyes flared, as did Kova's. "Specific."

"Officer Kova Shirogane, current pilot of the Black Lion. You are currently onboard the IGF Coeus. We are en route to the space mall to look for parts to repair our teleduv." She crossed her arms. "You currently have a cut on your right arm that must be treated by one of our onboard medics while we prepare a cabin and clothes for you." Keith squeezed Allie's wrist again, holding her in an iron grip. 

"You're lying. Shiro doesn't have a kid."

"You've been out a long time." Kova took a step forward, ready to cut someone's arm if she had to. "What do you know about the family?" Keith said nothing. "Until our medics deem you in safe physical condition, you are not to leave the med bay. Until then, you are to only communicate with myself, the Colonel, or one of the medics. Now let go." 

"Why should I take orders from a kid?" Keith complied with the command. Allie was rubbing her wrist, hoping a bruise wouldn't appear. She still looked to Kova for her answer. 

"You're not taking orders from a kid." Kova had backed up, starting to walk away. "You're taking orders from the leader of Voltron." This seemed to anger Keith. 

"I'm pilot of the Black Lion!" He stood, yelling after the girl. She turned her head, the glint of eyes revealing her intentions. 

"You were." She walked out the door, holding her head up high. "Clear out. Prepare to run drills in the morning." Everyone except for Shiro and Allie left the med bay observation room, heading different places. Cake worked with Kenny for a few hours. Liz had gone to the kitchen to prepare something for Keith. Caleb followed Kova to the bridge. She typed away at her console, looking for the connection to Earth. The screen appeared as Caleb closed the door. 

"Hey, guys!" Curtis said much too cheerfully. "Guess what today is?" Kova and Caleb stared at Curtis with matching skeptical looks. 

"Is it Taco Tuesday?" Caleb asked. 

"No, it's clearly Mystery Monday," Kova replied, inciting a laugh from both. Curtis had gone off-screen. He called someone in the next room. Kova and Caleb had descended the stairs to the bridge floor. Curtis returned with a small boy, not much older than five or six. 

"Kova!" He yelled. "Caleb!" 

"Why am I always second?" Caleb muttered, but the smile never left. 

"Hey, Cy!" Kova said, hoping the young boy didn't hear Caleb's comment. He didn't seem to. Instead, he stared at Kova's outfit with excitement in his eyes. 

"Woah! You're part of Voltron?!" Even from light-years away, Kova could see the stars in Cyrus's eyes.

"Hey, I am too!" Caleb protested. A gasp escaped Cy. 

"My big sister and my big brother is part of Voltron?" The little boy's excitement only seemed to grow. "What colors?"

"Black." Kova pointed to herself. 

"And red." Caleb pointed to himself. If it were possible, the boy's excitement only grew. 

"I'm gonna tell everyone that my big brother and my big sister are Voltron!" Cy spread his hands wide, emphasizing his point. Such a sweet boy, such a long way to go. 

"Were you guys going to tell me something?" Curtis asked, smoothing Cyrus's wild dark hair. 

"Our guest woke up," Kova said, watching Curtis's eyes widen. He nodded an understanding. "We can tell the rest whenever we wake up."

"Kova, Kova! Wait!" Cyrus exclaimed. 

"What's wrong, Cy?"

"Are you going to come back? Papa says you're in space." 

"Of course we're going to come back."

"Do you promise?" Kova didn't make promises she wasn't sure about. Caleb looked at Kova, who had a tender smile on her face. 

"I promise, Cy."

[liskantope]

Back during my early days on Tumblr, around the time I started here actually, I started reading Questionable Content comics from the beginning, 10 per day, to catch up to the current ones (at the time the comics numbered just over 3000). The day I finished the first 1000 I blogged about it, and then after the 2000th and 3000th I reblogged to update my review. The final reblog, from December 15th, 2015, is here.

The 4000th QC comic came out on Friday, and I’ve decided that in keeping with tradition it’s time to write a review of the past 1000 (although I’m doing it in a fresh post and not reblogging because apparently back in 2015 I hadn’t discovered readmore links yet and the post would look annoyingly long). So let’s get right to it... under the readmore link which I now know is a thing.

This past thousand comics, more than the previous runs of 1000, happens to converge upon a few prominent themes and one very prominent new character: Bubbles. As Bubbles is introduced soon after comic #3000 and is then heavily developed through the next thousand comics, with many of the story arcs (including the longest one ever seen in QC) centering on her, I might call the period of this past thousand comics The Year of Bubbles or something like that if in fact it were only a year instead of almost four (The 200-Week-Period of Bubbles doesn’t roll off the keyboard quite as nicely).

More generally, this webcomic has taken the AI theme to a whole new level in the past thousand comics with Bubbles’ introduction and development only the most major component of this -- whereas the presence of AI was a very minor and almost awkward side-issue in the early days of QC, the comic has now gone full-on robot-themed. I’d estimate that something in the ballpark of one third of the content in the #3000′s was focused on robots’ interactions and relationships with each other -- I think for the first time one could say it passed the AI-rights analog of the Bechdel test. Some 1000 comics ago I remember being mildly impatient at how robot-themed the content was getting, perhaps out of a vague feeling that the human characters were the ones I identified with the most (perhaps in the QC universe, and possibly the real world before the end of my lifetime, this would be considered a semi-subconscious form of bigotry which I can’t call “human-ism” but would deserve some term). I particularly remember not being enthralled with Bubbles when she was first introduced and was slightly irritated that she was immediately taking center stage.

But Bubbles, as well as the story arcs involving AIs in general, grew on me a lot, not just as an allegory of real-life social justice issues but as stories which provoke ideas and questions that I find interesting in their own right. In the case of the comics involving Bubbles, I think they mainly show just how masterful the cartoonist Jeph Jacques’ writing and approach to character development has become. Every bit of dialog taking place between Bubbles and other characters (particularly Faye of course) is gold, often without a single word that could be changed. The sequence of scenes during the #3700′s through which Faye and Bubbles finally get together is the epitome of this and in my opinion the very best writing we’ve seen in QC.

The actual outcome of Faye and Bubbles winding up in a relationship with each other, along with all the constant hints and speculation and build-up leading up to it, now that I have much more mixed feelings about. It precisely puts its finger on one of the main ever-present aspects of the ethos of QC which I’ve complained about before more than once and wound up calling “sex-causality”. Part of me wishes I hadn’t spent as many words ranting about this issue and I’m still uncertain on exactly how I categorize it, as purely a personal distaste or something more objective that does happen in certain subcultures and is bad when pushed on members who are uncomfortable with it, or what. But I do think the slow development of Faye/Bubbles over the course of most of the past thousand comics deserves a brief discussion as an example. There are two prongs to this thing: the fact that Faye and Bubbles getting together was the outcome, and the intermittent banter of all of the other characters about that outcome through hundreds of comics in approaching it.

With regard to their getting together in a both romantic and sexual relationship, it would go against my principles to oppose something like this. That said, it’s a departure from what we knew about Faye (which, to QC’s credit, is openly acknowledged), I would imagine that in a universe with human-like still-made-of-metal AI such a thing would still be somewhat more unusual than it’s given credit for being in the comic. Then again, it’s almost impossible not to underestimate the variety and frequency of still-under-discussed sexualities that are out there (e.g. romantic love and sexual attraction towards metal objects is definitely a thing), and certainly it makes the story more interesting, which after all is part of the writer’s job. No, what I think bothers me here is what feels like an under-representation or under-recognition of profoundly intimate friendships that don’t at any point contain an element of one party wanting to sleep with the other -- does there have to be a sexual element to every relationship that’s deep? It was mainly for this reason, I guess, that once I saw a meaningful (platonic) relationship blossoming between Faye and Bubbles, and noticed how well it was written and how much good it was doing each of them, that I feel it was a really beautiful thing as it was and began actively rooting against the ship that most of the other characters were rooting for.

As for the speculation between the other characters, well, if you’ve been following QC and my posts on this issue like the one I linked to above (those of you who have even made it up to this point in this post!), then you might guess rightly that my main reaction was profound annoyance. I don’t like getting on my high horse about other mostly-inoffensive adults acting kind of immature because I’m trying to stay open to it possibly being a personal-taste thing and maybe mostly on my end, but, well, I thought a lot of the banter irritating in a way that perceived immaturity irritates me. These two comics epitomize what I find annoying, and the “You just... seem to care about her a lot, that’s all” line at the start of this one points to precisely my complaint about the existence of deep platonic friendships not being recognized. Anyway, by the time we got past the dinner conversation in the comics I just linked to, I was throwing up my hands and fully onboard with the Faye/Bubbles ship just to finally be done with all the excited speculative giggling. And as I said, when it finally did happen, the writing (including of the reactions of other characters) was fantastic.

To (finally) change the topic away from Bubbles, some of my emotional reaction to QC has shifted subtly while the last thousand comics were coming out. The period of publication from #3001 to #4000 happens to have spanned a segment of my life (which will hopefully be ending soon) in which I’ve felt quite lonely and isolated. And watching all the interactions going on in the QC world makes me feel... not nostalgic exactly because I was never really part of a social circle quite like Marten’s... but rather bittersweet because of how much I’d like to be in so many ways. QC presents a fictional environment that in the confines of my brain I often call a “social utopia” or, perhaps slightly less ridiculously, something like a “social circle / subcultural utopia”. It’s poor terminology because the QC universe on the whole isn’t a utopia in any sense of the word -- in fact there are plenty of social ills that form the backdrop of many storylines -- and even when confined to looking at how the particular social circle operates “utopia” doesn’t seem like an appropriate term. But the variety of people in the social group, the places, they meet, and the way they interact with each other all seems to click together and operate in what I would consider -- and I believe the artist Jeph Jacques would consider -- to be pretty close to idyllic. I like especially how much diversity there is among the characters, both in their backgrounds and interests as well as their quirks, and how completely at ease and accepting they are of each other in spite of or almost because of them. There’s this vibe of “We’re all a little weird but we share the same values about how to be decent human beings, so let’s all revel in our weirdness together and be there for each other through thick and thin!” (Of course there are some bad characters lying on the periphery and kinda-sorta-dicks like Sven who are mostly excluded from the group, but that’s not the core of the world.) With few exceptions, conflicts are resolved in a very systematic way and almost immediately (with only a couple of exceptions that did eventually end happily).

And as a matter of fact, even during times when I was fairly socially happy, I was never part of any group that was so exemplary in this particular way. But reading QC, which is hopefully at least somewhat drawn from the cartoonist’s own experiences, sort of gives me hope or at least a very concrete means of imagining such a crowd. And even if I did feel the need to gripe from time to time about what I call the “sex-casual” norms that permeate the group interactions, honestly in the grand scheme of things that’s just something I could live with or even enjoy if comes through in a non-pushy, non-conformist way, in order to be part of such a welcoming and healthy family.

[truthbeetoldmedia]

Doctor Who 11x03 “Rosa” Review

Guys, this episode was SO GOOD. I’m talking “pick one episode to show to a friend that has never seen Doctor Who” good. If you think I’m exaggerating, I’m so sorry about your poor judgment.

Let’s start with some stats! They’re not boring, I promise.

In addition to being a standout episode judging by content alone, “Rosa” is also groundbreaking on several levels. This is the first episode in all 37 seasons of Doctor Who written by a person of color, only the sixth to be written by a woman, and Malorie Blackman doesn’t disappoint. Her episode is an unflinching look at Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. She’s unapologetic about the blatant (and sometimes shocking) racism shown throughout the episode, making it one of Doctor Who’s most poignant to date.

The episode opens with the Doctor making yet another attempt to land the TARDIS back in 2018 Sheffield, having instead landed everyone in 1955 Alabama (close, right?). The Doctor picks up a signal from some residual space technology, so of course she sets out to find the source. They’re not even off the TARDIS for a minute when Ryan attempts to return a dropped handkerchief to a white woman and is met with a slap in the face by the woman’s husband, apparently offended by Ryan’s gesture so much so that he even threatens him with a lynching.

It’s obviously not something I enjoy watching, but I’m glad that Malorie Blackman didn’t hold back. Showing the slap would have been enough to convey racism and heighten the tension, but it wouldn’t allow the audience (or the Time Team) to fully grasp the reality that Black people in the south faced everyday. I shouldn’t even use the past tense for that one, or even regulate this type of racism to the south. The same day this episode aired was also the day that a Black woman was racially abused on a Ryanair flight because a racist white man refused to sit next to her. So, you tell me, past or present?

Who shows up to save the day? Rosa Parks. After calming the situation by deflecting the conversation to the man’s suit she’s currently tailoring, she scolds Ryan for not being more careful. Emmett Till gets a mention here too — Malorie Blackman, pulling no punches once again.

The feeling of ever present danger never goes away throughout the entirety of the episode; right after meeting Rosa Parks, Ryan and Yaz are refused service at a restaurant because they don’t serve “negroes or Mexicans.” What follows is one of the most well written parts of the episode — the Doctor recognizing her own privilege. She tells Ryan, Yaz and Graham to go back to the TARDIS so she can continue searching for the source of alien life on her own; she acknowledges, out loud, that she is much more safe than either Ryan or Yaz in the situation that they are in right now due to the color of their skin.

It’s great to know that, while it is historic that Whittaker is playing the first female Doctor, they still have a long way to go. It would be easy for the show to pat itself on the back (I’m thinking of one showrunner who definitely would have done this, don’t @ me), celebrating their open-mindedness in making the Doctor female, conveniently forgetting that she is also white and British. Acknowledging this in the context of the show is not only important for us as the audience to see, but it opens up the possibility of a non-white Doctor in the future. It’s nice to know that while they know having a female Doctor is important to a lot of people, they still have quite a way to go.

There is some humor in this episode; Tosin Cole as Ryan does a great job in both the light and heavy moments. Graham and the Doctor also have several great back and forths — “You won’t be [excited] if it’s a bomb” “Don’t kill the vibe, Graham” — is a favorite, as is “You ain’t Banksy” “Or am I?”

Having found the source of the residual space technology — a released prisoner named Krasko who landed himself in the infamous “Stormcage” prison by committing a crime that resulted in the deaths of 2,000 people — the Time Team checks into a hotel (Yaz and Ryan through a window because of the whites only policy). Krasko seems interested in Rosa Parks and has set up shop at the bus depot — what does that all mean? Simple: the space racist is setting out to disrupt history by preventing Rosa from refusing to give up her seat, hoping it will prevent the start of the civil rights movement and keep Black people “in their place.” Yikes.

So, what does the Time Team do? They decide to guard history and ensure that Rosa is able to refuse to give up her seat, thereby setting off the bus boycott and the civil rights movement.

I can’t move on without discussing Ryan and Yaz’s conversation about race. It was a  very insightful conversation (thank you again, Malorie Blackman) about what exactly has changed since 1955. Ryan says “This ain’t history, Yaz,” when talking about how he gets stopped by the police more often than his white friends, and Yaz shares the ridicule she faces for being of Pakistani descent and a practising Muslim. We also see Ryan express frustration at always needing to appear calm, no matter what people say or do to him. He remembers how his Nan used to tell him to “never give them the excuse.” They also touch on how far society has come since 1955, mentioning Barack Obama. Putting 1955 and 2018 up against each other was a great choice here: sure, some things have changed for the better, but we still have a long way to go.

Lucky for everyone, our resident space racist is unable to kill or harm anyone because of a device implanted in his brain upon his release from Stormcage. Because of this, he has to make small and deliberate changes surrounding Rosa Parks in order to disrupt the beginning of the bus boycott.

The choice to put importance into small, almost insignificant moves is one of my favorite things about the episode. Even though we’re not rooting for the space racist to succeed, it’s still telling that he can attempt to change the entire course of history by making small changes, like having the bus driver who confronted Rosa take the day off and put a friendlier one in his place. You can change history without killing or injuring anyone, by making choices that might at first seem insignificant. It parallels what Rosa is about to do. She didn’t stage a protest or plan a coup, she simply refused to give up her seat. Did Rosa think that her simple refusal would set of an entire bus boycott and serve as the tipping point for the civil rights movement in America? I’m sure the answer is no. Even if she was anticipating a protest or a reaction, I’m sure she wasn’t anticipating just how far it would go.

So the Time Team finds themselves on the bus with Rosa, having maneuvered around the space racist’s many distractions (and sending him to the far reaches of time using his own device, thanks Ryan) to ensure that everything was historically as it was supposed to be. One catch — they can’t get off the bus and leave Rosa to history. If they leave the bus, there will be enough seats for the white people onboard, thereby taking away the need for Rosa to give up her seat.

So, they sit. As the Doctor puts it: they’re guarding history. That’s one of the many things that makes this episode so special. The Time Team are merely guarding history, not influencing it. No one brought up the possibility of resisting to Rosa. No one convinced her of anything. She’s not an alien (thank GOD), nor is her life influenced by some kind of cosmic event that’s usually around when the Doctor visits. It’s just Rosa being a strong Black woman who thinks she shouldn’t have to give up her seat.

I have to say, the power in this scene is astounding. The whole thing was brilliantly acted, especially by Vinette Robinson (Rosa) and Jodie Whittaker. The conflict that Graham, Ryan, and Yaz feel when the Doctor tells them that they “have to not help her” was apparent.  

In case you couldn’t tell, I loved this episode. It was beautiful, well written, and brilliantly acted. We owe Vinette Robinson and Malorie Blackman a debt of gratitude for this one.

Alyssa’s episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝.5

[destressjournal]

DCOM Rankings #106: Kim Possible

…..ugggggggghhhhhhjsbskslsndlswohaoafhsksbwsvahsi…….

That’s my review, bye everybody!

No….I gotta talk about this. I don’t want to but it needs to be done.

Okay so….this was very painful to watch, as you can see. I remember when this movie was announced, I think there might have been some initial excitement followed by a lot of skepticism. Me included. And finally when the trailers came out i think they’re were some folks that were still hopeful it would do well. And then it premiered. I don’t think anyone liked it. At least from the reviews I’ve seen on YouTube. And yeah I’m not gonna sugar coat it. This was pretty bad. I don’t think it was absolute garbage but yeah pretty bad.

I’ll say this first before I continue, I really strive to be objective when reviewing these movies. I think this is Disney channel’s first live action remake, and making a live action version of an animated film/series is extremely difficult, just look at all the live action Disney movies. When you remake something as beloved as a Disney movie or Kim possible, people are going to have pre-conceived expectations in their head and if those expectations are not met, people will be disappointed. It’s almost impossible to top or even match its predecessor because people expect it to just be a live version of the movie/show they love. However, if they make it scene-for-scene the same, you might as well just watch the original, if they make any changes, people won’t like them cuz it’s no longer the same. You’re basically stuck. Which is why I hope Disney kind of backs off of the live action train soon. The original is always going to be better. But nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

With that being said, as a movie (as in, pretending it’s not a live action version of a great cartoon) it’s not TERRIBLE. Is it cheesy and cringey? Oh hell yes. But at this point I’m so used to it. Honestly? I think it’s only really terrible when they’re really trying to “pay tribute” to the cartoon by saying the catchphrases or when Ron does something really cartoony. Although I will admit their attention to detail when it comes to the sets and the casting and the outfits, pretty on point.

So the characters, we all know the main cast really. But did the actors do them justice? I will say Ron and everyone except Kim was casted very well. Kim was okay. I guess I feel like her personality shifted and she seemed more self-centered, and it seemed like when she was helping people it was like she was only doing it to boost her ego. The Kim from the cartoon couldn’t have been more humble about the whole spy agent thing, and she believes it’s just another day on the job, no biggie. The live action movie make it so that Kim was literally perfect all the time, always helped everyone even at school or at home, straight A student, etc. when the Kim from the cartoon was just your normal teen, loved shopping and boys, and cared as much about school as any other teenager. She had crushes, and mean teachers, and friends, and enemies. She’s just average girl and she’s here to save the world (see what I did??? Lolololol). But yeah I cringed so hard during the live action movie when Kim was like “I’m kim possible, I can do anything!” Ugh, this sounds like a weekday morning cartoon for preschoolers. Also she basically bossed wade around the entire movie! I thought wade was only meant to be contacted for mission-related stuff, not “how do I get to class on time?”

So about this new character they introduced, I didn’t mind her I guess. She was really just used as a literal plot device to break Kim down. But I have mixed feelings about bringing her onboard as an official part of the team at the end. On one hand, I thought it was sweet how they still considered her a friend and didn’t throw her away. On the other, it’s something different. So therefore it’s not like the original series to have a brand new cast member. What I don’t get is: where is Monique??? I know in the cartoon they don’t meet until later but, idk. Maybe the crew was hopeful they would be able to make a sequel or something since it seemed so open-ended at the end.

The action was fine. In all honesty that was probably the best part of the movie. And we got to see different things like fighting with those stick things and Buffy-style kick-assery. But Kim used that grappling hook shooter waaaayyyy too much haha, I was starting to think that was the only tool at her disposal besides her laser lip gloss and jet pack. Also, I was wondering if they were gonna have Rufus in there and if he would be real or cgi and I think having him be cgi was probably the right move considering naked mole rats are actually kind of ugly and probably can’t be trained, so that’s that.

Lastly I will say this, I actually thought it was really cool to see Kim, her mom, and grandma going on a mission together. Like they can probably make an entire series on just that and I might consider watching it. But I would probably not consider watching a series about Kim, Ron, and the new girl, even if she’s a robot.

So I think that’s all my thoughts! I actually might place this as a C. Just a plain C. Even though this movie has more going against it, I have to give credit where credit is due. I just couldn’t give Kim possible a D, first of all. Second there were things I actually liked about it at the end of the day. Obviously I like the show so much better and it’s always going to be better! But this movie I don’t think is as horrible as people are making it out to be. It’s bad, but it’s not like the worst thing I’ve ever seen.

Next movie, another sequel!! And maybe the final major installment?? I’m not sure. Anything can happen with this franchise at this point. See you soon hopefully!

[profitablepractices]

Money, Honey: How to Get a Good Biller for Your Private Pay Therapy Practice

Money, Honey: How to Get a Good Biller for Your Private Pay Therapy Practice

Therapists are known for our incredible “people skills”. Our number skills? Maybe not so much. Even if you are fortunate enough to be great with numbers, you still might prefer to free yourself from the day-to-day responsibility of staying on top of patient billing so that you can focus on the actual therapy aspect of your private pay therapy practice. When I first started my practice, I did everything including the billing-- but I quickly found that by having a biller, I was able to find the time and energy to invest more in things like getting private pay clients and taking great care of the clients I already had. Like many therapists, I like working with clients on their therapy issues MUCH better than I like dealing with billing. Investing my time directly in the therapy visit rather than focusing my energy on the billing for each visit actually made me happier, and resulted in a better bottom line for my practice since the revenue I generated in just one private pay client visit was easily more than enough to pay for a week of billing services. It was a very simple choice for me: spend more time on billing paperwork and make less money; or spend less time on billing paperwork and actually make more money to further build my private pay therapy practice.

Clients loved my addition of a professional biller too, since we no longer had to discuss “admin stuff” like billing. It was easier for them to see me as the psychology expert I am rather than seeing me as their therapist and the “billing department”. Billers also help private pay clients to use their out of network benefits, which is actually difficult for many busy clients who are able to afford private pay. Although I’m out-of-network with insurance companies, many of my private pay clients have “Cadillac insurance policies” with great out of network benefits. The only snag is that the clients with executive positions and the great benefits that go with those positions are often too busy with their own professional obligations to get bogged down with a mountain of insurance paperwork to get reimbursements for therapy visits; so they don’t even factor in the insurance reimbursement when they evaluate your private pay fees. Making it a simple, seamless process for private pay therapy clients to get their out of network insurance benefits often cuts their out-of-pocket expense for sessions by 50-80%, which makes clients feel much more comfortable with a higher private pay therapy session fee than they would feel if they had to shoulder the entire burden themselves.

Although I'm now extremely happy with my biller, I must admit that I encountered several expensive, time consuming, and frankly heart-breaking lessons along the way to “biller heaven”. I’d like to share them with you so that you can avoid making the same mistakes I made. Here are some questions to ask as you interview billers for your private pay therapy practice:

1. Who owns my billing data; and would you be willing to work within my billing software account rather than yours?

Many billers will offer to “spare you the trouble” of setting up your own billing software and just manage your accounts from within their own master account at a billing software provider. While this may sound tempting in the short term, I advise you to make have YOUR OWN account so you can easily LOCK YOUR BILLER OUT and switch billers quickly and easily if there is ever a need for you to do so. This way, YOU OWN AND CONTROL THE DATA rather than being beholden to your biller. OfficeAlly is an excellent and FREE HIPAA-compliant billing software that lets you run credit cards, submit claims to insurance companies for patients to facilitate their out of network benefits, issue patient statements, and meets all other standard billing needs. You can set up OfficeAlly in about an hour.

2. Will you check benefits for my prospective private pay therapy patients? If yes, how often and how quickly?

Checking benefits is a great perk to offer your private pay client inquiries. When they ask how much your services cost, it helps to be able to tell them their estimated out of pocket cost which is going to be less than your full fee, if the client has out of network benefits (don't worry, you will still get your full private pay fee since the client's insurance company will pay the balance!). To be able to provide potential private pay theapy clients with this information, someone needs to look up benefits. This is sometimes as quick as punching some numbers into a website such as Availity.com, and sometimes requires a phone call to the insurance company. Either way, it helps to ask the biller about this while the biller is in “sales mode” trying to win your business. Many billers do not check benefits; or they say they check benefits but they actually take 1-2 days to complete a lookup, by which point your prospective private pay therapy client may have moved on. Best to set expectations early and while you have the leverage of “shopping” for a biller. Also find out if they’re willing to speak to your private pay therapy clients directly about benefits or if they’d rather relay it through you. I have found that demurring “talk to my biller” whenever questions about my fees arise is very liberating.

3. What are my exit options?

In an ideal world, you and your biller would stay “together forever and ever”. In the real world, this is unlikely. I’ve known many private pay therapists who unwittingly signed agreements where they had to pay a $2,000 early cancellation fee if they ended the billing relationship prior to a yearlong period of service. Many billers may try to argue for this by saying that they invest time and effort to “onboard you” and they need to make it worth their while. I advise you to push back. Tell them that you are also investing in them, and that you have every intention of remaining for many years if the relationship works well; but the idea that you must commit to a year of billing with someone before you even know how smooth the process will be is just not feasible for your business. I’ve been with my biller now for years, and we have a fantastic working relationship; but there was no way I could have felt certain of this before actually working with her (especially after some of the billing nightmares I encountered before finally finding her!). You may like the person who does the sales call with you, but the person actually handling your account is different, or the service is great at first but then worsens as they get other clients they are prioritizing over you, or any other myriad reasons why things might not work out quite as planned. Give yourself the power to walk away if you’re not satisfied.

4. How often can we have a regularly scheduled “check in call”?

Have a REGULARLY scheduled phone meeting with your biller, and be “on the same page” regarding past due accounts. I have a weekly phone meeting with my biller where we review any billing issues, including any therapy clients who are past due. You may not need to talk quite that frequently, but determine in advance of signing a contract how often you’ll have your regularly scheduled calls. Do NOT depend on your biller to just phone you up and tell you who is past due. A good biller will and should do this, but then again we all get busy and your biller may have an assistant who “forgot” to tell you. “Trust but verify” is your mantra here. It is EASY to run a 1-minute report in OfficeAlly or similar software that tells you a LIST of anyone whose bill is past due, and the total of your past due accounts; and to set the report to spotlight anyone who is more than 60 days past due. Having your standard past due numbers is incredibly helpful because you have an “early warning system” if the number starts creeping higher. It was also super helpful to me one particular time when starting with a new biller who tried to say it was “normal” to have “a certain amount” of past due accounts and she was “diligently working on them”. I was able to easily show her that the levels of past due accounts weren’t “normal” for MY practice because I had records of my normal past due figures. I know numbers are daunting, but this is ten minutes well spent: each week, run your past due report in OfficeAlly or wherever your billing records are; and have that report in front of you for your quick weekly call with your biller (or monthly or whatever you do-- monthly is a minimum). Figure 60 seconds to run the report, and 5-10 minutes for the call. Bonus points if you email the report to the biller before the call as a way to structure things.

5. Can we add into your contract that you will NOT work with any of my current or former employees for a certain period of time? If not, WHY NOT?

This might be shocking, but I actually once had a biller who contacted MY OWN EMPLOYEES behind my back to ask if she could do billing for them to help them jumpstart their own private pay therapy practices. The conflict of interest was obvious to everyone but her.

If you want more information on how to vet a biller, or referrals to billers, or if you have any other questions about how to succeed in private practice, please do join my on-demand video program here you can enjoy an information-rich community with smart private pay therapists like you and me! You will learn everything you need to know in order to attract, book, and retain more private pay therapy clients and build your private pay therapy practice.  By the way: Even if you’re not planning to join my program, I may be able to provide you with a referral to a decent biller- feel free to ask me.

[douxreviews]

Farscape - ‘Premiere’ Review

Meet Commander John Crichton. Crichton is an Earth astronaut who gets hit by an electromagnetic wave while testing his own theory that it is possible to overcome atmospheric friction and use a planet’s gravity to slingshot away at exponentially higher speeds. Said wave turns out to be a wormhole that hurtles him to the far side of the Universe and deposits him in the middle of an attempted prison break. Much to his and our amazement, he soon finds himself onboard a living ship with a diverse group of hostile aliens who are trying to escape an interstellar “peacekeeper” force. He’s threatened, probed, insulted, beat down several times, and imprisoned, but after discovering he accidentally killed a Peacekeeper commander’s brother, Crichton soon comes to realize that he’s better off joining the escaped prisoners in the uncharted corners of the Universe. And thus begins Farscape ...

I’ve always remembered Farscape as one of those shows I love that had a subpar pilot episode. But, even though ‘Premiere’ is a bit clunky at times, overall it is actually a pretty effective pilot. It defines this strange new world, gives us a pretty good introduction to the main characters, and clearly establishes the basic premise and the situation going forward. It was action-packed and exhilarating, and gives us an instantly likeable hero in John Crichton.

Ben Browder is simply wonderful as Crichton. In addition to being very easy on the eyes, he brings such a genuine and relatable quality to a character in an incredible situation. He is fully able to fully convey the terror, confusion, and wonder of Crichton’s predicament. I love his look of almost giddy joy when he first sees D’Argo and Zhaan on Moya’s bridge, as well as his befuddlement and outrage when Rygel spits on him. “What is the matter with you ... people?!” He can also can deliver borderline cheesy dialogue like “It’s not who you are, Dad. I love who you are. It’s being son of who you are ...” with such ease and believability that you can’t help but like the guy. Plus, Ben’s got some serious comic chops.

The show also gives us a pretty dynamic array of aliens, including Officer Aeryn Sun, a pilot and infantry soldier from the human-looking Peacekeepers; Ka D’Argo, a tall and tentacled Luxan warrior; Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan, a bald and blue Delvian priestess; Dominar Rygel XVI, a deposed Hynerian royal who’s sort of a cross between Yoda and a slug; Moya, a Leviathan, or living ship; and her Pilot, who’s like a hybrid of a crab, a spider, and a turtle. Rygel and Pilot are animatronic puppets from Jim Henson’s creature shop. I may be biased, as a fan of The Dark Crystal and The Muppet Show, but I think Jim Henson’s people do superlative puppetry work, creating fully believable characters. Rygel and Pilot feel like real and equal characters from the get go. Rygel, in particular, is a fantastic little “slug” with incredibly expressive eyes. I love the final look he gives Crichton as he delivers his “Are you a sound sleeper?” line before chuckling and zipping away at the end of the episode.

My least favorite part of ‘Premiere’ is probably the stuff on Earth before the wormhole accident. It felt rather slow and clunky, with dialogue that was a bit cheesy and predictable. Once Crichton emerges from the wormhole, however, things kick into overdrive. The story really goes from “ho hum” to wide-eyed wonder and amazement. Even the slow moments like Zhaan and D’Argo getting acquainted --- painfully awkward semi-flirting, notwithstanding --- help to define the characters and build the world. And I can even accept the somewhat tired plot device of Crais unjustly persecuting Crichton over his brother’s very clear accidental death, because it is the necessary evil that forces Crichton and Aeryn to go on the run with Moya and her crew.

Other Thoughts

For some reason, I really like that the first episode is called ‘Premiere’ instead of ‘Pilot.’

When re-watching, I was really impressed with the special effects. They’ve held up pretty well. They may not be as clean as the effects on the new Battlestar Galactica, but they also don’t look as dated as the Babylon 5 special effects. Ultimately, it is the sets, costumes, makeup, and Henson creatures that really sell this world, but the CGI effects aren’t too shabby either.

The theme music, on the other hand, is some of the craziest I’ve ever heard. I love how it opens with the drums and male chanting, but then the dissonant, high-pitched female voices start and the whole thing becomes insanely over the top!

Crichton works for ‘I.A.S.A.’ Is that the “International” Aeronautics and Space Administration? Crichton’s module and uniform have United States markings, and the test launch is being run out of Cape Canaveral. So where does the “International” part come in?

Crichton and Aeryn have quite the “meet cute,” when she kicks his ass, then straddles him and demands to know his rank and regiment. Despite that very sexually charged position, I’m not detecting a whole lot of sexual tension between them at this point. She doesn’t seem interested in him in the slightest, and his insistence on bringing her back to Moya seems more motivated by concern or guilt than by attraction. He simply doesn’t want her to lose her life for attempting to defend him to Crais (even if she did so by denigrating his bravery and intelligence).

I had completely forgotten about Rygel’s gas issue. What an unexpectedly hilarious scene!

[All in high-pitched voices.] Rygel: “It’s a perfectly natural bodily function. And it’s odorless.” D’Argo: “So you’re loyal subjects tell you.” Crichton: “You fart helium?!” Rygel: “Sometimes. When I’m nervous. Or angry.”

I also completely forgot about the DRD’s. How the heck could I forget about the DRD’s? I love the sound they make and the scene in which Crichton fixes the broken antenna on the one he first encounters. It’s going to be fun experiencing this series all over again!

D’Argo’s tongue maneuver is awesome!

Some world-building notes: translator microbes are an excellent device to explain why everyone can understand each other; those food cubes looked seriously unappetizing; the Peacekeeper commandos in full gear remind me of the Kull warriors from the Stargate universe.

I was amused when they tapped into alien abduction lore by having Crichton wake up naked and Rygel telling him they “examined” him while he was unconscious.

It's kind of surprising that Zhaan’s, D’Argo’s, and Rygel’s possessions were still around. They’ve all been in custody a long time. Zhaan and D’Argo did time in a forced labor camp since their incarceration. Why would the Peacekeepers even hold on to the possessions of prisoners, especially ones bound for a lifers colony?

I was amused by John’s complete awe at standing on what he clearly thought was an amazing alien planet, followed by Aeryn calling it a “waste hole of a planet.” Eye of the beholder and all that.

I loved that Crichton got to prove his atmospheric friction theory with Moya. It made for a very exciting escape sequence, and the visual of Moya streaking across the atmosphere was impressive.

Quotes

Crichton’s Dad: “Each man gets a chance to be his own kind of hero.” Ugh! So cheesy and portentous.

Crichton: “Oh please, let it all be a dream. A very bad, very ... twisted dream.”

Zhaan: “It’s time for us to eat.” Crichton (nervously): “Eat what?”

D’Argo (re: Crichton): “This one is some kind of higher brain function deficient.”

Crichton: “Boy, was Spielberg ever wrong. Close Encounters, my ass.”

Aeryn: “Compassion? What is compassion?”

Crichton: “Yeah, well how do I know I can trust you?” Aeryn: “You don’t. That’s just another thing you don’t know.”

Aeryn: “Sir, he claims to be a human, from a planet called Earp.”

Aeryn: “... I believe him when he says that what happened to your brother was an accident. I don’t believe that he is brave enough or intelligent enough to attack one of our prowlers intentionally.”

Crichton: “Don’t move! Or I’ll fill you full of … little yellow bolts of light.”

D’Argo: “Now unlock me!” Aeryn: “No! He is a criminal!” Crichton: “We all are.”

Aeryn: “No. I will not come with you.” Crichton: “You’ve been irreversibly contaminated. Remember?” D’Argo: “It means death.” Aeryn: “It is my duty, my breeding. Since birth! It’s what I am.” Crichton: “You can be more.”

Aeryn: “Crais thinks you killed his brother. In such a case, would you obey jurisdictional boundaries?”

Crichton (to tape recorder): “And there’s life out here, Dad. Weird, amazing, ... psychotic life. And death. In Technicolor.”

Final Analysis: A pretty solid pilot episode, which effectively introduces the characters, the world, and the basic premise. It certainly left me wanting to see what would come next.

Jess Lynde is a highly engaged television viewer. Probably a bit too engaged.

[mindfulwrath]

HTCIC: Old News

More from Meesh because I’m love her.

A few hours later, as Meesh was headed back towards the Chawla ring, Xander caught her up.

"Hey," she said, breathless. "Look, um—I wanted to thank you. For helping out. We really, seriously couldn't do it without you and it really is pretty dangerous, so—"

Meesh waved a hand. "My pleasure," she said. "Honestly. This is a hell of a lot more like what I was expecting when I signed on."

"Can we . . . walk and talk?" Xander asked, gesturing to the corridor.

"Sure, if you like," said Meesh. They set off, their pace leisurely.

"So," Xander said eventually, "um. I feel like somebody should tell you. Since apparently nobody has."

"Is this about the airlock thing?" said Meesh.

"Yes. Well—it's not really an airlock thing, but—I'll just start at the beginning," said Xander.

"Should we find someplace a bit more private than the corridor?" Meesh asked.

"It doesn't really matter," said Xander.

"All right, carry on, then," said Meesh.

Xander took a deep breath. When she spoke she kept her eyes forward.

"You know Delilah Stillbend, right?" she asked.

"Sure, I've met her," said Meesh. "Seemed a bit uptight, but not so bad overall."

"Yeah, um," said Xander. "Well, she has two kids onboard. Twins. Leighton and Tobias."

"Okay?" said Meesh, not sure where this was going.

"And . . . she had a third," said Xander.

Meesh bit her tongue to keep from blurting out the half-dozen guesses she had as to the fate of this third child. It was a struggle.

"His name was Orion," Xander said. "He was about—seventeen? At the time? There was no other parent in the picture, so when Stillbend and Tobias and Leighton came over. . . ."

"They let a child go on a nine-day subspace jaunt to a space station?" Meesh asked, incredulous.

"Well . . . yeah," said Xander. "Stillbend filled out reams of paperwork and got to bring a twelve-year-old into deep space. I'm not sure how she justified it, or got away with it, or what she did, but it happened."

"That's wild," said Meesh. "I mean. I'm nineteen and I still had to jump through more hoops than an acrobat."

"No kidding," said Xander. "So yeah. Orion. I met him maybe twice. He was a good kid. I mean. Y'know, as good as a teenage white boy can be."

"I know what you mean."

Xander shrugged. "He liked to sort of . . . wander. On the weekends, or when he wasn't doing schoolwork. Just to get to know the ship. He was fascinated with the field generators. Spent a lot of time there. But. . . ."

Meesh waited. Xander scowled at the corridor ahead, her lips pursed.

"They think it was a meteorite," she said at last, very quietly. "Or—whatever the equivalent is. Space debris. A rock about the size of your fist. It punched through the hull and the whole Number 7 field generator blew out. Tore out a huge chunk of the wall."

"And he. . . ." Meesh said, feeling ill.

"Yeah," said Xander. "Wrong place, wrong time."

"Christ," Meesh whispered. She shuddered. "All right, point taken, no airlock jokes."

"They looked for him," Xander mentioned.

"Don't, God, please, don't," said Meesh, throwing up her hands. "It's horrific enough as it is."

"Sorry," said Xander. "If it helps, they never found anything."

"That doesn't help, even remotely," said Meesh.

"Sorry," Xander said again. "So—well, so now you know."

Meesh sighed, shaking her head. The two of them arrived at an elevator, and she turned to Xander and stuck out a hand.

"It was good meeting you, Xander," she said. "Thanks for getting me caught up."

Xander shook her hand. "Apparently, it was about time."

"Apparently," said Meesh. "Looking forward to working with you."

"Same," said Xander, cracking a smile.

Meesh turned and pressed the button to call the elevator. Xander started to walk away, hesitated, then turned back.

"Hey," she said. "So um, Sam and me and a couple other people are having like a . . . sort of a girls' night kind of thing this weekend. If it doesn't get called off because of all the Akastean hullabaloo, would you . . . want to come?"

"Ordinarily, I'd say no," said Meesh, "but since you just unironically used the word hullabaloo in a sentence I think I've got to."

Xander ducked her head and made a face.

"Well, whatever works," she said, shrugging.

With a ding, the elevator doors opened. Meesh stepped inside, picked a seat, and strapped herself in.

"I s'pose you can email me the details for this particular meetup," she said.

"Yeah, I—yeah," said Xander.

Meesh waved as the doors slid shut between them.

If it had been difficult to focus on her work before, it was impossible now. Meesh did her best, trying to engage with the email from Stillbend's programmer asking for orbital eccentricity for some reason, but her mind refused to focus. She kept checking the time, wondering how Raúl and Sam and Xander were getting on with their message. The window would open in less than nine hours, now, and close again in less than fourteen. She wondered if the coordinates and instructions she'd given had been clear enough. She wondered if they were going to get caught fooling with the antenna and the whole thing would be bust. She wondered if the Akasteans would understand their doe-eyed little message enough not to respond to it, or if the ostensibly well-meaning extraterrestrials would blow the whole thing wide open at their very next message.

She wondered about the Number 7 field generator, and the accident, and Delilah Stillbend.

Finally, at seven hours to transmission time, Meesh gave up on working and took to the internet. Sure enough, when she googled Asphaleia fatal accident, there popped up multiple articles, all from about three years ago. She clicked on the one with the least sensationalist headline.

The general story was about the same as Xander's—at three p.m. on April 4th, 2399, an object struck the Asphaleia, puncturing the hull, and young Orion Stillbend was blown out through the hole. Efforts were made to recover the body, but only bits of hull debris were found, despite weeks of searching. While it was possible that the child's body had fallen into Rhodea's gravity well and was now a greasy smear on the regolith, high-resolution imaging of the surface had turned up hull debris, but nothing resembling splattered boy amongst it. The better money had it that nothing bigger than a baseball had made it out of the ship in one piece, and there was simply nothing to recover. All three of the surviving Stillbends, it seemed, had elected to remain on the station despite being given the opportunity to return home. A funeral would be held, hull repairs were already under way. Several high-ranking officers, including Admiral Bhattacharya and Captain Battle, remarked on the freak nature of the accident and the tragedy of the loss. There were glowing reviews of Orion's character—a bright child, enthusiastic, good-natured, well-liked, all the stock phrases the press loved to spew about dead white children. There was no indication of the boy's real nature.

Meesh skimmed the next article, more sensationalized than the last. It was the same story, told in more inflammatory language. Stillbend was blamed for bringing a child aboard in the first place. Slanderous phrases were slung towards Admiral Bhattacharya for no apparent reason other than that she was in charge.

The next article told the same story, and the next, and the next. Meesh kept reading them. Something was off about the story, and like an orbital perturbation, it grew every go-round. She just couldn't place what it was. She started chewing on her pencil. She abandoned the articles, got up, and went to her whiteboard.

"Rhodea," she muttered to herself, drawing a circle. "Asphaleia." A little oval surrounded by five perpendicular rings. "Orbit." A bigger oval around Rhodea, with the Asphaleia at one end of it. "Beta Com." On the far end of the board, a circle with rays coming out of it. Meesh capped the marker and stood back. After a moment's thought, she drew an arrow coming out of Rhodea, indicating its clockwise orbit around Beta Com, then a pair of arrows on the Asphaleia's orbital oval, indicating its own direction of movement. She stepped back again. After another moment of consideration, she drew in the various asteroid populations at each Lagrange point. There was no main belt of asteroids out past Rhodea like there was in the Earth's solar system.

She chewed her lip. She labeled everything. She drew in Akaste, nearer to the star than Rhodea and carrying its own populations of asteroids. She added a note at the bottom that said Not to scale. She frowned and sighed and ground her teeth.

"What am I missing?" she muttered to herself. "What am I missing here?"

Though she wracked her brains for nearly an hour, she came up with nothing. Disgusted with herself, she left the drawing up on the board and went to go get a coffee.

[lukaivi-blog]

HOW TO DESTROY YOUR STARTUP IN 15 EASY STEPS

I raised $500,000 at 19. I was on my way to change the world. Three years later everything burned down.

This post is not about how to shoot for the stars or run a company. Others are better at that.

This is about what not to do. I’ve made every mistake possible. But ironically, I’m constantly meeting teams doing the exact same things that caused my first startup to implode. Everything I’m writing about I’ve experienced first hand through my own startups as well as various businesses I’ve been involved in. It’s been all my fault and this is my story.

Some of you will disagree with me. Others will have things to add. I’m happy to discuss in the comments.

Here’s my attempt.

ZUCKERBERG SYNDROM

My girlfriend didn’t know what I was working on for nine months. I slept with a chair blocking the front door. My phone was tapped. Corporate America and Uncle Sam were listening. Someone was going to kill me to steal the idea.

I really believed this. So I did everything possible (literally) to avoid getting feedback out of the fear of having our idea stolen.

Ultimately, secrecy and stupidity killed us. Three years and hundreds of thousands later, we released an alpha version to a modest 30 people for the first time. Everyone hated it. Our capital was gone. Our moral: zero.

I see this all the time. Startup founders hiding their ideas because of the fear that someone will steal it. Remember: no one cares about you. Your biggest issue is getting discovered. If someone steals your idea, that means you’re doing something right.

Because of this syndrome, most startups are wasting their time and money building products no one wants. Why? Lack of testing. The biggest mistake a company can make (product wise) is to avoid talking to and testing with potential and current users. Every day. It’s also one of the main reasons startup’s fail.

If you’re not constantly releasing and looking for feedback you’re either a) delusional (me) thinking too many people will sign up/buy your product and you won’t be able to scale b) scared that it’s not good enough (me) or c) someone will steal your idea (as I was).

A. SCALING

“Your priority, in short, is proving that people will use your product at all. If they won’t, then it won’t matter if you can’t scale. If they will, then you will figure out a way to scale. I’ve never seen a startup die because it couldn’t scale fast enough. I’ve seen hundreds of startups die because people refused to embrace their product.” — Guy Kawasaki [Emphasis mine]

I’ve done this and I’ve experienced this in the past three startups I’ve worked in. It’s completely delusional. If five out of five people tell you that they wouldn’t use your product (before you build), quit. If eight out of ten people tell you that they hate this feature and you empirically see that they’re not using it, kill it. Don’t assume. Always be testing.

More on feedback below.

b. TESTING

See point A.

C. STEALING(!)

No one will steal your idea. It takes time, money, skills and immorality to steal. Not everyone is born that lucky.

Most importantly, no one cares about your idea.

They’ll only start caring when there’s a massive amount of initial traction (50,000+ users). By then, you’ve already established a strong user/customer base and it’s too late for the others.

HIRING FOR WEAKNESS

Only hire for a strength that needs to be filled in your company. Never for a weakness.

Not once did any of the startups I worked in hire for a strength. I repetitively recommended hiring people purely out of loneliness, fear and scarcity repetitively. Each time it sunk us deeper.

But what does that mean?

Hiring for a weakness means that you attempt to fill a weakness in the fundamentals in your company by hiring for a weakness. Example: If you’re building a product and it’s not gaining traction and your company doesn’t have inherent fundamentals, hiring Ryan Holiday to sell your product won’t help. You can’t fight weakness with weakness.

However, if you have a rockstar engineering team and you want to add a marketing person to help take the product get to another level, then you’re adding a strength.

Hiring for weakness also means:

a. You hire a B+ player instead of a A+ player.

b. You hire people so that they go through the struggle with you, so that they share your fears and paranoia. Not so they execute on what’s needed.

c. Hiring someone to fill a position. Not to compliment the rest of the company.

d. Hiring someone and not having any idea of what the hell you want them to do.

e. It means hiring someone because you think there’s no one else. Scarcity.

f. Hiring a client’s friend. Because you’re scared.

It’s ultimately about the fundamentals. If the fundamentals of the product and the team aren’t there, adding someone is just adding a weakness. It won’t help, because it’s not a strength.

PAINTER’S DILEMMA

Approving emails? One week treks. Our first wireframes? $40K and four months. Did we have a working product after all this? No. We failed.

The Painter’s Dilemma is when you’re so deep in the details of your project that you don’t even know what the idea is anymore. You’re blind. When you’re too deep you need help.

How to solve it? Stop. Talk to people. Get feedback. Iterate and build. Release. Breathe.

Repeat the loop.

The more feedback you get the healthier you and your product are.

FEEDBACK*

I can’t emphasize this enough. If you don’t get feedback (everyday) you will die. I never got feedback. EVER. Well, until the cash ran out. Oops.

If you’re not getting qualitiative and quantitive feedback/data everyday, the cancer will start.

It’s easy: speak to people, Google Analytics, send surveys. Just don’t hide from it.

*This is the crucial and worth a dedicated blog post in the future.

COMMUNICATE

“Don’t talk to him, he doesn’t understand. He’s out of the picture next funding round anyways.” I hid everything internally. It was easy, we were in 5 different countries! Our developers were remote (I’ll get to that) and Basecamp was our only means of communication. In other startups, I wouldn’t included people from discussions because “it isn’t necessary. That isn’t their job”

New features, awful designs, conniving plans were all pushed through a funnel. I was the leader of the deceiving. Architecting a blue print to push my own delusional “never test and succeed” agenda. My style? The longer the email the less likely someone important will read it. What a strategy. As always, the CEO is the biggest idiot.

I don’t care if you’re a church, a tech startup or a non-profit. If you don’t have a system of communication in place that keeps everyone aware of what everyone is doing in the company, in real-time, for every milestone, everyday, you will die very soon.

Lesson: Live and breath Scrum.

SCREW LAWYERS

Lawyers are criminals.

I spent $15,000 on legal documents/fees we never used. Every entrepreneur/startup I’m involved with thinks lawyers are the first step to success. Bullshit.

DOCS

All the legal documents you ever need are available online. If you’re B2B, all companies that you’ll work with have their own standard LOEs, NDAs, etc., that they anyways steal from Fortune 500 companies. Request it. Then use it. B2C? Here.

BUT I NEED A TRADEMARK!

Unless you have 10,000 clients you don’t need to think about copyright or even the name. Prove the concept first. Worry later. If you do have to worry, those are very nice worries to have.

PATENT IT!

Patenting something that isn’t validated with at least 10,000 clients is moronic. Ironically, this is the only mistake my first startup didn’t follow through with (fully, at least).

DECISION MAKING

I was traumatized from taking decisions. Most startups never take decisions. In other statups I work in, decisions took weeks. People join startups for the reason of avoiding bureaucracy but everyone still does it. Why? Lack of trust and overview of the team, so they choke the process (have I suggested Scrum?).

The board should decide on the vision and the group should decide what to execute on by creating a backlog for the week. The team should then have the power to execute it. With a great communication process in place, teammates should be able to take decisions without reporting to anyone while keeping everyone updated with everything’s that going on, live. Have a flat structure to achieve this by using Scrum.

Let people do their jobs. Trust them. Don’t have a tedious review process as most startups do. Don’t suffocate the system. Empower your people.

Read Scrum by Jeff Sutherland on how to manage your team. Then read Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal for how to organize the information flow. Both books compliment each other perfectly.

THE BOARD

The ideal board is 3–5 people maximum if you’re a startup. Anything above that means that either no decisions will ever be taken (my first company) or someone has a hidden agenda and profits from a discombobulated board.

A business is not a democracy. Unanimous decisions don’t work and will never work.

Who’s should I put on the Board?

Only investors/shareholders who hold a large stake and are extremely active in the success of your venture.

INVESTORS

Smart Money vs Still Money

Just because someone is offering you cash almost always means youshouldn’t accept it.

Your investor can have the greatest contacts in the pharmecutical industry. She can be CEO of Merck. If she doesn’t have a massive network in whatever industry you’re in, it’s worthless. The money will be worth nothing. This is true 100% of the time.

Always onboard investors that can help you in your niche industry.

MEETINGS

This is my top 3 favorites. Most won’t agree with me on this.

I’ve never been to a meeting that has made me money/funded my venture. I don’t think anyone has. Has anyone ever handed you a check at a meeting? I doubt it. Today, it usually happens by wire-transfer.

Meetings are pointless. Every team I meet, consult for/work with all think that going to meetings is the most crucial part of business. Most importantly, the whole team should be there. Pick up the fucking phone. Travel is time and money expensive. Even if you’re taking a cab.

I would fly 10,000 miles for a 3 hour meeting and then fly back to Europe that same day. $30K. Gone.

Most of the discussion can be ironed out over email and FaceTime.

Ok yes, I agree. Meeting in person is important. But not until it’s necessary. Most of the time, it’s unecessary. And even when it is, it shouldn’t always be an excuse to leave work for a business lunch or to Shanghai for the day.

Avoid meetings. Get more done.

It’s a waste of time 99% of the time.

FOUNDING PARTNERS = YOUR SPOUSE

You will be married to your partners and investors for the next 7–10 years. Choose wisely.

Know your team. Speak to your investor’s enemies. Get references for everyone.

Don’t be a deceiver. Use Scrum.

WORKING HOURS

We worked 16 hour days. Yey! Startup life!

No. Work 8–10 hours and you’ll get more done than working 18 hours a day. Don’t believe me. It’s proven.

Working 18 hour days leads to a burn out, which leads to painter’s dilemma, then delusion, then deceiving others around you, then depression. Then it’s too late.

Ultimately, the more you work the more mistakes you’re prone to make. Mistakes made are mistakes that need to be corrected. Mistakes that aren’t correct can take up to 24x longer to correct than if they were corrected immediately.

But you can’t see that. You’re burned out. You’re in Painter.

PRODUCT / MARKET VALIDATION

Another reason I refused to test in the three product startups I was involved in was because “the ideas work successfully elsewhere. They will also work here.” Doesn’t work like that.

Just because you’re making a mishmash of several products that have product/market validation elsewhere doesn’t mean people are willing to useyour product. I have yet to meet a new founder who hasn’t claimed this.

In order for someone to switch to your product, your product needs to be at least 8x better.*

Is your product really 8x better than your biggest competitor? If the answer isn’t a clear yes, quit.

*Read Hooked by Nir Eyal and Ryan Hoover for how to build habit forming products.

RECREATING THE WHEEL

“God gave you eyes, so plagarize.” —Michael Lewis

No need to re-create the wheel. Everything is out there already for a reason. Use APIs, read books (many books), steal functions, designs, ideas, marketing slogans, branding, on boarding processes, software, colors, clients, everything from other people/companies who are successful.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t test it in your own environment. You must validate every single function that you put out there. Use the Lean Startup Kansan by Ash Maurya for this.

DILUTION

We gave away 51% for our first funding round. How much did we plan to keep when we “exited?” Think about that. It doesn’t make sense.

Startups do this all the time. If you retain 51% after the seed round, how much does the founding team plan to keep by Series B? 20%? If you take the average of what you got paid for equity after the exit + your salary you’ll be paying more in taxes with a minimum wage paycheck for the past 8 years it took you to exit. Might as well work in a shoe store.

If you don’t have the bargaining power (a validated product) to raise money with, quit.

GUYS IN SUITS

Our tech partners wore suits. That made us comfortable. They ended up quoting $100k. We ended up with nothing.

If you see tech people in suits, run.

OUTSOURCING

I lost well over $100,000 for our first version that was outsourced. We were smart enough to not learn from our mistakes so we found another team to outsource with. Another hefty sum gone. Only myself to blame.

I’ve had terrible experiences with outsourcing and great experiences with in-house development.

However, many products (we all use everyday) have found great success in outsourcing. I also know many entrepreneurs who outsource and are extremely succesful. While there are massive benefits, there are also downfalls. If you plan to, find a free consulting company that has pre-screened teams.

Either way, using Scrum increases your chances of success in-house or out.

YOUR TEAM

Entrepreneurs read about Steve Jobs’ management style and think he was a tyrant. So they curse at their employees and tell everyone that they are “shit.” They think that’s how a company should be run and that’s how teammates should be treated. Wrong. Treat your team like shit and you’ll get shit.

Either way, that’s not how Steve Jobs did it. Steve Jobs empowered his team. He told them that what they’re outputting is shit because he knew that they could do better. Because they are the best in the industry. He made them feel good. He challenged them and today Apple is Apple because of that.

On the other hand, I lied. Didn’t speak about the hard things and repressed whatever fear or worry we had. We were scared that someone would quit or that we would look bad if we showed our emotions in front of our investors.

You should always be able to tell your teammates all the fears and worries you have. Chances are, if you’re worried about something, everyone is worried about the same thing. Bring it up. Talk about it. I keep mentioning Scrum* because it encourages team members telling each other what’s bothering them and what’s impending the growth progress. This is key to not failing.

Not once, in any of the startups I was in, did I or other get credit for great work or for their ideas that ended up being implemented. Not once did anyone congratualte a teammate on a engineering triumph, a beautiful design or a new lead. Startups think “business is business. This isn’t a cute place to pat each other on the backs.”

BUT THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT A BUSINESS SHOULD BE. You should be holding each other up, helping one another and listening to the problems in the team. Because ultimately, you’re on the same mission.

The second the negativity flows in people become scared. They stop raising issues, telling you how they feel and how to improve the business. When that happens you start to slowly die because you’ve fell into dillusion that everything is working. Six months later, you’re on the street.

Empower your team. Congratulate people. Love each other. When someone screws up, tell them that, but also tell them how to improve and ask them why they think they screwed up and how to make their job easier.

You’re a team. Be one.

*Believe it or not, I’m not affiliated with Scrum in anyway. I’m not even a Scrum Master.

*****

When I reflect on all the stupidity I’ve personally done and the startups I’ve been involved in, I realize that the only thing I ever followed up through and executed with absolute perfection, were the things that eventually ended up killing us: not telling a soul what our idea was. Talking to lawyers. Partnering with bad teams. Hiring out of weakness. Going to too many meetings. No decision making system. Not using Scrum. Hiring people out of fear. Hiding from reality.

Mistakes are simple to make but hard to correct. They’re usually the first option that pops up. But as entrepreneurs we do thing because they’re hard, not because they’re easy.

Hard choices take a long time to get right. It takes guts, intuition, experience and lots of luck. But never settle. Never accept your situation.

Life can always be better.

---

This was originally posted on the NYObserver.

[charlesjening]

An Interview with a Paperless Practitioner Doing Things Her Way

Welcome back to the second in our series of interviews with Gusto partners who just so happen to be doing some pretty cool things out there in the exciting world of accounting. In case you missed the last one, we introduced you to Bruce Phillips of Aprio Cloud, all while extolling the virtues of payroll and benefits solutions provided by our friends at Gusto. Go give it a read.

Before we jump in, we encourage you to pay Gusto a visit to find out how they’re bringing payroll and benefits into the 21st century. Forget flying cars, what the future needed was a modern solution to getting your people paid, onboarded, and insured. I mean, flying cars would have been nice but hey, this is pretty good too.

This time around, you’re meeting the incomparable Nayo Carter-Gray of Maryland-based 1st Step Accounting. Not to play favorites but we’re particularly fond of her paperless approach and how she’s using technology to embrace the deskless lifestyle.

Going Concern: Let’s get some introductions out of the way. Tell us about your firm.

Nayo Carter-Gray: 1st Step Accounting is a virtual accounting and tax preparation firm that is environmentally conscious and focused on leveraging technology for efficiency and convenience.

Nayo Carter-Gray

The culture I’m building for my practice is one of flexibility and freedom. I truly believe no one should be tied to a desk because of the advancement of technology, and so I try to ensure that my customers can work with us regardless of location and can access all information with at bare minimum a smartphone.

GC: As laptop hobos ourselves, we fully get behind the deskless lifestyle. What all do you do over there?

Carter-Gray: We currently offer accounting and bookkeeping services, tax preparation and planning, education and seminars (online and in-person), QuickBooks online setup and training, IRS and state tax audit and collection services, as well as consulting for small business growth and development.

GC: Nice. So a solid well-rounded suite basically. Bit of a personal question maybe but why did you start your firm?

Carter-Gray: I started my firm initially as a tax preparation firm, and I focused on multilevel marketing business owners because I was a MLM business owner. I found that my team members and other colleagues were being fed bad information when it came to reporting the business income and expenses on their taxes. After the first tax season, I discovered a need for bookkeeping and education for the small business community since the larger firms don’t want to waste their time and resources on these customers because they don’t earn them enough billable hours.

GC: It’s funny, we’ve heard that from other firm owners about starting with tax prep and then branching out when they see a need to provide more services to their clients. It’s almost as if tax prep is a gateway drug. So, if the little old lady you’re helping cross the street asks you about your work, how would you describe your job?

Carter-Gray: I make accounting a little less taxing for small business owners all across the U.S.

GC: Excellent play on words. While you’re making things less taxing for your clients, what tools can you not live without?

Carter-Gray: So many to choose from! My project management system Trello keeps me on track, my forms builder Cognito Forms helps me organize data collection from clients, and my online scheduler/CRM vCita does just about everything: it helps me keep my schedule in order, allows my clients to conveniently book appointments that work for them, and helps me to keep communication and notes in one centralized location.

As an honorable mention, I can’t live without my SideTrak second monitor for my laptop which conveniently attaches to the back of the laptop and slides out to make working from home as easy as working from my office.

GC: And Gusto, natch! How did you first hear about them?

Carter-Gray: Another accountant mentioned them (not sure who), and shortly after I heard about Gusto, I attended QuickBooks Connect where I got to see all the features for myself at a breakfast they hosted. I switched my largest customer at the time a month later because I was so impressed.

GC: Excellent first impressions aside, any surprises about partnering with Gusto?

Carter-Gray: No real surprises because Gusto did a fabulous job of presenting its product. I will say the payroll autopilot feature definitely lived up to the hype. I have several clients on salary and this makes payroll a breeze!

GC: Positive feedback is always nice. How about you? What do you think is the best perk of partnering with Gusto?

Carter-Gray: I do love how Gusto listens to its community and makes improvements based on our feedback. And it’s awesome that Gusto offers a discount or revenue share when we refer the product to our communities.

GC: Alright, enough about all the benefits of partnering with Gusto. What are some challenges your firm has faced in 2019? And don’t be afraid to tell us the really tough stuff.

Carter-Gray: This year my firm struggled with finding a project management system to stay in constant communication with my clients. After taking some hard but necessary feedback from a few clients that left the firm this year, I decided to make it a priority to find/create a system that would allow us to stay on track of deadlines and give our customers the insight they needed to know what was going on with their project.

Another challenge is because I’m the only person working in the firm year-round, my personal goals have hindered the growth of the firm this year. I’m currently sitting for the CPA exam, which is very time-consuming and it has taken away from major marketing efforts to bring in tons of new clients like I have in the past.

GC: Wow, that’s got to be incredibly difficult. We’re sure you’ll do great. Back to your clients, are you seeing any future trends on their side our readers might be interested in hearing about?

Carter-Gray: My clients will continue to grow in their respective industries. Because I work with businesses that are newly formed or have only been in business for one to two years, I get to watch their growth from part-time hustle to full-time enterprise. So I’m expecting a few of my part-timers to go full time in their businesses in 2020 because of their steady growth.

GC: That’s gotta be fun for you to see your clients thrive. On that note, can you tell us about an interesting client situation that you’ve advised on? Or something exciting your clients are working on?

Carter-Gray: The most interesting situation that I have advised on may not be very interesting at all to most. For me, I’m very interested in watching my clients grow. So the situation I have had the most pleasure of advising on was watching a current client who is a hair stylist create and sell a physical hair-styling product. To be a part of the team that helped her go from concept to reality was an amazing experience.

The client’s reality is that the older she gets, the harder it will be for her body to sustain the hours she puts in at the salon standing and styling people’s hair. So creating her product is going to allow her to create an exit plan before she actually needs it, and this is so inspiring and interesting to me.

GC: I bet! I’m happy to report that we’re done with the interrogation portion of this interview, now on to the easy stuff! What’s your usual breakfast?

Carter-Gray: Usually it’s two eggs over easy, but during the winter months when it’s cold or I’m traveling, it’s apple cinnamon oatmeal.

GC: Everyone has a routine for winding down at the end of a stressful day. What’s yours?

Carter-Gray: I love me some good TV and a delicious Coca-Cola slurpee. I can drink them every day no matter the temperature.

GC: Man! I haven’t had one of those in FOREVER. Alright, tell us a fact about you that would surprise people to hear.

Carter-Gray: I was a parent by the age of 14.

GC: Yep, definitely surprised! What a wonderful example you’re setting of how hard work and a forward-thinking attitude can take you far in life and make an impact in the world.

So that’s all we’ve got with Nayo Carter-Gray. Feel free to check her out on YouTube for more. And if her glowing review of Gusto made you eager to learn more about how partnering with Gusto can help you and your clients seven ways to Sunday, be sure to check out their partner program for more details.

The post An Interview with a Paperless Practitioner Doing Things Her Way appeared first on Going Concern.

republished from Going Concern

[terryblount]

The Outer Worlds – Review

With a resumé that includes South Park: The Stick of Truth and, of course, Fallout: New Vegas, do I really have to introduce Obsidian Entertainment? Their unapologetically wacky and satirical developmental style has cemented several memorable titles into our libraries, and with The Outer World’s they finally get to unleash their unique style on the wild frontiers of space colonisation.

I have a dirty confession to make: I never played Fallout 3. I was just too deep into all the fantasy stuff at the time. However, I did give New Vegas a shot and the game’s writing, characters, and overall devil-may-care tone made me play it in big, greedy chunks at a time. Needless to say, I expected The Outer Worlds to scratch that same itch since this game is something like a homage to New Vegas.

I know a lot of people have been playing this game but I will stick to screenshots I took from the opening sections to avoid spoilers.

After spending my time with Obsidian’s latest RPG, there is no doubt that The Outer Worlds wears its developmental pedigree on its sleeve. There is something delightfully ‘old-school’ about how it handles itself, and even with a few minor grievances, The Outer Worlds has a truly special experience on offer.

Getting starstruck

I don’t get why so many previews had branded The Outer Worlds as a space opera. Mass Effect (1,2,3 and that crappy one) is a space opera because you have all the intergalactic politics, personal drama and aliens from different races mashed into one. The Outer Worlds, on the other hand, is quite obviously more casual in that you are essentially a space cowboy thrown into the set of 1960’s sci-fi B movie.

After once again spending a little too much time with the surprisingly decent character creator, the adventure begins and I discover I am part of a stranded cargo of colonists in stasis onboard a ship that experienced a malfunction during light speed. A shady-looking fella named Phineas Welles then unexpectedly lands on board and essentially kidnaps one of the pods – namely you – before making a quick getaway from the authorities.

“Noooothing compares… no-THING compares… TO YOU!!!” Don’t worry I didn’t end up saving the colonies as a young Sinead O’Connor

Turns out old Welles has got a bit of the (mad) scientist thing going on because while most people who spent this much time in stasis pop like microwaved egg upon revival, this guy figured out a way to bring people back safely. He only had enough ‘chemicals’ for one person though, and there is still any entire crew floating back on board, so he abruptly sends the player down to the nearest colony to get more.

Originally, it was supposed to be a quick trip down to Edgewater colony, hooking up with a smuggler, and returning to Welles so you can get to work on the rest of the colonists. Yet from the moment you stumble from your escape pod, things immediately turn sour since the ship needed to take you back to Phineas is missing a crucial component, which implies it has all the flying power of a very big paperweight.

Oh, and you kind of crushed your contact with your landing pod so you are basically on you own. Like, completely smooshed him, and just like that, you are Clint Eastwood – the gunslinger lone ranger – finding himself just passing through a little town but inevitably getting dragged into the bigger scheme of things.

So you do what any resourceful space cowboy would do: Befriend the locals and help them out with a few mundane favours on their neglected little deep space colony in the hope that they will give you the parts you need. You gain a few weapons, make some bounty hunting money, convince a tyrannical mayor to be nice and pick up a few stragglers who eventually become your crew.

This has got to be the best ship name EVER, and I am being dead serious.

Before you know it, you and your band of misfits have fixed up the ship, leave Edgewater in your rearview mirror, and the frontier of space is now your oyster. Of course, Phineas Welles wells has moved the goalposts by now. Turns out his motivation for defrosting the crew is to take on a deep space colonisation conglomerate named the Halcyon Holdings Corporation, and he has just found his newest lackey.

Spacing out

If I were to describe what you do in The Outer Worlds, it would probably read like a gameplay review of nearly a hundred other RPG’s. This is a testament to how Obsidian have thrown together something that plays it safe, and opts for a tried and trusted formula that worked in New Vegas, and gives The Outer Worlds a familiar but solid foundation.

For the most part, this works as well as you’d expect.The Outer Worlds uses the old routine of you needing something from NPC’s and they are willing to offer it to you in exchange for a small favour which usually involves your guns doing all the talking. It is the old, ‘I’d do it myself, but reason X prevents me so would you kindly’?

Obsidian even went for the whole talking head thing against a blurred background from New Vegas, and I swear they simply extrapolated the same lip-sync technology from Bethesda’s older games. Why is there no anti-aliasing on their teeth though? Did they copy the goddamn actual teeth from New Vegas too!? Ew!

Anyway, from the moment you have control over you own ship, the goals of Phineas Welles’s beef with Halcyon become the broader aims of the gameplay looming in the background. However, as the player moves between the handful of colonies that represent the areas you can visit, and once they get involved with the humdrum of the settlers, Obsidian goes ahead and does their thing.

From the conversations you have with NPC’s to the world building at large, everything in The Outer Worlds is wholeheartedly steeped in a sardonic, black humour. You see, in the era of space colonisation Halcyon Holdings did what any corporation would do if they had monopoly over settling on other planets, namely capitalise everything, including their employees.

As a result, the game acts as a satire on the preposterous corporate legalese that I am sure the working gamer will be able to relate to on some levels. Many reviews have mentioned the grave digger you encounter as you enter the first colony who explains that inhabitants of Edgewater literally have to lease their own graves (as a commentary on how the bureaucracy cannot be avoided even after death).

An early personal favourite was chatting to an NPC in a factory where they put something called ‘saltuna’ into cans (apparently it’s not fish). I was supposed to pick up a grave fee as a favour to the grave digger, but during our conversation I figured out she was sad over a bunch of paperwork. Seems she is the closest living relative to a person who had just committed suicide.

Was it her brother or something? No, she informed me, she was the closest living person relatively speaking when this worker shot himself. Considering that the factory basically owns him, she has to fill in a report on vandalism to an asset.

It’s Spacer’s Choice!

This little interaction is emblematic of the general tone that Obsidian have endowed upon their game, and it is supported through some utterly superb writing. You can see it in the quirky messages found on random terminals scattered through the environment, or the ridiculous culture of capitalism that has taken over the colonies. “It’s not the best choice, It’s Spacer’s choice!” is actually one product chain’s slogan.

Yet the writing shines at its brightest in the dialogue between the player and the NPC’s. Their lines have been written in a very immediate and engaging format, and they have been executed by great voice acting that never tries to be overly dramatic. I could often have a proper chat with certain characters in the world, and I even returned to the suicide lady at one point because I couldn’t wait to tell her when I discovered something about her co-worker’s suicide. She was genuinely thankful for the news too.

Furthermore, most RPG regulars would notice that The Outer Worlds often presents an above-average number of dialogue responses when you engage with NPC’s. You can be the kind and caring paragon type of captain that always speaks with gentility, or you could basically be Bender from Futurama as you mock the misfortune of others or talk down to people. I even gave a space station engineer the finger once… with both hands!

A space station independent of Halcyon Holdings named Groundbreaker

What’s really nice in all of this chitchat is that the game is willing to offer the player both ways without the cost of the overall experience. I could often lie my way out of all the times NPC’s caught me stealing, or you can intimidate people which might radically change how you can complete a quest. For once, the XP points invested speechcraft actually amounted to something!

The black hole

If you read my stuff, you know that I glorify the Unreal Engine 4 to a point where most would think I am sort of undercover shill. However, my admiration has hit something of a rupture with The Outer Worlds as this game needs some TLC in the optimisation department.

Visually, the game is above average. Obsidian have really committed to this spaghetti western meets 1960’s budget sci-fi movie (including the shrink ray!), so the styling of the levels is very palpable. Aside from those jaggy teeth, the characters have also been rendered with surprising detail, and The Outer Worlds manages to feel distinct enough to set itself apart from most RPG’s that have gone this route.

All I need now is some alien tumbleweed rolling by

Technically, the game needs some work. The frame rate could/should certainly be higher which tells me Obsidian needs economise by culling assets not rendered on-screen, and this is combined with some really terrible texture pop-in. In some areas I would often just wait in one spot for all the surfaces to finish rendering, only to find more pop-in once I started walking forward.

The combat was also rather insipid. Naturally, there is a decent selection of guns, heavy weapons, melee weapons, and armour all of which have stats that players can modify or enhance at workstations. You can tell whoever was the designer lead on combat plays a lot of games like Destiny or Borderlands or Anthem. I was kidding about that last one. No one plays Anthem.

In a game like this, however, the enemies just end up feeling a little bullet spongy. You blast them with huge balls of energy from ray guns, or you zap them with crackling bolts of electricity, but their health bars barely drain. They also do that Bethesda thing where they run to a certain point, and become permanently rooted in place while the player is free to empty their entire arsenal at them.

See Obsidian, this is what I do to enemies that don’t fight back properly! He once had a head!

Space balls

These are more like irritations rather than deal-breakers, and The Outer Worlds remains a gem because it is rare to find games nowadays that invest so much in their moment to moment gameplay. The abundance of huge, open-world RPG’s show that publishers sometimes tend to fixate on the overall experience, whereas it will be the player that must work through all the meaningless little side quests to get there.

As such, The Outer Worlds is the kind of controlled and condensed RPG that I like. This game will set the average player back roughly 30 hours with some change, but there is all the world building, character development and stats manipulation that you can expect in games that are three, even four times longer. Let’s face it, Bethesda has forsaken us, and if Obsidian the kind of company that aims to replace them, the future is certainly a bright one.

Excellent writing

Black humour

Variety of environments

Character interaction

Never overreaches itself

PC optimisation

Slightly repetitive

Combat AI feels dated

Guns lack power

Useless loot

        PC Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM 

The post The Outer Worlds – Review appeared first on DSOGaming.

The Outer Worlds – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[jettcrooksus]

How Elevano Puts the Tech in Technical Recruiting

“Most people don’t like to be convinced of anything. That actually goes counterculture to getting people to agree with you. That’s why we’re now fully vested and centered on social proof.”

Find out more about Elevano, it’s recruiting process, and the man who started it all.

Taken from the ‘Share Your Story‘ Podcast with Michael de Groot.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself.

A: I was actually born on the East Coast of the States in around the Washington D.C area. My parents were immigrants, the classic $100 to America story. I went to school on the East Coast. Graduated with technology degrees, Master’s in technology. My family was actually moving out West for my brother who also is my business partner, but he was gonna play tennis at a university out in California in Orange County, and my options were to take a shiny new job with Verizon, at a very nice entry level starting salary or turn that down for nothing.

Q: Why did you start your recruiting agency?

A:  Came out here, got here and realized, “Well, now I got no job, living with my family, that’s nice. But I’ve got to find a job.” I found a job, dug into the engineering side.

Slowly, I realized that while I could do software development and the sort, it really wasn’t what was driving me. I realized I enjoyed talking to people and the meetings and the prep work a lot more.

I started to pivot into more of an analyst role, got into business intelligence, where I could get towards the business side of technology a little bit more, and then gravitated towards at one point running a BI practice, where I got a good taste for the sales process. That’s where I started thinking I could do this for myself.

I made that decision to go out on my own. Again, my brother is my business partner. So it’s a nice comforting factor to have him as a backing. Somewhere along the line early on we got into recruitment and it became my thing. That’s where we are at.

Q: What does BI stand for?

A: BI is business intelligence. Back in the day it was a little bit different than it is now, but obviously providing that basis to get reporting and analytics to business, KPIs, metrics, that sort of thing.

Q: How did you get into that? Is it just looking for a job or you were interested in doing that?

A: When I got my master’s degree, there was a concentration in the data space. Building data warehouses, which were fundamental towards this type of reporting. I had a lot of I guess educational training when I got out, I didn’t have the experience to do that so I became a software engineer.

I did see a little bit of an opportunity to start helping in those areas of the company I was working for. My manager was really fantastic, a South African guy. And he gave me a crack at touching that side. It just resonated more and I just gravitated towards it.

Q: What inspired you to go into the kind of people side of the work?

A: Initially Elevano started as a business intelligence consulting firm. That was my expertise, and that’s what we set off to do. Along the way we had a customer who basically said, “Well, all right. The project is done. We just need someone to help us with this.” We knew very little about recruitment honestly. I mean, I was recruited extensively all throughout my career. I knew it from that perspective. I’d never actually done it.

We were a small business at that point, and we said, “Sure, why not? We could help you. We’ll figure it out obviously.” We kind of said yes, and that committed us towards wanting to succeed. If we said yes we knew we were gonna be all in to ensure as much quality and we’d figure out what we had to to deliver essentially.

Q: How did you approach recruiting people?

A: Basically I approached it as I was an internal hiring manager. How I had to gravitate towards recruitment was, “Okay. I’m going to hire this person for me. For my team, for the BI consulting, What would I be looking for? How would I actually go about finding this person to expand my own team?” If I’m comfortable enough that he or she is a good fit for my team, then I feel comfortable sending that candidate to the client to interview.

We just took ownership based on if it’s a good hire for us, especially knowing the data space. That’s kind of how we operated initially. That’s actually transcended the business. Part of our fabric is, we really take ownership of the roles in terms of trying to put ourselves in a hiring manager’s position a lot of times.

Q: What exactly is Elevano?

A: We are a recruitment agency. We don’t operate much like most agencies I suppose. There are some commonalities, there are some differences. I’m an engineer who comes from the perspective of, I know what I liked from being recruited and I know what I didn’t like.

We just set about going, how would we want recruiting done? We approached it from the standpoint of that. And then obviously coming from a consulting background, we really liked to dig in and understand. In essence that’s part of who we are, and that’s kind of into the training that we provide people when we bring them onboard, is to help them understand those gaps, and the mindset that we expect here to resonate with, being true to our own history.

Q: Your route for getting people onboard, getting candidates, and then getting those candidates in front of recruiters. What is the process in terms of how much technology is involved with that?

A:  I like leveraging technology. We are not a platform. We had thought about, we actually had thought about many times, converting the service to platform. We might still do that down the road. Part of that is being an engineer, being somebody who is good at dissecting problems and try to reverse engineer solutions. I do see the gap pretty soundly. I have used my engineering background to go find tools and technologies, and process tweaks that leverage that.

My goal is to get my hands on any tool that’s out there before another recruiting company can think about it, see it, because obviously I’m digging into a lot of startups and technologies that are emerging, that are still risky but I can evaluate because of my background. That does give us an advantage. I do believe that’s a distinct advantage.

Q: How did you work on getting “social proof” for your business?

A: We’ve made a big push to ask our candidates, “If we’ve done a good job, write reviews.” In four months I think we amassed close to a hundred reviews written for us. Not all of those reviews are placements. Some of those are people that were so happy in the way that we approached them and our unique philosophies of recruitment, that they were willing to write a couple of nice words about us.

We focused on Google, Facebook, Trustpilot, but I’d say the majority is around Google. The reason we centered on Google is you have to have a user profile, it ties back to a person. For me, the social proof and transparency is of imminent importance to establish that good practices can be done. Again, what I really like about our candidates is, we sometimes have one meaningful conversation, and that person is willing to write us a review.

Q: How would you convince someone that they should be coming with you rather than go to some platform, LinkedIn, Indeed or somewhere else?

A: That’s where our strategy has shifted. We’ve spent a lot of time in the past trying to convince people. I’ve done a lot of reading in this area and I realized one thing, most people don’t like to be convinced of anything. That actually goes counterculture to actually getting people to agree with you. That’s why we’ve now fully are vested and centered on social proof, so the word of mouth and others.

Our view is, instead of trying to go out and try to convince people on an individual basis, we wanna have the social proof speak for our quality of work. A place with five out of five with 1,000 reviews, you are like, “Okay, why wouldn’t I go to that place? As long as it’s authentic and trusted reviews. Why wouldn’t you do that?”

Q: How do you see the future for recruitment, and how do you see the future for you as an organization?

A: I maintain that recruiting is just a marketing activity as it would be in any sales organization. You need lead generation, candidate generation. I think marketing and branding will ultimately define people who can help generate passive inward burn applications versus you constantly going out and doing the solicitation. I actually think at some point that most HR, internal HR teams, will actually be made up of mostly content and marketing people. There’ll be fewer resources needed just to handle the inbound and outreach and nurturing of candidate pools. I think a lot of that will shift because the content, and the platforms will kill off the transactional need for some of the basic recruitment activities.

I view whatever we’ve done, whatever we’ve figured out as pretty valuable, because I don’t hear many other agencies replicating what we’ve done. I actually think we will probably spin off a second company that’s an actual marketing company that helps recruitment companies, whether internal or external, do what we’ve done.

I think my recruitment company will continue, it will be a strong brand, and I think we are gonna take our knowhow and help actual brands get to the numbers we’ve gotten. I think there are so many different techniques that aren’t even remotely being used. I think there is gonna be a big convergence, and I think the platforms, AI will come for a lot of the recruitment industry and eliminate some of that transactional.

The post How Elevano Puts the ‘Tech’​ in Technical Recruiting appeared first on Elevano.

Via https://www.elevano.com/how-elevano-puts-the-tech%e2%80%8b-in-technical-recruiting/

source http://elevanocom.weebly.com/blog/how-elevano-puts-the-tech-in-technical-recruiting

[amandawoodruffus]

How Elevano Puts the ‘Tech’​ in Technical Recruiting

“Most people don’t like to be convinced of anything. That actually goes counterculture to getting people to agree with you. That’s why we’re now fully vested and centered on social proof.”

Find out more about Elevano, it’s recruiting process, and the man who started it all.

Taken from the ‘Share Your Story‘ Podcast with Michael de Groot.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself.

A: I was actually born on the East Coast of the States in around the Washington D.C area. My parents were immigrants, the classic $100 to America story. I went to school on the East Coast. Graduated with technology degrees, Master’s in technology. My family was actually moving out West for my brother who also is my business partner, but he was gonna play tennis at a university out in California in Orange County, and my options were to take a shiny new job with Verizon, at a very nice entry level starting salary or turn that down for nothing.

Q: Why did you start your recruiting agency?

A:  Came out here, got here and realized, “Well, now I got no job, living with my family, that’s nice. But I’ve got to find a job.” I found a job, dug into the engineering side.

Slowly, I realized that while I could do software development and the sort, it really wasn’t what was driving me. I realized I enjoyed talking to people and the meetings and the prep work a lot more.

I started to pivot into more of an analyst role, got into business intelligence, where I could get towards the business side of technology a little bit more, and then gravitated towards at one point running a BI practice, where I got a good taste for the sales process. That’s where I started thinking I could do this for myself.

I made that decision to go out on my own. Again, my brother is my business partner. So it’s a nice comforting factor to have him as a backing. Somewhere along the line early on we got into recruitment and it became my thing. That’s where we are at.

Q: What does BI stand for?

A: BI is business intelligence. Back in the day it was a little bit different than it is now, but obviously providing that basis to get reporting and analytics to business, KPIs, metrics, that sort of thing.

Q: How did you get into that? Is it just looking for a job or you were interested in doing that?

A: When I got my master’s degree, there was a concentration in the data space. Building data warehouses, which were fundamental towards this type of reporting. I had a lot of I guess educational training when I got out, I didn’t have the experience to do that so I became a software engineer.

I did see a little bit of an opportunity to start helping in those areas of the company I was working for. My manager was really fantastic, a South African guy. And he gave me a crack at touching that side. It just resonated more and I just gravitated towards it.

Q: What inspired you to go into the kind of people side of the work?

A: Initially Elevano started as a business intelligence consulting firm. That was my expertise, and that’s what we set off to do. Along the way we had a customer who basically said, “Well, all right. The project is done. We just need someone to help us with this.” We knew very little about recruitment honestly. I mean, I was recruited extensively all throughout my career. I knew it from that perspective. I’d never actually done it.

We were a small business at that point, and we said, “Sure, why not? We could help you. We’ll figure it out obviously.” We kind of said yes, and that committed us towards wanting to succeed. If we said yes we knew we were gonna be all in to ensure as much quality and we’d figure out what we had to to deliver essentially.

Q: How did you approach recruiting people?

A: Basically I approached it as I was an internal hiring manager. How I had to gravitate towards recruitment was, “Okay. I’m going to hire this person for me. For my team, for the BI consulting, What would I be looking for? How would I actually go about finding this person to expand my own team?” If I’m comfortable enough that he or she is a good fit for my team, then I feel comfortable sending that candidate to the client to interview.

We just took ownership based on if it’s a good hire for us, especially knowing the data space. That’s kind of how we operated initially. That’s actually transcended the business. Part of our fabric is, we really take ownership of the roles in terms of trying to put ourselves in a hiring manager’s position a lot of times.

Q: What exactly is Elevano?

A: We are a recruitment agency. We don’t operate much like most agencies I suppose. There are some commonalities, there are some differences. I’m an engineer who comes from the perspective of, I know what I liked from being recruited and I know what I didn’t like.

We just set about going, how would we want recruiting done? We approached it from the standpoint of that. And then obviously coming from a consulting background, we really liked to dig in and understand. In essence that’s part of who we are, and that’s kind of into the training that we provide people when we bring them onboard, is to help them understand those gaps, and the mindset that we expect here to resonate with, being true to our own history.

Q: Your route for getting people onboard, getting candidates, and then getting those candidates in front of recruiters. What is the process in terms of how much technology is involved with that?

A:  I like leveraging technology. We are not a platform. We had thought about, we actually had thought about many times, converting the service to platform. We might still do that down the road. Part of that is being an engineer, being somebody who is good at dissecting problems and try to reverse engineer solutions. I do see the gap pretty soundly. I have used my engineering background to go find tools and technologies, and process tweaks that leverage that.

My goal is to get my hands on any tool that’s out there before another recruiting company can think about it, see it, because obviously I’m digging into a lot of startups and technologies that are emerging, that are still risky but I can evaluate because of my background. That does give us an advantage. I do believe that’s a distinct advantage.

Q: How did you work on getting “social proof” for your business?

A: We’ve made a big push to ask our candidates, “If we’ve done a good job, write reviews.” In four months I think we amassed close to a hundred reviews written for us. Not all of those reviews are placements. Some of those are people that were so happy in the way that we approached them and our unique philosophies of recruitment, that they were willing to write a couple of nice words about us.

We focused on Google, Facebook, Trustpilot, but I’d say the majority is around Google. The reason we centered on Google is you have to have a user profile, it ties back to a person. For me, the social proof and transparency is of imminent importance to establish that good practices can be done. Again, what I really like about our candidates is, we sometimes have one meaningful conversation, and that person is willing to write us a review.

Q: How would you convince someone that they should be coming with you rather than go to some platform, LinkedIn, Indeed or somewhere else?

A: That’s where our strategy has shifted. We’ve spent a lot of time in the past trying to convince people. I’ve done a lot of reading in this area and I realized one thing, most people don’t like to be convinced of anything. That actually goes counterculture to actually getting people to agree with you. That’s why we’ve now fully are vested and centered on social proof, so the word of mouth and others.

Our view is, instead of trying to go out and try to convince people on an individual basis, we wanna have the social proof speak for our quality of work. A place with five out of five with 1,000 reviews, you are like, “Okay, why wouldn’t I go to that place? As long as it’s authentic and trusted reviews. Why wouldn’t you do that?”

Q: How do you see the future for recruitment, and how do you see the future for you as an organization?

A: I maintain that recruiting is just a marketing activity as it would be in any sales organization. You need lead generation, candidate generation. I think marketing and branding will ultimately define people who can help generate passive inward burn applications versus you constantly going out and doing the solicitation. I actually think at some point that most HR, internal HR teams, will actually be made up of mostly content and marketing people. There’ll be fewer resources needed just to handle the inbound and outreach and nurturing of candidate pools. I think a lot of that will shift because the content, and the platforms will kill off the transactional need for some of the basic recruitment activities.

I view whatever we’ve done, whatever we’ve figured out as pretty valuable, because I don’t hear many other agencies replicating what we’ve done. I actually think we will probably spin off a second company that’s an actual marketing company that helps recruitment companies, whether internal or external, do what we’ve done.

I think my recruitment company will continue, it will be a strong brand, and I think we are gonna take our knowhow and help actual brands get to the numbers we’ve gotten. I think there are so many different techniques that aren’t even remotely being used. I think there is gonna be a big convergence, and I think the platforms, AI will come for a lot of the recruitment industry and eliminate some of that transactional.

The post How Elevano Puts the ‘Tech’​ in Technical Recruiting appeared first on Elevano.

source https://www.elevano.com/how-elevano-puts-the-tech%e2%80%8b-in-technical-recruiting/ source https://elevanocom.blogspot.com/2019/02/how-elevano-puts-tech-in-technical.html