#i really like looking at the terminals and fake accounts and emails and everything

[emeraldelysium]

the first thing in tyrells whopping six facebook likes is lingonberry jam. oh you silly silly swede. his wife is silly too she treats everything like a text message. emailing his corporate email like please pick up kale on ur way home. commenting from the past (Lol) on his most recent facebook post (God mórgen!) asking him to bring home wine. actually now that i'm looking at it she commented god mórgen at 9 PM

[ibijau]

Counterfeit AU pt6 / On AO3

Meng Yao makes himself useful after losing his job, and discovers something unexpected

Names are funny things, Meng Yao thinks as he stares at the sheet of paper in his hand. 

Funny things indeed.

-

After everything that went down in the Hanshi, it's Beastie that saves Meng Yao from himself.

Left to his own devices, he would have either wallowed in misery, or waste time proving to himself that everything that happened wasn't his fault, the way he knows he's done in other lives. But when he comes home after having his past lives thrown into his face and losing a job he loves, Beastie’s mother corners him just as he puts his key into his lock. Her daughter is on school holiday, she explains, and was supposed to be looked after by a friend with children of a similar age. But one of the children came down with something contagious, so the whole plan fell through, and the poor woman now desperately needs help finding someone to look after her daughter.

She’s not asking for Meng Yao to play the babysitter, but he knows so many people, he has so many connections, maybe he could pull a favour somewhere, help her out again.

“I can take care of her for a few days,” Meng Yao offers without thinking. “I’m jobless as of today.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry! What happened?”

“My employer died,” Meng Yao replies, which is close enough to the truth. He doesn’t think Nie Huaisang will continue using his Shanzi alias after this, and they’ll never meet again. He might as well be dead. “I don’t plan on looking for a new job right away, so I can babysit for a while, it’s no big deal.”

She tries to insist that he doesn’t need to be doing that, but quickly agrees after some reassurance that Meng Yao doesn’t mind. She looks so relieved she could cry as she says she’ll drop Beastie in the morning. Meng Yao smiles, certain that his mother would be proud of him for doing what’s right.

Having Beastie around is definitely the best choice he could have made. She’s a good kid, but she’s also high energy and needs to be entertained, which means he doesn’t get to think too much about how much he misses Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen. 

They watch movies together, as they’ve always done when he picked her up after school. They go for walks to a nearby park, and once to a museum to look at old armours and swords. He buys Beastie a fake sword, though they agree to keep it at his place, since her mother already despairs that she so strongly favours boy’s toys. In fact, Meng Yao ends up just spoiling that little girl, the way he would have loved someone to do for him when he was her age. He even has Nie Huaisang’s console repaired so she can play on it, instead of selling it as he’d intended.

The video games are a big hit with her. She’s particularly in love with the same game Nie Huaisang spent too many hours on, that weird little terraforming thing which Meng Yao can’t see the appeal of. He liked that it made Nie Huaisang happy. He likes that it also makes Beastie happy, and that she’s very careful not to ruin the work previously put into it, focused instead on maintaining it and planting flowers

“It looks like home,” she explains when Meng Yao asks about that, and lifts the console for him to see.

It doesn’t look like a homely place, he thinks, and more like a military fortress right out of a wuxia drama. But Meng Yao doesn’t get to make that remark, because his phone vibrates, demanding his attention. Beastie, sitting crossed legs on some cushion on the floor, goes back to watering virtual flowers, while Meng Yao checks some news from his bank account. A lump sum has been sent to him, a good deal more than his usual salary, coming from an account registered under a name he doesn’t recognise.

It has been a week since he was fired.

Nie Huaisang kept his promise.

It really is over.

Not that Meng Yao really doubted it. Nie Huaisang has many faults but indecision has never been one, though he’s always been good at pretending otherwise. Once his choice is made he toys with expectations but rarely ever changes his mind.

Rarely, of course, isn’t never. Meng Yao, foolishly, hoped to be one of those few exceptions. 

Those new zeroes on his bank account feel like a divorce, and he never even got a honeymoon. 

That night, Meng Yao allows himself a few hours to wallow in misery, after Beastie went back to her mother. He is only human, and it does feel good to eat take-away in front of a cheesy romance. The film's hero doesn't get the girl, who was dead all along. Meng Yao cries, even though he's seen that movie before. 

By morning, he's in control again, and takes Beastie to the park so she can run around in the sun, and scare pigeons with her sword.

Those holidays are all great fun, until Beastie’s mother reminds them that she has homework to do.

Beastie is a clever kid, there’s no doubt about it, but she doesn’t much like doing her homework, least of all when she feels she could be playing. It takes all of Meng Yao’s negotiation skills to get her to even look at her school books, and he almost resorts to bribery to make her pick up a pencil. But she works hard once she starts, and Meng Yao, wanting to encourage her, sits with her at the kitchen table to update his resume. Beastie will go back to class soon, and inactivity just isn’t in his temper.

When Beastie is done with her work, she gets permission to put on whatever movie she likes while Meng Yao checks what she’s done in case it needs correcting.

But when he picks up the sheet of simple maths she’s expected to give her teacher on monday, all Meng Yao sees is her name.

It’s really funny. He knows her name of course, though he hasn’t heard it in a while. Even her mother took up to calling her Beastie after he nicknamed her that. It just fits her so well, that active little girl who prefers trousers over dresses because they're easier to move in and always wants to play at fighting. She’s a real little monster, and Meng Yao loves her like that. She’s just Beastie.

But according to the homework she’s spent the afternoon on, she’s also Nie Mingjue.

It could just be a coincidence. Names are funny like that, they pop up in unexpected places, they get forgotten and reused. Perhaps in another life, Meng Yao would have just dismissed it as a random incident.

In another life, he wouldn’t have been called Meng Yao.

It’s the first time this happens since that first life they all shared. He’s Meng Yao again, Lan Xichen bears his old name too, and now he’s found a Nie Mingjue, hiding right under his nose. A Nie Mingjue who likes fighting, and claims that her toy sword is actually a sabre, and who always insists a lot on things being fair, even when Meng Yao tries to give her the biggest share of a food she likes.

It can’t be a coincidence.

Meng Yao needs to tell someone.

He needs to tell Nie Huaisang.

He tries, of course, and without surprise his former employer’s number has been terminated. He has the same luck trying to send an email. Nie Huaisang might as well never have existed. Meng Yao feels helpless, torn between tears and laughter. After spending centuries looking for his brother, Nie Huaisang just might have lost his chance due to being so damn dramatic. Serves him right, Meng Yao thinks, still bitter about being discarded so easily, and never getting a chance to see if things might work better in this life.

Bitterness doesn’t last. Meng Yao cares about Nie Huaisang, more than he should if he were a little smarter, and he knows how important finding his brother again would be for him. And if Nie Huaisang can’t be directly contacted, there’s always indirect ways.

It’s not that Meng Yao misses Lan Xichen, he tells himself that night, when Beastie is back with his mother and he starts writing a long text message on his phone. Well, it’s not just that, anyway. He does miss Lan Xichen, sweet and funny and so eager when talking about art. But more importantly, Lan Xichen probably has access to Lan Wangji, who clearly must know how to contact Nie Huaisang. 

Texting Lan Xichen is a strategic choice. 

The way Meng Yao's heart jumps inside his chest when Lan Xichen immediately replies is… it's strategic too. He's just glad that his plan is working. 

How have you been? :)

I could have been worse. I've just realised something and I think it concerns you. I've told you about that kid I babysit, haven't I? 

Little Beastie? Is she okay? D:

She's Nie Mingjue. 

This time, the answer isn't immediate. Meng Yao stares nervously at his phone, wondering if Lan Xichen thinks he's lying, or planning something. Considering their first life, who could blame him? 

But after a few minutes, his phone vibrates again. 

Sorry, I dropped my phone and couldn't get it back from under the couch. Are you sure?? (⊙ˍ⊙)

It all fits. You could come meet her if you want. But it's him, I'm sure. 

Did you tell Nie Huaisang???

I can't contact him. Are you in touch with Lan Wangji? Maybe he can warn him. 

I have his number, I just texted him! I'll keep you updated! It's so wonderful if it's da-ge!! Can I really meet him? ╰(*°▽°*)╯

Her*?

I'll send you my address. If you can come tomorrow, she'll be there.

Are you sure? I don't think da-ge would still want me around. (≧﹏ ≦)

Meng Yao gives that question the consideration it deserves. It's not an unfair worry to have, and he'd be wondering the same if he hadn't known Beastie for so long. 

I literally killed him, and he killed me. If she had to hate anyone it'd be me, but we get along great. We're no longer the same people we used to be. It's the same for her. 

If you're sure, then I'll come! (❁´w`❁)

-

Meng Yao is very sure indeed. 

So Lan Xichen comes. 

It's odd to invite someone to his flat. It's a small place, a bit messy, full of trinkets and DVDs that Meng Yao would never admit to owning, not with the image he wants to create. He's always avoided guests. But having Lan Xichen over is as rewarding as it is terrifying. Lan Xichen brought some charming little cakes, as if he's visiting someone important, and he smiles at the sight of a movie poster on the wall, confessing he watched it so often as a teenager that the tape broke one day. 

"It's my favourite too!" Beastie exclaims. "Meng-ge has it, you know! Can we watch it now?" 

Normally, Meng Yao would point out that it's a little rude to ask that when they have a guest. But he can see that Lan Xichen is nervous and unsure how to act around Nie Mingjue, and maybe a movie will let them all relax. 

In the end, they spend a pleasant afternoon, the three of them. Once Lan Xichen stops worrying that the Nie Mingjue of old will appear and shout at him for getting him killed, he starts chatting with Beastie about her favourite movies, what she's learning in school, what she wants to be when she grows up. She's very happy to answer, and very impressed when he explains he's a teacher, even though she's finding it hard to accept that most of his students are fully adult.

And when Beastie is back with her mother, Lan Xichen lingers for a while, tempted by the offer of Meng Yao's favourite takeaway.

“It’s amazing how much like him she is,” Lan Xichen says as they sit on the sofa to wait for the food to arrive. “It’s the first time he reincarnates, you know. At least, Wangji told me they’d never found any trace of him before.”

Guilt shoots through Meng Yao. It’s his fault if Nie Mingjue’s soul was so fractured it took him this long to be reborn. Or at least, it’s the fault of someone he was, once, which is nearly the same, and yet completely different. Meng Yao has learned from living and dying several times, and he’s lucky enough to live in a kinder world than Jin Guangyao did. It helps.

“She’s also different from him, though,” Lan Xichen continues, moving just a little closer, until they’re almost touching.

“We’ll, for starters she’s a kid,” Meng Yao points out, wondering if he should take the other man’s hand. If this had happened before the Hanshi, he would have, but he’s not sure where they stand now.

“It’s not just that. In that first life, I knew da-ge as a child too and he was…” Lan Xichen sighs and makes a vague hand gesture. “He was a lot. Way too serious sometimes. We all were, I suppose, but him most of all. The Nie tended to grow fast, to compensate for dying young. I’m… I’m glad that he gets to properly be a child this time. That she gets to be a child.”

“The world has changed,” Meng Yao says, finding the courage at last to brush his fingers against Lan Xichen’s. “Things aren’t always easy but they’re… easier, I suppose.”

Lan Xichen’s returns that touch, gentle and careful as always. This, too, is easier now than it was back then. It’s not easy, but there’s less pressure to conform, less demands to be good dutiful sons, and just a little more space to be their own people, to make their own choices.

Maybe in their next life they’ll meet again and it’ll be even easier to be like this. But even now, Meng Yao is ready to take the chances that his past self wouldn’t have dared to dream of. He leans toward Lan Xichen, hoping to kiss him, but a knock on the door interrupts them and he jumps to his feet to go get their food. The delivery man looks at him a little funny, but makes no comment. If Meng Yao is half as red as Lan Xichen, he deserves those odd looks.

Nothing happens again that night. The moment has passed, and after eating, Lan Xichen has to go home because he has engagements the day after that he can’t cancel.

It's not a date that night, no more than any of their previous encounters were. 

It's not a date then, but next time, when Lan Xichen invites him to a restaurant, Meng Yao is informed in no unclear terms that this is, in fact, a date. They go see a movie after, and Meng Yao gets to kiss one of the two most handsome men in the world.

Life is good. 

Life is really good, and yet Meng Yao wants more. 

In spite of their efforts, Lan Xichen and him can't get in touch with Nie Huaisang to inform him that his brother has finally reincarnated. Even Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are getting worried. From what they told Lan Xichen they haven't had any contact with him since the day they picked him up at the Hanshi. 

"They say he's done that before," Lan Xichen tells him. "They think he'll return in a decade or two, maybe a little longer. Time is hard for immortals, they lose track easily." 

That's all very well for them, but Meng Yao doesn't have a few decades to waste, and neither does Nie Mingjue. They're not immortals. One bad illness, a reckless driver, just tripping in the stairs, and it's all over until they reincarnate again, and Meng Yao is done with missed chances. 

If he can't directly get in touch with Nie Huaisang, Meng Yao can make a few discreet calls to former buyers, and advise them to get their purchase asserted again, just in case. He makes sure to only contact people who bought legitimate artworks of course. He wants to make a wave, not get in trouble. If Meng Yao knows Nie Huaisang even half as well as he thinks he does, then even in hiding Nie Huaisang will be checking what’s happening in the world of art collectors, and he’ll hear about some of his buyers suddenly becoming fearful of fakes.

It’s a little mean perhaps, when Nie Huaisang is so proud of his counterfeits, but kindness has never been Meng Yao’s greatest quality.

Besides, it works.

One afternoon, when Meng Yao is alone at home, checking a job offer that he’s probably going to reject because he deserves better, there’s a knock on the door. Meng Yao considers ignoring it, but some of his elderly neighbours have been coming to ask for help with their phones or whatever new fancy blender their kids got them to make life easier. Usually, five minutes of easy work means free homemade food for his next meal, which is always a great deal.

When he opens the door, there’s a very old man waiting in the corridor alright, but free food is probably out of the question.

“Well, I’m here,” Nie Huaisang says. “Whatever is going on, it’d better be important.”

[prorevenge]

A social media marketing agency fires me while being sick without any notice or explanation.

I worked for a social media marketing company. I'd been there almost a year and hadn't used any of my 14 paid days off. I was the only contract worker, but I didn't complain. The money was ok, paid the bills, and my degree was not in business.

It's Saturday. I got from a whole day of running errands, it was raining and nasty, I was wet and cold, I felt sick. I emailed to my team and HR that I'm feeling sick and will be updating them. I felt it's important because there was a big pitch the whole agency was bending over. On Sunday, I felt it in my bones. I wrote another email. I didn't want anyone else to get sick before the pitch. Monday morning I was pouring gallons of shit water from my ass. I threw up twice, couldn't eat, couldn't swallow even water, couldn't sleep, couldn't move, no health insurance. I sent another email on Monday saying I feel worse, sent what I was able to finish to my manager and the team and wished luck with the pitch.

It was strange that this time I didn't get any, "get better," "sorry to hear that," etc. I was so sick I wasn't thinking too deeply about it though and decided to mindlessly binge on Netflix. Tuesday morning, I'm asking if all looks bueno. No response. I'm texting to my manager because this wasn't normal. No response. Then, I couldn't log in to my email. I got locked out from my work email. Doesn't take a genius to notice that something wacky has been going on. I got all my shit from Dropbox and whatever accounts I had on an external hard drive. I started making peace with the thought that I'm being fired. I just didn't know what for.

The next morning I see an email from HR with the subject "Effective Immediately" and saying, "Due to your repeated absences and your abuse of the paid time off, it was decided to terminate your employment." That's it. No further instructions, nothing. I tried to call my manager, but he didn't answer. He texted me later that day to give the address where my belongings should be delivered. I was still sick on Thursday. On Monday I got an email asking to sign it and send back. No instruction if I should do it by mail or email, just a lot of words reminding me what was in my contract: confidentiality blah blah blah, non-compete clauses blah blah blah, company's intellectual property blah blah blah. It looked like it was copied from an online template. I asked HR to send me a copy of my contract as everything was on my company's laptop. The contract was worded the way that working or even contacting with their clients could put me in legal trouble.

I got another job almost 2 months later. With maxed out credit cards and a $3K loan, I felt little helpless. They treated me like a piece of trash. After winning the pitch the agency has been bragging on social media about how amazing and millennial they are. On the company's social accounts they were trying hard to turn every little thing into a huge win. For me, every day was harder because the new job sucked, I felt excluded and didn't feel I'm the part of the culture. So, I've been checking the old agency's social media like a maniac. It got so bad I had to delete the Facebook app from my phone and install some chrome extensions to prevent me from visiting their social media. I stopped going to the gym, was eating unhealthy, broke up with a girl who actually liked me over a stupid argument, was stressed, and felt like a loser.

One day they posted a blog with so much praise for themselves... I cringed. While scrolling through everything people were saying, I realized that their pride blinded them to anything but positive feedback.

After 3 months since I got fired, my bank offered me skip a pay or something like that for 2 next months and I used the $700 to buy as many fake likes, follows, views, etc., as it was possible. From 2K they went to almost 50K followers on Facebook. They were getting 300-500 likes on their Instagram posts, their Twitter also jumped high from only 200 followers. After a week the $700 got me, I decided to go full in for another week and added $500 to the revenge budget. I was more selective, knew more, had better sites for cheaper, I was posting comments everywhere praising the agency, I even created a fake site which was "featuring" the best social media campaigns and ads. I created fake 2 months worth of content in the form of "awards," "special features," and fake polls, and then featured this agency on the front page. Every comment was retweeted, shared, commented back, thanked. It seemed they enjoy the ride a lot. From 1-2 post a week before I got fired they jumped to 2-3 posts a day on every platform. They were so full of themselves they thought they got all of this with their hard work.

2014-2015 was the golden era of Facebook and social media for this type of activities. After over 2 weeks of the hype, suddenly, one of their most cocky posts of theirs got 0 likes. Null. These fools were so caught up in the chase of their 'hard-earned' success, they didn't even check who likes their shit, who follows them. Those were bot accounts, all of them probably in India, cheap as hell, from some scammy sites you don't want to associate your business or name with, or even your IP. The agency had almost 120K followers on Facebook at some point. Going from less than 2K followers to 120K, imagine how the engagement went down. All their organic posts were non-existent. The whole agency looked like idiots because it was apparent from the outside it's all weird and that the hype's fake.

They were trying to get that hype back they started writing useless blogs like more pointless and worthless content would fix anything. Their headlines were screaming "clickbait," their posts and the volume of images they were posting looked desperate. One day... Oops, their FB is "not available." They got blocked! Since there were hundreds of thousands of the same cases in review (blocked accounts for similar schemes, etc.) and they had $0 ad spend on that page, they would wait months to get their account back. They had to create a new FB page, a new Instagram account, and after they shared again the link with their "we're honored to be featured..." I replaced the URL to link to another business in San Francisco lol and removed their entry from the front page. I wasn't even aware at the time, but after these 2 weeks of imverybadass behaviour they lost a few crucial employees. I heard a rumor they left the agency in the mid-project and someone inexperienced, with no fucking clue and their own projects had to finish it. It had to be a shit show. The client refused to pay and eventually they lost every single client they had on a regular yearly contract. From 25 employees, in less than 1 year, they went to 9! I don't think they realize even now the ratios of likes to comments was suspicious. 2K likes on a photo post with only a single comment saying "Amazing!", posted by Rakesh Johnson from nowhere, with the profile pic of an anime character...? You need to be a true-born idiot to buy that, and they were "an agency."

They still have fewer FB followers than they started with before firing me. They gave up on Twitter. Instagram is also bad, no engagement, no regular posts. Overall, $1,200 bought me back my self-esteem, which I consider money wisely spent.

As of today, I've been talking to that girl I screwed up with and things are looking promising. I'm making more than my previous manager (according to Glassdoor), and he is still with the same company, not having any client on any sort of retainer fee. Only small projects, zero social media activity, almost a dead company, with no talent wanting to work there, and a bad reputation in the area Imagine, a social media marketing company gets kick out from Facebook... laughable. Bunch of egocentric people who got the taste of their own bitter piss. Sometimes I really want to add another nail in the coffin, but I'm a better man now. I moved on and don't consider them worthy of my time. This post is my final goodbye to this issue.

TL/DR: A social media marketing agency fired me for being sick. Got their ass kicked by their own ego and have been recovering ever since.

(source) (story by PierceJames)

[stone-man-warrior]

April 19, 2021: 10:19 am:

==============================================

Danial of Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon called me today, left a message to call them back, so I did call back as I need medical attention and I have an appointment tomorrow to see a doctor at Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon,

Danial informed me that since I did not go to the emergency hospital when the Asante Urgent Care refused to treat me, and said I needed to go to the emergency room to have my leg amputated, that the Pain Specialists don‘t want to be liable for what happens to my leg, so, they have decided to cancel me from all further treatment at Pain Specialists.

I did what Paul Leppert told me to do, even after he was made aware of how scared I am of the Asante Hospital, having been nearly handcuffed to a bed there before, had to escape, while others at the  Asante were held captive there in 2015.

I have been a patient at Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon since 2015, six years, Dr. Joseph Savino ordered an MRI, and that was done in effort to get a post spinal surgery treatment plan. To date, six years after that scan, there is still no treatment plan from my health care providers that ordered the MRI.

I complain every once in while.

now, I have this poison injection leg attack condition, and my health care provider has refused to treat the condition at least three times when shown at the office in the exam room during normal and regular scheduled office visits.

Danial at Pain Specialists told me that Paul Leppert spoke to Dr. Joseph Savino about my leg condition, however, Dr. Savino has been dead for about three years so far, yet somehow, Dr. Savino is still able to see patients after he has been dead for quite awhile. Danial told me that the clinic does not want to be held liable for my leg condition, so, they are firing me from treatment. That means I have no treatment available for my spinal cord injury conditions either.

The clinic refused to refer me to another doctor, and did not make a formal referral to the Urgent Care when I went there three weeks ago. Paul had said to go there to the Urgent Care at my appointment three weeks ago, and that day, is the very first time in six years, that anyone from Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon had bothered to read the radiology report from the scan that was done six years ago in effort to get a post surgical treatment plan. So as I was in great agony at the appointment with the poison leg conditions, that is the time when Paul Leppert decided to have a look at the MRI from six years ago.

Leppert told me to go to Urgent Care, and that is what I did. It was done verbally, and was not a formal referral. I was offered nothing at the Asante Urgent Care, not even an antibiotic when I asked for one. “Go to the Emergency Hospital, this wound looks bad, they will most likely amputate the leg, and if you wait any longer, they will amputate above the knee.” is what happened at the Urgent Care in White City on Avenue G.

So now, I have a text message, a voice mail, and two email’s that tell me to be at the appointment tomorrow, and, now, I have one statement verbally over a hijacked cellphone system that my appointment has been cancelled because I did not do what Leppert said to do, when I actually did do exactly what Leppert said to do.

I called back, and told Daniel that I don’t have anything in writing that says my appointment has been cancelled, and I have many things in writing that do say I have an appointment for treatment tomorrow. I asked him to put the cancellation in writing by sending an email or text that tells me the appointment is cancelled, and I was told: “we don‘t do that” but we are putting a cancellation letter in the mail today. That, won‘t be here at my house until after said appointment time. So I said everything I have tells me to be there for the appointment, so I need to be there unless you cancel the appointment in writing, otherwise I could be made to appear as though I am not participating in my own health care. So, Daniel says that I can go there, at the appointment time, to Medford, and they will tell me that the appointment has been cancelled at that time.

Like I have been saying, there are no doctors in Oregon. The people at Pain Center of Southern Oregon are impostors, they are Screen Actor Guild terror operatives of the SAGClubMed terror orientation, and are also members of the MedDems terror cell. They have been doing terror activity for so long unchecked that they are cocky about it, and have their ways refined to a science.

now that Kate Brown is dead, something could change with regard to the arrogant ways of Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon.

===================

3:45 pm:

Zzounds Music has proven to have some interest in my health care.

Today’s Zzounds terror mailer is in association to what I was saying about the visit to Asante Health, where the so called doctor introduced himself as “Satch”, and said to me “I’m Joe”, as in Joe Satriani, AKA: Josephine County Sheriff Deputy Aaron Porter (Air Importer), a nitrous soldier operative of SAG who goes around in a squad car kidnapping little girls. “Doctor Joe” said to me that he would not treat my leg wounds because “I don‘t have access to advanced imaging” is what he said. He also said I need to have the leg amputated, and if I wait any longer, that would be above the knee. The thing that makes this Zzounds Music associated to that visit at Asante Urgent Care is the “Knock, Knock” part (the big deals would happen AFTER they kill me and have the Pain Specialists “MAX” the Medicare Part-D medication that disabled people are prescribed. I am not the only one that this kind of thing has happened to, I may be the only one who fought against it long enough to survive the assassination attempts to figure out what it is that the SAG has been doing. It would take very little research to verify what I am reporting here about millions of Medicare beneficiary’s having been killed so that the SAG members can get high without worry about any paper trail that leads to them for their enormous appetite for prescription drugs.

That “Advanced Timing Ping” I explained just showed up as a “Knock” from Zzounds music on behalf of Joe Satriani.

Find Joe, look at his arms. Is one scarred from wrist to elbow? Does the other have tracks from wrist to elbow? That scar is what happens when disabled men defend themselves from the candy ass terrorist rock stars who are killing them so they can get high.

Yeah, it’s subtle, but it has to be subtle so they don’t get caught killing the elderly and disabled US Citizens for drugs. Zzounds Advertising agency is part of “the circle”.

===

4:11 pm:

Other related:

A marketing director by the name of Rick Coimbra of Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon may have been a cover/alias for actor/musician Jack Black. Either way, yes or no, I suspect that the person portraying Mr. Coimbra is dead, and was present with Kate Brown at the Monroe Offensive Surveillance Travel Trailer that day when Ms. Brown burst of nitrous ignition.

For those keeping score, Kate Brown is the second Oregon state governor who has died while trying to kill me, John Kitzhaber attacked me at the La Burrita Restaurant about two weeks prior to when he is said to have resigned. John died while impaled with his own sword. It was April 25, I forget what year.

=======

7:35 pm:

The way it stands, I have in writing in many forms that I have an appointment to see the “doctor” at the usual place I have been going for the past six years.

I also have one voice phone call telling me that not only is the appointment cancelled, but I have been cancelled from the Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon all together, because, they say, I did not do as I was told to do by Paul Leppert, the “nurse practitioner” who has been overseeing my treatment there since the time that Dr. Joe Savino was killed in defense after attacking me with a sword in the exam room there.

I did exactly what Leppert said to do, he said “Go to Urgent Care in White City on Avenue G” and that is where I went, only to be told to have my leg amputated at the Asante or at the Providence, it did not make a difference what ER I went to, to the so called Doctor (Joe Satriani) at the Urgent care.

So, there is this dilemma:

Go to the appointment as I have in writing, in a text message, on an appointment card, on the answering machine, and with additional correspondence about spinal injection therapy options available, also sent by email. Or, don‘t go, as Danial who made the call, said that I have been terminated from service, a letter will be sent to verify that in the US postal mail, he said.

I don’t have confidence that the phone call actually came from the Pain Center, as the neighbors have a Stingray surveillance unit that is capable of making any phone call appear as though it came from any number. They could be fooling me with imposter phone call.

So, really I never have wanted to go there since learning about what they do at Pain Specialists. But there are no other doctors anywhere around here either, so, it’s that fake doctor, or no doctor at all, is the choice I have had. I chose to keep going there for six years while wishing that national security people would read this account, see what I am telling of, and follow me to the pain center to see for themselves that someone attacks me every time I go there.

no one but terror soldiers read this information, and the national security has been losing an opportunity to do some national security work in a big way for a long time.

If I go to Medford, to the appointment after being told that the appointment was cancelled, and that I have been cancelled also from treatment there, there is a real good chance that I will be set-up, they could say that I went there with weapons to hurt people for having been turned away again.

I could be killed, then they could use some bullshit story like that.

On the other hand, if I don’t go, and it turns out that the terror neighbors did use the Stingray to fake me out, then, I will be accused again of not participating in my own health treatment for not showing up to the appointment. Then, if national security just happened to be around like I have been wishing for, they would miss out on the attack that always happens, and no help will ever come to Oregon because they won’t see what happens to patients at Pain Center of Southern Oregon.

There is no good, definitive way to proceed.

I have been risking my life by going there for six years so far, if the nsa won’t go, I don‘t go, then. all of that is for nothing other than having taken out some really bad bad guys in that six year time frame while defending in the exam rooms, parking lot, and subsequent attack that happens at the Walgreen‘s afterwords.

nsa will never know what I have been subject to, or, what other less fortunate people who did not survive have been subject to.

If nsa won‘t go there in person, then, maybe they can look at the funky billing that the Pain Specialists have been doing to get an idea about the terror activity from a safe distance. Pain Specialists, for awhile, where making me do urine samples in association with a laboratory that they do business with for urology. They took the sample, claimed that I was incarcerated, in jail, and the sample was obtained for the purpose of arrest criteria that never occurred, it was just a routine sample from my perspective, then I learned what they were doing, claiming that I was in jail when the sample was taken. I got the bill for those, they cost $2,050 each for a urine sample test at a judicial level of testing for all kinds of different drugs and substances. I was responsible to pay $50 of the $2,050 charged on the billing invoice. That happened about four times in the time that I have been going to Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon.

The nsa people might also take a look at the high turn over rate of the employees there if possible. To my knowledge, Paul Leppert is the only person who is still alive of the people who were there the first time I went in 2015. The others all killed in defense when I was attacked, or, they were burst of nitrous oxide ignition as I used my lighter to clear the air so I could breath and think clearly while at the doctor appointment. That is a lot of terror soldiers, many people worked there over that time frame, all I wanted was some health treatment, not have to do national security work.

nsa might also find that for awhile, i was told to send my payments to some other place in another state, I forget where right now, but can show it, they changed the billing address, then claimed that I was not paying the bill, so, I changed if back on my own, after sending about $400 total to some place where I cannot get it back, or apply it to the actual bill like it was supposed to go in the first place.

nsa may be able to trace activity from the pain center to activity at the Medford International Airport with special chartered airplanes from Southern California that were happening a lot in the first three years I was there, up until Joe Savino was killed, then, I don’t have information about the chartered flights anymore after that. It was the SAGClubMed Junket arrangements, the front office girls used to do the same work as travel agents do while at the pain center front desk, easily over heard as people booked flights on the charter airplane when the receptionists made the arrangements.

nsa could also try to find out why the Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon has a cellular telephone tower in the parking lot, and equipment housed to use it right there. That would be good.

So, there are ways that nsa could do national security work at Pain Specialists from a safe distance if they ever want to get started with protecting USA from terror take over, Pain Specialists is a good place to start doing that, sooner is better as many millions of US citizens have already been brutally murdered by people associated to the pain specialists and Asante Health.

Should the nsa decide to actually go there, they should bring US Military, as the pain specialists is protected by a vast terror army in Medford, is very dangerous there.

This cellular telephone tower and it’s hardware housing is in the parking lot there:

[gordonlearllc-blog]

Top 6 Reasons Not to Trust a Top 10 Ranking List

I have been online longer than Google, Yahoo and Bing so to say I have seen it all and then some when is accurate.  In college I would sit in front of the lab terminal and access my email account using a command line program called Pine and search for information on another one called Gopher.  At the time, the “internet” was basically for scholars and user friendly wasn’t even part of the dialect.  Stuff like page ranking and SEO didn't even exist. But for a small-town New Hampshire kid having the world at his fingertips was mind-blowing.  I was instantly hooked and have spent the last two decades looking for the next next.  Keeping up with the newest trends (good and bad) is just part of who I am and lately I have seen some that really make me wonder where the internet is going…. If you search anything these days the top results will always have some form of Top 10 list.  It might be 5 or 15, maybe even say the “Best” or “Greatest” but the idea is always the same.  These ranking pages have exploded over the last few years due to search engines affinity to deem such a page useful to the user mostly because when they first started showing up they appeared to be genuine and provided the consumer value.  But like anything good on the internet it has become overridden with folks exploiting the system trying to make a buck. It is sad to say that pretty much any ranking page you find out there these days are junk. These sites have two goals;  First, get a high ranking in search engine results on a certain keywords and phrases; Second, get you to visit their page and click a link that will generate revenue.  Informing you about the product or service is nowhere in their agenda.  As a matter of fact many of these pages just a copy and paste right from the site they are promoting.  There is no commentary or analysis or a breakdown of the good and bad.  There is just the basic marketing polish found on the original site. Here is what to watch out for when looking at ranking si

1.) Affiliate Marketing

So you find a top 10 site that has a clear list of products and services and the top one lists all the great reasons why it is number one.  Then right next to it in a big pretty button with “get more info” or “Click for Price” in bold letters.  These buttons are called CALL-TO-ACTIONS  or CTAs. More often than not it is an Affiliate Marketer (AM).  Which is a “professional” marketing someone else’s goods and services for a commission.  An AM’s only loyalty is around the commission they get if you click the link they provide and it converts into a sale. SO what do you think this does to the quality of their ranking list?  Well just ask yourself this; If an AM gets $5 per sale for one product and $8 for another which one do you think they will rank higher? The catch with these commissions is the sale doesn’t have to be that day and many times it doesn’t even have to be that product.  As an example, you click an Amazon.com affiliate link and then leave that page only to find yourself on Amazon the next day to by something completely unrelated the AM gets a commission on that sale. So all the motivation behind their rankings is most likely monetary and you can forget about  finding rich thoughtful feedback or some deep product research that requires hard work and insight.  So, you basically find a horrible site that provides you no value.  It persuades to leave their site through an affiliate link and you reward them with a sale the following day having no idea it kicked them back a commission.  No wonder AM is a billion-dollar industry and more importantly why the internet is flooded with these Top pages. The good news here is reputable companies require affiliates to identify themselves as such.  So check out the page, most likely on the very bottom in small font you will find a disclaimer. If you do understand you are not reading unbiased content and be cautious its only purpose is to persuade you into clicking an AM link.

2.) Clickbait

Sites make money by displaying advertising on their sites. They can be AM links or just straight up Click Ads. When you come to a page full of Ads its hard not to argue the author’s only motivation all around the revenue they get paid per click or what is called PPC. Their pages are not designed for the user to easily and quickly read the article maximizing the value to the reader but to maximize the ad space, the click thru’s and value to their bank account. The classic overdone PPC sites are those that are almost impossible to read because so much stuff is loading and everything on the page keeps moving and stuff flies at you from all directions.  This of course is by design, they want you to accidently click an Ad as you navigate the page.  This not only tricks the user but it is also screwing over the advertiser because they are paying for bad clicks and traffic from users that never wanted to be there. These sites are nothing less than annoying.  You can’t trust anything they write seeing half the time they are trying to bore you to death so you leave their page through one of their ads.  The entire page is just one piece of click bait and should not be encouraged.  So unless you stop clicking they are not going away anytime soon.

3.) Slide Shows and Galleries

This is arguably the most arduous page of the web.  Its right there with Fake News so it is not uncommon to see both together.  These sites are the worst of the worst and often take the Top list to the extreme. The top 50 places to will be no less than 50 pages loaded full of advertising to get through.  They will even have “Next” buttons as Affiliate or Click-Throughs. Which drive me nuts.  You think you are going to the next slide but then you find yourself in the middle of pop-up-palooza!  They will throw flyout ads at you, imbed ads in between slides and the info on what that slide is even on the list is non-existent.  They are nothing but a time-thief and provide little to no value for the reader.  If you find yourself on one of these sites and you don’t know the source just leave because all you are doing is setting a cookie that tells advertisers you’re a sucker for click bait.  Just stay away from slideshows.

4.) Pseudo Sites

Some ranking sites are written by the company selling one of the items on the list. But they do it on a site that appears to be someone other than themselves.  It is common practice for a product manager to deploy many sites with content about their product and work like hell to get them all ranked high and basically push the competition to the second page of search results.  As the user you think you have found a bunch of different sources and after reading them you are impressed with the overall consensus across all these top sites and feel well informed to make a buying decision.  However, you have been duped! The product assessments on these pages are aligned because they were all created by the same marketing department! Its sad, you think you are reading separate perspectives from unconnected sources however you just spent the majority of your morning in one big sales funnel.  If you don’t know who owns the site you really should question the validity of the information they present.  Always always know you source.

5.) Lead Generation Sites

Have you ever looked online for car insurance and found a “Top X List” that was covered in “get free quote” buttons, you read their rankings and are impressed about the offer promising to save you money so you decide to click one?  Well I hope you read the fine print because there is a good chance your information was sent to EVERYONE on the list resulting in robo calls and junk mail.  On top of that your information gets sold over and over as someone “interested in car insurance” resulting in more calls and spam.  A site that seemed useful has now made the sound of your phone cringe-worthy and your inbox full of distractions and refuse.

6.) Fake Buying Guides

These are just another form of “Top 10” sites that are just as bad for all the same reasons.  They just use another important part of the search engines weighting calculation…  Age.  By putting the Year in the title it tells Google, Yahoo and Bing this list is relevant to NOW (or last year) so you should show it first.  Sites use this to exploit the system and give their pages an instant boost.  Most of the time these pages are recycled from the previous year.  I strongly suggest you stick to buying guides by reputable places like Consumer Reports and ConsumerSearch.com To sum things up, AM and other types of passive income are all the rage so the internet is getting saturated with these pages. I get those that want to create an online stream of cash with the flexibility to work from anywhere whenever they want.  Unfortunately, there are many just looking for a quick buck and will stop at nothing to keep the clicks coming.  So be an informed surfer.  Understand the motivation behind the info you are reading and be skeptical of all those pretty buttons and links that trigger that impulse to click. Only user behavior will change how these sites go about things. So if you’re sick of seeing these pages littering the front pages of your search pages don’t feed the frenzy by rewarding them with a visit. Read the full article

[breatheinthesea]

Truth, set me free

If you’re reading this right now, I assume you’re coming from my video or you just happen to be among the few thousand who still follow this account- 

either way, and regardless of if you know me personally or not, I just have to start off by saying thank you. A genuine thank you- one that could make me cry just thinking about. I know anyone who couldn’t give a rats ass about me or my life wouldn’t be here, so by default, I’m guessing (secretly hoping) the rest of you do. Anyway, thank you for reading this. I know it’s long as hell and will take up some of your minutes here on earth, and that’s important to me, that you chose to be here rather than anywhere else. I want it to be like we’re sitting on the bed talking like best friends do when they really need to open up about something that’s been hurting them, even if I’m a complete stranger or just another “youtuber” to you. And speaking of best friends, I haven’t really fully opened up to mine about what’s been going on, so if you’re reading, I’m sorry for being so distant this past year and a half, and I hope this blog post helps everyone and anyone in whatever way it can. It will surely be helping me.

So, where to begin? is the question I am haunted by every time I think about actually writing this blog post. I begin obsessing over the starting point and then never end up starting, which can be so utterly frustrating. I have a thousand thoughts racing through my head, it’s hard enough to grab onto one, let alone place it in the perfect sequence. While writing used to ease my mind, now I am just overwhelmed by the never-ending options of words to use, opportunities to make run-on sentences, and ways to say everything I wish I would’ve said differently. I over-analyze every sentence, read it over and over and have to convince myself not to delete it. So as you can imagine, I’ve avoided any kind of writing lately- journaling, blogging, texting friends and emailing companies back, etc… You get the idea. Basically, something I used to love has turned into a struggle, something I avoid like the plague. And my mentioning this is to make a comparison of what my life’s turned into- something I used to love and now completely struggle to manage on a daily basis.

If you happened to sit through my agonizingly long video titled “Where Have I Been?”, then you’re probably already familiar with the fact that I’ve struggled with mental illness for a while now. If you didn’t watch it, and don’t want to, I basically explained that in the beginning of 2015, I began losing myself. I started questioning my religion that I had put my entire identity into, thus launching me into an identity and existential crisis, which I couldn’t really recognize at the time and surely didn’t know how to process. I felt extreme guilt, shame, and self-hatred for not being the person I thought I was for so many years, and who others expected me to be. I only confided in very few people, and they all told me to just keep praying and trying to mend my relationship with God, and when that didn’t work, I felt obligated to wear a mask of certainty to compensate for how terrified I was of actually admitting I didn’t know what I believed. It was exhausting and painful to keep up that facade, especially being so formerly open and confident about it online.

Now that I’ve spent the time analyzing exactly what happened and asking myself “where did it all go wrong?”, I’ve discovered the questioning and doubting actually began in 2013. I just couldn’t handle it anymore after two years of feeling like a fake, a sinner, a liar, and a person who was surely going to hell if I had died. And as it goes, those internalized emotions that I had been bottling up for years eventually manifested into harming myself in a desperate attempt to get the people around me to realize I was not okay. And it worked. I got the attention I desired, and it quickly turned into an obsession that I had not prepared myself for at all. I always believed I was in control of it, but just like with any addiction, it soon took control over me. I was powerless to the urges and addicted to the rush. I started cutting on February 7th, 2015 and didn’t stop until October 5th- 3 trips to the ER, 25 stitches, and 4 days in a psych ward later. It was the worst time of my life, and I was sure I had hit rock bottom.

Nope haha.

After months of therapy, I thought things were starting to look up. I moved out of my apartment that encased those terrible memories, and planned to start completely fresh. I was determined to get happy again. I began embracing the unknown and started aligning my actions with my morals. I discovered veganism and realized what I had been missing my entire life. I started smoking marijuana again after 5 years of demonizing it, which in turn helped keep me away from the heavy drinking which was a major trigger for my self-harm (I finally quit after cutting through a nerve that made me lose feeling in half my forearm.) I moved into an even bigger apartment, started dating someone who thought like I did, and spent all my time and energy trying to control and perfect every aspect of my life to make up for the years I felt I had wasted. I made my beauty room white and sparkly like everyone else’s, bought a better camera, new lighting, a monitor, a green screen, a new microphone, etc… and once everything was perfect in my eyes, I vowed to my subscribers that I was back, that “2016 would be my bitch”.

Nope again haha.

I still felt empty. I still wasn’t satisfied. I was still filling a void. While I attempted to make everything around me perfect, I just felt more and more imperfect. Thoughts of being incompetent, a failure, not good enough, and a waste of talent were all I could focus on. Filming gave me anxiety like I had never experienced before, and I was never satisfied with any video I tried to produce. My heart was simply no longer in it because the perfectionism I acquired inhibited any form of enjoyment that I formerly got from creating youtube videos. And this shattered me, because I had no plan B. I had no college degree to fall back on, no other passions, this was it for me. So I pushed on, and tried my best, but fell short over and over. The shame of not feeling capable of doing a job I used to be in love with, and that others would kill for and find incredibly easy, weighed on me every day like a ton of bricks. I watched other youtuber’s execute videos so flawlessly and passionately and instead of getting inspired, I became crippled with envy and decided I could never be as talented, as professional, as funny, as naturally beautiful as them, and this was so disheartening coming from a person who used to make videos called “how to be confident”. I realized that while I had recognized that I lost myself somewhere along the way, I never truly found myself, and still haven’t. I got swept up in my own depression, leaning solely on my boyfriend to make me happy, and we all know that doesn’t and cannot work for the benefit of both people in a relationship. I became attached, overly dependent, extremely jealous and it only caused more pain. I had so much negative energy, it was like carrying a cloud around me where anyone who came close would just suffocate with me.

Of course, I didn’t want to feel this way, and I noticed the only time I felt okay with myself was when I was high. So I stayed high. My addictive personality leached onto this plant like it was my new savior. I couldn’t stand being sober, because it revealed how miserable I was inside. I wasn’t willing or simply didn’t know how to deal with my emotions, and it got worse and worse as I continued to self-medicate and ignore the root cause of my depression and anxiety for months. I tried medication after medication and the up’s and downs from those side effects were truly unbearable at times. There were weeks where I didn’t enjoy anything or even recognize myself. My favorite foods didn’t appeal to me and all I wanted to do was sleep where I finally felt safe in a dream. I remember listening to music and there wasn’t a single song that made me feel anything. Nothing. It’s like I was a robot, just a body with no soul inside. I remember walking into my mom’s house one day and not recognizing her face. I remember getting my skirt altered for my best friend’s wedding and I was just staring out the window thinking “I’m not real. None of this is real.” I often felt like I was tripping and had to have someone convince me I was a real person, in a real world. My perception of reality would become so distorted. It sent me into panic, I would have severe episodes of rage and confusion and no one would know what to do about it or how to help me. This happened multiple times a week for a period of time. This is the type of shit that convinces people to kill themselves because they lose any attachment to themselves or outer world. It was the scariest shit I’ve ever experienced, and partially why I’ve sworn against anti-depressants and mood stabilizers for a while.

My life felt like it was falling apart, and well, it pretty much was. My income was decreasing at an alarming rate due to the fact that I was barely filming videos and terminated all contracts with any companies that tested on animals (all of them). I spent my money so carelessly because I never imagined that with this job I could ever fall back into debt. I was financially stable for so many years and expected that to be the case for a long time, but I was very wrong. The last month of living in my apartment I had to ask another Youtuber to loan me money to pay my rent, which was incredibly embarrassing and shameful for me, but thank god for kind and generous friends. I moved back into my moms house in October and my depression, anxiety and manic episodes continued full force.

I’m getting anxious at this point, biting my cuticles like a mad man trying to make sure my story comes across accurately. I’ve been putting this off for so long that now I just want it done and over with so I can move forward. But I don’t want to forget anything, or not include the important details of what’s been happening. But then again, I’m in control of this, and I think I just need to hurry it up. So, long story short, things got even worse once I moved home, which I didn’t think was possible. I was still smoking every day, my relationship with my mom was turning very ugly with almost every conversation ending in “fuck you” instead of “I love you.” I barely left my room and was sleeping more than any normal person should. My rage was at an all time high. We found a different psychiatrist to do some intensive testing on me, and after 4 hours of questioning, it was revealed to me that I had Borderline Personality Disorder. This was relieving and shocking all at the same time. I didn’t know what that “disorder” was when I first found out, but once I researched more, I realized I definitely acquired it somewhere along the way, and this was somewhat good news because now we at least had some direction to go in as far as treating it.

I started therapy again but it just wasn’t enough. I was still an emotional roller coaster every day, with no ambition to help myself and still completely reliant on marijuana to mellow me out. Everything overwhelmed me, everything scared me, and nothing was good enough. I would just stare at my walls and genuinely want to be dead. I was consumed by negative thoughts, and felt there was no way out. That’s when I decided to go to treatment.

I’ve been in treatment since January 25th. I go to a psychiatric facility every single day for 7 hours, and will for another month. We focus on DBT therapy and so far I’ve seen some improvement. I no longer have the manic episodes, and I’m learning how to control my anger in healthier ways. I’ve been sober for 67 days and will remain so for the duration of my treatment. I’ve met some pretty amazing people there, and just the structure and routine of it has been something I’ve needed for a long time. I don’t consider it a “cure” and my mental illnesses are something I will have to battle for a long, long time. Maybe even the rest of my life. But I can see the light now when for months all I saw was darkness. I’ve started reading books again and have fallen in love with learning and expanding the horizons of my mind. I’ve realized that nothing is the same as it was and nothing should ever be the same as it was. I am constantly growing and constantly becoming. I know now that I had a very abrupt spiritual awakening when I couldn’t yet comprehend that I was wakening, and it has proven to be the most important challenge in my life thus far, and for that, I am grateful.

As far as Youtube goes, all I can say is I didn’t come this far to only come this far. I have shit to say and minds to reach. I am working day in and day out to overcome my perfectionism and anxiety so I can return to Youtube as the absolute best version of myself. It will take time. It will take patience on both ends. I have to re-learn how to love myself and I’m sure some of you can relate to that. But I’m just so fucking thankful the universe gave me this job and this platform that I get to come back to when I feel ready. I know not everyone has agreed or understood why I can’t just film myself putting on makeup, but I hope this blog post has helped you realize why. When you get an illness, you take time off of work. When you get a mental illness, you should 100% do the same. It was me against myself the entire time. I don’t know exactly when, but I stopped loving myself and it crushed my spirit, crushed everything I had ever loved, including Youtube. And don’t get me started on the overwhelming amounts of guilt for not using my platform to spread the vegan message. That’s a whole other story.

Meditation, DBT skills, books, and TED talks are about the only things keeping me sane right now. I’ve had to accept the fact that I’m a work in progress and I hope everyone else can too. We’re all struggling with something. Life is fucking hard. But I’ve survived my darkest days and know that the only direction I can go from here is up and that is exciting. But I am still scuffling for stability, especially financially. I know it’s been obvious with the sporadic sponsored videos but for right now, that is just the reality of it. I need money to stay afloat just like you do, and I’m trying my best to stay true to myself in the process, but it has been very compromising. I’m still trying to figure this all out. And I appreciate those of you who are understanding and defend my integrity in those situations where it is questioned. I get it, though, and I’m going to make it up to you. It is my goal to return to my channel as a new evolved being, with a passion for makeup artistry and MANY other things. I am completely open for suggestions when it comes to future content, but I won’t be reading comments for a while until I know I can handle it. My friends and family will be reporting back to me with requests and constructive criticism so we can still stay connected.

I can’t believe I’m about to end this post when I never thought I’d see it come to completion. What a weight it was to carry. I feel so relieved and so happy to have gotten this off my chest and into the abyss of the universe. I cannot predict what this will mean or what it will do for someone, but my hope is that it is a catalyst for support, love, and positive endeavors moving forward. I will not return to social media if I cannot do it wholeheartedly. I must be unapologetically myself as I am still learning who that is, so it will be interesting haha. For the first time in a while, I am excited for the future. I hope y’all are too. Thank you immensely for your unconditional support and friendship. Despite everything, I know I am very blessed.

Thank you for reading. 

“Transformation isn't sweet or bright. It’s a dark and murky, painful pushing. An unraveling of the untruths you’ve carried in your body. A complete uprooting before becoming.” 

[alicecpacheco]

Help in Avoiding Phishing Scams

 We live in a time where security needs to be at the forefront of everything we do before we click or tap a screen.  You could easily be giving away access to your phone, your tablet, your computer, or God forbid your corporate network.  It’s a very easy mistake to make and happens all the time.  All of the recent data break-ins that I’ve researched recently have started with a phishing attack like the one shown above.

 The concept behind phishing is pretty simple.  Send someone an email and convince them to click on a link that downloads malicious code to the device.  Usually the email comes from what appears to be a “trusted source” such as a friend, co-worker, or as in the case above a credit card company.  Theses emails also frequently utilize some psychology that is referred to as “impending doom” to get you to act.  This impending doom in the example above is “avoid temporary block of your card”.  Many folks see this and panic thinking they are about to have their card shut off.  In that temporary moment of fear, they panic and, not thinking rationally, click the link… and that is all that it takes.  The link unleashes nefarious software that then takes control.  Of course the user is never aware of this.  The device/computer continues to function perfectly in a normal fashion.  However, in the background, the device begins to leak information like the proverbial sieve.

 If this is a personal device, everything you do, type, every website you visit, EVERYTHING is sent to a bad guy somewhere who can then begin draining bank accounts, sending SPAM with your device, access and attempt to phish your contacts.  They can also control your camera and your microphone to use your device as a way to spy on you personally.

 The only thing worse may be having this happen at work and the only reason that’s worse is that it may get you reprimanded and best and terminated at worst.  That’s because all of the above and more can be stolen from your employer’s network.  Hackers will soon gain administrative logins and then begin to steal or delete data.  They may also trigger a Ransomware attack that encrypts essential hard drives and then demands a payment to send you the unlock code… if they ever send it.

 Ransomeware is becoming a much bigger threat every day.  I personally know of several people who have fallen victims to it.

 So how do you avoid these types of scams?

The number thing to do is t be vigilant!!!  Cyber criminals count on either frightening us into action or lulling us into a false sense of security, either of which can then get us to act against our own self interests.  The above screen shot is a great example.  It appears come from a trusted source that you depend on and also uses the fear of having your account inactivated.

 Some good advice for these situations is, first of all, stay calm.  No matter how great the impending doom, the delay of a few minutes won’t really make it any worse.  So stop, take a couple of deep breaths, and then re-read the notice.

 By looking at the notice calmly and with a clear head, you may notice things out of the ordinary such as misspellings, mistakes in grammar, or incorrect use of a word which is a homonym for another.  There and their are classic examples.

 Also check the *actual* email address my hovering over it.  In the example listed above, the sender was “American Express” but the actual address was some gibberish account.  The one you see when you hover, is the real address that your email will be sent to.

 Also check with the company itself.  AmEx has a huge section on their website related to security.  I have even forwarded copies of emails to the fraud protection department of companies to find our if they are legit or not.  Amazingly, every one of them I have sent has been a fake.  If it is from a friend, text or call them and make darn sure they sent you the questionable email.  A few minutes of checking can save you inordinate amounts of time and grief trying to “undo” a security breach.

 Also do some research on phishing scams.  There are many good websites out there with great advice and info.

 Remember, preparing for an emergency is the best way to prevent one!

[latestnews2018-blog]

Here’s Twitter’s position on Alex Jones (and hate-peddling anti-truthers) — hint: It’s a fudge

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/heres-twitters-position-on-alex-jones-and-hate-peddling-anti-truthers-hint-its-a-fudge/

Here’s Twitter’s position on Alex Jones (and hate-peddling anti-truthers) — hint: It’s a fudge

The number of tech platforms taking action against Alex Jones, the far right InfoWars conspiracy theorist and hate speech preacher, has been rising in recent weeks — with bans or partial bans including from Google, Apple and Facebook.

However, as we noted earlier, Twitter is not among them. Although it has banned known hate peddlers before.

Jones continues to be allowed a presence on Twitter’s platform — and is using his verified Twitter account to scream about being censored all over the mainstream place, hyperventilating at one point in the past 16 hours that ‘censoring Alex Jones is censoring everyone’ — because, and I quote, “we’re all Alex Jones now”.

(Fact check: No, we’re not… And, Alex, if you’re reading this, we suggest you take heart from the ideas in this Onion article and find a spot in your local park.)

We asked Twitter why it has not banned Jones outright, given that its own rules service proscribe hate speech and hateful conduct…

Abuse: You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. We consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice.

Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. Read more about our hateful conduct policy.

Add to that, CEO Jack Dorsey has made it his high profile mission of late to (try to) improve conversational health on the platform. So it seems fair to wonder how Twitter continuing to enable a peddler of toxic lies and hate is going to achieve that?

While Twitter would not provide a statement about Jones’ continued presence on its platform, a spokesman told us that InfoWars and Jones’ personal account are not in violation of Twitter (or Periscope’s) ToS. At least not yet. Though he pointed out it could of course take action in the future — i.e. if it’s made aware of particular tweets that violate its rules.

Twitter’s position therefore appears to be that the content posted by InfoWars to other social media platforms is different to the content Jones posts to Twitter itself — ergo, its (hedgy & fudgy) argument essentially boils down to saying Jones is walking a fine enough line on Twitter itself to avoid a ban, because he hasn’t literally tweeted content that violates the letter of Twitter’s ToS.

(Though he has tweeted stuff like “the censorship of Infowars just vindicates everything we’ve been saying” — and given the hate-filled, violently untruthful things he has been saying all over the Internet, he’s essentially re-packaged all those lies into that single tweet, so… )

To spell out Twitter’s fudge: The fact of Jones being a known conspiracy theorist and widely visible hate preacher is not being factored into its ToS enforcement decisions. (Which does appear to contradict one of Twitter’s own policy shifts, announced last year, to take into account off-platform behavior, as others have pointed out.)

The company says it’s judging the man by his output on Twitter — which means it’s failing to take into account the wider context around Jones’ tweets, i.e. all the lies and hate he peddles elsewhere (and indeed all the insinuating nods and dog whistles he makes to his followers on Twitter) — and by doing so it is in fact enabling the continued spread of hate via the wink-wink-nod-nod back door.

Twitter’s spokesman did not want to engage in a lengthy back and forth conversation, healthy or otherwise, about Jones/InfoWars so it was not possible to get a response from the company on that point.

However it does argue, i.e. in defense of its fudged position, that keeping purveyors of false news on its platform allows for an open, real-time debate which in turn allows for their lies to be challenged and debunked by people who are in their right minds — so, basically, this is the ‘fight bad speech with more speech argument’ that’s so beloved of people already enjoying powerful privilege.

The problem with that argument (actually, there are many) is it does not factor in the human cost; the people suffering directly because toxic lies impact their lives. Nor the cost to truth itself; To belief in the veracity and authenticity of credible sources of information which are under sustained and vicious attack by anti-truthers like Jones; The corrosive impact on professional journalism from lies being packaged and peddled under the lying banner of self-styled ‘truth journalism’ that Jones misappropriates. Nor the cost to society from hate speech whose very purpose is to rip up the social fabric and take down civic values — and, in the case of Jones’ particular bilious flavor, to further bang the drum of abuse via the medium of toxic disinformation — to further amplify and spread his pollution, via the power of untruth — to whip up masses of non-critically thinking conspiracy-prone followers. I could go on. (I have here.)

The amplification effect of social media platforms — combined with cynical tricks used by hate peddlers to game algorithms, such as bots retweeting and liking content to make it seem more popular than it is — makes this stuff a major, major problem.

‘Bad speech’ on such powerful platforms can become not just something to roll your eyes at and laughingly dismiss, but a toxic force that bullies, beats down and drowns out other types of speech — perhaps most especially truthful speech, because falsehood flies (and online it’s got rocket fuel) — and so can have a very deleterious impact on conversational health.

Really, it needs to be handled in a very different way. Which means Twitter’s position on Jones, and hateful anti-truthers in general, looks both flawed and weak.

It’s also now looking increasingly isolated, as other tech platforms are taking action.

Twitter’s spokesman also implied the company is working on tuning its systems to actively surface high quality counter-narratives and rebuttals to toxic BS — such as in replies to known purveyors of fake news like InfoWars.

But while such work is to be applauded, working on a fix also means you don’t actually have a fix yet. Meanwhile the lies you’re not stopping are spreading on your platform — at horrible and high cost to people and society.

It’s hard to see this as a defensible position.

And while Twitter keeps sitting on its fence, Jones’ hate speech and toxic lies, broadcast to millions as a weapon of violent disinformation, have got his video show booted from YouTube (which, after first issuing a strike yesterday then terminated his page for “violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines”).

The platform had removed ads from his channel back in March — but had not then (as Jones falsely claimed at the time) banned it. That decision took another almost half year for YouTube to arrive at.

Also yesterday, almost all of Jones’ podcasts were pulled by Apple, with the company saying it does not tolerate hate speech. “We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions,” it added.

Earlier this month, music streaming service Spotify also removed some of Jones’ podcasts for violating its hate-speech policy.

Even Facebook removed a bunch of Jones’ videos late last month, for violating its community standards — albeit after some dithering, and what looked like a lot of internal confusion.

The social media behemoth also imposed a 30-day ban on Jones’ personal account for posting the videos, and served him a warning notice for the InfoWars Facebook Page he controls.

Facebook later clarified it had banned Jones’ personal profile because he had previously received a warning — whereas the InfoWars Page had not, hence the latter only getting a strike.

There have even been bans from some unlikely quarters: YouPorn just announced action against Jones for a ToS violation — nixing his ability to try to pass off anti-truth hate preaching as a porn alternative on its platform.

Pinterest, too, removed Jones’ ‘hate, lies & supplements’ page after Mashable made enquiries.

So, uh, other responses than Twitter’s (of doing nothing) are widely possible.

On Twitter, Jones also benefits from being able to distinguish his account from any would-be imitators or satirists, because he has a verified account — denoted on the platform by a blue check mark badge.

We asked Twitter why it hasn’t removed Jones’ blue badge — given that the company has, until relatively recently, been rethinking its verification program. And last year it actively removed blue badges from a number of white supremacists because it was worried it looked like it had been endorsing them. Yet Jones — who spins the gigantic lie of ‘white genocide’ — continues to keep his.

Twitter’s spokesman pointed us to this tweet last month from product lead, Kayvon Beykpour, who wrote that updating the program “isn’t a top priority for us right now”.

We’ve heard some questions recently about the status of Verification on Twitter, so wanted to address directly. Updating our verification program isn’t a top priority for us right now (election integrity is). Here’s some history & context, and how we plan to put it on our roadmap

— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) July 17, 2018

Beykpour went on to explain that while Twitter had “paused” public verification last November (because “we wanted to address the issue that verifying the authenticity of an account was being conflated with endorsement”), it subsequently paused its own ‘pause for thought’ on having verified some very toxic individuals, with Beykpour writing in an email to staff in July:

Though the current state of Verification is definitely not ideal (opaque criteria and process, inconsistency in our procedures, external frustration from customers), I don’t believe we have the bandwidth to address this holistically (policy, process, product, and a plan around how & when these fit together) without coming at the cost of our other priorities and distracting the team.

At the same time Beykpour admits in the thread that Twitter has been ‘unpausing’ its pause on verification in some circumstances (“we still verify accounts ad hoc when we think it serves the public conversation & is in line with our policy”); but not, evidently, going so far as to unpause its pause on removing badges from hateful people who gain unjustified authenticity and authority from the perceived endorsement of Twitter verification — such as in ‘ad hoc’ situations where doing so might be terribly, terribly appropriate. Like, uh, this one.

Beykpour wrote that verification would be addressed by Twitter post-election. So it’s presumably sticking to its lack of having a policy at all right now, for now. (“I know this isn’t the most satisfying news, but I wanted to be transparent about our priorities,” he concluded.)

Twitter’s spokesman told us it doesn’t have anything further to share on verification at this point.

Jones’ toxic activity on social media has included spreading the horrendous lie that children who died in the Sandy Hook U.S. school shooting were ‘crisis actors’.

So, for now, a man who lies about the violent death of little children continues to be privileged with a badge on his not-at-all-banned Twitter account.

Two of the parents of a child who died at the school wrote an open letter to Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, last month, describing how toxic lies about the school shooting spread via social media had metastasized into violent hate and threats directed at them.

“Our families are in danger as a direct result of the hundreds of thousands of people who see and believe the lies and hate speech, which you have decided should be protected,” wrote Lenny Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, the parents of Noah, who died on 14 December, 2012, at the age of six.

“What makes the entire situation all the more horrific is that we have had to wage an almost inconceivable battle with Facebook to provide us with the most basic of protections to remove the most offensive and incendiary content.”

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

[technicalsolutions88]

The number of tech platforms taking action against Alex Jones, the far right InfoWars conspiracy theorist and hate speech preacher, has been rising in recent weeks — with bans or partial bans including from Google, Apple and Facebook.

However, as we noted earlier, Twitter is not among them. Although it has banned known hate peddlers before.

Jones continues to be allowed a presence on Twitter’s platform — and is using his verified Twitter account to scream about being censored all over the mainstream place, hyperventilating at one point in the past 16 hours that ‘censoring Alex Jones is censoring everyone’ — because, and I quote, “we’re all Alex Jones now”.

(Fact check: No, we’re not… And, Alex, if you’re reading this, we suggest you take heart from the ideas in this Onion article and find a spot in your local park.)

We asked Twitter why it has not banned Jones outright, given that its own rules service proscribe hate speech and hateful conduct…

Abuse: You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. We consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice.

Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. Read more about our hateful conduct policy.

Add to that, CEO Jack Dorsey has made it his high profile mission of late to (try to) improve conversational health on the platform. So it seems fair to wonder how Twitter continuing to enable a peddler of toxic lies and hate is going to achieve that?

While Twitter would not provide a statement about Jones’ continued presence on its platform, a spokesman told us that InfoWars and Jones’ personal account are not in violation of Twitter (or Periscope’s) ToS. At least not yet. Though he pointed out it could of course take action in the future — i.e. if it’s made aware of particular tweets that violate its rules.

Twitter’s position therefore appears to be that the content posted by InfoWars to other social media platforms is different to the content Jones posts to Twitter itself — ergo, its (hedgy & fudgy) argument essentially boils down to saying Jones is walking a fine enough line on Twitter itself to avoid a ban, because he hasn’t literally tweeted content that violates the letter of Twitter’s ToS.

(Though he has tweeted stuff like “the censorship of Infowars just vindicates everything we’ve been saying” — and given the hate-filled, violently untruthful things he has been saying all over the Internet, he’s essentially re-packaged all those lies into that single tweet, so… )

To spell out Twitter’s fudge: The fact of Jones being a known conspiracy theorist and widely visible hate preacher is not being factored into its ToS enforcement decisions.

The company says it’s judging the man by his output on Twitter — which means it’s failing to take into account the wider context around Jones’ tweets, i.e. all the lies and hate he peddles elsewhere (and indeed all the insinuating nods and dog whistles he makes to his followers on Twitter) — and by doing so it is in fact enabling the continued spread of hate via the wink-wink-nod-nod back door.

Twitter’s spokesman did not want to engage in a lengthy back and forth conversation, healthy or otherwise, about Jones/InfoWars so it was not possible to get a response from the company on that point.

However it does argue, i.e. in defense of its fudged position, that keeping purveyors of false news on its platform allows for an open, real-time debate which in turn allows for their lies to be challenged and debunked by people who are in their right minds — so, basically, this is the ‘fight bad speech with more speech argument’ that’s so beloved of people already enjoying powerful privilege.

The problem with that argument (actually, there are many) is it does not factor in the human cost; the people suffering directly because toxic lies impact their lives. Nor the cost to truth itself; To belief in the veracity and authenticity of credible sources of information which are under sustained and vicious attack by anti-truthers like Jones; The corrosive impact on professional journalism from lies being packaged and peddled under the lying banner of self-styled ‘truth journalism’ that Jones misappropriates. Nor the cost to society from hate speech whose very purpose is to rip up the social fabric and take down civic values — and, in the case of Jones’ particular bilious flavor, to further bang the drum of abuse via the medium of toxic disinformation — to further amplify and spread his pollution, via the power of untruth — to whip up masses of non-critically thinking conspiracy-prone followers. I could go on. (I have here.)

The amplification effect of social media platforms — combined with cynical tricks used by hate peddlers to game algorithms, such as bots retweeting and liking content to make it seem more popular than it is — makes this stuff a major, major problem.

‘Bad speech’ on such powerful platforms can become not just something to roll your eyes at and laughingly dismiss, but a toxic force that bullies, beats down and drowns out other types of speech — perhaps most especially truthful speech, because falsehood flies (and online it’s got rocket fuel) — and so can have a very deleterious impact on conversational health.

Really, it needs to be handled in a very different way. Which means Twitter’s position on Jones, and hateful anti-truthers in general, looks both flawed and weak.

It’s also now looking increasingly isolated, as other tech platforms are taking action.

Twitter’s spokesman also implied the company is working on tuning its systems to actively surface high quality counter-narratives and rebuttals to toxic BS — such as in replies to known purveyors of fake news like InfoWars.

But while such work is to be applauded, working on a fix also means you don’t actually have a fix yet. Meanwhile the lies you’re not stopping are spreading on your platform — at horrible and high cost to people and society.

It’s hard to see this as a defensible position.

And while Twitter keeps sitting on its fence, Jones’ hate speech and toxic lies, broadcast to millions as a weapon of violent disinformation, have got his video show booted from YouTube (which, after first issuing a strike yesterday then terminated his page for “violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines”).

The platform had removed ads from his channel back in March — but had not then (as Jones falsely claimed at the time) banned it. That decision took another almost half year for YouTube to arrive at.

Also yesterday, almost all of Jones’ podcasts were pulled by Apple, with the company saying it does not tolerate hate speech. “We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions,” it added.

Earlier this month, music streaming service Spotify also removed some of Jones’ podcasts for violating its hate-speech policy.

Even Facebook removed a bunch of Jones’ videos late last month, for violating its community standards — albeit after some dithering, and what looked like a lot of internal confusion.

The social media behemoth also imposed a 30-day ban on Jones’ personal account for posting the videos, and served him a warning notice for the InfoWars Facebook Page he controls.

Facebook later clarified it had banned Jones’ personal profile because he had previously received a warning — whereas the InfoWars Page had not, hence the latter only getting a strike.

There have even been bans from some unlikely quarters: YouPorn just announced action against Jones for a ToS violation — nixing his ability to try to pass off anti-truth hate preaching as a porn alternative on its platform.

Pinterest, too, removed Jones’ ‘hate, lies & supplements’ page after Mashable made enquiries.

So, uh, other responses than Twitter’s (of doing nothing) are widely possible.

On Twitter, Jones also benefits from being able to distinguish his account from any would-be imitators or satirists, because he has a verified account — denoted on the platform by a blue check mark badge.

We asked Twitter why it hasn’t removed Jones’ blue badge — given that the company has, until relatively recently, been rethinking its verification program. And last year it actively removed blue badges from a number of white supremacists because it was worried it looked like it had been endorsing them. Yet Jones — who spins the gigantic lie of ‘white genocide’ — continues to keep his.

Twitter’s spokesman pointed us to this tweet last month from product lead, Kayvon Beykpour, who wrote that updating the program “isn’t a top priority for us right now”.

We've heard some questions recently about the status of Verification on Twitter, so wanted to address directly. Updating our verification program isn’t a top priority for us right now (election integrity is). Here’s some history & context, and how we plan to put it on our roadmap

— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) July 17, 2018

Beykpour went on to explain that while Twitter had “paused” public verification last November (because “we wanted to address the issue that verifying the authenticity of an account was being conflated with endorsement”), it subsequently paused its own ‘pause for thought’ on having verified some very toxic individuals, with Beykpour writing in an email to staff in July:

Though the current state of Verification is definitely not ideal (opaque criteria and process, inconsistency in our procedures, external frustration from customers), I don’t believe we have the bandwidth to address this holistically (policy, process, product, and a plan around how & when these fit together) without coming at the cost of our other priorities and distracting the team.

At the same time Beykpour admits in the thread that Twitter has been ‘unpausing’ its pause on verification in some circumstances (“we still verify accounts ad hoc when we think it serves the public conversation & is in line with our policy”); but not, evidently, going so far as to unpause its pause on removing badges from hateful people who gain unjustified authenticity and authority from the perceived endorsement of Twitter verification — such as in ‘ad hoc’ situations where doing so might be terribly, terribly appropriate. Like, uh, this one.

Beykpour wrote that verification would be addressed by Twitter post-election. So it’s presumably sticking to its lack of having a policy at all right now, for now. (“I know this isn’t the most satisfying news, but I wanted to be transparent about our priorities,” he concluded.)

Twitter’s spokesman told us it doesn’t have anything further to share on verification at this point.

Jones’ toxic activity on social media has included spreading the horrendous lie that children who died in the Sandy Hook U.S. school shooting were ‘crisis actors’.

So, for now, a man who lies about the violent death of little children continues to be privileged with a badge on his not-at-all-banned Twitter account.

Two of the parents of a child who died at the school wrote an open letter to Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, last month, describing how toxic lies about the school shooting spread via social media had metastasized into violent hate and threats directed at them.

“Our families are in danger as a direct result of the hundreds of thousands of people who see and believe the lies and hate speech, which you have decided should be protected,” wrote Lenny Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, the parents of Noah, who died on 14 December, 2012, at the age of six.

“What makes the entire situation all the more horrific is that we have had to wage an almost inconceivable battle with Facebook to provide us with the most basic of protections to remove the most offensive and incendiary content.”

from Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2KyjDut Original Content From: https://techcrunch.com

[challengewriterssoul]

30 Writing Prompts Challenge

So my bestie and I are doing a Writing Prompt Challenge. It is one that I came up with. You don’t have to do it the same way, but as my bestie and I are wannabe writers this is how we did it.

Rules:

1. You and your friend compile a list of prompts for each other. Your list will go to your friend and their list will be yours. *Try not to sabotage your friend*

2. You have at most two days to complete each prompt.

3. You need to either post it online so that your friend can see it or email your answer to each other. 

4. The stories for each prompt can either be just a scene or a fully fleshed out story. 

5. Make sure you credit who the prompt originated from. 

**For an added challenge, you can try to have all the prompts in one giant story. This might be difficult to do, but you can try.**

Note: I gave my bestie four optional prompts that I created because some of the prompts that I thought were interesting might not fit in with what she writes. 

So here are my prompts from my bestie!

lots-of-ideas @ Tumblr

1.     It had taken a while before you’d realized that no one else could see them, and it had taken even longer to realize that they were ghosts.

2.     “All of humanity has bowed down to me, all except you. What makes you so different?”

3.     “No offense, but you’re a dick.” “Actually, that was kinda offensive.” That’s your problem, not mine.”

4.     “The murders, the fighting, everything that I remember. Is it real?” “No. We installed false memories in you. It was the only way we could ensure your compliance.”

5.     “Download all the data, then terminate her. I have no more use for someone like her.”

6.     “Oh! Oh, where am I? Where am I? I should be home, not here!” “You’re dead sweetie. You’re never going to go home.” “What?! No! That can’t be right. I don’t remember dying.”

 rarelyfunny.writes @ Instagram

1. You are the sole survivor of a famous serial killer. Years later, you pluck up the courage to visit him in prison and to ask the question that’s been plaguing you for decades… “Why didn’t you kill me?”

2. More people are rescued from the cave in Thailand than had originally gone into it.

3. You interrupt a group of demons who are in the middle of a summoning ritual. You are relieved that you stopped them, but the last demon looks at you and says, “You didn’t stop us. You’re here.”

4. An old, forgotten God is living his days peacefully in the suburbs. One day, he randomly receives a prayer. And he is going to do everything in his power to answer it.

5. You decide to prank your child by convincing him that Harry Potter is real and that he is a wizard as well. You fake a Hogwart’s letter, drive him to King’s Cross station and wait for the moment he crashes into the pillar. Instead, he goes straight through.

6. You are making dinner because you are about to meet your significant other’s Dad for the first time. All you have in the kitchen are cooked, frozen steaks. In walks your significant other and their Dad, Gordon Ramsey.

 writingpromptsdaily @ Instagram

1. Your guardian angel struggles daily. Write about why today was a really trying day for him/her.

2. If you give me a minute, I think I can make this worse.

3. Why can’t anyone time travel without messing things up?

4. The elders knew as soon as they saw it floating in the middle of the lake…

5. You wake up on the Titanic the day before it’s supposed to sink.

6. Packing for time travel

7. Superhero with an unusual superpower

8. A box is delivered to you and what’s inside scares you more than anything else. What’s in it?

 writing.prompt.s @ Instagram

1. After graduation everyone throws their caps in the air. When they soar back down everyone is holding a different cap that resembles an occupation. Some people hold army hats, others baseball caps, some fast food ones, even a helmet for a space suit. Yours, however, doesn’t come back down.

2. You are cleaning out the attic of your home when you find a dusty, old, leather-bound diary. The date inside is from 150 years ago. You start to read, and the author writes about strange things happening in the house; items moving around mysteriously, strange sounds, etc. The final entries describe seeing a ghost, in great detail, hair color, eye color, clothes. The description of the ghost matches you perfectly.

3. You and your friends decide to try and summon a demon at your sleepover. You are completely stunned when your mother appears in the middle of the room when the ritual is finished.

4. You and your best friend have very potent regeneration and spend many of your days trying to ‘kill’ each other in more and more ludicrous and unexpected ways for fun.

5. Children who die at a young age are given a very special role in the afterlife: they become invisible friends, assigned to other children you need them back in the living realm.

6. You were an embryo frozen for over 200 years until you were finally birthed. At this point, everyone else on Earth had been genetically modified to perfection. You are the last human with flaws.

7. “My domain is time,” said the genie. “Instead of 3 wishes, you get 3 decisions. Go back and choose again.”

8. One day, scrolling through Instagram, you decide to go to the Explore page. Upon doing this, you discover an account obsessed with you, with posts including everything you’ve been doing until a few hours ago.

 writers.block.s @ Instagram

1. You’re swimming laps in a pool when suddenly the ladder disappears. No matter how hard you struggle you can’t pull yourself out of the pool. When you look up, you see a floating green gem above your head.

2. At a very young age, you realized you were immortal. You did stupid things that would kill you just to have fun. Only now you realize that every time you were supposed to die, someone else does.

I can’t wait to start on this Challenge!!!! If you would like to take part just find thirty prompts that are interesting and follow the rules!!! 

Love,

S.G.

[qwertsypage]

Meet my Free, Local API Server for your Front-End Adventures (written in Node.js)!

Hey, fellow Stackarians!

I hope that 2018 has been gracious to you so far, and you are ready for the upcoming challenges!

As this article is kinda long, let’s kick it off with a TLDR version:

I created a free API service you can run locally using Docker. This API service can be used as data source for your front-end project, since it has all the necessary basic functions needed to learn or experiment with different front-end frameworks.

Read the Documentation here!

Usage:

Install and start Docker

Download the pre-configured docker-compose file: docker-compose.yml

Open a new terminal tab and navigate to the folder where you downloaded the docker-compose file and run docker-compose up

Hit CTRL-C to stop the process and get back the command prompt

Run docker-compose down to remove the containers

Connecting to the database:

With these credentials, you can connect to the DB using your favorite client. I can recommend Postico if you are on Mac, or DBeaver if you are looking for a multi-platform solution:

Default credentials:

user: root password: root host: localhost port: 1330 database: api-db

The database is seeded with two different users with different privileges:

The pre-defined user with admin privileges:

username: admin, email: admin@admin.com, password: admin

The pre-defined regular user:

username: User Doe email: user@user.com password: 12345

--

And now, if you are still with me, to full the story!

There are plenty of shiny toys to put your hands on this year if you would like to keep up the pace front-end-wise. React is still on the rocks, VueJs is right on its tail, and the good old Angular is getting better and better, so there are lots of opportunities to learn and experiment!

If backend programming is not your best side, or you just don't want to waste time coding your own, here is a handy little thingy you can use: your very own local API server and database! (yaaaay!)

Sure, some great online services provide decent API servers, like Mockaroo, or you can just use your favorite service's public API, like Spotify's.

But - for me at least - they are just not scratching at the right spot. You know, I wanted something simple, but with all the most common things you can come by, like registering a new user, logging in, listing, adding and deleting stuff from a database. Just the usual CRUD operations.

I know, I know. First world problems.

So I decided to create my own super simple API server (emphasis on super simple), that can run locally. It has an attached database that I can browse with a UI database client app, pre-seeded, ready to go out of the box.

But then I thought: Hey, I cannot be the only one who needs this. Why don't I make it public?

But then immediately:

'But not everyone is comfortable with installing databases locally, not to mention the OS differences and yadda-yadda-yadda...'

Sure, these things are relatively easy, and anyone can do it with some documentation checking, but if you are not experienced with these kinds of things, it is just stealing your time from your primary goal: working on front-end. Why not make it simple then?

Probably you are now like,

'Ok, Rob, this is some pretty long intro, we get it, you made something for yourself what is already out there, good work...'

BUT WHAT IS THIS AND WHERE IS THE LOOT?!

This is a simple backend service with a PostgreSQL database hooked up to it, seeded with some fake products data for a simple e-commerce site.

The server provides some features you can use through its API. You can:

register a new user

login and reach protected endpoints using JWT

list fake products with enough details to create common product cards (with all-time favorites like Intelligent Frozen Chicken, Handcrafted Rubber Pizza not to mention the great Licensed Granite Salad! God, I love Faker!)

search for a product by name or ingredient

show one particular product

edit a product

delete a product

For further details, please see the documentation

The best part is that you don't need to install PostgreSQL on your local machine, or add fake data (however you can)!

If you are reading this blog frequently, I'm sure you've already heard about Docker and containerization. If not, please let me summarize and (way over)simplify it for you:

Each container is a separate environment which is running on your machine, and you can reach it through a specific port, kinda like a virtual machine. This environment contains everything that is needed to run your code, and every time, on every platform, once it is created, it will be exactly the same as its image file declares it.

Why is this good for your health? Because I already made this image file and the one that runs the database in another container and links them together for you, and all you need to run it is Docker.

Dude, seriously... I won't ask you twice…

I can imagine you've just shoveled a big chunk of coal to the rage train engine... But easy now, we are at the meat of it, finally!

This is what you need to do to run this backend service:

1. Install and run Docker

You find the instructions on the official site: Docker Install With Docker, you will be able to run containers on your local machine without any environment setup hassle. Don’t forget to start it after installation, or your command line won’t recognize the docker command!

2. Grab this docker-compose file: docker-compose.yml

This file serves as a config file telling Docker which images you would like to have a copy of up and running. The image files are stored in Docker Hub. If it is not already on your machine, Docker will download it for you and cache it. So next time you wish to run it, it will be ready to use! Let’s take a closer look at it!

version: '3.3' services: freebie-api-server: container_name: api-server image: robertczinege/freebie-api-server:latest ports: - '1337:1337' depends_on: - db environment: - DB_HOST=db - DB_PORT=5432 - DB_USER=root - DB_PASSWORD=root - DB_DATABASE=api-db - PORT=1337 - LOGGER_LEVEL=silly - TOKEN_SECRET='thisIsASuperSecretS3cr3t' - TOKEN_EXPIRATION=1h db: container_name: api-db image: postgres:10 environment: - POSTGRES_USER=root - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=root - POSTGRES_DB=api-db ports: - '1330:5432'

This file tells Docker to set up two services, the 'freebie-api-server' called api-server and the 'db' called api-db. You will find them among the containers in Docker with these names after you started them.

The image property tells which image file should be used for this. As you can see, the service itself has its own image file available on my Docker Hub account, and the database is the official PostgreSql image file. If you don't have them, Docker will download and save them.

There is an interesting line, the depends_on. This tells Docker to start the 'db' service (called api-db) first.

The ports is a really important property. The ports listed here will be exposed, so you can use them from the outside. In this case, the API service is available on the port 1337 and the database is available on port 1330 (the port 5432 is Postgres' default port, which is exposed as 1330).

You can see a bunch of environmental variables. These environmental variables will be passed to the services running in the containers as you would pass them in through command line.

However, the DB_HOST env var is strange. It is not a URL or a connection string, as you would expect it to be. Well, Docker Compose will give this property automatically when started the 'db' service.

You can use these environment variables if you wish to deploy this service. But this is another whole story.

3. Navigate in the terminal to the directory where you saved the docker-compose file and run docker-compose up.

Docker Compose comes with Docker by default, and it really helps you to run multiple containers depending on each other.

This command will start both the server and the Postgres database linked to it. First, the server will fill the database with fake products and a default admin and regular user.

You will see the process of the startup in the command line. When you see the 'Server is up!' message, you know that everything is jolly good!

4. To stop the service, hit CTRL-C

CTRL-C will stop the processes, but will leave the containers up. You will get back your command prompt, so you can type in further commands.

If you run docker-compose down now, that will stop and remove both of the containers. When you start again with docker-compose up, the containers will be set up again with new random products.

5. You are good to go, and you can start developing your own frontend for it!

You can reach the service on localhost:1337/api. You can try this out using e.g. Postman, or just navigating to the localhost:1337/api/products URL in your browser. You will see the actual JSON response with the list of products.

Advanced, totally ethical pro tips:

TIP 1: You can check if the service is up and running if you type in docker ps -a. This command lists all the running containers on your machine. If you see the api-server and the api-db in the list, you are good to go.

TIP 2: You are able just to stop the containers but not removing them. In this case, the database will keep your changes and won't be reseeded again. To achieve this, stop the containers like this: CTRL-C to exit the process and get back the command prompt docker stop api-server api-db to stop both of the containers docker start api-server api-db to start them again

TIP 3: Connecting to the DB using database client

I recommend you to use Postico if you are on Mac or DBeaver if you are on Windows or Linux, but you can use it on Mac as well for exploring the database. They are free and very user-friendly.

You can connect to the database with the following credentials:

user: root password: root host: localhost port: 1330 database: api-db

And boom, you are in. You can check and edit the data you find here. It is especially useful when you would like to add more users with admin privileges, since the database only comes with one predefined admin user to the service, or you can dump or restore the db. Well, for reasons.

Time to say goodbye!

So, this is it guys; I hope it was not so boring to read all those letters.

If you have any questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to drop them in the comments below, I much appreciate them! If you have any idea how I could improve it, that's even better! I would love to hear them because this little project definitely could use some more love!

I hope you will find a good use for this thing as I already do!

See you later, alligator! ;)

And now, time for some self-advertisement!

If you are interested how to create a backend app like this, I recommend you our Node Fundations training, where you can learn all the necessary knowledge to put together a service like this.

If you are more interested in the client side code and want to learn cool front-end frameworks, check out Angular and React trainings!

Meet my Free, Local API Server for your Front-End Adventures (written in Node.js)! published first on https://koresolpage.tumblr.com/

[moonlight-and-dreams-blog]

A WEEK WITHOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

January 14, 2018

            Last night, I was completely not being myself, I was sad; I don’t even know what to do. I felt so tired of everything but I can’t do anything. I just want to sleep for a long time. I overthink A LOT. I suddenly thought what if I try to stay away from social media for one day. What would happen? At first, syempre feeling ko parang no, I’m not gonna do it. But then today, as I woke up, I thought why not try it for a week. I wanted to challenge myself kasi I realized na halos 80% of my day, I spend it looking through my phone, scrolling thru facebook, twitter, check updates from my friends, tweets ridiculous stuff to get everyone’s attention, like I needed a validation from everyone else. Getting those likes or hearts makes me happy, helped me quite boost my confidence pero at the end of the day I always ask myself masaya ba talaga ako? I also tweeted last night na “sobrang mapanlinlang ng social media kasi akala ng mga tao ang saya saya ng buhay mo but in real life hindi ka naman talaga masaya” KASI HINDI NAMAN TALAGA. And I’m tired of faking happiness, I don’t know. Some people would probably think na nagpapapansin lang ako and I don’t fucking care so quits lang.

            Anyways, around 12PM I started deleting Facebook, Messenger and later on Twitter. I logged out my main account on Instagram but I have another account which is where I post daily pics for my 365 days thing challenge AND I CAN’T MISS POSTING so yun lang yung social media app ko right now. I don’t consider youtube as a social media since you aren’t actually interacting with people unless you’re a youtuber or whatever, also di naman ako masyado nanunuod sa youtube. So basically I can’t do anything with my phone, Spotify and Photography apps lang meron ako. I SERIOUSLY DON’T WHAT THE FUCK TO DO. No one’s texting me rin so okay, naglaba ako saka inayos ko drawer ko, I’m also re-reading yung book ni Alex Gonzaga na “Dear Alex, Break na kami. Paano?! Love, Catherine” I don’t know kung itutuloy ko pa hahaha omg.

            Fast forward to evening, nag-paload na ako kasi di ko na kayang walang kausap. You know, isolating yourself from social media makes you feel more alone. No notifications, no messages, no anything. Napaisip tuloy ako kagabi what if di ako nag-post sa ig story ko na I’m doing this, would people really care? Would people start worrying about me? Would they actually notice that I was gone? Okay enough. Maaga ako natulog kasi wala narin talaga ako magawa.

DAY 1 – January 15, 2018

            Goodmorning! Is it? Nasanay akong ino-on yung wifi ko first thing in the morning and waiting for notifs but then I remembered I deleted my apps and went straight to office bcs OJT. And sa office, di naman ako masyado nahirapan kasi I was thinking of doing something else. Kasi syempre since I promised myself not to access any of my social media accounts, may mga ideas na pumapasok sa utak, like what should I do on this certain day or whatever. Right now, since hindi pa maayos yung wall ko sa kwarto naming I decided to plan a design for it and I’m actually enjoying this thing. Kanina rin tinry, I joined this challenge thing na pag-gawa ng User Interface for a Weather App na inemail sakin nung katrabaho ko dito sa OJT and so far, masaya naman. To be honest ang dami na naka-draft sa utak ko na gusto kong i-tweet but then okay next week nalang. HAHAHA. It’s only the second day pero hey I’m quite enjoying this. Being away from social world makes you feel alone for real like what I’ve said earlier, pero through this I realized na mas nagkakaron ako ng time for myself. Time for me to think about what I should do next, hindi lang basta mag-scroll sa fb and twitter and watch kung ano nangyayari sa buhay ng ibang tao. Spotify will be my company for the whole week, and kung walang music? Feeling ko mabibingi ako sa silence.

            Many things happened to me today. VERY UNLUCKY OF ME. It is something sort of traumatizing and I will not say it here. Kahit di masyado naging maganda yung araw ko I made it quite productive by designing my wall. I printed a lot of aesthetic stuff I got from the internet, some of them were my postcards (BTS, Dean, Suspicious Partner) Hindi ko pa tapos tbh kasi I’m planning to include Kimi No Na Wa dun sa wall since it’s really something. I also included the album covers I made dun sa mga playlist na ginawa ko sa Spotify. I’ll be putting the links or pictures below. It is actually really nice na naisip kong gawin to (wall design) since wala naman akong ibang pwedeng gawin hahaha. Pero ayun nga, it’s nice to have something to stare at. Every time na nag-wall design ako tinititigan ko lang after and I feel happiness by staring at it. I don’t know, ang sarap lang talaga kasi titigan nung mga happy faces sa polaroids alam niyo yun. Yung memories it would suddenly all flashback to you.

DAY 2 – January 16. 2018

            It’s Tuesday and it is supposed to be my rest day sa OJT pero I decided pumasok kasi gusto ko narin naman matapos to. I’m tired of waking up tapos pagpasok sa office wala rin masyadong gagawin, kasi wala rin namang maipagawa sakin. Feeling ko tuloy parang ang wala kong kwenta hahahaah dejk. Everything’s going well naman so far, medyo nasasanay na yung self ko na hindi masyadong hawak yung phone ko unless mag-pplay lang ako ng music.Ay nga pala, forgot to tell you all na natutuwa akong gumawa ng playlist sa Spotify ang saya lang kasi talagang gumawa lalo na yung part na gagawa ako ng album cover for that playlist, I think this would become my hobby.

            I just got home and I was alone earlier, di pumasok yung ibang mga kasama ko sa OJT huhu but it’s okay, saying din oras. Pero nagsayang lang din naman ako ng oras sa office kasi wala akong magawa. Since I can’t use social media kung ano ano na pumapasok sa isip ko na gawin. I wanted to read David Levithan’s novel book na “Every Day” kasi ang tagal ko na gusting basahin yun nung high school pero I didn’t when I had the chance. So ayun, pahirapan makahanap ng pdf online, luckily I found one hehe pati yung “Another Day”. And since gagawing film yung Every Day I hopeeee mabasa ko na siya before ko mapanuod haha. Bukod sa paghanap ng pdf ng mga books, I also read articles about sa mga black mirror episodes yung mga analysis nung mga episodes kasi I wanted to understand it more and read reviews. Pati yung meaning ng mga kanta ni Taylor Swift sa reputation album sinearch ko. Jusko I obviously got nothing else to do sa office lmao. Fast forward to uwian (yey) it’s raining outside and I felt the sadness, alone, sad, raining wow really nice di ba. When I got home, kumain muna ako syempre and naisip kong manuod ng horror movie, I watched “Happy Death Day” and it’s actually good. Di naman sya yung type ng horror na sobrang matatakot ka so sa mga di mahilig sa horror, pwede niyo naman panuorin, matutuwa kayo kasi may halong comedy and sort of romance naman yung movie. Although, quite disappointed with the ending, sa reason nung killer bat niya pinapatay ng paulit-ulit yung bida. Basta ayun, panuorin niyo nalang. After that, nakatulog na agad ako.

DAY 3 – January 17, 2018

            It’s raining AGAIN. Actually, ambon lang naman and medyo hassle lang sa pag commute kasi basa. Hnggg. Ang aga ko na naman sa office, and feeling ko it’s one of the effects taking a break from social media kasi hindi nakakain yung oras ko ng pag-aayos sa pagpasok sa work. Walang distractions. And mapipilitan kang kumilos talaga kasi wala ka naman ibang gagawin lol. Today was like any other day sa office, nothing to do as of now huhu (give me something to do please)

            As I got home, I spent my night watching Black Mirror. Lol. Pinanuod ko yung Shut Up and Dance, San Junipero and Hang the DJ, nasimulan ko rin naman yung Men Against Fire pero di ko natapos inantok na ako. Out of all episodes, yung Hang the DJ yung pinakagusto ko, naiyak nga ako eh wala namang kaiyak iyak talaga ng bongga pero na-attach ako masyado dun sa episode na alam mo yun nilabanan nila yung system kasi they both believe na sila yung perfect match ayun la lang, pero sa ending yun pala yung totoong sila, yung Amy and Frank is just virtual lol pero anyways, at least sila yung nag-end up together in real life (hopefully). Honestly, I also spent my time reading articles and reviews about Black Mirror kanina sa office. I got seriously nothing else to do, nag-check ako ng email ko na ginagamit ko sa fb and found some people messaging me pero all I can was “*Name* has sent you a message” and kailangan kong buksan messenger to read the message kaso I have to stick with my experiment.

DAY 4 – January 18, 2018

            Nothing quite special about this day, this is like reliving my day over and over again. Lol. Oh wait, I drank 3 cups of coffee today and I felt like my heart’s going to burst anytime. I realized na wala na talagang epekto kape sakin, after ko kumain when I got home nanuod lang ako saglit ng Black Mirror (again) and I fell asleep agad, ramdam ko yung pagod kahit wala naman ako masyadong ginawa today. Also, I waited for almost an hour sa terminal jusko. Yun lang haha boring no? Gusto ko na bumalik sa social media not because I miss it (Well, sort of) pero kasi yung ka-group ko sa thesis need makausap haha pero nakiusap nalang ako sa kaklase ko to chat him haha.

DAY 5 – January 19, 2018

            Today, akala ko malalate na ako ng bongga kasi it’s Friday and ang hirap sumakay because punuan sa bus haisxt. I can’t even help my officemate sa ginagawa niya although sabi eh tulong kami so ayun I really got nothing else to do, kahit gusto kong simulant yung docu nung UI ng Preventive Maintenance (project dito sa office) di parin masimulan kasi di pa approved yung design huhu. Pansin niyo bang paikli ng paikli yung mga kwento ko per day? Kasi paulit-ulit lang naman hahaha. Di naman din ako naging ganun ka productive lol kahit yung plano kong magbasa ng libro di ko rin naman nagawa.  

            Okay I finally decided to bring back my social media by 12PM because of important matters and wala akong ibang contact sa ka-group ko except sa messenger lang talaga. Di ko na-accomplish yung 1 week but 5 days was long enough to prove some things sa akin. It was fun though.

FINAL THOUGHTS

 TRY. IT. Especially if you are addicted to social media. You need to take a break from it, girl. For the past days wala akong idea about what’s happening with everyone’s lives pero as days passed, hindi naman sa walang pake pero di ko na masyadong iniisip kung ano yung nangyayari sa buhay ng ibang tao. One thing I realized is that, I really spend my time scrolling thru my feed and comparing myself to others na parang why am I not like them, why am I not as creative as them, nakaka-baba ng self-esteem indeed. As I said earlier, I read few articles about people who tried this “Social Media detox” some of them just found an alternative way of distracting themselves with their phones, some of them even said na nagbago yung perspective nila sa social media and it made them happy to learn some things. And for me, I’d go with second one, it was hard but it was fun trying to fill this void within you, once you’re away from social media you began to observe people around you (in real life) and ma-aamaze ka nalang and ma-sasad at some point kasi halos lahat ng tao eh nakatutok sa phones nila, most people don’t socialize or communicate with others narin. Sobrang laki na talaga ng impact ng social media sa buhay ng mga tao, actually based palang sa pinopost natin dapat di ka lang nagpopost basta basta eh, most of us post to gain likes, attention, recognition, the satisfying feeling na you’re beautiful and whatever. I know most of you understand that feeling, and we actually love that feeling. But the thing is, di na totoo yung ibang pinopost natin sa social media. Akala ng mga tao, ang saya saya ng buhay natin but in real life hindi naman. Why? Because nag-base sila sa posts natin sa social media. And if we tried to express ourselves, our frustrations, anxieties, about our depression a lot of people would still say “Ano na namang ka-dramahan yan?” and invalidates your feelings kasi nasa utak na nila na you’re a happy person, you are not that kind of person na malungkot, which is sad, which makes most of us trying to be real have anxieties and all. That’s shitty isn’t it? Imbes na icomfort natin yung tao, ginagago pa natin. Sana maging sensitive tayo about it. Omg wait di ko alam if what I’m saying is still related to what I want to really say. Haha. Anyway, nabasa ko lang din kasi sa isang article na one of the factors kaya tayo nagkaka-anxiety is because of social media and I actually agreed to that. The past days, I wasn’t really that sad, I believe na-lessen yung pag-ooverthink ko, kasi wala akong ibang iniisip kung hindi pano ko ma-eentertain yung sarili ko, how will I be productive, and start to think about what would happen to me in the future, yung mga ganung bagay. You start to think about yourself, about how you would impress yourself and not other people. I guess that’s it. It was a really fun thing to do. 

[telecloud-blog]

How Plan B found the Droid I was searching for Limited's story of losing his Droid in a cab, following its voyages through.

I've conveyed a cell phone or the like for almost 7 years now while never losing one or having one of those near disasters that unnerve you into pondering recuperation alternatives. So when I given way into a taxicab at San Diego air terminal soon after 12 pm last Friday, my Droid was getting a charge out of the woefully insufficient security it was acclimated to: a free pocket in the front of my payload shorts. At any rate that is the place it should be.

I saw it was lost when I touched base in my lodging room and did my standard pocket dump. With the acknowledgment that I didn't have any recuperation programming introduced, a receipt from the taxi, or even any memory as to which organization I had utilized, I was sure I'd never observe it again. I attempted a couple of customary recuperation strategies: calling the telephone (it rang with no answer), taking a taxicab back to San Diego International (it was everything except forsaken in the small hours of the morning), and making lost property reports with each of the 7 taxi organizations adjusting the airplane terminal. From that point onward, I chose I ought to in any event investigate sometime later recuperation choices.

A little seed of confidence grown as I read the Android Market depiction for Plan B from Lookout Labs. A remotely installable application which would right away email me the telephone's area? It sounded pipe dream. I introduced it promptly, sent the watchword "find" through SMS from my portable workstation with Google Voice, and anticipated the principal email. None came. Maybe the telephone had been fueled off?

I called it once more. No answer.

I sent "find" a moment time. Nothing. At this point the adrenaline surge I felt when I found Plan B had worn off and I broken down into bed, depleted.

The next day I strolled to the harbor and ate on the water. Wonderful climate, a sea breeze, and some incredible fish lifted my spirits, despite everything I had trust the telephone would be returned. I flew home to Montana and the following morning I settled spontaneously to send one more SMS, for reasons unknown underwriting the catchphrase as "Find" this time. The answer came almost right away.

Post Plan B has begun finding. You ought to have your area without further ado.

This single message set off a 16-hour session of feline and-mouse, spreading over a large portion of the nation and including a thrown of uninvolved civil servants, supportive outsiders, and one stupid would-be criminal. We'll call him Roland, in light of the fact that that is his name.

Inside minutes I had gotten my telephone's area with a detailed exactness of two meters.I did an invert query of the address and verified that two individuals were recorded living there. I looked into each name, verifying that one of them has a San Diego professional reference of "Taxi Services." Alas, no contact data was given. I swung alongside the San Diego Police Department, Southeastern Division, which has its home office not as much as a mile far from the address, however it was unwilling to aid any limit. So I swung to The Lounge for help and got a private message in a matter of seconds from a customary blurb in San Diego. We concurred that I would keep on monitoring the telephone and we would arrange a decent time for him to drop by the house if necessary.

I sent area solicitations to the telephone for the duration of the day, informing my Ars contact that the telephone was in movement. I end up noticeably stressed when it sat here for almost 10 minutes.I immediately looked into the telephone number for the remote shop at that address and called them, planning to catch the guilty party in the act as he was attempting futile to switch benefit on the Droid. Sadly, their number rang through to a fax machine. The telephone then halted at a moment remote shop. I immediately called it, and in the wake of relating my story I was put on hold, just to be enlightened they couldn't give any data regarding somebody in their shop who was at that exact instant attempting to actuate an utilized Droid, because of protection concerns.

Late toward the evening I saw that the driver had come back to work and was making keeps running from the air terminal to different spots around the city, ceasing every now and again at a parking garage opposite an inn only south of the air terminal. I found a telephone number for the air terminal taxi dispatch director and clarified my circumstance, disclosing to him that I had been watching my telephone being chauffeured everywhere throughout the city by a driver who I believe is named Roland. He let me know there are no less than 25 drivers all through the air terminal at any given time, and he doesn't generally know any of them by name. Still, he would be cheerful to put a message out to check whether there's a Roland who has a lost telephone in his auto. I expressed gratitude toward him and hung up before it occured to me this is exactly what I didn't need him to do.

My heart sunk again as I asked for extra area refreshes throughout 15 minutes and saw that not exclusively was the telephone not moving, it was not in a decent spot.I considered sending my San Diego Ars contact to the scene, yet was not excited by the possibility of requesting that a decent Samaritan burrow through a junk can or jump a fence to investigate a destruction site.

What precisely occurred at the empty part that day will remain a puzzle, as the telephone at long last started moving once more. I called the dispatch chief once more. He detailed that tragically, none of the drivers offered an explanation to Roland or confessed to having a lost telephone in their auto. I faked shocked disillusionment and communicated to him that it was so baffling to observe weakly as the telephone voyaged everywhere throughout the city. By then, he disclosed to me that on the off chance that I at any point saw it in the taxi holding parcel south of the air terminal, it would be simpler for him to have the part chaperon talk straightforwardly to the driver.

Eureka! This was the parcel I'd seen the telephone at before!

I took after the taxi's area as the driver dropped a toll and continued back to San Diego International. The dispatch administrator had taught me to call him once the taxi was around five minutes away. At the point when the taxi turned onto North Harbor Drive close to the air terminal I got back to and we remained on the telephone together through the last snapshots of the chase. When I disclosed to him the taxicab appeared to be ceased at a light holding up to maneuver into the holding parcel, he looked through his office window and affirmed he could see it staying there at the light.The dispatch director called his part orderly by means of two-way radio and requesting that her approach the taxi to furnish the driver with a portrayal of the telephone, educate him that its development had been followed by means of GPS, and inquire as to whether he'd get a kick out of the chance to return it now. The supervisor let me know he'd call me back to tell me how it went.

A couple short minutes after the fact, the telephone rang. "I have it."

Subsequent to being gone up against by the part specialist about the telephone, the driver was sufficiently caring to offer to drop the telephone off at my home, yet I would similarly as soon purchase a bushel of Droids than pay taxicab charge from San Diego to the Big Sky nation. Once the telephone was in the dispatch chief's hand, I admitted that I was really following the telephone from Montana and couldn't precisely drop by to lift it up. He giggled and said he'd take it over to the airplane terminal lost and found.

Beyond any doubt enough, another area ping a while later demonstrated my Droid was some place in Terminal 1. I called lost and found, and was told to call the telephone from a different line. After they heard it ring, I gave a FedEx account number and they sent it off to me.

I would not have been brought together with my Droid without Plan B, yet there was assistance from different spots, as well. Our companion the cab driver was in any event sufficiently kind to keep the telephone charged over the 2+ days it was out of my hands. Amid that time, there was no less than 16 hours of substantial GPS battery. The people at San Diego International Airport were to a great degree accommodating also. They could have passed the buck, yet they rather went the additional mile to rejoin me with my telephone.

[arecibomanual]

Ascensionism timeline- Intermission

On Jan 29 2015 the main thread briefly sputtered to life again as one AviaRayne posted asking what the fuck was going on- a friend of theirs had "stumbled across" the ARG, and they'd been working through the thread and what they'd "found in the game" (no direct mention of Kanye Quest yet).

Two days later, the side thread was started: http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=40750

One Amo Bishop Roden covers the discovery of the "ASCEND" easter egg in Kanye Quest. (Note the pastebin was posted Jan 28, a day before they even tried posting to UnF.) The passwords are datamined, and googling leads the group to the Ascensionism UnF thread. It seems like the friend Amo refers to in the post, the one who discovered the hidden area, is the one who wrote the pastebin.

KQ's connection to the rest of the ARG

There's certainly a thematic connection- the evil clones and souls and whatnot- though if I recall correctly these elements of Ascencionism didn't manifest in the main ARG until sometime later... and we're still not entirely sure the Ascencionism "cult" as outlined in that one Angelfire website is even connected to the ARG, are we?

It's also unclear how you were meant to progress in the game, as the passwords are unrelated to... well, pretty much anything, unless something major's been overlooked still. The QR code address may have led to a trailhead, but it's an odd URL and we can't even be sure it was ever a legit webpage.

Finally there's the matter of the fake address entry form. Despite doing nothing, it's deliberately coded to "pretend" to send the information by pausing for a few seconds. This would seem to speak against the possibility of the game (or the hidden content at any rate) being unfinished, as if it was simply missing the data-sending code there'd be no need to add a fake pause...

My best guess is still that KQ was meant to be the trailhead, with the QR URL leading to puzzles like the original video which would yield the passwords, meaning the end goal would be within the game while most of the content would be outside it. However, this only works if a second form is put up somewhere that actually takes peoples information for use in the ARG... really, that one detail seems to ruin the possibility of any use for this game. It's possible it was just meant as a bit of theater, with say once the game's puzzle has been publicly solved the PMs start pretending they're recieving addresses from it and... fuck i don't know

What's that? Did I completely forget something glaringly obvious? That's nice. Looking way back, the end of the Kanye Quest trailer plays some morse code that spells out "ascend" before flashing the Ascensionism eye logo. So this *was* intended to be something like a trailhead. What the heck happened?

-music -trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WKchWie2Go

Legitimacy

Of course it's entirely possible this was a stunt by the puppetmasters to revitalise the ARG and-or call attention to unnoticed content. However, that's actually questionable as a motive- KQ adds little to the ARG that would make it worth making sure it's not overlooked, and it in fact seems to be missing content at this point if the QR URL was real at any point in time. If reviving the ARG was the goal, you'd think bringing in fresh content and not bothering with KQ would be the better option.

The group being ARGers already seems a little bit convenient, but that may just be the sort of people who'd still be playing around with such a game... During this time multiple people sign up but only make 1-5 posts, despite some caring enough to give themselves avatars. Again this might be entirely innocent.

A later poster notes that Amo's username is suspiciously apropos, (fill in later)

Overall it seems at least possible that the hidden content in Kanye quest was discovered by some internet- and weird shit-savvy users who intended to keep up with the ARG on UnF but found the Ascencionism arg unengaging. (Given the arg was still fairly dead at the time, not surprising.)

Loose ends

-I have not checked out the audio linked from clyp

The XXXIVYES terminal- given there's 34 passwords (or 33 if you account for the missing first one), it's something that's supposed to be activated once all passwords are entered? The spriteless enemy JFZZJNMS, which later gains a barely-visible sprite apparently based on the "Ascencion" statue used earlier in the ARG. The name is used again much later on(?)

- redkay ???

Further content discussed in that thread-

Everything beyond here seems to be unrelated to Kanye Quest. After contacting the admin of the ascensionism records website, the users were sent a link to a "hidden" page of the website, which contained a puzzle and a download link to a zipped file. (Incidentally, the website seems to be hosted via Tumblr.)

The phone line used earlier was down for maintenance, apparently. A user emailed the PM asking about the 7zip password and received... a pile of word salad. It did mention "Rahn's chalky algorithm"- Rahn's algorithm is used to determine pitch classes(?). Taking the forte numbers from earlier (forte is another form of algorithm for this) and converting it into Rahns gives the password. (Why is the algorithm chalky? Who knows.)

The images are all clear/complete versions of ones seen earlier(?). Filenames seem significant? QR codes in the photograph one are still largely illegible, so any info we're supposed to pull from that is toast.

Meanwhile, "yesterday" (in relation to the time of posting of the thread, I'm assuming, so after this group made contact) the twitter account posts some Nick Lyons tracks in a seemingly particlar order.

- The Twitter story puzzle begins and activity moves back to the main thread.