#like i have about 54.. something like that. percent done. if all goes to plan

[ironmanstan]

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[someonewhowannadielol]

Blossom fully (deep in my bones)

(Teacher!JK x College student!Reader) PART ONE

Warnings: JK has anger management issues, very slight violence, a lot of fluff, don't get a heart attack.

Genre: Fluff.

Word Count: 10.3k

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader

I have decided to turn this into a trilogy. This is Part One, enjoy. Let me know if you want to be tagged (you could just comment, or dm me).

Love. Adoration. Lust. For Jeon Jungkook, his entire life, they had been just words, nothing more – after all, these were just concepts made by society, what if people had not known about the concept of love? Would they still try to find it? Would they still be willing to work for it? Then, you came into his life, and gave meaning to those words.

“Welcome to the annual football championship between Seoul Nation University and Sungkyunkwan University 2020,”

“Break his jaw!” Jungkook heard the other team chant, while looking at him. He just scoffed while adjusting his gloves, as if.

“Really? Think you can do it? Go ahead and try,” Jungkook mocked them across the field, his tongue poking against his left cheek.

Jungkook was never set out for failure, it was never allowed in his life – because he knew for a fact that his father would have his throat if he didn’t turn out to be the best of the best.

At age five, he had a strict workout regime and had less than 10 percent body fat, maintained till present date. He had also learnt that he would rather be loved than feared, he hated the look in the eyes of his classmates when he accidentally punched his seatmate, Byung-chul, just because he had taken his red crayon without asking. Now, no one would sit next to him at lunch. 

He told himself that he didn’t mind it, but he couldn’t help but cry at night because no one wanted to play on the see-saw with him. He knew if he asked them, they would have no choice other than to say yes, after all, they didn’t want to end up like Byung-chul, hospitalized, with a broken arm. But what’s the use, if they don’t actually want to be with him?

Age seven, he had landed his first punch on his butler when he saw him abuse his dog. He didn’t know what to tell to his therapist, how could he explain that all he saw was red when he saw Yeontan being thrown out of the room? How could he explain that he had no control over his body? He couldn’t control the beast in him that had pounced over the man.

Age ten, he landed his position as quarterback on the national “Under 19,” football team. Soon, he had to drop out – not because he couldn’t play well, hell, he was probably the most talented played that they could’ve scouted. But, because he wouldn’t tolerate any thing that would come in the path of him and his success.

Age fifteen, he had graduated high school, gotten a perfect 1600 in his SAT, and been given a full ride to SNU. Throughout his high school career, despite having narrow minded, shallow and mindless classmates, Jungkook still wishes he made more memories, had photos with friends in his camera roll (rather than just pictures of sunsets and tattoo designs),

Age 20. Present Day, and he had earned the title of Doctor, not that he could actually perform in the surgeries because of his “anger issues”. Currently, he was a Grad student, but also taught the first year Undergrads, just because of his immense knowledge that could be on par with the old, wrinkly professors that had been teaching since 30+ years.

There had never been a championship, never an exam, never a game that Jeon Jungkook hadn’t won. He wasn’t going to lose this one either. The chants from hundreds of people across the campus stadium were deaf on his ears when he heard the other team’s captain call him an asshole.

Everyone knew Jungkook had well, anger management issues. And to say they were bad was, well, an understatement. So far, the only thing he’s learnt from 14 years of anger management classes, movies, documentaries and seminars is that – only attack when they punch you enough to make you bleed.

“Jeon! Look out!”  

Without a warning, the other team’s captain had punched him in the face, hard enough to bust his lip.

Jungkook just sighed, shook his head as if he were disappointed (He was, in fact disappointed, did this dumbass not known what he could do to him?), and calmly just brushed his white glove against his lip, internally wishing he could see his red blood smeared across it.

And there it was, a streak of blood. Then, Jungkook punched him back – not stopping until his face was almost disfigured – suits him for even trying to mess with Jeon Jungkook.

Around an hour later, Jungkook already knew he was going to be chewed out by the college dean, so he was already counting down from 100 on his way to seminar room number 3.

“54, 53, 52, 51,” he muttered under his breath, pushing back his – now long (he really ought to cut it now, it was starting to get into his eyes) – hair back with his left hand, and entered the room. He could see he interrupted a lecture, and was almost about to head back when-

“Oh! Jeon Jungkook, what a pleasure!” he heard the college dean speak in his pretentious, and extremely conceited voice, here we go again.

“Everyone! Welcome Doctor Jeon Jungkook, he’s one of our in-house surgeons. Topper of the college, topper of the board, topper of the university. In fact, he’s of the one of the best – if not the best student SNU has ever got the chance to teach. He’s got the most impeccable academic record, of all time, now going to teach biochemistry to first year undergraduates this year,” Jungkook scoffed when he heard the entire class clap their hands at his arrival, after the Dean’s speech that complimented him, but he knew better, he kne-

“But what’s the use of all that? In anger management, he scores a zero. He’s a classic example for all of you, if you can’t hold your anger in, you’re nothing more than a murderer with surgical instruments in an emergency ward. Without compassion, your degree is of no use to me. Even a low score is acceptable to me, but not that behaviour,”

Was he trying to rile Jungkook up on purpose?

“Please continue, sir, I really loved the analysis you’ve done on me, please do continue,” The words flew out of Jungkook’s mouth as he made his way up the stairs to the stage where the dean stood.

“What behaviour is this? I need you to write an apology letter to Sungkyunkwan University, and to the college board as well,” 

It was clear the dean was about to get off the stage, before well, Jungkook spoke again. The dean didn’t really think he was getting off this easily, did he?

“Football is a violent sport, the minute they entered our territory, and tried to abuse the rules, that’s the minute everything and anything is allowed. As far as the apology goes, I’d rather quit the college than write that bullshit,”

The seminar room was so quite that a pin dropped would shatter the silence. Jungkook smirked before he exited, “I won’t lose anything by leaving SNU, any other medical program in the world will be ready to accept me, the only reason I stay in this hellhole is because I enjoy the spring in Seoul. But imagine the loss of pride that SNU will experience once Jeon Jungkook leaves the establishment,”

Jungkook walked across the campus cafeteria as he tried to find his lighter in his pocket, fiddling with his cigarette in his other hand. “Are you seriously going to leave?” Jimin runned after him, struggling with his lab coat, “what will you get out of this? Just write the goddamn apology,”

Jungkook decided to settle on a table where three rowdy boys sat, flexing their muscles, but as they saw Jungkook approaching, they simply muttered apologies before scattering away, leaving the table.

Jimin-ah,” Jungkook smiled as he puffed his cigarette, “there’s nothing for me here, besides, I was planning to move to the US, anyways,”

“And leave me and Tae here? Wow, you’re such a considerate friend, you know,” Jungkook saw Jimin pout, and smiled.

It was really a miracle that he made his first two friends ever while his second year, here at SNU. Jimin loved pets, and was practicing to become a vet, while Taehyung was – kind of – crazy, and even scared Jungkook the first time he met him. He’s pretty sure Tae would’ve set the lab on fire if Jungkook hadn’t studied chemical properties before his class. At first, he hated it when both of them would tag along, following him to lunch, inviting themselves into his mansion, and forcing him to go to the arcade with them – but soon, he had learned to love being around them.

While looking around for Tae, so he could finally break the news of him leaving, his eyes landed on your figure. Now, Jungkook had never believed in love at first sight. Hell, he didn’t even believe in love, so, love at first sight seemed a little – well, impossible. But here you were, the reason why Jungkook felt like his heart was going to come out of his ribcage, it felt as if Jungkook had been struck by cupid, because the way you looked so adorable in your pink dress had left Jungkook feeling giddy. Seoul had a lot of pretty girls, he saw them every day, some of them even deserved to be on the cover of Vogue – but you, you were different, Something about you, your vibe, your pink cheeks and eyes that curled up when you smiled, something about you was difference.

Jungkook looked down at his letter of quitting, and simply tore it down when saw your figure leave the cafeteria.

“I can’t believe this, you see one of the first years, and suddenly, you want to stay?” Jimin shouts and slams his fat book on the table, muttering curse words.

Intimidating the first years – ragging, as they called it – had always been Jungkook’s favourite thing to do. Every year he’d either make them do ridiculous tasks, like eating a living goldfish, or running around the block naked. However, this time, it was different.

He made sure he entered the class taught by the foreign professor, so he could sneak in a couple of threats without making too much of a scene in front of the directors. As he excused himself in the full class, he couldn’t help but be glad that he looked quite… intimidating today. Everyone was already, well, scared of him, but his leather jacket, motorbike, and bandages on his fingers (which are actually there because he hurt his fingers by writing too much – not from the constant fights that people think he’s immersed into), they just add to his picture.

“There’s a medical camp soon for freshmen, so I would like to make an announcement,” Jungkook smiles, but everyone can sense the chilly aura underneath that smile, “I would also like to speak in Korean, since they’re mostly fluent in it,”

“Yes, Mr. Jeon, you may continue,” the British Professor smiles back – she can’t deny him, he’s her co-worker now, after all.

“Listen to me carefully,” Jungkook lets his tongue poke his inner cheek, as he brushes back his – way too long – hair, “I’m not going to repeat this in English, and that dumbass shouldn’t get a clue of what I’m saying,” he says as he nods politely at the professor on the slightly lifted stage. Once he confirms that she can’t understand a word, he turns her back towards her, and walks across the class, staring at everyone with a predatory look in his dark eyes.

“There’s a new girl, freshman, she’s mine. Other than her, you can woo any girl you like, but if I even so catch anyone staring at her, let alone trying to get on those cute study dates, or pretending to be in the same hobbies as her,” he looks across the stadium, “you’ll end up in bandages. With a failing grade in my class.”

Jungkook can’t help but present a fake smile, “don’t look so scared, idiots, you don’t want her,” he nods off to the professor, “to think I’m saying something wrong,”

“Why does it sound like a threat?” A nameless teenager from the back speaks up, which makes Jungkook’s smile slide off faster than sound travels.

“I’m not threatening you. I’m warning you. Besides, don’t even try to outsmart me, don’t worry new girls come in every year, you’ll have your chances. Now don’t sulk, or look suspicious. Circulate this message around, I don’t have enough time to go to every single unit,” he scans everyone’s face again, making sure they digested his new given information.

Once he’s satisfied, he convert back to English, “Good luck with the camp, guys. Meet you in my class tomorrow,” and with one last threatening smile, he’s gone.

“What did he say? Why did it sound like a threat?” the teacher joked once Jungkook left, and the class couldn’t help but immediately deny the threatening tone. After all, no one wanted to face Jeon Jungkook’s wrath.

Your nervous jitters were still present, and you don’t want to admit, but you did tear up a little when you saw your parent’s car become smaller and smaller as it continued to drive down the road, till it finally is so far that you can’t even make it out with your eyes.

While most people had roommates of their own year, you were stuck with a sophomore and you didn’t exactly know whether that was a good thing, or a bad one. She had made very clear about what side of room was hers, and why it was hers, and how you’re not even allowed to get onto her side – and that did make you a little annoyed, because how could someone be so pretentious, but throughout the span of three days, the pretentious-ness was definitely wearing out. She’d cook dinner for you every day, because you didn’t have a rice cooker and she did (which, you really needed to invest in a rice cooker because you can pretty much cook anything in that fucker), and she was amazing at giving advice for every single teacher out there. You still had to get used to her high use of curse words, but it’s just what made her, her.

“Oh damn, you got the worst professors out there, bro you better goddamn pull your socks up, otherwise things aren’t gonna look pretty this semester,” you heard her chuckle, as she sits on her bed with one leg on top of the other.

“Why? Who’s so bad?”

Fucking hell. You already had had enough of bad teachers, it’s almost like you were cursed because your high school teachers were literally out to get you – but you guess it was a blessing in disguise because that just made you work even harder (just to spite them, hah), and you somehow ended up here, at SNU, one of the most prestigious colleges in Korea.

“It’s actually not all that bad, you got Mr. Lee for microbiology. He isn’t all that bad, but just don’t sit in the front row unless you want spit on your face every time he talks. I swear it’s like he had a motherfucking fountain in his mouth. Also, he loves it when you submit your papers with a perfect format, so do that whenever you give his weekly assignments,” She says, all while applying on a red blood coloured nail polish.

You study your schedule once again, “What about Mr. Kang?”

“No fucking absolute way! You got Mr. Kang? Bitch, seems like the universe is tryna fuck you over,” she says, and then mumbles a curse when some of the rid pigment ends up on her skin.

“Is he bad? Strict?” you can’t help but already be scared of the semester, and it hasn’t even started yet.

“He’s the most pretentious fucker you’ll ever meet, he just thinks he’s the best professor because he graduated from Oxford. Big woo, motherfucker. Half of his class fails pretty much, the only two people to walk out of his class with an A* grade were this kid named Baek-woo or something, and of course, Jeon Jungkook,”

Jeon Jungkook. You swear you’ve seen that name before. Oh wait, ohhh, he was your biochemistry professor.

“Jeon Jungkook? He’s also a professor?” you look at your perfectly squared schedule, and you have his classes thrice a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“You got him?”

“Yeah,”

“Don’t know if I should call you lucky or not, because I have no clue what he teaches like. All I know is he’s fucking crazy good at everything, and that he’s super-hot. Not that he’s really interested in any girls, also I personally think he’s mental or something,” your roommate had finally finished painting her feet, and was now letting them sway in the air, and dry.

She spent the next hour talking about Jungko- Professor Jeon was basically a murder, a thug, a gang member or whatever even. You just laughed at the thought of it all.

First day, and you’re more nervous than you intended to be. It wasn’t going well, at all.  You had decided to look chic today, with your new (way too expensive) designer blazer, and your nude high heels, but here you were, sitting in the fourth row, wearing a red polka dress that made you look like a freshman. A high school freshman, not a college freshman.

You cursed yourself for buying a fake version of the nude heels (also, you could feel a tear forming in your eyes when you saw the heel broken, when you finally unpacked your belongings, but you sucked it right back in), you also wished your roommate was dead, because now you were sitting on your bed with a coffee stain on your blazer (no amounts of sorry could fix this disaster).

Also, you couldn’t help but notice an ungodly amount of stares thrown at you – not from hate, but just from sheer curiosity, and you were just so self-conscious because of it all, that you slipped from the last few stairs down the hostel causing your bare knees to get the nastiest scrape. Fuck, that’s going to hurt.

So when you finally settled in your Biochemistry class, you couldn’t help but well, be scared. There were rumours of Jeon Jungkook, your new teacher to be. Rumours that he used to be in a gang and dealt with drugs, and underground fights. There was a rumour that he once put a room to fire, killing almost 50 people. Also, that one time when he came to school with bandages on his hands – probably because he punched people to death, or hospitalizing them. There are rumours about him running over people on his motorcycle as well, and you can’t help but be extra conscious about this class, in fact you wouldn’t even have opt for it in the first place if you knew that Jeon Jungkook was the one teaching it. But, even since you’ve transferred, you’ve just told yourself that these were just rumours, and not everything is the truth.

Till now. He entered the class, probably not following the teacher’s dress code – you were pretty positive that leather jackets and ripped jeans weren’t exactly allowed, but he just looked so hot good, that you could let it slide. His stare lingered on you for quite a while, and you couldn’t help but fidget in your seat, avoiding eye contact.

“You, in the fourth row,”

You could see him pointing at you, but you just internally wished that it wasn’t actually, well you, that he was calling. Looking around, you see several other people in your row, maybe he was pointing towards the girl on your left that looked way more presentable than you.  Or maybe it was the boy on your left with glasses way too big for his face.

“You, in the red polka dot dress, come here,” Professor Jeon looked at you, and smiled? Why would he smile when he looked at you?

(You also quickly dismissed the thought that he has the cutest bunny smile you’ve ever seen, where his eyes crinkle slightly, and his cheeks bunch up – because that’s just inappropriate, even though the age gap isn’t that big.)

He quickly examines your knees, and you swear you see a flash of surprise (and worry?), and before you can register what is going on, he kneels down in front of you, and clicks his tongue, as if wanting to scold you.

“Sit here, in the front row where I can see you,” he says, after a few seconds of inspecting your new injury, and as you adjust yourself, you can’t help but be uncomfortable from the gazes of your classmates that disappear as soon as Professor Jeon starts teaching. Getting into SNU was a nightmare, and you weren’t going to let yourself fail any classes, but instead of listening to what Jungkook was teaching – which but the way, he taught way better than any of the other staff there. But his stare. His stare was terrifying.

His aura was definitely dangerous, and red sirens were bursting in your head, telling you to keep your distance from him. His deathly stare seemed anything but inviting, and when the boy to your right asked you about the syllabus, you couldn’t help but shiver under Jungkook’s Professor Jeon’s glare. He spent the next ten minutes shouting at the poor boy, who looked as if he was about to faint any second now. Scary.

Ever since, you’ve been avoiding any contact with him, even purposely ignoring him when he asked you what happened to your knee. (You tell yourself that his sad puppy face doesn’t bother you but in reality, it breaks your heart, and every time you try to sleep, it haunts you. (You then remind yourself about the numerous rumours he’s into, and the last thing you want to get in between is drama and romance)).

The first time Jungkook heard your name was through Taehyung (no, he wasn’t jealous that Tae knew your name before him, but he couldn’t help but want to reverse back time, just so he could learn your name before Taehyung did. Why did Tae know your name before he did?), and your name was on his tongue the entire day. Y/N, Y/N, Y/N, all he could think about was how your hair would feel when he would brush his fingers through it, how your hand would fit into his, how you would look in his oversized t-shirts. (Occasionally, he would also think how you would look, laying on his bed, underneath him – but the sheer thought of it gets him hot and bothered and what not, and he doesn't have the time to be fooling around, that too, with a student).

So when he saw you sitting with one hand on top of the other, in his class, he couldn’t help the smile when his eyes landed on you, you just looked so, so adorable in your little dress. The thought of you being away from him, just killed him inside so he had to ask you to sit in the front row, where he could look at you as much as he wants to, all while teaching his class. Of course, he saw red in his eyes when he saw your knees tainted with blood, and all he wanted was to wrap a bandage on it, he couldn’t bear to look at you, sitting in pain – but for once in his life, he was considerate and thought that you might not want the uninvited attention.

That consideration came to bite him in the ass, because you left before you could hear him, and as he saw you blend into the crowd, he couldn’t help but curse under his breath and want to punch the next person he sees.

There’s a lot that Jungkook changes throughout the first week of classes, he attaches a second seat to the end of his motorbike (because when you both start dating, he’ll have to take you around), and even cuts his long hair – in case you don’t like it, it could grow back anyways. He always has a packet of your favourite chocolate in the left pocket of his bag (no, he didn’t threaten the guy at the nearest 7/11 to tell him the candy you’ve been buying lately (he also denies the fact that he bought three plushies for you, that are currently sitting on his side table (the white rabbit with red cheeks reminds him a lot of you))). He can’t, but he tries to smoke way less, tries to buy less cigarettes, tries to chew gum instead, or drink more water. And he would never admit it, but he took a photo of your student profile, and set it as his wallpaper. Jimin and Taehyung exchange a couple of looks after discovering this fact, but don't say anything about it - none of their business, right?

Being an undergrad professor also has it’s perks, he can look at all your records, and well, currently, you’re failing Mr. Kang’s class – anatomy 101. Finally, a fucking excuse to talk to you, because the way you basically run after his class ends makes him think you’re avoiding him? But you wouldn’t do that to him… right?

Because of you, Jungkook has been rocking some Massive dark circles (with a capital M, because boy, they are blue and way too dark in comparison to his actual skin tone), the only reason being your existence and all he does is Y/N, Y/N, Y/N, Y/N, while tossing in his bed at 3AM, thinking of how you smiled when he tried to crack a joke in the class, thinking of your pushing his fingers through your hair, thinking of how you fumbled with your thumbs before mumbling your answer to his sudden question.

“So, Y/N, what do you think out of all these,” he motions towards the options, “does not act as a restriction enzyme?”

He just wanted to coo over how your thumbs fought with each other, as you tried (key word, tried), to answer his really easy question. (It actually wasn’t even that easy, you were just too scared to get anything below a B in Professor Jeon’s class, so you ended up studying two chapters ahead of your syllabus – despite his fast pace). So, you knew the answer was Polydeoxtribonucleotide synthase, but for the love of god, you just couldn’t pronounce that word.  

“It’s, uh, polydetr-,” you swear your breath was knocked out when he started walking towards you, oh God, why was he walking towards you?

“Yes, continue,” he smiles while standing, literally right in front of you. How does he expect you to answer when he’s looking at you as if you have all the answers of the universe. As if you were, I don’t know, Aphrodite or something.

“Uh, it’s the option D,”

“And that is?”

That motherfucker. He knew you couldn’t pronounce it.

“Polydo-“ you were positive that at this point you weren’t even breathing.

“Hey, just take a deep breath and try again,” He said, while taking your left hand in his own, and massaged it. You were positive everyone in the lab was looking at you, but their stares didn’t even compare to your hot teacher’s burning gaze.

“Poly-deo-,” you take a breath in,”x-tribo-nucleotide synthase,”

“That’s right, the answer is Polydeoxtribonucleotide synthase,” Jungkook says without having any trouble with the word, and before he gets away from you, he smiles in your direction, and says, “Good girl,”

You’re left to yourself wondering if this is a dream or if that just happened.

Jungkook’s day was going just terrible. His landlord had to be the cheapest bastard he knows, who just wouldn’t fix the water system, so for a week he was basically stuck with showering with ice cold water. On top of that, he was wearing a bruise on the left side of his face, it was all red and blue because last night he was too drunk to notice his book shelf that he installed last week.

He was supposed to be in the cafeteria right now, because at approximately 1:30 PM, your stupid microbiology class ended, and you headed straight to lunch after that, before your anatomy class. It had been, well give or take, around two weeks since the semester started, and he thought he would get over you soon, but you were just so goddamn adorable, and cute, and all Jungkook ever wanted was to squish your cheeks and press your body closer to his.

He finally reached the bustling cafeteria, ugh, he absolutely hated the noise there – so he never really ate there, preferring the quite café around the corner, but he knew you were on some sort of dumb student meal plan that only profits the university, and not actually you.

He’s expecting to find you sitting with your laptop (with a red smiley star sticker on the top right, which is just goddamn adorable (and no, that definitely isn’t the reason why Jungkook too, has a red smiley star sticker on his laptop now)). But you’re there, with some random ugly boy’s arm sprawled over your shoulder, as you giggle repeatedly at his bad jokes.

He sits on the table on your right and loudly slams his old anatomy book, before taking a seat. Here he was, all prepared with notes on what you were failing, all ready to teach you what you didn’t understand, spending all night making flashcards (he also ripped that one flashcard where on one side he wrote, “Will you go out with me?” and the other side blank, so you could write your response. He argues with himself that it wasn’t because he was shy or scared you’d say no – it was because it’s too cheesy).

His blood just boils when he sees you not removing – he finds out the boy’s name is Kim Seokjin – his ugly hand from your own, and just gets up and walks away after you giggle for the nth time on his not even funny jokes.

(Later that night, Jungkook tells himself he’s way better than that Seokjin bastard, even if Seokjin’s skin is flawless, and even if he has a handsome smile, and even if he can cook, and even if he can make you smile. Jungkook couldn’t have flawless hands because of all the callouses he has from writing too much, and his bruises might take a while to heal (he even puts an icepack on them now), and he could learn how to cook something other than instant noodles, and he could learn some jokes from the internet. He could be better than Seokjin, he would be better than anyone for you).

You love the feeling when things go perfect, and today was just so perfect. You fried an egg, all round a perfect circle and the yolk didn’t even break – which it always does when you flip it. Then, you sharpened a pencil and somehow the nib came out more than perfect, which made you all giggly and what not. Everyone in your friends circle at this point knew that you were the biggest hoe for cute stationery. Then, your anatomy class got cancelled and you were just so happy, and you even made a new friend today, Kim Seokjin.

You were a little uncomfortable when he smoothly glided his right arm over your shoulder, but he was just so funny, and he bought you the special menu items today – so you couldn’t even complain. After all, you really looked at him as a big brother because all he talked about was how his roommate was a complete asshole.

(“I told him to get me some water – which he should, because I’m older than him, and he should totally respect me,” he says, with an exaggerated and exasperated sigh.

“And he did what?”

“He brought a glass full of ice and told me to wait,”)

The one thing that you were, in fact really over thinking was about that one professor of yours. Jeon Jungkook. As you let the water cascade down your body in the tiny (really tiny) cubicle of the washroom that you shared with your roommate, Hye-jin.

“I noticed Kook looking at you in the cafeteria that day, y’know the whole campus is talking about it,”

“Uh, yeah, it’s kind of hard not to notice,”

“I’m guessing you don’t know about the whole speech he gave in that one class at the start of the semester?”

Jungkook doesn’t really believes in love at first sight, but after stalking you on social media, he knew he was a goner for you. (Especially after that one video of yours where you’re trying to pet a dog, but the dog runs away, and you end up pouting at the camera. (Yes, he screen recorded the video and watched it a billion times before sleeping)). 

He has never had the urge to protect someone other than himself, and maybe his friends. But you, it was different with you – he doesn’t know if it was the small chub in your cheeks, or the way your ears would turn red when he would ask you something, or the way you would walk, or the way you slapped your thigh when you laughed, or the aroma of your citrus shampoo when you would walk past him, or your habit of getting coming down to the convenience store to grab ramen every Thursday night at 10 PM. 

He doesn’t know it, but he knows he’s meant to love you, meant to keep you in his life, meant to be yours, and meant to make you his.  

He has endured, yet another week where he hasn’t talked to you – and not gonna lie, it’s actually driving him crazy. Every day he sees you talking to Seokjin and laughing with others, while he sits and does nothing other than gawk at you.

During class, while he did occasionally glance your way, he still has 73 students to teach, and this being his first year as a teacher, he can’t afford any sort of mishaps at all.

But every man on this Earth has their limits. And Jungkook’s limit was watching Seokjin kiss your cheek. While you did (playfully) punch him on the shoulder, and you did shout out ‘Gross!’, Jungkook was sure that you definitely didn’t mean that punch, and you definitely didn’t think he was gross.

Did you think that Jungkook was gross? Why didn’t you ever visit him during office hours? Because every single girl in his class was sure to meet him for some dumb question, or to ask for extra credit. But you didn’t. Did you like Seokjin? Did you like someone else?

The next time he sees you is on Friday, during his class and he just knows, he knows he can’t go through today without talking to you, and the only way to do that is to-

“Y/N, could you stay after class, please?” he says, without even giving you a glance.

You mutter a silent yes, and keep your head down for the rest of the class, trying your best to ignore the mumbles of the class, talking about you and why you get to be treated different from others.

“You wanted to talk to me?” you say as you walk around the long table, running your fingers along the marble shelf.

“Do you wanna go out with me?”

What. What the heck?

You chuckle, thinking it’s some sort of sick prank he’s playing, you wait for him to say ‘Sike!’ but it never comes. Then you think that maybe, just maybe he does actually want to take you out? No. No way, he probably just wants to get alone with you in an alley, where he would kill you – or even worse, sell you off.

“No, thank you. If that’s all, am I allowed to go?” you say all this, in the smallest, most polite voice possible, after all the last thing you wanted was to piss off your professor. (who might be in a gang, who knows at this point?)

“What? Why?” he says, almost panicked, and you hear a shuffle of items as he makes his way to you, trying to watch you before you leave again. He sees your face morphed into an expression of extreme boredom. Fuck, he had to do something, quick.

“Not to be rude, but Professor, I just don’t think it’s right – or even allowed for us to date,” you say, trying your best not to look at him, shuffling your bag on your shoulder, because fuck, he looked so sad – his eyes almost looked glassy, fuck, fuck, fuck.

“You don’t have to date Professor Jeon, you can just date me as the graduate student here. I’m, still a student here, Y/N,”

“And? You’re also like four years older than me,”

“Three years,” he says, pouting. Ugh, he’s so cute.

“That doesn’t make it any better,”

“It doesn’t?” he sighs.

“No, I’m still your student, and you’re still my teacher,”

“Tell me, Y/N, did you take chemistry in high school?” he asks, while quickly walking to the back and mixing some chemicals that he definitely wasn’t supposed to touch without gloves on.

“Yes, why?”

“Well, I’m currently holding, uh it’s either Acetonitrile or Iodine mixed with Vitamin C,” he says, and you can see both the liquids, which he mixes together without a worry in the world.

“And? Professor Jeon, what are you going to do?” you walk over to him, slower than ever, taking one step at a time.

‘Please, call me Jungkook. Or Kook, if you feel like it,” he gives you one of his signature smiles, that you should be used to by now – but you just get flustered every time.

“Now, will you go out with me?” he asks again, this time in a much more hopeful tone.

“No,” you say, drawing out the ‘o’, when will get the clue?

“Fine, I guess I’ll just drink this,” he looks at the two glass beakers in his hands, and pours the both of them into a much bigger glass container, “and die,”

You scoff, thinking he’s bluffing, “Yeah, yeah, go on,”

Of course, he’s bluffing because there is no absolute way that he���ll be mad enough to drink goddamn Acetonitrile, unless he wants his cardiovascular system, central nervous system, liver and kidneys to, I don’t know, stop working.

“I’ll ask this again, Y/N, just one date, will you go out with me?” he says, while picking up the glass container, closer to his face, and you actually want to play this game till the end. No way is he going to drink this.

“No,”

“Okay then,” he puts his lips on the container, and by now, you’ve actually started to get a bit scared. What if he does it? What if this crazy idiot actually drinks the fatal formula?

And then it happens. He drinks it. He fucking drinks it.

“What the fuck? Jungkook!”

“I’ll ask you again, will you go out with me?” he says after taking the biggest gulp ever. Is this his way of attempting suicide?

“Yes! Yes, oh god, I’ll go out with you!”

“Don’t say it like you’re doing me a favour,” he says, attempting to take another sip of the deadly liquid.

“No! I- Can you stop doing that? Stop drinking it! I’ll go out with you. In fact, I want to go out with you! Really!” you shout, trying to take the container away from him, scared shitless.

“Fuck, do I call 911?” you say, as you attempt to take your phone out of your 110 pound heavy bag. Then you hear him chuckle and throw away the remaining odourless, colourless solution.

“Relax, it was just water, I was just trying to scare you, but hey! You’ve agreed to a date with me, so it’s a win-win isn’t it?” Jungkook smiles sloppily, perching his elbow up on the table and letting his chin rest in his palm.

You can’t believe him. You really can’t.

You pretend to pick something up from the floor, “Professor, it seems you dropped something on the floor,”

“What?” he tries to look at your hand, to see what’s there, and just as you get his attention, you smack him across the face.

“Your common sense, you moron! What the hell were you thinking? Even if that was water, this could have traces of some really harmful chemicals and you ought to know better because you’re a goddamn teacher how could you be so careless you could have actually died-”

“But I didn’t, and now you’re going out with me,”

You can’t help the smile that creeps on your face, as your eyes glass up. You really had thought that he was going to die, or at the very least – harm himself severely.

“You’re so dumb, Jeon,” you say as you punch him, trying to suck your tears right back in – but they weren’t co-operating at all, and you let them fall down across your cheeks, causing Jungkook’s, breath to hitch up as soon as he sees them.

“Wait, wait, wait, are you crying? No, please don’t cry! Oh no, oh, I didn’t mean to… I was trying to make you laugh…” Jungkook says as his heart runs at 850 BMP a minute, trying to caress your face, trying to stop the tears from filling your eyes.

“What kind of sick-o would laugh at their professor dying? Are you mental?” you choke out, while trying your god-darn best to stop crying, because he was very much alive and right in front of you.

“I’m sorry, oh god, what should I do? What do girls like?” Jungkook was absolutely mortified. The first time he has ever talked to you – and he manages to make you cry. He totally royally fucked up. Big time.

He almost googled, ‘how to stop girl from crying’ and reading the wiki-how page, but decided against it, and hugged you – because that’s what his therapist told him to do when he hurts his loved ones. He would never – it wasn’t in him to physically ever hurt you. He couldn’t even bear the thought of that ever, and so when he did hug you, your sobbing decreased by a lot, and he felt much much better. Also, after holding you in his embrace, he realized how much he needed you to be next to him – to say Jungkook was touch starved is an extreme understatement, he loved the way he could you fit under him, the way your hair had a citrusy aroma, the way your arms hugged him back, it was comfortable. And Jungkook was positive that he could stay like this forever – if needed to.

You didn’t realize when he hugged you, but when he did, you were finally over the shock of thinking your crazy, dumb and hot professor had actually had some water instead of some deadly chemicals – and you weren’t the cause of his death. You wanted to hate him, but how could you? How could you just judge him upon some rumours that were just there to fit in the pieces of his live that he wouldn’t let other people know?

“I- I have a faculty meeting in five minutes,” you hear him speak, the vibration passing through his body – shaking you with it.

You clear your throat before letting go, and can’t help but feel the embarrassment rise out of you, in the form of red cheeks. You keep your head down, as he walks out the door of the lab, leaving you behind – but right before he leaves, he reminds you of your current situation, “Can’t wait for our date, sweets!”

Asshole.

From Unknown Number

[1:38 AM]

Y/N-ieeee

r u sleeping

this is kook btw

To Prof JK

[1:40 AM]

how did u get my num??????

also do u not THINK before assigning all this hw :(

From Prof JK

[1:41 AM]

u should be sleeping rn bby

all i assigned was some reading???? and some worksheets????  

is it too much????

im so sry

To Prof JK

[1:50 AM]

well i do have a life outside of hw yknow

also im a huge procrastinator lmao

From Prof JK

[1:51 AM]

:( why r u taking so long to reply

r u busy

r u sleepy

also what life???? i’ve only ever seen u either at the library or the internet café down the street

whats my name saved in ur conatcts ;)))))

i saved urs as princess <3

To Prof JK

[1:54 AM]

it’s prof jk

From Prof JK

[1:55 AM]

thats boring :( im ur future bf now

also wanted to remind u the date is tomo so be ready

You don’t think before you change his name to Kook ‘Jungkook’.

To Jungkook

[1:57 AM]

oh yea how could i forget the fact that u tried to fake poison urself

also what?? date???

From Jungkook

[1:58 AM]

first of all, im so sry abt that i’ll buy u ur fav chocos

second of all, BRO

U LITERALLY SWORE U WOULD GO ON A DATE WIT ME

U PROMISED ME

To Jungkook

[2:01 AM]

i guess i changed my mind lololol

From Jungkook

[2:02 AM]

y????

look i know its weird some nuts prof asks u to go on a date with him

i know u don’t know me

but i know me

and i know i would do anything 4 u

i’ll be anything u want me to be

i can be smart

i can be funny too

i can try to cook for u maybe???? some pasta???

i could dance 4 u?????

To Jungkook

[2:06 AM]

dance????

no offense prof, but u seem so stiff

no way u can dance

From Jungkook

[2:08 AM]

is that a challenge…???

just tell me what u want and i’ll be that for u

To Jungkook

[2:09 AM]

u r dumb

From Jungkook

[2:10 AM]

i could be that

if u want me to be

come on, just ONE date i promise i’ll leave u alone after that if u don’t like it

To Jungkook

[2:13 AM]

mm… sis i guess u should start to figure something out then

bcz this aint good enough

see ya

From Jungkook

[2:14 AM]

ugh i cant force but :( pls?

istg itll be the best day of ur life

To Jungkook

[2:15 AM]

yea ok whatever u say im not going anywhere with u

night

From Jungkook

[2:16 AM]

goodnight!!!!!!

Don’t think too mucb about me

much*

To Jungkook

[2:18 AM]

In ur dreams

From Jungkook

[2:32 AM]

oh u do come in my dreams ;))

✓ Seen by princess <3 

The next couple of days, you get some… gifts from a not so secret admirer. And you definitely didn’t change him name from ‘Prof Jeon’, to ‘Jungkook,’ to ‘Jungkookie <3’ in the span of 11 days. (And you most definitely didn’t feel giddy from inside every time you received a notification that read, ‘One New Message from Jungkookie <3’.

“You’re not very subtle, Professor Jeon,” you stay around after his class, watching him put away his books in is leather back. You can tell he was surprised by your action of staying back, but you had to put a stop to what was happening.

The next morning after he texted you for the first time, you had a Huge – with a capital H – bouquet of red roses, and you’ll admit you teared up a bit after looking at it, after all it was your first time receiving flowers from a boy (or man? (a man that was actual eye candy, but you’ll never admit that)).

Two days later,

From Jungkookie <3

[1:53 AM]

look outside

To Jungkookie <3

[1:54 AM]

dont tell me u r outside dumbass its like 2am

Lo and behold, Jungkook’s standing in the middle of the road, holding a single red rose and smiling. There’s a stark difference between his current self, and his demeanour during class – now the moonlight hits his unmade fluffy hair and cheeks, making him look years younger than he is. You can’t help but shout, ‘You idiot! You’ll catch a cold!’ while probably waking up several angry sleep deprived students in the process, but you can’t help but laugh at the way he dances for you. On this cold, lonely night, he brought you the warmth you didn’t know you needed.

It seemed that after that, Jungkook and you were the talk of the town, people would wait for both of you to get together, place bets on when you would finally say yes to him. On the other hand, you received candies from him, you had access to the teacher’s lounge coffee (which was honestly a huge plus point, now you could save five dollars on watery coffee, and have some actual caffeine), and he had pre-paid the 7/11 dude $500 in cash, so he wouldn’t even accept your payments now. The one thing that you actually appreciated him the most for was that he made you flashcards for Mr. Kang’s class (which you were failing, real bad), and while it wasn’t much, you still bumped you ‘F’ to a ‘D’, that just remained the highlight of your goddamn month.

To Jungkookie <3

[2:08 PM]

JUST GOT MY TEST BACK AND GUESS WHAT BITCH

From Jungkookie <3

[2:09 PM]

hi baby girl

:( i’ve noticed u r cursing a lot nowadays

To Jungkookie <3

[2:11 PM]

i’ve noticed u calling me baby lately but u don't see me whining so stfu

ALSO I DIDN’T FAIL

i mean i still kinda failed but it’s not a F

From Jungkookie <3

[2:13 PM]

im so proud of u, u r so so so smart

:( i wonder if u would let me teach u maybe???? tutor u???

✓ Seen 2:15 PM by princess <3

One of his much, much grander displays of affections was, well, kind of weird, he bought you a penguin. You were a proud, and extremely happy mother of a cute penguin named Otis.

From Jungkook <3

[9:07 AM]

ok but what would u want as a pet

To Jungkook <3

[10:38 AM]

penguin!!!!

You knew it must’ve cost him a fortune, and his job as a professor must not be enough, but you had always dreamed of being able to hold the certificate of your baby, and be able to monitor it, and be able to be the one to feed it (well, not literally). And he had to pay for his own grad school fees, which must be a total nightmare on its own – here you were, in his class, waiting for him to pack up so you could maybe pay him back a little?

By no means could you afford a $3000 penguin, but you could maybe ask him if there’s something you could do?

“So, Prof, how would you like me to re-pay you?” you honestly half expected a sex joke on his part – maybe because he looks like a fuckboy on steroids and snorts a lot of protein powder before hitting the gym.

“Um, maybe a hug?”

Oh. Ohhhh. Oh. Unexpected. Okay. Calm yourself down.

“A hug?” you tried not to look at his face, because you knew if you did, it would be hard, way too hard to be able to resist him. You knew he was all dangerous, and bad boy and what not – but, this man, the one with the bunny smile and the fluffy hair, and the one who smelled more like freshly baked bread rather than the axe cologne spray you had imagine, he wasn’t a gang member or a delinquent. He was simply asking for love.

“Why a hug?”

“Just… never really hugged anyone properly,” Jungkook knew he wasn’t asking for much. He could’ve asked for a date, or a kiss, or just anything, but all he wanted was to hold you.

It had been a hard week for him. Being a grad student wasn’t easy no matter how many hours of study you pull in, and no matter how much knowledge you attained – while he was way better off than his peers – he knew he couldn’t afford the failure – he was just starting to feel less and less like a human, and more like a robot. Also, it wasn’t easy to be an undergraduate professor – in fact, it was fucking hell. Your peers, and the entire fucking batch was just so hopelessly dumb – he doesn’t want to admit but he even cringes at some of the mistakes you made (who mixes up chemicals! They’re the most difficult to mess up!) and he hated it when he would just have to give you a ‘C,’ instead of the ‘A,’ you actually deserved (because you’re so smart and he can see it! But you’re also so stubborn, sigh).

Lately, it seems like without his therapist, life just seemed more difficult. When he looks at the broken pencils, the pieces of wood sitting on his table, the teared up paper, and the headache he was constantly in – he’s taken back to the 12 year old Jungkook who couldn’t control his hands, who did nothing but hurt those around him. He looks at his hands, he hates them, they hurt people without his permission. 

Sometimes, he would cry, because why couldn’t he simply control himself? Why did his anger, the red in his eyes, the strength of his arm always win over his subconscious and ability to think correct? Why couldn’t he simply re-do a question he got wrong instead of breaking pencils and tearing up everything apart? Why were there numerous holes in the wall covered by posters? Why did this animalistic rage always win over him? Why him?

Jungkook spends the night dreaming of actually being able to help patients, and operating instead of simply… being useless.

So, in that moment, he just wanted comfort. Simple as that. He doesn’t recall anyone ever hugging him in his life, maybe half sided hugs from coaches and professor, or the ones that Tae forces onto him, but other than that, Jungkook has never had an interest in physical contact with people – always thinking it was way showing vulnerability, but with you, he just wanted to be normal.

He didn’t want you to know him as the weird, crazy idiot with anger management issues, or the druggie who smokes weed 24/7, he just wanted you to know him as the real Jungkook he is. The real Jungkook who has iron man socks, and has a fear of microwaves.

So when you do hug him, and feel his arms by your side, and you can’t help but want to stay this way. Surprisingly, it isn’t you who breaks the hug, and you actually want more of it, more of that soft feel of his black shirt against your cheek, more of his hard arms closing you in, more of his warmth.

You clear your throat, and… you don’t know what to do.

“So, um, thanks y’know f-for Otis. You really didn’t have to, I mean I appreciate it I really do, it was more than anything anyone’s every done for me y’know? So like, um, yeah, I uh-“ you mentally curse yourself, just stop speaking already.

“You named it Otis? That’s such a basic penguin name,” Jungkook chuckles, hoping to make you even slightly mad, and the fact that you looked at him with an expression of shock and anger just added to his satisfaction.

Just like that, the awkward layer in the air no longer lingers, and settles to soft banter, something you enjoyed.

“Excuse me? It’s like, the cutest name ever, and whoever thinks against that is a total meathe-“

“I’ve never seen someone be angry and look adorable at the same time,”

“Well, mama didn’t raise no bitch, I will adorably kick your ass, Jungkook,”

“On a first name basis now? Guess I’m making progress,”

“I hate you so much,”

And now twelve minutes and seventeen seconds later, here you both were, sitting on the bench outside the local 7/11, sharing an egg and ham sandwich.

By no means did Jungkook ever mean to have his first lunch with you like this, he had planned it all out, first date, 100 day anniversary, his first ‘I love you,’ speech, the gift for your birthday in January – he didn’t expect to sit on the side of the road at the old, rusty (and really uncomfortable) bench, eating a one dollar sandwich.

You make fun of Jungkook after his high five got rejected by a passing by 5 year old-ish kid with his mom.

“He hates me,” Jungkook pouts and looks at his left hand with such sorrow and anguish that you can’t help but let the laughter bubbling in your throat let out.

“He was like 5,”

“Still, he totally ignored me as if I didn’t exist,”

You don’t even realise three hours pass by, as both, you and Jungkook (two nerds united together), talk about politics, how absolutely terrible Mr. Kang is (you laughed for three solid minutes after Jungkook tried to mimic his sneer), he basically forces you to let him tutor you in anatomy, because he just can’t see you not get an A next time (you scoff and act as if you’re doing him a favour by saying yes, while from inside you screaming happily only because now your grades will be much, much higher – you’re definitely not happy because you’ll have to spend more time with the funny, cute, really nice and just overall hot guy that smells so good).

“Oh my God,” Jungkook says as he extends an arm and feels the light rain on his palm, “it’s probably going to rain soon,”

You don’t pay too much heed until 5 minutes later, it’s turns into an intense round of teardrops on the concrete under you, and you’re left to whine about how you’ll walk till your dorm – and there was no way you were going to get a taxi because you literally lived two streets away from the store.

“Let’s dance in the rain,” Jungkook runs into the narrow street, without a care in the world, and you’re left contemplating whether you should join him or not.

“I thought you were sort of mental, but now I’m fully sure your mom dropped you on the head when you were a baby,” you shout from the bench, hoping he can hear your voice despite the loud splat of each raindrop when it meets the ground.

“Join me,” he says as he tries to pull your hand lightly, hoping you would come on your own, and while you haven’t had fun in the rain since you were a child, you can’t help but want to relive the feeling of the cold water hitting you, not knowing where you end up at.

Jungkook ends up leading you, and you both end up doing a sloppy couple’s dance with his hands on your waist, and yours on his shoulders. You look into his eyes and see a childish charm, you see an affection and a purity in his smile, in the cute not so perfect teeth he possessed, and you can’t help but smile. You had never had things come to you, you were never used to this, never used you things happening to you, for you.

After a good fifteen minutes of fooling around, he ends up walking you back to the dorm – both of you a mess, with clothes clinging to your bodies, webbed fingers, wet hair and sore cheeks from smiling too much. Somehow, you didn’t want to be apart from the boy who waved you goodbye, and you don’t end up closing the door until he goes down the stairs and you can’t see his figure anymore.

To Jungkookie <3

[6:17 PM]

im gonna have to use an entire tub of conditioner to make my hair not feel like hay

PART TWO WILL COME OUT SOON XO (there will only be 3 parts).

also, just so everyone knows I absolutely adore jin, no bashing towards him, as once @kpopyandere​ said, and I quote: For real the closest I’ve ever been to believing in god is seeing Kim seokjin’s face. Only something divine could’ve created that.

I absolutely loved writing this even though it seems like it’s all over the place kind of lol. Been super insecure of my writing lately 🥺❤️ give me validation 🤩 jk but do let me know if you liked something or if u liked something in particular or idk also lmao sry there's no smut ;))))) wait for part two

taglist: @blkjmn​ @patpus​ @vantedollz​ @letmebeyour-sun​ @zeharilisharaban​ @hpnjrph​ @livewittykid​ @yzkyzkuniverse​ @nochuactivate​ @international-kpopfan​ @gvksp4ce​ @girlontheblock​ @kisskoos​ @jeonkooksgirl​ @hytibm​ @jooniescupcakes​ @teresaisla​ @lurkerarmy​

[transsexualhamlet]

predictions for yuumori s2 (as a manga reader)

No matter what happens, this is probably gonna end up aging badly, but i’m hyperfixating and I’ve decided to make it everyone else’s problem so I’m going to predict where they’re gonna go with s2 of moriarty the patriot (keep in mind i’m writing this as of episode 2) and what I think would be the ideal scenario, in the likely situation that this is the last season.

So we can tell a lot about what they’re going to cut/include from the opening and ending, and the first two episodes. 

Observations/Conclusions:

-moneypenny and most likely von herder are gone, already evidenced by the first 2 episodes, which is :( but understandable bc there’s only so much space and they’re definitely cutting the arcs where they would be important

-so that means no moran backstory because duh, there’s a point in the backstory and i see value in it, moran slaps when he’s not being an ass lmao, but again, time constraints

-no matter what I can’t see them keeping in the like, child hunting thing 2 electric boogaloo, even tho it did further Fred’s and Louis’ characters, since they’ve previously cut out stuff considering them and. You know. That’s how it be.

-You can see they’re including jack the ripper arc (considering, jack is in the opening) and I have faith that they can downsize the arc without butchering it if they do it right. This is good that they’re keeping it in, considering it’s one of the... main arcs not involving milverton that advances the plot.

-Major thing we can tell is that, yeah, Milverton is nowhere to be seen. It seems like this would fuck things up bad since he’s like, the only kind of “main villain” we get here. But honestly? I agree with that. Fuck Milverton. He has no character or motivation and is like my one and only bone to pick with the manga. He’s just there to suck ass and create plot convenience?? I don’t like him and he never needed to be there if he wasn’t at least going to do something interesting. I support the anime cutting him.

-That DOES fuck over their ability to do the white knight arc, since, well, milverton is the cause of all of that. And this is the one thing I really don’t know what they’re going to do with that to connect jack the ripper directly to the final problem. I can’t predict that, but I do think there are ways it can be done that won’t be Awful.

-So considering that, Mary’s arc is definitely axed, which doesn’t bother me that much since by that point i so impatient for gay people and really didn’t care about watson’s fiance even tho she is a lovely lady. For anime effect, she does not need an arc, though I could see them having her show up a few times so watson doesn’t seem too gay either lmao.

-They’re definitely shooting to end with the final problem, considering without it there’s no big culminating event between moriarty and sherlock, which is obviously the big sell. And well. It’s. Um. The final problem. 

The season says it’s slated to be 13 episodes, since s1 didn’t have enough time for 12. I honestly think they can manage it all, if they play their cards right. 

Outlook:

This whole potential situation does sound familiar, I’ll point out that I just arrived here after the shit show of the promised neverland’s second season. But I don’t think it will get bad like tpn did. Because in Moriarty, they could afford to cut things because there are many stand alone and disposable arcs, whereas tpn really shouldn’t have, since they pretty much all contributed later to Major Main Character Plot Things. And the important points of the arcs that they’ll probably cut can actually be written into existing ones without looking like plot convenience, in my vision of it.

Honestly, I’m pretty optimistic for moriarty, it works better for this kind of adaption than in a lot of other manga that end up getting these most likely two season adaptions. I’d love to get those arcs for the servant’s and other character’s developments of course, but trying to stick that in when there’s really only time to focus on the main characters would suck up time better spent on really getting deep into the main storyline. Even if there are less characters, in a situation like this a streamlined and nuanced story will look elegant, whereas shoving as much content as possible into a few short episodes makes everyone cringe.

The situation does end up looking like the promised neverland, but it has a chance to be significantly less fucked considering,,, well,,, tpn is an insanely low bar, and they will hopefully not make the promised neverland’s same mistakes of Shove Seventeen Plotlines Into One Episode After Realizing Belatedly They Actually Needed Those Parts.

Obviously I don’t know what will happen, and this will be outdated by sunday lmao, but my projection looks something like this for 13 episodes to conclude the show.

Predictions:

(Episodes 1+2: A Scandal in the British Empire)

Episode 3: I’m very anxious for 3 considering this will probably make or break my opinion on the anime. Ideally, this episode would wrap up the scandal arc and go over the whole James Bond thing, it could be pretty baller and fit well into an episode. But though there’s plenty of Irene in the opening, there’s no sight of Bond, so considering anime as a whole is fucking transphobic, they might try to change it, twist around bond’s words or just, gloss over it altogether. If they cut it, they might have time to squeeze in another arc but I don’t think they honestly need to? With what they seem to be keeping in, they’ll have ample time to get to everything, and it would be shorter anyway considering the smaller amount of servants. 

Here, we do definitely need to cover Sherlock’s “receiving the name of the lord of crime and deciding to burn it and find it out himself because he’s extra”, no matter the status of irene/bond’s gender. If they do that right and possibly change a few things so it’s more important, this could play into them moving forward his whole discovery of their secrets.

Episodes 4-7: These will most likely cover jack the ripper arc. There’s a lot to go over here, and I’m confident they can cut it down, because tbh Moriarty is pretty long winded for a manga and cutting things is good to an extent. This covers most of the major expansions on William’s ideas and plans, and definitely has the holes to stuff in more of the points made in the arcs that will be cut out. Though I have my reservations, they could plausibly take most points in white knight and integrate them into here.

Episodes 8-10: These are the ones that are going to take the most work and probably be the most changed. They should finish up the ripper arc in 7, give or take a few episodes, and then here, If Sherlock has a little more figured out from episode 3, he can look deeper. I think it’s honestly a good idea for the one to discover the Incriminating Records to be him, as it again gives them more connection. There needs to be some other reason Moriarty’s secrets are in danger of getting leaked to the paper, but I’m sure they can put something together with scotland yard or something, or even like, Mycroft. I see that. But if that happens, then we can spend an episode or so on the merchant of london, aka little liam commits girlboss, which can be woven into the idea of everything Coming Out.

Episodes 11-13: Final problem. I see this going mostly unchanged, up until 55. Truth is they’ll probably end up cutting something but hmm. I don’t know. They should keep the fred stuff in, since they’ll cut his other development. They should keep the squad asking sherlock for help, since they cut the other parts that highlight the crime squad’s care for him. But I think they could montage most of the William Goes French Revolution On You Hoes, even the part where the kids come in front of one of them, if you see what’s going on right. But everything can proceed as in the manga pretty smoothly, I think, it all makes sense if they put it together in 7-10. You know, you got somehow, the worst case happens, and boom, scandal, final problem enacted. Killing spree. William reveals he’s been emo this whole time but it’s too late now. Everyone scrambling to catch up with his damn plans. Gay boy knocking on 221B with a fucking love letter. Shit gets found out. And then... well, yuh.

Disclaimer I still don’t know everything about this, bc I cannot find a translation of 54, only the raw with no context, and I know there’s content after 55 but I can’t find that either. But I’m sure as hell an english major and can understand where things are probably going. I don’t know what’s involved at that point, and if there’s some plan detailed to save him or something. That’s the main thing I don’t know, and if there is one detailed of course that kind of changes everything, but for now I’m going on the assumption that 54 is “sherlock runs to the bridge and yells at liam to stop being a dramatic whore while london burns around them and the murder squad watches anxiously with mysterious intent, until it is chapter 55″. (IF Y’ALL HAVE THE ENGLISH PLEASE HMU) They better not TOUCH anything in 55 or so help me god.

But as to after 55, things are going to be different. Besties, I’m an optimist, but there’s no way they’ll make a season after this. It does appear that they’ve mostly wrapped up, and they’ve gotten through what Big Revals they plan on doing. The shit hinted from the beginning has happened, and there probably won’t be enough to create another, unless the author plans on fucking shit up again, which I don’t approve of. There are a few things still left unsaid, like, Liam’s real name and everything, but if it’s supposed to be important, things that small can 100 percent be written into this.

And as something that’s intending to finish up a story, depending on what manga canon really is (BESTIE I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS) they might change it. There’s two options, a bittersweet/hopeful and a tragic one, but either one will end up open ended, because of my extensive knowledge of 2 season animes with significantly longer mangas. (done badly: tokyo ghoul and tpn, done well: owari no seraph and mob psycho) Either we have it like well, oh damn, everything was destined to be Sad but well you’re with him now you’re probably dead, but you know there’s something hinted at and you don’t know for sure so that’s the catch. So you get a vague and bittersweet but possibly hopeful ending. OR something that takes,,, whatever ends up happening in the manga or whatever the plan is and turning it into an epilogue infodump.

I can see either going well depending on how they handle the messages of the story. But yeah, as far as to my extent of the understanding of the show, that’s how it’ll probably go, and what my opinion of how it should is.

To What Extent Will The Gay:

You know, this is my ideal scenario within these time limits, but you know they could always go The Wrong Direction if the anime team took a look at some of the later chapters and went “holy shit this is a bit too gay” and try to axe some of the sherliam content, which I wouldn’t put past any corporation.

In the case that they do, I see lot of good shit going. They’re clearly trying to do the final problem, so they obviously can’t cut out 55, which is good :). But though 55 is clearly, uh, really fucking homosexual, the most romantic shit goes down in 53, as far as I can tell? (keeping in mind i still haven’t found 54′s english version, if anyone would like to direct me to a translation, that would be LOVELY.) I unfortunately can see them cutting Liam’s letter almost entirely, and that kind of scares me.

You know, even if i’d hate and slander them for it, cutting out james bond would be something i would understand. But messing with sherliam would fuck them over, not just cause that would be awful, but like, because it’s like... kind of the main point.

So I’m not really too worried about them messing with it, mostly because the content itself is holding them at gunpoint, sherliam holds the whole plot structure in place, especially if you’re shooting for final problem. And even in the manga they never, like, actually say they’re in love with each other even tho historically gay lovers would probably call each other “friends” lmao so it’s not like they have to greenlight gay sex or anything lmao it’s just Very Romantic (No Homo)

And apart from that, yuumori has actually been pretty decent to the gays so far?? Damn shawty, they certainly haven’t toned down the gay yet and it’s clearly their main source of fans, and what they’ve decided to emphasize in both openings and a significant portion of the s2 ending. We’re all here for it, and they’re catering to it, so I can at least give you that.

[junker-town]

The 9 dumbest mistakes from a surprisingly good QB Week 3, ranked

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

A lot of backups played this week, but it was the coaches who screwed up most, thanks to ill-advised draw plays and penalties taken (Bruce Arians) and timeouts not taken (Pete Carroll).

Week 3 in the NFL was all about the quarterback. That’s nothing new; almost every week in the NFL is about the quarterback. Yet on a day when Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson were trying to out-video game each other, it wasn’t the already established stars who stole the spotlight. Instead, this Sunday belonged to guys who began the season riding the bench (or in the Jets’ case, on the practice squad).

Six quarterbacks made their first start of the season on Sunday, some due to injury and some due to crappy play from the former QB1s. That seemed like the perfect recipe for a disastrous afternoon of silly goofs we could poke a little fun at on Monday morning.

Then — the nerve! — they went out and performed admirably. As a group, the new starters went 3-3, and the ones who lost couldn’t be blamed for their team’s defeat. Some were even the reason their team won (take a bow, Daniel Jones and, ugh, Dave Gettleman we guess).

Fear not, though. Sunday still provided us with enough dumb mistakes to laugh about the next day. In fact, here are nine of them:

9. Deshaun Watson threw the ball away ... backwards

Deshaun Watson is a great quarterback. But even great quarterbacks do some very dumb things. Even though he got the win this week, Watson’s blunder was pretty up there, when he fumbled the ball against the Chargers. It wasn’t just that he fumbled, though. It was how he fumbled.

With Joey Bosa bearing down on him on a second-and-7 from Houston’s 39-yard line, Watson looked to Duke Johnson for a screen pass behind the line of scrimmage. But Johnson had Desmond King coming at him with a full head of steam and, not wanting to put his running back or himself in unnecessary danger, he threw it away.

Problem is, he threw it away behind the line of scrimmage — and backwards.

from earlier today proof that even great quarterbacks can forget the rules of football pic.twitter.com/YUnkNJTew5

— James Brady (@JamesBradySBN) September 23, 2019

Yup, that’s always a fumble. This one was recovered and advanced by the Chargers, who took a 7-0 lead on the ensuing possession.

On one hand, Watson choosing to not take a sack AND to not put Johnson in line for a massive hit from King were good decisions. Too many quarterbacks dump the ball without looking at the position their potential receiver will be in once they’ve caught it. On the other hand, MAYBE throw it somewhere else next time.

8. Luke Falk threw a pass with a 0 percent success rate

The Jets still had a puncher’s chance in the third quarter of their game against the Patriots. Sure, they trailed 20-0, but Falk, making his first NFL start, still had the chance to instill hope in an otherwise miserable season in New York.

This did not happen. Instead, Falk treated the world to this image of Devin McCourty making an interception without a single Jet close enough to him to get picked up by CBS’ cameras:

Per NextGenStats, the nearest receiver was Robby Anderson ... who was 12 yards away. New England drove -2 yards on the ensuing drive and settled for a field goal to make it 23-0 in Foxborough.

7. The Patriots gave up their first touchdown in nearly 9 months in a very stupid way

New England played Super Bowl 53 and its first two games of 2019 without giving up a touchdown. That streak was still going strong late in the third quarter of Week 3 against the Jets ... until one muffed punt from an undrafted free agent gave Bill Belichick something to grumble about.

Shoutout @arthurmaulet_ for the hustle.#NYJvsNE | #TakeFlight pic.twitter.com/HAyT5FPqFP

— New York Jets (@nyjets) September 22, 2019

Gunner Olszewski’s botched return kept a 14-quarter TD-less streak from stretching to 15. Fortunately for the Patriots, they were still playing the Jets. New York added a fourth quarter touchdown when backup Jarrett Stidham threw a pick-six to Jamal Adams, but the New England defense failed to let an opposing offense into the end zone for the fourth straight game in a 30-14 victory. They’re the first team in the Super Bowl era to ever get through the first three weeks of the season without giving up a touchdown on defense.

6. The Broncos gave one of the league’s most dangerous passers a free play

There are two things Aaron Rodgers absolutely excels at: throwing deep bombs and taking advantage of a defense’s stupid mistakes. Green Bay’s first touchdown Sunday against the Broncos was a serendipitous combination of the two.

never, ever give Aaron Rodgers a free play pic.twitter.com/1DppKeAd8g

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) September 22, 2019

A hard count lured the Broncos offside, but Denver’s biggest issue on second-and-6 may have been leaving Marquez Valdes-Scantling in single coverage. The young wideout easily got inside leverage and sprinted downfield on a play where Rodgers’ short and intermediate routes were never an option. One easy pitch-and-catch later, the Packers led 6-0.

And once again, a defense had to learn the hard way to never give Rodgers a free play.

5. The Browns went for it on fourth-and-9 ... and called a draw play

The Browns were always going to be a work-in-progress with a first-time head coach and skyrocket expectations, but Freddie Kitchens is catching some heat for a decision he made on Sunday Night Football.

Trailing by four points with nine minutes to go, the Browns were facing a fourth-and-9 at the Rams’ 40-yard line. They left the offense on the field, and the Rams gave them a lot of space. Everyone got a little excited about what Kitchens could call in that situation. What creative thing would he do?!

this was Freddie Kitchens' 4th-and-9 play. it was not very good pic.twitter.com/jzm3vbfeGr

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) September 23, 2019

Oh. He ran a sad draw play that went nowhere. Nick Chubb even looked like he wasn’t sure which way he was supposed to go. Despite having playmakers like Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry, they went with that draw.

I get it — draws are relatively safe plays that teams run in long situations for their potential to catch a defense napping and convert the downs. But in the fourth quarter, against that Rams defense, you run a draw on FOURTH-AND-NINE, something no team has done in at least 12 years?!

At least Kitchens admitted (many times) after the 20-13 loss that it was a “bad call.”

Sometimes, you just gotta know when not to run it — and when to run it:

First and goal from the 4 with three timeouts. No touches to Chubb. No touches to OBJ. Football isn’t this hard.

— Dawgs By Nature (@DawgsByNature) September 23, 2019

4. The Eagles managed to blow it even more than the Lions

The Eagles were down three late, at home to the Lions. They had the ball at their own 22-yard line, facing fourth-and-8, and decide to go for it. Doug Pederson is notoriously ballsy with fourth downs, but they still had all three of their timeouts and the two-minute warning. And the play was a Carson Wentz scrambled that came up a couple yards short.

That should’ve sealed the game for the Lions, but remember, their offensive coordinator is Darrell Bevell. They ran three plays, gained zero yards, and took 39 seconds off the clock. At the very least, they could get a field goal, right?

Nope, the Eagles blocked that and returned it to the Detroit 40-yard line, though a block in the back moved that back 10 yards. Facing another fourth down, the Eagles threw it and Wentz completed it for a first down, only to see that get wiped out with a pass interference penalty.

One play later, Wentz’s final pass fell incomplete and the Eagles — a Super Bowl contender coming into the season — had to leave their home turf with a loss to the same team that blew an 18-point lead against the Cardinals two weeks prior.

3. The referees didn’t flag a near-decapitation

The good news is Miles Sanders is OK after getting his helmet spun around 180 degrees and popped off his head:

NO FLAG?!! Okay NFL refs... pic.twitter.com/21OB2tkr0T

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) September 22, 2019

The bad news is this somehow didn’t lead to a penalty. In a year where seemingly every play goes off under a microscope and ticky-tack fouls are called more often than any other time in the past decade, this actually dangerous play went off unchallenged by the officials.

2. The Seahawks wasted a huge play by DK Metcalf by sitting on timeouts

When Seattle started a drive on its own 21-yard line with 29 seconds to go there were two ways to handle the situation:

Run out the remainder of the clock and go to halftime down, 20-7.

Try to drive into field goal range with the help of two timeouts.

The Seahawks went for neither strategy. The team threw a short pass into the middle of the field, but decided not to call timeout. That left only 10 seconds when the next play started and time in the half ran out when Russell Wilson found DK Metcalf for 54 yards.

this ludicrous play was ultimately meaningless because Pete Carroll left 2 timeouts in his pocket to end the first half pic.twitter.com/huR3QB8Q8n

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) September 22, 2019

If the Seahawks planned on throwing and trying to score, they absolutely should’ve used a timeout after first down. Instead, Seattle cost itself a 33-yard field goal attempt.

1. The Bucs took a delay of game penalty and missed a game-winning FG

Tampa had the ball left with 13 seconds to go against the New York Giants. The Bucs were in field goal range after Jameis Winston connected with Mike Evans for a terrific 44-yard pass play.

Then head coach Bruce Arians inexplicably took a delay of game penalty to move the ball back five yards. Arians tried justifying it by saying he thought Matt Gay kicks better from longer distances?!

Video: Here’s Bruce Arians explaining that he took a delay of game penalty “on purpose” before final field goal to back up rookie Matt Gay, who had already missed one extra point and had another blocked in the same game. pic.twitter.com/h4WIwaVdq7

— Greg Auman (@gregauman) September 23, 2019

Yikes. Gay had already missed two extra point tries in a game the Bucs were trailing by one point. To the surprise of no one, his 34-yard potentially game-winning field goal sailed wide right as time expired.

Arians might be new to Tampa, but he should’ve known better. After all, the Bucs’ kicking game has been cursed for years.

[funface2]

The Area 51 meme and the strange, winding tale of Matty Roberts – Vox.com

RACHEL, Nevada — For the mess he’s found himself in, Matty Roberts is surprisingly calm.

One night in late June, Roberts was up late scrolling on Facebook. That is his wont; a 21-year-old college kid who lives with his parents in Bakersfield, California, he spends a lot of time online in anime and video gaming communities. And most of all, Roberts is into shitposting, trading in a genre of particularly silly memes that’s especially popular on Facebook. The posts can range from a SpongeBob screenshot that makes a joke about the cartoon character getting stoned, to a fart noise-laden remix of Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” video.

Roberts runs a small Facebook page called “Shitposting cause I’m in shambles,” which scratches his meme-seeking itch. He not only shares posts he sees and likes; he creates his own. And that June night, he posted something different than just an image macro-referencing a cartoon or existing online goof. He decided to create a Facebook event as the stage for his joke; it went on to strike a chord with millions.

He called it “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us.” Inspired by the covert Nevada military base that many have long believed to be some kind of alien testing ground or site where the government is investigating unidentified aerial phenomena, he proposed gathering as many people as possible on September 20 to cross the fenced-off land. “Let’s see them aliens,” the event description implored.

Within days, nearly a million people had signed on — either in jest or in earnest. Not long after that, the military got involved.

Roberts’s shitpost had quickly, surprisingly, caused a stir that was at once hilarious and very serious. To date, 3 million Facebook users have showered Roberts’s prank event page with international attention, playing into its tongue-in-cheek recognition of the government secrecy and extraterrestrial ties that Area 51 represents in popular culture. But as online jokes spread about bringing home aliens from a locked-down military base, “Storm Area 51” bled into real life. A spokesperson for the Air Force ominously warned people against approaching the base’s borders. Media outlets fought to interview Roberts and reported on his meme as if it were an impending catastrophe.

It has also triggered preparations for a state of emergency in two Nevada counties and generated more alien merch than anyone could ever want. Most of all, the meme has thrust Roberts, a long-haired, laid-back bro, into a national spotlight he probably didn’t deserve — or into the center of a debacle involving a rural town, the federal government, a business partner, a cease-and-desist order, and frequent evocations of Fyre Festival. Depends on who you ask.

“It’s not daunting at all,” Roberts says, with no small amount of hubris. As interest swelled, he took it upon himself to put on a legitimate Area 51 event — 148 miles away from Rachel, back in Las Vegas. “There is a little bit of pressure, but at the same time, it’s an exciting kind of pressure. It’s amazing.”

In the two months since he posted his open invitation, Roberts has become the self-proclaimed face of a live festival dubbed Alienstock. This weekend, real people are showing up for it.

Storm Area 51 was an obvious joke — one that tapped into the internet’s love for memes and easily repeatable humor and coalesced into something much bigger: competing festivals for UFO conspiracy theorists, fans of shitposting, and small-town Nevada locals.

By boosting Roberts’s profile, the event has become more than a gag. It is now, as Roberts says, a “brand.” Not to mention a potential crisis. (Alienstock may not be this year’s Fyre Festival, but rampant opportunism is threatening to bring it close.)

And Storm Area 51 has become emblematic of the cycle of fame in 2019: It was born of the internet, turned a random college kid from Bakersfield into a national figure overnight, and is so meta that it can barely be understood by those outside of it and the world it was born of.

“It plays perfectly into the shitposting culture, and it also plays perfectly into the genuine conspiracy theorists,” Roberts says. “I think it created the perfect storm.”

The inspiration for Roberts’s event was a Joe Rogan Experience interview that Roberts watched this summer, featuring Area 51 obsessive and self-proclaimed whistleblower Bob Lazar, a supposed ex-government engineer who has dubiously claimed to have worked on alien technology near the Air Force site. On the show, Lazar recounted what he claims is the extraterrestrial history of the base. But Roberts wasn’t taking Lazar too seriously: “First and foremost,” he says of his Facebook page, “It’s a shitposting page.”

Barbed wire and signage border a gate of the Nevada Test and Training Range, commonly referred to as Area 51, near Rachel, Nevada, on September 13, 2019.

Bridget Bennett/AFP/Getty Images

After his meme went viral, Roberts saw an opening to take the event’s notoriety and turn it into offline fame. He could become more than a screen name; he could become the face of 2019’s biggest meme. Better yet, maybe he could even make money off it.

“The whole Alienstock, Storm Area 51 thing is something that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I feel like not taking advantage of this diving board that I’ve been given is just wasted,” Roberts says. “So I might as well move forward with it.”

Moving forward in this case initially meant directing people to the town of Rachel, Nevada, home to just 54 people, most of them retirees. Rachel’s claim to fame is that it lies just 30 miles north of Area 51, making it the closest possible gathering point for potential Area 51 raiders. (“You really won’t need a map to find places in Rachel,” the town’s slightly cynical website notes.) Roberts hooked up with the town’s sole local business, a lodge called the Little A’Le’Inn, to plan Alienstock as a Burning Man-style EDM music festival. As many as 30,000 attendees, who had already booked rooms nearby or expressed interest in driving up, were expected.

The seams started to show soon after Roberts announced Alienstock in late July. Selling tickets to an event loosely inspired by a meme suggested a shift from the ironic and self-effacing to the self-aggrandizing and profiteering — Alienstock was to be a weekend-long experience in the middle of nowhere, with parking and camping spaces costing between $60 and $140, all in order to see unnamed EDM acts and … get stoked about aliens? Roberts and the Little A’Le’Inn’s proprietor, Connie West, made few other promises.

Comparisons to Fyre Festival, the 2017 music festival-turned-criminal case, came fast, including from the citizens of Rachel itself. In mid-August, they presented a list of concerns to the commissioners of Lincoln County, Nevada, in an emphatic plea for help in preventing Alienstock from happening:

The main event organizer is a 20-year old kid. The media already likens this to the 2017 Fyre festival disaster where people paid a lot of money for a concert weekend that never happened. There are still many open law suits from that event.

An event with that many people typically takes 6-8 months to plan. The county and Rachel had 6 weeks.

Commissioners, please ask yourself: Do you really think sufficient planning has been done to be ready for this event? This can potentially ruin our county if it goes bad. It certainly will ruin Rachel.

Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee told Vox in early September that the cash-strapped county was looking at spending as much as $300,000 providing additional law enforcement to support Rachel and other nearby towns during the weekend, all for an expected influx of visitors who might be looking to tempt fate by charging into Air Force territory.

“My staff has been inundated with phone calls and working on this,” Lee said. “We had to work on a law enforcement plan, communications plan, medical plan, mass casualty plan, active shooter plan — all these plans we have to put into place before this thing happens.”

He sounded exhausted. “I spend almost 100 percent of my day doing Area 51 stuff.”

A sign about the joke event Storm Area 51 hangs outside the Little A’Le’Inn information center and inn in Rachel, Nevada, on September 13, 2019.

Bridget Bennett/AFP/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Roberts and West still hadn’t offered concrete details on what visitors could expect during Alienstock, which was then set to take place September 20–22 in Rachel. Roberts had shifted away from encouraging a security breach at Area 51 and instead began offering Alienstock as counter-programming to storming the military facility. (Thankfully, he recognized the dangers of trying to raid the base. The Air Force is not playing around.)

Roberts drove to Rachel from Southern California two weeks early and posted selfies. He tweeted about anime and UFC. And he insisted that Alienstock — and he, Matty Roberts — was a brand Area 51 believers would want to buy into.

“Alienstock has always been more of a cultural movement,” said Roberts. “It was born out of the curiosity of the internet and the curiosity surrounding aliens, UFOs, everything like that, and just wanting to gather and throw cool parties.”

It’s that desire to “throw cool parties” that has inflated Roberts’s profile to troublingly unstable heights. Days after arriving in Rachel, Roberts announced that he and Alienstock had parted ways with West and the Little A’Le’Inn. He blamed a lack of “critical infrastructure” and a fear that, in West’s care, the event could become “a possible humanitarian disaster.”

“I had to try to remove any kind of association from it because I don’t want my brand, and I don’t want my face, to be associated with something as disastrous as Fyre Festival 2.0,” Roberts said. “And it could have been even worse than that with the location, the military base right there, and just the sheer controversy behind the thing. So with everything presented and not enough security or anything like that, I had no choice but to kind of try to wash my hands of the whole thing.”

Despite weeks of warnings that Rachel, Nevada, couldn’t handle an event of any size, a pre-signed state of emergency declaration (another one soon followed), and a non-existent event schedule, it took Roberts until the eleventh hour to move the event to a safer location.

He signed on to co-host an Area 51-themed party at the Downtown Las Vegas Event Center on September 19 with Bud Light as a sponsor. Alienstock — or at least, the spirit of Storm Area 51 that had driven it — was dead.

Instead, the party featured hula hoopers in neon outfits, and a few signs and shirts referencing the meme. The attendees — who could best be described as scattered — clutched cans of watery beer emblazoned with alien imagery. Though he reportedly made a brief appearance, a reporter attending the event noted that Roberts was nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, West, of the Little A’Le’Inn, insisted she would still host some kind of event in Rachel, however, with bands who will play for free. Roberts has served her with a cease-and-desist notice.

The breakdown in West’s and Roberts’s partnership is just a sliver of the drama that has ensued from the moment that Roberts declared his intent to prolong the Storm Area 51 meme. And it’s not just between Roberts and West; alien and UFO enthusiasts see Roberts as a negative presence in their communities, too.

Matty Roberts moved his Alienstock festival from its original planned location in Rachel, Nevada, to the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center at the last minute.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

One of Roberts’s most vocal critics is the documentarian Jeremy Corbell, who happened to be a guest on that Joe Rogan podcast episode Roberts first watched. Corbell, who had spent the last seven years following Bob Lazar and spreading what they say is the word of truth about Area 51, is a passionate believer in UFO technology and greatly distrusts the government. For Corbell, the interest in Roberts’s Storm Area 51 meme reflects a huge moment — for his work, for ufology, for anyone who will entertain him or Lazar.

But Roberts, he says, is undermining all of that.

“When you’ve got the microphone, you have a responsibility to act in the same way that you talk,” Corbell says. “And if you are really concerned about safety, then you need to inform people and put aside personal gain.”

Corbell and Roberts’ relationship, according to Corbell, is a tenuous one; Corbell says that the kid from Bakersfield created Alienstock “on the sly or to the left.” And he thinks Roberts is turning this flashpoint for discussion of UFOs into a potential train wreck. Days before Alienstock was set to take place, two YouTubers jumped the gun and were arrested for trying to reach Area 51 on their own.

“This is far beyond a meme and alien Budweiser [beer]. This opportunity is far beyond that,” Corbell says. “It’s a cultural and social movement that has been going on for 30 years, since May 13, 1989,” the date that Bob Lazar first spoke out about the existence of Area 51. “Period. Full stop.”

Yet were Roberts and West really the only ones acting in their own self-interest? Corbell is also benefiting from Roberts’s mess. The more we talk about Storm Area 51 — positively or negatively — the more we push the names of Jeremy Corbell and Bob Lazar, as well as Connie West and Matty Roberts, into the public’s consciousness. Rachel, Nevada? At one point, the town was selling Storm Area 51 T-shirts on its website.

Perhaps that’s why Matty Roberts is so calm despite the chaos he’s created. No matter what happens, he’s coming out of this as someone greater than a kid with a shitposting Facebook page and fewer than 1,000 Twitter followers. He’ll be that Area 51 guy, for better or worse.

For now, he’s taking a semester off school to work on Alienstock’s future, but when he goes back, he says, he might switch his major to marketing. He’d probably be darn good at it, too.

An Extraterrestrial Highway sign posted along State Route 375 in Rachel, Nevada, on July 22, 2019.

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[blondewolfhd]

* 199 - 1?? >:3c i fucked up on sending the last one

199: I was born in:One of the worst states ever 198: I am really: Strange?197: My cellphone company is: AT&T196: My eye color is: Blue 195: My shoe size is: 6194: My ring size is: ??193: My height is: 5′5192: I am allergic to: SO MANY The one’s I remember on the top of my head are mites, black walnut, pine, and timothy grass (I’m allergic to like 6 grasses jc)191: My 1st car was: Don’t have one190: My 1st job was: Don’t have one yet189: Last book you read: Can’t remember 188: My bed is: so soft I love but I need to get two slats because they broke187: My pet: I have so many! I love all of them! There’s Ralph, Groucho, Axel, Paisley, Psycho, Josh, Pepper, Cole, Hamilton, Philip, Meowgi, Wrex, Wolf, Nikka, Ivypool, and Crowfeather. I’m fostering three animals. Two cats and one puppy!186: My best friend: S I R185: My favorite shampoo is: TRESemme Smooth and Silky 184: Xbox or ps3: PS3183: Piggy banks are: Good I guess182: In my pockets: I don’t have any I’m wearing Kenna’s pants181: On my calendar: So many birthdays (I have a bad memory)180: Marriage is: Alright179: Spongebob can: ??178: My mom: Ugh177: The last three songs I bought were? I download I don’t have any money 176: Last YouTube video watched: 1000 ways to die175: How many cousins do you have? I don’t talk to any of them ever.174: Do you have any siblings? Two both are half siblings but I never talk to one of them173: Are your parents divorced? No 172: Are you taller than your mom? Yeah171: Do you play an instrument? Not good170: What did you do yesterday? Hung with A.Ham while I recovered from my wisdom teeth surgery[ I Believe In ]169: Love at first sight: No I believe it isn’t love but attraction at first sight You can’t really love someone until you get to know them 168: Luck: Not really167: Fate: Not sure166: Yourself: Nope165: Aliens: Yea164: Heaven: Agnostic163: Hell: ^162: God:^161: Horoscopes: Iffy160: Soul mates: Iffy159: Ghosts: Yet again iffy 158: Gay Marriage: Of freaking course 157: War: Unfortunately we can’t have peace in these times because of people like trump 156: Orbs:??155: Magic: ??[ This or That ]154: Hugs or Kisses: Hugs153: Drunk or High: Never been high so152: Phone or Online: Online151: Red heads or Black haired: No pref150: Blondes or Brunettes: Brunettes149: Hot or cold: Cold148: Summer or winter: Winter147: Autumn or Spring: Autumn146: Chocolate or vanilla: Vanilla 145: Night or Day: Night144: Oranges or Apples: Apples143: Curly or Straight hair: No pref142: McDonalds or Burger King: Mocha Frappe141: White Chocolate or Milk Chocolate: White140: Mac or PC: PC139: Flip flops or high heals: Flip flops138: Ugly and rich OR sweet and poor: sweet 137: Coke or Pepsi: Coke136: Hillary or Obama: Obama135: Burried or cremated: Burried 134: Singing or Dancing: Singing133: Coach or Chanel: ??132: Kat McPhee or Taylor Hicks:??131: Small town or Big city: Small town130: Wal-Mart or Target: No pref129: Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler: Rami Malek128: Manicure or Pedicure: I hate either127: East Coast or West Coast: Idk 126: Your Birthday or Christmas: We don’t really celebrate birthdays125: Chocolate or Flowers: flowers124: Disney or Six Flags: Six Flags123: Yankees or Red Sox: Neither[ Here’s What I Think About ]122: War: It should be avoided but the orange idiot is probably gonna throw us into one soon 121: George Bush: Jet fuel can’t melt steel beammsss 120: Gay Marriage: !00% Great 10/10 119: The presidential election: I hate trump 118: Abortion: Should be 100% percent legal  Pro choice 117: MySpace: I used to have one116: Reality TV: I like Jeremy Kyle115: Parents: sigh 114: Back stabbers: Kill em 113: Ebay: Never used it112: Facebook: I hate most of the people who post on it 111: Work: Depends I really love working with animals110: My Neighbors: sigh109: Gas Prices: bad108: Designer Clothes: Never wear them 107: College: Good but expensive106: Sports: nah105: My family: oh god104: The future: OH GOd[ Last time I ]103: Hugged someone: Kenna the other day I think?102: Last time you ate: Couple minutes ago 101: Saw someone I haven’t seen in awhile: Can’t remember 100: Cried in front of someone: When I got my wisdom teeth out I didn’t know what happened and I was afraid99: Went to a movie theater: Long time ago98: Took a vacation: Long time ago 97: Swam in a pool: About a month ago 96: Changed a diaper: Back in 4th grade I think?95: Got my nails done: When I was like 894: Went to a wedding: Never93: Broke a bone: I think my finger was the last on and that was over the summer92: Got a peircing: Idk how old I was but I was young91: Broke the law: Too many 90: Texted: About 12[ MISC ]89: Who makes you laugh the most: Toss up between you and Kenna88: Something I will really miss when I leave home is: Ralph87: The last movie I saw: Can’t remember86: The thing that I’m looking forward to the most: Reading that letter Boiii85: The thing im not looking forward to: School or these stitches falling out84: People call me: A mistake™83: The most difficult thing to do is: ?? Talk about feelings??82: I have gotten a speeding ticket: Never81: My zodiac sign is: Taurus80: The first person i talked to today was: You79: First time you had a crush: We don’t talk about my first actual crush 78: The one person who i can’t hide things from: Idk 77: Last time someone said something you were thinking: You know76: Right now I am talking to: Technically you 75: What are you going to do when you grow up: Veterinarian 74: I have/will get a job: Idk73: Tomorrow: Stop the pain in my mouth 72: Today: Hanging out with you 71: Next Summer: Idk70: Next Weekend: Idk 69: I have these pets: I have mix breed dogs, purebred pugs, cats, and rabbits68: The worst sound in the world: So many but pained screams67: The person that makes me cry the most is: idk 66: People that make you happy: Ralph 65: Last time I cried: When I got my wisdom teeth removed 64: My friends are: Great™63: My computer is: trash 62: My School: Trash 61: My Car: What one60: I lose all respect for people who: The list goes on and on (Don’t be Max and youre pretty much set)59: The movie I cried at was:So many but Marley and Me came to mind first 58: Your hair color is: Blonde57: TV shows you watch: Teen Wolf and Jeremy Kyle56: Favorite web site: Tumblr55: Your dream vacation: SNOW54: The worst pain I was ever in was: The puss pocket in my mouth 53: How do you like your steak cooked: Medium52: My room is: cold51: My favorite celebrity is: Jeremy Kyle50: Where would you like to be: Snow49: Do you want children: Nah48: Ever been in love: Sigh47: Who’s your best friend: Si r46: More guy friends or girl friends: I’m not sure45: One thing that makes you feel great is: Helping animals44: One person that you wish you could see right now: Ralph 43: Do you have a 5 year plan: Yea42: Have you made a list of things to do before you die: Nah 41: Have you pre-named your children: I did a long time ago 40: Last person I got mad at: Idk 39: I would like to move to: Snow 38: I wish I was a professional: Veterinarian [ My Favorites ]37: Candy: Hershey36: Vehicle: Lexus35: President: Obama 34: State visited: DC33: Cellphone provider: AT&T32: Athlete: Don’t have one31: Actor: Rami Malek30: Actress: Holland Roden29: Singer: Jon Bellion 28: Band: BMTH27: Clothing store: Hot topic26: Grocery store: ??25: TV show: Teen Wolf24: Movie: The Guardian 23: Website: ??22: Animal: Wolf21: Theme park: Six Flags20: Holiday: Don’t really have one anymore 19: Sport to watch: Lacrosse 18: Sport to play: none17: Magazine: none16: Book: ??15: Day of the week: Saturday 14: Beach: None13: Concert attended: Haven’t12: Thing to cook: Mac n Cheese 11: Food: Mac n Cheese10: Restaurant: Steak N Shake9: Radio station: ??8: Yankee candle scent: ??7: Perfume:??6: Flower: I’m not sure5: Color: Blue, Purple, and green 4: Talk show host: Jeremy Kyle 3: Comedian: Idk 2: Dog breed: German Shepherd1: Did you answer all these truthfully? Si

[umang5-blog]

Top 10 Social Bookmarking Websites for 2019

1. HappyShappy

Launched in 2016, HappyShappy is the answer to those who’ve always looked for an Indian social commerce platform. Available as a website as well as a Mobile app, HappyShappy presents its users with a vast array of ideas, inspirations and trends for fashion, celebration, food, travel, gifts and much more. What sets this platform apart is that it perfectly captures the ‘idea-sharing’ essence of Pinterest (or even Juxtapost for that matter) and takes it one step further. More than merely creating collections (named Dreamboards) of pins or collaborating on one such board, a user can use the “I Want It” feature and buy an item he or she likes.

2. Twitter

Let’s begin with the large one (and one people might not connect with social bookmarking too much). Twitter is an excellent tool for this and you can achieve it in a couple of ways. First, simply posting links, images, and content with your account means you’ll have technically bookmarked them. You could then go back via your account to find things again.

3. Pinterest

Pinterest goes for the “show, don’t tell” proceed towards to marketing, and with 70 million users, it has been very successful.Most of its users (80 percent) are women and 42 percent of US women online have an account.

4. StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is one of the large social bookmarking sites. When you bookmark something you can add extra details to is, for example what type of content it is and its subject.

5. Dribbble

Dribble is an outstanding bookmarking site aimed at designers. Not only is this a great place for inspiration, it’s a great place to get traffic to your site if you’re a designer, or have a design team.

6. Pocket

Pocket is a really nicely designed social bookmarking site. It comes with an app to Pocket stuff as you go, saving you returning to the site all the time. You can also search by interest to find interesting things.

7. Digg

Digg has changed a lot over the years. Previously it was more like Reddit where the front page was curated through the users of the site. Now, this is done by editors, but it retains its bookmarking function.

Digg can be a great place to find new content and organise it through your profile. Be careful, it can get quite addictive though.

8. Reddit

Reddit is the so-called ‘front page of the internet’. Users submit links to stories, images or videos that they discover interesting and other Reddit users can either upvote or downvote these submissions.

9. We Heart It

We Heart It is a bit more specific. It mostly sticks to visuals – including images, GIFs and videos – alone and also acts as a social network too. But it now allows you to submit articles in a similar way to Medium. We Heart It positions themselves as a place to find inspiration.

10. Scoop.it

Scoop.it caters to professionals, business and non-profits, and corporations. The site has well over 1 million registered users so while not the biggest site on this list, it’s still got a substantial audience. Select from a free or one of the paid plans, depending on how many topics you want to post about.

For more top 100 Social Bookmarking websites in India Find below:

1          http://bamawater.com

2          https://bookmarkindonesia.com

3          http://19193.info/

4          http://1look4.com

5          http://1look4.com/

6          http://3000bonus.com/

7          http://37warrenave.com/

8          http://3-peace.info/

9          http://4bukmark.com

10       http://4bukmark.com/

11       http://6buk.com

12       http://999central.com/

13       http://9points.info/

14       http://a1bookmarks.com

15       http://a2zbookmarking.com

16       http://a2zbookmarks.com

17       http://activebookmarks.com

18       http://actweb-sport.com/

19       http://addthismark.com/

20       http://adrp.info/

21       http://advertisars.com/

22       http://affiliated-business.com/

23       http://aixindashi.org

24       http://aixindashi.org/

25       http://ak3.biz/

26       http://anndas.com/

27       http://aperfectimage.info/

28       http://articleto.com/

29       http://atlhtml5.net/

30       http://bamawater.com

31       http://bestouyagames.info/

32       http://biolocator.org

33       http://blinklist.com

34       http://bloggalot.com/

35       http://blogstal.com/

36       http://bookmarkbay.com

37       http://bookmarkbook.org/

38       http://bookmarkfeeds.com

39       http://bookmarkgroups.com

40       http://bookmarkin.com

41       http://bookmarkindonesia.com

42       http://bookmarkingbase.com/

43       http://bookmarkinghost.info

44       http://bookmarkmaps.com

45       http://bookmarks2u.com

46       http://bookmarkwiki.com

47       http://bookurlinks.xyz/

48       http://boombao.info/

49       http://bynu.info/

50       http://cabaneduvelan.info

51       http://cama-online.com/

52       http://chaoticcoding.info/

53       http://cheerdances.com/

54       http://chrisfolk.info/

55       http://clubelorigen.com/

56       http://cocosislandsnews.info

57       http://colegioclaret.org/

58       http://coloradospringsroofing.info/

59       http://coolpot.com

60       http://cosap.org/

61       http://cyberplea.com/

62       http://dailybookmarking.com/

63       http://deathlyyours.com

64       http://desert-dwellers.info/

65       http://developlinks.com

66       http://diggpedia.com/

67       http://edictosonline.com/

68       http://emolinks.com/

69       http://epinex.biz/

70       http://eshoptong.com/

71       http://esurfoc.com/

72       http://factson37.com/

73       http://faonet.info/

74       http://felmausa.com/

75       http://fighterdata.com/

76       http://finactum.info/

77       http://findnerd.com/

78       http://followmenow.info

79       http://foodbankofnorthernindiana.org/

80       http://fortunetelleroracle.com/

81       http://freesbmblog.info

82       http://freeticketopen.com/

83       http://frico-haus.info/

84       http://frostprotect.info/

85       http://fugepind.info/

86       http://fwisp.com/

87       http://gen-eff.net/

88       http://getwhatnext.com/

89       http://global-networkers.info/

90       http://greateststory.info

91       http://guter-punkt.info/

92       http://harbinger-history.org/

93       http://highprbookmarkingsites.com

94       http://hostlerburrows.info/

95       http://hot-bookmarks.com/

96       http://icebreak.co/

97       http://indofeed.com

98       http://j4ak.com/

99       http://japanpubcrawl.info/

100     http://jayrigby.info

Source: https://tinyurl.com/yx938rbn

[entrepreneursbloguk]

New Post has been published on Entrepreneurs Blog

New Post has been published on https://www.entrepreneursblog.co.uk/blog/entrepreneur-quotes/

Entrepreneur Quotes (99 Inspirational Quotes)

Being an entrepreneur is a journey, it can be challenging, frustrating, rewarding, disappointing and exhilarating. Here are 99 inspirational quotes for entrepreneurs. These inspirational quotes that will help you keep motivated along your entrepreneurial journey.

1. “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.–Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple

2. “Choose a job that you like, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” –Confucius, Philosopher

3. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” –Albert Einstein, Physicist

4. “Stay self-funded as long as possible.” –Garrett Camp, Co-Founder of Uber

5. “If you are going through hell, keep going.” –Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister

6. “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.” –Michelangelo, Artist

7. “Business opportunities are like buses: there’s always another one coming.” –Richard Branson, Chairman and Founder of Virgin Group

8. “Done is better than perfect.” –Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook

9. “Any time is a good time to start a company.” -Ron Conway, noted Startup Investor, SV Angel

10. “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” –Tony Robbins, Motivational Speaker

11. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” –Socrates, Greek Philosopher

12. “If you want to build a successful business, make sure you have three things—a big market opportunity, great people, and more than enough capital.” -Richard Harroch, Venture Capitalist, Author, and Entrepreneur

13. “Winners never quit and quitters never win.” -Vince Lombardi, Famed Football Coach

14. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”-Mark Twain, Writer

15. “Everyone has an idea, but it’s really about executing the idea and attracting other people to help you with the idea.” –Jack Dorsey, Entrepreneur, Co-Founder of Twitter

16. “It’s not about money or connections. It’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone when it comes to your business. And if it fails, you learn from what happened and do a better job next time.” -Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” Judge

17. “Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress.” –Seth Godin, Author

18. “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.’” -Dave Barry, Humorist

19. “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.” -Ted Turner, Entrepreneur and Businessman

20. “The price of inaction is far greater than then cost of a mistake.” -Meg Whitman, CEO of HP

21. “If Plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters.” -Claire Cook, Author

23. “If you had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” -Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

24. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” –Thomas Edison, Inventor

25. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” –Muhammad Ali, Boxing Champion

26. “Never tell your problems to anyone … 20 percent don’t care and the other 80 percent are glad you have them.” -Lou Holtz, Football Coach

27. “You can have everything you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want in life.” -Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker

28. “There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities.” –Michael Dell, Founder of Dell Computer

29. “100 percent of the shots you don’t take, don’t go in.” -Wayne Gretzky, Hockey Legend

30. “Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic.” -Dale Carnegie, Author and Motivational Speaker

31. “Make your team feel respected, empowered, and genuinely excited about the company’s mission.” -Tim Westergen, Founder of Pandora

32. “Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress.” -Seth Godin, Author

33. “You must put your head into the lion’s mouth if the per­for­mance is to be a suc­cess.” -Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister

34. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” -George S. Patton, U.S. General

35. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” -Albert Einstein, Physicist

36. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” -Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher

37. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” -John Maxwell, Motivational Speaker and Author

38. “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.” -Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist and Philanthropist

39. “Screw it, let’s do it.” -Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group

40. “There is only one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” -Aristotle, Greek Philosopher and Scientist

41. “If you are offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” -Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook

42. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” -Albert Einstein, Physicist

43. “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” -Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker

44. “Goals aren’t enough. You need goals plus deadlines: goals big enough to get excited about and deadline to make you run. One isn’t much good without the other, but together they can be tremendous.” -Ben Feldman, Actor

45.“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States

46. “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” -Jerry Rice, Legendary Wide Receiver for the San Francisco 49ers

47. “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” –Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon

48. “If you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.” –Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook

49. “If you’ve got an idea, start today. There’s no better time than now to get going. That doesn’t mean quit your job and jump into your idea 100 percent from day one, but there’s always small progress that can be made to start the movement.” -Kevin Systrom, Founder of Instagram

50. “Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.” -Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker

51. “Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.” –Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart

52. “The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” –Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder

53. “Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.” -Albert Einstein, Physicist

54. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou, Author and Poet

55. “Whatever you do, be different—that was the advice my mother gave me, and I can’t think of better advice for an entrepreneur. If you’re different, you will stand out.” –Anita Roddick, Founder of The Body Shop

56. “Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese.” -Billie Burke, Actress

57. “Simplicity is the key to brilliance.” –Bruce Lee, Martial Arts Expert

58. “I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars; I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.” –Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

59. “The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” –Oprah Winfrey, Entertainer and Entrepreneur

60. “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” -Steve Martin, Comedian and Actor

61. “Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” -Conan O’Brien, Talk Show Host

“When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don’t put in the time or energy to get there.” –Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple

63. “Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.” -Donald Porter, British Airways

64. “Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.” -Samuel Johnson, Writer and Editor

65. “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” -Jack Welch, Former CEO of GE

66. “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.” -Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple

67. “Social media is here. It’s not going away; not a passing fad. Be where your customers are: in social media.” -Lori Ruff, Chief Brand Evangelist

68. “People want to do business with you because you help them get what they want. They don’t do business with you to help you get what you want.” -Don Crowther, Social Media Expert

69. “Always deliver more than expected.” –Larry Page, Co-Founder of Google

70. “You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn’t going to shower gold coins on you just because you have a good idea. You’re going to have to work like crazy to bring that idea to the attention of people. They’re not going to buy it unless they know about it.” -Herb Kelleher, Founder of Southwest Airlines

71. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” -Mark Twain, Author

72. “Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.” –Brian Tracy, Entrepreneur and Author

73. “Do an evening review at the end of the day to reflect on what went well, and what you’d do differently next time.” -Marilyn Suttle, Author

74. “Never work just for money or for power. They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night.” -Marian Wright Edelman, Activist

75. “You must take the time to do something that brings you joy. If you are saying to yourself, ‘I can’t do that because I have to pick up the kids, and run my business, and … and … who’s got time for fun? Are you insane?’ If you don’t have time for fun, you’ll be forced to take time for illness. Then what?” -Beth Ramsay, Author

76. “In business, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.” -Anonymous

77. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” -Colin Powell, U.S. General

78. “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” -Nolan Bushnell, Entrepreneur

79. “You are what you think. So just think big, believe big, act big, work big, give big, forgive big, laugh big, love big, and live big.” -Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist and Philanthropist

80. “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” -Yoda, Star Wars

81. “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.” -Woody Allen, Actor and Director

82. “Business is like poker. You have to be able to read people. You have to understand the odds of a particular endeavor. You need to make calculated bets. And you have to get lucky.” -Richard Harroch, Venture Capitalist and Co-Author of Poker for Dummies

83. “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” -Charles R. Swindoll, Author

84. “What good is an idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Fail. Try again. Change the world.” -Simon Sinek, Author

85. “If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time—a tremendous whack.” -Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister

86. “Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.” -Lee Iacocca, Former CEO of Chrysler

88. “Don’t wait for perfection. Life isn’t perfect. Do the best you can and ship. Real people ship, and then they test and then they ship again. Then you wake up one day and you have something insanely great.” –Guy Kawasaki, Entrepreneur

87. “The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. President

89. “Success … is no longer a simple ascension of steps. You need to climb sideways and sometimes down, and sometimes you need to swing from the jungle gym and establish your own turf somewhere else on the playground.” -Reid Hoffman, Founder of LinkedIn

90. “Be nice to geeks; you’ll probably end up working for one.” –Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

91. “To have a great idea, have a lot of them.” -Thomas Edison, Inventor

92. “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” -Napoleon Bonaparte, Military Leader

93. “It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.” -Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple

94. “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” -Albert Einstein, Physicist

95. “Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.” -Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur, Author, and Motivational Speaker

96. “Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are asking, what’s in it for me?” -Brian Tracy, Entrepreneur and Author

97. “When you’re first thinking through an idea, it’s important not to get bogged down in complexity. Thinking simply and clearly is hard to do.” -Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group

98. “Behind every adversity is an opportunity. If you lament over the adversity, you will miss the opportunity.” -Ajaero Tony Martins, Entrepreneur and Investor

99. “What business should you start today? One that you are passionate about, has a big market opportunity, can be up and running quickly, and that doesn’t require a lot of initial capital. Think Internet, apps, e-commerce, and mobile.” -Richard Harroch, Venture Capitalist, Author, and Entrepreneur

[sorayahigashikata]

Chapter 67: "For Christ's sake."

[failuretofrag]

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? I think it's about even. 2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? Yessss 3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? Anything that's flat. Once I used a condom rapper. 4: how do you take your coffee/tea? Coffee with lots of cream, tea with sugar. 5: are you self-conscious of your smile? Slightly. 6: do you keep plants? Not anymore. 7: do you name your plants? I had a Japanese peace lily named Lily once. 8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? Poetry. 9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? Yess 10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? Side 11: what's an inner joke you have with your friends? So you're telling me.. a chicken fried this rice? 12: what's your favorite planet? Jupiter. 13: what's something that made you smile today? Jessi. 14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? Oh man, I have no idea. 15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is! All of space is completely silent. 16: what's your favorite pasta dish? Probably Tomato Basil Penne 17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? Auburn 18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up. They call me Ralph a lot because I got super drunk one night and couldn't stop puking. 19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? I have a sketch book that I doodle in. 20: what's your favorite eye color? Blue. 21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that's been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. I have so many bags, but my favourite one is a little cross shoulder bag that is my EDC. 22: are you a morning person? Not particularly, but I can wake up fairly fast. 23: what's your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations? Sleep. 24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? Two people, actually. Jessi and Gemini. 25: what's the weirdest place you've ever broken into? Uh, I broke into an old shed that was filled with hundreds of keys. 26: what are the shoes you've had for forever and wear with every single outfit? Under armor gym shoes? Lmao. 27: what's your favorite bubblegum flavor? Bubblegum. 28: sunrise or sunset? Sunset. 29: what's something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? Kim refers to my gf and I as Gag a lot, talking us up and such. 30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared? Yes. 31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks. Okay so I use to love having colorful mismatched socks, then my OCD took over, so now I have 30 pairs of the same ankle black socks. 32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. Coming down from ecstasy highs like 8 of us went to Denny's and just stayed there eating and joking for like 3 hours. 33: what's your fave pastry? Cheese Danish 34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? I had the Pegasus from Hercules. He was my favourite, but I lost him a few years back. 35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? I actually have a weird obsession with calligraphy and fountain pens. 36: which band's sound would fit your mood right now? Halsey 37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? I LIKE keeping it clean, but it's usually messy. 38: tell us about your pet peeves! Oh jeez.. loud noises, having to repeat myself, being ignored 39: what color do you wear the most? Black (but that's not a color) so blue 40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what's it's story? does it have any meaning to you? My class ring! Hell yeah. It's my class ring lmao 41: what's the last book you remember really, really loving? Right Behind You by Gail Giles 42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it! It's a Starbucks, but a really small one that lacks the usual pretentious feel of a Starbucks. 43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? Molly 44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? A couple nights ago. 45: do you trust your instincts a lot? All the time. 46: tell us the worst pun you can think of. Two fish swim into a concrete wall, one turns to the other and goes "Dam" 47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe? Pineapple on pizza. 48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? Nah, as a kid I thought that I'd get kidnapped, and now I know that that'd be a bad move on a kidnappers part. 49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? Not really, I don't buy music much, and when I do it's to support the artist, but the last one I bought was The Human Condition by Jon Bellion 50: what's an odd thing you collect? Rocks 51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? Jessi- Guillotine by Jon Bellion 52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? Cash me Ousside how bow dah 53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? I liked beetlejuice, and I loved pulp fiction. 54: who's the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? My friend Higgs 55: what's the most dramatic thing you've ever done to prove a point? That's hard to pinpoint. I've done a lot of dramati- I blew up my friends garbage can to prove I could make explosives out of things in his kitchen. 56: what are some things you find endearing in people? Laughs, half smiles, hesitation, voice cracks, eye contact 57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics? Lmao, I usually sing along, but I don't think I catch as much of the nostalgia as most. 58: who's the wine mom and who's the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why? Oh my god, so the wine mom is Aze and the vodka aunt is Crusher and I can't explain this very well but trust me. 59: what's your favorite myth? That people only use a small percent of their brain. 60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? Neil Hilborn- OCD Shane Koyczan- To This Day Rudy Francisco- Scars 61: what's the stupidest gift you've ever given? the stupidest one you've ever received? I gave my ex a coupon for a free kiss, and I received makeup from my uncle. 62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? Nope, coffee is the only thing I can stand. 63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? I like them organized. 64: what color is the sky where you are right now? Blue 65: is there anyone you haven't seen in a long time who you'd love to hang out with? Yeah 66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? Lots of blue and green with white highlights 67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? Amazing. I love gloomy days. 68: what's winter like where you live? Shit. Hot. Not fair. 69: what are your favorite board games? Sorry, Clue, Battleship, Connect four 70: have you ever used a ouija board? No, fuck that shit. 71: what's your favorite kind of tea? Snapple Peach tea 72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you'll forget it? Yeah, I have a horrible memory 73: what are some of your worst habits? Nail biting, lip biting, cutting 74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. Tall, dark, hilarious and a force to be reckoned with. 75: tell us about your pets! Baby is my pet. She a cat. She go meow. 76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren't? Nope 77: pink or yellow lemonade? Pink. 78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub? A little of both. 79: what's one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? This one time I was really sick, and Dani brought me soup and made me eat then helped me get up and shower and stuff. 80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? Off white. No. I want to redo it with some blood spatter 81: describe one of your friend's eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. Oh jeez. No. 82: are/were you good in school? I was bad with good grades. 83: what's some of your favorite album art? This is hard.. I Prevail- Lifelines album. 84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones? Already have some, but my next one is going to be a scorpion on my arm with water around it. 85: do you read comics? what are your faves? I use to! I think the series of ones containing the early stages of the relationship between harleyquinn and Ivy are my favourite. 86: do you like concept albums? which ones? They are okay I guess, but I don't really have any.. 87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives? Fight club American History X The Lorax 88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? Not particularly 89: are you close to your parents? Not at all. 90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. Austin! I love the people and the environment, it's so relaxing and surprising. 91: where do you plan on traveling this year? I'm not sure yet. 92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? I fucking love cheese. 93: what's the hairstyle you wear the most? Bed head 94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? Schultzy 95: what are your plans for this weekend? I'm not sure yet, might be working. 96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot? Procrastinate. 97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? The Commander ENTJ-A I think, Scorpio, Slytherin. 98: when's the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it? About 4 months ago, and yes I loved it 99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. AWOLNATION- Sail Jon Bellion- Guillotine Kiiara- Feels 100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why? Neither. Going back is a waste, and going forward is so unknown.

[newssplashy]

Opinion: Are genetic testing sites the new social networks?

Three years ago Dyan deNapoli, a 57-year-old author and TED speaker who specializes in penguins, was given a 23andMe genetic testing kit for her birthday.

About two months later she received a pie chart breaking down where her ancestors lived (99.4 percent of them were from Europe).

What she was most giddy about, however, was a 41-page list of all the people who had done the test and were genetically related to her: 1,200 in all. (Customers can choose whether their information is shared with others.)

“I had the names of everyone from my immediate family members to my first cousins, second cousins, third. Once I got past fourth cousins, it went to my fifth cousins, and beyond,” said deNapoli, who lives in Georgetown, Massachusetts. “It started me down this genealogical rabbit hole.”

Using the website’s internal messaging system supplemented with Facebook, she connected with three second cousins, who were in neighboring towns. She met each one for breakfast in a local diner, where they spent hours drinking coffee and poring over family trees and photos, marveling at various resemblances.

“Jorge is an older cousin, a very young 90,” deNapoli said. “Everybody agreed he looks just like my dad.”

Last June she visited a third cousin and other relatives in a mountainous village in the Campania region of Italy, her paternal grandmother’s place of origin, walking the narrow streets, eating four-course meals and learning stories of her ancestors, including a long-ago Hatfield-McCoy-level feud. “That’s why I really didn’t know this side of my family,” deNapoli said in wonderment.

‘Are You Sure You Are My Sister?’

At-home genetic testing services have gained significant traction in the past few years. 23andMe, which costs $99, has more than 5 million customers, according to the company; AncestryDNA (currently $69), more than 10 million.

The companies use their large databases to match willing participants with others who share their DNA. In many cases, long-lost relatives are reuniting, becoming best friends, travel partners, genealogical resources or confidantes.

The result is a more layered version of what happened when Facebook first emerged and out-of-touch friends and family members found one another. Children of long-ago casual sperm donors are finding their fathers. Adoptees are bonding to biological family members they’ve been searching for their entire lives.

Sherri Tredway, 55, is a marketing and development director for a social service agency based in Washington, Indiana. She was adopted as a baby, and in January she drove 2 1/2 hours to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to meet her biological half sister, Patty Roberts-Freeman, 60, with whom she connected through AncestryDNA.

Roberts-Freeman needed an outfit for a wedding, so they arranged to meet at a shopping mall to find one together. They started in the food court, where they bought sodas and talked for more than an hour about their mother, their current lives, their upbringings.

They then went to a Belk department store, where they tried on outfits. “I was looking at some dressy dresses and showed her a few, and she said, ‘No, no dresses for me!'” Tredway recalled. “I remember saying, ‘OK, are you sure you are my sister?’ which we both laughed about. She found a silky floral shell and a beautiful sweater in rose, pink and cream to wear with some slacks. It was very classy.'”

The half sisters have since seen each other several times, meeting in restaurants between their homes. They also see other relatives including two more half siblings, Sissy Bonham, 51, and Michael Clavette, 54, as well as their biological mother’s sister, Nancy Kalman Bell.

“Not a day goes by when I don’t talk to Aunt Nan,” Tredway said. “I call her to talk, when I’m upset, anything. She’s my family now.”

Josh Broadwater, 44, a deputy police sheriff in California, was abandoned when he was 1 day old in a gas station bathroom in California. When he was in his 30s, he implored the agency that placed him with adoptive parents to give him whatever information they had about his biological ones but ran into constant dead ends.

In July 2015 he sent a kit to AncestryDNA and found a cousin who shared DNA with him. That led to him discovering his biological father: a man who had had a one-night stand in the front seat of a ’69 pickup truck and never knew he existed. They connected over the phone, and soon Broadwater was driving 500 miles to go elk hunting on his father’s farm in Kingston, Utah.

“He kind of sat there quiet for 10 to 15 seconds,” said Broadwater about their first conversation. “And then in his cute little country voice he said, ‘Well, if Gloria is your mom, and this thing says I’m your dad, there is a damn good chance I am your dad.’ He is just the coolest person.”

The two got along so well that they now talk on the phone once a week about the weather, what is going on with the children, about the hunting season. “I never thought finding my biological dad, he would be the one calling me,” Broadwater said.

He also talks to a half brother who is eight months older than him. “I just got a text message from him that I’m going to be an uncle in October,” Broadwater said. “I don’t know how much I will be involved. This whole new family is new to me.”

The Genetic Global Village

Others who have their DNA tested are forming relationships not with specific people, but with their family’s places of origin.

One example is Leah Madison, 32, an education outreach coordinator for the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada. She was planning trips to Peru and Korea when she learned a year and a half ago from 23andMe that her family came from Greece, Italy and the Iberian Peninsula.

Over the winter she and her father went to the Iberian Peninsula for two weeks. She felt an ineluctable connection to the people as she ate their bread masterpieces, toured buildings by Antoni Gaudí and danced to flamenco music.

“I had a piece of paper that tells me I’m from Spain,” Madison said. “But then I went there and I noticed all these people have curly hair, and maybe that is where mine comes from?” Now she feels compelled to visit the other places as well.

But other testers have found their results more alienating.

In February 2016, Christine Carter, a marketing strategist, was on a business trip to London when she decided to open her 23andMe dossier. She was in her hotel room, rushing to dinner. “I thought it would be a quick reveal,” she said. “I was going to learn that I was Native American and black, and maybe learn a little bit more about the stories I heard as a child.”

Carter was shocked when the results showed she was 31.5 percent white or European. She struggled through dinner, keeping this revelation mostly to herself, until she got back to her home in Baltimore and contended with her feelings.

She wrote a Huffington Post blog post, “I Celebrated Black History Month ... By Finding Out I Was White” that went viral. It attracted thousands of comments, from white supremacists who berated her, to people who had a similar experience and shared her sentiments.

“It took me less than 30 minutes to write the post, it was like journaling, something to get it off my chest,” said Carter, 32. “So to have that reaction was insane.”

Perhaps the most frustrating reality is when users don’t have any known connections at all. This can happen to people in certain ethnic groups, including Latinos and Asians, that thus far have fewer people using the services and a smaller database.

“Diversity in genetic research is a global problem,” said Joanna Mountain, the senior director of research at 23andMe, adding that the company is offering free testing in some countries to begin to rectify that. “The results for Hispanics and Asians aren’t there yet, but they are coming,” said Jenn Utley, a family historian at Ancestry (the parent company of AncestryDNA). “The database keeps growing.”

Finding Your Tribe

Even for those privy to rich data, using a genetic-testing service as a social network poses challenges. DeNapoli has written to 25 people related to her and has heard back from only nine. “I guess a lot of people aren’t doing the tests to connect with family,” she said.

Tredway said she had a difficult experience after reaching out to her biological mother, getting an out-of-the-blue phone call from North Carolina while she was getting a haircut: “She said, ‘There is no way you could be my daughter,’ even though I knew I was.”

And then there is David Hughes, 38, the owner of an executive search firm, Sandbox Partners, who was ecstatic when he got his results back from 23andMe. “My breakdown is basically 60 percent Balkan, which is Mediterranean or Greek, 25 percent Native American Indian, 11 percent Middle Eastern and 4 percent Eastern African,” he said. “I’m like the heritage of warriors or something.”

But as much as Hughes wants to explore the different regions he comes from and meet the family members whom he got that DNA from, he hasn’t matched with anyone through the genetic testing service.

“My biological dad is 50 percent Native American Indian, so I eventually hope to find which tribe I am from,” he said. “But I have nothing yet.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

ALYSON KRUEGER © 2018 The New York Times

source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/06/opinion-are-genetic-testing-sites-new_16.html

[zeroviraluniverse-blog]

Tiger Woods Masters prep time questions ESPN golf

Visit Now - http://zeroviral.com/tiger-woods-masters-prep-time-questions-espn-golf/

Tiger Woods Masters prep time questions ESPN golf

SAN DIEGO — The promos started running weeks ago, short 15-second spots during the dead of winter in which a camera pans the Augusta National clubhouse and one of the iconic hand-operated scoreboards.

“Coming in April,” it says, teasing the year’s first major championship.

The Masters is near, and yet so far away.

Tiger had all kinds of trouble hitting the fairway, but despite that he managed to shoot under par at Torrey Pines, no small feat in his return to golf after back surgery.

They lined Torrey Pines’ fairways and stood hundreds deep along its greens hours in advance of the first two rounds of the Farmers Insurance Open, drawn by the one man who, for better or worse, transcends the sport of golf.

Can Woods return to golf dominance despite being riddled with ailments throughout his career? Take a journey through his injuries over the past 23 years as we wait to see if 2018 will be the year of Tiger.

2 Related

Tiger Woods caught those little reminders, which started airing during college football bowl games. Whether they had any impact deep down in his subconscious, he is not letting on.

During a brief chat on his way to the parking lot following his final round at the Farmers Insurance Open on Sunday, Woods said it’s too early for such emotion to stir. “Not yet,” he said after finishing tied for 23rd in his first PGA Tour event in a year. “It’s too far away. I start ramping up when I get to Florida. That’s when it hits much stronger.”

And yet, Woods clearly has Augusta on his mind, as he has referenced it or alluded to it on three occasions since returning to competitive golf at the Hero World Challenge late last year.

After tying for ninth in the Bahamas: “I think we’re going to sit down here, we’re doing to figure out what’s the best way for me to build my schedule for the major championships. Play, how much, what my training cycles are going to be, and play enough but don’t play too much.”

That was viewed as a positive sign. Not only was Woods feeling good about himself after shooting three rounds in the 60s, he felt secure enough to say that he hoped to map out a schedule that allowed him to properly play and prepare for the majors. This was just six weeks after he began hitting balls again after a lengthy forced break due to spinal fusion surgery.

And that does allow one to dream just a little bit. Woods hasn’t played the Masters since 2015, but the venue is one of his favorites and he has as much experience on it as just about anyone — save for Phil Mickelson — who would have a chance to win.

Besides his four victories, Woods has nine other top-10 finishes at the Masters. Following his last win in 2005, he went T3, T2, 2, T6, T4, T4, T40, T4. After missing the 2014 tournament because of back surgery, Woods tied for 17th in 2015 despite missing nine weeks before the tournament sorting out chipping issues.

In 2010, after skipping the first four months to deal with personal problems, Woods tied for fourth despite not having competed since December. Augusta National, despite its demands, is perhaps the one place where Woods can prosper without proper tournament preparation.

On Jan. 24, before the Farmers Insurance Open: “I’m just trying to build toward April. That’s what I told you guys last year in the Bahamas. I’m looking forward to playing a full schedule and getting ready for the Masters, and I haven’t done that in a very long time. That’s usually been my schedule and my outlook. From ’96 on it’s been that way to try to get ready for Augusta, and there’s no reason to change that.”

And this is cause for pause. Should Woods really be talking about getting ready to win a major championship, specifically the Masters, at this point?

He has played in five tournaments since tying for 10th at the 2015 Wyndham Championship. He is coming off a fourth back surgery, a spinal fusion in April that kept him from taking full swings for six months. Despite all the promise, he clearly has things to work out with his game.

“I’m going to go back and work on a bunch of things,” he said Sunday after his tie for 23rd at Torrey Pines. “I can feel some of the things I’m doing wrong in my swing, so we’re going to go back to work.”

Tiger’s first Masters jacket in 1997 wasn’t his last — he’s worn it four times in his career. Will he again? Sam Greenwood/PGA TOUR Archive

The problem is time. Is there enough of it? When Woods spoke of his typical routine of ramping things up for the Masters when the PGA Tour heads to Florida in March, that was based on many previous years when he had embarked on a full schedule.

Woods started three tournaments in 2017, two of them 10 months apart. He played seven rounds of golf. He has added four more now and plans to play the Genesis Open in two weeks. After that, he likely will play just twice more before the Masters at the Honda Classic and Arnold Palmer Invitational. If he were to miss the cut at either one, that further reduces his ability to get tournament tested.

Joe LaCava, who began caddying for Woods in 2011 and has seen Tiger deal with his share of injuries, is typically twisting the golfer’s arm to play more. He practiced with him before the Farmers in Florida and also in the Bahamas ahead of the Hero World Challenge.

“It was not too bad and there was plenty of good,” LaCava said of Woods’ performance at Torrey Pines. “Obviously, he has to drive it better. The short game looked pretty tight, and that’s always a plus. And he looks comfortable putting.

“He just needs to get some reps. Needs to get back to Florida to get some practice in, get more reps, and get tournaments under his belt. It’s like when I started with him in late 2011 and early 2012, he just needs some time and he just needs some competitive rounds.”

On Jan. 26, after shooting 71 with four birdies over his final nine holes to make the 36-hole cut on the number, Woods was asked what makes him feel uncomfortable: “Having to shoot low scores. These guys are all going low and I haven’t done that in a long time. I haven’t played the Tour in a while and I’m looking forward to just kind of progressing, just keep playing, keep playing tournaments and get everything kind of situated headed to April.”

Is there enough time? There are nine weeks until the Masters, with Woods unlikely to play tournaments in more than three of those weeks. Even if he added a tournament or two, he is then facing consecutive weeks of tournament golf, something he has yet to test. The idea of focusing on a single tournament, or the majors in general, flies in the face of preparing his body and his game for the long haul.

And a good bit of work is ahead. Woods hit just 17 of 54 fairways at Torrey Pines, the worst statistics of his career for a four-round event. Never one to hit a lot of fairways, Tiger could not have sustained success hitting just 30 percent of them.

Getting that sorted might take some time, as will other aspects he mentioned that are as simple as getting used to walking and waiting, five-hour tour rounds and learning to hit shots under pressure.

“He has to go away for two weeks and obviously work on things,” said six-time major winner and CBS analyst Nick Faldo. “It will be interesting to see if he will put a finger on the things he needs to work on. I’m going to give him another go. This is one year out (since his last PGA Tour event) and I know how rusty I would have felt.

“He’s done a great job scrambling, his stroke looks fantastic, he’s reading the greens very well. So he’s doing those things well. But the inconsistency of the timing and sync of his swing are off. He’s pounded the back more than I thought he was going to have to do.

“If he comes back with significant improvements when he comes back at Riviera (Genesis Open) … if he goes to Riviera and it’s another long grind, and if he goes to Honda and it’s a long grind, then it’s going to be something else.”

Woods has the rest of his career to prepare for, not just one tournament in April. But it’s one you can’t help but wonder about. The new promos for the Masters that are about to hit TV and video screens will only heighten the anticipation.

[likefusion]

How Any Digital Business Can Explode Using Word of Mouth Marketing: We live in a digital age. Each day we're bombarded with an endless stream of online ads via social media, websites, search engines, videos, and so on. Marketing companies spend billions upon billions each year researching, analyzing, and pushing ads to consumers. But you know what? No matter how sophisticated and streamlined digital marketing becomes, it still pales in comparison with the power of good old-fashioned word of mouth marketing (WOMM). According to in-depth studies from Nielsen, “WOMM recommendations still remain the most credible.” Just look at this graph that ranks consumers' trust, depending on the form of advertising and the action it produces. Positioned right at the top as the number one trust factor is “recommendations from people I know.” It heavily shapes consumers' opinions on brands/products/services, and this is unlikely to ever change. Here are a couple more stats that demonstrate the power of WOMM: “74 percent of consumers identify WOMM as a key influencer in their purchasing decision.” “WOMM has been shown to improve marketing effectiveness by up to 54 percent.” Just think about it. Would you feel more comfortable buying a product recommended by a close friend or by a marketing message shoved down your throat by some slick marketing guru? I would bet the former. The full impact There's another important detail I'd like to point out. It has to do with the long-term impact of acquiring new customers through WOMM. According to the Wharton School of Business, a customer you acquire from WOM has a 16 – 25 percent higher lifetime value than those you acquire from other sources. This means you're far more likely to get repeat business from an individual who's acquired through WOMM than otherwise. They also have a higher likelihood of becoming brand advocates or even brand ambassadors. Consumers trusting other consumers And there's one more thing. You don't necessarily need to have a person recommend your brand to someone they know directly to benefit from WOMM. In fact, the overwhelming majority of consumers trust recommendations from other consumers. According to Nielsen, 68 percent trust online opinions from other consumers, which is up 7 percent from 2007 and places online opinions as the third most trusted source of product information. Bright Local also reports, 88 percent of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts. The way I look at it, old school WOMM has meshed with the digital age. Many people now turn to other online consumers, whom they don't actually know, to find out whether a brand is worth purchasing from. If you can impress a handful of consumers and turn them into brand advocates, it can have a domino effect: they spread the word, which can lead to a surge in sales. It can set off a chain reaction. Have we forgotten about WOMM? There's a paragraph in a Forbes article I really like: The problem is that for the last few years, marketers have been focused on ‘collecting' instead of ‘connecting.' In other words, brands are too caught up in collecting social media fans and they are forgetting to actually connect with them. I think this really hits the nail on the head. Many marketers (myself included) are guilty of it to some extent. I feel we've gotten so caught up in the latest and greatest marketing techniques that we sometimes forget about what good business is founded on in the first place: relationships. Before there was social media, SEO, PPC, or even radio/TV commercials, most businesses gained new customers from old school person-to-person recommendations. But it's never too late to cash in on WOMM. However, it does require a slightly different approach from the one used in the past. The great thing is there are some really potent resources and platforms out there to streamline WOMM and maximize its impact. I'd now like to discuss some fundamental tactics you can use to make your digital business explode using WOMM in the modern age. Focus on your core audience, not the masses The first step to making this strategy work is to understand who your core audience is. Founding editor of Wired Magazine, Kevin Kelly formulated what I think was a brilliant hypothesis in 2008—the 1,000 true fans theory. His idea was that any artist, business, etc. could survive on having only 1,000 true fans and that “returns diminish as your fan base gets larger and larger.” In other words, you're more likely to have success if you focus on gaining 1,000 true fans rather than tens of thousands, or even millions, of lukewarm fans. Tim Ferriss has actually embraced this idea, and it has been a key part of his meteoric rise to fame. Ferriss even talks about the concept of 1,000 true fans in-depth in his new book, Tools of Titans. And I think this is a good approach to take in WOMM. You're far more likely to create brand advocates if you focus on truly connecting with your core audience rather than trying to appease the masses. This basically goes back to Pareto's 80/20 principle, which applies to many different areas of life and business. The premise is that 80 percent of your customers account for 20 percent of your sales and 20 percent of your customers account for 80 percent of your sales. What you need to do is put most of your attention on “wooing” the 20 percent and deepening your relationships with them. If you stick with this game plan, your core audience should grow even stronger, and you'll be creating the perfect environment for WOMM to take place. Be authentic and transparent I know saying something like this may sound a little generic and cliché, but it's still very important. I feel many brands are out of touch with their audiences, and they end up suffering for it in the long run. I believe authenticity and transparency are two of the most vital traits a brand can possess. Most people can spot any ounce of pretentiousness from a mile away. And with so many sleazeballs out there today, most consumers have developed a sense of skepticism that isn't easy to stamp out. I also realize that simply telling you to be authentic and transparent is a little vague. You might be asking: how exactly does one accomplish this? Of course, this is a huge topic to tackle, but I really like these suggestions from Copyblogger on how to get your customers to like you and build trust: When it comes to transparency, it all boils down to being yourself and making it a point to engage with consumers. You want to “humanize” your brand. Check out this post from Vision Critical for more on this topic. It highlights five specific brands that embraced transparency and found success as a result. Leverage reviews As I mentioned earlier, most consumers are receptive to online reviews and trust the opinions of other consumers even if they don't know them directly. If you can get your satisfied customers to leave positive reviews, you're almost guaranteed to see a spike in sales. So, I suggest doing everything within your power to encourage your satisfied customers to leave reviews. This starts by “claiming” your business on some of the top review sites such as Google My Business, Angie's List, and Yelp. I won't go into all the details of this process, but I recommend you check out an article I wrote on NeilPatel.com on how to get more online reviews. This will provide you with an in-depth look at and tips on how to make this strategy a success. I also suggest looking at this post from HubSpot that talks about 19 online review sites that can help your business get more reviews and gain traction. Add fuel to the fire with a referral program If you really want to expedite your WOMM, consider implementing some sort of a referral program. When done correctly, it can lead to an influx of new customers while giving your brand equity a nice boost. Here is a great example of a referral program that got it right. Several years ago, Dropbox started a referral program that offered customers up to 16GB of free storage for “inviting a friend” to join. What was the end result? The refer-a-friend feature increased signups by 60 percent Users sent 2.8 million direct referral invites Dropbox went from 100k to 4 million users in just 15 months This resulted in a 40x increase, or a doubling of users every 3 months This just goes to show the power a referral program can have. The key is to come up with some way to reward existing customers for referring your brand to a friend. This could be a discount, freebie, cash back, or whatever. As long as the reward has genuine value and isn't going to kill your profit margins, it should work. The specific reward program you'll want to implement will depend largely on your industry or niche. That's why I suggest reading this post from Referral Candy. It goes over 47 different referral programs that totally crushed it and should give you some ideas on coming up with an approach for your business. I also recommend checking out this guide from Referral Rock, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know on the subject. Conclusion With all the cutting-edge, sleek, and sexy marketing techniques out there, WOMM sometimes gets overlooked these days. And that's unfortunate. If you look at studies involving research on WOMM, it's easy to see that it's still alive and well. In many ways, WOMM is more powerful than ever when you consider the ease with which consumers can share reviews with one another. I know I usually find myself reading at least a couple of reviews before I purchase something on Amazon or especially before I book a spot on Airbnb. The way I look at it, it's never been easier to harness the power of WOMM than it is today. It's simply a matter of bringing this old school concept into the modern marketing era. By using a handful of fundamental concepts like the ones I discussed, you can absolutely make your digital business explode using WOMM. The best part is that many of the new customers you receive will be repeats and will even recommend your brand to their friends. And this is the very definition of creating a sustainable business model. How big of a role do you think WOMM plays in business today? http://bit.ly/2ny8sa9

[anseladams03]

How Any Digital Business Can Explode Using Word of Mouth Marketing

We live in a digital age.

Each day we’re bombarded with an endless stream of online ads via social media, websites, search engines, videos, and so on.

Marketing companies spend billions upon billions each year researching, analyzing, and pushing ads to consumers.

But you know what?

No matter how sophisticated and streamlined digital marketing becomes, it still pales in comparison with the power of good old-fashioned word of mouth marketing (WOMM).

According to in-depth studies from Nielsen, “WOMM recommendations still remain the most credible.”

Just look at this graph that ranks consumers’ trust, depending on the form of advertising and the action it produces.

Positioned right at the top as the number one trust factor is “recommendations from people I know.”

It heavily shapes consumers’ opinions on brands/products/services, and this is unlikely to ever change.

Here are a couple more stats that demonstrate the power of WOMM:

“74 percent of consumers identify WOMM as a key influencer in their purchasing decision.”

“WOMM has been shown to improve marketing effectiveness by up to 54 percent.”

Just think about it.

Would you feel more comfortable buying a product recommended by a close friend or by a marketing message shoved down your throat by some slick marketing guru?

I would bet the former.

The full impact

There’s another important detail I’d like to point out.

It has to do with the long-term impact of acquiring new customers through WOMM.

According to the Wharton School of Business,

a customer you acquire from WOM has a 16 – 25 percent higher lifetime value than those you acquire from other sources.

This means you’re far more likely to get repeat business from an individual who’s acquired through WOMM than otherwise.

They also have a higher likelihood of becoming brand advocates or even brand ambassadors.

Consumers trusting other consumers

And there’s one more thing.

You don’t necessarily need to have a person recommend your brand to someone they know directly to benefit from WOMM.

In fact, the overwhelming majority of consumers trust recommendations from other consumers.

According to Nielsen,

68 percent trust online opinions from other consumers, which is up 7 percent from 2007 and places online opinions as the third most trusted source of product information.

Bright Local also reports,

88 percent of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts.

The way I look at it, old school WOMM has meshed with the digital age.

Many people now turn to other online consumers, whom they don’t actually know, to find out whether a brand is worth purchasing from.

If you can impress a handful of consumers and turn them into brand advocates, it can have a domino effect: they spread the word, which can lead to a surge in sales.

It can set off a chain reaction.

Have we forgotten about WOMM?

There’s a paragraph in a Forbes article I really like:

The problem is that for the last few years, marketers have been focused on ‘collecting’ instead of ‘connecting.’ In other words, brands are too caught up in collecting social media fans and they are forgetting to actually connect with them.

I think this really hits the nail on the head.

Many marketers (myself included) are guilty of it to some extent.

I feel we’ve gotten so caught up in the latest and greatest marketing techniques that we sometimes forget about what good business is founded on in the first place: relationships.

Before there was social media, SEO, PPC, or even radio/TV commercials, most businesses gained new customers from old school person-to-person recommendations.

But it’s never too late to cash in on WOMM.

However, it does require a slightly different approach from the one used in the past.

The great thing is there are some really potent resources and platforms out there to streamline WOMM and maximize its impact.

I’d now like to discuss some fundamental tactics you can use to make your digital business explode using WOMM in the modern age.

Focus on your core audience, not the masses

The first step to making this strategy work is to understand who your core audience is.

Founding editor of Wired Magazine, Kevin Kelly formulated what I think was a brilliant hypothesis in 2008—the 1,000 true fans theory.

His idea was that any artist, business, etc. could survive on having only 1,000 true fans and that “returns diminish as your fan base gets larger and larger.”

In other words, you’re more likely to have success if you focus on gaining 1,000 true fans rather than tens of thousands, or even millions, of lukewarm fans.

Tim Ferriss has actually embraced this idea, and it has been a key part of his meteoric rise to fame.

Ferriss even talks about the concept of 1,000 true fans in-depth in his new book, Tools of Titans.

And I think this is a good approach to take in WOMM.

You’re far more likely to create brand advocates if you focus on truly connecting with your core audience rather than trying to appease the masses.

This basically goes back to Pareto’s 80/20 principle, which applies to many different areas of life and business.

The premise is that 80 percent of your customers account for 20 percent of your sales and 20 percent of your customers account for 80 percent of your sales.

What you need to do is put most of your attention on “wooing” the 20 percent and deepening your relationships with them.

If you stick with this game plan, your core audience should grow even stronger, and you’ll be creating the perfect environment for WOMM to take place.

Be authentic and transparent

I know saying something like this may sound a little generic and cliché, but it’s still very important.

I feel many brands are out of touch with their audiences, and they end up suffering for it in the long run.

I believe authenticity and transparency are two of the most vital traits a brand can possess.

Most people can spot any ounce of pretentiousness from a mile away.

And with so many sleazeballs out there today, most consumers have developed a sense of skepticism that isn’t easy to stamp out.

I also realize that simply telling you to be authentic and transparent is a little vague.

You might be asking: how exactly does one accomplish this?

Of course, this is a huge topic to tackle, but I really like these suggestions from Copyblogger on how to get your customers to like you and build trust:

When it comes to transparency, it all boils down to being yourself and making it a point to engage with consumers.

You want to “humanize” your brand.

Check out this post from Vision Critical for more on this topic.

It highlights five specific brands that embraced transparency and found success as a result.

Leverage reviews

As I mentioned earlier, most consumers are receptive to online reviews and trust the opinions of other consumers even if they don’t know them directly.

If you can get your satisfied customers to leave positive reviews, you’re almost guaranteed to see a spike in sales.

So, I suggest doing everything within your power to encourage your satisfied customers to leave reviews.

This starts by “claiming” your business on some of the top review sites such as Google My Business, Angie’s List, and Yelp.

I won’t go into all the details of this process, but I recommend you check out an article I wrote on NeilPatel.com on how to get more online reviews.

This will provide you with an in-depth look at and tips on how to make this strategy a success.

I also suggest looking at this post from HubSpot that talks about 19 online review sites that can help your business get more reviews and gain traction.

Add fuel to the fire with a referral program

If you really want to expedite your WOMM, consider implementing some sort of a referral program.

When done correctly, it can lead to an influx of new customers while giving your brand equity a nice boost.

Here is a great example of a referral program that got it right.

Several years ago, Dropbox started a referral program that offered customers up to 16GB of free storage for “inviting a friend” to join.

What was the end result?

The refer-a-friend feature increased signups by 60 percent

Users sent 2.8 million direct referral invites

Dropbox went from 100k to 4 million users in just 15 months

This resulted in a 40x increase, or a doubling of users every 3 months

This just goes to show the power a referral program can have.

The key is to come up with some way to reward existing customers for referring your brand to a friend.

This could be a discount, freebie, cash back, or whatever.

As long as the reward has genuine value and isn’t going to kill your profit margins, it should work.

The specific reward program you’ll want to implement will depend largely on your industry or niche.

That’s why I suggest reading this post from Referral Candy.

It goes over 47 different referral programs that totally crushed it and should give you some ideas on coming up with an approach for your business.

I also recommend checking out this guide from Referral Rock, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know on the subject.

Conclusion

With all the cutting-edge, sleek, and sexy marketing techniques out there, WOMM sometimes gets overlooked these days.

And that’s unfortunate.

If you look at studies involving research on WOMM, it’s easy to see that it’s still alive and well.

In many ways, WOMM is more powerful than ever when you consider the ease with which consumers can share reviews with one another.

I know I usually find myself reading at least a couple of reviews before I purchase something on Amazon or especially before I book a spot on Airbnb.

The way I look at it, it’s never been easier to harness the power of WOMM than it is today.

It’s simply a matter of bringing this old school concept into the modern marketing era.

By using a handful of fundamental concepts like the ones I discussed, you can absolutely make your digital business explode using WOMM.

The best part is that many of the new customers you receive will be repeats and will even recommend your brand to their friends.

And this is the very definition of creating a sustainable business model.

How big of a role do you think WOMM plays in business today?

from Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/2oGZaZH from Blogger http://ift.tt/2nHLf8l March 31, 2017 at 08:36PM

[sorayahigashikata]

Chapter 66: "Screw you all."

[sportsandfitnessinfo]

New Post has been published on http://fitnessandhealthpros.com/beauty/6-essential-things-you-must-do-in-your-30s-because-adulting/

6 Essential Things You Must Do In Your 30s Because, #Adulting

Sitting in the presence of my dearest friends, a mammoth amount of sushi, and an over-sized BB-8 plush (thanks, Chels), I came to the realization that there was no discernible difference between 32 and 31. Just another birthday, just another year gone by. Somewhere around 25, everything seemed to slow to a snail’s pace. Even the milestone 30 was anticlimactic. I don’t feel transformed, or wiser, or any more “adult” than before.

Of course, despite this vague feeling that life is increasingly static, things really do change. I’m starting to get some fine lines around my eyes that concealer loves to settle in. I have more and more grey hairs appearing at my temples every day. And let’s not forget the time I sneezed and threw my back out. I am definitely aging, and with that passage of time, I’ve become aware that there are things I need to be focusing on.  

If you, like me, are a Millennial in their early 30s, here are some things you may want to turn your attention to.

1. Going Green

A lot of people view going green as a complete lifestyle change, wherein all of their decisions and actions absolutely must be aimed toward saving the planet. Such a colossal undertaking is so overwhelming that they end up forgoing the idea altogether. However, going green can be incredibly easy, and you don’t have to change your entire life to do it. It’s all about those baby steps. Believe it or not, even the smallest of changes can have a huge impact — and not just on the environment.

For instance, you can save precious natural resources and increase the overall value of your home by adding solar panels to the roof, or installing water-saving toilets, showers, and faucets. You can reduce your energy consumption and save hundreds of dollars on your utility bills by purchasing Energy Star appliances. You can decrease pollution and get some sweet tax credits by purchasing an electric or hybrid vehicle.

There are an endless number of reasons to embrace a greener lifestyle. There are the obvious ones — e.g. preserving natural resources, reducing pollution, and creating better future for generations to come — but there are also secondary reasons, such as improving your health and saving a ton of money. In the end, it doesn’t really matter why you choose to go green because ultimately, you’re doing the right thing for the environment.

2. Nursing Your Credit

Whether you like it or not (Dave Ramsey, I’m looking your way), your credit score influences the course of your life in more ways than one. Lenders use your credit report and score to determine your risk as a borrower. This impacts whether or not you’re approved for loans such as a mortgage, car loan, or credit card. It’s a deciding factor in what interest rate you get. Landlords may use your credit score when weighing your application for a rental. It can also affect how much you pay for home and auto insurance. Simply put, your credit score is insanely important.

The three bureaus that issue credit reports and scores have different evaluation systems —  and they’re not exactly forthcoming with information regarding said systems. In an interview with WalletHub, William J. Chambers, Associate Professor of the Practice Emeritus of Administrative Sciences at Boston University Metropolitan College, points out, “The lack of transparency and the inability to link actions (e.g. maintaining an ongoing outstanding balance on a credit card, missing payments, taking on additional debt, etc.) with the resulting score is perhaps the weakest link in the chain. I suspect many individuals somehow believe that the scores just magically appear or drop from the sky, and fail to link the scores with their own actions. Providing this kind of transparency would, at least, provide some incentive to consumers to avoid situations where they unknowingly harm themselves.”

The good news is that you do have some control over your credit score — and if it needs help, there are things you can do to build it back up. Since your credit score is (generally speaking) based on your payment history, how much you owe, how much credit you have available, the length of your credit history, and the types of credit you have, carefully managing these factors is the most effective thing you can do. Start simply — plan your payments and get a handle on your total debt. Once you have your debt paid down:

Strive to keep a balance of less than 30 percent of your available credit limit.

Check your credit report and at least once a year. Look for errors, and work to correct any you find.

Establish solid credit accounts, such as personal loans or major credit cards. Aim to get cards with high limits, but keep a low balance.

Even if you no longer use the card, don’t close out old accounts. Long standing accounts are good for your score.

While this may seem obvious, it bears repeating: Pay your bills on time.

Building or rebuilding your credit history takes time. Be aware that it may be awhile before your report reflects the positive work you’ve done. Patience is key!

3. Taking Care of Your Health

Chances are, you, or someone you know, is struggling with an illness — be it physical or mental. That’s why it may come as no surprise that a survey from Transamerica Center for Health Studies found that 54% of Millennials say they have been diagnosed with a chronic illness. That being said, the same report found that more than a quarter of Millennials state they do not have a primary care provider. This is incredibly troubling.

Preventive care, such as periodic screenings, reproductive care, and adult immunizations, are essential to your overall health. For new mothers, preventive services like breastfeeding support and counseling, as well as contraceptive coverage are also much needed. The Affordable Care Act has provisions that help cover the cost of these services, and we should be taking advantage of that for as long as it exists.

Furthermore, finding a primary care doctor and getting those regular checkups is of utmost importance. While seeing an urgent care doctor may seem quicker, you end up sacrificing continuity of care. Regularly visiting a doctor who’s familiar with your medical history has a number of benefits, including the fact that they’re always able to take your past and existing conditions into account before giving you a new diagnosis.

4. Saving for Retirement

Very few Millennials are actually saving as much as they should be for retirement — and there’s no real mystery as to why. With the majority of us struggling with unemployment, outsized housing costs, and hefty student loan debt, retirement is an extremely low financial priority. But that doesn’t mean we’re not aware of the dangers. A recent survey by Bankrate.com found that, when it comes to retirement, Millennials’ biggest fear is running out of money.

Unfortunately, life isn’t making things easy on us. For years, the rule regarding retirement saving was to set aside 10-15% of each paycheck. However, according to investment firm BlackRock, future returns suggest that Gen Y-ers may need to save 25% of our pay to get the same result that was available to boomers saving half that much.

The good news is that this number comes from the assumption that Social Security will disappear before we can draw from it, which is unlikely to happen. Still, it’s a point worth considering. Our boomer predecessors were lucky enough to enjoy a rather prosperous period for market gains — and it’s doubtful that we’ll be seeing the same good fortune during our saving years. Since most 401K plans are split between stocks and bonds, we’ll need to supplement our retirement savings with something other than investments.

The best thing we can do is to start saving as early and consistently as possible. Much like green living, every little bit counts! Don’t put off retirement savings unless you absolutely have to, because the best thing we have going for us is time. With about 35 to 40 years until retirement, we really are in the best possible place to begin saving.

5. Buying Life Insurance

Life insurance is one of those things that we usually don’t think about until something major — and unfortunate —  happens. Though we’re still young, life insurance is something we should all be considering, especially if we have children. There are two reasons in particular why life insurance is so important:

You’re not immune to death. Depending on whether you opt for cremation or burial, the average funeral costs between $ 6,000 and $ 11,000. Without life insurance to cover these costs, your family would be left holding the bill. If you are otherwise unburdened by debt, a small life insurance policy will relieve the financial strain.

If you have a large amount of debt — student loans, credit cards, mortgage — it could fall on your parents or partner to pay up after you pass. Buying enough life insurance to offset this debt will prove to eliminate additional stress on your loved ones at the end of your life.

Life insurance is surprisingly affordable. Premiums are based on several factors, including your age and overall health — that means that the younger you are, the less you’ll pay for coverage. This is especially true if you don’t smoke or have any preexisting health conditions. The longer you wait, the higher that monthly cost will jump. Since life insurance rates are locked in once your policy goes into force, it makes good financial sense to buy now and pay a lower cost for the duration of your plan.

6. Writing a Will

Speaking of death, there’s another thing a lot of Millennials fail to consider — estate planning. Yes, we’re young, have a full life ahead of us and not much of an estate to speak of, but we’re actually surprisingly vulnerable. Since Gen Y-ers are far more likely than older generations to have unconventional family situations, we’re less likely to be covered by the legal protections afforded to married couples. To put it plainly, if you’re not married to your partner, they’re not entitled to anything when you die.

Another thing to contemplate is what happens to your pets when you’re gone? And will your parents instinctively know who to give your valued possessions to? Basic planning is essential to make sure that the people, pets, and things that matter most to you are taken care of when you pass. Good estate planning goes beyond a will. You’ll also need to plan for the following:

Power of attorney — Authorizes a person of your choice to make financial decisions on your behalf should you become incapacitated.

Health-care proxy – Authorizes a person of your choice to make health care-related decisions on your behalf should you become incapacitated.

HIPPA release form – Permits access to your medical information on your behalf should you become incapacitated.

Advanced health-care directive – Outlines your healthcare decisions (e.g. do not resuscitate, do not incubate, organ donation, etc.)

While death and disability aren’t exactly the most uplifting of things to dwell on, they are, nevertheless, something that should be planned for. Not only do these arrangements ensure your wishes are met when you’re unable to make the decisions, they also save your family a lot of sorrow.

So many of the struggles of adulthood can be avoided with a well thought out plan. As the old adage says, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” So, let’s plan for the future by living green, watching our financials, taking care of our health, saving for retirement, and making end-of-life preparations today. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.

Do you have any additional tips for Millennials settling into adulthood?

Also by Liz: Millennials Are Under Crushing Stress, Science Says. Here’s How To Cope

15 Genius Home Hacks that Save Water–and $ $ $

Related: How to Adjust Your Budget and Save Money

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Liz Greene is a makeup enthusiast, rabid feminist, and an anxiety-ridden realist from the beautiful city of trees, Boise, Idaho. You can follow her latest misadventures on her blog, Instant Lo.

Originally at :Peaceful Dumpling Written By : Liz Greene

#Adulting, #Because, #Essential, #Must, #Things #Beauty