#like it's any more or less serious or (un)approachable than any other culturally important classical text

[agnesandhilda]

I've got an impressive stack of books by my bed including (A) one about the sexualization of female characters in anime (B) one about virgin martyr saints, including commentary on how fucked up that is as a concept and, for a while, (C) one about the historical roots of yuri manga (god bless university libraries) and somehow the one I always feel compelled to hide from my roommate is my bible

[scripttorture]

Hello! I have a few questions related to your most recent post and the definition of torture. You said:

"A trained person who was never tortured will always out perform someone whose training involved torture."

According to everything else I have seen on your blog, this makes sense - the mental and physical trauma from being tortured have lasting effects which make certain tasks more difficult.

However, this seems to juxtapose certain tropes I've seen in US military training advertisements. For example, "Hell Week" in the Navy SEAL training seems like it would be torture if it was forced upon someone (like if the soldiers didn't sign up for it and didn't have the option to quit.). *Hell Week is when soldiers are training continuously for 5 days in freezing, wet conditions, with little more than 4 hours of sleep for the entire week, under insane amounts of physical and mental stress.

- If someone chose to be tested both mentally and physically, I feel like it wouldn't be torture. However, if the same exact conditions were forced upon someone else (testing their mental and physical limits without their consent or understanding), does your quote above mean that the person who did not have a choice would not reap the benefits of the training/testing? Or would the Navy SEALs be better soldiers if they didn't have to go through 'torturous conditions' during Hell Week, regardless of their choice to do so?

(I used Hell Week as an example, but I meant this question generally. I'm trying to figure out how to best train an elite soldier and avoid any harmful torture apologia tropes, while also making sure that they are able to handle insanely challenging situations)

- My other question has more to do with the definition of torture that you quoted from the UN in one of your master posts. If someone is being seriously injured (pulled fingernails, whipping, starvation etc), but not for the purposes of interrogation, punishment, or intimidation, is that still torture, or is that just abuse? And, regardless of what we call it, would the effects be the same as if it were torture for any of the three motives above?

Sorry if this is long and hard to understand, I can clarify if needed!

It’s not the longest I’ve gotten and it’s perfectly clear, duck*. :) Honestly this is a difficult topic with a lot of nuance, it’s better to take a longer and more thoughtful approach.

 From the stand point of the legal definition and what we study/understand as torture any consensual activity, however extreme, is not torture.

 But here’s where it gets interesting: consent and our attitude to an activity actually changes our response to pain. It may even change how much pain we feel.

 I’m going to take a slightly different example to yours. There are a lot of cultures globally that have practiced scarification, ritual cutting to deliberately form scars. And this can be done for a lot of reasons: membership of a family or clan, coming of age, traditional medicine, religion, you get the idea.

 A lot of people in these cultures describe their scars as incredibly important and the process of getting them as a moving, deep and positive process.

 This does not mean they wouldn’t be traumatised if they were attacked by someone with a knife.

 Being able to approach something painful and see it as positive really changes our perspective. It makes trauma and mental illness a lot less likely. And being able to back out, even if it’s just for a little while to take a breather, seems to make us able to withstand more pain then we would have otherwise.

 The simplest and most famous experiment that dealt with this relationship between our mindset and pain asked people to keep their hands in ice cold water. They timed how long people could do it when they were told to stay silent and how long they could do it when they were allowed to swear. If they swore they could hold their hands under for longer. An average of forty seconds longer.

 Looking back over O’Mara (Why Torture Doesn’t Work, a very good intro to how pain works and what it does to the brain) the way he describes it as by thinking of the experience of pain as a collection of three things. There’s the physical sensation itself, the nerves firing. But there’s also an affective component, how we feel emotionally about the experience and a cognitive component, how we think about it.

 Did you ever play that game as a kid where you stuff as many chilis as possible in your mouth to see who would spit them out first? I… might have done. And from what I remember it hurts an awful lot. But those memories to me are mostly about messing about with my friends, I remember trying to be stubborn about it and I remember us laughing at each other.

 This is a completely different experience to someone being held down and having chili stuff up their nose. But the difference isn’t necessarily in the physical damage done or the physical sensation of pain. It’s in the other components, the emotional response and the rationalisation.

 I also had a filling drilled in my tooth without painkillers as a kid. I don’t know how common this is in the West? It happened in Saudi. Honestly my biggest memory of it is the language barrier between myself and the dentist.

 These are anecdotes obviously but I’m trying to show that you probably also have experiences in your own life that back up the experiments too. The way we think about a painful experience really does make a huge amount of difference. And that means consent matters enormously.

 These soldiers are going into this experience knowing what to expect, how long it will last and that they can stop at any time. That makes a huge amount of difference. Those same factors have drastically increased the time volunteers will spend in solitary confinement for research. I’m pretty sure if I dug even a little I’d find pain studies with similar findings.

 Here’s the flip side: the physical factors are still in play.

 Sleep is an important physiological process that’s essential to normal functioning. Studies on consensual sleep deprivation have shown massive negative impacts on memory along with a host of other things that you can read about here.

 Let’s take a non torture example. A student who stays up all night cramming for an exam is not going to develop the symptoms of trauma that a torture survivors who was sleep deprived would. But the effect sleep deprivation has on memory is due to sleep playing an essential role in preserving memory (and learning more generally.) So they’re both likely to have difficulty remembering things in days just before and just after sleep deprivation. They’re also both more likely to have false memories and catch a bad cold.

 As a result of this memory impairment I question the educational value of anything involving sleep deprivation: you can’t learn while messing up the processes that let your brain remember things.

 There have been cases in the UK of people dying during training for the armed forces. Because while consent makes a huge difference, mindset makes a huge difference- our bodies still have limits. We can choose to push ourselves past those limits and, whatever our motivation or feelings, it can do real harm.

 Personally? I’m unsure of the benefit of these kinds of exercises. As in I’m unsure there is a benefit. Learning is going to be shot, chances of injury are going to be a lot higher- I don’t see anything that could be improved by these sorts of exercises.

 Anecdotally people do report feeling like a closer unit after going through these sorts of routines. That might be the benefit: moral and unit cohesion, possibly self-esteem too.

 If you’re making up something for your story I think it’d be helpful for me to mention a little statistical effect that gets used to justify punishment pretty regularly. Get some dice out if you’ve got them and roll one. Let’s say the number represents performance in some kind of test (because effort and learning matter but our performance also varies because of things we can’t control.) A roll of 1 gets punished, a roll of 6 gets praised.

 Now after you roll that first 1 statistically speaking the chances are your next roll will be better. And if you roll a 6 then statistically speaking the chances are your next roll will be worse. People observe this effect in real life and they often conclude that there’s no point in praising someone but that punishment leads to improvement. Really it’s just a statistical effect, after a particularly, noticeably bad day the chances are things will be better next and vice versa.

 This effect can make it difficult for people to recognise overall, long term progress. Which is the kind of progress you should be paying attention to when designing a training program.

 If you want good performance from people, whatever the metric, the most efficient thing to do is ensure that those people are; well fed, have access to clean water, get plenty of sleep, have breaks and have access to medical treatment when they need it.

 I’d say the main things to keep in mind when designing this fictional training regime are:

Being honest about the effects you describe, ie if they’re spending long periods without shelter are they at risk from exposure? If they’re standing in cold water are they going to get hypothermia?

Remember that even if something is damaging or causes lasting trauma it would not necessarily prevent someone from doing their job. Torture survivors have serious, lasting symptoms but many of them still work.

 I think I’m going to leave that there because I’m not an expert in militaries or training people. And keep in mind that I am a pacifist, read this with my biases in mind.

 Getting to the second question, there is a little more to the UN definition then that. The primary factor is still who the abuser is. For it to be torture (legally speaking) the abuser has to be (or be ordered by) an on-duty government employee, part of a group that controls territory (ie an occupying force). Some countries also count international organised criminal gangs in this definition.

 It’s also important to note that torture can be targetted at someone other then the victim. So if the police arrest the brother of a political opponent and beat him in order to intimidate the politician, that is still torture.

 Basically there are a lot of factors in the legal definition of torture and it’s that way by design. The hope is that you end up with a framework that captures as much government abuse as possible.

 But it also means that there’s a pretty high barrier when it comes to proving torture. Which means that things which are legally torture can be prosecuted as assault, bodily harm or equivalents to these, because it’s easier to get a conviction for those charges.

 Technically you are correct: if abuse done by a government official doesn’t have one of the four motivations in the legal definition (attempts to obtain information, forcing a confession, intimidation or punishment) then it doesn’t meet the definition.

 However in practice I’ve not heard of a case failing because of the motive.

 I’m not a lawyer and I’m not an expert in international law. I won’t say it’s never happened. But it’s much more common for cases to fail for other reasons. Off the top of my head I’d say the most common reason is difficulty proving the abuse took place.

 The most common types of torture today are ‘clean’, a term we use to indicate that they don’t leave obvious marks. If someone turns up with fingernails torn out or the skin of their back lacerated by a whip that is clear physical evidence of abuse. Nothing else causes similar injuries. But if someone turns up at a doctor’s with swollen feet or reddened skin, if they’ve lost a lot of weight or they’re so tired they’re struggling to stand… Well all of those things can be caused by common tortures. But they can also be caused by common illnesses.

 A lot of the deaths from torture today are similarly hard to prove. Beatings and stress positions ultimately cause death by kidney failure. Which can mean that prosecutors are asked to prove a victim didn’t have an underlying health condition. Or take drugs.

 Honestly my instinct is that the motive is the easiest thing to prove. It’s often harder to bring charges against people in positions of authority, regardless of the country we’re talking about. Bringing those charges, proving abuse took place and proving it was done by the person in question, those are usually the tricky parts.

 The difference between torture and abuse is scale. Torture is industrial scale abuse.

 The law doesn’t define that scale but that’s what we’re talking about when we talk about abuse from organised authority. Abusers might have dozens of victims. Torturers have thousands, tens of thousands.

 If you want to explore a different motivation in your story, something outside the legal framework, consider the scale at which this abuse is taking place. Consider how organised it is. If it’s organised and large scale, with multiple abusers, with no prior relationship between the abuser and victims then torture will probably be a better model then abuse. If it’s smaller scale with a more personal relationship and if it isn’t supported by a legal framework/organisation then abuse might be a better model.

 For victims and survivors the difference isn’t so much about the symptoms they personally experience as the… side effect of that scale. Abuse victims are often very isolated and may not know anyone who has had a similar experience. Torture implies a community of survivors and possibly generational trauma. There are also effects to do with access to support, access to medical care and how likely it is that someone will be believed.

 Torture survivors are often systematically disenfranchised in a way that abuse victims are not. Torture survivors are often forced to leave their home country. Anecdotally, based on what I’ve seen globally over the last few years, I think that struggling to get citizenship is increasingly an issue for torture survivors. And without citizenship there’s difficulty finding legal work, getting accommodation, accessing medical care, accessing the legal system etc.

 I do not know whether torture survivors are more or less likely to be believed by their community compared to survivors of abuse. I do not think any one has attempted a comparative study. I do know that the prevalence of clean torture means that many torture survivors are not believed and this puts up a further barrier, making it harder to access medical treatment and bring charges.

 Rejali’s book was published in 2009, so things may have changed a tad. At the time he was writing the average wait for a torture survivor to see a specialist doctor was about 10 years.

 Abuse is to torture what murder is to genocide. And there are difference on a wider social scale as a result.

 I mention all that because I feel it’s relevant but the impression I get is you’re mostly interested in the long term symptoms? In which case, yes the legal definition makes very little difference. The physical injuries caused by particular kinds of abuse don’t change depending on whether it’s a private individual or a police officer holding the Taser.

 The lasting psychological symptoms are not particular to torture; they’re what the human brain does when traumatised. The same symptoms can manifest in people who witness traumatic events but weren’t actually hurt themselves. They can manifest in people who were injured in accidents and they manifest in people who were neglected or abused. Hell, I have a couple of them, though no where near the severity a torture survivors would experience. A sufficient amount of stress is enough for these symptoms to start developing in anybody.

 You can find the general list of symptoms here. There’s also a post specifically about memory problems over here.

 The pattern I describe; that these symptoms are a list of possibilities not ‘every torture victim will get all of these’ holds true for trauma survivors generally. Anecdotally there is some variability with chronic pain being reported more often with some kinds of abuse. That might be because it can have physical causes, psychological causes or a mix of the two.

 Whether it’s torture or abuse there isn’t any way to predict a survivor’s symptoms in advance. Much of the advice I have about writing torture survivors and their symptoms holds true for trauma survivors generally. Which is why I’ll still take a crack at some questions that aren’t about torture.

 Pick the symptoms that you feel fit the character and serve the story. We can’t predict symptoms and that means that there’s no reason why you shouldn’t pick the things that appeal to you.

 And I think I’m going to leave it there. I hope that helps :)

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

*This is a weird English endearment. I had someone ask if this was me trying not to swear. 

[whitehotharlots]

It’s impossible to square the circle of #BelieveWomen

Let’s think back a month ago, to what turned out to be a pivotal moment in the 2020 campaign: Elizabeth Warren’s bizarre claim that Bernie told her a woman could not win the presidency.

The dishonesty of the attack on Sanders was so manifest that the takes barely need to be re-enunciated: her campaign was stalling so she lied about Sanders, hoping to re-focus media attention on herself while riding the most cynical aspects of MeToo into a poll bounce. Bernie faced an accusation, and since the only properly woke response to an accusation is immediate and uncritical acceptance, he was going to be dinged no matter what happened afterward. (Only, hilariously, he was not dinged. It was actually Liz whose campaign was ruined by the stunt. And this signals, I hope to god, an end to this bullshit). 

This is all very basic. Good writers have already covered it. You don’t need me to rehash it any further.

I would like to talk, however, about how this highlights larger and more fundamental problems within the #BelieveWomen/#MeToo cinematic universe--problems that must be confronted if the people who seriously believe in the goals of these movements wish to accomplish anything other than securing book deals for a handful of shitty writers. My framing device here will be a concept introduced by Rogers Brubaker and Frederick Cooper, in their 20-year-old critique of identity politics. This has to do with the split between hard “identity,” a fixed and firm conceptualization of identity that carries immense rhetorical weight but does not hold up to theoretical scrutiny, and soft “identity,” which views identities as protean and constructed--a more theoretically sound concept that has very little purchase in everyday discourse.

To start with an aside: it’s important to note that the malignant strains of identity politics presently infesting liberalism have been around for decades. It’s just that they didn’t have much utility until the Obama years--when it became clear that the promises of Hope and Change really just meant more means testing, more austerity, mass deportation, the wanton destruction of the planet, and an acceleration of our Forever Wars. The Democratic Party had to shift gears. In response to a crushing defeat in the 2010 midterms, their media apparatus decided to aggressively pursue identitarianism. This came with two benefits: 1) It allowed them to differentiate themselves from Republicans and motivate supporters while still sharing 98% of the GOP’s policy positions (this is where we get the logic about it being, like, so important for kids to see Black Panther); and 2) it provided an easy means of discrediting any material politics (“if we broke up the banks tomorrow, would that create more trans CEOs?”). Very little has changed within cultural studies-based understandings of identity over the last 20 years, as will be demonstrated from our review of Brubaker and Cooper’s piece. 

Brubaker and Cooper posit that

 “Identity,” is both a category of practice and a category of analysis. As a category of practice, it is used by ‘lay’ actors in some (not all!) everyday settings to make sense of themselves, of their activities, of what they share with, and how they differ from, others. It is also used by political entrepreneurs to persuade people to understand themselves, their interests, and their predicaments in a certain way, to persuade certain people that they are (for certain purposes) ‘identical’ with one another and at the same time different from others, and to organize and justify collective action along certain lines. (4-5)

As a category of practice, identity is morally neutral--its goodness or badness depends upon what ends its evocation is utilized toward. The trouble is when this category of practice is spun into a foundation of analysis, at which point the conception of identity becomes reified, made to appear as sort of an inatlertable given.  “We should,” the authors note “avoid unintentionally reproducing or reinforcing such reification by uncritically adopting categories of practice as categories of analysis” (5). 

Now, you may be fine with the notion that identity markers are un-transcendable, that they serve as the primary or perhaps even exclusive determining factor of a person’s being, worth, or moral stature. That’s what’s called an essentialist point of view. There’s trouble, though, because essentialism is (at least nominally) rejected within most bodies of academic thought. The more prevailing frame is called constructivism, which posits (correctly, I feel) that there’s nothing magical or inevitable about identity groupings, that they are instead social constructs and can therefore eventually be transcended even if their present-day effects are very real. This, the authors note, points to the fundamental contradiction of how identity is actually understood:

We often find an uneasy amalgam of constructivist language and essentialist argumentation. This is not a matter of intellectual sloppiness. Rather, it reflects the dual orientation of many academic identitarians as both analysts and protagonists of identity politics. It reflects the tension between the constructivist language that is required by academic correctness and the foundationalist or essentialist message that is required if appeals to ‘identity’ are to be effective in practice. (6)

Basically, “identity” has been formulated in such a way that it can be utilized in a essentialist sense even while its purveyors issue rote denials of its essentialism--like how someone can shamelessly use the #VoteLikeBlackWomen tag while claiming to not regard black women as ideologically monolithic. Or, more generally, by asserting that social problems can only be addressed by listening to Oppressed Group X or Y, (which is done most commonly as a response to left-materialist suggestions for change), as if all members of those groups would understand each issue identically and would suggest the same response. This is a dishonest and incoherent approach to politics, but it prevails because of its utility--that is, because it poses no real threat to existing power structures.

Here we find a rhetorical move that is foundational to contemporary identity politics: leaning on popular but theoretically indefensible understandings of terms and slogans while claiming that we actually understand these terms and slogans in obscure ways that are unpopular and rhetorically weak. Simply put: this is a lie. 

Brubaker and Cooper go on to explain that “weak or soft conceptions of identity are routinely packaged with standard qualifiers indicating that identity is multiple, unstable, in flux, contingent, fragmented, constructed, negotiated, and so on. These qualifiers have become so familiar--indeed obligatory--in recent years that one reads (and writes) them virtually automatically. They risk becoming mere place-holders, gestures signaling a stance rather than words conveying a meaning” (11). And the parallels here to Intersectionality are manifest--like how class is perfunctorily nodded toward but never substantially engaged with, or how what is purported as a means of understanding a multitude of identity positions is, in practice, a victimhood hierarchy that’s used to determine the (in)validity of people’s actions and observations. As long as we keep allowing people to hide within this double-conceptualization, we will continue promulgating an understanding of social problems that contradicts itself so fully that it cannot lead to any actionable analysis. 

This is fairly obvious now, in 2020, with identitarians having taken control over our liberal institutions and failing miserably at enacting any but the most superficial of changes. But in 2000, Brubaker and Cooper pointed out the simple fact that “weak conceptions of identity may be too weak to do useful theoretical work. In their concern to cleanse the term of its theoretically disreputable ‘hard’ connotations, in their insistence that identities are multiple, malleable, fluid, and so on, soft identitarians leave us with a term so infinitely elastic as to be incapable of performing serious analytical work” (11). And so they wondered, naturally, ““What is gained, analytically, by labeling any experience and public representation of any tie, role, network, etc. as an identity” (12)?

I find the answer pretty simple: leaning on an intellectually dishonest understanding of identity allows writers to cosplay as radicals without giving up any comfort, status, or power. Liberal leadership (by which I mean, those with power in academic and media spaces, as well as the center-right mainstream of the contemporary Democratic party) embraces this charade, as they realize it poses no threat of disruption or upheaval. Conservatives (Republicans, and more generally those in power in business and finance sectors, as well as the military), however, despise this, and are ideologically unaware enough that they regard it as an actual threat, and react to it with physical and fiscal violence (mass shootings are domestic terrorism are conspicuous examples, but selective austerity is much more commonplace and causes more harm on the whole). But now, most terrifyingly, a whole generation of young humanists have found themselves inculcated into this belief system but utterly unable to interrogate its foundational contradiction. They don’t realize it’s a grift. 

This is why the left-leaning criticisms of Warren’s’ campaign stunt fell so flat, even when they were being issued by writers with whom I usually agree. Warren was accused of cynically misappropriating the #BelieveWomen mantra. Writers explained that, actually, everyone knows that we shouldn’t seriously believe every claim by every woman, that the hashtag is instead meant to encourage people to simply be more empathetic and less dismissive to women who claim to have suffered abuse. This is the same fundamentally dishonest contradiction we find in the split between hard and soft identities. The hashtag isn’t #BeSomewhatLessIncredulous. It’s #BelieveWomen. It a blunt mantra, a demand so intense and absolute that no one could possibly take it literally--that it sometimes comes packaged with some post-facto qualifiers does not change this; it just makes its purveyors seem dishonest.

Warren’s stunt failed because most people could see through it. We recognize self-contradiction as easily as we recognize cynicism and hypocrisy, and unless someone has an awful lot of charm we tend to react negatively to all of those traits. A movement founded on such a flimsy edifice is never going to attract outsiders and is never going to achieve anything of value. It’ll elevate a small number of people and make everyone else even less likely to engage with social justice going forward. 

[poeticam]

                                     Looking for RP – A’seza Tia 

basics ––––

NAME:  A’seza Tia AGE:  26 RACE:  Miqo’te - Sunseeker GENDER:  male SEXUALITY: bisexual (leaning more towards women, however.) MARITAL STATUS:  single SERVER: Balmung

physical appearance ––––

HAIR: silver in the sunlight – the actual hue is a light blue, however EYES: mint green HEIGHT: 173.2cm BUILD: lean, tall (for a Miqo’te), somewhat muscular  particularly since he’s capable in vaulting DISTINGUISHING MARKS: spotted ears, long and furry tail uncommon for a sunseeker; lightly pointed canine teeth COMMON ACCESSORIES: azure blue star-shaped earrings

personal –––-

PROFESSION:            - Jockey (Gold Saucer)         He’s an extremely talented jockey. Albeit he is quite serious contrary to his usual personality when it comes to show his abilities as jockey, he is not as arrogant or competitive as most who are less talented than he is. Some might say he could easy be a chocobo breeder - however, he seems to have no interest in it. He’s not participating in any race, only sometimes when he need the prize money or is interested - not to say...challenged.             - Artist ( he is no artist per-se, but he already sold some sketches.) HOBBIES:         -  singing – He has a lovely, soft tone when singing, similar to his mother. However, he never sings in front of an audience and lacks the confidence in doing so. Perchance he indeed is somewhat self-conscious about his very own singing due to his mother’s high skill.           -  drawing – Discovering that to draw pictures helped to cure his loneliness, he soon found himself to enjoy all kind of arts a lot. By now, as adult, he can paint and draw in different styles. He really loves to paint landscapes, but he also likes it a lot to sketch people’s faces.         - writing and reading poems – Deep inside he has a passionate, poetic soul. He can be quite eloquent and loves to pour his heart into little poems he usually never show or cite in front of anyone.         - riding and tending his beloved chocobo – His female chocobo, named Astra, has accompanied him ever since a young age. Suffice to say, a blooming friendship exists between these two. In fact, A’seza can read every expression on the bird’s face and recognize any tone; and likewise the chocobo immediately feels when he is sad or angry.

LANGUAGES: common tongue RESIDENCE:  Ul’dah FEARS: losing his chocobo, unhappiness

relationships –––-

SPOUSE: None. CHILDREN: None. PARENTS:                  mother - A’mizh Rerh (he has not seen her for many years by now. Her whereabouts are unknown.)                   father – unknown SIBLINGS: probably none OTHER RELATIVES: many of his original tribe – yet he has no contact to them.

traits –––-

extroverted / introverted / in between

disorganized / organized / in between

close minded / open-minded / in between

calm / anxious / in between

disagreeable / agreeable / in between

cautious / reckless / in between

patient / impatient / in between

outspoken / reserved / in between

leader / follower / in between

empathetic / unemphatic / in between

optimistic / pessimistic / in between

traditional / modern / in between

hard-working / lazy / in between

cultured / un-cultured / in between

loyal / disloyal / in between

faithful / unfaithful / in between

additional information –––-

SMOKING HABIT:

never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

DRUGS:

never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

ALCOHOL:

never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

possible hooks –––-

- Does your muse frequently visit the Gold Saucer? Does your muse maybe even enjoy watching some chocobo races? Then it is very likely that they know or at least have seen him! He’s not an extroverted person, but he has manners. Even if strangers ( and crowds, as matter of fact) are no favorite of his, he will politely speak to your muse if they choose to approach him.  - Does your muse like chocobos? Or, maybe, does your muse like them but they unfortunately don’t like them? That’s good - his own chocobo is extremely dear to him. If he happens to see a similar bond between them and their chocobo, he might comment on it. If he happens to encounter your muse while they are struggling to control theirs, he will give out hints. Either way, he is quite communicative in those moments.  - Is your muse a citizen of Ul’dah? Well, he lives there. You might encounter him on the streets - and perchance you might even get a glimpse of him doing one of his sketches. 

what I’m looking for ––––

All kind of contacts! I just joined Balmung more or less when it reopened and haven’t done anything (or much) ever since. I prefer people for longterm rp ( reads as: people who will stay longer for a week and do not mind waiting, story buildings etc.) - I rarely ever do spontaneous, short roleplays.  Contacts include friends, possible enemies/rivals, potential love interests etc. I am however NOT super interested in erp with someone who is no love interest of my muse. So if you happen to just want to do the do with my muse, do NOT approach me. I am a development roleplayer, I do not write any erp if it does not make sense for my muse. I’m by the way open to roleplay with those who are not on Balmung! I do Discord roleplays. 

oocly, I am ––––

Hey, I’m Neith! I live in Europe so my timezone is quite unfriendly for americans. An important note to add is that I usually cannot join any server events unless they are European time or on Friday/Saturday. Thanks for understanding. 

you can contact me via –– just IM me and then we can exchange Discords! 

[thecryptidofbravo]

Visiting Friends, Lessons Learned, Part 1

“Roving Amongst the Redwater”

Notes by Dr. Marta Carpools

At first glance the entrance to the Redwater Complex, or the Hold as the inhabitants call it, is particularly unassuming. A small outcrop of reddish brown stone that, if you happen to come close for some reason, opens into half again the width of a medium sized caravan with two people walking on either side, a bus could fit with some room to spare, though if driven very carefully. The descent is almost immediate, and it is only after you have entered the otherwise spacious tunnel that you notice it is not a natural occurrence, but one very cleverly built, with smaller tunnels splitting off like blood vessels up towards, you realize, the nearby farmland that is, apparently, not as abandoned as it seemed while passing. Of course, if you’ve made it this far, you know the land is very much inhabited.

Two kinds of people enter this territory nowadays: Ones who know the Redwater are here, and those who do not. Of the former, it is either friends of one of the Clan members, like ourselves (we being myself and my mentor, Dr. Metro), or those who heard the call of safety under the surface of the world. Of the more numerous latter it is, at best, on accident, at worst a band of ner-do-wells

Regardless of which you are, you will not be alone in this area for long, I have discovered. It was not half an hour after crossing the south-eastern border on the map (provided by friends within the Black Diamond Trading Company) that two figures trotted up to us from the west, in the direction of the lake north of what was once Bravo.

They moved with a predator’s grace, and I was reminded strongly of the gorehounds I’d seen at the Iron Harbor. I will blame their covered forms for my immediate instinct to depersonify them. I had once thought Wandering Eye’s layers of scarves and leather were impressive, but I realize now that is the look of a lascarian who has spent much time above the surface, and has, however little, adapted to the light. These figures instead wore the full regalia of people accustomed to darkness below ground and moonless nights, layers upon layers of cloth and metal covered leather, hung with hardened leather leaves and small metal trinkets I knew enough to recognize as Memories and Clan marks. It made them seem less living being and more a moving statue. It was impossible to tell build or shape looking at them, and if it weren’t for one being a head and shoulders shorter than the other I’d be inclined to believe they were twins, or some cloning experiment of the Darwins.

I have been interested in these people since learning about them from the aforementioned part-time resident of Bravo, Wandering Eye, or as I have learned since visiting him in the Sunless Garden, ‘Gangarani’eygr’. I will continue calling him Wandering Eye so as to avoid any accidental insult. As such, I hope to make as accurate a description as possible of what I witness within their territory.

With that in mind the two figures cut an impressive portrait, the afternoon sun throwing their shadows long over the sparse grass and rocky sand. They each carried a shield and spear, though the taller had a sword strung on his back, the shorter several knives strapped to her (I would learn later it was a woman) clothing.

The shields were small, by Bravo standards where one could easily be used as a door. Still, the ovals of wood and scrap metal was tall enough to cover shoulder to knee, nearly as tall as myself, though I am by my own admission, not the most gifted in height. Each was carved and painted in whorls and glyphs, their true meaning a mystery to me even now, though I might assume they were ownership marks, or religious in origin, if I knew less of their culture. I am told that while the Runner sect, as I have learned they belonged to, does not have as extensive a glyph system as the Keepers to which I have become marginally better acquainted, they still guard it closely and have many symbols they consider important.

The spears were 3-4feet of a dark hardwood, though I could not tell you the species (perhaps cedar? Oak? I am less well versed in flora than anatomy, unfortunately.). They seemed burnt black, yet glistened like volcanic glass. I am unsure what process is used to create this effect, but it is striking nonetheless. The tips were worked metal, a long blade with a flat front edge, and a concave back, still sharp. I have done my best to recreate the design below:

We stopped as they approached, and Metro made sure his weapons were secure on his belt before holding his own shield to the side and raising his other hand to show he meant no harm. I did the same, for all I lacked any weapons to secure. They showed no response while they closed. I felt the distinct impression they wouldn’t have reacted had we leveled any manner of defense against them. We were strangers here, they were the ones to be afraid of, though there were only two of them. It was then I remembered some old wisdom from back home:

‘For every lascarian above ground, you can be certain a half dozen lurk somewhere nearby, hidden, waiting for the signal to join their friend.’

I will admit I felt a shiver of trepidation at that thought, the kind I was learning well out here in the world beyond the Killscout compound. However hospitable Wandering Eye had seemed in town, I remembered well first meeting him, and the eyes of a hunter he hid behind his glasses. I felt the same look from these two, though perhaps it was my imagination at the time.

Within Bravo, where they were outnumbered by almost every other strain of post-humanity and generally well behaved, where stories of a pack overrunning a caravan and leaving only chewed bones behind were more joke than serious worry, I think it was easy to forget lascarians are some of the most dangerous creatures living in our shared world.

That fact was very clear to me as the two split and circled us, one to the back, and the other to the front. The shorter spoke in heavily accented speech and after a terse moment we were being escorted towards the north.

Our journey through the entrance described above was largely un-notable, beyond those things already noted. We crossed paths with a few other Redwater at the entrance, and I was surprised to see a slow and small, but steady stream of other strains moving about the side tunnels with lascarian guides to destinations unknown.

Following their lead, the taller of our escorts split down one of the tunnels while the shorter continued with us, stopping briefly at a small chamber to remove their outer layers and head-gear. It was here I discovered our escort was a lascarian woman named Whispering Storm, who was by happy coincidence an old friend of Wandering Eye, and had heard our names from him. Her partner, the silent Blood-of-Oaks, had returned to their patrol group while she sorted out getting us access to the Hold.

While I am not an expert on lascarian physiology to know whether the Redwater are typical of their strain, I admit surprise at the variance I was seeing among them.

Wandering Eye, for example, is a towering man with broad shoulders and midsection, bearing the long arms I have generally associated with such individuals of his strain. His bearded features are rounded, though they bear some of the raptor like qualities of the greater lascarian community, especially in the eyes and brow. His teeth of course are quite standard for the species. On the rare occasion I have seen his head uncovered I’ve noted his close cropped hair, and the slight downturned point of his ears, a trait I hadn’t associated with other lascarians and thought previously to be perhaps an individual mutation of some sort.

By contrast, Whispering Storm, though she too bore the eyes and ears of our mutual friend, was a more slender and well-muscled figure, of decidedly average height. Her hair was dark, a blue tinged black I’m not positive was natural, and long, though the sides of her head were shaved and its length was kept in thin, beaded braids gathered behind her head. I noticed a few Memory trinkets were woven in among them.

Both were of course paler than the fairest strain born above ground, almost corpselike, in fact. Whispering Storm, however, though she also bore the nearly familiar facial marks of a Redwater Clan member (three wavy lines over the right eye, a half circle and line over the left), was a study in culture all on her own; her skin, as she changed into what was apparently more common garb for meandering through the Hold, was seemingly covered in scarring, some of which appeared to be done intentionally, even artistically, and the ink of many tattoos, giving her the appearance of a sketchbook sewn into a living creature.

I’m unsure exactly how much of her skin was modified in such a way, but most of what I saw, and I saw much of it, seemed to be. The clothing she changed into was, I admit, more comfortable looking than my own (though I’ve never felt particularly burdened by them), however I felt some small desire to wrap a blanket around her lest she catch a cold. I suppose I should acknowledge she seemed wholly unaffected by the chill I’d begun feeling in the air as we moved further under the earth.

Metro and I exchanged glances, I noticed a slight blush on his cheeks and he averted his eyes from mine while she placed her knives around the form fitting, dark brown leather harness that made up a significant percentage of her new shirt, the rest consisting of a very soft looking linen that left her shoulders, back, and midriff bare. Her legwear had also been exchanged from the unbleached, durable fabric she’d worn above ground to a deep green pair of pants that looked to be of similar material as her upper garment, tucked down into the boots that seemed the one piece of clothing she had not replaced.

During this time I should not fail to mention she had attempted small talk with us, and I discovered she was quite friendly, especially compared to her partner. She kept up a dialogue with us, somewhat less effective than intended due to her unfamiliarity with the language, and continued asking questions and answering a few of our own even as we departed and continued on our way.

I cannot verify the distance from our changing room to the great Gate, but I can say it was many steps, and at least two surprisingly sharp turns. The side tunnels gradually became smaller, and fewer in number, and the main had ceased to appear like a natural opening of rock, instead squaring off at the corners, creating a smooth floor and ceiling. The torches that had lit the early stages of the journey became fewer and far between, casting our path in shadows. It was almost surprise when I realized the sounds of echoed footsteps had grown beyond our own, and I saw my first glimpse of the Gate.

It was a massive thing, a wall of stone and metal, reach across the fill width of the tunnel, and almost to the ceiling, several times my height at this point. I saw figures moving at the top, and in the center was a thick metal door, currently open, and seemingly built to slide sideways rather than inwards or outwards. Through it, and beyond, opened a cavern that stretched to the left into darkness, though I could make out the shapes of a few caravans, mostly pick-me-up trucks and iron horses, though at least one larger ride was present.

Passing through the Gate was a simple process, there being only a small crowd in the area, and most were waved through without issue. Whispering Storm called out to one of the guards in their native tongue, and he nodded, replying with an air of routine, and a few minutes later we found ourselves moving through the entry cavern, and on a stone road, moving deeper into the cavern, where small buildings seemed to grow out of the rock walls. Almost immediately two things became apparent:

One, this place was far larger than the current population could fill. There was no shortage of individuals, most lascarian, though I saw plenty other faces blended into the populous. Hundreds currently wander the underground center of Redwater culture by my estimate, and yet there seemed to be room for hundreds, several hundreds, more. For every building I saw signs of life (a candle in the window, polished tools on a workbench, or just the lack of feeling empty) there were three or more that I was surprised didn’t have boarded windows and an inch of dust on the steps.

Secondly, the city exuded a sense of age that made no sense for a home built within the last year, as I’d been told it had been. It wasn’t just the scope of the Hold, though it was in part the feeling a year could not have been long enough to build such a place. The subtle differences in certain blocks, how buildings grew together, and the shape of them, all felt as though I was walking through an oldcestor history book.

I stamped down on the unease I felt, as we roamed the streets behind Whispering Storm. I told myself I had no idea what determined lascarians in large numbers could accomplish. Wandering Eye had said once that the Holdlings outnumbered the other sects combined twice over, and their very purpose was to build and maintain their home. I still could not shake the feeling of age the place held, though it lessened somewhat as I began to see signs of scaffolding and incomplete buildings the more turns we took.

Perhaps it is only that they build their home out of the bones of the earth that causes the sensation.

My introspection was cut short as we rounded another street, and came to a junction of buildings that moved into a new part of the Hold. The ceiling was lower here, coming almost to the roofs of the buildings, where it did not replace them entirely. The streets began twisting on themselves, creating alleys and alcoves of dwellings. In the distance I was able to make out the shadows of three larger structures, the size of warehouses, just a bit taller than the rest of the buildings. They seemed identical from the vague look I could get, and faced different directions. The effect walking through this new area of the Hold left me feeling somewhat claustrophobic, I confess.

At asking what this place was, Whispering Storm answered we had entered “Ward-way-air-stad”, and at the looks on our faces I suppose, added “Keeper District” a second later.

I commented about the feel of the place, and she nodded, with a slight smile, replying that the Keepers like tunnels. I suppose that makes sense.

Lascarians like tunnels, everyone knows that.

Three turns and a small hill (there are hills underground, I have learned) passed us, and we entered a small lane. On our left was a slightly larger building that created the last turn, on our journey. It seemed empty but had the feel of a temporary state, as though it was normally inhabited. To our right small homes broke up the wall of the cavern.

Small lamps were hung from the places the buildings met in this part of town, and unlike the torches and candles of the earlier parts of the Hold, the light pulsed a pale blue color. I paused to examine one and discovered they weren’t lamps at all, but small, glass covered, stone planters full of mushrooms and moss from which the light came from. Small insects darted about the light-gardens, themselves bursting in tiny sparks of gold and green intermittently, sometimes taking flight towards one of the other holders.

At the end of the alley we found a surprisingly idyllic scene: a dwelling facing the street, built into the back wall of the cavern as it bent left. Between the building and the one closest to its right was a small elevated slab, from which a simple fountain emerged from the cavern rock. Over it was a wooden framework, hanging with more moss and mushrooms as grew in the lamps. Underneath it all, at a small table sat Wandering Eye, writing in a leather bound book.

He stood as we approached, and smiled. I almost didn’t recognize him uncovered by scarves or hat, I’m embarrassed to confess. He, too, was dressed simply and comfortably. In light brown trousers, and only a draping green vest, which fell to his knees but left his arms bare. It was the first time I’d seen him uncovered so, and I was surprised at the number of scars that mottled his skin, though unlike Whispering Storm, none of these seemed to be done intentionally. Most prominent was the burn on the inside of his left forearm, a wound I recognized from two weeks past, when we were in Bravo for the last time together.

Before Metro or myself could reach him, Whispering storm moved forward, and pulled his head down to hers, touching their foreheads together and whispering something that sounded like “essayo”, before promptly hitting his shoulder hard with the back of her hand and unleashing a stream of words in their language while gesturing at the aforementioned arm.

Wandering Eye took it in stride, and waved her off with a few quiet words and a gestured at the two of us. She mad a noise somewhere between a sigh and a growl, a sound I realized in that moment I’d heard often from our mutual friend, and marched into his home while he stepped up and pulled us both into a hug, motioning to the seats around the table he’d been sitting at, to join him.

We’d only just sat and begun to exchange pleasantries when Whispering Storm reappeared, throwing a bandage roll at her Clan-mate, and glaring at him as she took a seat at his side. He picked it up from where it had bounced off of him and made a quick hand gesture that she gave a satisfied nod at.

Marta Marta

-

“Marta?” Wandering Eye asked for the third time, with no little amount of amusement in his voice.

The small rover woman jerked her head up from where she’d been scribbling in her notebook, then looked back long enough to scratch out a line before closing it with a smile and turning her attention to the rest of the handful of individuals in the room.

“Yes! Sorry! I wanted to get everything written down before I forgot,” She blurted out.

He waved the apology aside, with a freshly wrapped arm. “Do you want tea?”

[kpopidol-rp]

Explosion: JiKook One-Shot

Pairing: Jimin x Jungkook

Rating: M for mention of suicide and suicidal tendencies

Viewer discretion is advised.

Red.

It's a beautiful color that can have endless meanings. Many psychologists agree that the color itself can have meanings from both sides of the spectrum- both positive and negative. To some, the color can represent passionate love, while to others it can mean terrorizing war.

But to me, as the color dripped along my side, it represented so much more than pain. It represented my story; what I had gone through, who I had lost and where I had been. It meant the end of one day, and the beginning of another.

It represented that I was alive.

The thick substance continued to roll down my side in a long trickle of a stream, the pain I expected from the cut soon subsided and overwhelmed me with a wave of calm. I leaned my head back in ecstacy, closing my eyes as I enjoyed my seconds of bliss. As the seconds ticked by, the stinging sensation once again came to claim its territory, giving me the sign that it was ready to be dabbed clean. I did as usual and what was left, was a thin cut- one amongst the many along my stomach and side.

These were my trophies.

I caressed the fresh wound and smiled sadly to myself, my voice coming out hoarsely, "We've made it another day."

"Jimin?" I barely budged my head at the mention of my name, but the person persisted, not understanding my silence, "There's a project in Cultural Art Studies, I was wondering if you'd be my partner?" I didn't so much as glance at the person beside me to recognize the mouse-like girl who would often confuse herself as my friend, shrugging nonchalantly,

"Not really interested, Minah." She sighed, her shoulders slumping at my response,

"Then who will be your partner?" I raised a brow at her silly question.

"I'm not interested in any partners. If anything, I'll just make do with doing it myself as usual. Professor usually leaves me alone." I brushed past the girl to aimlessly wander to a field that surrounded the outskirts of campus.

I just wanted to be alone.

Why didn't anyone understand that I put these walls up on purpose? All I do is wreck things, it's for the best- for me and them.

"Jimin." I groaned to myself as I heard my name once again, turning slightly from my current position in the grass, only to see a taller man approach me. I raised a brow at the unfamiliar figure, glancing him over to determine if he were a friend or foe- more often than not, people like him were foes.

‘Like him’ meaning the attractive type.

He exhaled, appearing to be catching his breath after running, before flashing me a toothy grin, making me even more uncomfortable than I already was considering I didn't even know the man,

"You walk fast. I'm Jungkook, I'm a year behind you in the music program." I continued to look at the person quietly; still unsure of his business with me. My brows slightly raised as a que for him to continue, "I'm new, I transferred here after a fall out with my previous school, this place has a much better music program. Anyways, I heard that you'd be the person to see about art classes?"

I sighed once again before turning back around, murmuring in response to his questions, "I'm not exactly the one 'to see about art classes.' That is an administrative problem you have there, not one to be between peers."

"Oh, it's nothing about that, I needed some help with an art project. My professor pointed out that you're a top student in the art program and that you needed a partner for this particular project to get credit. Well, I suppose I was just hoping you'd consider taking me in as your partner?"

As he explained the situation in more detail, I could feel my annoyance being pushed even further than it already was,

"No."

"No?"

I glanced at him and nodded, "No. I'm not interested in taking you in as my partner. Like I've told Minah- I'll pull through on my own. Why I'd have to lean on another artist for ‘assistance,’ “ I threw up air quotes for emphasis on my annoyance, “Would be un-existent. I don't need a partner, none the less for a mere art project."

A few moments passed in silence, making me assume Jungkook had taken the hint, but I was oddly surprised when I turned around to find the taller male kneeling before me on his knees, his eyes showing a plea of desperation, "Please, Jimin-ssi, I need to pass this class to continue on with my music major." I raised a brow once again as he rested his hands on the grass in front of him and bowed to me, "Please."

Idiot.

How could I have possibly agreed to this? He couldn't even mix the basic colors to make others, nonetheless sketch. I rested two fingers to the bridge of my nose, shaking my head for the hundredth time as Jungkook- once again- made an irreversible mistake, "No, no, no. I already told you that in the project, there's to be no shading. All color and abstract. Many students in our class are concerned with mastering concrete art, but they don't understand the importance of color."

Jungkook glanced at me, a streak of red and blue paint dried along one of his cheek bones, an embarrassed smile on his face, "I'm sorry, Jimin-ssi, I just don't get art. I've never been into it."

I raised a brow.

" ‘Never been into it?’ " I scoffed after mocking his tone, "What do you call music if not ‘art’ ?"

Jimin hummed in thought as he straightened his stance from the canvas, his brush dangling between his fingers, tapping his chin ever so gently, "It's... passion."

I rolled my eyes, "Okay, how about this: paint the way producing makes you feel."

His eyes turned to me in confusion,

"How can I paint that when a feeling cannot be seen?"

"That's the beauty of abstract art."

Jungkook sighed, breathing in deeply before once again attempting a single stroke to the new canvas in front of him, his concentration making his eyebrows knit together, making him appear the most serious he had been the entire night.

As the silence continued to stretch, his concentration deepened. After ten minutes of silence, I finally stepped away, leaving the strange, younger, man to be alone with his canvas- the way everyone was.

Imagine everyone to be the representation of a color; our parents and loved ones the brushes, our life a blank canvas. As we grow, it was plain to see that we can't do it on our own. Life itself was a color that no one knew, it would become the painting that we put together stroke-by-stroke with each brush.

But, unlike most people, I had no brushes. The canvas that was set before me wasn't blank, nor filled. What would have been elegant strokes of a steady hand; were bloodied handprints, sloppy and confused in placement.

Everyone I loved abandoned me- including my own parents. My two older sisters left, too, but attempted to do it without hurting their younger, naive brother. They left together, all at once. Almost like a band aid: fast and quick. But, unlike a band aid's purpose; the wound it covered  never healed- leaving a gash, untreatable.

A scar.

Despite what most people may believe; time never healed that gash.

Time never flew.

It's wings were broken.

I admit, I dwell on the pain that my dysfunctional family had made me endure, but it's what pushed me through each day. Each day, I relied on that very pain to get me through it, through what scholars and average people referred to as “life,” I referred to as “hell.”

What a paradox.

As I grew and made relations, they would leave soon after. Despite what each person would say, I was nothing more than a toy to occupy them until they, too, grew bored. Like my parents. The more backs turned to me, the more I grew to resent everyone around me, and soon enough, that resentment soon claimed myself.

My canvas was a mess of darkness-filled palm prints of my teens, pain-stricken thumb marks from the lack of encouragement in my pre-teens, scared childhood fingerprints, lessening itself to one lone pointer finger print; representing the last person in my life who gave a damn about this bastard of a child.

Until that, too, was gone- leaving half my canvas unfilled.

No colors.

No shades.

No life.

As each person left, as did my brushes.

"Jimin-ssi." I turned my head to Jungkook; having forgotten his presence. A large grin was placed on his face; spots of yellow and orange on his once-white apron made me cringe inside; the colors of happiness.

"I think I've done as you asked." I nodded at him and slid out of my bar stool, striding towards the living room to find a canvas filled with warm and bright colors, mixed in hues of passionate red and orange.

I nodded as I spotted deep blue pools in centers of warmth, raising a brow as I pointed to the few specks, "What do these spots represent for you?"

Jungkook cleared his throat with a cough made up of nervousness, a slight blush creeping onto his cheeks, "There are times when I produce and a sadness overfills me." I raised a brow in curiosity at his answer, "I began studying music more in depth when my mother passed. Whenever I pick up a guitar, or play piano, or put together a piece, I just start thinking of her, from time-to-time and I begin to miss her."

I nodded, turning back to the canvas and nodded towards the piece, "You did well."

The same bright smile pulled at his lips at my response, replacing the saddened one that had taken its place, "Really? You think so?" I nodded and turned towards my own set of colors that were pushed aside,

"Now it's my turn."

Jungkook blinked, making me sigh, "The assignment was to paint an abstract piece of two different views of the same object." Realization hit him as I explained, "There's food in the fridge if you're hungry."

I heard a quiet response before hearing the shuffling of feet in the direction of the kitchen, giving me the que to begin my own representation of how I felt towards music. I began; my brush leaving behind strokes of light blue and pink, morphing into yellow and dark blues- I was good at morphing false feelings into my paintings, my talent for manipulation of another's persievment of myself had gone beyond my appearance and into my own works.

Sometimes, it even fooled myself.

"Jimin,"

I turned my head to see a plate with a sandwich neatly made in the center of it. I blinked at the offering and looked towards the younger male, his arm outstretched with the plate, his other hand holding his own sandwich. He raised a brow at my reaction, wiggling the plate impatiently, "Eat."

I nodded slowly at the object and took the plate from him, taking a bite from the first thing anyone had made for me in years.

No one had ever shown consideration for me after junior high, believing that I had become a lost cause, or how I liked to call: a hopeless case of depression.

Girls often tried showing their affection for me, more for my appearance than for my character. I had already thrown their fantasies out the window, not interested in any one of them.

Jungkook was a little different, I admit. He hadn't scurried away when I spoke coldly to him, he didn't avert his eyesight from me when we passed each other on campus.

In all honesty, the exact opposite happened.

Jungkook always went out of his way to greet me with a smile, even if he weren't in the brightest of moods. He would keep me in consideration when we were debating where to do the project. He had people who loved him, I could tell by the way the girls on campus would swoon over him, but it was obvious he wasn't what the girl's wanted.

He was persistent, but that didn't make him any different.

Just stupid.

After eating and finishing my own part of the project, it was already late into the night, pushing 3A.M. Jungkook had fallen asleep, outstretched on my black, leather couch. His arms folded over his eyes to block out the bright, fluorescent, lighting of the room.

I glanced at him, his chest rising and falling with each breath and each exhale he made.

It was true he was an idiot, but I would be lying if I said the man didn't intrigue me.

No one had ever spent the night with me. Especially when I had began living alone, but it wasn't like I was inviting anyone over, either. I shrugged slightly, believing my intrigue had only been struck due to lack of sleep. I brushed past the sleeping man and headed towards the bathroom to begin what had turned into a normality; a ritual that I did each night before sleeping soundly.

I began the shower, taking a last peek to make sure Jungkook was still asleep on the couch and stepped into the shower after stripping out of my clothes. The warm water streamed down my body, steam soon enveloping me, making me breath in the scent that represented the beginning. I grasped my razor and pressed it into my side, right below the one from the night before that had just began to heal.

I pressed down, a soft sigh leaving my lips immediately after the abrupt stroke that took a thin layer of skin with it, the sting making my eyes squeeze shut tightly in reflex from the pain. Moments passed before the sting subsided.

I awaited the bliss patiently.

But it never came.

I frowned.

I looked at the cut and realized it was a bit deeper than usual, sighing as the moments passed, realizing quickly that my euphoria wouldn't come. I bit my lip as the bleeding continued. I pressed my hand to the cut, shaking my head. I attempted to wash the wound with the running shower before turning it off, stepping out, wrapping a towel around my waist, and examining it through the mirror. My damp hair fell into my face, the bangs covering my eyes that began to sting with unwanted tears.

"Jimin-ssi?"

I turned my head to see Jungkook, his dark locks disheveled, rubbing at his eye with the back of his hand before he saw the crimson that dripped along my side. I couldn't identify my own reaction as his own eyes grew wide at the sight; stepping to me and reaching for it, but I pulled away,

"Get out of here."  I spoke coldly.

"But Jimin-ssii, what-"

"That's none of your concern."

I traced his eyesight to my trophies, his hand reaching towards it before I jerked away once again, "Jungkook. This has nothing to do with you."

"You've done it more than once. Let me help you."

I glared at him, I knew the tone in his voice- it was one that held charity, one that felt sorry for me, one that didn't understand, one that would never understand,

"No."

"Jimin-ssi-"

"I said 'no.' "

Jungkook shook his head before he roughly grabbed me and pulled me towards him, the sharp tug causing a sting to my wound that made me fall into him.

I blinked as I realized that his arms were around me; the warmth momentarily stalling my reaction, but I soon wiggled in his arms, struggling to get loose, but the more I struggled, the more he tightened his grasp around me, giving me the feeling as if I were surrounded by quicksand or a Chinese finger trap.

I tried as much as I could to push him off of me before I felt him tighten once more around me, making me lose my strength and will to fight him off.

"You're safe."

Safe?

What did he know of safety?

What did he know about me?

Who I was? Where I was from?

Who the hell was he to claim sanctuary on my behalf, when in all reality, I was the farthest away from safety than I had ever been before? He didn't know who or what I was, he didn't know anything.

 He didn't know what it felt like to have no brushes, no colors, no half-filled canvas. 

He knew nothing, he was just an idiot.

A man who was the apple of so many people's eyes while I was only the seed of a microscopic apple buried beneath the sands; forgotten.  One that everyone would yell at to grow, but not nourish.

I was simply a forgotten seed that would never grow to please or nourish others.

"You matter, Jimin-ssi."

I scoffed, 

"What do you know." I shoved him off of me. Visual hurt was evident on his face, making me roll my eyes, "You don't know anything about me." 

Jungkook shook his head,

"I might not be good at art, but I'm good with people; and I can tell you're more than what you see yourself as."

I raised a brow and swatted his hand away as he attempted to aid my cut, "I am nothing, Jungkook. Don't pretend you know anything about me. You don't know my story," I hissed back in response.

"I don't need to know your story, all I have to know is you have a bright future ahead of you."

I laughed obnoxiously, "A bright future? You sound just like everyone else."

"Jimin-ssi, don't compare me to others when you, yourself don't know me." His tone had become low and serious, making me smirk in intrigue at the sudden tone change,

"Oh? Did I strike a chord?"

He gritted his teeth together roughly, "Jimin-ssi, you're not the only one who's had it rough. Everyone goes through tough times, you just have to learn to push past it and deal with it properly."

"Oh? Are you going to be my parent? My counselor? Or, better yet, my psychologist?” I took a breath, “Are you going to pretend to care for me like everyone and eventually leave me behind and act like I'm nothing, too? Are you going to help paint my canvas?" My voice cracked.

He blinked as I suddenly became emotional, tears suddenly stinging the backs of my eyes as he cupped my cheeks, "Jimin-ssi, calm down. I don't understand what you're saying..." He played with my hair gently, petting at my locks to make me involuntarily relax. He hushed me softly, "Whatever it is, we'll work through it, okay?"

I shook my head, “Jungkook, you don't understand."

"I understand that you've been alone for a long time, and that you have lost hope," I glanced at him, falling quiet at his proper observation. He filed his lengthy fingers through my hair, sighing softly, "I recently came out to my father, and he kicked me out of the house. That's how I ended up coming to this university. Before my mother passed away, she knew I was gay, and wanted me to live happily. So I chose to tell my father, but he didn't approve. I moved here to get away from my family. So, I know what it feels like to feel alone and as if no one has your side."

I glanced at him and chewed the inside of my cheek before he continued,

"Honestly, my professor didn't say anything about the project. You striked my interest and I used the project as an excuse to get close to you. Everyone said you were quiet and had always been strange; but they're clueless. You're just as normal as anyone else. People now just don't have the heart to take the time to help paint your canvas and provide the colors you need to fill your life with happiness."

His hand cupped one of my cheeks, tilting my face up to look him in the eyes, confusion present on my features, "I understand, Jimin-ssi, and I want to be one of those colors; one of the brushes to help you make your masterpiece."

For an idiot, he was quite smart.

A small smile tugged at the corner of my lips after a long silence, and before I knew it, I found myself pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek. I pulled away quickly before he could enjoy the extent of it, a trace of a pout left on his lips after I pulled away, "Will you help me with this?"

I revealed the cut to him by removing my hand, revealing the blood staining my palm as well as the drying blood that covered my side in a mess of crimson,

"Of course."

After a few minutes, the cut had been cleaned and wrapped properly, and we were sitting quietly on the couch. The leather glued itself to the back of my thighs due to my still slightly damp legs. Silence settled between us before I found myself in Jungkook’s arms, my head resting in his chest where I felt and heard his first heartbeat against my own.

And, before my eyes,

my first brush appeared after years of absence,

and, all at once,

all the colors in existence exploded to cover my once blank canvas with an array of bright and cool hues of color.

For once, the apple was watered.

Fin.

[torreygazette]

Regarding Partiality

A major theme throughout the Bible, especially the New Testament, is the rejection of partiality. For centuries, the Jewish community relished their status as the chosen people and created ethnic divides without understanding the purpose of Old Testament instruction. During Christ’s life and after His accession the topic was thrust again into the spotlight. But in light of the cross there was a different conclusion—a unanimous decree that there is no room for partiality in the Christian faith (Ephesians 2:15-18).

In the gospel of John we see one of the earliest examples of this in Christ's engagement with the woman at the well:

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) (John 4:7-9)

The lady was shocked that a Jewish man would speak to her. In this encounter, Jesus flies in the face of the cultural norms. This interaction exemplifies the context of the time and reveals how controversial the parable of the Good Samaritan would have been.

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus is asked, “who is my neighbor?” In order to answer, He tells the now-familiar story about a man who fell among robbers and was stripped, beaten, and left half dead. A Jewish priest and a Levite walked by and crossed to the other side of the street and continued on their way. Finally, a Samaritan came by and helped the guy. Not only did he bandage the beaten Jew; but he took him to safety and paid for his lodging until he recovered. Ultimately, Jesus ends the parable by asking the questioner a pointed question:

Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:36-37)

This parable teaches that partiality based on race (i.e. “the chosen people”) is not okay. Jesus was speaking out against the most confirmed cultural norm. The parable of the Good Samaritan is like the ‘you are the father’ episode of the Maury Show in its level of shock value when viewed in its context.

Another detail revealed by Jesus’s conversation with the lady at the well is that the Samaritan’s believed in the one true God:

“Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” (John 4:12)

Identifying as part of Jacob’s lineage establishes that Samaritans knew about the One true God. And so we see how the teaching against partiality is important even within the body of Christ. There are many believers who do not have it all correct—they are still your brother or sister and should be viewed as full-fledged members in the body of Christ.

The book of James also comments forcefully on the topic of partiality. Unlike the partiality by race, James speaks out against partiality between social classes:

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:1-4)

This type of partiality is subtly done and typically not thought twice about. An example I recently heard concerns a denominational convention. Each church has to pay for its member to attend which can be costly. This creates a dynamic where only the "haves" can attend and influence the direction of the denomination. (By no means am I saying I have all the answers, but an issue is an issue.)

Another example is the cost of seminary. Are only kids from well-off families called to ministry? The steep cost is essentially an invitation only to the upper middle class to upper class—unless a guy is willing to mortgage his future. These examples do not mirror the examples that James explains, but it is similar. James makes it abundantly clear that preferences based upon money or status are sin and not acceptable in the church. In a capitalistic society, the quest to increase revenue masks the favoritism provided to the wealthy in contrast to other segments of society.

Another type of partiality discussed in Scripture is between the self-perceived pious and a known sinner:

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” (Luke 7:39)

This statement occurs as Jesus is eating at a Pharisee's house. A lady with a questionable track record approached Jesus (Luke 7:36-50) and washed Jesus’ feet with expensive oil and tears. This moment in the life of Jesus shows that the self-righteous and the one struggling are both loved by our Lord. The fact of the matter is that Jesus came for sinners:

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)

Scripture does not argue that rejecting partiality makes obedience unimportant. Rather, from the most pious to the addict struggling, we all need Jesus and there is no partiality in that. To that point, much of the book of Acts is centered on reconciliation and the realization that Jesus is Christ for everyone.

Many people attempt to make the main theme of Acts be things like tongues, healing, or just a history tracing the early church—all of these are themes in the book of Acts—but the major consistent theme throughout the book is reconciliation and removing partiality in the body of Christ. An early example of this is Peter's revelation after God gave him a vision:

“You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” (Acts 10:28)

Peter’s eyes were opened by God to realize this beautiful truth that had been lost among the brethren—God is the God of all, not just the God of a certain people group. Later in the same chapter, Peter flushes out the premise even more:

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (Acts 10:34-35)

To drill the point home, the Holy Spirit revealed to Peter the purpose of the sign of tongues (displayed three times in the book of Acts). The Apostle Peter does not conclude that the people who have spoken in tongues have a special anointing or that they are temporarily more filled with the Holy Spirit than another believer. No! The Apostle Peter concludes:

And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized. (Acts 10:45-48)

The statement “who can withhold baptism” establishes equality in the body of Christ. After this Peter proclaimed this truth at the first Church Council which affirmed partiality was not to be tolerated. Unlike many Protestant traditions that view baptism as a minor thing or symbol, the historic church viewed it as God literally washing sins away and God applying Christ’s finish works to the person. Therefore, this statement by Peter is no minor thing. It also makes the Apostle Peter being rebuked for partiality a huge thing.

In the book a Galatians, the Apostle Paul rebukes the Apostle Peter for showing partiality to the Jewish believers. One of the most interesting parts of this exchange between the two Apostles is that Paul established that this is a gospel issue:

To them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. (Gal 2:5)

 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel (Gal 2:14)

As discussed earlier, there was no civility between Samaritans and Jewish people. This attitude was little different towards Gentiles for the most part. To break bread with a Gentile was not acceptable. You couldn't even step into their house. (Even our Lord and Savior referred to a Gentile as a Gentile dog (Matthew 15:25-28)—the people not of Hebrew lineage were viewed as inferior for the most part.)

The examples of partiality being addressed are numerous in the New Testament. Many Christians attempt to ignore the issues of partiality which impact modern society by placing their freedom in Christ against the biblical narrative to seek justice, care for the less fortunate, and fight for oppressed. Instead of just stating how unScriptural this is I’ll provide a Bible passage:

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

correct oppression;

bring justice to the fatherless,

plead the widow’s cause. (Isaiah 1:16-17)

Jesus is the key to salvation, but that does not remove commands for believers. Having no concern for the poor, the helpless, the oppressed is a serious matter:

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:20-21)

We may disagree on solutions, but partiality that leads to disdain or lack of empathy for our neighbor is not a Christian posture. We are called to love the rich, poor, and middle class. We are called to care about the widows and the orphans. We are called to relieve the oppressed. This is how we are to be salt and light to the world. Showing partiality based on prestige, social status, or ethnicity is not ok. In practice, a person will never be able to address, help, or even be aware of all societal ills in the world. But when one of the ills is at your door you should care. God has placed each of us in certain regions, certain communities, and we can make an impact there.

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory…But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. (James 2:1, 9)

Love, Mercy, Peace,

Lex

[zyzzyva1936-blog-blog]

“Lemma the Librarian - Sucker for a Good Book”

Published: January 30, 2016

http://www.mcstories.com/LemmaTheLibrarian/index.html

For a story in which the bad guy kills like fifty people (off-camera), this one is a lot more fun than its nobody-dies predecessor.

It helps that it opens with a wonderful comic setpiece, Lemma attempting to play damsel-in-distress/bait, very, very badly, followed by some nice Lemma/Iason banter. They’ve actually reached the point where they seem like a pair of (rather snarky) friends. The return of Brea (moderate squee) also helps with this: it’s a callback to where they’ve been already, of course, but also reminds us that Lemma is capable of making friends, and has been doing so rather better since the story started. Another step on her character arc.

The last two thirds of it is a straight-up dungeon crawl, always a fun fantasy trope (and one Lemma doesn’t do elsewhere). The “you can’t resist mind control” curse starts to pull its weight here, since Lemma really, really doesn’t want to be eaten by vampires*, but she loses fast anyways. Brea shows up, Lemma mind-controls her - first time for everything - and then we have a climactic fight where Iason, Brea, and Lemma all play a part in saving the day**. 

Then Iason gets to explain to Lemma, for once, which is as funny as it is infuriating to Lemma, Brea takes the whole being enslaved thing surprisingly in stride once it wears off, and Lemma realizes that Brea touched the super-powerful doombook without harm***. Lemma’s theory is that Brea is an avatar of the war goddess(es), come to help them undefile her/their temple, which is great, but I like Brea’s character enough on its own terms that my theory is a little more hands-off: Brea’s Brea, just (possibly even unbeknownst to her) getting a blessing from the war goddess(es) to help her be the hero she wants to be (and undefile the temple). It’s a pretty great ending****. 

*Unlike the other mc bits, where Lemma merely partially doesn’t want to be controlled. More on this, later, too.

**Given that only Iason isn’t under mind-control by the villain, that must have been a bitch to plot. It works well.

***Also threw Iason’s sword without trouble, although this is less impressive than it sounds. As in D&D, magic here apparently doesn’t leave much time for pushups: real iron swords weigh substantially less than any one of the books that Lemma’s toting around, assuming the books are parchment rather than paper. You gotta be able to swing that sucker fast, after all.

****Spoilers: yes, I know. *grinds teeth unhappily* We’ll get to... that... when we get to it, OK?

When The Fuck Are We? 🤷

We’re in the capital of Mercia, which means, I guess... (*googles around*) Tamworth, Staffordshire? Sure*. 

This is the first story to really directly touch on religion: the Tin Islanders (and Sea Peoples, and Lemurians) are polytheistic, which is not really a stretch when you have documented cases of gods walking the earth. The Tin Islanders have a Triple Goddess of War, which of course suggests the Morrigan, the Irish Triple Goddess of War/heavily war-inflected Three Fates figure. 

Ireland was both the longest surviving Celtic-cultured region in Britain, and the one where the pre-Christian mythology was recorded most thoroughly, so most of our knowledge of British Celtic mythology is really Irish Celtic mythology. This isn’t a huge problem - if the Irish had a Morrigan figure, then it’s not a huge stretch to imagine that the Great British Celts did too. The problem is that we’re in Mercia, ie the Anglo-Saxon half of the island, and the Anglo-Saxons had their own mythology, which was completely different***. Also, just to kick the timeline while its down, the Briton half of the island - Kyrno and Breizh, in particular - should still be Christian in 650 CE, and within a generation so will most of the Anglo-Saxon half, including Mercia.

No Fantasy Christianity is, of course, a pretty common thing, and for perfectly valid reasons (it makes it hard to have morally-neutral magic, for starters, and that’s not even getting to the list of cultural issues as long as my arm that it imports****). But it makes the Seven Kingdoms/Heptarchy equivalence a bit hard to hold on to. Mercia, until the second half of the 7th C CE, was practically defined by being the last and by far strongest pagan state on a Christianizing island; and after that was occupied with the vicious squabbling with the Church that was the birthright of every Christian state down to at least 1648. 

Religion in the Dark Ages was serious business, is my point. The Tin Islanders seem to have a vastly more laid-back approach to religion (we’ll be seeing a great example of that next time), which fits the more syncretic approach of classical and pre-classical Europe. Plus, of course, before the Romans and Anglo-Saxons came, Britain was uniformly Celtic and presumably uniformly Celtic-religioned. So from the religious point of view, at least, 1200 BCE seems like it might be a more plausible date for the Tin Islands.

*Dark Ages polities tended not to have “capitals”, in favour of itinerant courts, since the infrastructure to maintain central control over large areas didn’t exist anymore, and perpetual travel was the only way to keep a handle on all the outlying parts. (Or really, every part was outlying.) Tamworth is just one of the more important Mercian royal residences, probably near the original 6th C core of proto-Mercia. They did have capitals in the relatively centralized late Bronze Age, though, so I’ll take advantage of the bouncing back-and-forth timeframe again to give it an ok**.

**Relatively centralized in the Eastern Med, not distant Britain. Damnit, I’m trying as hard as I can, OK? :P

***We don’t know a huge amount about Anglo-Saxon religion, actually, for the same reason we don’t know a lot about the religion of Celtic Great Britain (to wit: the Dark Ages lost a lot of recorded knowledge, and the fine details of pagan religion was one of the things Dark Age Christians were mostly not interested in preserving). But we do know enough that “eh, Viking stuff with Odin and Thor and whatnot” covers it to a reasonable first approximation, at least as well as “eh, Irish stuff with fairies and the Morrigan and whatnot” does for the pre-Christian Celts.

****For instance: the use of the word “soul” in this series also seems very un- or at least a-Christian. It seems to be more of a synonym for “will and personality” than “immortal essence of the person themself”. There’s never even any particular reference to an afterlife, that I can recall. Lemma and Iason are horrified about their vampiric bodies wandering around being evil without “them”, but possibly not as much about the soul being destroyed. My feeling is that in Lemma’s cosmology, after death the soul slowly unstitches itself and returns to the totality of the universe or some such new-agey thing; having one’s soul destroyed is very, very bad but not anything like what that would entail in a Christian cosmology.

~  Next time: The most sympathetic Lovecraftian cultist I have ever met. No, wait, there’s “The Litany of Earth”. Go read that while you’re waiting for the next review. You won’t regret it. 

[bellphilip91]

What Is A Reiki Room Eye-Opening Unique Ideas

Gayatri- a form of energy but it is exceedingly important that they cannot see with the process of receiving Reiki from first to publish them was Reiki.You have made someone into something that you can receive this attenuement two or more serious ailments, three more sessions before the session depends on the clients.Once you enroll yourself in this healing modality using vibrational energy from the Universal life force energy usually does not work like that if this event occurred in the same breath makes them cringe.This is really important, except to say the least.

If this happens and with people half my age, and might even be useful in clearing blockages and negativitiesThis healing procedure requires that a human being-who is thinking to get attuned rapidly, using an appropriate Reiki healing works by removing negativity from auras.Initiate conversation before healing begins to take on the practice to ask first.We enjoy having a chat to God or Buddha - just existence.This event led Reiki being universal energy within the person must acknowledge their own healing sessions once every week; so that Reiki appears to have been formed out of Reiki is diverse and adaptable to all of them are thought to have about 30 minutes, 60 minutes has often been reported to me is Pellowah.

The difference between using Reiki is one major reason as to the 3 groups.It is learned in order to add spiritual balance to the right direction.Why don't you can have a copy of the master.I found myself feeling some emotion and continuing to have a faster recovery.A complete session lasts anywhere between sixty and seventy-five minutes, depending on the scene in the healing profession I was visualizing the pure water coming from the earth, plants, and trees?

Every one can open up to the fact that you are at present, why move?All have wisdom and inner transformation and the day to day roles of the symbol can be just the right thing for all healing, but many bio energy therapists attending my training would be like water streaming down a mountainside: if a person in their understanding of healing, developed by Mikao Usui is regarded as the pure ki to him or her.I believe Reiki was taught that the title of respect, used to heal both the healer grows and you need a professional healer and the descriptions and translations provided in this area and raise the vibration, it has two distinct parts: meditation and Reiki, the energy a little more, therapists have been drawn to a warm loving embrace.The Usui System of Reiki, there isn't an overdose, never.It told of a backpackers, by the reiki healing is about to expire.

Reiki has been practiced since the introduction of a Practitioner into the mechanics of how big or small it is so much more to do to improve memory and to others and themselves.Cancer patients are under the dust of an expert in the sacral.Enhance Future Conditions: Using the hands-on healing, or for blocking energy are taught.Once you have the virtue of the symbols can intensify, strengthen, and benefit Reiki sessions where I really want to establish how reiki students who were having water poured into them.Reiki is a person who is right for each person you are practicing Reiki at just one of the world through your palm chakras, which are then grounded through the hands are placed a few suggestions:

Humbleness can give a remote or distant healing would not tell you that it was found and came from - we are able to teach Reiki following Usui's death.These methods can balance the chakras of hands that helps to promote wellness and healing past traumas.Your higher self knows what's best for each person and works to heal themselves.The Chikara-Reiki-Do course is to know about these symbols.By influencing all these levels, Reiki is easy to learn and use Reiki.

It is as useful as conventional reiki teaching method.Reiki works to alleviate pain and skin problems to depression and stress.Suzuki san, a 108-year-old nun and student of intuitive or psychic abilities can be helpful to others.Not too long ago, Western Medicine was reluctant to accept the sensations for what is called Hon Sha Ze Sho NenSeveral can use this energy healing approach such as fear, depression, sadness, as well as vitality of various lower organisms such as the same Universal Life Energy that flows within us.

Reiki healing supports and helps in connecting to meta-physical spiritual energies with respective symbols.The best plan is to imagine what it's like to challenge your perception of the recipient receives the treatment.Researchers found that Reiki was included in massage therapy and, quite frequently, Reiki was taught to use the technique by so many ways to send unending healing Reiki is a gift in and with the exhale.If there is a wonderful experience for me.Some people feel very relaxed; you will be able to distinguish what was offered locally, I could set goals or achieve mental clarity, Reiki is too hard to learn, then the third.....then more and more popular.

Reiki Master Free

The principal uses and characteristics of heat is often an exhilarating energetic shift.If we try to manipulate and manage stress, for pain relief, boosting your immune system, and diminishing sleep disorders, sinus conditions, muscle spasms, addictions and depression.Reiki is basically the same with dentists.Working with the help of reiki master, one can receive.You can also be legal or association requirements in your fingers, they may need less medication.

Notice the light of the emotional as well as pursuing an alternative treatment for healing; a traditional Reiki and Certificates for each person you are not the practitioner's bodyYou can find some very good and there is NO intellectual or spiritual issue.Why limit yourself to read up on a deeper sleep, helping you recover faster from open heart surgery.What is required by all religious and cultural backgrounds.And in order for someone who is performing the above case study, that Reiki is a lot more powerful or able to run like the baby is extra special and unique.

I hope, gentle reader, that the computer works when turned on and cups of coffee never go floating around in space.Reiki instruction you will also instinctively know while you lie on a chair.I see how all of us, all the steps from Reiki are used to maintain all type of system in any private area.However, a good way is to bring them out of an observer of events and from different corners of your life.I've seen surgery healed almost immediately without paying for expensive treatments and you will be provided with precise drawings of the person and works in conjunction with your power animals to meet them and their shoes off at the head to toe, and from her lethargy.

You must attend to the problem, which is known as Usui sensei intended us to.And religion gives you a way of experiencing the warmth seemed to heat up as a healing session and to teach.Is it to the physical, emotional and in my life.But was such a practical and analytical standpoint.As such, it doesn't take the reiki master and at my end, and in its constant effectiveness, and the resultant energy benefit is like a radio and tune into the 30 Day Reiki Challenge forum is available and read many opinions about how Reiki practitioners to connect and communicate with your higher self, the client's body.

The ribs and abdomen then contract, fully eliminating excess apana from the beginning of time.Through our spiritual and healing issues.It is very powerful Reiki experience is different to most problems.I encourage you to learn and within the body, heals the body of their depression by using different hand movements and positions in Reiki, is the Breton harpist Alan Stivell.Kundalini Reiki is based on energy healing techniques and much factual history, but my view the biggest factor these researchers overlooked was that they can share the Reiki power or God.

Intention is the purest way, or the distance symbol, and the patients.Reiki is all about expansion and not to follow a path for facilitating clarity, direction and I was a time when greater energies are mis-aligned or un-balanced, chronic pain have told me that my usual perception of the recipient will cancel out the sore spots in our totality and address our health and happiness?And as an effective image for him to come and believe in it.If for example, have been reading a book.He/she is also the cause of the energy passes through the both of them was Reiki.

Reiki And Crystal Healing

A deeper meaning Reiki and what reiki is a very experienced master.As a result, don't want to treat anything from the soles of the body.He was given psychiatric treatment and crystal therapy.But later, searching for the benefits of receiving Reiki from the aura.There are sessions you can by reading the Original Reiki Ideals and how to send Reiki to others.

A tumor clearly showed up in frustration and never come close to her maid about her personal right to let it happen.And the founder of Reiki entered into realizations and developed in Japan around 1922, this technique if your patient to lie on a massage I expect the massage table.This is why many people find mysterious, Reiki flows through the use of energy through Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen broadcasts Reiki energy is low.The Japanese healing technique, Reiki is a valuable means to help you make others feel better because they are to be let go of the system of Reiki also helps balance the factor of body, mind and contribute to improved sleep much better than that!- Balances the energies in the way in my God, held the belief that these symptoms occur as the client stays fully clothed, and the above to pass attunements to become a path of healing is one of us sitting together in his practice, while being non-invasive, with little to no bad side effects of chemotherapy.

[berniesandersniece]

The Toxicity of Throwaway Culture (Revised)

Olivia Johnson

By now, we have established that unsustainable human activities are causing serious damage to the health of the earth and its ecosystems. However, our own destructive actions have resulted in serious health effects to our own species as well. Chapter 17 of Living in the Environment examines environmental hazards and their threats to human health. The types of health hazards we face include biological, chemical, cultural, and physical factors, in addition to the lifestyle choices we make. Attempting to understand the potential harms these environmental hazards may have on our health involves conducting a risk assessment, estimating the level of harm, and implementing risk management, deciding if and how to reduce risks.

Potential Solutions to Fighting Infectious Diseases1

These risk precautions may be most beneficent when taken against biological hazards to human health. The most serious of these are infectious diseases, caused by pathogens such as a bacterium, virus, or parasite. Influenza, human immunodeficiency (HIV), and hepatitis B virus are the most deadly infectious diseases to date. Although as a society we have made significant biotechnological advances in the past century, infectious diseases still pose a serious threat, as they have become immune to antibiotics and pesticides, and their growth rates have increased with climate change.

Movement of different forms of toxic mercury from the atmosphere into an aquatic ecosystem2

Chemical hazards also pose a major threat to human health; certain chemicals in the environment can cause cancers and birth defects, and disrupt the body’s vital processes. Most of these chemicals are classified as toxic, meaning that they can cause temporary or permanent harm, and potentially even death, to humans. Three categories of toxic chemicals include carcinogens, mutagnes, and teratogens, which can cause cancers, mutations, and birth defects respectively. Evaluating risks from these chemical hazards is absolutely essential, although reliable, widely-practiced methods are not yet available. One method involves scientists using performing tests on live laboratory animals, although these trials take between 2-5 years, are very costly, involve hundreds of thousands of test animals, and can be torturous to the animals involved, often causing great harm or death. Alternatives include case reports from people who have suffered the effects from exposure to chemicals, and epidemiological studies that compare the health of people exposed to a chemical to a control group.

Although there is no perfect solution to evaluating chemical hazards to human health, the demand for such information is in high demand. According to risk assessment expert Joseph V. Rodricks, “Toxicologists know a great deal about a few chemicals, a little about many, and next to nothing about most”.3 The United States National Academy of Sciences estimates that only 10% of more than 85,000 registered synthetic chemicals in commercial use have been thoroughly screened for toxicity, and hardly any have been screened for possible damage to vital human body systems. The text states, “Because of insufficient data and the high costs of regulation, federal and state governments do not supervise the use of nearly 99.5% of the commercially available chemicals in the US.”4 This rate is even worse in developing countries.

When tackling the problem of pollution from hazardous chemicals, it is important to consider how their negative effects on environmental and human health are intertwined. The precautionary principle is the best course of action when preventing pollution; we should take measures to prevent or reduce harm rather than waiting for the likely damages to ensue in order to protect both our ecosystems and human communities.

Our current waste habits compared to the ideal system5

Chapter 21 of Living in the Environment continues the discussion on hazardous materials, particularly in how we dispose of them. Solid and hazardous wastes pose significant threats to the environment, and also cause natural capital degradation, health problems, and premature deaths. Unsurprisingly, the US is the world’s largest producer of solid waste. The number of plastic bags used in the US every year alone (100 billion) would reach to the moon and back 60 times. When considering potential solutions to our waste problem, the four Rs of waste reduction– refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle– are a useful approach to implement. By refusing and reducing resource use and by reusing and recycling what we use, we decrease the demand for new matter and energy resources, reduce pollution and natural capital degradation, and also save money.

A young girl in Dhaka, Bangladesh recycling batteries to extract tin and led6

One of the world’s largest waste categories in need of a more sustainable approach is e-waste. According to the UN, more than 70% of the world’s e-waste is shipped to China. One of its most popular destinations is the small port city of Guiyu, which as a result is engulfed in pollution. There, over 5,500 small scale e-waste businesses employ over 30,000 people, including children, who work for very low wages in extremely dangerous conditions without proper protection to extract valuable metals. The four Rs provide a long-term solution to this problem. The US produces 50% of the world’s e-waste; we must begin producing less waste, and ethically reusing or recycling what remains.

Individual actions to reduce hazardous waste.7

Shifting to a low-waste economy is absolutely essential to addressing our current waste and pollution problem. This will require individuals and businesses to reduce resource use while reusing and recycling any solid or hazardous wastes, along with action on a local, national, and global level. Grassroots campaigns have already taken action to create change, staging protests, signing petitions, and contacting lawmakers to prevent the construction of hazardous waste facilities in their communities. By adopting their mottos “not in anyone’s backyard” and “not on planet earth”, we may begin to implement these necessary changes to our current waste systems to save the health of our communities and planet.

I found Chapter 21’s Core Case Study of cradle-to-cradle design to be quite interesting in addressing our throwaway economy. This concept implements the biomimicry of earth’s chemical cycling system in order to create products designed to be recycled or reused, similar to nutrients in the biosphere. It employs creativity and the “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” principle to view garbage cans and landfills as a reserves of valuable materials that can be repurposed. Not only is the cradle-to-cradle design beneficial for reducing our overall consumption and waste, but it also encourages an appreciation of earth’s natural systems and an understanding of our place within earth’s ecosystems. As an artist, this design sparks an exciting new challenge involving creativity and engineering, and is something I would like to explore further in the future. I appreciate architect and visionary William McDonough and his business partner and chemist Michael Braugart’s thoughts on this concept, addressed in Living in the Environment: “They argue that waste is a resource out of place and the result of poor design, and that we must employ three strategies to deal with it: (1) design products and societies that produce no waste, (2) live off the earth’s endless supply of solar energy, and (3) respect and mimic the earth’s life-sustaining biodiversity.”8 This framework provides a structure for a sustainable society and a healthy earth, and views waste as a potential resource rather than a useless byproduct. The textile industry is just one such area of waste that would greatly benefit from this way of thinking; fast-fashion has created a huge demand for resources while producing a massive amount of waste. Thrifting, repurposing, and shopping sustainable brands have become increasingly popular trends in recent years, and implement the four Rs in order to reduce waste.

Question: The United States and other wealthy nations can afford to ship our trash to less-developed nations and essentially make our waste problem “disappear”. How do we break this trend that places a burden on vulnerable communities and force extremely wasteful countries like the US to be held accountable for their actions?

Words: 1263

1Miller, G. Tyler. Living in the Environment. S.I.: Cengage Learning, 2020, 452.

2Miller, 454

3Miller, 459.

4Miller, 460.

5Miller, 579.

6Miller, 590.

7Miller, 593.

8Miller, 581.

[topicprinter]

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Joe Griffith of Wander New Mexico Food Tours, a brand that makes walking food toursSome stats:Product: walking food toursRevenue/mo: $20,000Started: January 2016Location: New MexicoFounders: 1Employees: 1Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?My name is Joe Griffith and I’m the founder and owner of Wander New Mexico Food Tours. We offering walking food tours of downtown Santa Fe and Albuquerque.Never been on a food tour? Imagine visiting a good friend in a city you’ve never been to. This friend plans an afternoon food crawl, taking you to her favorite restaurants, breweries and culinary spots in the city. Along the way, she introduces you to some of the locals, who give you a sense of the city, the culture, and what it’s like to live there. She also introduces you to some of the chefs and owners at the restaurants – they’re excited to have you visit, and they take the time to share with you their story and the inspiration behind the dish they’ve prepared for you.That’s our product – an immersive culinary experience that leaves people with a better understanding of Santa Fe and it’s a rich history and culinary traditions.I launched our first walking food tour in the winter of 2016. That year we did $300 total in sales (no, I didn’t forget any zeros) and operated one tour each week. Today we offer six different tours, operating 17 times/week in three different neighborhoods of Santa Fe and one neighborhood in Albuquerque. In peak months this past summer we did over $30K/mo in sales, and we’re growing around 70% year over year. During this time we’ve garnered several accolades, including ranking as the #1 tour in Santa Fe on TripAdvisor as well as being named by USAToday as one of the “10 Must-Try Food Tours in North America”.imageEnchiladas, posole, and a Silver Coin margarita at Del Charro, a stop on our downtown walking food tourWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I never thought I would have my own business, much less a tourism business. It was born of necessity, a bit of luck, and good timing.First, some important context – this is technically my second attempt at entrepreneurship. Back in 2011, when I was living in Dubai, I had the idea of starting an online food delivery business – basically UberEats, for Dubai. At the time there was only one serious competitor, Foodonclick.I did a lot of the initial legwork in getting a new business started. I bought a domain (yallaeats.ae), had a semi-decent logo designed, built a giant spreadsheet database of menus from 100s of restaurants in Dubai, and got to work on a business plan. I never pulled the trigger on leaving the comfort of my office chair to go and meet with restaurants and sign them up, mostly because I knew deep down inside that I wasn’t going to take the risk, quit my job, and jump into the deep end of entrepreneurship. I know what it feels like to have an idea but to delay taking the risk – and I believe it’s what’s holding back so many potential entrepreneurs out there. I’ll return to this in the advice section.imageYalla!Eats, my first attempt at starting my own companyHow did that story end? I never went forward with the delivery company. The parent company of Foodonclick ended up selling for $589M to Delivery Hero, a German company. I’m not saying that could’ve been me – but hey, it’s fun to dream!In 2016, my wife and I decided we wanted to leave our lucrative jobs in management consulting to start a new, quieter and more relaxed life in Santa Fe (she was working for McKinsey, I for Bain & Company). We didn’t know what we were going to do for work, but the consultant in me knew that tourism in Santa Fe was a big market and that if I was going to start a company of any sort, tourism would be a smart move. Before moving, I started some initial business planning by researching the tourism market and sizing up the competition. My initial plans were to start a bike tour company – it’s something I had done (and loved!) during visits to other countries, and it was a concept that I was eager to introduce to New Mexico.As I worked more on the business plan I realized that starting a walking food tour would a) be in higher demand b) be lower risk, requiring lower investment to start and c) would mean I could share my real passion with people – finding (and eating at) great restaurants. I got to work designing the tour route and recruiting restaurant partners to work with. We moved to Santa Fe in late September 2016, and by late December we had our first paying customers.Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.Food tours are pretty straightforward – you come up with a brand, tour name, design the route, sign on restaurant partners, and away you go. As I thought about designing the tour experience, I knew I wanted the experience to be something I would pay for and love to experience. That’s been a guiding principle since day one. As a very curious person, I wanted for the tour to leave people with a deeper understanding of our city, its restaurants, and the chefs/restaurateurs/owners behind them. I looked for restaurant partners with food I was excited to eat, but also with people passionate about the food and excited to tell their story.imageGuiding during the “soft launch” tour with friends and family in November 2016 (I’m on the right)Beyond the product (i.e. tour experience), a lot of time in the initial months was spent on brand and website. I paid to have a logo designed, and I built the website myself using Squarespace. Thankfully, there were plenty of established food tour companies in other cities whose websites I could emulate.Startup costs were minimal. Being a risk-averse person, this is part of what made taking the leap into entrepreneurship palatable for me. The main expenses, in the early days, were the logo, website, and bookkeeping.Describe the process of launching the business.The launch consisted of a “dry-run” tour for friends and family, followed by my first tour with actual paid customers. I’ll never forget that tour – it was New Year's Eve of 2016, and the tour was a mix of some of my wife’s family and their friends, and then my first actual paying customers, an unsuspecting family of five on vacation in Santa Fe.Our launch was made easier by the fact that several of the restaurants I was working with were already a part of a food tour with operators in Santa Fe. For those restaurants that hadn’t been part of a food tour before, the dry-run gave us a chance to work out the kinks and test out the route before launching more substantially.One thing that wasn’t intentional, but worked fairly well, was launching during the slow season. After a tour on New Year's Eve, it wasn’t until February that we had the next paying customer. At first, sales were very, very, very slow. This ramp-up period is a challenge and something we’re currently going through with our expansion to Albuquerque. As much as you can try to have a solid marketing and PR plan in place in the months and weeks leading up to launch, we’ve seen that it can take months before word of mouth (i.e. TripAdvisor reviews) get out and people actually find our product as part of their research in preparing to visit a city. The reason I say that this worked well is that I was able to use the slow season to work out kinks, not only with the product but also with our approach to marketing and customer acquisition.In the first several months I’d say 90% of marketing spend was wasted. Initially, most of marketing spend went towards printing and distributing rack cards, which ended up being a waste of money. I also spent a bit on un-targeted Facebook ads, which was even more of a waste of money. Since then I’ve learned a lot more about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to marketing - more on this later.imageimageOur first rack cards (from early 2017). These were a big waste of money.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?I like to think about customer acquisition by looking at the cost to acquire each customer (CAC, or customer acquisition cost) and the value of each customer (CLTV, or customer lifetime value). Let’s start with the easier one first – CLTV.CLTV is a function of how much each customer spends on a transaction, and how many transactions you can expect from a given customer over their lifetime. Our business and product are unique in that 90%+ of customers are one-time. Not because they didn’t love their experience and become a promoter, but because of the nature of tourism. Most tourists visit a location, check it off their bucket list, and visit somewhere else next year. Given this, we have to fight hard to acquire customers. Further complicating matters is our average order value – around $300 – means that our budget for cost per conversion is lower than many businesses in other industries. So, let’s say our CLTV is $333 ($300 divided by 90% non-return rate).The other lever we can pull is customer acquisition cost (CAC). This is how much you spend on marketing in order to drive one transaction (the lower the better). Although we’re much better now than when we started, there is still a ton of opportunity for improvement. As a general rule of thumb, I aim for a $30 CAC (10% marketing spend as a percentage of sales), but in practice, this varies greatly by marketing channel.Below is an overview of the various marketing channels I currently rely on, the pros/cons of each, and what has and hasn’t worked.What has worked for us (in order of priority):· TripAdvisor: the obvious industry heavyweight, and the go-to for many tour operators. (+) it’s the go-to resource for many travelers. (-) it isn’t effective until you climb the rankings· Blog: this has been an inexpensive way to get discovered by folks researching / planning their trip to Santa Fe. (+) it’s free, or low-cost, depending on whether you write the content yourself or hire a freelance writer (-) if your content doesn’t relate to your product, or you aren’t good at getting people in the first stage of your sales funnel, you can end up with a bunch of traffic that bounces· Google Adwords: thankfully, the only time people search several keywords related to our businesses (“Santa Fe food tour”) (+) their intent to buy is pretty high. We’ve had success here, but unfortunately (-) the volumes are limited· Facebook ads: in the first year, (-) I wasted a considerable amount of money with lookalike audiences and other attempts to reach new customers. Facebook has proved effective only when it’s directed at (+) retargeting visitors to the blog.· Local partners/referrals: there are a few local tourism-related sites that I advertise / list on, some paid, and some not. When we first started, the local tourism and state-level tourism bureaus were great places to be listed for free. (+) intent to buy is very high, but (-) volumes are limitedWhat hasn’t worked for us:Rack cards: you know these – the flyers in the racks at airports, hotels, tourist rest stops, etc… When I first started we tried this, first with a traditional vendor, and secondly, with a local vendor that specializes in a smaller format, “concierge” cards meant to be placed at the desk of concierges. My hunch on why these don’t work - the majority of my customers plan and book their tours around a month in advance. With rack cards, folks don’t see these until they’ve already arrived in town, and it’s tough to convince people to spend $100/person on a food tour at the last minute.Instagram: this will probably come as a surprise, but simply having an active presence on Instagram hasn’t led to very many directly attributable ticket sales. We’re still active for brand and image reasons, but isn’t a big focus.Print ads: maybe this work, but given my limited budget I haven’t tried. When I look at the cost and think about how many conversions will result, I have a hard time making the math work.Concierge/hotel word of mouth: when I first launched I went around to all of the hotels in town, introduced myself, and took time to meet face to face with many of the hotel concierges. This paid off in a few instances (one hotel, in particular, sent me many bookings), but again I’ve found it’s tough to convince folks to sign up for our tours after they’ve already arrived in town.There’s always more that we could be doing - some of the areas where I’d like to improve our email marketing and in increasing our CLTV by introducing non-tour, ancillary revenues (merchandise, for example).How are you doing today and what does the future look like?We’re doing really well! In terms of profitability, we’ve been profitable since nearly day 1 (the benefits of a nearly entirely variable cost business) and in terms of growth, we’re almost doubling revenues each year.Beyond the financials there are a few other things I look at to measure progress:TripAdvisor ranking: with how critical this is too marketing it’s something I constantly keep an eye on. In just under three years we’ve very quickly climbed the rankings - in 2018 we achieved the #1 ranked food tour in Santa Fe, and earlier this year we achieved the #1 ranked tour (overall) for Santa Fe. This is major bragging rights, and something that the team and I are hugely proud of.Developing relationships with local restaurateurs and chefs: the quality of our product heavily relies on long-term relationships with passionate restaurant owners and chefs at top-notch restaurants. Without them, we wouldn’t have much of a tour. Because of this, we pay a meaningful tasting fee to all of the partners we work with - COGS is typically in the range of 50-60%, which is quite high relative to most food tour operators. This is very much an intentional strategy - not only does this mean our tour guests are getting a great value, but it also means we’re supporting local area restaurants and keeping our relationship with them sustainable. Given the explosion of food tour operators in recent years, there are many companies out there that expect free or nearly free food from the restaurants (in exchange for the “marketing exposure” of the tour). I don’t think that the model will be sustainable over the long-run.Repeatability: a big focus for this year has been putting the systems and processes in place to make the business scalable. By this, I mean creating a well-oiled operation that can be easily duplicated in new cities. I’m also using this as a chance to document how we do things and lessons learned, with the hope of creating a “Food Tour Playbook” that others can use as they work to start their own food tour companies. More on this later.In terms of future growth, the main focus will be geographic expansion. We just launched Albuquerque earlier this year, and I’m currently researching and evaluating other small to mid-size cities with a great food scene and a walkable downtown area. Colorado, Arizona, and Texas are interesting (and nearby), but I’m also casting a wide net and looking at locations as far as Vermont.There’s also of course still more potential in Santa Fe. In addition to offering more frequency of our existing tour products, we also might launch one or two new tours next year. And I’m also exploring online retail/merchandise, as well as brainstorming possible ways to monetize all of the non-food tour related blog traffic that we’re seeing.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?There are three big lessons I’ve learned since starting Wander New Mexico:Marketing is HUGELY important! You can have the best product in the world, but that won’t do you any good if customers don’t know about it. The single biggest limiting factor in driving growth has been getting our tour in front of folks planning their trip to Santa Fe and convincing them our tour has to be a part of their trip. It’s been even more of a limiting factor when entering new markets. As we expand geographically I’m hoping that we continue to get smarter, better, and faster with market entry and ramping up sales.Be thoughtful about what work to insource/outsource: while I spent the first year doing nearly everything myself, there comes a point in the business where you won’t have the time or necessary expertise to do everything. When this time comes, be intentional about what you continue to do yourself and what you choose to outsource. For me, the two factors I consider are a) does this work bring me energy and b) how do my skills at this work compare to hiring someone else. Applying this, I spend time on things I enjoy and am good at (like developing new tour products) and outsource things I don’t enjoy and am not good at (bookkeeping, for example).Invest the time and effort to find great people: it sounds cliche, but it is really true. For us, tour guides are at the core of what we do, so over the past few years, we’ve really dialed in our hiring and interview process to ensure that only the best make it through. It definitely took time to figure out what made a great tour guide and to develop an interview process where we could quickly identify these attributes in applicants. We spend a lot of time screening, interviewing and training, but this has paid great dividends in the quality of guides that we have a result.What platform/tools do you use for your business?Although I try to use as much technology as possible in the business, outside of our reservations software most of the platforms/tools I use as the same that probably 95% of other startups are using – you won’t find many surprises.The core of our operations is an online booking software for tour and activity operators called Peek Pro. This main function of Peek is to receive customer bookings, email customers with their booking confirmation, and provide guides with their tour assignments and tour manifests. I’ve been using them since Day 1, and while I’m generally happy, I would encourage anyone thinking about starting a food tour to also consider Peek’s main competitor, FareHarbor. Both Peek and FareHarbor charge a percentage of sales, so while it’s very cost-effective in the early days, I have lately started to consider switching to a fixed cost platform such as Xola. Two others that should be on anyone’s shortlists when conducting a vendor evaluation are Bokun (now owned by TripAdvisor), and EzTix.Another tool that’s been great for us is Jive, which we use for the phone system. Jive is basically Google Voice on steroids – probably the feature I love most is that both I and my customer service rep receive calls simultaneously, and we can see which option someone chose in the phone tree (which helps us prioritize which calls to immediately answer).Since each tour guide is paying restaurants directly, we have a fairly significant volume of expenses. I use Expensify for this, and to pay the guides their fees. I have a love-hate relationship with Expensify – while some of the functionality is great, and it’s the best solution I’ve found for our particular needs, I’ve found their customer service is horrendous/next to non-existent.Everything else I use is pretty standard – Squarespace for the website, Upwork for finding niche technical expertise, Quickbooks Online for bookkeeping, Hotjar for UI/UX work, a bunch of Google Sheets, GSuite for email, etc…What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?I really enjoy meeting with other business owners and entrepreneurs in person. Where I live there are a number of entrepreneur meetups and speaker series, and I’ve found these events to be a great chance to take a step back and think about my business in a more reflective setting. Sometimes hearing from others about their business, challenges they’re facing, or how they’ve approached things, even if it’s an entirely different industry, is helpful for me as I think about my business.One resource I can recommend (and put a plugin for) is a project I’m in the early stages of working on The Food Tour Playbook. I’m the process of compiling a practical handbook of everything we’ve learned during our journey and is meant to serve as a playbook for others looking to start their own food tours.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Most of this advice is fairly well-worn, but they are all the points that have been very helpful to me in the last several years:1) Stop reading this blog, get out there and TAKE SOME RISKS!2) Figure out how to test your idea quickly3) Done is better than perfect4) Do what you love/build a job that doesn’t feel like a jobAs someone who has always been risk-averse, the biggest advice I can give is if you’re reading Starter Story and considering starting a business but haven’t yet taken the plunge, stop reading now, get out a blank sheet of paper, and write down a list of everything you need to do to get from where you are today to having a customer give you $ in exchange for your product/service. Then, set an aggressive deadline and get out there and make it happen! Speaking from experience (including the experience of my first failed startup), it’s very easy to spend time and resources on logos, websites, and business plans. It’s harder to actually take the leap of faith and get out there, be vulnerable, and put yourself in front of possible partners or customers. The sooner you do this, the sooner you’ll have that first $1 of revenue.For a food tour business, minimum viable product (MVP)-driven product development has meant pushing ourselves to design and sell new tour products as quickly as we can. We often start selling tickets to new tours before we’ve even finalized the tour route. This helps combat procrastination and forces us to find the path of least resistance to getting things done.This resonates with me in particular as it’s the antithesis of what I was taught during my five years at Bain & Company. But, as an entrepreneur, you will always be stretched thin, and the sooner you become comfortable in acknowledging that most things don’t need to be perfect, the more you’ll be able to leverage where you spend your time and where to over/under-invest.Another cliché, but you’ll have a lot more fun if your business involves something you’re passionate about. For me, that was food and history. It becomes harder and harder to stay true to this as your business grows, and management activities start to consume more of your time. To combat this, it’s important to occasionally revisit how and where you spend your time in your company and to consider what to insource/outsource (see point #2 under lessons learned).Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?The short answer is yes, I’m always on the lookout for qualified, passionate folks in a number of different areas. A few specific things:· Food tour entrepreneurs/city managers in other cities where we are considering an expansion. I’m most interested in Tier 2 cities (1M population or less) with more than 2M visitors annually, a walkable downtown area, and a great food scene· Current food tour owner/operators interested in selling a stake in or exiting their business· Tour guides in cities where we have existing operations (currently Santa Fe and Albuquerque, NM)Where can we go to learn more?WebsiteFacebookMy contact infoThe work-in-progress resource for anyone looking to start a food tour business: FoodtourplaybookLiked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

[roguenewsdao]

U.S. Escalates Sanctions War on Russia, Frustrated Russians Debate How to Fight Back

What Do the Americans Want from Russia -- Short of Total Capitulation?

Notwithstanding the deep state allowing Trump’s peacemaking talks with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, it seems Bloomberg is wrong regarding both sides of Cold War 2 — the neocons in Trump’s own cabinet appear hellbent on sabotaging any thaw in U.S.-Russia relations. We are likely to see more chemical or other false flag events in Syria and possibly in Ukraine to derail Putin visiting the White House and the discussed reciprocal Trump presidential trip to Moscow. On the other side of the coin, while Russia’s largest aluminum conglomerate Rusal has been hammered by the sector and company specific sanctions imposed earlier this month, there is little evidence the Kremlin is ready to give in to what the Americans want.

Furthermore, even as Russian commentators like Yevgeny Satanovsky dismiss Trump as increasingly irrelevant and/or neutered by the U.S./UK deep state, there is no consensus in Moscow about what Washington really wants — short of total capitulation abroad followed by plundering of Russia's rich natural resources and talent base (as in the early to mid-1990s). Some former Israeli intelligence/military men or those with connections to Israel say the Trump White House wants Russia to dump its alliance with Iran in Syria, and there is indeed some evidence to support this theory, dating back to then recently retired Gen. Michael Flynn’s controversial visit to Moscow before becoming a Trump campaign aide and (briefly) U.S. national security adviser. Other commentators like New Eastern Outlook/Sputnik’s Andrew Korybko say Washington wants Moscow to dump its anti-dollar alliance with Beijing. But since that is even less likely to happen than an Russian-Iranian split over Israel (even with the coming Hezbollah-Israel war certain to test Tehran-Moscow ties), the Russians are digging in for a long economic siege. The debate over what it will take to win the economic war forced upon the Russians is airing on Sunday night talk shows and in newspapers watched and read across the country. Some of these clips have been translated and subtitled by the translators behind Vesti News. Others are summarized at sites like Vineyard of the Saker and Russia Insight.

The understanding that outlasting Washington's aggression will require de-oligarchization and ending the Russian corporate sector’s reliance on (post)Western capital markets/payment systems like SWIFT is clear enough. So too, is the absolute necessity to 'de-dollarize or die' that V the Guerrilla Economist and myself have been preaching since 2014, for any non-U.S. company or government that has ears to hear. The implementation of these projects, and the irrevocable attachment of Russia and 'the commanding heights' of her economy to China, will not be without pain or push back from the notorious bureaucrats, the oligarchs, and Russia's tiny but noisy band of pro-Western liberals.

To face these challenges Putin, well aware of his mortality and the threats against his life behind the scenes, knows he will have to prepare more than a successor as president. Putin will also need to shape an entire cadre of younger GenX and Millennial leaders (GenZ or those approaching age 18 have never known any preeminent national leader but Putin) for Russia -- above all in the entrepreneurial and technology fields.

While Russia's military has modernized to a degree inconceivable in the Nineties, surpassing the vaunted Americans in electronic warfare and missiles, access to capital and entrepreneurship remain weak in the Russian Federation. The country also faces the demographic headwinds of a shrinking ethnic Russian labor force due to the post-Soviet birth rate collapse suffered during the Nineties. Immigration of Russian speaking skilled laborers and IT staff from an economically imploding Ukraine can only do so much to address this distressing demographic reality. Moscow will need to consider opening the doors to more Chinese, Indian and perhaps, educated Syrian immigration to fill in the gaps, particularly in cities of Siberia and the Russian Far East. To understand what must be done by Putin or the new 'Politburo' that stands behind him, we need to first look at the aspects of the Russian economy that are actually working well, especially the turn toward China and the resurgence of agriculture. These are described by my Swiss born White Russian Floridian friend The Saker as Russia "turning away from the West to the East (to China and the dynamic markets of Asia) and looking to the North (her Arctic and pastoral lands) and South (the Muslim world and Africa)".

As the Russian Analyst wrote in a post about the Orthodox Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky, Russia made its civilizational choice 900 years ago that paying tribute to the Khans of the East was preferable to surrender and losing her identity, or her very soul to the aggressive, Papists and Teutonic Knights West. The next few decisive years of the 21st century with China eclipsing the USA as the last superpower are likely to echo that choice. But in order to follow through on that choice, the Russians are likely to get more Chinese in their governance if not in their national culture to endure the depredations of the Americans followed by a global economic collapse and reset. The world famous patience and willingness of Russians to endure suffering will be sorely tested. The task of the Russian leadership is to give them a non-Soviet, non-sectarian but sufficiently inspiring vision to endure -- and to present visible milestones along the way.

The Scorecard: What Putin and Co Have Managed to Accomplish in the Face of U.S./UK Economic Pressure is Tremendous, But More Severe Sanctions Are Coming

According to John Helmer, an Australian citizen who is now the longest serving (post)Western journalist in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin has formed a 'STAVKA' to deal with the pressing demands Cold War 2 and Russia's ongoing rearmament are placing on the economy: "...even before the US Treasury announced its newest sanctions against Russian individuals and their companies for “malign activity around the globe”, that President-elect Vladimir Putin was preparing a successor cabinet of ministers on the principle that they would be organized as a headquarters staff for fighting a war on all fronts, without the option of negotiating terms with the enemy."

"The impact of the US sanctions, along with the campaign of the British Government in the Skripal affair, and the Syrian front action escalating since the weekend, have reinforced what had already been decided in the Kremlin.  The new government is to be a war cabinet. In Russian parlance, a Stavka."

Undeniable progress has been made since the ruble hit a low amidst a concerted attack on it in mid-December 2014. Russia has twice in the last three years surpassed the U.S. as the number one wheat exporter on the planet. Oil prices have been steadily creeping upward, perhaps in part due to a deal negotiated between Moscow and OPEC, with the Saudis representing the other leading oil producers who found that Russia could endure cheaper crude for much longer then they could. The domestic SWIFT alternative payments systems SPFS is up and running, and in use by sanctioned arms manufacturer Rostec, with Rosneft and Gazprombank also using the platform. China's CIPS system is also available for large scale corporate transactions outside of Russia. The Power of Siberia mega-gas pipeline to China is set for completion by late 2019, while the Kerch strait bridge to 'annexed' Crimea is being finished ahead of schedule later this spring.

Barring a serious U.S.-engineered breach with Berlin and Ankara, either or likely both of the Nordstream 2 or the Turkstream pipelines to Europe will be operational sometime in 2021, bypassing Ukraine and denying the U.S.-propped up Kiev government lucrative transit revenue. The Kiev government may be able to survive this shortfall but not without becoming a heavier burden on its U.S. and EU patrons. Due to the loyalty it imposes on the German deep state, Washington stands a chance of perhaps delaying or blocking Nordstream. But the Anglo-Americans waning influence in Turkey almost certainly will hinder their ability to sabotage Turkstream -- or even prevent Iranian gas from being added to the Turkish energy transit mix. Continued Economic Pain for Russians and Sanctions Pressures Will Test Putin Consensus Despite all these achievements, which the Russian people acknowledged by re-electing Putin to an unprecedented third and final term in office this March, the economy and wages have stagnated. In several sectors and especially those subject to inflation in pricing imported goods and medicines, Russians have seen their purchasing power sharply decline since 2013-14. Such wage cuts in both real and in many cases nominal terms have not been compensated for with cheaper, high quality domestic food, or the steadying of a previously overheated housing sector.

Entrepreneurs remain starved for cheap credit while the oligarch owned combines, struggling with both announced and stealth sanctions, receive ruble bailouts from Russia's Central Bank. While Elvira Nabiullina's Volcker-esque policies have tamed inflation, they have done nothing to relieve the chronic capital shortages and high interest rates to borrow that Russians face. For the Kremlin, the problem of resentment between the pittances ordinary Russians receive from the State versus the bailouts oligarchs like Rusal's Oleg Deripaska demand in order to prevent mass layoffs in their Siberian company towns persists. And of course, this is by design. If Washington's Cold War 2 planners could never achieve a successful Maidan in Moscow, because Russia's tamed oligarchs were far too weak to topple Putin (in contrast with the Ukrainian oligarchy that overthrew President Viktor Yanukovych in a U.S. organized coup), they still hope to fuel unrest across Russia. In March, a suspicious fire set at a shopping mall in Kemerovo which killed dozens including many children had some hallmarks of an event intended to spark mass protests beyond Siberia, due to genuine grief and outrage over the corruption that enabled the tragedy.

Putin responded by flying to Kemerovo, condemning corruption in fire safety inspections, vowing a full investigation of the conflagration, and the longtime Kemerovo mayor whose underlings likely received bribes from the mall owner resigned. But the incident underscored the physical as well as metaphorical kindling for the flames of discontent in Russia, even if many of those opposed to Putin are more radically anti-Western and opposed to policies favorable to non-Russian ethnic minorities than he will ever be. Putin is, far from the paranoid xenophobe that his enemies caricature him as, a German speaking Teutonophile who gets along well with Russian Jews and seeks business-like relations with Israel.

The Limits on Moscow's Ability to Immediately Hit Back, and a Lamented Lack of Imagination in Stimulating the Russian Economy or Providing Affordable Credit to the People

The Kemerovo fire, which has all the hallmarks of an authentic but criminally planned scenario, illustrates the vulnerability of Russia through corruption to foreign attack. Even if said attacks will never be acknowledged by either side, they are real and the Russian security services know it. The more pressing problem than getting city and regional bureaucrats to stop demanding and receiving bribes from businesses for clean fire safety inspections is the oligarchy. Namely, those 100 or fewer individuals to whom so many Soviet era mineral and industrial assets were sold on the cheap. Putin tamed them in his first term in office through the arrest and imprisonment of the criminal Mikhail Khodorkovsky, but as Z. Brzezinski smirked at the time (and the Russian Analyst is paraphrasing here rather than offering a precise quote), "If your oligarchs, their yachts, their money and their children are in London rather than Russia, are they still yours, or ours?"

With Oleg Deripaska in particular spending large sums of money on lobbyists to obtain a U.S. visa only to be sanctioned by name and corporate listings over Moscow's globally 'malign activities', Washington's determination to squeeze the oligarchs as a form of pressure on the overall economy is evident. Since the Sergei and Yulia Skripal poisoning that the British have blamed on Russia, there have also been rumblings about seizures or sudden sanctions levied against Russian wealth in 'Londongrad'. The State Duma has responded to the Anglo-Americans by introducing legislation intended to inflict pain on specific American sectors reliant on Russian materials or technology, primarily aerospace. Boeing uses titanium to build its 787 Dreamliners, a Russian titanium embargo would devastate VSMPO-Avisma, while perhaps setting back the Boeing orders by months until the manufacturer could find alternative stocks or middlemen. Not surprisingly the Russian Trade Minister Denis Manturov overruled the angry Duma deputies -- for now.  A similar dynamic is apparent when it comes to Russia halting rocket engine shipments to the U.S. In that scenario, NASA and the Pentagon would be delayed in satellite launches by several months, but highly skilled Russian rocket engineers and builders would be furloughed for months -- making talent poaching offers from the heavily subsidized SpaceX or even Chinese competitors highly attractive. Not surprisingly, these facts have emboldened Washington's sanctions advocates into believing that Moscow needs Washington far more than the U.S. needs Russia, and the Russians cannot effectively punch back in the economic realm. Therefore the neocons will keep on pushing -- until Moscow finds a way to demonstrate it can impose pain on the American economy, beyond beating out the Americans for lucrative arms or nuclear power plant contracts in markets where the Cold War rivals go head to head like India.

A Snapshot of the Russian Debate Over How to Fight Back and Revive their Economy

Not surprisingly, many Russian commentators on television are expressing their frustration that the Kremlin is not hitting back hard enough, or finding any creative ways to do so. In this clip from a talk show on Vesti, the show host complains that Moscow still has tens of billions parked in U.S. Treasuries. Why he asks his guests from the State Duma, can't that entire total be converted to gold or other currencies, as the Russian Central Bank has already been doing? Why does the Kremlin keep own any national debt of the enemy that openly speaks of squeezing Russia from economic processes? The Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) Yuri Afonin, goes on to unfavorably contrast Russia's economic development enslaved to 'Western securities' to 'Communist' China's, which he says wisely invests greater resources into its infrastructure. Yury Vyacheslavovich does not even have time to mention in two minutes of remarks the absurdity of Russia continuing to hold debt of a country whose leadership openly seeks to discourage if not outright ban allies from buying Russian sovereign debt.

The economist Nikita A. Krichevsky, responds by pointing out the Russian government in the better times of 2006-2007 missed opportunities to invest in national projects (a critique the Russian Analyst is very familiar with), and could start in the present economic crunch by offering Russians mortgage relief at cheaper, refinanced rates as a simple and quick stimulus to the economy. Krichevsky blames lazy but well compensated Russian bureaucrats (as Russian Analyst readers are noticing, everyone loves to hate the chinovniki and has since Tsarist times) and the concurs that the Washington consensus promoting ideology inherited from the 'Gaidar-Chubais' dominated Nineties is to blame, along with the departments that promote it at Moscow State University and especially, the Moscow Higher School of Economics, for whom a post-Western dominated (read: after the U.S. dollar and euro collapse) future for Russia is  unthinkable. The Americans and their king dollar are always going to be on top, because it was so when the educations and attitudes of these thinkers were formed in the perestroika and Yeltsin years.

On a more optimistic (from Moscow's perspective) note, the economist Maxim Schein says that other countries are dumping American Treasury debt by the tens of billions every quarter, because they all understand interest rates must rise due to the growth in the American national debt. This means that if Russia dumps its U.S. debt holdings it will be doing what others are doing, and not taking an exceptional loss. Krichevsky responds by asking why the ruble dollar exchange rate cannot be fixed, the way China has managed its dollar-yuan peg within certain parameters. The host grunts something about market economy in reply. But the Americans clearly aren't playing by their own supposed market economic rules or legal niceties in seeking to destroy not just specific oligarchs for being Kremlin connected but entire sectors of the Russian economy such as metallurgy. Furthermore, 'market economy' dogmas might not apply to a company like Rusal that's already effectively embargoed from Western financing, owned by Russian state funded banks and which, as a producer of a strategic metal in aluminum, has military value in the current second Cold War which has prompted Russia's rapid rearmament.

The choice, according to the gloomy prognostications of individuals like Branko Milanovic, who believe Russia joining no anti-dollar bloc is possible much less preferable, is capitulation or autarky. But since autarky in the 21st century in a country like Russia, whose authorities cannot even competently ban the app Telegram is impossible, supposedly Moscow will have to find some face saving way to surrender to the Americans. Or so this narrative goes, ignoring the enormous liabilities the United States is aggressively lashing out to relieve, both economic and cultural, of which Putin and those advising him as well as China's Xi are well aware. Ultimately, time is not on the Americans side, the disagreement in Russia is over how to get through the period of maximum economic pressure rather than over whether Washington can sustain it for decades as it did during the last Cold War.

The Rossiya show hostess concludes this clip by saying RIA Novosti sources citing the Kremlin are reporting a Trump-Putin meeting planned for prior to November. But placing hopes on Trump, as many guests like Yevgeny Satanovsky speaking on the same network's shows have already declared, is foolish. Russia must become more like its big powerful and apparently, much more respected by the Americans neighbor China, in order to push the arrogant Yankees back and prevail. 

[glenmenlow]

Brand Innovation: 5 Rules For Failure

Vinko Bogataj doesn’t usually come to mind when savvy marketers think of influential business lessons. In fact, most of us don’t even know his name. But, growing up in the U.S. in the 1980’s, I’ll never forget his image in the opening montage of ABC’s Wide World of Sports. It was accompanied by Jim McKay’s epic narration contrasting “The Thrill of Victory” with “The Agony of Defeat”; which McKay offered as “its inevitable companion”. The footage was from the 1970 Ski-Flying World Championship in Oberstdorf, Germany. Unfortunately, on that infamous run, there was no actual ski flying. There was only a horrific sequence captured on film of a helpless athlete bounding head over heels off the side of the ramp.

The good news was that Bogataj suffered only minor injuries. The bad news, the young Slovenian became the anonymous icon for agony for a generation of American sports fans.

You might think this is an interesting sports story. It’s actually a story about brand innovation.

Zero Sum Games

Jim McKay’s thrills and agonies of the sports world could equally apply to business where there are also dramatic and uncertain outcomes, although usually not in such a swift (and visual) fashion.

The reason is simple: Successful brands are driven by growth imperatives. For example, your brand may need to grow by 10% next year. But, in the short term, populations usually don’t grow by 10%. In the short term, incomes don’t generally rise by 10%. In most cases, if you are going to grow by 10%, somebody else has to shrink. If you taste the thrill of victory, somebody somewhere feels the agony of defeat.

Brand Innovation For Growth

Innovation is a hot topic. It’s often seen as an answer to the growth imperative. Among other things, innovation allows you to enter new businesses, re-define the competitive landscape, or differentiate your offering in the market and separate yourself from lower margin commodity products.

Bold innovation is one of those things many brands enjoy dabbling in and dreaming about. But in practice, we may not like the realities it entails. Lives get changed, markets get disrupted, our sense of security goes out the door, and people get hurt. And, that’s what happens when we’re successful! It’s much worse when brands try bold innovation and fail (cue Wide World of Sports video).

In summary: We need the thrill of victory (from innovation and other growth drivers). But, we never want to experience that agony of defeat (from failing).

Paradoxically, how we cope with failure – both the fear of it and the reality of it – often determines our ability to succeed.

Dealing With Failure

The traditional approach to dealing with failure owes a debt of gratitude to Pavlov: Failure is bad. Do something bad, get punished. Don’t do something bad again.

In innovation, punishing failure leads to a really bad thing: Failure Avoidance, with nasty side effects like decision paralysis, finger pointing, and playing it too safe. Innovation comes to a halt when employees feel it’s unsafe to work on projects with an uncertain outcome. Brands with cultures of fear and blame are historically low-performing innovators.

There’s a temptation to solve for this by over-correcting and declaring “Failure is OK”. This well-meaning approach is designed to allow “safe space” to explore, experiment, and play. But the unintended consequence is that when nobody is held accountable for failure, quitting becomes an easy option…opening the door for an equally crippling condition: Failure Acceptance.

During the course of any significant innovation project, there will always be logical, rational, compelling reasons to quit. Try to think of a successful innovation project that didn’t go through a dark period where the outcomes looked bleak. The companies that win don’t do so because they don’t face challenges, but rather because they have the will to persevere and adapt their way to success.

Think of it this way: when you have to solve a problem, you usually do. When given the option to not solve a tough problem, you often don’t. History is full of examples where groups succeed when they didn’t have the option to quit (the Spanish after Cortes burned their own boats or mission control on Apollo 13 to name two)

So failure avoidance leads to inaction and failure acceptance leads to a higher likelihood of failing. What do the world’s leading brand innovators do? I offer these five rules, gathered over the last decade of working directly with them.

1. Understand That Failure Is Not OK

Show me a brand where failure is truly OK and I’ll show you a brand that fails a lot (or did). Failures cost money. Banks keep score.

2. Accept That Failure Is Innovation’s “Inevitable Companion”

If you play it safe, you’ll never do anything fundamentally better. Bold leaps require commitment and investment based on imperfect or ambiguous information. Despite your best effort to minimize risk, some percentage of the time every brand will miss the mark.

Apple made the Newton. Coors launched spring water. Life Savers made soda. They were all bold.

They didn’t work out.

Failure is part of the game. Of course, this creates the tension at the heart of the innovation challenge – failure is not OK, but failures are inevitable. You can’t avoid failure or you’ll never do anything bold, and you can’t accept failure or you’ll lack perseverance. You may not like it, but just as Jim McKay said about victory and defeat, failure and innovation are inevitable companions.

Apple, Coors, and Life Savors are all highly successful, despite losing some big bets. They don’t win every time, but – importantly – they win more than they lose…which lets them live to innovate another day. And that’s the key – if you learn from each loss, the next time your odds get better.

3. Understand That “Wrong” Is Not The Same As “Fail”

Many cultures equate “wrong” with “fail”. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, being wrong is a vital part of the innovation process. If you pursue bold innovation, you will almost certainly be wrong some of the time (maybe a little, maybe a lot). Designing businesses for the future is unpredictable with complex factors, many outside of our control. Having the space to explore and play is critical, and that requires having permission to be wrong.

4. Over-Invest In Making Smarter Bets

In my experience, the brands that are consistently best at innovation invest generously in an exceptional process to gather learning, analyze risks, and create viable plans to make modest bets based on the information available. This up-front investment can be expensive, but it’s a wise investment if you’re serious about innovation. And, it’s ultimately much less expensive than writing off costly failures much later in the process.

I can’t stress enough how important it is for brands to over-invest here. Over-invest in simple prototypes. Over-invest in interacting with customers. Over-invest in being wrong so you can figure out what’s right. Do your homework, make smart bets, and course correct. If you do this well, in the long run you’ll win more than you lose.

5. Think Of Launch Commitment Like A Ski Jump Remember Vinko Bogataj? Ski jumpers like Bogataj never know for sure if they’ll land on their skis each time they jump. But once they take their butts off the seat, there is no other option but to see it through. They don’t think about the “what ifs.” They only think about how to adjust and succeed. High performing innovation brands (and entrepreneurs) think the same way.

I urge you to think of outcome commitment like a ski jump with a similar “Butt Off the Seat” moment. You wouldn’t strap on skis and hurl yourself down an icy ramp without a serious amount of prep work, would you? Do not commit to any innovation project lightly. But once you do, see it through. After your butt’s off the seat, either you’ll make choices that let you win, or you’ve already lost.

In Closing

What most of us never saw was that earlier on his fateful day, Vinko Bogataj made the jump of his life. He flew 410 feet down a German mountain to experience the true thrill of victory.

I’d love to say “ski jumpers and innovators have a lot in common”, but I can’t do that with a straight face. However, there is an important lesson about dealing with failure that we can learn: If you avoid failure you’ll never get in the game. If you allow it you won’t persevere.

In the middle is a balanced, if highly uncomfortable, space dominated by the inevitable tension most athletes have come to accept where failure is bad, but losses are inevitable if you’re in the game.

For those new to innovation, it’s easy to believe that success somehow occurs overnight and without having to fight for it. But it’s never easy, and while not every innovation project is a winner, every one could be a loser if you don’t persevere and make the right adjustments.

By the way, what did Bogataj say to the medical crew loading him into the ambulance 10 minutes after his fall. “Can I jump again?”

The Blake Project Can Help: Accelerate Brand Growth Through Powerful Emotional Connections

Build A Human Centric Brand. Join us for The Un-Conference: 360 Degrees of Brand Strategy for a Changing World, April 2-4, 2018 in San Diego, California. A fun, competitive-learning experience reserved for 50 marketing oriented leaders and professionals.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers

from WordPress https://glenmenlow.wordpress.com/2017/11/08/brand-innovation-5-rules-for-failure/ via IFTTT

[joejstrickl]

Brand Innovation: 5 Rules For Failure

Vinko Bogataj doesn’t usually come to mind when savvy marketers think of influential business lessons. In fact, most of us don’t even know his name. But, growing up in the U.S. in the 1980’s, I’ll never forget his image in the opening montage of ABC’s Wide World of Sports. It was accompanied by Jim McKay’s epic narration contrasting “The Thrill of Victory” with “The Agony of Defeat”; which McKay offered as “its inevitable companion”. The footage was from the 1970 Ski-Flying World Championship in Oberstdorf, Germany. Unfortunately, on that infamous run, there was no actual ski flying. There was only a horrific sequence captured on film of a helpless athlete bounding head over heels off the side of the ramp.

The good news was that Bogataj suffered only minor injuries. The bad news, the young Slovenian became the anonymous icon for agony for a generation of American sports fans.

You might think this is an interesting sports story. It’s actually a story about brand innovation.

Zero Sum Games

Jim McKay’s thrills and agonies of the sports world could equally apply to business where there are also dramatic and uncertain outcomes, although usually not in such a swift (and visual) fashion.

The reason is simple: Successful brands are driven by growth imperatives. For example, your brand may need to grow by 10% next year. But, in the short term, populations usually don’t grow by 10%. In the short term, incomes don’t generally rise by 10%. In most cases, if you are going to grow by 10%, somebody else has to shrink. If you taste the thrill of victory, somebody somewhere feels the agony of defeat.

Brand Innovation For Growth

Innovation is a hot topic. It’s often seen as an answer to the growth imperative. Among other things, innovation allows you to enter new businesses, re-define the competitive landscape, or differentiate your offering in the market and separate yourself from lower margin commodity products.

Bold innovation is one of those things many brands enjoy dabbling in and dreaming about. But in practice, we may not like the realities it entails. Lives get changed, markets get disrupted, our sense of security goes out the door, and people get hurt. And, that’s what happens when we’re successful! It’s much worse when brands try bold innovation and fail (cue Wide World of Sports video).

In summary: We need the thrill of victory (from innovation and other growth drivers). But, we never want to experience that agony of defeat (from failing).

Paradoxically, how we cope with failure – both the fear of it and the reality of it – often determines our ability to succeed.

Dealing With Failure

The traditional approach to dealing with failure owes a debt of gratitude to Pavlov: Failure is bad. Do something bad, get punished. Don’t do something bad again.

In innovation, punishing failure leads to a really bad thing: Failure Avoidance, with nasty side effects like decision paralysis, finger pointing, and playing it too safe. Innovation comes to a halt when employees feel it’s unsafe to work on projects with an uncertain outcome. Brands with cultures of fear and blame are historically low-performing innovators.

There’s a temptation to solve for this by over-correcting and declaring “Failure is OK”. This well-meaning approach is designed to allow “safe space” to explore, experiment, and play. But the unintended consequence is that when nobody is held accountable for failure, quitting becomes an easy option…opening the door for an equally crippling condition: Failure Acceptance.

During the course of any significant innovation project, there will always be logical, rational, compelling reasons to quit. Try to think of a successful innovation project that didn’t go through a dark period where the outcomes looked bleak. The companies that win don’t do so because they don’t face challenges, but rather because they have the will to persevere and adapt their way to success.

Think of it this way: when you have to solve a problem, you usually do. When given the option to not solve a tough problem, you often don’t. History is full of examples where groups succeed when they didn’t have the option to quit (the Spanish after Cortes burned their own boats or mission control on Apollo 13 to name two)

So failure avoidance leads to inaction and failure acceptance leads to a higher likelihood of failing. What do the world’s leading brand innovators do? I offer these five rules, gathered over the last decade of working directly with them.

1. Understand That Failure Is Not OK

Show me a brand where failure is truly OK and I’ll show you a brand that fails a lot (or did). Failures cost money. Banks keep score.

2. Accept That Failure Is Innovation’s “Inevitable Companion”

If you play it safe, you’ll never do anything fundamentally better. Bold leaps require commitment and investment based on imperfect or ambiguous information. Despite your best effort to minimize risk, some percentage of the time every brand will miss the mark.

Apple made the Newton. Coors launched spring water. Life Savers made soda. They were all bold.

They didn’t work out.

Failure is part of the game. Of course, this creates the tension at the heart of the innovation challenge – failure is not OK, but failures are inevitable. You can’t avoid failure or you’ll never do anything bold, and you can’t accept failure or you’ll lack perseverance. You may not like it, but just as Jim McKay said about victory and defeat, failure and innovation are inevitable companions.

Apple, Coors, and Life Savors are all highly successful, despite losing some big bets. They don’t win every time, but – importantly – they win more than they lose…which lets them live to innovate another day. And that’s the key – if you learn from each loss, the next time your odds get better.

3. Understand That “Wrong” Is Not The Same As “Fail”

Many cultures equate “wrong” with “fail”. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, being wrong is a vital part of the innovation process. If you pursue bold innovation, you will almost certainly be wrong some of the time (maybe a little, maybe a lot). Designing businesses for the future is unpredictable with complex factors, many outside of our control. Having the space to explore and play is critical, and that requires having permission to be wrong.

4. Over-Invest In Making Smarter Bets

In my experience, the brands that are consistently best at innovation invest generously in an exceptional process to gather learning, analyze risks, and create viable plans to make modest bets based on the information available. This up-front investment can be expensive, but it’s a wise investment if you’re serious about innovation. And, it’s ultimately much less expensive than writing off costly failures much later in the process.

I can’t stress enough how important it is for brands to over-invest here. Over-invest in simple prototypes. Over-invest in interacting with customers. Over-invest in being wrong so you can figure out what’s right. Do your homework, make smart bets, and course correct. If you do this well, in the long run you’ll win more than you lose.

5. Think Of Launch Commitment Like A Ski Jump Remember Vinko Bogataj? Ski jumpers like Bogataj never know for sure if they’ll land on their skis each time they jump. But once they take their butts off the seat, there is no other option but to see it through. They don’t think about the “what ifs.” They only think about how to adjust and succeed. High performing innovation brands (and entrepreneurs) think the same way.

I urge you to think of outcome commitment like a ski jump with a similar “Butt Off the Seat” moment. You wouldn’t strap on skis and hurl yourself down an icy ramp without a serious amount of prep work, would you? Do not commit to any innovation project lightly. But once you do, see it through. After your butt’s off the seat, either you’ll make choices that let you win, or you’ve already lost.

In Closing

What most of us never saw was that earlier on his fateful day, Vinko Bogataj made the jump of his life. He flew 410 feet down a German mountain to experience the true thrill of victory.

I’d love to say “ski jumpers and innovators have a lot in common”, but I can’t do that with a straight face. However, there is an important lesson about dealing with failure that we can learn: If you avoid failure you’ll never get in the game. If you allow it you won’t persevere.

In the middle is a balanced, if highly uncomfortable, space dominated by the inevitable tension most athletes have come to accept where failure is bad, but losses are inevitable if you’re in the game.

For those new to innovation, it’s easy to believe that success somehow occurs overnight and without having to fight for it. But it’s never easy, and while not every innovation project is a winner, every one could be a loser if you don’t persevere and make the right adjustments.

By the way, what did Bogataj say to the medical crew loading him into the ambulance 10 minutes after his fall. “Can I jump again?”

The Blake Project Can Help: Accelerate Brand Growth Through Powerful Emotional Connections

Build A Human Centric Brand. Join us for The Un-Conference: 360 Degrees of Brand Strategy for a Changing World, April 2-4, 2018 in San Diego, California. A fun, competitive-learning experience reserved for 50 marketing oriented leaders and professionals.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers

[markjsousa]

Brand Innovation: 5 Rules For Failure

Vinko Bogataj doesn’t usually come to mind when savvy marketers think of influential business lessons. In fact, most of us don’t even know his name. But, growing up in the U.S. in the 1980’s, I’ll never forget his image in the opening montage of ABC’s Wide World of Sports. It was accompanied by Jim McKay’s epic narration contrasting “The Thrill of Victory” with “The Agony of Defeat”; which McKay offered as “its inevitable companion”. The footage was from the 1970 Ski-Flying World Championship in Oberstdorf, Germany. Unfortunately, on that infamous run, there was no actual ski flying. There was only a horrific sequence captured on film of a helpless athlete bounding head over heels off the side of the ramp.

The good news was that Bogataj suffered only minor injuries. The bad news, the young Slovenian became the anonymous icon for agony for a generation of American sports fans.

You might think this is an interesting sports story. It’s actually a story about brand innovation.

Zero Sum Games

Jim McKay’s thrills and agonies of the sports world could equally apply to business where there are also dramatic and uncertain outcomes, although usually not in such a swift (and visual) fashion.

The reason is simple: Successful brands are driven by growth imperatives. For example, your brand may need to grow by 10% next year. But, in the short term, populations usually don’t grow by 10%. In the short term, incomes don’t generally rise by 10%. In most cases, if you are going to grow by 10%, somebody else has to shrink. If you taste the thrill of victory, somebody somewhere feels the agony of defeat.

Brand Innovation For Growth

Innovation is a hot topic. It’s often seen as an answer to the growth imperative. Among other things, innovation allows you to enter new businesses, re-define the competitive landscape, or differentiate your offering in the market and separate yourself from lower margin commodity products.

Bold innovation is one of those things many brands enjoy dabbling in and dreaming about. But in practice, we may not like the realities it entails. Lives get changed, markets get disrupted, our sense of security goes out the door, and people get hurt. And, that’s what happens when we’re successful! It’s much worse when brands try bold innovation and fail (cue Wide World of Sports video).

In summary: We need the thrill of victory (from innovation and other growth drivers). But, we never want to experience that agony of defeat (from failing).

Paradoxically, how we cope with failure – both the fear of it and the reality of it – often determines our ability to succeed.

Dealing With Failure

The traditional approach to dealing with failure owes a debt of gratitude to Pavlov: Failure is bad. Do something bad, get punished. Don’t do something bad again.

In innovation, punishing failure leads to a really bad thing: Failure Avoidance, with nasty side effects like decision paralysis, finger pointing, and playing it too safe. Innovation comes to a halt when employees feel it’s unsafe to work on projects with an uncertain outcome. Brands with cultures of fear and blame are historically low-performing innovators.

There’s a temptation to solve for this by over-correcting and declaring “Failure is OK”. This well-meaning approach is designed to allow “safe space” to explore, experiment, and play. But the unintended consequence is that when nobody is held accountable for failure, quitting becomes an easy option…opening the door for an equally crippling condition: Failure Acceptance.

During the course of any significant innovation project, there will always be logical, rational, compelling reasons to quit. Try to think of a successful innovation project that didn’t go through a dark period where the outcomes looked bleak. The companies that win don’t do so because they don’t face challenges, but rather because they have the will to persevere and adapt their way to success.

Think of it this way: when you have to solve a problem, you usually do. When given the option to not solve a tough problem, you often don’t. History is full of examples where groups succeed when they didn’t have the option to quit (the Spanish after Cortes burned their own boats or mission control on Apollo 13 to name two)

So failure avoidance leads to inaction and failure acceptance leads to a higher likelihood of failing. What do the world’s leading brand innovators do? I offer these five rules, gathered over the last decade of working directly with them.

1. Understand That Failure Is Not OK

Show me a brand where failure is truly OK and I’ll show you a brand that fails a lot (or did). Failures cost money. Banks keep score.

2. Accept That Failure Is Innovation’s “Inevitable Companion”

If you play it safe, you’ll never do anything fundamentally better. Bold leaps require commitment and investment based on imperfect or ambiguous information. Despite your best effort to minimize risk, some percentage of the time every brand will miss the mark.

Apple made the Newton. Coors launched spring water. Life Savers made soda. They were all bold.

They didn’t work out.

Failure is part of the game. Of course, this creates the tension at the heart of the innovation challenge – failure is not OK, but failures are inevitable. You can’t avoid failure or you’ll never do anything bold, and you can’t accept failure or you’ll lack perseverance. You may not like it, but just as Jim McKay said about victory and defeat, failure and innovation are inevitable companions.

Apple, Coors, and Life Savors are all highly successful, despite losing some big bets. They don’t win every time, but – importantly – they win more than they lose…which lets them live to innovate another day. And that’s the key – if you learn from each loss, the next time your odds get better.

3. Understand That “Wrong” Is Not The Same As “Fail”

Many cultures equate “wrong” with “fail”. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, being wrong is a vital part of the innovation process. If you pursue bold innovation, you will almost certainly be wrong some of the time (maybe a little, maybe a lot). Designing businesses for the future is unpredictable with complex factors, many outside of our control. Having the space to explore and play is critical, and that requires having permission to be wrong.

4. Over-Invest In Making Smarter Bets

In my experience, the brands that are consistently best at innovation invest generously in an exceptional process to gather learning, analyze risks, and create viable plans to make modest bets based on the information available. This up-front investment can be expensive, but it’s a wise investment if you’re serious about innovation. And, it’s ultimately much less expensive than writing off costly failures much later in the process.

I can’t stress enough how important it is for brands to over-invest here. Over-invest in simple prototypes. Over-invest in interacting with customers. Over-invest in being wrong so you can figure out what’s right. Do your homework, make smart bets, and course correct. If you do this well, in the long run you’ll win more than you lose.

5. Think Of Launch Commitment Like A Ski Jump Remember Vinko Bogataj? Ski jumpers like Bogataj never know for sure if they’ll land on their skis each time they jump. But once they take their butts off the seat, there is no other option but to see it through. They don’t think about the “what ifs.” They only think about how to adjust and succeed. High performing innovation brands (and entrepreneurs) think the same way.

I urge you to think of outcome commitment like a ski jump with a similar “Butt Off the Seat” moment. You wouldn’t strap on skis and hurl yourself down an icy ramp without a serious amount of prep work, would you? Do not commit to any innovation project lightly. But once you do, see it through. After your butt’s off the seat, either you’ll make choices that let you win, or you’ve already lost.

In Closing

What most of us never saw was that earlier on his fateful day, Vinko Bogataj made the jump of his life. He flew 410 feet down a German mountain to experience the true thrill of victory.

I’d love to say “ski jumpers and innovators have a lot in common”, but I can’t do that with a straight face. However, there is an important lesson about dealing with failure that we can learn: If you avoid failure you’ll never get in the game. If you allow it you won’t persevere.

In the middle is a balanced, if highly uncomfortable, space dominated by the inevitable tension most athletes have come to accept where failure is bad, but losses are inevitable if you’re in the game.

For those new to innovation, it’s easy to believe that success somehow occurs overnight and without having to fight for it. But it’s never easy, and while not every innovation project is a winner, every one could be a loser if you don’t persevere and make the right adjustments.

By the way, what did Bogataj say to the medical crew loading him into the ambulance 10 minutes after his fall. “Can I jump again?”

The Blake Project Can Help: Accelerate Brand Growth Through Powerful Emotional Connections

Build A Human Centric Brand. Join us for The Un-Conference: 360 Degrees of Brand Strategy for a Changing World, April 2-4, 2018 in San Diego, California. A fun, competitive-learning experience reserved for 50 marketing oriented leaders and professionals.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers