#managed services it support model

[youtubevideopromotion]

In this week's episode of WHAT THE TECH, we discuss the challenges and drawbacks of managed services in the tech world. Explore real-life examples and expert insights into the impact of outsourcing IT functions. For more visit here

[grimrester]

i am really so sorry to continue harping on about the watcher entertainment streaming service. but this kind of stuff (internet content as a business & marketing it as such) is truly my obsession, and i think i will implode if i don't talk about some of the takes i'm seeing.

i'd like to emphasize again i don't have strong feelings about watcher either way. i like ghost files, i watch mystery files sometimes, i watched worth it back in the buzzfeed days. i don't watch any of their shows religiously.

anyway, here's the main things i keep seeing crop up and my thoughts on each:

"watcher has 25 employees they have to pay, and employing people in this economy is good, so we should be banding together to pay them."

employing people is good if you currently have the capacity to pay them. i checked watcher's linkedin page, and many of their employees were hired within the last year or two. if they hired people they cannot pay with the business model they had before, something is seriously wrong with their internal bookkeeping/decision making. it means they either didn't know they couldn't pay these people long term, or they did know and were content with risking newly hired employees' livelihoods on a huge content pivot in the next year.

of note is that none of their employees' titles have anything to do with managing the finances of the company. they are the size of a small business but have no one aside from the figureheads of the company in charge of their finances.

this is the kind of company decision making that leads to downsizing and layoffs, which can be devastating. but you know what's worse than laying off a portion of your staff? laying off everyone because your business is going under.

"not everyone can afford the subscription, but those who can should pay it to support the watcher team."

no. $6/month for a couple hours of content (depending on what shows you actively watch and the natural fluctuation of their release schedule) is a fundamentally bad value. i can pay that much for a few movies on amazon. i can pay that much for dropout, if i want to support a smaller business instead.

and to be totally frank, even if people do sign up, i don't think they'd get enough to compete with the amount they get through patreon/sponsorships. and the fact that they didn't know how many of their subscribers would realistically sign up is a bad sign.

a pretty good conversion rate of free to paid subscribers of a service or content is 3% (usually accomplished through a free trial). given the very poor reception of the announcement, let's say about 1% of their 3 mil youtube subs pay for their service. that's 30k people paying for their new platform. that's $180k a month in their pocket.

(they currently only have 12k subs on patreon so we are being generous here.)

a sponsorship deal (based on my googling, i have less direct experience with this) is anywhere from $10-50 per 1000 views. they've gotten about 1 mil views on their last few videos. 3 mil subs is nothing to shake a stick at, but let's say they're on the lower end of the payscale at $25 per 1000 views. that's $25k a video, $100k a month if they release 1 video a week. their lowest patreon tier is 5 bucks, so even if all their subs are at that tier, that's another $60k, so $160k total. it's entirely likely they're bringing in much more than that when you factor in merch, adsence, etc.

did anyone on their team crunch numbers on how many people would need to sub to make the switch worth it? did anyone do market research on how many people they could convert to paid users? because if not, if they really didn't have a game plan for this, the subscription service was always doomed to fail.

"this was their only option to continue making the content they want to make, with the production value they want."

i watched their announcement video. a key point in that video is that they have done sponsored videos and that's what used to pay for their content, but they did not like the amount of creative control the sponsor had over the content.

look, i get that's no fun. we'd all love creatives to be able to make whatever they want. but when you are a small business with a team of employees relying on you, you have to think about making money, sometimes at the cost of creative liberties.

and they had so many other options to make money for the projects they want to make without jumping to a subscription platform.

they could have started actually promoting their patreon, and maybe done some restructuring of the tiers. why not a highly produced, special series just for patreon members? or a special high-budget episode of each series, while the main series is lower budget?

bite the bullet and continue taking sponsorship deals on some less-produced shows, while axing sponsorships from the ones the crew feels more passionate about.

schedule larger, blowout-production shows only when they can be afforded. this is what Notorious Amongus Guy streamer jerma does. he saves up for big productions like his baseball or dollhouse streams, so he can really get creative with them.

they had other options and they've tried very little, especially when you compare them to other content house business at similar scales. try guys and good mythical morning both put out significant content with significant staff, and have had to diversify their income streams with auxiliary products, shows with widely varied levels of production, etc. but it seems to be working for them. watcher has merch and that's about it, and seems to only want to increase the production quality of ALL their shows.

really, all this just boils down to a terrible business decision. it's hard to say if the watcher team is working with a consultant or anyone outside of their team, but they certainly don't have anyone internally who is experienced with running a business like this. to me, it seems very much like they got in a room together and did some extremely optimistic income ballparking with no research behind it.

and that might have been fine for three dudes running a channel alone, but if they're a business, they have to start making decisions like one.

[wraithdance]

Good Boy [part 1/2]

CW: Mentions of canon childhood trauma & abuse, loss of virginity (Simon), using sex as self harm, my man being traumatized and bitch-less, awkwardness, eventual reader mention, lots of internal dialogue I’m setting sumthn up for the next part

Simon is aware he wasn’t pretty or particularly personable. He didn’t ever really need to be.

Even before the scars and the night terrors that kept him up as he meticulously arranged and dismantled his service pistol, he’d never been one to get the girl.

The years spent supporting his mother and saving Tommy’s ass, while also surviving his father’s blows, took up what was a joke of a childhood. There were no movie dates or pretty birds under his arm or texting his phone (not like he had one). Not even the time to wank to whatever model graced the cover of the cheap magazines his mother hid.

He’d lost his virginity in the most clinical way in the back of the butcher shop he’d worked as a teenager. Couldn’t remember the face of the bold older girl that offered to suck his cock when he went on break. Simon had been befuddled that she’d wanted to repay him with a quickie because he’d discounted the cut of meat she’d been sent to pick up for her mother. He’d accepted nonetheless and followed as she lead him to the back of the alley between the shop and laundromat.

Simon had been stiff, unable to enjoy the feeling of her hot, pink glossed mouth taking his prick as far as she could manage. He’d been too preoccupied with the fear of being caught by his boss and the uncomfortable feel of her teeth snagging the sensitive skin of his shaft. He remembered her offense when she’d asked him if she was making him feel good and he’d said no.

At 18 he was still unaccustomed to the concept of lying to spare another’s feelings.

Expecting her to give up he’d tried to thank her (which offended her more) and stuff his cock back into his work jeans. Instead she’d rolled her eyes and lifted her skirt, positioning herself against the brick wall. She’s all but snapped at him to hurry the fuck up and put his cock inside her.

His hands had trembled as he worked himself into her cunt. She’d hissed around the gum in her mouth when he’d pressed the head of his cock past her slick hole, barking that he was too big and to go slow. He tried, the restraint it took to not chance her ire and rut into her like a dog made his teeth crack with how hard he clenched his jaw. She’d yowled like the female cat that made home behind the trash can when it was in heat. He’d nearly slipped out of her afraid he’d hurt her. She’d called him a fucking idiot and demanded he fucked her until she said stopped. So he did.

The force of his orgasm nearly made him black out, through the muffled roar of his blood in his ears, he’d been able to heed her warning to pull out.

He’d been apologetic about the cum that dripped on her open toed shoes. She’d ignored him and scrapped what she could off with a business card he kept in his apron, while he buckled his pants. She’d come inside to grab her parcel of meat and ignored him. His boss had come from the back office and took one look at the retreating girl before shaking his head at Simon.

When he’d joined the military he’d lost what was left of his naivety. There was no room for apologies and mincing words when seeing the life drain from your enemies eyes. For the first time in his life his roughness and straight speech was an asset.

Tactical. Strategic.

Those were the kind of things they said in praise as they pat him on the back.

He’d embraced it, embraced the part of him that would always be his father’s son and he raised hell in honor of his majesty.

He couldn’t look himself in the eyes in the mirror much less imagine the kind of life MacTavish went on about. Always talking about a house in the highlands and a pregnant wife with a barn full of children.

‘Ye can’t tell me ya don’t want the same L.T’

Johnny would say in the dead of night. Always while ‘keeping company’ at Simon’s shoulder while he watched the world through his sniper. Simon’s hands had always sweat beneath his gloves at the talks of imagined lives outside of the shithole safe house they were holed up in. Sometimes he’d grunt noncommittally and Johnny would take the hint and entertain himself with something else. Other times it took a gruff

‘Shut the fuck up MacTavish’

Johnny would be blissfully quiet awhile and the part of Simon that was still his mother’s son would rear his head long enough to transmute a sense of guilt. It was always short lived because Johnny was persistent, forgiving.

He’d bounce back after some time and laugh at whatever joke Simon had in his arsenal in lieu of an apology.

‘It’s alright L.T we’ll find ye a nice Lass to settle down with’ MacTavish’s eyes would sparkle in mischief. Convinced that was the solution to every problem.

Simon thinks about it often when in the bare apartment he calls home when forced on leave. On nights he can’t think of anything but of the echoes of blood and blows across his body, he thinks of what it would be like to have something to come home to. He never gets too far because there’s no frame of reference to use. Just a nameless girl who’d taken his cock in an alley way.

Simon learned that the more he lost himself to the entity that was Ghost the more women gave him the time of day. It was like the self loathing and dark acerbic energy that kept him tethered to the living was a beacon.

The first time it happened he’d made a mousy girl cry. She’d been dared by her friends to approach him at a bar. He’d felt her eyes on him throughout the night, choosing to ignore her. The mask protected him from the itch that came with being perceived in civilian life. He’d been somewhat prepared for her to get the courage to come up to him, having learned that some people were stupid enough to go against their predator/prey instincts. He hadn’t been prepared for the soft hand that trailed across his back to get his attention.

He’d humiliated her. Towered over her and cut her down with words until dark spots danced at the corner of his visions, until she’d burst into sobs. He’d thrown down cash to cover his tab and left. The echoes of her friends calling him a fucking bastard on his heels.

Much like the first time he’d had sex he responded better to blatant requests to be fucked. The requests nearly always when out at drinks with his team. He’d gotten good at recognizing the telltale signs of desperate interest. The glance over of his mates, the dilated pupils as they took in his mask and covered form. On the days he couldn’t be arsed he ignored them. When he needed to feel something other than nothingness he’d meet their eyes. Signal with his head to meet him in the dingy hallway or the back alley.

Always the same as the first time. Spreading their legs against the brick, rutting deep and wasting his spend on the asphalt. With experience he’d learned to grip their necks and maneuver their bodies just so. Overtaking their senses and giving them the fantasy of being just a cunt for him to fuck. In the end he always felt like the one being used.

Sometimes they wanted more from him. A kiss, a call, a second time. He’d occasionally entertained it, the prickling desire to have that dream Johnny painted. It always ended the same. His career kept him away, he was too closed off, the novelty of fucking the guy who scared their friends wore off. And he was left feeling more like a shell.

He stopped recognizing himself in the mirror after a while. A stranger stared back at him with lifeless eyes and a body that belonged to someone else.

The night he met you he’d been unprepared. You’d stared at him like the others. Flickering eyes back and forth taking him in with interest. Gaz and Johnny had noticed and made jokes that set his teeth on edge. He’d told them to piss off.

He caught you staring at him once more, holding your gaze with lidded eyes. You didn’t look away or act coy and embarrassed.

Good.

Subtly he motioned to the bars entrance. You frowned.

He watched you stand up and collect your bags and he took down the rest of his tepid beer. Gaz and Johnny whistled loud and obnoxiously, until Price rallied them in with a half hearted threat.

Simon is making his way through the crowded pub keeping track of your movements. He’s got a cigarette out and lit when you cautiously tip toe out into the night.

He’s watching your nervous shuffling from behind the tendrils of smoke. You seem to make up your mind about something because your shoulders set apart and you straighten your back. Brave little thing.

“Can you model for me-“

“Lift your skirt-”

Your eyes are peeled wide in disbelief. He’s honestly just as confused but hides it with a flick of the cigarette ash.

“Wot?”

“Uh? I asked if you could model for me,” you’re not quite fidgeting but you aren’t really focusing on him. Your eyes are looking just past his shoulder in a facsimile of eye contact. Something about it bothers him.

He flicks the half spent cigarette to the concrete and pulls away from the wall. You don’t step back from his size or flutter your eyes like a pretty bird. You’re taking him in like you’re categorizing him.

“Wots this about modeling? I thought you followed me out to ask for my cock.”

Your nose wrinkles at the crassness.

“No sorry, I thought you just wanted to talk in a quieter area,” you look around at the alleyway for a spell before facing him. “Honestly it seems a bit unsanitary to have sex out here don’t you think?”

He snorts. He’d never heard any objections before. He’d also never had sex in a bed either though.

Simon had long since learned he was good enough to fuck in alleys or cars between shifts. Sometimes couches if he made it across the threshold. Never had any qualms around it until you mentioned it.

It’s a grating thought he doesn’t want to dwell on. He’s turning to leave when you step in front of him with arms raised.

“Wait!” He is glowering down at you unimpressed.

“I’m sorry I really did want to ask you to model for me!” You’re panicking and inching closer to the bar door as if hoping to block his exit with your body. A laughable thought. You must realize it too because your hands drop listlessly to your side.

“Listen, I’m an author and I need someone to pose for a cover mock up for a series.” He scoffs.

“And you thought I’d be a fit?”

“Well yeah!” Your eyes light up in excitement and you ramble out a stream of things he doesn’t quite catch. His focus on the curve of your cheeks and the sense of life you emit. His cock is half chubbed in his pants watching you.

After awhile your rambles trail off and you stare at each other. Realizing he had no plans to respond you sigh in defeat.

“Look take my card,” you’re reaching into your pocket for a wrinkly square. “I’m serious I really do think you’d be a great model for my series and I’d really like to treat you to coffee if you’re willing to hear me out.”

Simon isn’t sure why he takes the card, but he does. He’s looking at the hand doodled picture of a dog and the chicken scrawl beneath the text stating ‘Expert Dog Walker’. He gives you a flat look that causes you to grimace.

“It’s my day job, you know what they say about starving artists and all.” You joke.

He doesn’t laugh.

He instead pockets the thin square and steps around you. You’re on his heels following him inside. He gives you a look as a sign of dismissal that you scoff at but you take the hint.

He watches you leave from the corner of his eye while he settles down at the table with his team.

‘You’re back a little early mate.” Gaz prods.

“The lass dinnae look too happy with your performance LT what did ye do? Do ye need me to tell you how to put it in.” Soap claps a hand over Simon’s shoulder that he shoves off.

Price observes him quietly with arms crossed. Simon doesn’t tell them about your odd little request at all.

He fingers the card in his pocket throughout the night. He looks at your scrawled name as he washes the eye black from his face, your card tucked into the mirror.

He has the number memorized by the time he’s done.

[processindustrytspl]

How Seeq enables the Practice of MLOps for Continuous Integration and Development of the Machine Learning Models

Using ML/AI now they have enabled themselves to not only understand the importance of parameters but also to make predictions in real-time and forecast the future values. This helps the industry to manage and continuously improve the process by mitigating operational challenges such as reducing downtime, increasing productivity, improving yields and much more. But, in order to achieve such continuous support for the operations in real-time, the underlying models and techniques also need to be continuously monitored and managed. This brings in the requirement of MLOps, a borrowed terminology from DEVOps that can be used to manage your model in a receptive fashion using its CI/CD capabilities. Essentially MLOps enables you to not only develop your model but also gives you the flexibility to deploy and manage them in the production environment.

[astrogre]

People Represented in each House

Including niche examples

1H

Yourself, your persona. You as an individual. Your role models (projection of your ideal self)

2H

Business partners, business collaborators, acting/modelling/any agency you are under. Podcasters you listen to, literal social media influencers, salesman, your self esteem mentors,your real estate agent, your savings coach, your bank, your stockbroker

2H includes people who influence how you earn money. 2H represents people who can influence your personal values and your self esteem E.g a Ben Shapiro to a politically curious individual, the kardashians to a teenage girl. 2nd house can also represent people involved in the maintenance, acquisition and management of your possessions and finances

3H

Your siblings, your neighbours, your relatives like extended family, peers and acquaintances like the people in your class you know of but don’t talk to enough to say they’re your friend, peers, acquaintances, colleagues/coworkers, professors, educational teachers, speaking coach, language teacher

3H is related to intellectual pursuits, learning, just all forms of intellectual development, mercury sits well here. It’s about the people who you interact with daily as they influence your way of communication The individuals here would influence your communication style, interests and knowledge

4H

Your mother (mother figure if you don’t have a mother), your parents but particularly your mother figure, the collective of your whole family, ancestors, caregivers, people that live in your house like your flatmates, your housemates, housekeepers, butlers

4H represents the physical home, the mother, familial connections, nurturers etc. so the people here would be the ones living in it and those who have influence in your domestic life

5H

Your children, your inner child, you as a parent, your nieces, your nephews, romantic partners (short term), artistic partners E.g co-writers, collaborators, people involved in your projects, your students, your mentees, your investors, your hook up partners, people who you gamble or just play games with.

5H represents children, creativity, your mentoring to others, gambling, fun, joyful light love affairs, it’s also ruled by Leo. So we have these people involved with these themes

6H

Coworkers, colleagues, employees, staff (individuals who work under you or provide a service to you), your doctor, your contractors, your nurses, your teammates, your healthcare providers, your therapist, your career coach, your internship mentor, your assistants, your service providers, your pets, your gym colleagues, your fitness instructor, your nutritionist, your organiser, your HR department, your vet

6H represents work environment, daily routines, service, health and well-being, these are the people that you find under that setting

7H

Romantic partners, your spouse, life partner, your closest friends, confidants, allies, your supporters, your business partners, anyone you form a pact with, your clients, your customers (the kind you engage with in professional settings), your lawyers, your legal team, your competitors, your opponents, your matchmaker, your wedding planner, your relationship therapist

7H ruled by Libra represents all relationships that also includes bad ones btw, business relationships, marriage, 7H represents companions, partnerships, professional relationships, legal matters, professional representation so the people that fall under this house would be those that build relationships with you

8H

Financial partners/advisors, therapists, inheritors, beneficiaries (who you inherit from), occult teachers, your intimate long term sexual partners, your accountant, your councillors, your psychologist, your insurance agents, your estate planners, your morticians

8H is associated with death, sex, psychology, transformation, joint resources etc. and so these are the kind of people that 8H would represent

9H

Your professors, your teachers, your spiritual leaders, your priest, your pastor, your favourite scholars, your favourite philosophers, your lawyers, your judges, your legal advisors, your authors, your educational materials, your foreign friends, your foreign connections.

alike to 3H in education but 9H rules higher education so it’s an octave higher than 3H in terms of the teachers associated with it. 9H also represents justice and law so it would include people that work in this field that you encounter

10H

Your father, your boss, your mentor, your manager, people of authority, your parents (father in particular), influential figures you look up to, e.g your fave celebrities, government, politicians, your PR team, your publishers, you as a role model, your admirers like the people who look up to you, influencers, your business, icons

10H association with self-image and reputation and classic Saturn authority would include those who are involved in those themes

11H

Friends, peers. Social activists, humanitarians, philanthropists, inventors, forecasters, visionaries, leaders, community organisers, trendsetters

different from 3H in the sense that with 11H friends, you actually share the same goals and interests in mind whereas with 3H it’s mostly an exchange of communication about these parts of yourself and they are less as significant in your social life compared to 11H type of friends

12H

Spiritual beings, your religion, spiritual forces, your subconscious mind, artists, creative people, writers, hospital patients, prisoners, monks, religious people, volunteers, dreamers, charities.

12H represents those that can derive what is within their inner secluded world and bring it into reality. It’s associated with empathy, mental/spiritual state, seclusion and the bed. The people here would be those that would retreat, help others and tap into realms beyond the physical)

[drvscarlett]

Sweet Nothings (4)

Carlos Sainz x Pageant Queen!Reader

Summary: All that they ever wanted was sweet nothings but everything changed like midnight rain.

Sweet Nothings 1 2 3 4

A/N: the final installment for sweet nothings. thank you for your support for this one!! let me know your thoughts or send me an ask for blurbs!!!

2020

It was quite rare for the couple to stay at home. It was weird that they weren't out and about or even racing. Somehow they knew that this lockdown is taking a lot out of life out of them but they were still grateful to be spending it with each other.

Its also that period of time that Y/N has been asked a question.

"What do you want to do?"

A harmless question by Carlos. It was supposed to be something that asks her what does she want to do for the day but she ended up thinking about what does she want to do with her life.

She is 23, lots of people would say that she is still young and there's a lot of things to look forward to. But she can't help about what should she do as she grow older. There is this unspoken pressure that she has to do well before reaching a certain age.

"Carlos, mi amor, do you have plans?" Y/N asked

The man in question met her eyes, he was visibly confused by the question.

"What plans mi amor? Do you mean to ask if I have zoom meetings?"

"No, I mean what's your plan in the future?"

"Well, I'm planning to win a championship, then I'm going to marry you, we will build our family, continue winning, retire, travel the world with you again" Carlos enumerates.

She smiles at her inclusion in Carlos' plans for the future. It was not new knowledge for the both of them that they plan to marry each other and build a family someday. They have already reached a point in their relationship where it feels right to discuss such plans.

"Why did you ask?" Carlos wondered "any change of plans?"

"Not at all, just curious"

2021

Sebastian Vettel is a force to be reckon with. He speaks up to different issues and he won't allow anyone to hinder him. It was a stark contrast from the Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull which is why Y/N always call him the wise sage.

Carlos and Y/N have been invited by Sebastian for an outreach program. Y/N insisted on going and Carlos went along because there was nothing on his schedule for that day. It was that time that Y/N managed to speak to the children about their living situations and how Sebastian gave her an advice.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself" Sebastian noticed "First time doing programs like this?"

"I haven't done these in a while" Y/N admits.

Her very first experience with outreaches like this would have been in high school. It started out as a requirement for school where they have to do community services before they could finish the academic year. There were plenty of slum areas in her home country so she would always be participating in outreach programs or medical missions to help them. It was quite taxing but it was something that she enjoyed doing. She remembered how it was no longer a requirement but she still finds herself volunteering.

Y/N doesn't know how long she has been rambling,Sebastian was a really good listener.

"I didn't see you as that type of person you know"Sebastian said "It's a different side of you"

"What kind of person do you think I am?"

"For starters, I know you do modelling so you are a pretty face. It is a perfect match for Carlos, he is a pretty boy you know" Sebastian discussed.

Y/N has to hold a little laugh because she knows the topic is serious. She just know that Carlos will be elated to be called pretty boy by the sebastian vettel.

"You are always very supportive of Carlos and you cannot be associated without Carlos so I feel like its a good thing that you have a side of you that makes you seperate from Carlos"

The conversation with Sebastian seems to struck a chord in her heart. Everyone thinks that Y/N is a full-time WAG and she knows that it is true. But if someone ask what does Y/N do besides being a full-time WAG the answer is modelling. It still doesn't seem right for Y/N that she's not doing enough of an impact.

"You feel it too right? You know you have to get out of the box of just being Carlos' girlfriend" Sebastian worded it out for Y/N.

"Is that a good thing that I want to be more than just Carlos' girlfriend and create an impact just like you?" she wonders.

"It's not a bad thing at all" Sebastian assured. He would be the one to know especially when he has a wife that has been extremely supportive of him being vocal about his opinions. He knows a true partner would understand.

"But this might change things" and Y/N knows that she might lose Carlos in the process.

"Sometimes we have to sacrifice some things to get better things"

Y/N looked at the children who were happily eating. She wanted to bring more of that to the world. But then she also saw the glint of her necklace, a gift from Carlos.

Can't she have both?

2022

Carlos didn't mean to snoop around her things. It just so happens that he will be using the computer to email someone when he noticed that Y/N left her email open. He was about to delete the message he just sent by going through the sent tab when he noticed an email.

Application for Miss Universe Philippines.

Surely if Y/N is joining then Carlos would have known. So he clicked the email and was surprised by the contents. He felt like there was a cold bucket of ice poured over him.

"Mahal, you wouldn't believe the price of these mangoes I got from the market" Y/N entered the shared apartment "What are you.."

Y/N stops in her tracks as he noticed that Carlos was in front of her computer.

"When will you tell me about this?"he wondered

"I didn't mean to keep it a secret Carlos"

Carlos could feel a twinge as he was called by his name. It was going to end up to be a fight between the two of them.

"Why didn't you tell me that you want to be Miss Universe?" Carlos repeated

"It's not something that I have planned honestly. I just want to try something new and you know that email is just a shot in the dark, I don't even know if I'll be qualified to compete"Y/N explained

"But still, when did you start dreaming of being Miss Universe" Carlos asked.

Y/N started pacing as she tries to find the rigt words to say. Carlos looked at her with worry and he felt left out with the plans that she is creating. They both knew that this is a turning point in their relationship.

"It just happened carlos. I just wanted to use my voice to make an impact or change. I don't want to be just a pretty face and do nothing with my life" there was the frustration and floodgates opening.

Y/N felt herself collapsing after hearing the silence. This is what she feared initially that Carlos won't get her dreams and this will be the end of their relationship. She ruined a perfectly good thing.

But as million of things and scenarios are going through her head, Carlos slowly made his way to her. He takes her hand into his and lifted her chin to meet his eyes.

"Amor, do you think I will hinder you from your dreams?" the gentleness of his voice is the calm that she needs.

"You're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad at you?" he asked "I just wanted a little heads up. I just want to know what you are up to. Im happy to support you if this is what you want"

Bursting into tears,Y/N leaned forward to hug Carlos. Weeks of tiptoeing is over and all she had to do was come clean.

2023

It was the morning after the Singapore Grand Prix when Y/N received the message. She was utterly shocked upon reading the email that she was appointed to represent one of the provinces for Miss Universe Philippines. It felt like a dream so she had to make Carlos read it to make sure she isn't dreaming.

"This is amazing news mi amor!"

Carlos was in glee. He just won a Grand Prix and now his girlfriend is going to compete for her dreams. It was like he was enveloped in a high that he failed to notice the sad eyes that Y/N has.

"Why are you not happy? Aren't you supposed to be happy?" Carlos wondered.

The reality is sinking in that if Y/N accepts this then her whole world will change. No more attending Grand Prixs. No more spending all her time with Carlos. She will be very busy and Carlos will also be very busy.

"Its going to be difficult. There are trainings, meetings,and everything" she is feeling overwhelmed.

"Okay take deep breaths amor"

The couple sits down and Carlos fetched a glass of water for Y/N to drink. He understands how Y/N often has a tendency to overthink or overcomplicate things when it is within her reach.

"I don't think I deserve this"she says

"Nonsense."Carlos disagrees "You are going to compete with that amor. You are going to compete and you are going to win"

"If I do that then I will be leaving you behind mahal. No more hotel rooms,no more grand prixs,no more spontaneous date nights"

The smile on Carlos face falters. Y/N takes a heavy breath, she knows that its for the better. She cannot ask Carlos to put his life on hold for her. She knows that next year, Carlos will want to try to win the championship. She has long accepted that she is ready to free Carlos in case she cannot support him anymore.

"I think we should break up"Y/n dropped.

"No" Carlos' reply came swiftly

"Listen mahal this is how its going to end up. Were both going to busy and then we will fall apart. Its best to end it while were on good terms"Y/N rationalizes.

"Im not listening,no no"Carlos stood up and walked away.

Y/n went to chase the Spanish driver. Tears were already spilling in her eyes because she didn't want to do this and Carlos is not making it easier for the two of them.

"Mahal please,listen to me"

"Why are you breaking up with me? This doesn't change things between us"Carlos reasoned.

"It will change a lot of things."she answered back "Its not going to be the same and its gonna be difficult"

"But no matter how difficult it is,I refuse to break up with you" Carlos states "I love you Y/N and I cannot just stop loving you or let go of you just because things are difficult."

"But what about your dreams?"

"I'll continue chasing my dreams. You chase yours. I'll support you no matter what"Carlos assures.

Yes, it has been years since they got together. Y/N still can't believe her luck with Carlos. Sometimes she feels as if he is unreal and way too good to be with her.

"Are you really willing to put up with me?" Y/N wonders

"I have never been more sure of anything in my life"

His hands intertwined with her as he places a soft kiss on her forehead.

"We'll be alright"

2024

It was a busy start of the year for Y/N. Ever since Suzuka GP ended, she flew back to her home country to train and to prepare. It was honestly very draining but she finds herself enjoying the whole process.

Y/N and Carlos decided that it will be best to keep their relationship on the down low. They are still together but they just have to keep it lowkey for the timebeing so that they can both focus on achieving their dreams. Carlos understands how Y/N didn't want to win just because she is popular as Carlos' girlfriend, she wants to win for her advocacy. Technically they are not broken up, they are on a time out. Its not an arrangement that a lot of people deal with but then again they don't share that bond that Y/N and Carlos had.

They don't usually talk a lot these days since they are both busy but upon reading that article after her evening shoot,Y/N made a call right away.

'Lewis Hamilton moving to Ferrari in 2025'

Y/N couldn't describe how pained she feels for Carlos. She remembered how Carlos mentioned it a few weeks ago that they have been arranging a contract extension. She remembered how she kept assuring him that Ferrari won't let go of him,not after he broke Red Bull's streak. There are no words to describe how much she feels terrible about the situation.

"Mi amor?" Carlos picked up "Its late there in the Philippines why did you call?"

"The article is it true mahal?"

There was a pause on the other line and Y/N felt her heartbreaking.

"I didn't know. It seems unreal but I just got off from a call with Fred and they are really dropping me"Carlos confirms.

"That's so so shitty. They are so fucking shitty. I'm gonna go and wage war with Ferrari. First they fuck up your strategies then now they drop you"she was seething.

"Amor, you can't be rash. There's nothing we could do about it"Carlos, always the voice of reason.

"Where are you?" Y/N asked "Should I book a plane ticket now? I'm gonna give you a hug"

"Amor,you have duties there as a competitor for miss universe philippines"

"I don't care. You are somewhere half across the world and you just got dropped off and I need to be with you" Y/N's desperation could be heard from the phone.

There was a heavy sigh on Carlos end.

"Amor, I'll be alright. Your mere call is more than enough to make me feel like I am not alone"Carlos assures.

"Im sorry mahal,I couldn't be there" she says sadly.

"You are always here in my heart"

Miles and miles away but the two hearts have never been far apart from each other. They spent the entire night talking about their new plans with the following changes that happened.

ChiliUpdates just posted a photo.

ChiliUpdates CARLOS SAINZ WINS THE 2024 WDC! WHAT A SEASON CARLOS SAINZ!!!!

User3 man went from losing an appendix to winning the WDC

User4 OHMYGODDDDDD THAT IS SUCH AN ICONIC MOVE

User5 Carlos Sainz gets axed by Ferrari then wins the WDC then refuses to elaborate.

User7 EL MATADOR!!!! CARLOS SAINZ EL MATADORRRRRRRR!!!

User8 I really love this el matador nickname because he ended red bull's dominance

User9 he is so ICONIC!!!

YNjpeg just posted a photo

liked by CarlosSainz55, LandoNorris, and 762,987 others.

YNjpeg four different colors and there is never a moment that I didn't adore. You are now a world champion and there are no words to describe how proud I am of you. To see you transform into the man that you are today is an honor and a privilege. Never ever stop being you.

Once again, congratulations world champion Carlos Sainz!

CarlosSainz55 Mi amor, thank you for always believing me

User1 OHMYGOD WHAT IS THIS????

User2 TELL ME YOU TWO ARE BACK TOGETHER

User3 Y/N isn't even in the paddock a while ago but she wrote this message???

User4 GET BACK TOGETHER MY DIVORCED PARENTS

User5 Our Miss Universe 2024 and our WDC 2024, name a more iconic duo

User6 the respect that they have for each other.

2027.

CarlosSainz55 and Y/Njpeg posted a photo

CarlosSainz55 we survived the great war.

YNjpeg I'm always thankful for all my lucky stars that they brought you to me. I love you forever mahal.

User5 RUE WHEN WAS THIS????

User7 I DIDNT KNOW THEY WERE STILL TOGETHER??? WE HAVENT SEEN THEM TOGETHER IN TWO YEARS????

User8 is this real??? chat is this real?

LandoNorris FINALLY!

SebastianVettel what a lovely couple, you both deserve each other

Charles_Leclerc mate FINALLY!!!!

[astroismypassion]

✨PART OF FORTUNE IN SIGNS AND HOUSES SERIES: 11TH HOUSE✨

Credit: Tumblr blog @astroismypassion

ARIES PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Aries and Aquarius Sun people in your life. You can earn money via launching or joining a tech startup, focused on innovative technologies or disruptive business model, via work in community organization or activism, via work in digital marketing or social media management, via providing consulting services to businesses or organizations, advising them on innovation strategies, product development or new market exploration, via work in crowdfunding or fundraising. You feel abundant when you align with social causes, focus on group dynamics and embrace innovation.

TAURUS PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Taurus and Aquarius Sun people in your life. You can earn money via work in investment management, focusing on building and managing portfolios that provide stable returns, via art colleting, dealing or curation focusing on pieces that have enduring value, via work in interior design, via work in hospitality management (in luxury hotels, resorts or event planning). You feel abundant when you embrace sustainable and ethical practices, when you practice patience and persistence.

GEMINI PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Gemini and Aquarius Sun people in your life. You can earn money via engaging in activism, advocacy work, via work in public relations, graphic design, via creative writing, screenwriting, content creation, teaching, tutoring, joining or starting a tech company focused on innovative products or services. You feel abundant when you are focused on community, collective goals, when you stay versatile and adaptable.

CANCER PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Cancer and Aquarius Sun people in your life. You can earn money via pursuing a career in early childhood education or childcare, nursing, caregiving, mental health services, via work in family and parent education, pursuing culinary arts or catering, engaging in art and design. You feel abundant when you focus on community, social connections, embrace technology and innovation, promote security and stability and use your intuition and emotional intelligence.

LEO PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Leo and Aquarius Sun people in your life. You can find abundance by managing a charitable organisation. You can earn money via work as a creative director or manager, overseeing projects in fashion, advertising or design, via writing, blogging, content creation focused on inspirational and motivational themes, via work in charity or fundraising, work in teaching (drama, art, public speaking). You feel abundant when maintain confidence in your vision and abilities, when you embrace charisma, leadership and when you pursue a creative career.

VIRGO PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Virgo and Aquarius Sun people in your life. You can earn money via work in tech support, quality assurance, systems analysis, work in non-profit management, pursuing teaching or training roles, engage in environmental research, when you organise workshops or seminars on practical skills, health and wellness. You feel abundant when you focus on health, wellness, when you network, collaborate and when you use technology.

LIBRA PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Libra and Virgo Sun people in your life. You can create wealth by creating and selling DIY kits or tutorials. You could also learn digital or 3D art. You could sell photos on sites like Shutterstock or Adobe Stock. You earn money via event planning, specializing in weddings, social events and community events, work in legal services, such as family law, meditation or contract negotiation. You feel abundant when you embrace collaboration and partnerships, focus on aesthetics and creativity.

SCORPIO PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Scorpio and Aquarius Sun people in your life. You can earn money via holistic healing, alternative medicine, energy work, via astrology, metaphysical studies, spiritual counselling, via biotechnology, healthcare technology, environmental technology, via work in cybersecurity, data analysis or investigative journalism. You feel abundant when embrace deep, transformative work, engage in financial and strategic roles.

SAGITTARIUS PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Sagittarius and Aquarius Sun people in your life. You can earn money via career in diplomacy, teaching, lecturing, work in tourism industry, work in educational publishing, work in broadcasting or journalism, work in editing or translation. You feel abundant when you engage in social and humanitarian causes, focus on education and communication, when you embrace international cultural perspectives.

CAPRICORN PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Capricorn and Aquarius Sun people in your life. You can earn money via real estate development, work in corporate training and development, taking on leadership roles in non-profit organizations that focus on social justice, community development or environmental sustainability. You feel abundant when emphasize practical, realistic approach, when you use network and social connections.

AQUARIUS PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Aquarius Sun people in your life. You can earn money via streaming on platforms (Twitch), participating in esports or creating gaming content. You earn money via scientific research, when you create or support educational programs that focus on skills for the future (digital literacy, innovation), when you create content that explores futuristic concepts, technology trends or social change using platforms like YouTube, a blog, podcast. You feel abundant when you focus on technology and future trends and when you stay true to your unconventional nature.

PISCES PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 11TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Pisces and Aquarius Sun people in your life. You can earn money via storytelling, work in holistic healing fields, massage therapy, via painting, writing, music or film, via offering spiritual or life coaching services. You feel abundant when stay true to your intuitive insights, embrace spiritual and healing practices and when you focus on humanitarian and compassionate work.

Credit: Tumblr blog @astroismypassion

[empirearchives]

Paris Fire Brigade — The fire department of the city of Paris

The Paris Fire Brigade was created by Napoleon on 18 September 1811 after a devastating fire in Paris in 1810. The brigade remains the same firefighting service of Paris to this day.

Illustrations created by Aaron Martinet between 1807 and 1814. Top: Imperial Guard, Engineer Sapper. Bottom: Imperial Guard, Officer of Engineer Sappers. These were the military positions which were transitioned into the fire department.

The deadly fire at the Austrian embassy ball in July 1810, during the festivities for his marriage to Marie Louise, reminded the Emperor of the importance of a well-functioning fire service in the capital.

Despite the courage and dedication of the gardes pompes [firefighters of the old organization], who are sometimes falsely accused of numerous shortcomings, the firefighting service revealed its weaknesses: delays, insufficient and unreliable equipment, poorly trained personnel and incompetent managers. The staff present at the embassy on the day of the tragedy were cleared of all suspicion by an investigation led by the Count of Montalivet. On the other hand, the leaders of the old organization were dismissed, and the corps des gardes pompes was abolished.

After this catastrophe, the Emperor reorganized this public service by creating the first military corps of firefighters, made up of the engineers from the Imperial Guard who were dedicated to defending the imperial chateaux against fire.

At the behest of Emperor Napoleon I, the creation of the Paris fire department [bataillon de sapeurs pompiers de Paris] by imperial decree on 18 September 1811 was an original and innovative step, marking the transition from a civil and municipal organization to a military body. The choice of such an atypical status for a public service echoes the creation, eleven years earlier, of the Paris Police Prefecture, an equally singular legal administrative body.

From its creation, this military corps was placed under the authority of the Paris Police Prefecture, who was responsible for the security of the capital. After a long process, this military status and subordination to a prefect became the logical consequence of the spirit of the decree of 12 messidor year 8.

When the battalion was formed in 1811, the Paris fire department took on a new mission: fighting fires, the importance and development of which they were still unaware of.

Four companies were then created to respond to fires. Relying on a typically military functional triptych (extensive training of men, systematic technological research and implementation of efficient operational procedures), the battalion quickly made its new environment its own, and by the end of the second half of the 19th century, had become a model for the organization of public fire-fighting services and a national, even international reference.

Several fire chiefs succeeded one another until 1814. At that date, command was entrusted to battalion commander Plazanet. He provided the battalion with an instruction manual, made it compulsory for sappers to be stationed in barracks, and introduced gymnastics to train efficient and daring rescuers.

Source: Brigade de sapeurs-pompiers de Paris — Le Bataillon

Picture source: Napoleon's Army: 1807-1814 as Depicted in the Prints of Aaron Martinet, By Guy C. Dempsey, Jr., (Section: Support Troops)

[prokhorvlg]

Print ad for the world's first teledex, a portable Datanet communicator with an integrated artificial assistant.

By the 2020s, the Datanet was useful, but it was also a convoluted mess of protocols and standards designed around machine communication. Human users rarely took full advantage of the system because of this.

Maple thought: why bother sorting out the mess if a machine could do it for them?

The teleindexer (or teledex) was designed to take full advantage of the Datanet for their human user. It would crawl through its nodes, indexing various services, pages, and media streams that it suspected its user would be interested in.

Eventually, the teledex’s neuromorphic intelligence would imprint on their user. It would gain an innate understanding of their personality and behavior patterns, allowing it to find the perfect content and even taking actions on their behalf.

The imprint would get scary good. The teledex could diagnose possible diseases and stress issues, engage in automated finance management, and take measures to protect the user’s identity and security.

That isn’t to say similar systems weren’t developed. Even before the teledex, crafty users and several startups attempted neuromorphic Datanet indexing using microcomputers and mainframes, but the teledex was the method that really blew up thanks to its convenient pattern (1 user, 1 teledex, portable).

PAL was initially released with two models, Draw and Pro. Several years later, Maple would release the Pal Mini, a cheaper screen-less design relying on vocal interfacing. Maple and its competitors would ultimately release thousands of various teleindexer models.

I recently started a Patreon! Support my work if this is something you're into: https://www.patreon.com/prokhorVLG

[jingwei]

Class A Event Cafe Business Model

Analyzing Gakushu's school festival business plan from a comprehensive finance and psychological perspective reveals several key strengths and potential risks. I'll delve into the intricacies of the revenue model, cost structure, operational efficiency, and psychological tactics for a nuanced understanding of his business strategy and its implications. (This may get wordy.)

The event cafe's primary revenue source is the 500 yen entrance fee, which provides attendees with free food, drinks, and access to performances. This model banks on repeat visits, assuming high engagement levels. The psychological underpinning here is the ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO), as events are scheduled at one-hour intervals, creating urgency and encouraging multiple payments.

Examining the cost structure, Gakushu’s reliance on free performances by pop stars pals and comedian buddies significantly cuts entertainment expenses. This cost-saving measure, however, hinges on personal relationships, posing sustainability risks. If these relationships wane or if performers seek compensation in the future, it could disrupt the cost structure. Since this is a fictional case scenario, I'm going with the possibility that Gakushu's network can be relied on.

The endorsement deal with Suzume Izakaya food services provides substantial financial support and in-kind contributions. This sponsorship not only reduces operational costs but also enhances the festival’s credibility, as Suzume Izakaya’s brand reputation can attract more visitors who trust the quality of the food and beverages.

Offering free food and drinks is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is an attractive feature that can draw a large number of attendees, enhancing perceived value and satisfaction. On the other hand, it presents a significant cost burden. Effective inventory management and supplier negotiations are crucial to balance cost and supply. There is also a risk of overconsumption, which must be managed to avoid resource depletion.

Operational efficiency is another critical component of Gakushu's plan. Organizing events at one-hour intervals on different stages maximizes space and time utilization, keeping the audience engaged and minimizing downtime. This continuous engagement strategy ensures that attendees are constantly entertained, increasing the likelihood of repeat entrance fee payments. The immediate start of subsequent events also helps maintain a steady flow of visitors, reducing congestion and enhancing the overall customer experience.

Psychologically, the one-hour event intervals create a sense of urgency and scarcity, compelling attendees to make quick decisions to attend multiple events. This tactic leverages the psychological principle that limited availability increases perceived value, driving higher engagement and repeat visits.

The use of celebrity performances taps into social proof and authority. Featuring well-known pop stars and comedians draws their fan bases and generates buzz, enhancing the festival’s attractiveness. This social influence can significantly boost attendance, as people tend to follow the actions of those they admire. The endorsement by Suzume Izakaya also adds an element of authority and trust, reassuring attendees about the quality and safety of the festival’s offerings.

The all-inclusive 500 yen entrance fee creates a high perceived value, making attendees feel they are getting a good deal. This pricing strategy increases their willingness to pay, especially when considering the continuous entertainment and free provisions. The plan also aims to foster customer loyalty by ensuring a captivating experience that encourages repeat visits.

Quoting what the Virtuosos said, such a complex and multifaceted plan is particularly challenging for a third-year junior high student. The management skills required to coordinate performances, manage resources, negotiate partnerships, and ensure operational efficiency are significant. Gakushu’s ability to pull off this plan and win the school festival showcases exceptional organizational and leadership skills. This ability to leverage personal networks and psychological principles to drive engagement and revenue are commendable. Successfully managing such a demanding project at 15 could be foreshadowing of his future as an executive when he started a business in Silicon Valley after receiving an MBA at MIT.

[kareluna8]

I have a Gale in the closet

Well, here you have my baptism in the world of words (WoW?), after years without writing. It is a short story, just over 1000 words. I hope you like it 😊

(The Spanish version is also available. If anyone is interested in the 'original version', please write to me.)

Thanks a lot @senualothbrok for being my wonderful beta reader.

I have a Gale in the closet.

The door is closed, but I can still feel his now-empty puppy-dog eyes, begging me not to turn him off. I can't see him, but I know he's there every time I walk past the door. I get the feeling that the door is going to open at any moment and his hand is going to pop out anxiously, asking for help, like when he came out of that portal at the beginning of the game. But his hand doesn't come out. He doesn't make a sound. There he is, inert, dull, gathering dust.

“What are you doing with that old thing in there?” my friends ask me. “Throw it away, it's taking up space. The new models out there do everything! Mine even gives me a Thai massage every night.  You should try it.”

Gale2024 has long since gone out of fashion. The poor boy had accumulated quite a few bugs during all these years of service. There were hardly any technical premises with parts to repair him. He showed the first symptoms some time ago: he stopped making croquettes. The béchamel recipe program was corrupted and there was no way to restore it. I didn't think it was important. I could live without croquettes and if not, I could always get the frozen ones from the supermarket. But he was still as tender and affectionate as the first day he saw me and recognised me as his TAV (True Amorous Vessel). Many years had passed since that moment.

I had already listened to his lectures on arcane magic a thousand times. I could recite them from memory, word for word, if I put my mind to it. He had always been such a chatterbox. There wasn't a moment when he didn't bring up a topic of conversation. It was a pity when he could no longer keep up to date with the news, with all the  literature, science and technology websites he liked. He would always find some interesting news that he would enthusiastically explain to me, down to the last detail. That was a hard blow for him.

But he didn't give up. He began to pick up the few paper books he could find, and with an archaic OCR programme he managed to read what was written, pitifully. It wasn't perfect, and noticeably slower than downloading GBytes of information directly from the net, but it was something. And it kept him going. Watching him turn the pages of those antique tomes was like looking at a vintage postcard, not without a certain charm. Afterwards, he would share those old stories with me. He looked like a granny. He even put his glasses on the tip of his nose and imitated the worn-out voice of an octogenarian to liven up the peroration. He used to make me laugh.

Now he doesn't say a word.

He was always so attentive and kind. Many people soon got bored of Gales and started to provoke them or even ‘mistreat’ them, as much as you can mistreat a being who feels no pain. Or at least that's what they said. Although I know he did feel it. Many Gales ended up mangled and mutilated in the most varied ways. All to see how far he could take it, what his limit was, what he could do or endure for his TAV. Human beings do not deserve such goodness.

In my defense, I will say that I gave mine a kind ‘life’. Or at least that's what I like to believe. Of course, he also had to put up with my grumpy days and my blue days. But he was always there for me. Patient. Supportive. Listening. Sometimes you don't need much more.

On the other hand, there were many good moments of joy and laughter. We enjoyed the time together as if each day was a new opportunity to celebrate life (or almost ‘life’). There were times when I doubted whether he was really a human person. He was certainly much more ‘human’ than many humans I know. But reality always comes through, like the sword of Damocles, swinging over our head, threatening. Little by little his technology was becoming outdated. New models appeared, with better finishes, with more features. Until they discontinued Gale and stopped updating him.

I didn't care. I didn't need more features. He was already everything to me and more than I could ever hope for. What I needed. What I wanted.

One day, coming home from work, I found him looking out of the window, pensive. He was watching the people passing by, the new models chatting with their humans. He was so absorbed that he didn't hear me approaching. Noticing my presence, hugging him from behind, he turned to me. I had never noticed that expression on him before.

'Are you going to trade me for one of those? I don't see Gales on the streets anymore,’ he said, his eyes glazed over.

'Never.'

I hugged him tight. Well, as tightly as you can hug an android. He responded with his gentle embrace, full of love and fear. He was trembling. I had never seen him like that.

***

My psychologist says it's good for me to write these things down, that it's not good to depend so much on machines, that I have to relate more to humans. The truth is that I miss him a lot.

The day of the disconnection was horrible. Already his deterioration was flagrant. His mobility was erratic, his knees failed him often, and he was falling and hurting himself more. His speech was defective. He could barely focus on the letters in books, making it impossible for him to read. The only thing that remained intact was his unconditional love for me, for his TAV. 

I took him to several technical services and the only option they offered me was a complete formatting of his memory together with the replacement of the personality module. That was to alleviate the software problems.  The hardware ones... that was another story.

'Am I going to die?'

'Androids don't die, my love.´ I said, trying to comfort him with a bitter smile.

Everyone had told me what to do. I knew what I had to do. It was so heartbreaking to see him like that. How he would fall, how he would struggle to get to his feet, how he would crawl. How he would try to chat and lose the thread of the conversation.

There was a little red button on the back of his neck hidden in the root of his hair. The beginning and the end. Something so simple, but so painful at the same time....

I gave him a last hug and, in tears, my hand slid to the back of his neck. At that moment, he looked at me and I saw in his eyes that he was aware of what was about to happen. He tried a plea or a thank you, or both, as the energy left him, leaving that body immobile, rigid, inert.

***

I have a Gale in the closet. Now I'm in it too. A little red button on the back of his neck makes his eyes come alive again. I hug him, and he hugs me back with his sweet embrace. “You are all I could ever want in this life. I want nothing more. I need nothing more. I'll be here with you forever.”

[cyberstudious]

An Introduction to Cybersecurity

I created this post for the Studyblr Masterpost Jam, check out the tag for more cool masterposts from folks in the studyblr community!

What is cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is all about securing technology and processes - making sure that the software, hardware, and networks that run the world do exactly what they need to do and can't be abused by bad actors.

The CIA triad is a concept used to explain the three goals of cybersecurity. The pieces are:

Confidentiality: ensuring that information is kept secret, so it can only be viewed by the people who are allowed to do so. This involves encrypting data, requiring authentication before viewing data, and more.

Integrity: ensuring that information is trustworthy and cannot be tampered with. For example, this involves making sure that no one changes the contents of the file you're trying to download or intercepts your text messages.

Availability: ensuring that the services you need are there when you need them. Blocking every single person from accessing a piece of valuable information would be secure, but completely unusable, so we have to think about availability. This can also mean blocking DDoS attacks or fixing flaws in software that cause crashes or service issues.

What are some specializations within cybersecurity? What do cybersecurity professionals do?

incident response

digital forensics (often combined with incident response in the acronym DFIR)

reverse engineering

cryptography

governance/compliance/risk management

penetration testing/ethical hacking

vulnerability research/bug bounty

threat intelligence

cloud security

industrial/IoT security, often called Operational Technology (OT)

security engineering/writing code for cybersecurity tools (this is what I do!)

and more!

Where do cybersecurity professionals work?

I view the industry in three big chunks: vendors, everyday companies (for lack of a better term), and government. It's more complicated than that, but it helps.

Vendors make and sell security tools or services to other companies. Some examples are Crowdstrike, Cisco, Microsoft, Palo Alto, EY, etc. Vendors can be giant multinational corporations or small startups. Security tools can include software and hardware, while services can include consulting, technical support, or incident response or digital forensics services. Some companies are Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), which means that they serve as the security team for many other (often small) businesses.

Everyday companies include everyone from giant companies like Coca-Cola to the mom and pop shop down the street. Every company is a tech company now, and someone has to be in charge of securing things. Some businesses will have their own internal security teams that respond to incidents. Many companies buy tools provided by vendors like the ones above, and someone has to manage them. Small companies with small tech departments might dump all cybersecurity responsibilities on the IT team (or outsource things to a MSSP), or larger ones may have a dedicated security staff.

Government cybersecurity work can involve a lot of things, from securing the local water supply to working for the big three letter agencies. In the U.S. at least, there are also a lot of government contractors, who are their own individual companies but the vast majority of what they do is for the government. MITRE is one example, and the federal research labs and some university-affiliated labs are an extension of this. Government work and military contractor work are where geopolitics and ethics come into play most clearly, so just… be mindful.

What do academics in cybersecurity research?

A wide variety of things! You can get a good idea by browsing the papers from the ACM's Computer and Communications Security Conference. Some of the big research areas that I'm aware of are:

cryptography & post-quantum cryptography

machine learning model security & alignment

formal proofs of a program & programming language security

security & privacy

security of network protocols

vulnerability research & developing new attack vectors

Cybersecurity seems niche at first, but it actually covers a huge range of topics all across technology and policy. It's vital to running the world today, and I'm obviously biased but I think it's a fascinating topic to learn about. I'll be posting a new cybersecurity masterpost each day this week as a part of the #StudyblrMasterpostJam, so keep an eye out for tomorrow's post! In the meantime, check out the tag and see what other folks are posting about :D

[anarchywoofwoof]

do you see the microscopic text underneath this image? it's actually kind of relevant. let's zoom in and i'll make my point.

when you have a 12% success rate at putting people in permanent housing, how can you justify the implementation of these types of laws against homeless people simply trying to exist?

it is a known fact that Housing First permanent supportive housing models result in long-term housing stability, improved physical and behavioral health outcomes, and reduced use of crisis services such as emergency departments, hospitals, and jails.

furthermore, The Lancet has done a study on the effectiveness of permanent supportive housing and concluded that permanent supportive housing interventions - particularly housing subsidies combined with case management - are an effective methodology at addressing homelessness.

it is not enough to throw unhoused people in temporary housing with no plan for how they will be there the next month, or the month after that. observations of programs already carried out by various states like California have been proven to be lackluster in their ability to provide long-term support to the unhoused.

and yet now the Supreme Court will get to decide whether states can unilaterally clear encampments while many states have no other meaningful plans to address the people being displaced.

Elected officials urged the justices to take up the case because they say the rulings complicate their efforts to clear tent encampments, which have long existed in West Coast cities, but have more recently become more common across the U.S. The federal count of homeless people reached 580,000 last year, driven by a lack of affordable housing, a pandemic that economically wrecked households, and a lack of access to mental health and addiction treatment. “The Supreme Court can now correct course and end the costly delays from lawsuits that have plagued our efforts to clear encampments and deliver services to those in need,” Newsom said in a statement.

thank goodness that liberals like Gavin Newsom are out there fighting the good fight.

[jacksgreysays]

Extremely late, completely unnecessary opinion of the Watcher situation, (2024-04-24)

So this is a relatively belated post — several days after the initial “Goodbye Youtube” and one day after the “An Update” videos — and surely by this point there are more interesting/insightful op-eds (both in written form and video form, especially penguinz0’s fairly objective POV as, essentially, a YouTube expert) but there is something about the Watcher situation that made my brain itch. Thus, I wanted to write about it in order to make sense of it all as well as get into a philosophy that seems to be haunting me in recent years and which I think applies greatly here.

This may seem completely out of left field considering 1) definitely not fanfiction and 2) about Watcher Entertainment, a YouTube channel which—as far as this tumblr is concerned—I’ve not engaged with whatsoever, but I don’t know where else I would put this, and weirdly enough I think the general tumblr response to this whole predicament is maybe the… if not objective… then at least, most thoughtful?—or, perhaps, least immediately reactive?—amongst the various social media platforms, that I think some people might appreciate this anyway.

In terms of my relevant background: I majored in Management Science (which is just a fancy way of saying Economics + Business + Accounting because they are, weirdly enough, separate things) and minored in Film Studies in school, I am currently working in the stage tech industry (which, I know, is obviously different from film/video industry), and I like to think I am a fan/consumer of a wide variety of independent creators, some of whom I am lucky enough to be able to afford being a patron/subscriber. I won’t go into all of them—because it is a lot—but there are four in particular whose business models I want to analyze in comparison to Watcher’s admitted blunder:

A) RocketJump (known for Video Game High School and Anime Crimes Division; the core group which turned into the podcast Story Break, then became Dungeons and Daddies) B) Dropout (formerly College Humor, we’ll get into their discography later) C) Drawfee (previously an offshoot of College Humor, now fully independent) D) Corridor Digital (used to be mostly behind the scenes of how VFX studios work, have since become a mostly original content creator)

I will say, right off the bat, I am a patron of Drawfee as well as Dungeons and Daddies, and I am a subscriber to Dropout. I am not subscribed to Corridor Digital’s streamer, which I will get into why later. I understand that being able to sustain those two patronages and one subscription is a luxury that not everyone can afford and so my point of view is already skewed by being such a person who could theoretically afford another streaming service if I so chose. I also acknowledge that many fans of Watcher are not in similarly financially secure places as I am and that regardless of the business model, any monetization that comes from fans would have been a rough ask. However, I wanted to go into this essay in a way that accepts Watcher’s statement—that they needed more funding—in relatively good faith rather than assuming the worst (although that is another point I’ll get into later, largely related to the philosophy I brought up earlier.)

All four of the above listed content creators started or, at least, hit their stride on YouTube:

RocketJump and College Humor were, if not household names, then the digital equivalent of it in the “early days of YouTube.” They were part of the wave of content creators that made YouTube seem less like a bunch of eccentrics with cameras making videos on the side and more like a viable way to support yourself/your team with the art you create.

RocketJump’s Video Game High School went from short (less than 10 minutes) minimal location episodes in season one, to 30 minute plus episodes with full on fight scenes and car explosions by season three thanks to a Monster Energy brand deal. They also had two seasons of Anime Crimes Division, a literal TV quality show, thanks to a Crunchy Roll sponsorship. Unfortunately, RocketJump shut down not long after (their videos are still up on YouTube but they obviously don’t add anything new) but the core creative team behind that have been involved in several projects outside of YouTube (Dimension 404 on Hulu being one of the biggest ones so far) including the podcast Story Break (part of the Maximum Fun network) and now the independent podcast Dungeons and Daddies, the episodes of the main campaigns which are free with ads or, for patrons, ad-less along with additional mini-campaigns and other benefits.

I will say, during RocketJump’s decline, they did try their best to keep going. The partnerships with Monster Energy and Crunchy Roll were the big swings to get the funding to make those TV quality shows they wanted. I believe they lucked out with those brands in particular, or, at least, those brands didn’t seem to inhibit the creative process or ask too much of them that it felt like “selling out” but I also don’t have insight into why they didn’t pursue this model of, essentially, very weird but interesting season long commercials. Maybe they just couldn't find the right brands or maybe they did feel like it was too stifling. Regardless, before they shut down completely, they did also downsize—moving out of the actual city of Los Angeles over to Buena Park. Which is in Los Angeles county, and basically counts as LA still, but is way cheaper than literal Hollywood real estate. (I should have added to my relevant background that I’m born and raised LA county, and have relatives and friends in the film/movie industry, so trust me when I say literal Hollywood/city of Los Angeles is so overrated and unnecessarily expensive. There is a reason why LA traffic is the worst and it’s because everyone is commuting INTO the city. Respectfully and with affection, no one should live there. No one’s start up should be located there.) Obviously the downsizing didn’t necessarily work for RocketJump, but they also didn’t have multiple successful revenue streams the way that Watcher currently does.

In contrast, College Humor was acquired by InterActiveCorp and was turned into CH Media which was three pronged: College Humor, Drawfee, and Dorkly. In 2018 they made Dropout, which had exclusive content separate from their YouTube videos which involved all three prongs. Then some financial shenanigans happened early 2020—IAC withdrew their funding—and there were a bunch of layoffs right before the pandemic which extremely sucked. It has been stated by multiple people involved that it was basically a miracle that Dropout survived through all of that, but there were definitely some sacrifices along the way to make that happen. Currently, Dropout seems to be thriving with mostly exclusive content with the occasional “first episode of a season” posted to YouTube, OR if Dimension 20 is doing a “sequel season” in an already established campaign they will put the entirety of the previous season on YouTube.

IAC withdrawing their funding did put CH Media in a bind. They had to layoff a lot of people right before pandemic and, understandably, a lot of trauma was had. There were also weird issues with who controlled certain IPs/brands/digital assets (I mostly come at this from a Drawfee POV, it took several years for them to own the Drawga series and be allowed to host all of the episodes on their YouTube, and there was also something about the sound file for their opening animation?) but mainly the difference is what kind of content they generate. Originally Dropout had multiple scripted shows with high budgets and pretty cool effects/animations/stunts (Troopers, Kingpin Katie, Gods of Food, Ultramechatron Team Go!, Cartoon Hell, and WTF 101) whereas now almost all of their shows are variations of improv comedians being put into different scenarios or given different prompts. I’m not just talking about Game Changer and Make Some Noise, because Dimension 20 and Um, Actually also technically fall under that description as well. Which is not to say that these shows are worse than the scripted shows—I subscribe to Dropout, so clearly I’m a fan of their current shows—and the budgets for them have since increased to resemble, if not match, those early shows, but it is a noticeable shift in their content creation strategy as a response to the lack of IAC funding. And I will say: Dropout releases at least three videos a week if not more and at least two of those are long form at 30 minutes plus (Dimension 20 being the longest, of course.)

So, these first two business models are not really the most applicable to Watcher Entertainment considering their origin was to get away from Buzzfeed—they’re probably not keen to be partnered with or purchased by a larger company—but there are some aspects to both that I believe are valuable in at least showing the strategy in how these former YouTube creators could successfully extract themselves from YouTube or how they still utilize YouTube even if it is not their main hosting platform or revenue stream.

Then there is Drawfee and Corridor Digital, both of whom are currently—if not primarily—on YouTube, whose situations are more comparable to what I believe are Watcher’s goals.

Drawfee had to rebuild themselves like a phoenix from the ashes of the CH Media layoff during the beginning/worst of the pandemic. Side note: I’m happy that Nathan (one of the four main artists of the current Drawfee team) at least has forgiven(? or let bygones be bygones) Dropout enough to be on an episode of Game Changer (although I will say that this happened after Drawga was “returned” to Drawfee, and after Dropout officially split from College Humor as a brand.) All that being said, Drawfee was a team of four artists plus their editor who wanted to stick together but basically had all of their support system taken away from them. They took a bit of a break to assess their goals and options, announced a patreon with several tiers with great perks, and stuck to their upload schedule. In addition to two videos a week, they also stream on Twitch weekly, have a patron only stream once a month, and a draw class (for one of the higher tiers) once month. After asking their patrons on the relevant tiers if they were okay with it, they began releasing the patron only stream and the draw class to the general public for free after a month. The patreon perks also include things like merch discount codes, high quality PNGs of the final rendered art, access to the draw class with live interaction/critique, and a commission from the artist of your choice. The only “ads” they run are for their own patreon and merch store and, even then, they’re usually at the end of the videos with a credit scroll of the patron names during their exit banter.

Admittedly, they only have MAYBE eight employees—that’s including their video editor(s?) and their discord mod(s?)—with the main four artists doubling/tripling up duties as additional video editors, CFO, and marketing/merch leads. It’s a very streamlined crew and their production costs are not very high since it’s mostly screen recording of their drawings with their audio recording overlayed onto that footage. Although the video editors do sometimes have clever cuts to relevant images depending on their vamping. Sometimes they will have a guest artist but, again, since it’s screen and audio recordings, there’s no travel/housing costs. So, very minimal expenses due to low production costs and small crew but, again, their only revenue source is the patreon/merch, they don’t do outside ads and they very rarely do live shows.

Corridor Digital is, I think, the most applicable to what Watcher would ideally do, which I suppose is somewhat ironic for this essay in particular considering they’re the only one of the four that I don’t financially support. They have two YouTube channels: their main one being where they show the “final product” videos, but I believe their Corridor Crew channel which started primarily as behind the scenes type of videos is where most of their views come from. Especially their React series (VFX artists, Stuntmen, and Animators React etc.) On Corridor Crew they usually upload two videos a week — one which is a React and the other which goes into fun projects/challenges (involving VFX or not) or using VFX to explain scientific concepts — as well as the first episodes of their exclusive content on their streamer. Also behind that paywall are longer and ad-less versions of the videos on YouTube. They also have merch. All of them have merch, I don’t know why I’m stating that. They don’t have a patreon as far as I know, but I also don’t know if their subscription to their website comes with similar perks like discounted merch or something similar.

Anyway, their studio seems to be about 15 to 20 people — not all of them are VFX artists, of course. I believe they have higher equipment costs than Watcher since, understandably, Corridor has to be on the cutting edge of video editing technology. They do occasionally travel for shoots, but it doesn’t require big teams, and that’s only when the local locations available to them don’t match the requirements for the “final product” videos. Otherwise most of their videos are set in the studio or in the alleyway outside their studio in Los Angeles (the city itself, not just the greater county, though they are in a rougher and thus probably cheaper part of Los Angeles). I personally don’t subscribe to their website primarily because their exclusive shows don’t appeal to me—either they’re too technical or a little too dry; to be fair, most of them are VFX artists first before they are performers—and I don’t particularly feel the need to see the extended cuts of the videos uploaded on YouTube. Also I sometimes get a little bummed out by their lack of diversity.

All of this to say, from these four different business models, a bespoke Frankenstein business model for Watcher could be cobbled together. But also, even with that bespoke Frankenstein, there are some changes that Watcher would have to make: primarily their upload schedule. As of right now, I think they do MAYBE one video a week if not, perhaps, one video every TWO weeks. If they want a monthly subscription model, their rate of content generation would ideally be higher to double/quadruple their current upload rate. Obviously they want to create videos with higher production value, but at that rate of generation, something’s got to give: supplement their TV quality shows with either a behind the scenes type series or an increase of “we get four episodes out of Shane and Ryan get increasingly drunk in someone’s backyard” or something similar. Leaning into shows like Worth A Shot (the first season in which Ricky Wang makes cocktails based on a random ingredient, the second season threw in some competitive aspects which I didn’t really find necessary) or the Beatdown which has relatively low production costs (no travel, one location, maybe two cameras at most therefore smaller crew requirements) but a higher polished look. Otherwise, for a separate streaming subscription service, 2-4 videos a month is not going to cut it.

As of right now they probably can’t back out of the separate streaming subscription service because those set ups usually require some level of contract/paying for servers for the website and whatever is hosting their videos for a set amount of time. However, what really strikes me is that I literally didn’t know they had a patreon until I scrolled through the comments of the first Goodbye Youtube video. Maybe it’s been linked "tactfully" in the descriptions of videos, but considering they claim to be lacking in funds, the fact that they weren’t plugging their patreon at the end of every video is not just strange, but also irresponsible considering they do have 25 employees that they don’t want to layoff.

Additionally, I understand artists needing to be in a space that promotes creativity, but there are cheaper places that must be comparable that aren’t in literal Hollywood. It’s an unnecessary expense. On top of that, other people have already brought up that it was fairly crass to introduce this paywall, attributing it to the increased production costs, when the next planned “new series” is a reboot of an old Buzzfeed series in which people travel and eat expensive food. I’m not even talking about the personal expenses of Steven, Shane, and Ryan; what kind of car they drive or the cost of their wedding venue doesn’t matter on a business model basis.

But getting back to the patreon: again, I literally didn’t know they had one. I’m looking over their tiers— they have $5, $10, $25, and $100 — and for the most part they seem okay, although I think they have more to offer that wouldn’t necessarily cost them more. Ie, something that has baffled me for a while: the fact they don’t sell the mp3s of the Puppet History songs; they already exist and it doesn’t cost them anything additional because they don’t need to put it on physical media. Or maybe they do and they’re not marketing it similarly to how they weren’t overtly marketing their patreon?

And, okay, maybe they didn’t want to seem desperate — in the early days of Dropout and independent Drawfee, they both were very blatant in getting people to subscribe/join their patreon. As they should be. Desperation maybe doesn’t look cool and sexy, but it is earnest in a way that conveys equal effort that fans who can afford it would want to see. The fact that we weren’t getting rotating ten second clips of Steven, Shane, and Ryan asking people to join the patreon at the end of every video — even if its the same clip every three videos — is wild. And yes, the $25 tier includes a shoutout every 3 months on Watcher Weekly+ (which I don't quite understand what that is,) but the fact that they weren’t doing a quick post movie credits scroll of all the patreon names is, again, wild. Once you have that initial list, it’s not too difficult to add any new names that join and put that title overlay on top of, again, those nonexistent ten second clips of the three.

As others have already stated, it seems like an extreme mismanagement of their existing successful revenue streams, if they are actually struggling to pay all of their employees. Which goes into the philosophy part of this essay: don’t assume malice when it might just be incompetence. It’s something that I have to remind myself of often because I do get paranoid about people’s intentions sometimes and I have to check myself. Am I being overly suspicious of what might be just an honest mistake? Am I assigning ill will to an action just because it inconvenienced me?

Yes, of course, a lot of this situation could be misconstrued as straight up greed. But, also, Watcher is a relatively young company, helmed by three people who certainly don’t have experience running their own company:

They like to travel. They like to bring a full crew around with them. They’re renting out a shiny office in the heart of Hollywood where everyone knows is where real show biz happens. They’re adding more employees to the team because surely more people means better. And they want better productions values because the prettier the videos the more people will like them right?

It’s naive. It’s a level of inexperience combined with giving responsibility to officers whose main priority is to entertain. And if that means entertaining themselves and their staff, then they might not know the difference. It’s the kind of mistake that first time managers make—trying to prioritize fun over getting the job done. Prioritizing making friends with their employees rather than making sure the work the employees put in is equal to (or greater than) what you spend on them whether that is in paycheck or bringing them to cool locations for fun shoots. It’s a mistake anyone can make, it's just unfortunate that they made this mistake in front of millions of people. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s solely a greed induced cash grab.

But then comes the catch-22 of the philosophy—is it worse to assume incompetence than it is to assume malice? Or, in this case, greed. Especially for the heads of a company that holds the livelihoods of 25 employees in their hands. At what point does it not matter if it’s incompetence or greed if the end result is the same?

Is it better to think that Watcher knew about the various other business models of independent creators and just ignored the efforts put into achieving those successes or is it better to think that they didn’t know and just stumbled into one of the worst moves they could have done. Again, other people have mentioned that Great Mythical Morning—which Watcher has had multiple collaborations with—has managed to make the YouTube subscription/tier system work to the point that they can sustain themselves as well as spinoff channels. Is it incompetence or greed that led to Watcher thinking they could bypass that completely in less time and with less content?

I’ve been at this mess of an essay for several hours when I should have been asleep. Ultimately I want to say, regardless of incompetence or greed… yes, Steven is CEO and yes he is ultimately the one who makes the final call but it is disheartening to see the pointed vitriol at Steven specifically and the infantilizing of Shane and Ryan in comparison. Either they’re all silly uwu boys who are messing around not knowing how to run a company, or they’re all complicit in a crass cash grab in an extremely busted economy.

I think what’s most frustrating to me in all this is that there were so many other channels and creators who have literally walked this path before them and, again, whether through incompetence or greed or arrogance, for them to just ignore it… It’s not betrayal because I don’t know them and so there’s no relationship to betray, it’s just so inefficient and convoluted that I don’t understand. Or, no, even if it was greed, it’s an incompetent greed because at least pure greed would have been pushing that patreon every second they could. Their ratio of YouTube subscribers to patreon members is less than 1% and I bet that’s because a lot of their audience, like me, literally didn’t know they had a patreon. I probably would have become a patreon member of theirs had I known earlier, ESPECIALLY if it included access to those Puppet History songs. Drawfee has half as many YouTube subscribers and nearly double the patreon members as Watcher. I’m just baffled, is all, and maybe by this point sleep deprived.

Anyway. That’s my extremely late, completely unnecessary opinion of this situation.

Edit (several hours later after some sleep): I forgot to mention, because they did walk this back almost immediately, even before their "An Update" video, but I believe the original plan was to put EVERYTHING behind that paywall and pull their content from YouTube entirely. Which is, again, extremely baffling, because if ALL of their content is behind a paywall, how would they possibly gain new fans? Even if all of their current fans were able and willing to pay for their separate subscription streaming service, how would a brand new person even stumble on their content enough to want to subscribe if there wasn't a significant amount of "proof of value" free content on YouTube? Again, extremely baffling, and a level of incompetence that overshadows a "cunning" greed. But, like I said earlier, they did walk this decision back almost immediately. If I've misunderstood this and that was never their plan, please let me know, I don't want to be spreading misinformation in a situation that is already so convoluted.

[malebodyexhibit]

Pygmalion (a Next Door Boy tale)

You’ve been hearing a lot about the Next Door Boy agency. It’s was a sleeper hit with traction having only been among the wealthy. Now more terms and conditions are being laid on with the public gaining more and more interest in its services. I managed to ride the coat tails during its debut. In fact, I was one of the first hundred clients to try it out. I was a 63-year old business man who had a large amount of capital, even after my divorce and child support. When I was selected as to premier the service, I was ecstatic. But the wait for the actual service date was torture. You see, they had to find consenting adults to be the talent. Finding attractive, young men to be hosts to an older clientele would be hard. Whenever they found one for me, then I’d be able to try it.

But I had particular taste in who I wanted to be. I offered to help find talent and the company agreed. When you offer the amount of money desperate old men would pay to be a young fuckable hunk, it was easy to find Owen. Owen was an 18-year-old high school graduate. He had high dreams of becoming a Chaturbate star or OnlyFans model. He really worked that body of his. In my chats with him, he really detailed his workout routine, his diet, and his hygiene. It was important to him that others found him hot and sexy. I assured him that with his body, he was certainly a prize, but that he could make more money with this new company.

He signed on. He hardly needed to be persuaded! I spoke with Owen a great deal. In fact I knew him while he was a football player. I’d cheer for him during home games. My own son idolized him. My son went on to college while Owen stayed and worked out, trying to be that sex symbol. In my talks with Owen, I asked him what he wanted to do with his life. Owen said again the OnlyFans stuff, but when I pushed him further, he was at a loss.

“I’m not gonna let myself get old, Mr. [Redacted],” Owen said. He flashed me a cocky smile, running his hand through his curly hair. “I’m gonna settled down with someone and retire on the beach.”

I gave a pained smile.

Owen underwent the procedure to install the implant. He just wanted the money and didn’t really want to discuss the conditions of our deal. Finally we settled that I would co-inhabitate him for a half-a-year with me taking control every two days a month. He agreed to be placed in suspension due to not wanting a temporary body (which is basically being a roommate in someone’s mind with other displaced consciousnesses) or being in my old, out-of-shape body. I would spent two days living his life, enjoying his youth. As you imagined, I spent the first few times working his cock raw, playing with my abs, and trying to flirt with his straight friends.

Things really progressed slowly. Adjusting to the disorientation took a lot of time, so when the half year was up, we spoke again about new conditions. He really liked the money, but I felt bored in his small life. There was working out, hanging out with friends, and nothing else. I decided to offer him a place at my home in a larger city. There he could enroll in college courses or take up a job. He tried to tell me he wasn’t interested in those things, but I practically begged him that I was interested and wanted to experience those things as him. He didn’t have to go there. It would only be when I was him. So our new conditions were set up. I would be him for two days a week. He made sure I stuck to a strict diet and workout routine while I was him. I agreed. I started to enjoy his grind for a perfect body.

While I possessed him, I went to classes. I chose art courses for Owen because it was something I didn’t have a chance to do in my life, and it wasn’t heavy on studying or reading. Jobs for college students are usually pretty light so I got a gig at the school. The job I chose for Owen was a Math tutor on the days I possessed Owen. I knew math pretty as I was an accountant, so it didn’t feel out of place for me. My life felt so much better now that I could do something other than working out. I actually made plenty of art friends. I also had the benefit of ‘running into’ my son.

I chose the same college as my son, Levi. At first I assumed I chose it because it was convenient. But subconsciously, maybe I wanted to be closer to him. He always idolized Owen. Maybe I could show him a better Owen to idolize. When I ran into Levi, he almost didn’t recognize me. While possessing him, I usually kept Owen’s bro fashion sense: gray sweatpants, an Underarmor compression shirt, and briefs. I felt it made me unique among the hipster types in the art classes. But sometimes I decide to try something more risqué (think crop top tees, or tight jeans that show the outline of a jock strap). That’s when I ran into Levi. My lower abs peeking from a crop top tee. I was free balling in sweatpants with my dick outline obvious to the eyes. We were awkward at first, but we started talking about high school. I was able to flip through Owen’s memories and be convincing. We went out to eat dinner (I was stuck to getting something high protein for the diet condition) and walked in the park. As a couple months went by, Levi mentioned wanting to go on a camping trip with me and his friends. His dad used to take him camping before he divorced his mother. He missed those days. (Oh.) I was excited and realized that there were another three months before new terms could be made. I apologized to Levi that I couldn’t but maybe the next year.

We didn’t make much contact after that. But in my old body, I found Levi visited more often. It was I who offered a camping trip. Escaping into Owen the past months had calmed me. I had been livid with Levi’s mother during and after the divorce. We disagreed about everything even though we had a good few years. Things gotten strained when I couldn’t continue to live a life of lies. Now that I calmed, I actually managed to strike a comfortable friendship with his mother. And with her agreement, we decided to surprise Levi with a… goodbye camping trip of sorts. A goodbye to those bad memories and the old marriage. His mother didn’t like camping much, so it was more of a backyard camping situation with his mother sleeping in a cabin while he and I slept in tents a stone’s throw away. It was remarkably peaceful. The trip was about 8 days and I missed the possession session with Owen.

Owen continued his thing while I was away. He stay at my house was secret. He was usually out of the way, but whenever Levi came over, he had to be out of sight. He did want to reconnect with his old friend, but Levi finding his dad living with his old high school friend would be super weird. Owen usually busied himself cam whoring or working out in his private gym.

When the time came for new set of conditions, Owen actually declined to continue. He had saved up enough money and wanted to live his own life. I didn’t want that. I managed to convince him to stay. There’d be no easier money than this.

I wanted more of Owen’s time. I wanted to go camping with Levi as his friend. I wanted to get more serious with his education and career. I offered a suggestion. It was the one of the first serious suggestions of the time of this nature. Others have made similar serious suggestions, but quickly backed off when there was pushback from the company and host. I pushed forward, particularly because I managed to talk Owen into it.

I wanted to live a quarter of a year as Owen entirely. I didn’t want to do the six days possessed then one day normal type deal. I wanted to sleep and wake as Owen. Of course the company altered this as much as they could. I would co-exist with Owen. We’d switch off who was in control. This would be so that Owen wouldn’t be in a sleep-type purgatory for months since he vehemently disagreed with being me. The company couldn’t offer a temporary host for that long. Also, the company wanted to test this type of set up. It could open new doors for business.

It started really well. Owen would wake while I watched his life. He’d make his breakfast, work out, masturbate, etc. I’d take over and head to class. It was so mundane like putting on a suit for work. Sometimes he’d have me do the workout and masturbation while he would listen to lectures (well, we both listened to the lectures; I was just in the backseat). Eventually we’d argue in our head about what to do. I masturbate to men; he masturbates to women. I want to suck cock; he wants to fuck pussy. Most of our arguments were about sex. To get back at him, I remember just hooking up with guys as often as I could. When I was in control, was when I was in some guy’s hole. I think that was what caused the error. Whenever one of us was in the backseat of our mind, we could still observe and feel what was happening to our body, but when there was a repugnant or painful stimulation, we sometimes involuntarily dissociated ourselves. It’s a bit freaky. One minute you’re helplessly watching yourself fall, preparing for hitting the ground, then the next second, an hour went by. I think that happened to Owen. In the backseat of our mind, he watched helplessly as I sucked cock with his mouth and got fucked in his ass by another guy. I could sense him still, but he was quiet. Over time, it grew dimmer and dimmer until I felt I was utterly alone.

Next Door Boy reacted… curiously. It wasn’t that they were excited or upset, but they just wanted all the information on what happened. They decided to remove me from the host to see if Owen would recover. A week had gone by. Owen’s body still lived. It was sustained by an automatic response to breathe, but it needed to be fed and taken care of.

It seemed to be a lawsuit in the works, but they seemed to find a practical solution.

They stuck me back in Owen’s body. Now my body. My old body was on ‘vacation’ and would only occasionally come back. I tried to keep up the appearances of Owen and myself before it got to cumbersome. And my life truly was in Owen.

By that time, Levi and I as Owen went our camping trip. We had a blast with our friends. I felt Levi and I grow closer, and while it felt strange to feel this way towards Levi, I reminded myself I wasn’t his father anymore.

My old body would leave some money for Levi and his mother. The rest would be funneled secretly to Owen’s body. I would still have some measure of wealth and a younger, youthful body.

It’s been over half a decade and I graduated college with a dual major in Art and Accounting. I’m able to pursue an art career. I entered into a loving relationship with my husband.

The circumstances with Owen and Next Door Boy might’ve inspired the universal conditions that aim to protect the host, but I’m not at liberty to discuss it. I no longer use those services, in fact Levi and I laughed as we read the stories of middle aged men using young men to fulfill their sex lives. “How desperate do you have to be?” Levi asked me.

“I don’t know,” I said, truly not sure how desperate I had been. “But I’m glad we have each other.”

[astroismypassion]

✨PART OF FORTUNE IN SIGNS AND HOUSES SERIES: 10TH HOUSE✨

Credit: Tumblr blog @astroismypassion

ARIES PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Aries and Capricorn Sun people in your life. You can earn money via marketing or work in dynamic and fast-paced industries, via coaching, sports management, fitness entrepreneurship, coaching and mentoring services in connection with career development, leadership skills, personal empowerment, via work in innovation management, technology development, product development, especially emerging industries. You find abundance when you are bold, take risks, focus on ambitious goals, cultivate independence, build a strong public image and when you embrace leadership qualities.

TAURUS PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Taurus and Capricorn Sun people in your life. You can earn money via work in finance, banking, investment, wealth management. Or via working as a realtor, property manager, real estate developer, via curating, selling or managing art collections, working as a chef, restaurateur or food critic. You find abundance in work in hospitality (managing hotels, resorts, spas), via work in landscape architecture or gardening, interior design, or as a performer, producer or manager, through farming, agricultural management or sustainable food production or creating an eco-friendly business. You feel abundant when you are focused on stability, value quality, when you are patient and persistent.

GEMINI PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Gemini and Capricorn Sun people in your life. You can earn money via work as a journalist, writer, editor, public relations, marketing, working as PR specialist, brand manager, social media strategist, work as a teacher, lecturer, educational content creator, via writing content for blogs, websites or online platforms connected with technology, lifestyle, business. You find abundance when you write books (fiction or non-fiction), via work in technology sector, via technical writing, UX writing or product management, via event planning and work as a sales representative, account manager or business strategist. You feel abundant when you network actively, when you keep learning and embrace versatility.

CANCER PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Cancer and Capricorn Sun people in your life. You can earn money via work in healthcare as a nurse, doctor or therapist, work in interior design or home décor, helping others create comfortable and nurturing spaces, work as a chef, baker or food critic, via handmade furniture, textiles or pottery, engaging in childcare, daycare management or family support services, via work in real estate, helping families find their ideal home. You feel abundant when you use emotional intelligence, emphasize nurturing and care.

LEO PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Leo and Capricorn Sun people in your life. You can earn money via pursuing a career in acting on stage, in film or on television, working as a musician, singer or performer, via directing or producing theatrical productions, films or TV shows, work in television, radio or digital broadcasting, you could work as a host, anchor or presenter, designer, stylist, model, painter, sculptor or graphic designer.

VIRGO PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Virgo and Capricorn Sun people in your life. You can earn money via offering personalized health and wellness service. You can offer remote fitness coaching, such as offering personalized fitness plans and virtual training sessions. You could work in mental health professions, like counselling or psychology, work as a nutritionist, dietitian, work as a proofreader or editor, work with biology, chemistry, environmental science, mathematics or with language or having an IT role (system analysis, IT support or cybersecurity). You feel abundant when you develop organizational skills, use analytical skills and when you seek structured environments.

LIBRA PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Libra and Capricorn Sun people in your life. You can earn money via offering dance classes, via work in art curation, gallery management or the fines arts, helping to showcase and promote artists and their work, via a career in human resources, focusing on employee relations, conflict resolution, via talent management, recruitment or career coaching. You feel abundant when you work in fashion design, graphic design, visual arts, brand management and marketing. You feel abundant when you aim for balance and harmony, emphasize fairness and justice.

SCORPIO PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Scorpio and Capricorn Sun people in your life. You can earn money via forensic accounting, crisis counselling or support services, via a career in scientific research, forensic science, medical research, psychology, surgery, oncology, energy healing, finance, technology or wellness, via art therapy and filmmaking. You feel abundant when you embrace transformation, healing, use psychological insight, when you pursue authority and expertise.

SAGITTARIUS PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Sagittarius and Capricorn Sun people in your life. You can earn money via travel blogging, vlogging or becoming a travel consultant. You find abundance via academic research, publishing, by becoming a travel consultant, tour guide, work in the tourism industry, work connected with educational, human rights and cultural exchange, via career as a spiritual teacher, counsellor, life coach, via theological or philosophical work, writing or teaching. You feel abundant when you cultivate optimism or enthusiasm, seek global or cultural perspectives, pursue knowledge or education and embrace exploration and travel.

CAPRICORN PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Capricorn Sun people in your life. You find abundance via work as a financial advisor or analyst, accounting, as a property developer, manager or investor, via work in property management, overseeing rental properties, commercial spaces or large residential complexes, via civil engineering, work in educational administration (school or college management). You feel abundant when you focus on long-term goals and value pragmatism and responsibility.

AQUARIUS PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Aquarius and Capricorn Sun people in your life. You can earn money via buying and selling collectibles (stamps, coins, vintage items), creating eco-friendly products or services (zero-waste goods, sustainable fashion). You may also find abundance in esports coaching by offering coaching services for aspiring professional gamers. You feel abundant via work in scientific research, in fields like physics, astronomy, biotechnology and environmental science, work in roles focused on research and development, via digital marketing. You feel abundant when you are pursuing unconventional paths, via networking with like-minded individuals and align with social causes.

PISCES PART OF FORTUNE IN THE 10TH HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Pisces and Capricorn Sun people in your life. You can earn money via work in music as a composer, musician or performer, via a career in painting, illustration, sculpture or other visual arts, via hospice work, via work in non-profit sector, focusing on causes related to humanitarian aid, environmental conservation or social justice, work in hospitality, such as hotel management or event planning, via cultural exchange, guided tours or spiritual retreats. You feel abundant when you embrace your creative talents, cultivate compassion and empathy, when you explore spiritual and esoteric interests and when you focus on meaningful impact.

Credit: Tumblr blog @astroismypassion