#most of these are set in the mindset of happening between the end of Enterprise and the beginning of DS9

[dillpickledipp2]

Bored. Tellarite headcannon time!

Tellarites live in large familial groups under one roof, with children for the first few years being taken care of by uncles aunts and grandparents, after which they are expected to take a few days of the ‘week’ to be shown how to do jobs in the family (Like bring your kid to work day, except its a rotating thing with the exception of certain jobs too dangerous or off planet, so children are kinda constantly brought around.) Because of this their schooling system is set up so there are multiple classes for kids of the same age that cover the same topics but on different days. Schools also don’t have set grades, just an expectation of improvement within set time frames. Children are encouraged to argue for their grades, to the point its the only way to get perfect scores. In teenage years, schooling is still mandatory, but more specialized and its up to an individual where they’ll attend. Typically at this point they begin to work lower level positions with family and attend related schooling to transition into their careers. 

Orphans are difficult to place due to the fact they are born in litters. Separating a kid from their birth group is considered cruel and bad for social development, but in family groups where you not only take care of your kids but your siblings kids also plus mentoring, adding multiple new kids in that have potential trauma is difficult, and at times considered selfish as it massively effects both your workload and responsibility and your families. Orphans are encouraged to pair up with Orphans to form new family groups and to take on orphans themselves, though its not common enough to make up for the amount in their system. Ultimately, many groups are split up and distributed when young if possible, and older orphans are set into their own specific work/school programs to make up for the lack of related adults (Post-federation mostly. It includes placements on other colonies and planets for certain groups that might thrive better)

[sukirichi]

Like, what happens to Mia? How does Gojo end up picking us? Naoya? How about Naoya? 😭😭😭🙏🏼😔

Omggg if you’re not going to continue reckless, can you please please please tell us how it ends? 😭😭😭 I don’t think I can bear living not knowing how it ends 😭 please? 😔😢🙏🏼😭

okay well here’s how it was gonna go, pls keep in mind my storytelling in asks and in writing are diff so this might be explained crappily HAHAHAHA but basically in reckless...

gojo gets shot in the head by his abusive dad bcos he finally stood up against him, but that backfired. his father is really adamant on control, and gojo loses his memories at the same time y/n gave birth. she decided to keep the baby after deciding that she wants a family after all, but when gojo woke up with mixed and lost memories, he only remembers mia and everything after her accident was gone. gojo becomes distorted and even becomes harsh sometimes, especially when y/n said they had a baby and she was his friend, bcos gojo’s mindset was from way back to six years ago, where he had lots of issues with his family and mia’s that he was wary who to trust.

so,,, they didn’t want gojo to hurt y/n bcos he’s such in an emotional mess that he has no control of himself. eventually, y/n decides to stay away but the baby is adopted by gojo and mia, who gets married for the sake of business and gojo’s current situation. truthfully, mia doesn’t want to marry him bcos it would hurt y/n and she’s not that awful. mia and y/n become friends after realizing they’re pretty similar and actually find genuine friendship with one another. she doesn’t have a choice tho and gojo, mia, along with gojo’s mom who divorced her husband for his abuse move to the states where they raised y/n and gojo’s daughter, sayori, leaving y/n all alone in tokyo who then becomes vice president of kamo enterprises. basically, it shows the repeated history of y/n’s father choosing to hide her from her real parents, and she begins to understand why he did that bcos she also has not really met her own daughter. y/n knows mia and gojo could take care of sayori better than she could, especially with the fact that gojo’s memories are mixed and transfixed on the timeline of him dating mia, mia giving birth to sayori, then them getting married. y/n is not present at all in his memories. gojo thinks he was the one in a car accident, not mia.

sayori is about four years old when gojo decides to come back to tokyo. now that he’s disowned and his mother has also left, gojo becomes a successful model in the states. he comes home bcos he remembers geto and wants to start their own agency (gojo as a model, geto as the photographer.) mia is wary at first for fear gojo might remember everything. she’s not being selfish; the doctors warned that anything that could potentially trigger gojo’s memories that his subconscious has erased could be detrimental to him. mia tries to hold it off but gojo insists, so the gojo/yamazaki family go back and that’s where gojo meets y/n, who he first thought was geto’s new wife.

in the reckless fanart, geto’s photo is like this.

geto’s ring is silver - it’s his dead wife’s ring. the hand caressing him is gold - it’s y/n wearing the ring of gojo’s mother, who by then has already apologized before they all left.

geto and y/n become best friends on the course of four years. missing her daughter, y/n becomes attached to mei (geto’s daughter) and acts more like a mom than an aunt. geto basks in this faux family they’ve built, though he makes sure mei is not too dependent or expecting that y/n would be her mom. he falls in love with y/n and he notices how after gojo left, she becomes softer and a lot sweeter. all the anger and hatred disappeared, all thanks to y/n finding peace with her new life and making up with her mother, Valeria, who once overdosed on drugs after it was exposed to the public that Y/N is a child she abandoned. y/n saved Valeria by rushing her to the hospital, which is also the same time that Y/N saw gojo being wheeled in the emergency room with a bullet in his head.

now that gojo is back, he can’t help but notice that y/n is avoiding him. she feels familiar but he plays it off over her being a close friend and possible lover of geto. meanwhile, y/n’s dedication to pretending he doesn’t exist breaks slowly when she sees sayori, a beautiful little girl who’s growing up, call mia as her “mommy.” it hurts her that she missed her first words, first steps, or that she’s being excluded in the family that is truly hers, but everyone is happy and doing great that she chooses to be the only who isn’t for the sake of everyone else.

in ch2, gojo goes to a carnival/amusement park and takes a polaroid photo with y/n. he finds them in one of the stuff he left behind in the penthouse he used to live in; shocked bcos y/n had been adamant they never met before. that’s when he begins to confront her on who she really is what they really used to be. he feels guilty that he can’t remember, but most of all, gojo is torn inside that y/n had been all alone the whole time when he promised he would be there.

its complicated for them since gojo x mia are already married, and sayori got her mom’s stubborness so its difficult for her to believe someone she never met before is her real mom and mia is...well, mia. mia actually helps sayori accept that she is not the real mom, apologizing to the child for lying to them and it ends up with sayori running away and getting lost for a few hours. sayori is scared since tokyo is alien to her and she doesn’t speak japanese, but when y/n finds her, she comes running to her arms and that is when she begins to soften up around her real mom.

this is where the slowburn with gojo and y/n begins. for them, getting to know each other once more on a clean slate is both refreshing yet scary, especially since one has erased the past in their mind and the other is desperately trying to forget it. the thing about the mia x gojo as a married couple and parents is that gojo deep down feels he does not love mia that way. he can’t explain why there’s just something missing or confusing in his life. he loves mia out of respect and friendship, but he would never admit that he is not in love with his wife. however, he plays it over the fact that its “just the broken memories” and lies to himself that he is very much in love with her. when he meets y/n again, however, it makes sense. he does love y/n and him forgetting her was a defense mechanism of his system to erase the most painful times of his life, and that included his guilt for hurting y/n with the abuse of his parents who controlled the way he acted around her. as for mia, she also does not love gojo and she probably never did, but for the sake of his well being and for sayori’s future (which was entrusted to her by y/n) she stayed with him. now though, mia knows its time to let go.

geto...it is not easy for geto. he loves y/n so much because of her tenacity and kindness, but he also loves her enough to know she is happier with someone else. to him, he’s content knowing that she felt less lonely when he was around and that he helped make her smile. in the end, geto has closure with y/n who apologizes for not returning his feelings.

NAOYAAAAA though...ofc i gave him a good ending 💕 after he was brutally rejected by Mia, y/n cheers him up by setting Naoya up with a law professor around his age, who is Ayame. Ayame is supposed to be named Suki tbh 😋 but I thought the self insert is a little too much so I changed it to Ayame. Ayame is pretty funny and even respects that Naoya is uncomfortable on the first date, telling him that it doesn’t have to be that kind of date and she doesn’t expect anything from him. Ayame’s bubbly yet blunt nature is a breath of fresh air from Mia’s secretive and perfectionist nature and the two become good friends. Naoya and Ayame end up hanging out a lot bcos “thats what friends do” but it doesn’t take long before they go out together. And ofc, Naoya is a little ashamed that Ayame was the first to confess and she beat him to it, but they get married and are happy nonetheless 💕 Mia ends up as a successful doctor who helps her family with the business, divorces Gojo, but she still has no plans to marry and is perfectly happy and content to focus on her career.

Eventually, Gojo and Y/N get married once everything is sorted out. Gojo becomes a well known model in Tokyo as well, and Gojo Group is absorbed by Y/N herself after proving Gojo’s father guilty of attempted murder. Gojo doesn’t want anything more to do with the corporate world though, but Y/N stays and kicks ass as a vice president to all the merged companies.

Y/N and Valeria also makes up after Valeria is indebted to Y/N who saved her life, and Valeria’s parents become more supportive and start to see Valeria more as a person than a child to inherit the business. Albeit being in her 40s, Valeria enjoys the youth she lost only now, but also enjoys being the grandmother to Sayori. Its a little awkward between Valeria and Y/N after everything that happened, but they’re trying and are even dubbed as the iconic motherly duo who is unbeatable in their games.

Gojo’s father is thrown into prison, and his main victim, his own wife, also shows recovery from the years of abuse. Although her obsessive control with Gojo and his sister (the eldest Gojo child) was not right, his mom was left with no choice but to keep them on close watch and control their lives because she was trying to keep them safe from their father’s wrath. In the end, Gojo’s mom makes up by being a better mother, and Gojo and his sister forgives her while also apologizing that both of them left home when they knew their mom always shouldered the abuse to protect her kids.

Overall, its a happy ending for most of the characters! the last chapter is Sayori’s wedding to Naoya and Ayame’s son, Naori, who is a few years younger than his bride. Gojo is grumbling to Y/N about how his little girl is all grown up now, and that their son, Shinichiro, who is 18 in that timeline is also maturing and would be leaving the nest soon. Y/N thinks its adorable and asks Gojo to just enjoy the union because its only one of the many great memories they would still have to make.

That’s how it would end! Gojo Best Dad and Gojo DILF. Everyone is happy!

Basically the theme of Reckless is that sometimes the most unexpected things we do out of character can end up as one of the greatest things to ever happen, which in their case was the suprise baby. They went through a lot and it has a lot of psychological themes, along with heavy family drama, but overall I wanted the series to be a heartwarming one by the end. I really would’ve loved to see it all happen but I am also happy to share it to you guys in this way.

So yeah, happy reading and thanks so much for supporting Reckless !! I was also thinking of doing maybe like a bonus chapter where the characters pretend it was all a movie and they’re actors that you can talk to, but that didn’t happen so :// anyways I hope you enjoyed this and thank you for reading up until here 💕

[mrsparknamjoon]

02. family matters | reliability • kth

previous | index | next

pairing: taehyung x reader word count: 2.155 genre: drama, light angst rating: pg-13 warnings: none au: ceo/office trope: enemies to friends to lovers tags: ceo!taehyung, office!au, best friend!yoongi, unresolved emotional tension, mutual pining, slow burn crosspost: ao3

summary: let’s go back a few years to see how tae and Y/N’s relationship started and also get a glimpse into the kim family

A/N: it was important for me to start the series with a flasback so that the reader would be familiar with the kim family dynamics and the tension with Y/N right off the bat

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10 years before

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“There has to be someone else” I said, staring at the Seoul skyline in front of me as I pondered all the possibilities with hands in my pockets. I'm taking over the family business and the only thing that scares me is making a mistake when hiring people. Well, my dad scares me, and getting a complaint call from him questioning how I managed to ruin Vante Enterprises in less than 6 months of his long-awaited retirement is not in my plans.

“Why?” asked the woman sitting on the large and comfortable couch behind me. Her thin face and dark hair complemented her porcelain skin very well and she was, at all times, the most beautiful person in any room.

“She’s inadequate” I replied, making her roll her eyes.

“Nonsense, Tae Hyung. Y/N graduated at the top of her class, in front of you much less, and did an MBA abroad” the woman said nonchalantly while taking a sip of her tea.

“I meant in regards to the company's culture” I sat down next to her, leaning sideways on the back of the couch and resting my head on my hand.

“Oh right” she set the cup down on the coffee table, “I forgot that you Kims only hire who you can control”

“Mom!”

“Honey, this is your opportunity to differentiate yourself from your father” she continued, “Having someone you know in a position like this is important in the long run”

At least in one thing my mom and I could agree on: I would, without a doubt, run the company in a new way. I had already started by choosing people who were suitable for the positions and not because I knew them or my family had some kind of connection with theirs. If, by chance, these two factors intersected, great, otherwise, the best resume wins.

“Known is not the same as reliable” I observed.

Still not satisfied with my answer, my mom got philosophical. “Trust comes with time” she started in a tone as if she wanted to pass for a spiritual being of great wisdom, but I knew she was just trying to be a good mom despite not knowing the exact details of what the family business required.

“I still have six more resumes appointed by someone I know” I leaned over to the coffee table and picked up the papers. “Two of them are former classmates too. How about that?” I waved them back and forth.

“If I remember correctly, neither of them made you stutter for the first time in an academic debate” my mom made a pose like she was thinking, crossing her arms and bringing one hand to her chin. How dramatic... and a liar. I didn't stutter.

“Yup, I think it's time for you to go” I exhaled, slapping my hands on my thighs and standing up. “Thank you very much for coming and giving your input on a subject I did not ask for” I continued in an amusing tone, but low-key serious, taking her by the hand and guiding her towards the door.

“Tae Hyung, you know that Y/N is the right choice” she moved the bag handle over her shoulder. “Be smart” and caressed my face.

“Okay” I sighed, “I love you” and kissed her forehead.

“I love you too” she smirked and left.

I went back to the couch and grabbed the resumes intending to read them one more time to be absolutely sure that I had not missed any relevant information. Very conveniently the first one was Y/N’s.

“She did it on purpose” I thought out loud when I realized my mom had deliberately put it there so I couldn't ignore it. 

Very well then, I started reading Y/N’s resume with legitimate attention, trying to ignore the name and photo at the top. I needed to be objective and impartial, a lot was at stake, but to be completely honest, at first, it was difficult because she has some striking physical features, which most men would find attractive but that was not my case. And even if it was, her personality overshadowed everything else to the point of making me lose any interest. After my common sense settled in, I continued reading, paying close attention to her previous work experiences.

“Hmm, this is interesting” I mumbled to myself.

Unlike the other candidates, Y/N had interned at one of the largest financial institutions in the country during college - something I had no idea, by the way, but not that we were friends back then, of course, because why would she tell me something like that? I really had no way of knowing - and I'm looking for people with experience in acquisitions. Convenient coincidence, I like it.

Moving on, I analyzed two letters of recommendation along with her resume and I must agree that on paper she is the right person. Damn it, I hate it when my mom is right! Still, the matter of company culture is real and I think that a person like her wouldn’t do well here. She is opinionated, impulsive, and hates being told ‘no’. At the same time, she was praised for the exact opposite in the letters, and that made me curious. An interview wouldn't hurt, would it?

I got up, went over to my desk, and pressed the button that put me in direct contact with the secretary.

“Yes, Mr. Kim?” Eun Ae answered promptly.

“I need to schedule some interviews next week” I said while fiddling through the resumes and selecting three, “I’ll email you the information”

“Yes, sir”

“Ah, Mrs. Gwa?” I almost forgot. It was better to hide my identity, otherwise, they’ll try sucking up to me thinking it would affect my final decision. And by 'they' I mean two of the three people because Y/N most likely wouldn't even accept the invitation if she knew that I was in charge of the company. “When contacting the candidates, I ask you not to divulge that I'll be the one conducting the interview”

“Okay” she wrote down and I could hear the sound of her keyboard. “Anything else?”

“No, that's all. Thank you”

Between today and the day of the interview, I had to prepare myself for the different reactions I might receive. My position as CEO has not yet been announced in the media and only shareholders know that a new person will take over at the end of the year. They suspect it will be my older brother, or rather, they expect it to be him but to the general dismay it will be me.

Ye Jun is a lawyer and has been involved in the family business since he started reading. However, two years ago in the middle of Christmas dinner, he had a breakdown when my uncles pressured him about some specific problem happening inside the company and he totally lost his composure (with a little help from alcohol, of course). He made a scene screaming that he didn't want that life anymore or even see any of those people again. Then he went on about how much he hated their meetings and the way everyone was fake in front of my father and in private would even criticize the color of the tie he wore. From the corner of the living room, I watched the whole thing go down without a hint of shock on my face because I always knew that moment would come. Ye Jun wasn’t born to be a leader.

The next day, he and my father were locked in the office for almost three hours. When the heavy wooden doors finally opened, dad left looking tired and announced without looking me in the eye, “Now it's up to you, Tae Hyung.” Confused by that statement, I went in and saw Ye Jun with his head between his hands, sitting in the armchair by the window.

“What the hell did you say to him?” I pointed my thumb back at the door.

“That I’m not doing it” Ye Jun replied, lifting his head and interlacing his hands. His posture seemed relaxed as if he were finally comfortable, although there was an uncertainty in his eyes that made me wonder if he was having second thoughts about the decision.

“Do what?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

Ye Jun looked at me and smiled.

“Give in to the pressure, complying with expectations, sacrificing my profession, not being myself”

He paused, standing up and holding me by the shoulders.

“I also told him that the best person for the position is you” Ye Jun's voice was full of affection, “It has to be you, Tae” he patted me on the side and I looked at him stunned.

“Dad will never put me ahead of Vante, Jun” I blurted as soon as I managed to assimilate what my brother had just said.

“Didn't you hear what he said to you as soon as he left?” Ye Jun looked confused for a second “Now it's up to you. You are the next CEO” he said in a firm tone.

I suddenly got embarrassed because it felt like I had just stolen my brother's job. “It doesn't make sense, we have opposite views on how to run a business” I looked away and stared at the floor.

“True, you do, but lately he started to realize that the world is changing and that Vante could be much better off if it started to adapt” Ye Jun stated by squeezing my shoulders and bringing me back to reality. “Of course, there is still a certain traditionalism in our field, but every now and then dad finds himself negotiating with foreign companies where the mindset is what sets them apart and he feels conflicted. Do you continue as you are and please national companies or do you adapt and gain visibility abroad? He wants Vante to remain as the leader in the segment but he is stuck in his own beliefs and he knows it”

After this conversation with my brother, things changed and I started to accept more confidently the responsibility that was placed upon me. However, regardless of how I felt, the criticism would come in full force. Many powerful people will question my father's decision and I wouldn’t be surprised if boycotts took place in the first year.

It was with all these possibilities in mind that my first act as CEO was to completely renew the staff, starting with the most strategic positions and closest to me. One of them was the operations manager, who would act as my right hand, valuing Vante's financial success and setting in motion the vision, strategic plan, and goals I set.

In theory, Y/N was perfect for it, but I wouldn't make it easier just because we knew each other. She was very smart and I was sure that the moment she walked through that door and came face to face with me, her demeanor would change and we would start playing a game of chess.

******

I dedicated the entire day Wednesday for the interviews and the first two had gone very well, exactly as I had planned and prepared — what a relief! It was almost 4:30 pm, Y/N’s appointment was the last one and I was extremely curious about her reaction, I don't know why. Maybe I wanted to prove something to her, like ‘Ha, look who’s running things now’ or ‘I bet you never thought you would see me sitting here'.

Y/N was always better at everything and I couldn't stand it. I had an obligation to excel at something. She was not perfect as everyone liked to think and, frankly, to worship. But, even if it bothered me to admit, we had things in common and she was qualified.

“Yes?” I said coming out of my reverie when the phone rang.

“Ms. Y/LN is here, Mr. Kim” Eun Ae announced.

“Let her in”

I heard a light knock on the door, followed by its closing and a few clicks of high heels on the floor coming towards me. I looked up and Y/N was dressed in a black midi-length v-neck dress with a stand-up collar that made her look formal but not old. Matter of fact, if I was actually paying attention I could even say that this specific fabric was made for her body type and hugged her in all the right places, but I wasn’t.

“Hello, Y/N” I said getting up from my chair, “Long time no see!” I smiled and took off my glasses, placing them in front of me next to the tablet I had been holding moments before.

Y/N shook her head holding a laugh as she bit her lip and stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world: “You’re so predictable. I’m amused”

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𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 ❤ 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘀𝗸! 𝗶 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ revised version: 09.25.2021

[aspaceformyselffics09]

Upside down; Chapter 3 - Outbursts

A/n: Hi Guys, so we’re back with a new chapter. This chapter is basically a filler chapter to propel both Namjoon and Y/n’s relationship a bit further while also revelaing a few details focusing mostly on y/n’s background. We explore more of who Namjoon is as a person and his back ground in the next few chapters. I felt like having individual focus on each of them was necessary for us to understand them as people and the story as well. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

PS: I really tried to solve their conflict in this chapter but realized that it will become too lengthy because of that. So I had to move it to the next chapter. I’m sorry :(((

Pairing: Namjoon x reader

Summary:  After an abrupt and a drastic turn of events, you find yourself, married to Kim Namjoon, a son of the CEO of Kim enterprises as the part of a political and business arrangement between your father’s company and the Kims throwing your quiet life, upside down.  

Genre: Angst, romance, slice of life, slow burn, fluff, Arranged marraige AU,Non Idol AU.

Rating: PG13

Word count: 3k

Warnings: None in this chapter

Chapter 2 - Chapter 4

It all started off with a misplaced roll of sheet music. Before this, you never really considered yourself as someone to blow up, out of irrational anger. To be honest, you never even considered yourself  to be an angry person. Sure, there were times you got angry. Really really angry. But more often than not, your anger always ended up spiraling into a fit of frustrated tears or simply into an act of withdrawal. You were never someone to yell and scream at others because of that. That was simply not you.

This was probably why the fight and your outburst took you by surprise. Technically, there shouldn’t have been a fight at all. Fights tend to happen where there was a presence of something. But, in a place where there’s an overwhelming sense of an absence, it wasn’t supposed to happen. It was about two weeks into your marriage and there weren’t many major changes in your life. That is if you count getting married and moving away to Seoul off from your list. You still woke up, ate, worked, slept and repeated the same process over and over again. 

It was all the same but suddenly it was not the same at all.

For the most part, you were used to living on your own. Your family was there, but then again, it was never home to you. Maybe except your siblings to a certain level. Growing up you’ve seen your parents fall apart. Become cold and distant to each other as years passed them by. They had given themselves away into the hands of money, fame and success even if it came at the cost of breaking their own family apart. At first because it couldn’t be helped, because they wanted to give you, their children better lives. And then because of greed. 

And this was what they enforced upon you as well. They always demanded for the best. Wanted their children to be at the top of the world. Anything other than that was looked down upon. Your happiness didn’t matter. But the eyes of the society did. Jimin being the oldest of you siblings, was the first victim to fall for their capitalistic and conventional mindset. He never had any choice other than to be the next successor of the parks. And he embraced that role as best as he could. He didn’t question it, probably didn’t see himself doing anything else other than taking over the company. Your second sibling, Jiyoo was a doctor, working at one of the most reputed hospitals in the city. Also now married to a man of equal importance. This leaves you out. The youngest of you all.

A needle in a haystack. 

The black sheep of the family.

Ever since you were a child, you never saw eye to eye with your parents and their narrow, rigid mindsets. Wherever they tried to suffocate you or limit you to a box, that was where you fought harder to break out of it. When they wanted you to pursue medicine or business or something along those lines, you turned your back to them and took up art. They didn’t say anything to that. But they also couldn’t hide how displeased they were with you. Sometimes to a point where they would leave you out of family mentions. All because they were embarrassed their youngest couldn’t be something they could be proud of or brag about. Jimin backed you up as much as he could. Taking your responsibility on his shoulders. To make sure you get to enjoy the things he didn’t.

But even then, the environment was simply too stifling and suffocating for you to continue living there. 

So once you turned 18, you took the opportunity and moved away from the stuffy environment that was your home. Found yourself a place near your university and continued to live there on your own. Doing your own thing, living your own life, the way you wanted it. And perhaps for a few moments there, you forgot everything about your life and connection with the parks. Except for Jimin who visited you every now and then. It was as if you fell off into a slumber, losing yourself in your dreams until everything came crashing over. A sliver of reality cut it’s way through the illusion you’ve created for yourself in the form of a forced marriage and just like that it all scattered over. The sad part probably was because you couldn’t even say no to it, couldn’t even fight it.

Now that being said, You honestly didn’t know what to expect when it came to living with Namjoon.

For the most part it was all fine. Namjoon was genuinely nice. He gave you a bedroom of your own. It was his home studio initially, but converted it into a bedroom just before you moved in. You thought that was a nice gesture. Giving you your own privacy. Your routine mostly hadn’t been interrupted, you could wake up whenever you wanted, sleep whenever you wanted, eat whenever you wanted. Didn’t have to worry about anything. It was nice. It was supposed to make you feel nice. But two weeks into the marriage, you had never been as miserable as you are now.

It had been two weeks since the marriage, two weeks since you moved in and attempted to fit your life alongside Kim Namjoon’s and two weeks since you even saw the ghost of that man or even spoken a word to him.

But that was okay. At Least that's what you told yourself. You’ve never even known each other before, nor had been any kind of friends before this. So you carried on without keeping any expectations from your side. You spent the first week after you moved in by unpacking your stuff and doing some basic cleaning around the house. Namjoon’s apartment, in contrast to the man himself, was a relatively neat little space. The living room was quite spacious, with clean, sleek furniture, lined up with bookshelves that were overflowing with various collections of books. It has a large open balcony facing the cityscape, with a good supply of fresh clean air circulating throughout the apartment. Your room was quite spacious too. It had a king sized bed in the middle, an array of cupboards to the side, a connected bathroom and some extra space to set up your laptop and painting equipment to the side. The only con perhaps was that Namjoon owned a lot of stuff. A hell lot of them. When he converted his home studio into a bedroom for you, he moved most of the stuff that was inside, out into the living room. So, there were things scattered everywhere in messy heaps. A lot of stuff haphazardly shoved around the place that it feels like the walls are closing in. 

So you spent most of your first week moving things around, shifting everything around into neat little piles. And organizing everything around the house bit by bit. It wasn’t because you were a clean freak but mostly because you had nothing better to do. You didn’t really have much of commission work coming in, and all your plans to further your education abroad were crashed and burned by the wedding. And when you find yourself unoccupied, your head goes into a spiral. All sorts of unwanted thoughts creep into your mind and send you into a frenzy. Sometimes though, a mere nothing like a sense of dread or extreme anxiety would slip it’s way into your system and whisper meaningless nothings into your ears. So you cleaned. Cleaned all you could to keep such thoughts and feelings away.

The only problem was the fact that you couldn’t ask Namjoon if it was even okay to clean all that stuff. Or if you can tidy it up and organize it down for him. He leaves before dawn and isn’t home until well past midnight or sometimes doesn’t come back at all. You vaguely wondered at times if he has someone. Not like you explicitly asked or even subtly talked about it before. Perhaps the only time you saw him was on a lone Friday night when he came home before you fell asleep. But left before you could even speak a word to him.

So in the end, you gave upon waiting for his permission and set about doing whatever you wanted to.

Your second week was pretty much the same. Except, now you don’t have anything to clean either. You spent a day or so trying to paint or aimlessly flicking through the TV. But once you found Namjoon’s and your faces plastered over every news outlet, you shut it down and almost threw the remote control out of the window in a fit of rage. You haven’t spoken to your family in almost a week. Jimin bombarded your phone with endless calls and text messages but you haven’t bothered to call him back nor even send out a reply. You were still too furious. Except him, well no one else really cared enough. Your sister maybe did send out a couple of concerned messages. There were some from your parents wishing you a goodluck. You scoffed at the messages. But at this point, they neither surprised you, nor did you actually care too much to do anything about it.

But it was frustrating. Your mind felt like it would blow into smithereens. With your already tense relationship with your parents, your uncertain career and now with a husband who’s dead set on avoiding you at all costs, you feel like you’re drowning. As if someone had cut off your oxygen supply, and left you to grapple for your breath. This was probably the point everything started going down for you.

You spent some more of your afternoon, lazing around on the couch in your bedroom. You long ago gave up on doing anything else. Nothing seemed to motivate you, so you threw yourself over the couch, sitting around in the same spot for an indistinguishable amount of time. And somewhere in between you drifted off into a haze of sleep. It was perhaps around half past six when you woke up. The sun had already set, it’s warm bronze light replaced by the moonlight that cast long shadows across the room. Somewhere in the creases of your mind you heard the distant shuffling of feet and the sounds of objects being moved around in the living room. You frowned, you weren’t expecting Namjoon to be home. Slowly rubbing your eyes, you made your way outside your door and down the hallway.

Namjoon was stumbling around the living room, his expression tense. He looked exactly like the way you remembered him when you first met him at the restaurant before the damned wedding. His appearance looked disheveled, he sported some heavy bags under his eyes and seemed frantic as he rummaged through all the piles of stuff that you cleaned up and organized into one of the cupboards in the living room. Everything was pulled out and scattered around everywhere. The scenario in front of you was a perfect picture of chaos. Quietly paddling down into the living room you stopped right near the coffee table. You stood there for a second contemplating what to do.

“Is everything okay?” You asked after a few minutes of silence, your voice a quiet whisper.

Namjoon didn’t look at you, instead he continued to dig around the papers.

You sighed to yourself, feeling a bit irritated all of a sudden. But you stayed quite watching the man in front of you grovel about the floor, continuing to look for whatever he was looking for. Somewhere amidst his quest he must have noticed you standing around the corner and he turned around to face you, feeling almost a little startled.

“Hey Y/n,” He greeted you, his lips tugging into a soft smile.

A flash of annoyance prickled at your skin for reasons unknown. But you swallowed it down your throat and shot a very clipped smile in his direction. 

“Sorry did I wake you?” He asked, as polite as ever. The smile still plastered over his face.

The annoyance crackled and popped as it gushed through your veins.

It had been almost two weeks since you last saw him. There wasn’t a moment in between when he just came in to check up on you nor had he spoken a word. You weren’t expecting him to be buddies with you. Nor were you expecting anything else. But just a word. Would it have hurt? Was it too much to ask? You probably shouldn’t be angry at this. You told yourself it didn’t bother you. You thought it wasn’t necessary. But despite all this, you underestimated how lonely it made you feel. Specially when you were so far away from the life you had been used to all these twenty three years of your life. 

You mentally sniggered to yourself. In your mind you knew that this is where you reply to him but currently your head was too preoccupied with trying to decide what exactly was the worst thing about this situation. 

“Sorry,” Namjoon giggled a bit awkwardly when you supplied him with silence. Never failing to drop his smile, “I noticed that you cleaned it all up. I’m sorry it’s all a mess again. I needed to find some sheet music I wrote up a few weeks ago and -”

This you decided. This was the most annoying thing. The fact that he was still so polite, despite avoiding you for two weeks, the fact that he was still trying to make conversation with you, even when you just stood there with no contribution of words or conversation from your side. The fact that you felt like you needed him to talk to you. The fact this whole thing made you feel helpless and irrational. It immediately pissed you off. 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” You snapped, “Sorry that I touched your stuff without your permission.”

The words were out of your mouth before you could even stop them. For a moment, you both just stood there staring at each other. Eyes wide in shock. At least on your part. On Namjoon’s part it was much more of a confusion. It irked you even further. Maybe, Just maybe this outburst had been long overdue.

“Y/n I -”

“You weren’t there,” You continued, the irritation and vexation dripping off your tone, “You weren’t even around for me to ask you if it was okay to clean it up. It had been two weeks and you were never around. You should have asked me, you know? It would have been much easier. You could’ve gotten out of the door in less than a few minutes, saved you from spending more time in this house or around me.”

And from here on, everything went downhill. Everything and anything he had to say was met with hostility and the worst part was probably how he just stood there and took everything you had to unleash upon him with no arguments of his own. You yelled and screamed until eventually you ran out of steam.

“You weren’t there,” You kept repeating in the end. As if it was all that mattered to you,“You weren’t there”.

You’ve never ever felt so humiliated by yourself. You were frustrated, but did Namjoon deserve this? No, he didn’t. You wished he at least fought back, but instead all he gave you was a quiet apology which made you feel even worse. Hot tears blurred your vision and before Namjoon could reach out, you fled out of the door into the darkness.

[fortysevenswrites]

3 and 19 for the fanfic asks 💕

3. Do you prefer canonverse or AUs?

I’m kind of an *insert ‘both is good’ gif here* when it comes to fic, but definitely leaning toward canonverse. I’m a little pickier with my AUs and really need them to be at least grounded in canon, personalities intact.

19. What’s your favorite character headcanon?

Which character hahahahaha? Okay here we go....

Karen Page: Karen hasn’t had a good night’s sleep since before her mother died, but it’s only after she reconciles with Frank and they start talking about their shared traumas that it gets easier. Having Frank in her bed helps too ;-)

Frank Castle: Frank doesn’t actually hate Matt--he respects him as a fighter, but can’t stand his moral code because it’s so opposed to his own “do what needs to be done” mindset. He does not like how Matt treats Karen though. Also, he and Elektra do meet and become murder friends. Karen and Matt both have no idea how to make sense of that.

The Lieberman Family: The reason why Frank didn’t call the Lieberman’s during TPS2 (LIKE HE SHOULD HAVE) is because after David was reunited with his family, he and Sarah made the most of their reunion and they had another baby (a girl named Faye Diza, for both Frank and Dinah), and Frank was not about to put them in danger again, especially not with a baby in the mix. Leo and Zach think it’s SUPER weird that they have a sibling with such a massive age gap, and they choose to ignore the how and why of it all happening—that’s what therapy is for anyway.

Our girl Kim Hart: Even though she doesn’t have her power coin anymore and is technically retired, she can still morph thanks to the Crane powers. She also still heals quicker than a normal person, which seriously helped her gymnastics career. And yeah, she did feel a little bad about it, but not bad enough not to compete.

Tommy Oliver: After reluctantly un-retiring in Dino Thunder, he does go looking for Kim and they rekindle their relationship and live happily ever after.

Tommy & Kim: After Zordon sacrificed himself at the end of the Space season, Tommy calls Kim, the first time they’ve talked in years, and they talk all night. They don’t entirely clear the air, but they do make clear that things would be different if they weren’t living on opposite sides of the country.

The entire Power Rangers in Space team: because they revealed themselves publicly to save the world, they’re the most famous rangers on the planet, and serve as a go-between between PR teams and major media outlets (you can really see me putting my PR hat on for this HC hahaha), especially when a new team comes along.

Ashley Hammond (PRiS): She splits time between Earth and KO35 because she, duh, is dating an actual alien (who is a human, because earth is not the only place humans live)

Astronema/Karone (PRiS/PRLG): After her tenure as the pink ranger in LG, she goes back to traversing the galaxy, using her sorcery powers for good (also, her abilities as a sorceress were not tied to her being evil) and there are MANY a crisis that she has stopped in its tracks before it could get as bad as the situations the Power Rangers have to take care of.

Cassie Chan: After the Space season, Cassie serves as Earth’s ambassador to the other planets in the system, which she does yes, because someone with space experience needs to do it (and Ashley’s too busy vacationing with her boyfriend on KO-35 and the other rangers are heavily involved with Earth’s recover), but also because it’s the only way she can think of to track down a wayward Phantom Ranger--who she ultimately does find, and they live happily ever after, splitting time between Earth and a recovering Eltar.

Y’all...I have SO many Power Rangers HCs

And because I recently finished From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series and have some Geckos and Fullers on the brain...

Kate Fuller: Even though she wasn’t in control of her body when she was possessed by Amaru, she still retains Amaru’s sword-fighting skills (which, let’s be real, Seth is a BIG fan of) and her ability to sense Culebras when they’re nearby. She also doesn’t even bother with the guest room they set up for her when they get back to base at Jacknife Jed’s, and crashes with Seth in his room. It’s platonic at first, but they both can’t sleep without knowing the other is nearby since they both have terrible nightmares about the other dying—also since Seth wasn’t there when she did die, he has nightmares that embellish on what really happened, and since Amaru tried to drain Seth’s soul, Kate sees those nightmares too.

Seth Gecko: Seth feels like he SHOULD feel like it’s weird that Kate is sleeping in his bed especially after everything that happened leading up to them parting ways in Mexico, but then he remembers that he doesn’t give a fuck about what it may or may not look like, and having her in arm’s reach is better than any alternative (like her sleeping two rooms down, or her leaving with her brother after Matanzas, or you know, not being alive anymore, period). Also, Seth has bad anxiety, pretty much ALL the time, and it takes a while for him to reconcile the fact that his real life actually is one where he gets to rob banks and run a criminal empire with Kate AND Richie together, and it’s not like, a really awesome dream or something.

Richie Gecko: Richie LOVES picking up new and random skills from the people he feeds off of, including sleight of hand, how to throw a perfect spiral with a football, and accounting, so he can handle the books for both the legal and extra-legal sides of their enterprises. He also is the only one to work out of the lower levels at Jed’s because Kate refuses to go anywhere near Malvado’s old offices, and Seth doesn’t like being down there because it makes him think about how he got screwed over by Sonja and Kisa almost died.

Kisa: Kisa ultimately decides to embrace her role as La Diosa, and travels the country helping Culebras find their way. She sends the most wayward ones she finds to the Geckos, which Richie appreciates and Seth does, but refuses to admit it, because she and Seth have built up a semi-antagonistic understanding, where they don’t LIKE each other, but they appreciate the others’ skills. Sometimes she does creep in on his dreams to make sure he’s treating Kate right, which he is NOT a fan of at all, and usually leads to Seth yelling at Richie, demanding that he call her and tell her off. Of course, that gives her the chance to catch up with Richie, which is exactly what she wanted. She and Richie do eventually get back together, once they’ve both grown up a little bit and grown into their new lives.

Send me a fic ask

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 4, Number 9

The Long Hots

We enter the pumpkin latte season with a full slate of short reviews, covering both anticipated and overlooked releases from rock, pop, jazz, punk and unclassifiable genres. Contributors this time included Bill Meyer, Ethan Covey, Jennifer Kelly, Isaac Olson, Jonathan Shaw and Justin Cober-Lake.  

Baked – II (Exploding in Sound)

II by Baked

Baked, out of Brooklyn, belches a lava flow of viscous guitar sound over sweetly unassuming pop melodies. If J. Mascis ever wrote a song to impress the women of Look Blue Go Purple, if Beat Happening experimented with a whacked out set of fuzz pedals, it might sound a bit like this – in short, it’s fetching DIY pop with serious muscles under the anorak. When soft, vulnerable tune meets the bristling heft of feedback, there’s a palpable fizz, never more so than on “Hope You’re Happy,” sung by Isabella Mingione. “The Hartlett Anthem” does the same trick with Jeremy Aquilino singing tender hooks over the droning surf of dissonance like a sleepier Teenage Fanclub. This particular recording is Baked’s third, after 2014’s Debt and 2017’s Farnham but earns the “II” by being the second in Exploding in Sound’s Tape Club series. That’s undoubtedly why it’s so short, but brevity is tantalizing. These five songs leave you wanting more.

Jennifer Kelly

 Big Blood — Operate Spaceship Earth Properly (Feeding Tube Records)

Massachusetts-based Feeding Tube Records favors such a frantic release schedule that it’s easy to miss the consistently strange, often delightful albums they spit out. Earlier this summer, the label dropped Operate Spaceship Earth Properly, a fresh & freaky 45-minutes of scuzzy psychedelia from Big Blood. The Portland, ME duo of Colleen Kinsella and Caleb Mulkerin — joined here in some capacity by their daughter, Quinnisa — have been delivering properly furry trips since the 1990s, originally as founders of Cerberus Shoal. The spin this time involves a tip of the hat to authors such as Octavia Butler and Ursula K. Le Guin via a science fiction-inspired song cycle. Yet, concept aside, the songs have serious teeth, stomping forward in a heady slop of bullying riffs, martial drumming and Kinsella’s third-eye rants. It’s headphone music for the deep forest, a turned-on reality-strip far more properly psychedelic than the jammed-out noodling frequently paraded by those dressed in thrifted tie dyes. Listen at your own risk; be changed.  

Ethan Covey

  Manu Delago—Parasol Peak (One Little Indian)

Manu Delago, a classically trained percussion who specializes in the steel-drum-like instrument known as a hang, isn’t doing things the easy way. For this album and the accompanying film, he convened a chamber group of seven people and led them, instruments and all, on a mountaineering expedition in the albums (pity the cellist). These eight tracks were recorded outside, in all kinds of weather, using natural elements like sticks, rocks and trees for additional textures. The result is a rather lovely blend of percussion-dappled Reichian minimalism, augmented by the sounds of water, thunder and wind. The music works its way to the summit, beginning in the leafy, sun-warmed environs of “Parasol Woods,” where reedy, breathy clarinet and pensive trombone catch the light sparkling off intricate webs of tonal percussion. By “Ridge View,” sounds have turned chillier and more remote; flute and chimes are buffeted by gales of wind. A mournful, solitary whistle frames “Listening Glacier,” a trebly coating of ice on a grounding drone of cello, but there is exuberance and accordion wheezing triumph in “Parasol Peak.” Fingers and lips must be pretty frozen all round by this point, but a warm, pulsing joy emanates from this brass-y, syncopated reel. The question arises: why would anyone do such a difficult thing?  But the answer is right there in the accompanying video. Because it was beautiful, because it was hard and because it made a sound no other new chamber group could make, with woods, mountains, stones and  physical effort built right in.

Jennifer Kelly

 Ethers—Ethers (Trouble in Mind)

s/t by Ethers

Ethers spun out of the late Chicago drone-punk-garage outfit Heavy Times, pulling front man Bo Hansen and bassist Russell Calderwood into this new enterprise and adding Calderwood’s wife Mary McKane and drummer Matt Rolin. Along the way, Hansen et al seem to picked up a heightened appreciation for melody and hook (and percolating keyboards thanks to McKane). “It’s a Rip-Off” lurches and jitters on slashed guitar riffs and hard, straight up and down drumming, but there’s an undeniable lilt in its fuzzy tune, and “Emily” balances bluster and tenderness in equal parts. If Heavy Times drove a post-punk freight train through a long, shadowy tunnel, Ethers breaks out into sunshine on the other side of the mountain, the darkness in the music but not all of it. “Something” ends the disc on a high note, chiming guitar notes streaking like meteors down to a burnt-bare beat, an intoxicating smell of sleeping gas all around.

Jennifer Kelly

 Iron & Wine — Weed Garden (Sub Pop)

Sam Beam has somehow become a master of the EP. Last year's full-length Beast Epic from Iron & Wine received critical acclaim and a Grammy nomination, but it never really settled the way much of his earlier work had. Given that Weed Garden draws from that album's leftovers, the new EP could have been a quick toss-off to turn a few dollars on otherwise dead songs. Happily, though, Beam delivers a strong, quick set. Where he had traded in resignation, this one starts with an immediate rally, the call in “What Hurts Worse” to “become the lovers we need.” His awareness of brokenness becomes the grounds for a fragile restoration, his voice and the smooth production serving the message.

A few years old but until now unreleased, “Waves of Galveston” brings the necessary precision to a complicated situation, and the continuing Croce-like sound fits the mood perfectly. “Last of Your Rock 'n' Roll Heroes” brings a steady bounce to a series of impressions that eventually give way to the darkness. Closer “Talking to Fog” uses language to resist pending dissipation, offering gentleness among hardness and “reaching out” despite knowing safer options. Beam's writing relies on visuals until he makes blurry images come into focus, even if he maintains that “it's hard to find.” It's a strong statement from Beam, an album's worth of care in a little EP, again.

Justin Cober-Lake

  The Lavender Flu — Mow the Glass (In The Red)

Heavy Air, The Lavender Flu’s 2016 debut was a double album of feel-bad rock sent forth from the Pacific Northwest damp to soundtrack an endless bummer. Chris Gunn, formerly of The Hunches and Hospitals, assembled the album at home, on analog tape, building and reworking the tracks into one of the year’s most impressive collages of sound. The second time around, with Mow the Glass, the approach is different. Here, Gunn is backed by a proper band — brother Lucas Gunn, former Hunches drummer Ben Spencer and Eat Skull’s Scott Simmons. Those folks all lent a hand to Heavy Air, yet here they are in the same room, playing together to the buzz of warmed amps and a view of the sea. The album is trim and clear, focusing Gunn’s aesthetic without losing sight of the mindset that got him here in the first place. A couple of cuts from the first LP — “Demons in the Dark,” a cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Like a Summer Thursday” — reappear with fresh coats of paint. “You Are Prey” begins tipsy and unraveling, with the band chasing a whip of stereo-panning guitar, before setting into a reverb-rich ballad. The mood is subtlety sunnier throughout, like a crack of light on the horizon viewed from the soak of a storm.  

Ethan Covey

  Long Hots — Monday Night Raw (Self-Released)

Monday Night Raw by Long Hots

You should listen to Trouble Anyway, the new LP by Rosali Middleman. Middleman is a talented songwriter, but part of what makes Trouble Anyway so listenable is its lush instrumentation, all-star band, and pristine production. Middleman is also a member of The Long Hots, and their debut tape, Monday Night Raw sounds, by contrast, like it was recorded on a Fisher-Price tape deck by a band with about three weeks of musical experience between them. It’s glorious. The members of Long Hots are rock and roll lifers, so Monday Night Raw’s amateurism is both affected and effective, and sure to satisfy anyone who thinks Here Are the Sonics!!! is too slick. Of particular note is the ten minute “Boogie Trance,” which delivers exactly what it promises, no more, and “Die Die Die,” the chorus of which goes, you guessed it, “Die, Die, Die, Die.”  

Isaac Olson

  Paul Lydon — Sjórinn Bak Viò Gler (Paul Lydon)

sjórinn bak við gler by Paul Lydon

When you’re on your own, labels don’t mean much. Paul Lydon is an American musician who has been based in Reykjavik, Iceland since the mid-1990s. His discography is small, and he’s never made the same record twice. He’s sung alone and with a partner, in English and Icelandic, and kept the accompaniment varied each time. On Sjórinn Bak Viò Gler there is no singing at all, but it’s the most lyrical music of his recording career. The album’s title translates as The Sea Behind, and given Iceland’s prevailing clime you might want to keep it that way until there’s a closed door behind it and you. Lydon’s touch on the instrument betrays close acquaintance, and it’s easy to imagine him spending hours playing and ruminating on what he’s played. It doesn’t fall easily into any genre; its stream-of-consciousness flow is too perambulating for pop, too elaborate for minimalism and it doesn’t fall easily into any classical form. So let’s not worry about what it isn’t, and instead appreciate its confidently open-ended melodies and comfortably solitary mood.

Bill Meyer          

 Thee Open Sex — White Horses (Sophomore Lounge)

THEE OPEN SEX "White Horses" by Thee Open Sex

Indiana might seem like an odd place to give birth to a combo committed to diving deep into Krautrock concepts but think again. You’ve got highways and flat land that doesn’t afford much of a view once you’re over the cornfields; what could be more practical than motoric music? The Open Sex makes music that’ll whittle away the road miles, and White Horses is cut precisely to get you 35 minutes closer to home. That’s how long guitarist John Dawson and drummer Tyler Damon bear down on a groove that’s more metronomic than equine. Three guests use their playing as a foundation for a wheeling superstructure of squelchy notes and spacey textures. This is white line meditation music; be sure to stay mindful of the weight of your foot upon the gas.

Bill Meyer

 Rob Noyes & Ryan Lee Crosby — Modal Improvisations on 34 Strings (Cabin Floor Esoterica)

[CFE#68] Modal Improvisations on 34 Strings by Rob Noyes & Ryan Lee Crosby

On record and in concert, 12-string guitarist Rob Noyes displays a clarity of intent that you don’t often see from an artist who is young and new. But not only does he keep his picking clean and lyrical through rustic rounds and mystery-laden excursions, he keeps his head in the presence of a very different guitarist. Ryan Lee Crosby plays chaturangui, a sort of hybrid veena / dobro guitar developed by Debashish Bhattacharya. The chaturangui is suited to the swoop and chime of Hindustani ragas, and that’s how Crosby plays it. Noyes embroiders the contours of his partner’s voluptuous lines and pushes back with pure-sound strumming. He manages to sound quite supportive and engaged without compromising the very different character of his playing. This short (not quite 28 minutes) tape is a typically atypical Cabin Floor Esoterica product; home-dubbed and hand-wrapped, a first edition has already gone out of print, but a second run is imminent.

Bill Meyer  

 Riesgo — Demo MMXVIII (Self-released)

Demo MMXVIII by RIESGO

It’s not often that you can claim a tape is both a throwback to and a continuation of a vital movement in punk, but listen to Riesgo’s new demo. You can hear both of those historical trajectories as soon as “Lobxs” kicks it. The bass’s rubbery warbling and the guitars’ razoring buzz recall the initial tones of Black Flag’s “Nervous Breakdown.” Then Carlos Ruiz starts singing, and the tape’s sound snaps into sharper focus. Chicago’s South Side, Latinx punks, thrashy attitude: Riesgo have picked up the baton from the excellent and underappreciated Sin Orden, who in turn had received it from the nigh-legendary Los Crudos. (Or, in a couple cases, band members just held onto the baton: Ruiz sings for Sin Orden, and Jose Casas played guitar for Los Crudos.) Razacore is alive and angry. That’s good news, and very timely. Given our current national moment — the current bullshit hating on Latino American identity and the reactionary responses to the violence in Chicago — this bolus of pissed off, politically fierce punk is precisely what’s needed. “Ahógate” is a standout track. The vocals and lead guitar are pretty unhinged, while the rest of the band hammers away at a compelling hardcore riff. It’ll sound great in a sweaty basement. Viva, Riesgo!

Jonathan Shaw

  Rocket 808 — Digital Billboards b/w Mystery Train (12XU)

Digital Billboards b/w Mystery Train by Rocket 808

Rocket 808 is the latest incarnation of the garage guitar phenomenon John Schooley, whom you might remember from the Revelators (or if not, enjoy this set of Billy Childish covers laid to tape in a record store in Columbia, MO in 1996). A frequent solo performer (his website is called John Schooley and his One Man Band), Schooley does it all on these two tracks. “Digital Billboards” overlays the cheerful cheesiness of a vintage drum machine with incandescent flares of whammy and deep reverbed guitar darkness. Surf rock, sure, but evil and skeletal and scary, with shades of Suicide in the wild ghostly automatism. Side two’s “Mystery Train” amps up the rockabilly, the drum machine cranked to the breaking point, the guitar arcing and spitting in turbulent bursts. Schooley sings on this one, steering classic blues lines around hard bends until they lift off the pavement. This sort of blues-referencing, early-rock-aware music always has an element of parody, but Rocket 808 seems less performance-art-ish than Bob Log III or Heavy Trash. It’s dark and dangerous, a heightened reality rather than a pose.

Jennifer Kelly

 Sam Weinberg — A/V/E (Anticausal)

A/V/E by Sam Weinberg

Sam Weinberg has contributed some raw sax to some harsh ensemble settings, particularly the duo W-2 and various gigs with Weasel Walter. But when he closes the door to his Brooklyn apartment, things get real. The sounds from outside his window and on his kitchen table prove equally valuable as he constructs a mutating environment out of inscrutable industry, passing traffic and critters, the mechanical parts of his horns and some vigorously scoured surfaces. This is the stuff of life, or at least Weinberg’s life. Layer upon layer of sonic activity coexists like the residents of a big old NY apartment building, close in proximity yet not particularly interested in each other.

Bill Meyer

[crimethinc]

Steal Something from Work Day 2018: Three Stories of Employees Reclaiming What Is Theirs

April 15 is annual Steal Something from Work Day. Today, whether we like it or not, millions of employees around the world are stealing from their employers in a desperate bid to slow the process that is steadily expanding the gap between those who labor and those who profit. (Yes, even on a Sunday.) That makes it a good day to reflect on workplace theft. If you are confused about why people steal from their employers, review the Steal Something from Work Day FAQ or our colleagues’ text, How to Justify Workplace Theft. On the other hand, if you simply want to savor a few pulpy stories about workers who set out to get even, we’ve got just the thing for you.

Mind you, we don’t endorse any of the following behavior. We’re not trying to persuade you to drop a banner or engage in some kind of illegal activity! What we’d like to see happen is for those who violently impose the prevailing system of property and profit on the rest of us to think better of what they’re doing and help us create a world in which stealing from work will be impossible because there are no such things as property, work, or theft. Change their hearts and minds! Failing that, we hope you’ll enjoy the following (surely fictitious!) tales of risk and reclamation.

For more resources and other such stories, consult past Steal Something from Work Day commemorations:

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Steal Something from Work Day in Sweden

Sno-Från-Jobbet-Dagen: The banner reads “Your job is eating you up—Steal a little back!” The line of the advertisement still visible below it urges “Don’t let pollen stop you this year.”

We received this anonymous video from somewhere in Sweden, where enterprising rebels celebrated Steal Something from Work Day 2018 a couple days early by promoting it to their fellow workers.

You can also read about Steal Something from Work Day in German and a variety of other languages.

Stealing from Work Is a Gamble, but It Can Be a Good Bet

In the repertoire of punk jobs there used to be a job known as poster tour. Many people who have spent a little time on college campuses can conjure a memory of this traveling spectacle. Picture it: a company orders absurd quantities of posters from overseas and sends forth its minions to market them to the gaping voids of personality that are the college students of America. The premise is that these first-year students, lost in the sea of their future, will desperately cling to any kind of material affirmation money can buy—to be specific, by adorning their dismally blank walls with beautiful portraits of the complex identities they’ve laboriously constructed throughout their lives.

By and large, the students’ poster selections involve a constellation of beer pong, action movies, bikini babes, the ever-present visage of Bob Marley, and some poem about Jesus.

The life skills needed for this job are similar to those required for other facets of the punk life style, especially for anyone who has been on any other kind of tour. You wake up and eat a sorry excuse for a hotel breakfast, then get in a van and navigate to an unfamiliar destination; the host of the sale might meet you to introduce you to your venue (the requirements for the role of host do not include being available, being present, having any idea what’s going on, or being sober); you set up your poster sale, painstakingly facilitate access to it, and watch the clock until the event is over. Then you break down the sale, head to the cheapest motel the company could possibly find for you, fill out a bunch of paperwork, and cry yourself to sleep. Repeat this the next day, and the next, and the next—for six weeks.

The job attracted outliers from several sections of society. The largest faction, due to the connections of our subculture and the viral nature of our relationship to employment, was the punks. Besides us, there was a smattering of hippies, weirdos, a few wild cards (including some non-subcultural, seemingly successful people), and a healthy portion of Europeans. People from the last category were in a unique circumstance. Through shady outreach efforts and middle-men, they were promised gainful employment in the USA—at a price, of course. The company made sure that the workers’ profits were drained from what they owned to the company for securing their employment, as many companies do.

To top it off, we were tasked with selling the drivel of American culture. In rural Kansas, I watched as a dumbfounded Czech person was asked about the TV show Friends. Then the confused college student asked his companion, “Why are there Russians on campus?”

It goes without saying: the system was rigged. The company set projections of how much they expected you should sell; you wouldn’t get paid above a meager daily base rate unless you sold more than their projections. It was an easy way to motivate workers while making sure they could never get ahead. The workers were instilled with the desire to work harder, in order to reach their projections and make more money via commission, while the company sets the numbers high enough that the workers never truly make a profit—yet blame themselves for this.

It was obvious from the get-go that playing by their rules wouldn’t get us anywhere. We needed to create a new landscape if we wanted to take advantage of this opportunity that was taking advantage of us.

The first step is always to get organized. At orientation, we exchanged contacts, made friendships, and vetted each other for trust. Mixing fun and subversion, someone uploaded a bingo board to a blog and shared the login passcode with others. (This whole story precedes smart phones.) The idea was that this would help us to keep in touch and report our winnings.

The squares on the board included a fun mix of communal misery (crying yourself to sleep, an easy square to win), impossibilities (going a day without selling a Bob Marley poster, which was never achieved by any team), hi-jinx (selling cute monkey posters to really tough sports-bros), and bad behavior (go skinny dipping, drunk dial the boss, meet with other poster teams on tour). The blog served as a break room for us to grip about our working conditions, share tricks, and foster a work environment that would be increasingly hostile to our employers.

We showcased our commitment to slacking and time-theft front and center. This was such a pillar of our work culture that there was no place for people who weren’t slacking and boasting about it. With the help of the blog, every day became a competition to see who could do the most outlandish offense to the job. At the same time, the blog also helped us to share information, which enabled us to work out how much profit we were making for the company: with over 50 teams at work, we were making the company about a million dollars a week.

We tried to organize a strike. Unfortunately, in the end, the strike did not really come together and the team who was leading it decided just to quit. Quitting seemed like the best option—until we learned what happened when you quit: the company had all kinds of sly rules to ensure that you lost your earnings if you quit prematurely. Worse still, you might end up owing the company money afterwards! The team that quit ended up having to hitchhike out of the company office, as a final insult to the work they had done already.

This incident transformed our small-time scheming into war. We had already been telling each other how to pull the small scams we all depended on to stay afloat while working. The company gave you a small stipend for food, so we used our food stamps and pocketed the money. The company paid for hotels, so we would camp or stay with friends and pocket the money. The company allowed for a percentage of shrinkage, so we made sure that percentage of posters “disappeared” and pocketed the money. Teams got creative: one bought a bunch of their own merchandise and sold it alongside the merchandise provided by the company. They weren’t found out until a college contacted the company to say that it was not OK for them to be selling “all this marijuana merchandise.”

The company noticed our sales weren’t meeting their projections, so they authorized us to have a 20% off sale. We charged full price and kept the extra 20%. When you’re in this mindset, the ball just keeps rolling.

In a Super 8 motel, I began to toy with a new idea. We dealt with lots of cash. How do you make more cash out of cash?

The answer hit me soon the next day as we drove by a riverboat casino: gambling.

Obviously, this was a bad idea. Countless movies, crime novels, and real life disasters start this way. Still, we passionately hated the company, we shared an affirming and subversive worker culture, and we had already gotten away with a lot. The fact that it was a bad idea was what made it so appealing: workers at terrible jobs are always looking for something self-destructive to do that might just take the whole enterprise down with them.

There was one problem—I knew nothing about gambling. I sat in the motel for hours scribbling out math and probability problems, the way so many people have done in motels near casinos. The prudent gambler would have consulted proper sources via the internet or the library, as many people have written extensively on gambling tactics. But I was motivated and in my zone, and after a few days of neglecting the duties of the job, I had worked out my plan.

I won’t get into the mechanics of the plan; I wouldn’t want to bore the reader or showcase its obvious flaws. Let’s just say I came up with a strategy that felt safe as long as I would be working with a large amount of cash.

To play it safe, I did a test run with some of the money I had earned already. I was really nervous—taking risks with money is completely contrary to my character. I also hadn’t been to casinos, so it was terrifying to watch people lose hundreds and thousands of dollars in seconds. I watched a couple who had just gotten married earlier that day, still in their wedding attire, lose more money than I was slated to make all year in less than an hour. I wasn’t cut out for this.

Still, I persevered, comforting myself with the thought that if I lost my own money, I’d just take it from the company and figure out some way to get away with it. Sure enough, a nerve-wracking hour or so later, I had more than doubled my initial bet. Like many gambling strategies, it worked in the short term.

The next day just happened to be an anniversary dear to jingoistic patriots. It always feels appropriate to do something irreverent to capitalism and America on such a day. We went into the casino, a battlefield of flashing lights and singing machines desperately fighting to keep you feeling like a winner while draining all of the life and money out of you. I’d heard that when you’re gambling, it’s important to have a stopping point—a goal you set beforehand to keep yourself in check in case the desperation of losing or the elation of winning takes over. I won’t disclose the numbers, but with the pretty penny squeezed out of all those Bob Marley posters in my hand, I set out to make ten times the amount I walked in with.

In casinos, they don’t want you to stop gambling. They offer free drinks to gamblers, free food, members-only areas, concerts, shirts, stickers, and all sorts of other useless crap to assure you that you’re a winner in hopes that you’ll go on gambling until you’ve lost it all. I couldn’t fall victim to this nonsense; I had a scheme supported by math problems I did on napkins. It was mechanical, cold, exacting, and required the cool-headed rejection of any kind of victory-induced excitement that could tempt me to stray from my path.

Dealer after dealer watched me make the same tactical choices, unfazed by the results. While most gamblers would think about their next bets and take time to place them, I had already done my thinking and was simply executing a strategy. I didn’t take any of the free alcohol; I gave it to my tour buddy, who intelligently decided not to participate in my harebrained scheme. Like a rising flood, my winnings slowly grew while I watched other gamblers win and lose thousands of dollars around me. After a full day of what must be called work, I achieved my goal. I had taken company money and made tenfold what I put in.

I experienced none of the feelings I project to be associated with gambling—I felt no elation, no highs and lows, no sense that my good fortune would enable me to steal the wealth of the casino. I did a math problem and it worked long enough for me to quit while I was ahead. Having reached my self-prescribed goal, I was free to revel in all the benefits that the riverboat casino had to offer. We enjoyed all the free bowling we could handle, ate free hot dog after free hot dog, and danced with middle aged day-drunk casino-goers to a band of older men doing a cover of “What I got” by Sublime (with several additional gratuitous saxophone solos).

The money I made came and went, as money does. But the feeling of getting yet another one over on the company that had engineered nothing but failure for its workers is something that I’ll carry with me forever. It reminds me that if I divert the energy and time that my bosses want me to invest in the job towards the more strategic goal of subverting my workplace, my fellow employees and I will come out ahead.

The Hard Stuff

On March 30, 2018, longtime anarchist and author Paul Z. Simons passed away. Paul was a determined rebel and illegalist; his writing is both lively and erudite. He published an article entitled “Take Things from Work” in Black Eye, a journal he helped edit some three decades ago. More recently, in “Illegalist Praxis: Notes on a Decade of Crime,” he outlined his own experiences stealing from work as a young person.

Bear in mind that Paul was writing about a different era, when surveillance cameras were less of a concern. But you’re not the sort of person who would consider doing what he’s describing, anyway, are you?

Before I begin, a disclaimer or two. First, I never knowingly physically harmed anyone. Second, most of my criminal activities were driven by survival, in some cases by desperation.

A quick philosophical footnote: money taken in crime is far sweeter than money earned. The fact that one relies on oneself, or a group, to outthink, outsmart, and outbrave some stupid boss and his security precautions turns ill-gotten gains into reward beyond compare. Plus, the hours, while short and nerve-wracking, are never boring.

Oddly, one of the best ways to begin a burglary is by getting a job in the store you plan to hit. In general, places that have loads of cash, that deal with deposits in a lazy fashion, and that trust you just enough to let you know that the burglary alarms are “just for show.” After a week or two of drudgery, you’re ready. The neighborhood is dead quiet at night, there are rear entrances that haven’t been used in years, and hopefully those entrances have windows. Timing is key and I recommend between 3 and 4 in the morning on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. The cops are all changing out shifts, the security guards (if any) are drinking coffee somewhere trying to stay awake, and the neighbors are all tucked in their beds. Windows can be easily removed by breaking through the glass with a cloth wrapped hammer and steel bars can be separated using a tire jack. If the back is lit by floodlights, unscrew them. For windows placed high, use a car as a boost to reach them. A quick dash into the establishment—to exactly the place where you know the day’s cash receipts are hidden—and out. A peek in the rear view mirror to make sure you’re clean—and gone. Like it never happened. The rewards from burglaries can be surprising: in one short twenty minute stint I walked off with almost $5000. They can also be disheartening; one burglary took almost an hour and netted less than $300—but that was the exception.

[monocept]

Advanced Strategies and Pitfalls for on Premise to Cloud Migration

On-premise to cloud migration is not just a technical change but a cultural one. Moving to the cloud transforms your business fundamentally across day-to-day operations, talent acquisition and development, budgeting, and even end-user productivity.

Therefore, it requires a careful approach to determine the best ways to leverage new cloud capabilities and modernize applications towards harnessing the full benefits of the cloud. Most literature only provides a snapshot of the best practices alongside checklists to guide your steps on that complicated journey.

Many companies begin to run into various problems because they lack understanding of the best practices (especially regarding security and performance) during development and working in the cloud environment.

We’ve handled diverse on-premise to cloud migration projects and have put together some of the top areas to consider during this complex journey.

1. Invest in container technology

Naturally, you may already think of containers as storage boxes, which might house code, software, and other connected components. In terms of cloud computing, containers are highly popular from the standpoint of application development. First, they are not dependent on your server and its operating system and will not go down if the server does. In truth, if your server goes down, you can easily spin a new server to work with the same container, which minimizes hassles and downtime.

Containers are also portable, allowing you to quickly move data and applications from one environment to the next without compatibility issues. They also favor rapid testing and development and will have no overhead or complications associated with configuring and managing underlying servers and operating systems. Finally, containers are scalable, which means you can replicate what’s on them an infinite number of times.

2. The need for a multi-cloud strategy

Many organizations assume that moving to the cloud is an all-or-nothing process and may think they only need one vendor. In truth, the most successful on-premise to cloud migrations feature a multi-cloud strategy and hybrid cloud configuration. So, in some instances, some organizations might do better with one significant migration of data to the public cloud, followed by series of smaller migrations across multiple cloud platforms depending on their organizational goals, priorities, and critical projects.

Other organizations may place only limited data within the cloud and use their private data servers for critical sensitive and proprietary applications.

A lot more organizations might prepare using different providers for different specific functions. For instance, they might choose to use the Google cloud platform for retail operations while warehouse management goes to AWS. These are different multi-cloud strategies, yet a few other organizations might engage in cloud migration over a long time as their projects and priorities evolve.

3. Don’t forget that security changes

On-premise meant that your technical support, development tools, and data infrastructure resides on-site with all projects – coding, testing, configuring, and validating proper security settings happening in a centralized manner. So, development projects would typically take weeks, but such projects might only take an hour or a day to set up with the cloud.

Still, the greater ease and speed of development, testing, and deployments of applications that come with the cloud are not without challenges.

First, your current IT staff will require additional cloud training as the cloud infrastructure reduces their skillset to the barest minimum. Not everyone will have the same level of knowledge and experience accessing the cloud or working with public cloud environments. This exposes your organization to significant risks, including such as improper port settings and misconfigurations. You must realize that even the simplest mistakes can expose your organization to diverse kinds of cyber threats and attacks.

Secondly, you must carefully assess the relationship between you and your cloud provider on cloud security as you both share responsibilities regarding the security of your data and applications. Typically, it might mean that your cloud provider bears the brunt of security for all their infrastructures within their physical brick and mortar facilities while you are in charge of securing all your own data and applications. So, you must read the fine print of your contract to determine your respective roles.

4. Build a unique business case

As said earlier, on-premise to cloud migration will bring about positive alongside negative business impacts. Therefore, as said before, getting into the cloud shouldn’t be your central objective.

So, it’s essential to be clear about the critical business differentiators, risks, and critical drivers for your specific business. Here are some questions you must answer while building your cloud migration strategy;

Is your primary objective improving customer experience, or do you want greater speed in IT operations?

What about improving internal efficiencies?

Do you want to migrate to achieve rapid response to changes in technology?

Do you need a cloud migration partner that brings expertise to the table?

How will you manage your cloud security needs?

What are the implications of your migration plan to your existing legacy applications?

There are many more questions to be answered. They will determine whether you need to implement a ‘lift and shift strategy’ or ‘re-code or ‘re-architect; your applications adapt to newer technology.

It might also mean leveraging container technologies or not. However, you must not also forget the need for new cloud security protocols.

In the end, on-premise to cloud migration is not as simple and straightforward as the name implies. Many organizations assume that it’s a simple one-shot bulk transfer of all existing data and infrastructure. It’s essential to re-invent your mindset to ensure that all logistical, cultural, technological, and staff-related challenges are well-addressed to prevent future severe setbacks from the onset.

The cloud has changed the way we think about technology, and it’s time to rethink your approach to enterprise software. Monocept offers a revolutionary new platform that enables you to build software applications faster than ever before, without compromising on security or control.

[whizlabs-123]

3 Forces are Driving the New Cloud Shift

Cloud adoption is accelerating during the pandemic as organizations seek to rapidly deploy applications, tools and services that are suited to remote working. But the ways in which clouds are being deployed, and the reasons why, have changed. In this article I want to outline the three reasons why organizations are moving more of their assets to the cloud and what this change in mindset will mean for the ways in which progressive businesses are run.

But first, let’s look at the business IT context today. It is evident that cloud has saved businesses by providing a way to keep going through lockdowns. The emerging consensus of wisdom suggests that many, if not most, companies will allow more flexible and home working even after the pandemic has ceased to dominate decision-making.

That means that the ongoing transition to cloud continues, often as part of a broader business transformation strategic exercise. The scale of this can’t be overstated. Gartner (News – Alert) suggests that 45 percent of spending on infrastructure, applications and business process outsourcing will shift to cloud by 2024.

“The proportion of IT spending that is being allocated to cloud will accelerate even further in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, as companies look to improve operational efficiencies,” says Ed Anderson, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. And the number of applications and services that are on premises become fewer and fewer.

Reasons to change

But the reasons for cloud deployment are also changing. Cloud initially soared, in part, because the subscription billing model made more sense than the old enterprise software licensing. Capital expenditure was replaced by operating expenditure and companies paid on a utility basis. Financial flexibility was cloud’s trump card and it meant in turn that cloud users could trial ideas at very low cost and very quickly. In many ways, cloud brought the Silicon Valley ethos of “fail fast” into the corporate mainstream.

Now, however, things have changed. Companies actually accept that they might end up paying more for cloud over time compared to on-premises IT but accept this as a price worth the outlay. And three factors are driving a second wave of cloud acceptance or what Gartner calls “cloud shift”. These are agility, security and AI: let’s look at them one by one.

Agility – In uncertain times, companies need the ability to try things out, change strategy quickly and dial capacity up and down on an ‘as needs’ basis. High-street retailers moving online, restaurants becoming delivery-only providers, face-to-face meetings becoming Zoom calls, complex ‘what if’ scenario modelling for strategic change… all of these are examples of why it’s critical to move fast and only the cloud has that affordable flexibility and capacity.

Security – Originally seen as a weak point of cloud, the argument has become reversed. Few organizations can protect themselves as effectively as the cloud providers that run some of the world’s largest datacentres, have visibility into every conceivable incoming threat, can build in processes that detect and monitor suspicious behaviour and can afford to hire squadrons of experts in their fields. All of this means that security has become a cloud positive.

AI – Cloud is acting as an on-ramp for companies seeking to try out new things and provides the tools, the elastic compute power and infrastructure to do this. Look, for example, at Google (News – Alert) Cloud AI as a way to access pre-packaged solutions, building blocks and developer tools. AI has arguably proceeded more slowly than the hype would suggest but most of us will agree that it is one of the most powerful technologies that can be deployed over the coming years to automate and accelerate decision-making, processes and creation of insights.

These three factors are driving more and more cloud adoption, but what sort? I believe that it’s inevitable that companies will run multiple clouds in order to avoid lock-in and to be able to shift workloads, when needed, over time. Using more than one cloud platform will also support disaster recovery, business continuity planning and regulatory compliance. The new focus of attention will move away from individual clouds that will be used for their merits on a ‘horses for courses’ basis. Instead, the power base will move towards ‘data planes’ that provide a way for CIOs to manage across APIs and move services dynamically between clouds to maintain optimal business flexibility and operational fluidity.

Of course, this won’t happen overnight. These changes will take multiple years and challenges such as application modernization shouldn’t be underestimated. It’s likely that most established companies will continue to run some operations from their datacentres for a while yet. But the organizations that are already acting and moving to multi-cloud will be the most secure, fast-moving and decisive. And they will be best placed to bounce back first and be prosperous, whatever gets thrown at us in 2021.

ABOUT US –

“Awarded as the Most Innovative Indian IT Company by NASSCOM in 2004, Whizlabs help professionals enhance their skill set and thus, advance their career.”

Whizlabs is the pioneer among online training providers over the world. We provide online certification training in various disciplines such as Cloud Computing, Java, Big Data, Project Management, Agile, Linux, CCNA and Blockchain.

Launched in 2000, Whizlabs has now completed 20+ years of success. We have helped 5M+ professionals and 100+ companies across the world to succeed in their careers with multitudes of courses across the domains.

We are dedicated to helping you learn the skills you need to achieve your goals.

Our Mission

We believe that education has the power to transform lives and the whole world. We are dedicated to providing best-in-industry training that is delivered by highly experienced and competent industry experts.

Our mission is to act as a stimulant to bring positive career change for everyone. Our study material and exam simulators are made to help the professionals to get certified, and thus achieve their goals.

Our Vision

Technology, innovation, and partnership with the knowledge experts over the world are the foundation of Whizlabs promise to deliver global access to certification training.

Our vision is to work in partnership with communities over the boundaries. Our focus is to become the leading provider of high-quality online certification training to professionals over the boundaries.

Credit & Source – https://cloud-computing.tmcnet.com/breaking-news/articles/448903-3-forces-driving-new-cloud-shift.htm

[howtohero]

#123 Bad Guy Civil Wars

In 1985, singers Roland Orzabad and Hurt Smith of the supervillain band, Sneers for Jeers released a hit single titled “Every Villain Wants to Rule the World.” Many historians believe that this song became such an evil world-renowned, evil chart-topping sinsation because of its incredible historical accuracy. Historians are like that. It’s all historical accuracy this and historical accuracy that. But here they might actually have a point because the message behind the song “Every Villain Wants to Rule the World”… that every villain wants to rule the world, (We got a degree in lyrical analysis in preparation for this post.) is incredibly true. Yet, unfortunately for them, they all want to rule the same world. And they can’t possibly all rule at the same time (really if you’re doing your job right, none of them should be ruling any world at any time) like some kind of evil congress or something (also known as congress). Because supervillains are not generally team players. So what often happens is that the supervillains end up fighting each other. (And let me tell you there ain’t nothing civil about it.)

Supervillain civil wars (civillain wars?) are a lot like gang wars or other such battles between rival criminal enterprises except in a supervillain civil war everyone’s wearing a doofy costume and also there are mutant animals just everywhere. When the war is between two previously unaffiliated villains the villains will engage in a sort of super-crime prank war. The warring villains will stoop to the lowest levels to get one over on their evil enemy. They’ll send each other exploding pies, steal their henchman (Stealing a henchman is actually very easy. All you need to do is grab them off the street, spin ‘em around a few times and then give them their new costume. Odds are good that they don’t even notice that they’re working for someone else.) and even carve their faces into other bad guys’ villainous lairs. Things will continue on like this for some time until one of the villains is either arrested, killed, or grows bored. This might sound great to you, a superhero (fan), after all, if the villains are fighting each other they’re probably not fighting you right? Wrong (you fool). This is a stupid mindset to have (you foolish foolish fool). Can’t you just for once think of somebody other than yourself? “Oh the Blue Typhoon hasn’t drowned me today what a great day!” you selfish moron (foolish foolish foolish fool). Just because a villain’s criminal shenanigans aren’t being directed at you doesn’t mean you can just go on letting them happen! Supervillains can’t just be allowed to commit increasingly ridiculous crimes against each other! For starters, somebody can get caught in the cross fire. For seconders, we can’t allow the supervillains to improve their craft by letting them test out evil schemes on each other. For thirders, they can’t be allowed to enjoy themselves at all! Supervillains don’t get to have fun! They sign that right away when they unleash a swarm of locusts on the townspeople’s crops!

But that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from this situation at all. While most supervillains would never turn to a superhero for help due to their over-bloated sense of pride (and because last time they tried to ask a superhero for help the hero first laughed in their supposedly intimidating metal, gargoyle masked face and then, after they agreed to help, proceeded to lord it over them forever), desperate times call for desperate measures. It’s possible that one of the warring villains might slip you some valuable information about their villainous enemy’s whereabouts or plans. Alternatively, if neither of them deign to give you some free info, you can just check to see which abandoned warehouses have newly carved faces in them above the words “Who’s the superior villain now Spikebeard? get wrecked you spikey SOB.” Odds are, you’ve just found Spikebeard’s secret lair. (Spikebeard is a pirate famous for his beard made out of metal spikes, his delicious snickerdoodle recipe, and the fact that he’s always injuring himself on the spikes protruding from his face.)

Alternatively, if their felonious feud ends up spiraling out of control and you can’t round them up for whatever reason, then you might actually need to try to make peace between the villains. I know, it’s crazy but enough is enough. They’ve gotten into a competition to see who can launch the most fully-occupied office buildings into space. Things are clearly getting out of hand. So you have to step in and get these mustache-twirling weirdos to be friends again. Or at least convince them that the true measure of villainy is like, who can crochet the most decorative pillows or something. Now, contacting supervillains isn’t all too difficult, there are a number of ways you can go about doing it.

Carve the message into a mountain with a laser. As we’ve shown, supervillains love stuff that’s carved into things with lasers. So they’ll definitely take notice.

Take to the streets at night and beat up some low level criminals while shouting “Where is he! Where is Thetamax!” (Or whomever.) Eventually your bad guy will get the message that you’re looking for them and get into contact with you. This way is a bit risky because you don’t usually want to give bad guys a reason to hack your computers or send you mail.

Walk into your local supervillain bar this will never work there’s no way these guys have time to get a drink with the boys when they’re trying to charter a plane so they can drop a whale onto the other bad guy’s fortress of evil.

Evil Social Media (also known as social media). I’m serious it’s a thing. It’ll take some light fraud for you to get an account but it’s worth it if it’ll get these stupid villains to stop hurling vital pieces of city infrastructure at each other.

Once you’ve gotten in contact with them, try to get them to both meet you at the same place at the same time. Generally, this will not work. There’s a limit to villain stupidity. They’ve set enough ambushes to know not to show up to meetings strangers on the internet invite them to. But hey, on the off chance it works and they both show up to your peace talks you can just conk both their heads together and send them to jail and be done with the whole thing. But if you don’t get lucky like that you’ll just have to keep sending message to them remotely in order to smooth things over.

Usually these supervillain fights emerge out of a sense of insecurity on the part of one or both of the villains. One of them might believe that the other is horning in on their turf; or they might have heard that the other villains questioned the validity of their villainy. In other cases, one of the villains may have accidentally harmed someone the other villain cares about in the course of a routine flooding of the city. That one’s a bit more legitimate and probably the issues there can’t be solved through a couple of instant messages or street thugs with broken noses… But usually it’s something petty so probably you’ll be fine.

Another surefire way to end a villain war is to unite the feuding factions against a common cause. Something that is a thorn in both of their sides and who’d they’d both gladly see dead in a ditch. I am of course, talking about you. If you’re just incredibly, overtly, so-in-your-gosh-darned-face heroic for a few days the villains will turn their attention back to you and you can soundly defeat them like you always do. (Actually, you should always be that heroic, the fact that these villains even had the time to fight each other reflects poorly on you!)

When a supervillain civil war erupts, not between two separate villains, but within a pre-existing evil organization, such as a race of evil robots or a supervillain team, things tend to go a little bit differently. Instead of a city-spanning villainous plot-off things tend to skew a bit more internal. Since all of the villains involved work, (and sometimes live, as in the case of the Python Paramilitary Boarding House,) in close proximity to one another there’s no need for any of these laser-carving, exploding pie delivery shenanigans. Instead, when one of these villains is mad at another one they just go down the hall to the offending villain’s office and shoot them in the head. Easily peasily lemonly squeezely. These are the types of villain civil wars you can let just run their course. Since these fights are so localized you don’t have to worry about it affecting the public; and since things are so personal you have virtually no hope of making peace between them. Honestly, you might not even hear about it until it’s all over with and the bad guys have a new leader that you’re gonna have to stop from building a termite cannon, whatever that means.

Supervillain fights are a rather frequent occurrence, remember these are the guys who vow to destroy the entire world and pledge allegiance to Karalaxus the dark lord of suffering because a barista once gave them the wrong size coffee (well really they ordered the wrong size coffee but these guys are nothing but irrational), which is to say they’re easily perturbed. So you should make sure to practice the solutions we’ve offered until you can beat up thugs and avoid bars in your sleep. The quicker you take care of these sinister spats the better off the whole town will be (except for the giant laser and exploding pies industries, they thrive on these fights).  

[activelifeprofessional12034]

Top 8 Tips And Tricks To Become A Successful Gym Owner

Are you up for establishing your gym? Being a gym owner is not an easy task. It would be best if you had a proper understanding of how to become a successful gym owner to carry out your work smoothly.

Typically, whenever someone tends to set up his gym, he mainly focuses on four traditional aspects. Will following those same aspects bring uniqueness to your gym?

Here we will tell how you can master your skills and take your gym to the next level.

Adversity- The Biggest Challenge

Joe De Sena, the famous legend of the fitness world, has quoted the problems due to adversity. According to him, trouble always arrives, and only those who can survive know how to respond.

Adversity is especially true for the one who is going to open a gym for the first time. During the first year, the gym owner has to face extreme challenges. If you are not aware of the hurdles, you can never cope with the challenges.

Due to the increasing hyper-competitive nature of the fitness industry, every gym owner seeks to become a successful gym owner.

If you succeed in overcoming the first year fitness business's hurdles, you will be the most assertive entrepreneur for the upcoming years.

Let us now look at how to deal with the initial challenges.

1.    Present An Authentic Identity As A Gym Owner

People are always curious to know the background before they make a deal with someone. In this case, your identity as a fitness trainer has a significant impact.

People will love to hear that you have completed the gym trainer course from an authentic source. While receiving your certificate, you need to ensure that your certification is National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) accredited.

Get the best gym training certification and add it to your profile. It will bring strength to your business.

 2.    Managing The Start-Up Cost Through Pre-Sales

No matter what type of gym you are planning for, start-up costs are always an issue. Why not start your business like a pro? Get the assets you need to know about how tobecome a successful gym owner by making the pre-sales. Sell your memberships before inaugurating your gym.

·        How To Make The Pre-Sales?

You can make money by pre-selling your memberships as your fitness business start-up strategy by using social media platforms. You can advertise your business on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites.

·        Create Your Website And Social Content

Starting up by creating a website page is an efficient yet effective way to boost up your pre-sales. Create your social content- Facebook and Instagram pages and promote your business as the best gym training certification provider!

·        Design Attractive Flyers And Posters

Design attractive flyers and handover to the locals. Another helpful way is to get the posters that show the services you will be offering in the future.

3.      Educate Yourself On The Ownership Ethics And Challenges

You need to understand the difference between the requirements for being a gym trainer and a gym owner. Most likely, if you had been the gym trainer, you will be in great trouble if you fail to switch your mindset to that of a gym owner.

You are no more a trainer at any gym. The best way to transition successfully is to educate yourself. You need to follow the ethics behind the desk, just like you follow in front of the class.

Educate yourself not just by reading books and attending seminars and all but also by implementing what you learn from the day first.

4.    Make Yourself The Only Choice- Be The Lead

You must have heard about the "build it, and they will come" strategy.  It is no doubt the strategy that everyone is suggested to follow. But, there is another strategy that is much more efficient than this one.

"Build it-make it their only choice" is the strategy that you need to follow for a brilliant start. Make yourself the only lead that urges people to pay a visit. Show the enthusiasm that can not let the visitors go anywhere else.

Marketing is the continuous implementation of a campaign or strategy. Keep on attracting people by driving leads.

Attract them with your best gym training certification.

5.    Prioritize Regular Follow Up

Usually, the business success graph slope tends to get down after the first 3 to 4 months. The primary reason, according to the studies, is that the owners ignore regular follow-up.

A lot more happens each day, and follow-up plays a crucial role in making the best of these happenings. Make it a routine to follow-up regularly via calls or emails.

6.    Provide Free Or Inexpensive Trials

One of the best ways to nurture your lead is to give trials-inexpensive or free trials. By providing this opportunity, you can get a chance to convert them to full members. You will have their details which you can use later for contacting them.

7.    Create A Strong Retention Strategy In Early Stages

You need to create the best retention strategy. It is estimated that it cost nine times much to acquire the new members than to retain the old ones.

You can build a robust strategy by keeping in mind the following golden tips:

·         Keep on showing your interest in their doing.

·         Keep an eye on their progress to ensure them your concerns about their results.

·         Practice referral program to know whether your members are willing to refer you or not. Uncover the hidden issues.

8.    Build A Diversified Network

You can not become famous until you diversify your business. If you want to become a lead gym owner, you must have to get socially active. All the enterprises demand meetings, gathering, knowing your competitor.

Getting collaborated with different trusts and mentors, contacting profitable gym owners is crucial but necessary to become a successful gym owner.

Conclusion

To make it to the end, we must quote down that you need to follow some essential tips for becoming a successful gym owner. Your identity is the strength of your fitness business. Owning the gym trainer course from an accredited organization brings you the power to lead.

Complete your gym trainer course before you go to start-up your gym. Keep an eye on the adversity. Follow-up regularly, diversify yourself, establish a good relationship with your members and other fitness organizations.

Work on the above strategies, and the ground is all yours!

[irispublishersfashion]

Iris Publishers_Journal of Textile Science & Fashion Technology (JTSFT)

Facing Textile Industry: Why Circular Design Has to Become a BA Fashion Programme and Creativity Alone is not Enough

Authored by Sabine Lettmann

Abstract

It is obvious how far fashion industry still is from being sustainable. Not only as the meaning behind the term sustainability is still discussed rather than systems are radically changed through actions. Furthermore, there still seems a ‘need’ for major incidents costing health and life to awaken the ones who seem to have little or no idea how big fashion industry’s negative impact on our planet and people is. Who only call out for change after this sort of momentum? Now, who is to blame? Companies ask consumers to take over responsibility with their buying decisions, consumers request a change in production and urge companies to amend their workways first. They act like stubborn children, arguing who has to apologize first. Both want to keep up having a right being the last in changing behaviour for the better. An encounter of resistance with no real outcome. Governments juggle in between with an unpromising try to please economy and consumers at the same time. Their actions end up with minor consequences for industry, being closer to window dressing than to influencing urgent matter. And consumers are again left with making choices, mainly driven by costs or brand image. To speed up a global shift in fashion industry and to reduce never ending discussions about accountabilities without little progression, everyone involved in decision making processes has to act now and get into Thunberg mode. As knowledge is key, only by additionally looking into higher education systems can holistically be improved and evoke a major change in mindsets and habits.

Keywords: Fashion education; Circular economy; Joint activism; Academic challenge

Introduction

Being a huge labor market with more than 60 million employees worldwide [1] fashion industry with its current linear system faces the task to not only protect human interests, for example through enforcement of international applicable human rights. Furthermore, the aim has to be a drastic change of production and retail methods and with its implementation the immediate prevention of natural resource’s exploitation. From an ecologic and social perspective, standards have to be redefined in a way that allows space for mindful economy as well. They have to be consequently aspired at interdisciplinary scale and effectuated in all individual parts with the aim of an optimum approach towards a circular fashion system.

Stop Calling It Sustainable

Too many certificates focusing on too many different issues spam the textiles market and irritate consumers. Finding a definition for the term “sustainability” dominates the constant debate in and around fashion industry arguing which amount of sustainability is “acceptable”. Even Oxford Dictionary leaves it open by defining sustainability as “the property of being environmentally sustainable; the degree to which a process or enterprise is able to be maintained or continued while avoiding the long-term depletion of national resources” [2]. In most discussions the differentiation between either a focus on environment or people included in the production cycle becomes the main point. This makes it easy to lose other aspects out of sight, especially as the structure behind fashion is complex on multiple layers and split into tiniest sections. As past behaviour shows, the impact of changing only individual parameters of the production cycle is not big enough. Rather than healing through this strategy, industry still seems to turn into a massive construct growing exponentially through exploitation, pollution and social imbalance into an uncontrollable monster. But there is hope.

Healthcare App

Sustainable fashion slowly loses its 80s image of eco fashion (“Oekomode”) and receives acceptance as part of the broader luxury fashion scene, as press coverage and special issues of high fashion magazines have shown, like Elle UK in September 2018. Green is the new black and awareness for grievances on consumer side raises. Customers demand changes and use their voice to draw brands into being transparent with their actions, not only through initiatives like Fashion Revolution. Violence of worker’s rights, humiliating its labor force, is known as a result of common fashion practices. Indeed, a deeper reflection of production conditions can lead to rejective buying behaviour when consumers favor other brands with fair attitudes. Individual brands and start-ups question the existing with their approach to design as well as the use of alternative sales strategies through crowdfunding campaigns hoping to finance manufacturing in advance. Design with purpose shines a light on thinking outside the box and places the designer into the centre of being a problem solver rather than simply being a product creator. On top of that, American Vogue dedicated an extensive article to the future of US fashion design graduates within sustainable design [3]. There is a lot of buzz going on.

Fashion research is initiated to build scientific foundation finding potential solutions on a larger scale, as happened earlier this year. Following Fixing Fashion [4] report, British Environmental Audit Committee proposed a 1p charge per garment to secure better clothing collection and sorting. A disappointing antagonistic result, when UK government did not follow their advice and lobby won again. Not realizing there will not be much economy left once all resources have been used and the planet has nothing more to offer. In August 2019, at recent G7 summit, a number of 32 leaders of fashion houses like Burberry, Prada or Inditex came together to unveil their so-called Fashion Pact to attendant heads of state. The Fashion Pact’s objectives are to

• Stop global warming

• Restore biodiversity

• Protect the oceans

Its targets are based on scientific research, which means there is less room for individual interpretation and companies are less likely finding excuses to wriggle themselves out of set aims. The Fashion Pact aspires to be adopted by 20% of the global fashion industry. One might ask what happens with the remaining part of industry? As participant Kering states on their website: “These commitments are designed to be embraced by every company involved and backed by cross-sector initiatives, along with the deployment of innovation accelerators. (…) A collective endeavor by its nature, the Fashion Pact is open to any company that wants to help to fundamentally transform the practices of the fashion and textile industry, and to meet the environmental challenges of our century” [5]. Being a warm welcome to those who are already interested in changing business structures or feel society’s pressure, it is not more than a loose invitation lacking real obligation. Furthermore, some of the objectives reach out an implementation only by 2050, achievement of net-zero carbon emissions for example. Current research on the contrary states there are only a couple of years left to turn climate change around, whether it will be 10, 15 or 20 years. How serious can Fashion Pact be about changing the system in such a toxic slowness?

All these activities are facing the right direction, but it is still not enough as we are running out of time to reduce irreversible damages on various levels. Decision maker’s mindsets have not significantly changed yet, there could be tens of thousands and more following the Fashion Pact commitment. Unless legislation fully embraces their own part in forcing companies to deliver a different outcome, people and environment rely on voluntary, individual activism. If people involved in fashion industry put their animosities aside, collaboration is seen as a benefit of actively finding solutions and humanity becomes the centre of all, mindful design can be created. When good design is automatically defined through its healthy and environmentally friendly background, there is no need to call it sustainable, but norm.

Alternative Approaches as Driver for Change

More and more internationally active brands integrate sustainability on a long-term basis into their brand DNA. In doing so, not only the aim of ethical goals and transparency are taken into account, furthermore a sustainable oriented production can be driven by economic reasons as luxury-goods company Kering exemplarily shows. In 2010 the company created Environmental Profit & Loss (EP&L) [6], a system to envision the ecological impact of their production chain. Transformed into a monetary equivalent these are evaluable within Kering Group. Decisions for the entire production chain based on economic knowledge can be optimized and used to improve production from a more holistic point of view.

Business profiles like Estonian brand Reet Aus put emphasis on industrial upcycling and draw on existing pre-consumer waste from conventional productions. Costs for material invest stay minimal. At the same time Reet Aus keeps the company’s ecological footprint in relation to usage of energy and water small and reduces with this business model the waste problem within their manufacturing facilities [7]. Their success in using waste as a source indicates how the idea of tackling one problem in fashion industry can bring benefit on an economical level as well.

Another innovative outcome from Dutch biotech company Inspidere BV is the economically viable method to extract raw material from cow manure, which is turned into new biodegradable products on a basis of regenerated cellulose processing. By using dung, methane gas emission is reduced and contamination of water and soil through intensive farming is prevented. Raw material can be used to create fibers or bioplastic for example. These can be woven into fabrics and depict a circular version with same or similar qualities of other cellulose based materials like cotton [8].

Symbiosis of Radical Thinking and Fashion as Manifestation of a New Avant-Garde

Fashion design always had a broader context and has not only been about creating some beautiful shells for a long time. It has history, political and social impact and the potential to tell all kinds of stories linked to its aesthetics. To become a designer in the 21st century means being progressive and visionary, to think critically and holistically as well as to bring in empathy and team spirit to continue good storytelling. The young generation has to take over responsibility not only for their own wellbeing or their direct environment, but also has to cover it initiatively for all people involved in the entire development process. It requires to risk progress in relation to low and high-tech, preservation of textile heritage and building upon both an economic foundation for fashion avant-garde with a new future-oriented meaning, raising niche design to the new status quo. Innovative ideas empower change. Letting these become norm and grow into business is a challenge that requires knowledge and awareness.

The constantly growing market of innovations, wearables and circular systems asks for designers with expert knowhow not limited to aesthetic aspects. They have to understand the symbiosis between all fashion disciplines, their cross over and links to economy. Advancing with their own ideas and preparing them efficiently for a bigger market can only happen where knowledge exists. Cooperation with biologists and chemists have successfully powered sustainable developments like Spider Silk or dyeing processes without polluting water. These alternatives picture only a small section but show the scope for textile innovation and progressive opportunities.

There might never be the 100% perfection of what industry should deliver to people and planet, but the end result should always get as close as possible. Looking into design systems circular economy offers the best possible approach to smart product creation. Its three core columns to

• Design out waste and pollution

• Keep products and materials in use

• Regenerate natural systems

transit a linear economy into structures which build economic, natural, and social capital [9] as Ellen MacArthur Foundation explains. Embedded into the concept of Cradle to Cradle, developed by Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart and William McDonough in the 1990s, it can and should be the starting point of every design work. Each product would then either follow a biological cycle (consumption goods) providing nourishment for nature after use or a technical cycle (services) where components circulate through industrial systems to be recovered, remanufactured or recycled [10].

In terms of fashion this development process can be implemented in various ways. Not only through the use of better materials which have been made with an underlying principle of Cradle to Cradle, but further require the shift from linear retail structures to closed loop offers. Other options are for example zero waste pattern cutting approaches. With this method material waste is designed out in first place, whereas the designer’s affection to a specific aesthetic has to melt with the possibilities in managing pattern cutting. A second option is design for extended usage. Designers are challenged to think beyond point of sales, when consumers enter the stage and garments have to perform. Being able to create an emotional bond between consumer and product, for example through good design and adjustment options of a garment to evolving needs, can help to keep garments in longer use. Above all, the main focus of creating circular structures lies in its holistic approach requesting the designer to think about their garment’s journey and asking what is going to happen with products after consumers decide not to use them anymore. A thought process which is usually taught less at fashion schools.

Fashion Graduates: Only Creative or Already Competitively Viable?

For sure awareness for problems in the textile sector raises with employment. But lack of time, external pressure or disinterest stand against a systematic improvement and solution development. In addition, most companies still do not actively examine the production cycle from a holistic point of view and draw their consequences from their findings. Extensive perspectives and various approaches to sustainable practices lack completely or are for a number of reasons not desirable.

Even though there is an international industry demand within large and smaller companies for a new generation of designers, familiar with sustainable and innovative production, there are still not enough fashion schools existing with an intense focus on these subjects. Only a few of the enormous numbers of institutions worldwide offer a specific education with an eye towards circular economy requirements. Single modules cover material innovation or systems thinking, often only included in general fashion design programmes. Some programmes reach out to MA students or are set up as short courses, both following an already existing interest in sustainable specialization. They rarely come as a full circular design BA course, dedicated to the future of fashion. This represents a gross disbalance between graduate numbers and the demand for progressive change, as education should always be ahead of time instead of shuffling behind. Fashion schools face industry development, they will have to adapt their education content to the requirements of the 21st century as Li Edelkoort already stated in her talk “Anti-Fashion: A Manifesto for the Next Decade” in 2016 [11].

Right from the beginning of their education students should learn how to create biodiverse systems in a way to preserve resources and further limit harming influences on environment and people. Knowledge is key and commonly known as the power for change. If knowledge is not provided – how shall students be able to make healthier choices? Challenging implementation of sustainable, circular practices pushes none more so than student’s creativity and their individual expression. At the same time, students should draw inspiration from restrictions, celebrate innovative solutions and add value to the diverse parts of the production chain rather than diminishing it. How shall educational institutions ever see what these designers are capable of if they do not set the frame for circularity? Students bring in the will and ability to learn. Embracing responsibility and finding the willpower to change the industry, from sourcing raw materials to defining end of life solutions through innovative thinking and collaborative activism helps them to become strong and resilient individuals. Not stagnant in glorious 90s attitudes but fit for a labor market in motion.

Furthermore, international education standards should not only be defined by what industry already has or customers buy. They should be developed from a more cohesive approach tackling urgent ecological matters like climate change or social challenges as roots for future migration movements. Already education has to ignite a consequent durable and progressive approach to design. Only in following the richness of future facing strategies a young generation of designers will satisfy the increasing demands of fashion industry and respect the world we live in. When entering life after university, they will bring enough knowledge to radically rethink the system and raise their chances for employment. The better they are educated and the higher their qualification in interdisciplinary knowledge is, the earlier they find answers to pressing questions on a global scale and influence their environment for good. A win-win situation for students, the wider industry and at last fashion schools, having satisfied alumni.

For More Open Access Journals in Iris Publishers Please click on: https://irispublishers.com/   For More Articles in Journal of Textile Science & Fashion Technology https://irispublishers.com/jtsft/

For More Information:https://irispublishers.com/jtsft/fulltext/facing-textile-industry-why-circular-design-has-to-become-a-ba-fashion-programme.ID.000572.php

[monocept]

Advanced Strategies and Pitfalls for on Premise to Cloud Migration

On-premise to cloud migration is not just a technical change but a cultural one. Moving to the cloud transforms your business fundamentally across day-to-day operations, talent acquisition and development, budgeting, and even end-user productivity.

Therefore, it requires a careful approach to determine the best ways to leverage new cloud capabilities and modernize applications towards harnessing the full benefits of the cloud. Most literature only provides a snapshot of the best practices alongside checklists to guide your steps on that complicated journey.

Many companies begin to run into various problems because they lack understanding of the best practices (especially regarding security and performance) during development and working in the cloud environment.

We’ve handled diverse on-premise to cloud migration projects and have put together some of the top areas to consider during this complex journey.

1. Invest in container technology

Naturally, you may already think of containers as storage boxes, which might house code, software, and other connected components. In terms of cloud computing, containers are highly popular from the standpoint of application development. First, they are not dependent on your server and its operating system and will not go down if the server does. In truth, if your server goes down, you can easily spin a new server to work with the same container, which minimizes hassles and downtime.

Containers are also portable, allowing you to quickly move data and applications from one environment to the next without compatibility issues. They also favor rapid testing and development and will have no overhead or complications associated with configuring and managing underlying servers and operating systems. Finally, containers are scalable, which means you can replicate what’s on them an infinite number of times.

2. The need for a multi-cloud strategy

Many organizations assume that moving to the cloud is an all-or-nothing process and may think they only need one vendor. In truth, the most successful on-premise to cloud migrations feature a multi-cloud strategy and hybrid cloud configuration. So, in some instances, some organizations might do better with one significant migration of data to the public cloud, followed by series of smaller migrations across multiple cloud platforms depending on their organizational goals, priorities, and critical projects.

Other organizations may place only limited data within the cloud and use their private data servers for critical sensitive and proprietary applications.

A lot more organizations might prepare using different providers for different specific functions. For instance, they might choose to use the Google cloud platform for retail operations while warehouse management goes to AWS. These are different multi-cloud strategies, yet a few other organizations might engage in cloud migration over a long time as their projects and priorities evolve.

3. Don’t forget that security changes

On-premise meant that your technical support, development tools, and data infrastructure resides on-site with all projects – coding, testing, configuring, and validating proper security settings happening in a centralized manner. So, development projects would typically take weeks, but such projects might only take an hour or a day to set up with the cloud.

Still, the greater ease and speed of development, testing, and deployments of applications that come with the cloud are not without challenges.

First, your current IT staff will require additional cloud training as the cloud infrastructure reduces their skillset to the barest minimum. Not everyone will have the same level of knowledge and experience accessing the cloud or working with public cloud environments. This exposes your organization to significant risks, including such as improper port settings and misconfigurations. You must realize that even the simplest mistakes can expose your organization to diverse kinds of cyber threats and attacks.

Secondly, you must carefully assess the relationship between you and your cloud provider on cloud security as you both share responsibilities regarding the security of your data and applications. Typically, it might mean that your cloud provider bears the brunt of security for all their infrastructures within their physical brick and mortar facilities while you are in charge of securing all your own data and applications. So, you must read the fine print of your contract to determine your respective roles.

4. Build a unique business case

As said earlier, on-premise to cloud migration will bring about positive alongside negative business impacts. Therefore, as said before, getting into the cloud shouldn’t be your central objective.

So, it’s essential to be clear about the critical business differentiators, risks, and critical drivers for your specific business. Here are some questions you must answer while building your cloud migration strategy;

Is your primary objective improving customer experience, or do you want greater speed in IT operations?

What about improving internal efficiencies?

Do you want to migrate to achieve rapid response to changes in technology?

Do you need a cloud migration partner that brings expertise to the table?

How will you manage your cloud security needs?

What are the implications of your migration plan to your existing legacy applications?

There are many more questions to be answered. They will determine whether you need to implement a ‘lift and shift strategy’ or ‘re-code or ‘re-architect; your applications adapt to newer technology.

It might also mean leveraging container technologies or not. However, you must not also forget the need for new cloud security protocols.

In the end, on-premise to cloud migration is not as simple and straightforward as the name implies. Many organizations assume that it’s a simple one-shot bulk transfer of all existing data and infrastructure. It’s essential to re-invent your mindset to ensure that all logistical, cultural, technological, and staff-related challenges are well-addressed to prevent future severe setbacks from the onset.

The cloud has changed the way we think about technology, and it’s time to rethink your approach to enterprise software. Monocept offers a revolutionary new platform that enables you to build software applications faster than ever before, without compromising on security or control.

[personalcoachingcenter]

Agile Transformation includes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/agile-transformation-includes-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-cbt/

Agile Transformation includes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Research Paper By Silky Fischer-Lee (Executive Coach, SWITZERLAND)

Today, we live in a fast-changing world and work in a very competitive business environment.  As organizations strive to adapt to the constant changes and reinvent the future, building the organizational ability to be agile has become one of the most popular topics among companies. This research reviews characteristic of agile transformations that many business organizations are striving for today and explore opportunities to integrate CBT in team coaching to build organizational capabilities for an agile transformation.

Business Agility and an Agile Transformation

Business agility can be defined as an organization’s ability to adapt and respond to market changes, customer demands, produce cost-effective cutting edge products and be a leader in the market (Agile Business Consortium, n.a.). Business agility is closely tied to employees’  ability to adapt, innovate, and be resilient dealing with uncertainty, complexity, and changes (Agile Business Consortium, n.a.). Many organizations are putting great effort to transform themselves into an agile organization, building business agility as a top priority.

To understand current agile transformations that are happening across geographies among many organizations, we need to understand where this agile concept in the context of business transformation has emerged from. The concept of agility has widely spread in the software development sector in the 1990s in the US, as opposed to the traditional software development approach. The traditional approach was characterized as micro-planned and micro-managed in a strictly regulated environment. This agile approach movement led to developments of agile frameworks and methodologies that motivated developers to experiment and take risks and learn faster. It allows them to focus on the delivery of customer-centric products.

The agile software development approach follows the twelve principles from the Agile Manifesto. These were written by 17 software developers from the US in 2001. The twelve principles are (Beck et al, 2001):

Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

Welcome changing requirements, even in late development.

Deliver working software frequently (weeks rather than months).

Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers.

Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted.

A face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location).

Working software is the primary measure of progress.

Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace.

Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design.

Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential.

Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective and adjusts accordingly.

There are some interesting points we need to pay close attention to – how the teams were designed to deliver products. The teams are organized “to optimize flexibility, creativity, and productivity” (McGreal&Jochan, 2018, p. 152)

In essence, based on these twelve principles and the team model, the software development companies were able to make the development processes much faster and deliver more customer-centric products while flexibly responding to the constant market changes quickly and also boosting employee motivation (Biermann, 2019).

This agile approach from the software development sector started to draw great attention among many business organizations fast, as they dealt with constant changes in an extremely uncertain and competitive market.

According to Deloitte (See figure 1),  organizations require two key elements that work together for a successful organizational agile transformation, namely,  “enterprise agility” and “team agility”. The “enterprise agility” is concerned with the business model, which is related to an operating model, organizational design, architecture, and DevOps. The “team agility” on the other hand focuses on people, processes, and practices in teams through coaching and training. For a successful transformation,  all these elements should be managed in a well-coordinated, systematic manner, as they are closely connected and complement each other.

Figure 1. Building Blocks of an agile transformation, Source: Deloitte (2017)

ING, a Dutch global bank is one of the well-known examples of a multinational company that has adopted the agile transformation approach and has been successful. The company has transformed its headquarters in the Netherlands, using an agile approach. The company introduced the concept of an “agile way of working” along with a new agile organizational model (Jacobs, 2017). Talking about the ING’s agile transformation, Bar Schlatmann, the CEO of the ING (Jacobs, 2017) pointed out the importance of culture change for success. Throughout the transformation process, the company’s leadership has put big efforts into the culture change. These efforts have enabled the company to build organizational capabilities – “ownership, empowerment, customer-centricity”.  These capabilities of the teams in a newly designed team model has led to the change of behaviors that fit for an agile organization.

Building Organizational Capabilities for an Agile Transformations

Organizational capabilities refer to a company’s ability to prosper and innovate in an uncertain and highly competitive market with constant changes. Organizational capabilities can “emerge when a company delivers on the combined competencies and abilities of its individuals” and are the results of the company’s investment in people – human resources (Smallwood & Ulrich, 2004). As an HR professional working for one of the leading multinational healthcare companies that are in the middle of the agile transformation journey, I see building organizational capabilities as one of the key components for agile transformations. The agile transformation for the company means value creation and innovation through the transformation of the company’s architecture, mindset, and culture. We want people in our organizations to be even more customer-focused and solution-oriented with a growth mindset and end-to-end accountabilities.

Team Coaching for Building Organizational Capabilities

How do organizations support employees to develop core capabilities, such as growth mindset, customer-centric, end-to-end accountabilities, and solutions orientation for an agile transformation? Many organizations have used coaching to build better teams and boost the performance of employees. According to the International Coach Federation study result published in 2016 (ICF, 2016), 76% of managers and leaders used coaching approaches to work with their teams and estimated 2.356 billion USD global revenue from coaching in 2015.

Coaching, in definition, is “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential” (ICF, n.a.).

The coaching process usually includes the following items (ICA, n.a.):

Establish the Coaching Agreement

Set the goal or outcome for the session

Clarify the current situation

Clarify the gap

Identify and commit to the action

New Learning

Accountability

Throughout the coaching process, the employees partnering with a coach based on trust, improve self-awareness, set the goals, identify the gap, create the actions, and hold themselves accountable. This coaching process often helps employees to overcome their underlying beliefs, challenge their assumptions, and think out of the box. Through coaching, employees have opportunities to continuously learn and grow.  This will help them be more productive and become better performers. In short, coaching will enable the organizations to build organizational capabilities and change employee behaviors going through an organizational change process. This will ultimately drive the agile transformation successfully.

Cognitive Behavioral Executive Coaching

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a psychological approach that was first developed by Aaron Beck in the early 1960s. Highlighting the importance of the relationship between the way people think, the way people feel, and the way people act, CBT suggests that thoughts (cognition) influence people’s emotions and behavior (Beck, 1964, cited from Fenn& Byrne, 2013). According to Beck (Beck, 1976, cited from Fenn& Byrne, 2013), there are three levels of cognition:  core beliefs, dysfunctional assumptions, and negative automatic thoughts.

Figure 2. Source: The key principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy (Fenn& Byrne, 2013)

CBT aims to help the patients understand the way they think, feel, and behave in certain situations and empower them to “change their maladaptive cognitive and behavioral patterns”. This involves clear, achievable, realistic, timely goal setting, and practical solutions in a systematic way (Fenn& Byrne, 2013). The trust relationship and a strong partnership between the client and the therapist is also an important part of the CBT approach.

CBT approach has been introduced to executive coaching and helped business leaders who deal with constant change and complex business environments. The cognitive-behavioral executive coaching process follows the five steps (Good, Yeganeh&Yeganeh, 2010, p.19):

Orienting & Vision: To determine an ideal future

Current thoughts & behaviors: To determine the thoughts and behaviors that might be keeping clients from reaching the vision

Vision oriented thoughts & behaviors: To determine the thoughts and behaviors that clients believe will accompany the ideal future

Experiment: To collaboratively gather and test data in support of more flexible thinking and behavioral choice

Transition: To move toward client independence

CBT opposes “rigid cognitions to create increased flexibility through conscious intention” (Beck, 1975; Ellis, 1962, cited from Good, Yeganeh&Yeganeh, 2010, p.18). This is driven largely by real-life experiments that provide structured opportunities to test new thoughts and behaviors (Hayes et al., 1999 cited from Good, Yeganeh&Yeganeh, 2010, p.18).

In essence, CBT increases self-awareness of the clients’ current thoughts – “core beliefs, dysfunctional assumptions, and negative automatic thoughts” (Beck, 1976, cited from Fenn& Byrne, 2013). Dealing with an uncertain, complex business environment, this process helps the clients define S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) goals.  The following actions give the opportunity to experiment, improve, and empower themselves. This coaching process points out the importance of a strong partnership between the client and coach founded on trust.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)  in Team Coaching for Agile Transformation

Teams are playing a critical role in the agile transformation. Key capabilities/attributes of an agile team can be summarized as follows:

Self-awareness: team members are well-aware of their strengths and shortcomings, but their focus is on exploring their strengths.

Trust: Every member is respected and seen as a great contributor with unique qualities.

Transparency: There is less silo, but close collaboration between team members and teams to co-create value. A constructive feedback culture is created in teams and organizations.

End-to-End accountabilities: Teams oversee the whole process and take ownership of a successful outcome.

Design thinking: The team begins with fact-based analysis and generates creative ideas, followed by conversion and synthetization of the best ideas.

Quick decision making and fast experimentation: The team efficiently makes decisions quickly, iterates fast, and seeks continuous learning and improvement, adapting quickly to the customers’ needs and market changes.

Focuses on clear goals and outcomes: The team seeks to get the best solutions.

Focuses on value creation and continuous improvement: The team can see their contribution in the whole picture and work to create collective value.

These capabilities/attributes are closely related to the team members’ thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and the relationship between these dimensions.

Using the CBT approach in team coaching can enable organizations to shift to teams’ mindset and build teams’ core capabilities and an agile organizational culture. And ultimately organizations will be able to drive agile transformations successfully.

References

Agile Business Consortium (n.a) Business Agility (Online) (Accessed: 11 Apr 2020)

Beck, K., Cunningham, W., Thomas, D., Sutherland, J., Schwaber, K., Highsmith, J., et al. (2001) Principles behind the Agile Manifesto (Online). (Accessed: 10 Apr  2020)

Biermann, A (2019) Stepping stones to an agile enterprise (Online). (Accessed: 10 Apr 2020)

Deloitte (2017) Agile transformation approach (Online). (Accessed: 10 Apr 2020)

Fenn, K. & Byrne, M. (2013) The key principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy (Online)(Accessed 12 Apr 2020)

Good, D., Yeganeh, B. &Yeganeh, R. (2010) ‘Cognitive Behavioral Executive Coaching: A Structure for Increasing Leader Flexibility’,  OD Practitioner, 42 (3), pp. 18-23.

International Coach Academy (n.a.) The Coaching Process (Online). (Accessed: 11 Apr  2020)

International Coach Federation (n.a.) Experiencing coaching (Online). (Accessed: 11 Apr 2020)

International Coach Federation (2016) 2016 ICF Global Coaching Study (Online). (Accessed: 11 Apr 2020)

Jacobs, P. (2017) ING’s agile transformation (Online). (Accessed 11 Apr 2020)

McGreal, D. &Jocham, R. (2018) The professional product owner. Pearson Addison-Wesley

Smallwood, N. & Ulrich, D. (2004) Capitalizing on capabilities (Online). (Accessed 11 Apr 2020)

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