#or in my case wait till somebody posts a link from Twitter

[shadowslocked]

“The QSMP doing events and lore feels off given the admin situation especially since we haven’t had an update” and “we likely will not receive updates on what is being worked on behind the scenes and if we do it likely won’t be in depth, we’ll have to wait and see what happens” are two things that can co-exist

[lilyvandersteen]

Out of the Blue: Chapter 2

Cover art: @redheadgleek​

Beta extraordinaire: @hkvoyage​

Links: AO3, FF.net

Author’s Note:

The Twitter feed mentioned in this chapter circulated around Tumblr a while back, and I just KNEW I had to turn it into a fic one day :D

This is the blog post in question: https://lilyvandersteen.tumblr.com/post/190456831744/thesorrowoflizards-awful-brew

Chapter 2: A Good Idea

“This was a lucky idea of mine, indeed!” said Mrs. Bennet, more than once, as if the credit of making it rain were all her own. Till the next morning, however, she was not aware of all the felicity of her contrivance.

(An excerpt from Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Kurt sipped from his cocktail and leaned back contently. It was Friday night, he didn’t have any shifts at the diner the following day, and all his favorite girls were here for a night out, even Mercedes and Brittany. Life was good.

It was fun catching up with everyone. He told them all about the photo shoots he’d helped his boss Isabelle with at Vogue, and the articles he’d written for the website. Quinn was interning with a district attorney at the moment, and talked about the court cases she’d attended so far. Tina had been helping out a vet treating farm animals exclusively, and told stories about cows calving and a horse that had to be put down after breaking its leg. Mercedes’ tour was a big success, and she was thinking of taking it overseas. Brittany, who was one of the back-up dancers at Mercedes’ concerts, was all for that plan, and summed up all the cities she wanted to visit.

Rachel, for once, wasn’t monopolizing the conversation, seeing as she was sad about another short relationship that hadn’t worked out. And Santana was more mellow than usual, seeing as she had Brittany with her.

The two of them were cuddling and whispering softly and smiling, and it sent a pang of jealousy through Kurt. He didn’t envy Santana the long-distance relationship. He’d witnessed first-hand how hard it was for her sometimes. But he did long for that bond that Santana and Brittany had. He too wanted someone who’d understand him with half a word, who’d move mountains just to be with him and who’d look at him as though he were the most precious jewel on earth.

All he’d ever had in the way of relationships was an admirer called Chandler when he was still in Ohio. Kurt had liked the compliments Chandler had showered him with, and had liked getting Chandler’s undivided attention. It was flattering, and it did wonders for his self-esteem. See? Someone thought he was worth talking to! Someone appreciated his fashion sense!

That was why he’d agreed to go on a date with Chandler, and after that a second one. They’d gone to the cinema together, and then shopping at the mall another time. And Kurt was pretty sure that Chandler expected more to come of it, looking at Kurt with hope in his eyes at the end of each date. But Kurt couldn’t bring himself to kiss Chandler. Not when he didn’t feel anything for him other than gratitude and kinship.

So their relationship petered out before it could even begin, and Kurt couldn’t say he regretted it. But he’d very much hoped that his dating prospects would improve upon moving to New York City, and that hadn’t been the case.

Yes, the leader of the Adam’s Apples show choir had recruited him with a serenade, but he’d made no move beyond that, and Kurt hadn’t dared ask him out.

And when he’d started his Madonna cover band, he’d developed a crush on Elliott – could you blame him? – and admitted to it one night after a gig, half-drunk and giggly, only to be told that he was about five years too late to make his move. That was how long Elliott had been dating his boyfriend, and when he brought Mark along to rehearsal the next time, they proved to be ridiculously happy and in love. So no luck there, either.

It wasn’t his looks, he knew that much. In his stage combat lessons, he could see other students check out his body, which had filled out nicely. But none of them ever came on to him, and anyway, Kurt wasn’t sure he’d be interested in just a hook-up.

Still, it wasn’t fun to be the only one of his friends who’d never even been kissed. Other than by a girl or a bully, but that didn’t count. It didn’t, okay?

When Kurt tuned back into the conversation, he heard that they were talking about a tweet Tina had found on her Twitter feed that encouraged people getting married to send an invitation to all billionaires they could find the address of. If you got lucky, those billionaires’ secretaries would think you were a friend or relative of their boss and would send you a gift.

“Wouldn’t it be great if one of us got married so we could get some decent stuff for the loft?” Santana asked. "We barely have anything, and we could ask for all of it! A blender. A coffee machine. A panini maker. And, you know, bedding. Sleeping on the sofa would feel a lot better if I had a decent pillow and comforter. And bath towels. Big and thick ones."

“Oh yes,” Kurt chimed in. “A wok, a food processor, a real Le Creuset pan. Good knives. Matching sets of plates and cutlery. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but just more. Now we have to wash up after every meal because we only have six of everything.”

“A vacuum cleaner that actually works,” Rachel sighed. “It was nice of Carole to give us her old one, but let’s face it, its best days are over. Oh, and what about a quality throw blanket to hang over the sofa, to hide the stains?”

Kurt nodded. “I also want a full-length mirror for the bathroom, and a nicer hamper for the dirty laundry. The kind that doubles as a bench.”

Rachel put her chin in her hands and stared dreamily into space. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

“It would,” Santana and Kurt agreed.

“Too bad none of us are getting married anytime soon,” Kurt mused.

“Well, I’m not seeing anyone, and neither are you,” Rachel said, “so technically, we could get fake hitched, but I don’t think anyone would buy you and I getting married. The wedding would be fabulous, of course, but obviously fake.”

Kurt suppressed a shudder, and Santana threw her head back and laughed.

Rachel pressed on, “But Santana could totally get married. What about it, Santana? At least you and Brittany are dating.”

The proposition shut Santana up at once. She stared at Rachel with her mouth wide open.

“I’d like to be married to you,” Brittany piped up, smiling softly and kissing Santana on the nose. “And I’m sure Kurt would help us plan the wedding, wouldn’t you, Kurt?”

Kurt grinned at her. “You know it!”

“And I know just what the invitation should look like!”

Brittany took a piece of crayon from behind her ear and started sketching a tree with hearts instead of leaves.

“That’s beautiful, honey,” Santana murmured, and Brittany beamed at her. “So we’re doing this?”

Santana nodded, and claimed Brittany’s lips for a lingering kiss.

“Okay, okay, that’s as much foreplay as I can stomach,” Kurt said. “Let’s get back to the loft. You can have my bed tonight if you promise not to be loud and not to get the bed linens dirty. Use a towel.”

Brittany kissed Kurt on the cheek. “Thank you, Kurtie!”

When they reached the loft, though, Brittany made no move to join Santana in Kurt’s bedroom. Instead, she badgered Kurt into opening Photoshop on his laptop so she could recreate the love tree in digital format. She added a recent picture of her and Santana, and looked up examples of wedding invitations on the internet to see what information should be on the card.

Before Kurt knew it, Brittany had commandeered all of his expensive ivory drawing paper to print the invitations on, and she set Rachel to work Googling names and addresses of billionaires.

Soon, Kurt was calligraphing these addresses onto hot pink and deep purple envelopes from Rachel’s stationary set, while Brittany was setting up an online wedding registry.

When that was done, she used up all of Rachel’s stamps to frank the invitations, and then ran out to go post them.

Rachel and Santana were already fast asleep by the time Brittany came back, and Kurt had almost drifted off when he heard a cheery, “There, all done!”

He chuckled at Brittany’s enthusiasm, closed his eyes and was out like a light.

The next day, they all woke up with hangovers and no recollection of their wacky wedding scheme nor the fake invitations Brittany had sent.

On Monday evening, though, Santana blanched and gasped when she checked her e-mails during dinner. “Dios mio!”

“What is it?” asked Rachel, spearing three green beans onto her fork.

“Brittany! She actually sent out wedding invites! And somebody has accepted the invitation. Who goes to a wedding of people they don’t know at all? And what on earth are we gonna do?”

“Wait, what? Who is this person?”

Rachel looked over Santana’s shoulder at the screen. “Cooper Anderson… Oh yeah, that’s the guy from those FreeCreditRating.com commercials, you remember? We all had that jingle as our ringtone for a while.”

“You mean YOU did,” Santana muttered, rolling his eyes.

Kurt wisely didn’t mention he’d had that ringtone, too.

Oh, he remembered the FreeCreditRating guy only too well. He even had a signed poster of him somewhere, that dated back to a talent show at the Westerville mall. Cooper Anderson had been one of the judges of the show, and Kurt had taken part just to get to see him in the flesh. Kurt had been the runner-up of the competition, after Rachel, and had gotten to shake Mr. Anderson’s hand and stammer about how much he admired him. And Mr. Anderson had been so gracious about it all, giving Kurt a 1,000 Watt smile and asking him if he’d like an autograph. So Kurt had whipped out his latest edition of Vogue and had Mr. Anderson sign a perfume ad he starred in.

Kurt smiled at the recollection, and nodded along when Rachel continued to gush about Mr. Anderson.

“He’s ever so handsome. And ever so rich. He’s a Westerville Anderson, so he comes from old money, and then he started this advertising company that everyone uses nowadays, so now he’s a billionaire ten times over.”

“Nice!” said Santana. “So whatever he buys us as a present, it’ll be worth it. But how are we going to pull this off in… What?! Less than a week! Britt put this Saturday as the wedding date!”

“WHAT?!!” Kurt and Rachel shrieked in unison.

Santana waved at the screen. “See for yourself. This Saturday, at 6.30 p.m., in our loft.”

Kurt shook his head in disbelief. “Five days! Neither of you have wedding dresses, we don’t have an officiant, we don’t have a wedding cake nor any other party food, we don’t have any flowers or decorations fit for a wedding. This is a disaster!”

“But you CAN do it, right?”

Santana’s hand clamped around Kurt’s arm like a vice, and she looked up at him beseechingly. “Please help us out? You organized Burt and Carole’s wedding in a week too, right?”

“Two weeks,” Kurt corrected absent-mindedly, his brain already working overtime. “I suppose I could manage it. But you’d owe me. Big time. I want at least half of the wedding present haul.”

“Done.”

Rachel clapped her hands and cheered. “Can we look at what people have bought you already?”

Santana clicked through to the wedding registry, and her face went slack with horror.

“What?” Kurt asked.

“Britt only put cat stuff on the list,” Santana groaned as she scrolled through the list. “Nothing but cat stuff.”

“She did what?” Rachel screeched.

Kurt didn’t say a word. He took over the mouse and checked what had been bought already. So far, Cooper Anderson was the only one who had chosen something. He had put his name down for a pet pavilion that was worth a cool 25 grand. 25 grand! For something so ridiculous! You could fit out an entire kitchen with that amount of money! What a waste!!

“Ugh, as much as I love Britt, I kind of hate her right now,” he murmured, and he heard Santana and Rachel hum in assent.

Kurt clicked on “Edit your wedding registry” and started to delete all of Brittany’s choices, one by one, muttering curses under his breath when he arrived at the costly pet pavilion that he couldn’t delete because it had already been bought.

“Now, before anyone else buys something we don’t want or need, let’s add all the stuff that we DO want,” he said, and between the three of them, they compiled a decent list.

When he’d clicked on “Save changes”, Kurt let out a deep breath. “Well, looks like I’ve got some wedding planning to do. This had better be worth it, San!”

Santana was still too shaken up to snark back. She just looked at Kurt like a deer caught in the headlights. “Can we do this?”

Kurt nodded. “We can do this. Calling Isabelle straight away!”

Isabelle, when she heard the story, laughed for five minutes straight, but then promised all the help she could offer. “Bring the brides along tomorrow, I’ll find them dresses and shoes, no problem. And you can use whatever decorations we have lying around here. What else do you need?”

“Rings for the brides. Dresses for two bridesmaids, I’ll bring them too. A three-piece suit for both me and the officiant,” Kurt started listing. “The others are on their own and will have to dig up whatever formal wear they’ve got lying around. Then, what else, let me think… Chairs for the ceremony. The weather will be nice on Saturday, thankfully, so we’ll have the ceremony and the reception on the roof of our building. There’s a railing all around, so it’s safe, and I’ve already made a cosy corner there that we sit in when the loft gets too hot. Very sturdy and well-made trelliswork. I will just have to decorate it.”

Isabelle hummed. “White roses. We’ve got tons of fake ones from the May issue, remember? You’re welcome to them, but make sure we get them back afterwards.”

“Will do,” Kurt promised. “The guests will have to go through our loft to get to the roof, though. You can only get there using the fire escape. So we will need a cover for our sofa. It’s in a terrible state. Stains all over. Ugh, we’ll have to start by cleaning the whole loft top to bottom. Girls, you WILL help!!”

Rachel and Santana murmured their agreement, and Santana went to look for cleaning supplies, while Rachel started to tackle the piled-up dishes in the sink.

“Oh, and could I borrow a few of those high tables people can stand around to eat finger food? We’ve got no room for a sit-down dinner.”

“Reception tables,” Isabelle said. “Yep, we have about twenty of them, and you’re not going to need that many, are you?”

“Nope. Five or six will do. Plus decent tablecloths for those tables, so that they don’t look cheap. I’d also like twinkle lights. As many as you can spare. And some sheer fabric or tulle I can wrap them in before I drape them all over the terrace.”

“Right, I’ll find you some,” Isabelle promised. “Do you need vases for flowers?”

Kurt hummed, thinking hard. “Nope, I’ll repurpose some empty wine bottles. Dipped in silver glitter, they’ll look fab. I’ll hang some on the railing and I’ll put the others on the reception tables. And some in the loft as well. And maybe some twinkle lights there, too. If you have some other decoration ideas, please let me know. Oh, and wedding favors! What do I do for wedding favors? For my dad and stepmom, I put a wheelbarrow with seed packets in the garden, with a sign that said, ‘Take one and watch love grow’. But that only works for a garden wedding.”

Isabelle hummed. “Let me think about it and get back to you. What are you going to do about the food?”

“Make it myself. Thank heavens we have a big fridge and freezer. We’re going to need every inch of space.”

Isabelle tutted. “Don’t overdo it, Kurt. You don’t want to fall asleep halfway through the wedding because you’ve been working day and night to make this perfect.”

“I’ll make everyone help.”

The steel in Kurt’s voice made Rachel and Santana look up from their work in alarm, but they didn’t protest. They knew all too well it was futile.

The rest of the week passed in a frenzy of cleaning, cooking, baking, decorating as well as inviting and briefing their other friends.

Elliott agreed to act as the officiant for the wedding, Artie offered his services as a DJ and Tina volunteered to be the photographer. Mercedes and Artie rehearsed the song for the first dance while the brides worked on the dance itself. Sam made himself invaluable running errands and assisting Kurt from dusk till dawn, and didn’t give a peep in protest when Kurt sat him down for a haircut.

By Saturday afternoon, the loft and the terrace both looked splendid. The twinkle lights wrapped in tulle gave the loft ceiling and the terrace a dreamy but festive air, and the silver bottles holding colorful flowers added to the splendor without making it tacky.

Kurt was hard at work decorating the top tier of the wedding cake while Elliott rehearsed the ceremony with San and Britt, Rachel prompting them whenever they faltered.

When the cake was safely stowed away in the fridge, Kurt checked the wedding registry one last time. It seemed like all his work had served some purpose after all. Their scheme had worked out pretty well. Brittany and Santana had received a gift from no less than eighteen billionaires, some of it pricey stuff. The Louis XV pet pavilion was a sad waste of money, of course, but Kurt was pleased with the other gifts, and was mentally already picking his favorites.

Humming happily, he helped zip up dresses and arrange the brides’ and bridesmaids’ hair, and then went to his bedroom to put his suit on and check on his coif.

When he headed back to the living room, he noticed that all their friends had arrived, and grimaced at all the noise they produced. He hadn’t slept properly in days, and he felt a headache coming on, throbbing at his temples.

Artie was testing the music installation, and soon all of the former Glee clubbers were singing and laughing and dancing. Kurt slunk away to the kitchen and put his head against the cool metal of the fridge to soothe the pain.

He’d almost dozed off when a loud voice rang through the loft. Mr. Anderson! He’d arrived!

[the-deerking]

With this whole Projared thing

People are not their content. That’s my first thing.

I’m personally no unsubscribing cause I think he makes good content and I seperate art from the artist, otherwise I would be able to watch any movie made by the Weinstein company.

As for the actual storm going on. First and foremost he did send nudes to fans and solicit them. I don’t know if they were underaged by that much is true.(STOP SPREADING THE PICTURE OF HIM HOLDING HIS PENIS! PLEASE AND THANKYOU!)

However I think everybody is being irresponsible in believeing Heidi at face value. Is it entirely possible that Jared did all the stuff she claims? Yes. Is it equally as possible that he did cheat but it wasn’t nearly as bad as Heidi is making it out to be? Yes. Is it possible that Jared and holly never cheated and Heidi is making it all up? Yes. There is no proof for or against these claims so far. People are seeing proof of other horrible act and making the leap to confirm others.

Do I think Jared is a bad person for sending nudes and soliciting them when he was married? Yes, nobody should deny that.

The other claims however I can’t take at face value. That just how I am. I need proof, texts, candid photos etc. Heidi claims she has it but hasn’t put it forth and (or she has I didn’t see it in which case someone please link it to me cause I’ve been going through twitter threads all morning and haven’t seen it) I find that odd to say the least.

As for other parts of this, there is somebody claiming that Jared sexually manipulated her at 16 through tumblr, again I’m not sure if this is true as all the proof she has is a text post about it so I’m not making claims either way.

And then we have the Jontron and PBG situation. Now I can see why people are angry at PBG. But we gotta Remeber this was very early in the thing when he made those replie to Heidi. If what she says is true than PBG couldn’t know and all he saw was the woman who was in a divorce with his friend making claims. Of course your first instinct is to defend your friend. Does that make it right? Depends on how these claims Turn out. With Jontron everybody is trying to get him to comment, especially after the whole thing with PBG condemning him immediately after the debate and, why? It’s none of his buisness. Honestly I think the smart ones are the one not commenting and keep thing heads down till something besides Heresy is presented.

All we can do is wait, but I’m not purring anybody on the cross till I see evidence. If Projared did what is claimed ontop of the nudes, then yeah fuck him. But otherwise the nudes are a horrible thing and he shouldn’t have dont that, nodbody shpudl do that to their fans and it can serve as a coutionary tale. If the people he solicited nudes from were underage and they can prove it, then press charges, throw the boo at him. Let’s see how this develops.

[roguenewsdao]

Are You Ready for an Upgrade?

"Even if we disregard the fate of slumdwellers, it is far from clear that we should be aiming at immortality, bliss and divinity. Adopting these particular projects might be a big mistake. History is full of big mistakes. Given our past record and our current values, we are likely to reach out for bliss, divinity, and immortality — even if it kills us."  -- Professor Yuval Noah Harari, author of "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow"

It's hard to believe that more than 20 years have passed since that moment when the internet was fascinated for five minutes with the picture of the "EarMouse" that showed up in many of our email In-Boxes. It was not a photoshop creation; real cow genes were grafted onto a mouse as part of an experiment in biological upgrades. Professor Harari recalls the experiment near the beginning of his Youtube conversation linked below.

From the tone of the quotation presented at the top of this article, you might presume that Professor Harari is warning mankind of what's coming in Transhumanism. Actually, the professor is quite excited at the prospect. He is saying that it is inevitable that Man will reach out to evolve from the state of "Homo sapien" to the state of "Homo deus (Man god)," and he, for one, is looking forward to it.

In his homestyle lesson linked below, the professor laid out his thoughts on the three methods that Man will likely pursue to achieve his evolutionary upgrade: 1). organically (as exemplified by the EarMouse), 2). cyborg-style, or, partly organically and partly inorganically, and 3). inorganically, kind of like Sophia the Robot. Keep in mind that his video posted below was recorded a whopping five years ago in 2013. In Tech Life, five years is like - what shall we say? - fifty years in the regular world. In fact, Harari here predicted that "learning" software would be developed as a tool for the Inorganic life forms. Sure enough, that's how Sophia is, right now, "learning" how to be human-like.

Below this video, I will copy a few points that jumped out at me. One of Harari's declarations is quite eyebrow-raising, but I don't think we can really call it "surprising."

You might think that Harari's background is in the field of genetics or genome-mapping. However, his approach is actually through history. He first specialized in medieval and military history, believe it or not. This veered off into thinking about the effect of biology on human history and, naturally, on humankind's future. (For those of you familiar with Joseph Farrell's books, I going to make a sideways observation, for what it's worth: there is an odd similarity between Harari's life path and that of Otto Rahn. I'm just going to leave that there and let you stew on that.)

Remembering Other People's Memories

At the 31-minute marker of the above video, Harari speaks about the possibility of creating an "inter-brain net." If you thought internet privacy concerns are alarming now, wait till you hear this. Harari envisions a time when everybody's mind will be connected to the global internet and we will be able to share the contents of our minds on the Information Superhighway with everybody else.

The most revolutionary project is the attempt to create a 2-way brain computer interface that will allow computers to read the electrical signals of the human brain while simultaneously transmitting signals that the brain can read and interpret and understand. Now, just imagine, what if such direct interfaces are used to directly link a brain to the internet. So you can surf the internet just with your consciousness, not with fingers and eyes. 

Or to directly link several brains to the same computer and thereby linking all of them together and sort of creating a sort of "inter-brain net." What might happen in such a case to things like human memory, human consciousncess, human identity if the brain can have direct access to collective data banks and collective memories? 

In such a situation, one cyborg could, for example, retrieve the memories of somebody else, not to hear about them, not to read about them in a book, not to imagine how this person might have felt - but to directly remember the memories of somebody else as if they were his or her own.

What happens to concepts like "gender identity" when minds become collective and men can actually remember the memories of a woman? Nobody knows the answer. These are complicated questions.

A little further along in the video, Harari mentions the Swiss "Blue Brain Project" and the staggering investment of €1 Billion Euros (not dollars, but euros!) to stimulate the creation of an artificial human brain inside a computer. Again, remember that this was five years ago. Also remember that wherever Switzerland and Big Money are mentioned, the Rothschilds are sure to be involved.

Digital Reconstruction of the Brain

According to the Swiss website of the Blue Brain Project [linked here], the goal of this endeavor is:

... to create a digital reconstruction of the brain by reverse-engineering mammalian brain circuitry. The mission of the project, founded in May 2005 by the Brain and Mind Institute of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, is to use biologically-detailed digital reconstructions and simulations of the mammalian brain (brain simulation) to identify the fundamental principles of brain structure and function in health and disease.

One of the regular speakers on the project is Professor Henry Markram. Below is a 10-minute video snippet of his explanation of the Blue Brain:

"The goal is a digital reconstruction and simulation of the brain."

"It's not whether you can solve a problem, it's whether you can change the state of your brain to that point in the spectrum where you CAN solve a problem."

"What we've also discovered is how to change that state, which neurons to fire, which synapses to fire, how to change the chemical environment in order to change that state so that you can solve, in principal, any problem."

I found that last point very reveletory when we think about the apparently engineered alteration being done to our environment - whether that be in the sky with chemtrails or with food and GMO contamination. You don't suppose we are all being used as a planetary lab rat to see if our neurons and synapses can be directed at a mass population level? Hmmm.

Tapping into Ancient Memories?

Before closing, I wanted to muse aloud about a crazy idea I've had for some time. W. the Intelligence Insider and I have had this conversation for awhile. We know that the thoughts "inside our head" don't actually stay inside our skulls. Anything that "lives" along electromagnetic pathways cannot be contained in a 3-D space; it's an "open" system. That would be like trying to contain a WiFi signal inside a cardboard box. From time to time, we hear people mention the Noosphere in the context of the hyperdimensional realm where our thoughts are pulsing. In fact, I'm a bit surprised that I didn't run across that word in the above material by Professors Harari and Markram.  

Mr. W. and I have chatted off and on about how our DNA strands are twisted in a "Y" formation, like a tuning fork, and that it is through this "tuning fork" that our physical brains keep their connection with our own unique thoughts that are floating out there in the Noosphere.

We know that elite socieites, including the Nazi elites, were engaged in a global quest for all manner of sacred knowledge and global antiquities. Surely somewhere along the way these hunters must have asked themselves, "Wouldn't it be great if we could just tap into the memories of the people who lived in those prehistoric times?"

What if that is the ultimate goal of this research, to tap into the memories of people whose physical bodies have long since decayed but whose electromagnetic memories are still vibrating along some quantum sphere? We know there was an advanced high civilization thousands of years ago and we know that human hybridization was on their minds. If you watch the video I have presented above from Professor Harari, you will note that even he recognizes that last point.

If you had quantum computing capability, and could reverse engineer the DNA map of every living person in such a way that you could simulate the DNA of their ancestors - especially if you only focused on particular hereditary lines - could you then potentially "tune in" to all those memories that are just swimming around out there, begging to be plugged back in?

I shudder to think of the many ways THAT technology could get misused. Wouldn't you know it but there is a concept that touches on that very thing called COSMISM. We'll pursue that in future blogs, probably in my #Celestials series. Meanwhile, here's a blog that Joseph P. Farrell wrote on the subject last year when news was made of German researchers who had recovered Neanderthal DNA from dirt. Dr. Farrell said, "Let that sink in for a moment: human DNA - thousands of years old - is recoverable from dirt." And where there's DNA, somewhere out there, are knowledge and memories linked to it.

My Twitter contact information is found at my billboard page of SlayTheBankster.com. Listen to my radio show, Bee In Eden, on Youtube via my show blog at SedonaDeb.wordpress.com.

[topicprinter]

I received quite a few PMs from people from my previous post talking about my apps I use for creating social media content asking me to link to the accounts.I was just going to respond to all of them, but I figured I'd go into a bit more detail about how and why I chose my niche and the journey up until today. Sorry for how long it took to write this!I gladly encourage constructive feedback and criticism and I also would like for anyone’s input on on monetization methods that I could implement to increase earnings.My brand is a community called Barista Life. Barista Life is a pretty tight-knit group of baristas from around the world, a majority of them work at Starbucks. I began the account while working as a Starbucks barista myself and studying Marketing in college. I had previously started countless websites (like over 55+ by the time I was 19), Instagram accounts, and tried to start so many businesses that didn't go anywhere and this was the first one that stuck and grew into something. Working at Starbucks for almost 5 years gave me a deep understanding of the "Barista Life," so to speak, which I believe is why I have been able to continue for so long.In the beginning, I was a complete stranger to running that type of account which meant I was self-teaching myself as I went along. Until then, the only type of Instagram account I was familiar with was posting to my personal account so with it, came a huge learning curve. This was about 3ish maybe 4 years ago now and I know now they shouldn't be, but things like not taking any images from the internet and reposting them without crediting the OP was foreign to me. In the beginning, I received a lot of very vocal criticisms from users in r/Starbucks about the account which I tried not to take to heart but knowing any better, it was discouraging because my intentions were only good from the get go. But I kept going and learned the ways of Instagram and social media.Growing the account turned out to be a bit easier back then than I've found it to be now. Since there was no other account like barista life in the barista niche, I credit a lot of early growth to word of mouth. My account was the first, semi-large account that took the lives of baristas and used social media/meme trends to capture each moment that baristas all around the world related to. Followers would see a post that hit home, go to work where they're working in close quarters and talking with other baristas all day, and just like that, BL would get 10+ new followers. That doesn't mean that it didn't take a TON of work on top of that to get the word out there.While still a small account, I relied on the followers of the @StarbucksPartners Instagram account to target. I would literally sit for hours upon hours on my phone just following everybody who had liked one of the StarbucksPartners IG posts. It was more of a logical choice, which I think applies to choosing any account that has your target group. I knew that pretty much the only people following the starbucks employee Instagram account had to work at Starbucks. And since I chose to follow only users who had liked a photo, I knew 2 things: they worked at Starbucks (so my notification wouldn't necessarily be unwelcomed) and that they had an active account (since they were liking photos). This was before the use of automation bots like Instagress and FollowLiker became so annoying and common that a notification from a random account wasn't looked at as spammy as it is now. I did the same thing with the Barista Life Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter accounts as well. Back then I was using a Chrome & Firefox extension called "iMacros" which executes repetitive tasks, such as liking tweets and following users, based on a script of code you enter in. The learning curve with imacros was pretty annoying, but I finally got it figured out and I would follow users and like tweets until I hit the limit. I'd wait a day or so, then keep going. Again, I don't really recommend using this method today since IG, Facebook and Twitter are way more likely to straight up ban your account from spamming.With the Starbucks Partners IG account, was their hashtag "#ToBeAPartner." This was pretty much the same thought process as above. I thought, why would somebody use the official hashtag of the starbucks barista if they weren't a starbucks barista? This provided me with a pool of about 50k baristas to start with.As for creating content, I would literally go to work and think of every little thing I did throughout the day. Every thing that was funny, annoying, inconvenient, etc. every job, every drink, every order, every type of customer could be made into a post, meme, tweet or video. So as the days went on, I would just write a note in my phone of a post idea. Then, on my ten minute breaks and my 30 minute lunch break, I would create a post or a meme, then post it and go back to work. Every single shift. Then after work, I would park my car somewhere shady and secluded usually in a parking lot in the industrial center near my work, and work from my phone for at least an hour or two in my nice air conditioned car with a charger and music. It's actually my favorite place to work. Absolutely no distractions and the air conditioner is free, not to mention the driver seat is comfy AF. Creating content is easier than one would think when you ARE your demographic. My love for memes and making people laugh definitely made the process easier by knowing how to keep up with the trends and knowing when they died out.Personally, I was so heavily invested with starbucks that it was apparent due to the account's focus on Starbucks related content. I receive a lot of comments from users asking us to focus less on starbucks and more on baristas that work at other coffee shops. It is tough though, Starbucks is so heavily covered in the news and so many followers work there that branching out is challenging, but we are working on researching new topics and working with other, smaller coffee brands.We have used a lot of our Instagram posts to create valuable content from the comments. For example, we could post a question asking everybody for their best tips and advice for being a shift supervisor, then we take the comments, and use them as content for an article/guide on our website. We've also partnered with bigger blogs like Cosmopolitan.com to provide content by asking questions to our community in exchange for mentions and backlinks back to our site.My whole goal with the account started out as just a meme account to bash on the annoying things customers would do while ordering. While we still do have posts about "annoying customer habits" We've been working to evolve the account into a place where everybody can come and validate their feelings and connect with like-minded individuals.Since Barista Life is not affiliated with Starbucks or any other corporation, it gives us a bit of freedom in what we can post. A majority of my followers are all people my age, all working the same job, all interacting with the same types of people, all going through the same trials and tribulations. My goal has pivoted into making what it's like to be a barista just overall, better.By taking a bad day somebody had, adding some humor to it, and posting; people will read through the comments and realize that thousands of others are feeling the same way. It may not sound like much, but I'd say the most fulfilling thing about making people laugh and bringing people together is knowing that I'm making people smile and improving their lives, no matter how insignificantly I'm doing so.I did quit my job as a barista a few months ago, but while working there, I would run the account in secrecy from my coworkers since I was a shift supervisor and did not want the fact that I ran the account to change their opinion of me. While an employee of Starbucks, corporate knew who I was and knew I was the one running the account. I was frequently contacted by corporate in regards to some of the more 'inappropriate' posts, I guess you could say, and was asked to remove them. I complied. (Starbucks is not a company you want on your bad side)For those wondering and trying to find a niche to start an online business with, I truly believe it has to be something you are passionate about and something you know the ins and outs of, or you're going to have a very hard time pushing through the downs. Trust me, there are a lot of downs and times where I wanted to stop posting. I actually did stop posting for a few months back in the earlier days of the account, but eventually picked it back up and I'm glad I did.Some of the hardships and challenges I've noticed now are staying motivated and holding myself accountable to keep busy and always looking for ways to grow and expand the business. When you truly work for yourself, it can be very easy to get relaxed and not work as hard as you know you should be. I'll have weeks where I'll wake up at 7am and work non-stop until late in the night. But then I'll also have days where I wake up a bit later, and have a real hard time sitting down and getting work done when I know I don't HAVE to. I know I should, but there's nobody over your shoulder holding you accountable so you have to literally be your own boss, your own motivation, and when you're the business, If you take a day off, the business takes a day off.Another challenge I've faced is hiring and outsourcing the work so I can focus on growing the business. Whether the reason behind that is not being able to find people that fit, not having the extra capital to pay an employee, or in the case of social media & creating content, not being sure that who you hire will create content up to the standards of the brand. I know I need to because running this alone has proved to be quite difficult. There are so many different things I could devote my attention to, that it can get overwhelming.Monetizing MethodsStarting what is essentially a meme account comes with the challenges of creating an income for yourself to sustain the work involved. The barista life account makes money a few different ways.Private labeling productsWe sell our own merchandise on our website which is a Shopify-Hosted website (which I would recommend to anybody interested in creating an online store).We sell lanyards, lapel pins for Barista's aprons, Infuser water bottles, and our best seller is the PenPal. The PenPal is a clip-on retractable reel where a barista attaches their sharpie to and is always within reach. A big thing that I think I messed up on is not setting up my products with Amazon FBA. I figured that since the products are all at a pretty low price point, it wouldn’t be worth it to pay the Amazon FBA fees when I didn’t have much room. So, I do ALL of the packaging, fulfillment and shipping for every product that isn’t POD (Print on Demand). This takes up a lot of my time and I need to get FBA going.Affiliate SalesCreating articles and social media posts about products in the coffee niche with affiliate links to the amazon product page.Advertising RevenueWe don’t make too much from advertising. With the amount of views we get, we know we can definitely improve the revenue numbers. We use mainly Adsense and Facebook Instant Articles Audience Network.Merch by AmazonActually just got accepted to the Merch program. To date, we’ve sold about 25 shirts in a little under a month.Working with App CompaniesOur largest partnership is with an app company called Shyft. Shyft is an app for retail workers to post, pick up, and find coverage for their shifts at work. A barista is their target demographic so we promote their app to our community because we truly believe in it. Once you start promoting any product or service, it can dilute your brand and each promotion won't hold any weight. We recommend promoting products that you can personally vouch for.So, feel free to ask any questions or provide your feedback or your advice on how we can continue to monetize our following. I’d love and welcome all helpful ideas and thoughts.Instagram: @Barista_LifeTwitter: @BaristaLifeFacebook

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How to Manage Your Social Media Profiles During a Rebrand

When you choose to dedicate to a rebrand, the risks are high. Your branding defines exactly how people see your business, and also changing it totally implies running the risk of the recognition and also photo you've striven to develop. But what occurs when your business develops to a factor where your initial branding doesn't fit anymore? Since branding is so crucial, a rebrand might be the finest decision for you.

At Zizinya Web Solutions, we understood a while back that we would certainly expanded far from our initial SEO as well as internet layout focus. We were no much longer the business we began as, so we needed to update our brand name to match our new identification as an inbound marketing firm. Bonafide was born.

Even if making the decision to transform isn't hard for your commercial property, you could expect the process of rebranding to be. There's a lengthy list of steps to take and also elements to think about so that your entire on-line existence shifts from the old brand to the new.

Updating and also profiting your social media sites accounts is paramount on the planet of internet marketing. We identified thirteen steps we had to complete previously, during, as well as after the rebrand to change our social media sites identification. You could have much more social media profiles for your brand name than we cover below, but our emphasis got on the four major social media systems utilized in B2B advertising. You can find some information on upgrading a few of the various other social networks websites here.

What to Do Before You Rebrand

Staying on top of your brand name's social networks visibility ought to be at the leading edge of your rebranding approach because it's merely too essential to postpone. If you need any convincing about exactly how crucial it actually is, look no better compared to the Qwikster/Netflix fiasco of 2011. While an absence of preliminary social media study probably had not been the only factor that Netflix's strategy to divide into two separate entities failed, a little persistance would have gone a lengthy method. The humiliating post-announcement awareness that the Twitter manage of the new brand name's name was already possessed by a high school marijuana lover really did not allow their case.

Don' t make the very same mistake. Before you launch your rebrand, do your preparation work.

Research what's taken.

So, take a tip from Netflix and start by examining all the primary social networks websites to see if somebody's currently using your name. You can utilize the tool KnowEm to inspect them all at when (together with trademarks and also domain name names).

You don't necessarily have to scrap a name you such as due to the fact that it's taken on social media. Instead, you could find a variant on the name that helps you. In our situation, "bonafide" is a prominent word, so we located ourselves in competition with numerous music groups, companies, a magazine and a charitable on social media sites. Even recognizing that, we already had our hearts set on the name, so we created variants that made good sense for each and every platform.

Have a plan.

For several of the social networks internet sites, you just have one possibility to transform your name prior to you're stayed with it. If you rush the process and make an error, you may not be able to repair it. Take the time to research and also comprehend just what enters into altering your name and also vanity URL for each social networks internet site prior to you act. That way, you can obtain the change right on the first try.

Keep in mind that when you launch your brand-new brand, you're mosting likely to be active. Anything you can prepare in advance to make the process easier, do. One thing you could do beforehand is have actually an updated bio prepared for each social media sites account. On the day of the rebrand, you can utilize KnowEm in order to help upgrade every one of your biographies at once, as long as you're all right with them all being regular. Additionally, if you wish to make use of distinctive biographies for each website based on the reader and also personality count enabled, write them up in a Word paper or spreadsheet before the day of your rebrand. In this way, all you need to do is copy and also paste when the time comes.

You'll likewise require upgraded photo files that match your new layout for each social networks platform. Speak to your visuals developer about producing pictures for you in the ideal dimension for each and every profile so you have those ready to take place rebranding day as well.

Do advanced promotion.

Your social networks followers are several of the most essential participants of your community. One method you can create early interest in your rebrand is by letting them know something big is coming or by offering them a sneak top of just what to expect. A glance of your brand-new logo or some teaser updates that mean the brand-new brand can be just sufficient to ignite their interest leading up to the official announcement.

Be prepared for likely concerns and comments.

Sit with your group as well as created a listing of all the actions and inquiries you assume you could obtain from followers. If you have answers ready for a lot of the feedback that turns up, you'll have an easier time reacting quickly, fairly, and also consistently. Appoint someone the task of watching on your social accounts throughout the very first couple of days of the rebrand. Individuals will certainly expect fast and clear replies from your group, so if you don't have a clear feedback technique in position it might be simple to obtain swept up in every little thing else you need to do as well as let social media sites slide.

Rebranding Your Profiles

Ideally, you should aim to have a lot of your social media systems updated the early morning of your rebrand before you send out your announcement.

This suggests that before rebrand day, you'll have to do some legwork for several of the social media sites systems making sure that your accounts are established up as well as prepared to go, especially Facebook. On the day of, you'll probably have to have a person wake up early to make any type of last minute changes prior to the launch. Make sure that your messaging is constant throughout your online systems as this will assist decrease any type of confusion surrounding your new brand.

Update Facebook.

If you have less compared to 200 sort for your web page, editing and enhancing your web page name is rather uncomplicated. If you have greater than 200 sort, the process may be a bit a lot more complicated. You'll need to submit a demand and you could be lookinged to send documentation that reveals your connection to the new name. Facebook only lets you update your vanity URL once, so you need to wait to do this till after you change your web page name. Be mindful to upgrade all the web links to your Facebook web page once your Links are updated to make sure that they do not create error messages.

Since our rebrand exceeded a name modification, Facebook was reluctant to let us keep our existing page. It called for some back-and-forth, yet we were inevitably able to convince them. If you find on your own in a comparable setting, a little determination might settle. You should expect the procedure of upgrading Facebook to take a minimum of two weeks, so give yourself an adequate amount of time to complete the shift. Beginning dealing with them well in advance of the day you plan to launch.

Update Google +/ My Business.

Google is much quicker as well as less complicated to update than Facebook, and also it's one to prioritize. The Google + upgrade makes sure that your brand-new brand name comes up first when individuals search for your old trademark name. You can conveniently edit your name when logged right into your account, yet you will certainly should validate the adjustment by postcard or phone prior to it will certainly work. We did experience some problems in updating our account, however we were pleased to locate that Google's customer care was very valuable in working via them and also getting it done.

Once you have actually asserted a Google + vanity URL, you can't alter it, so you're stuck with the one you have actually got unless you're willing to create a brand-new account and also begin from scrape. If you have a lot of a complying with on Google+, you're most likely better off keeping the URL with your old name.

Update LinkedIn.

Changing your name on LinkedIn is straightforward. The only catch is that you can not use a name that's already taken, which was a problem for us with Bonafide. We added "TM" to the end of our name and that was good enough to protect the name modification. We can have added something like "Advertising" or "Firm" if TM had been taken. For a lot of brand name names, you must have no problem creating variants on your name that is both readily available as well as intuitive for any person browsing for your brand.

Update Twitter.

We saved Twitter for last due to the fact that it's the simplest. You simply log in as well as update the name as well as manage in your account setups. Similar to LinkedIn, the only complication you may encounter is locating that your desired name is currently taken. The simplest means to manage this is ahead up with a variation (we went with @GoBonafide). If you have a trademark on the name or the account looks non-active, you do have some various other alternatives to attempt to claim the name.

What to Do After Your Rebrand

Launching your new brand is just the beginning. Now you've reached obtain your brand-new name out there.

Introduce as well as clarify your new brand.

Social media offers you a straight line to a few of your crucial contacts. Use your social media sites channels to discuss why you decided to rebrand, what the new brand is about, as well as what the change suggests for your customers as well as prospects. You could even take down your previous brand name in your biographies so they recognize to link the new name with the brand they currently knew as well as trusted.

Promote your advertising content.

Any content you develop to promote your new brand ought to be shown your social media sites followers. This could be an article you contact clarify the reason behind the rebranding, a video you produce to introduce the new brand name to your website visitors, or any kind of guest blog posts or articles you blog about the rebranding experience. Sharing them with your fans re-emphasizes the link between the old brand and the new, and also it offers you a lot more opportunities to detail the reasons behind the change.

Consider paid promotion.

Paid ads on social networks are a great way to obtain your brand-new name before people. You wish to make certain your brand-new name comes to be familiar to all your present fans, yet you also desire to acquire some new fans and prospects at the same time. If you have not experimented with any one of the advertisement programs on social networks yet, currently's an excellent time to see if they're a great suitable for your business.

Pay attention to feedback.

It's possible that some of your followers will be immune to your rebranding efforts, however for the a lot of component, they'll most likely believe it's wonderful and also applaud you on. Whatever your community is saying on social networks - listen. Fast to react to any kind of concerns that are raised as well as take all responses you get seriously. Any kind of fan that cares sufficient concerning your brand to weigh in is one worth involving with.

Be social.

At the risk of appearing entirely noticeable and unimaginative, keep doing all the things you should generally do on social media to promote your brand. Rebranding is a lengthy process and also it's very easy to allow specific things slip under the radar, but it's more vital compared to common that you stay engaged on your social media sites networks. Share content! Take some time to react to just what other individuals state. Take part in Google areas, LinkedIn teams, as well as Twitter conversations. Keep your profiles energetic and also social. What you do on social media sites will certainly aid specify your brand-new brand name in the eyes of your fans, so make it a priority.

Be positive with it, too - do not be worried to make use of it!