#saw someone in the comments talking sense based on experience and getting voted down

[princessanneftw]

Inside Princess Anne's lifelong love affair with horses

As the Princess Royal approaches her 70th birthday, those who know her recount the most enduring relationship of her life

By Eleanore Kelly for the Telegraph

The Princess Royal has spent a lifetime with horses. Like her siblings, she started riding at the age of three. But what makes her remarkable is the success she achieved as a competitor. Aged 21 she was crowned European Eventing Champion at Burghley. She was riding Doublet, a horse bred by the Queen, for polo, and gifted to the Princess.

At the 1975 European Eventing Championships, she finished second on Goodwill, another horse owned by the Queen and her mount at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, where she became the first member of the British royal family to compete at an Olympic Games. She rode winners in horse racing too, notably in the Grand Military Steeplechase at Sandown over jumps, and the Diamond Stakes on the flat at Ascot. No wonder she won BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award in 1971 - the first ever event rider to carry off the trophy.

There were always ponies around during her childhood. Both her parents rode regularly, as did her older brother, Prince Charles, who developed a keen interest in polo and was considered a gifted player.

In those days polo was a men-only game, so not something his sister would have pursued, but she was a member of the Pony Club where she would have tried most equestrian disciplines with other young enthusiasts. Perhaps the attraction to eventing was the camaraderie that is always synonymous with a risk sport; horses are no respecter of titles.

When she became more serious about eventing, her parents arranged for training with Alison Oliver, wife of international show jumper Alan Oliver, who was based near Windsor. She is widely credited for propelling the Princess on the road to international equestrian stardom.

Lucinda Green, one of Princess Anne’s eventing peers, describes her as the pin-up of their era. Lucinda was a fellow team member at the Montreal Olympics and remembers the Princess having a crashing fall halfway around the cross-country course and suffering concussion. She remounted and finished the course but to this day cannot remember the rest of the jumps.

“She was extremely brave and good enough to get on the British team on two very different horses. Goodwill, her horse in Montreal, was not easy. He was big and had no brakes - I definitely wouldn’t have ridden him,” says Green.

With animals so often comes heartbreak, which even Princesses cannot escape. Her partnership with Doublet, a diminutive chestnut with the heart of a lion, ended in tragedy. The pair were destined for the Munich Olympics when the horse who had defined her career shattered a hind leg in an accident at Windsor and had to be put down.

At a time where security at sports events was minimal, The Princess was hounded by the media. “I always admired the way she coped with the press. That added the most unbelievable pressure on top of trying to do her sporting best. Tough for her but she put our sport on the map and kept it in the spotlight,” observes Green.

In 1985, she was persuaded to ride in a charity horse race at Epsom (home of the Derby). By this stage she’d hung up her eventing boots and had two young children. Yet she was always game for the challenge, if it involved horses.

Horse racing requires a very different technique from eventing, so she approached trainer David Nicholson for help. Known as “The Duke” because of his imposing personality, he suggested she come to his Cotswold yard, little expecting she would turn up almost every day for several years to ride out.

His wife Dinah became familiar with the Princess, as she would join them in the kitchen for breakfast after exercising the horses. “She was so dedicated and determined, driving 40 minutes every morning and arriving at 7.15am on the dot, so she could tack up her horse before riding out on the gallops. Then she would have breakfast with us and sometimes there would be a jockey - Richard Dunwoody or Peter Scudamore. The conversation would mostly be about horses. After breakfast, she would set off for a busy day of royal duties.”

Even if she had a royal engagement in London that went on late into the night, she would still get up after a few hours sleep to drive to the yard in Stow-on-the Wold. Acquaintances say her security detail looked permanently exhausted from keeping up with her.

After the charity race, in which she finished a respectable fourth, she asked Nicholson if she could continue riding out at his yard. It seemed the attraction was as much about the camaraderie of yard life as it was the actual race riding. “She became very fond of the people in racing and was always very natural with the stable lads, who liked her.”

There was a horse she was very fond of too, called Cnoc Na Cuille. He was a big winner for her in her career as a jump jockey (including the Grand Military) but soon after finishing third at Warwick, he dropped dead, probably from a heart attack.

“The Princess was not one for showing emotion but she was clearly very upset about it,” says Dinah. Soon after this she gave up race riding, although she has bred a few race horses herself at her home, Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire.

For 37 years, thanks to the Princess, Gatcombe has hosted eventing competitions, including the prestigious Festival of Eventing. The cross-country course is designed by her former husband Captain Mark Phillips, an Olympic medallist and four-time Badminton winner (once the golden boy of British eventing), and the Director is their son Peter Phillips.

Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall, a former European and World Champion event rider and silver medalist in the London 2012 Olympics, regularly competes there and the Princess hands out the prizes.

Tindall has even more eventing accolades than her mother and, like her, she was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year (in 2006). Her mother has always been hugely supportive of her children’s interest in horses. Every Christmas, the Princess would drive the children’s ponies up to Balmoral* (think they mean Sandringham?) herself in a horsebox so they could all ride.

There is also a strong equine theme to the Princess Royal’s charity work. She’s President of World Horse Welfare and the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) as well as Patron of the Pony Club and the Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF). She was President of the International Federation of Equestrian Sports (FEI) from 1986 to 1994, a role she took over from her father, Prince Philip.

Roly Owers, CEO of World Horse Welfare, describes the Princess as having a deep love of horses, devoting a huge amount of time to all aspects of horse welfare. Former champion jockey John Francombe describes her as the best after-dinner speaker he has ever heard, with a great sense of humour, persuading well-oiled guests to open their wallets for charity and even persuading them to adopt horses themselves.

Rehoming unwanted horses is a large part of the World Horse Welfare’s work and the Princess is a rehomer herself. “On one of her visits to our rescue centres, she met a Welsh Cob called Annie and asked if she could have her. I believe she still rides her today.”

“She has always had a clear opinion but understands horses better than anyone,” says Owers. That once got her into trouble, at the 2013 World Horse Welfare conference when one of the topics was the European Horse Meat scandal. “She made a comment about the value of horses that was translated as ‘Princess Anne eats horse meat’ by certain journalists.”

What the Princess had actually said was: "Should we be considering a real market for horsemeat and would that reduce the number of welfare cases, if there was a real value in the horsemeat sector? I chuck that out for what it's worth because I think it needs a debate."

As Owers remembers, “it was unfortunately the first time we filmed the conference and broadcast it live, so you can imagine it created 48 hours of hysteria.” Though whether the Princess actually sits down to pony steak for Sunday lunch is not known.

Caroline Ward of the RDA remarks on her extraordinary empathy. “She understands the challenges our participants face and what they get out of the experience of riding horses. She will talk to them about their ponies and what it means to them to spend time with horses.

“These riders, many of whom find communication and mobility so difficult, will always open up to her. They are bound by this common interest and love of horses. She will also chat to the volunteers, to make them feel all the more special.”

Ward recalls the time Princess Anne helped a rider load her difficult horse into the horse box. “She came to our RDA National Championships at Hartpury College. She saw this struggle and despite not being dressed to get stuck in, she clearly couldn’t walk by without offering assistance. Well, this horse took one look at her and realised this was someone who meant business, and walked straight into the horsebox.”

Ex-jockey and racing journalist Brough Scott has known the Princess for many years through sport and her support of the IJF. “At charity events, rather than entertaining the fat cats, she is happiest talking to the ex-jockeys, many of whom are in a wheelchair. One really likes her for that, even though she is not trying to be liked.”

To be a successful rider, you have to build a relationship of trust and mutual understanding with your horse. That means controlling your fear and emotions. Eventing, a combination of the three disciplines of dressage, cross-country and show jumping, is perhaps the truest test of all-round horsemanship, demanding both accuracy and courage. It is only for the bravest of the brave, says Scott.

“Princess Anne wasn’t simply a Royal who rode, she was an athlete who achieved great things in her eventing career and rode courses that would have terrified most people. That must have given her self-confidence and fulfillment.”

In her public duties too, the Princess Royal has given her all, incidentally personifying the characteristics necessary for a fine horsewoman: discipline, dedication and courage. Are they a matter of her breeding and upbringing, or do we have her love of horses to thank for that?

[recentanimenews]

CR Features Argues About Anime of the Year!

Anime Awards voting end on Friday! We've been super pumped because of the community's reactions to the nominees. However we have gotten so loud with our individual opinions on who we think should win that we’ve been told to duke it out via written words instead of continually disrupting our coworkers (sorry fam).

  We've hit every category in the Anime Awards and this is the last installment in our argumentative saga. So we're gonna  get down to the nitty gritty of Best Film, Best Director, and finally ANIME OF THE YEAR. Let’s down to business!

Best Film

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes

This is admittedly the area where I feel least qualified to deliver a prediction, but I nonetheless feel very confident. Just based on box office it’s likely the one everyone has seen, so… Anyway, My Hero nailed its theatrical debut with an original story that felt plausible and made great use of the existing characters. All Might literally flexing on the villain is one of the greatest moments from the entire series only made possible by this film.

-Peter Fobian

The Night is Short, Walk On Girl

When I think of what constitutes an amazing film, I like to think of how the overall package leaves me feeling after I watch the whole thing. I usually want a film to leave me wanting more, but satisfied with the story I’ve been told, and for anime films, I want to see amazing, crisp visual storytelling tied to great voice acting and musical packages. For 2018, no film really left me feeling that way other than The Night is Short, Walk On Girl. The musical number alone was worth checking out the film for, and the movie also captured a lot of that joy of life style of film that usually gets talked about for college and early adulthood films.

-Nicole Mejias

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes

Before My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, I’d never been in a theater for an anime film that had such an excited audience. Usually there’s this reserved feeling of “Okay, we got this far. We’re seeing anime at an actual theater and if we play it cool, maybe this will happen again.” But thanks to the popularity of My Hero Academia and the growing appreciation for anime in America and I was faced with an audience that treated My Hero Academia: Two Heroes like a WWE show. There was so much cheering and love and when I left, I was just so happy to be an anime fan.

-Daniel Dockery

Liz and the Blue Bird

There isn’t any dialog for about the first ten minutes of Liz and the Blue Bird. It opens with one of the main characters’ footsteps ringing out into the air, and then a piano melody begins playing to the beat tapped out by her shoes. The music and imagery play off of one another in a way I’ve literally never seen in a movie before. It was so beautiful that the majority of the audience I saw it with was in tears LITERALLY BEFORE ANY CHARACTER SAID ANYTHING. This is truly the best possible movie Sound! Euphonium could have received. It’s one of the best anime experiences I’ve ever had, and I love it a lot.

-Cayla Coats

Best Director

Tatsuya Yoshihara for Black Clover

If a director is the champion of a production, I can’t think of anyone more deserving than Tatsuya Yoshihara. He’s gone above and beyond to make Black Clover a success and it’s really shone. Just following him on Twitter, you can see he lives this series and his extracurricular efforts to elevate the production are well known. His bringing in animators of all types and levels of experience to deliver the surreal experience of episode 63 is something I hope to see more regularly from Black Clover in the future.

-Peter Fobian

  Masaaki Yuasa for Devilman Crybaby

  Devilman Crybaby left me a blubbering mess by the end of it, and I hated Masaaki Yuasa for it. My only real exposure to Devilman came when I was younger and watching old VHS tapes of anime, and back then I just saw Devilman as this dark and action filled story; in Devilman Crybaby, Yuasa certainly didn’t shy away from those aspects, but he found a way to make the story even more tragic as the ending drew near. The blending of Science Saru’s visual style with Go Nagai’s manga, topped with the amazing soundtrack, is a package that could only really be created by someone with a keen eye.

-Nicole Mejias

  Akira Amemiya for SSSS. Gridman

  I’ve spent a ton of time over the last few months spreading the good word about SSSS. Gridman, but as my turn in the awards season comes to a close, I feel like I should give it one more parting compliment: The director, Akira Amemiya is awesome. Coming off of Inferno Cop and Kill la Kill, I think SSSS. Gridman, due to its subject matter, might be his best work yet. Even relatively static scenes between characters crackle with energy, and the battles are usually spectacular.

-Daniel Dockery

Norihiro Naganuma for The Ancient Magus’ Bride

How do you heal from something that has broken you completely? The Ancient Magus’ Bride seeks to answer that question. Chise’s journey to learn magic and undo the traumas of her past could have come off as tone deaf or emotionally exploitative in the wrong hands, but Naganuma’s earnest depiction of her struggles elevated this show into one of the most emotionally engaging anime I’ve ever seen. How do you heal from something that has broken you completely? Use your pain to connect to others.

-Cayla Coats

Anime of the Year

A Place Further Than the Universe

  A Place Further is an amazing production delivering one of the greatest and most original stories I’ve seen in years. From having zero source material and playing with the idea of a story about girl psychics, the staff somehow pulled together an airtight and thoroughly researched story with fantastic moments and intriguing character subplots. It was excellently paced, affirming, and I honestly can’t think of a single thing they could have done to improve it.

-Peter Fobian

  Hinamatsuri

This category was pretty tough to choose from, and in the end, I chose the brilliant Hinamatsuri. I went into this series knowing absolutely nothing other than it was a comedy. But underneath the comedy, the real strength of Hinamatsuri emerged as a story about people with real problems looking for connections. Despite Hina being a selfish brat, she’s also relatable, Nitta is somehow one of the best anime dads in memory, and I really had a hard time not crying at Anzu’s story of finding a family, losing them, and finding a new one. I loved Hinamatsuri from beginning to end, and can only hope that we may get another season of it!

-Nicole Mejias

  Devilman Crybaby

I haven’t talked a lot about Devilman Crybaby because 1) Everyone has been talking about Devilman Crybaby, and 2) I didn’t watch it until late in the year, and I didn’t want to be the guy to burst, Kool Aid Man-style, into conversations about Fall Anime and say “BUT DID YOU GUYS SEE DEVILMAN CRYBABY? HEY. HOLD ON. WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” I didn’t really get into anime until college, which means I missed the age where I would watch a Dragon Ball Z or a Berserk or anything else and think that it’s insanely, unflappably, almost perfectly rad. But watching Devilman Crybaby, I think, gave me the closest thing to that. This sense of “Oh, man. Anime really is the coolest thing in the world. Also, I need a Mountain Dew.”

-Daniel Dockery

A Place Further Than the Universe

This wasn’t the most visually beautiful anime of the year. It didn’t have the best music, the best character designs, or the best dialog. But Shirase’s journey to find her mother in a far off land transformed these parts into a truly amazing whole. Shirase, Mari, Hinata, and Yuzuki all feel like completely realized people and their journey to Antarctica is one of the finest examples of how anime can tell stories like no other medium can.

-Cayla Coats

Woo! So we hit every category, had a lot of fun writing this up, and have exhausted our physical and written voices concerning who we think should win for now. We can't wait to see who wins! 

  If you haven't voted for Anime Awards, you still have time! Voting ends this Friday and the place to see all of the nominees for every category and vote for your favorites is right here! 

  Who do you think should win: Best Film, Best Director, and Anime of the Year? Tell us in the comments below!

Ricky Soberano is a Features Editor, Script Writer, and Editorial Programming Coordinator for Crunchyroll. She’s the former Managing Editor of Brooklyn Magazine. You can follow her on Twitter @ramenslayricky.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[embhm]

Chapter 184: The Surprisingly GOOD NEWS

Note: Hey guys, it’s Alec. Using a self-adapting reverse encryption program, I managed to hack into Sae’s account. Possibly to spy on her followers and the like, send clandestine messages to certain people to help my rise for dominion over the BL world! Muahahaha!    ( ๑‾̀◡‾́)σ» But I digress... thank you for your patience awaiting these upcoming chapters. Please don’t forget to thank our lovely translators for their hard work which the Addicted fandom relies on. Much love to the entire Addicted fan community.

NO SPOILERS PLEASE!!!, in the comments or anywhere on this account. We have not finished reading the novel. No copy/paste and all that other shenanigans either. Vote/likes/comments are highly appreciated.

Translators: Grantye, Sienna, Sae    Editors: Jowly & Alec

As always, THANK YOU for reading and enjoying the journey with our HEADSTRONG boys:

GU HAI & BAI LUO YIN

《你丫上瘾了》

Chapter 184: The Surprisingly GOOD NEWS

By the time Gu Wei Ting lay down, Gu Hai was already sleeping soundly and the lights in the room have long been turned off.

He stared at the darkness for a couple of minutes before his hand started creeping towards the switch. He couldn’t sleep so he wanted to turn the lights back on. His hand had reached the switch but then he decided not to press it. He looked at his son who was sleeping soundly beside him. They were merely inches apart. Seeing him in such a calm and relaxed manner, Gu Wei Ting can’t help but feel the urge to observe him closer.

Since Gu Hai was a kid, Gu Wei Ting can only count the fingers of one hand the number of times he’d been able to look at him attentively like this. His last memory of such a time was when Gu Hai’s face was just the size of his palm. In the blink of an eye, that once innocent face had turned mature and strikingly handsome.

Years of absence from Gu Hai’s life robbed Gu Wei Ting of not only the chance to experience the joys that come with being a father, but also the chance to watch his only son grow little by little into the fine young man that he is today. Try as he might, there are so many details about Gu Hai’s life and personality that Gu Wei Ting can’t remember. For one, he has no recollection of the first time Gu Hai called him “father.” He also has no memory of the very first time Gu Hai learned to walk. He also does not know what his son liked to eat as a kid, or the toys he liked to play with.

As far as he can remember, every time he would face his son, Gu Wei Ting has always worn a monstrous appearance and a rather formidable aura.

When Gu Hai lazed around during training, stirred up trouble at school, licentiously wandered around, and even when his twisted love affair was exposed, it was always .this strong and sinister image that loomed over him. Always.

Gu Wei Ting neither tried to hear his son’s side nor did he ever ask him to sit down for a proper talk. His means for solving whatever problem he faced was always to throw a fit of rage and beat Gu Hai. The sad part of this reality is, for the longest time, this was the only way that the two ever interacted.

In all the years that passed, Gu Wei Ting never showed any warmth towards Gu Hai. Even during the first few days after his wife passed away, Gu Wei Ting never stuck around. He ran off; went from one place to another. He left his only son alone. A son who was forced to deal with the misery of losing the only person who showed him love and compassion all by himself. He never once thought how broken-hearted, sad, or devastated a 14 year old child could be when faced with such a tragedy. What’s worse is that it never occurred to him how traumatizing that experience was for a child.

So the moment, he saw his son--who was more than 180cm--tightly holding on to his own leg and huddling inside a small wardrobe, a stabbing pain unexpectedly struck his heart.

He thought, “Regardless of the mistakes Gu Hai had made, the one person who should take the blame is me.”

Gu Wei Ting quietly observed Gu Hai’s face in the darkness. Even he was not aware of how tender his own eyes were as they stared at his son. As he took in all the details of his son’s face, Gu Wei Ting saw two cotton balls stuck on Gu Hai’s hair. He immediately reached out and removed them. He then saw a trace of mud at the corner of his mouth. Without even asking why and how it got there, he wiped it away.

The lights were still off.

Gu Wei Ting lay down on his back. Not long after, he sensed Gu Hai turning over and moving closer to him. Of course, Gu Hai was already in a deep sleep and his guard was already down. What remained is some semblance of innocence and the undeniable promise of youth.

Ignoring the person moving closer to him, Gu Wei Ting turned to his side, facing Gu Hai. He was about to close his eyes when he felt someone grab one of his hands. Those two hands were warmer than his by tenfold. And as they wrapped tightly around his, Gu Wei Ting’s expression became listless for a moment. His eyes fell on Gu Hai once more.

He’s not awake. Is he just subconsciously looking for a place to warm his hand?

As he looked at his son in this state, Gu Wei Ting became deeply moved.

-----

During breakfast the next day, Gu Wei Ting was contemplating the situation he and his sons were facing. He kept quiet for a while, pondering by himself, before he turned and asked Sun Jingwei.

“What do you think about Gu Hai’s situation?”

Sun Jingwei had just taken a spoonful of porridge. He nearly choked on it when he heard those words.

“You’re asking for my opinion?” He asked in a somewhat startled manner.

“Is there anyone else here?” Gu We Ting raised a brow.

Sun Jingwei never expected Gu Wei Ting to ask for his opinion regarding this matter. To say that he was shocked by this sudden show trust is an understatement.

He placed his chopsticks down and smiled awkwardly before taking in a deep breath.

“Actually...as parents, I don’t think we need to make such a big fuss over a minor issue like this” he says. “More often than not, our strong desire to control our children backfires and causes them to be even more determined to do the very things we don’t want them to. I say, let them decide how to handle things themselves.”

“Take my daughter for example. She dated a guy when she was in her second year of junior middle school. They’ve already broken up yet her mother and I still don’t know exactly what caused them to separate. My daughter has learned from her past and is better now. The one time she opened up about it, she completely laughed the entire matter off as if it was a joke. Just think about it! If my wife and I had known about their relationship when they were still together, and tried to break them apart, would she have inevitably taken the matter as just puppy love? Wouldn’t that joke of a relationship become real and genuine in her eyes? Similarly, if you were to personally break the boys up, wouldn’t the two of them subconsciously define their feelings as love? Actually, what have you seen? Hugging? Being intimate? Think about it, when we were younger, who wasn’t affectionate with each other, huh? Perhaps, two or three years from now, when they’re living in a new environment, they’ll turn back and look at everything and see that all of it was just a joke and nothing else.”

Gu Wei Ting remained silent. His gaze never left Sun Jingwei as he contemplated the things he just said.

“Do you mean, I should let go and not care about this?”

“I never said that you shouldn’t care,” Sun Jingwei kindly smiled. He was much calmer now. “The best you can do is guide them. Whether they listen or not is totally up to them.”

Gu Wei Ting gave a cold snort when he heard Sun Jingwei’s last statement. “Then he definitely won’t listen.”

“In all honesty, I think you’re overthinking this matter. Do you remember Xiao Zheng from the third brigade? That guy who--during one of the nightly room check-ups--was found squeezed inside one blanket with with Er Hu, the soldier who slept beside him? After further investigation, it was discovered that their relationship wasn’t normal, and they were immediately expelled. But what happened in the end? After leaving the army, they’ve both respectively got married and had kids within two years. Now, I reckon there was never anything between them from the start.”

“I’ve already thought about everything that you’ve said. But the point is, my son is not Xiao Zheng or Er Hu. You’ll never meet such an unusual breed like him, even in a hundred years.”

Sun Jingwei stifled a giggle.

Even if he’s an unusual breed, he’s still your offspring.

“I don’t think he’s unusual in any way at all. But because he’s your son, you subconsciously think that he’s unusual. If this kind of situation happened to my child, I would also be anxious and eager to separate them at once. But the point is, you can’t rush this sort of situation. It’s useless to be anxious about it. Right now, those two are at a phase where there’s yearning and affection for one another. What can you do to them? Send one abroad and lock the other up in the military base? If they keep on thinking and worrying about each other like this, no matter what you do to separate them, they’ll continue to think of ways to get back together.”

It might not have been evident, but mentally Gu Wei Ting acknowledged those last few words. It gave him the will--but not the strength--to consider another course of action.

Controlling either Gu Hai and Bai Luo Yin or the situation was impossible, but ignoring it all together was impossible as well. From the looks of it, no matter what he does, those two would not allow their passion and love for each other to be weakened or whittle down.

------

Once afternoon class was over, Gu Wei Ting summoned his two sons to have lunch with him.

“After this meal, you both can leave and do whatever you want!” Gu Wei Ting said in a low yet powerful tone.

After hearing those words, Bai Luo Yin and Gu Hai--who were busy burying their faces in their plates-- lifted their heads. They cannot believe what they just heard.

“Dad, what do you mean by that, huh?” Gu Hai asked with furrowed brows. He then glanced at Bai Luo Yin from the corner of his eyes.

With indifference written all over his face, Gu Wei Ting simply let his gaze sweep by him. “What I mean is, you two better not hang around in front of me anymore. Just looking at both of you annoys me.”

Silence. This bit of good news was totally unexpected and unbelievable so neither of them were able to respond immediately.

Bai Luo Yin looked at Gu Wei Ting with disbelief. Just this morning, he was still worrying about the secret tunnel that linked his and Gu Hai’s rooms. He had been considering to quickly cover up the tunnel in fear of Gu Wei Ting discovering it and beating Gu Hai again.

It seems he had nothing to worry about after all, for things have taken a sudden turn for the better.

To Bai Luo Yin’s side, Gu Hai’s hand started to move. He reached out to touch Gu Wei Ting’s forehead but his hands were met in midair by a pair of chopsticks.

“Dad, wait. Are you suffering from something?”

“Don’t act stupid with me!” Gu Wei Ting’s expression darkened, “Hurry up and eat! After you finish eating, leave immediately!”

Gu Hai’s black pupils flickered as he spoke, “Dad, you don’t care about me anymore?”

Gu Wei Ting only spared Gu Hai a few words, “Excuse me. That can never happen.”

“Don’t!” Gu Hai pretended to be obedient and innocent after he succeeded in gaining an advantage. “Dad, you can’t ignore me ah! I’m still counting on you to guide me to the right path. If you stand aside and do nothing, then what would happen to me if some twisted idea comes to mind and I start causing trouble again?”

Gu Wei Ting continued to eat the food inside his bowl. His expression remained calm and composed. “When I cared for you, you never stopped giving me a hard time. Now that I stopped caring for you, you can do whatever you want. At least I don’t have to see any of it anymore.”

“Then, what should I do if I miss you?”

This sentence finally caused the chopsticks in Gu Wei Ting’s hand to stop moving.

Looking at the sudden change in his father’s expression, a knot immediately wrapped around Gu Hai’s heart and strangled it.

Oh my God! Don’t tell me he’s touched by what I just said? What should I do if he really changes his mind and make me stay here? Fuck! I’m so stupid. I should’ve just kept my mouth shut instead of saying that!

Gu Wei Ting shot Gu Hai a quick glance. Then out of nowhere, he burst into laughter. Not a single word was said again. The three simply continued to finish the food inside their bowls.

On their way out, Bai Luo Yin gave the father and son a quick glance. Gu Wei Ting was smiling as he bid his sons farewell. His smile reminded Bai Luo Yin of Bai Han Qi. He would always give him the same sincere smile every time he would leave home.

“Dad, I’ll be going then!” Gu Hai finally said. He was carrying two large bags as he stood at the entrance to bid his father one last farewell.

During the entire time, Bai Luo Yin kept his eyes on Gu Wei Ting. However, when Gu Wei Ting shifted his gaze towards Bai Luo Yin, the latter immediately moved his eyes in order to avoid meeting Gu Wei Ting’s.  

As they walked away side by side, Gu Hai and Bai Luo Yin greeted Sun Jingwei who couldn’t refrain from letting out a heavy sigh as he watched the two figures fade into the distance. “Bai Luo Yin is a pretty good kid.”

Gu Wei Ting, who was standing next to him, shot him a side glance, “How about I introduce your daughter to someone else so you can forget about him?”

“Don’t…” Sun Jingwei laughed while shaking his head, “I’m not worthy of being associated with the higher ups.”

Gu Wei Ting laughed along with him. The two then turned around and went inside together.

-----

As they made their way back home, Bai Luo Yin couldn’t help but be consumed with anxiety. He was so overwhelmed by this emotion, that he could not conceal it from the person beside him.

Gu Hai placed his hand on the back of Bai Luo Yin’s head and happily asked, “Don’t tell me that you’re still mulling over last night’s shock?”

“No, it’s not that,” Bai Luo Yin quietly replied. “I suddenly remembered my dad.”

Gu Hai halted his steps, “How about we go straight to your house?”

“No.” Bai Luo Yin suddenly gripped Gu Hai’s arm tightly, “I’ve been wanting to tell you….I plan on confessing to my father.”

After hearing those words, Gu Hai, whose mood that had just started to relax, suddenly became serious again.

“Is it okay if we take a breather first?” he wearily asked.

“Let’s get it done as soon as possible. Since the first try is always the most impressive, the second is weak and the third one is exhausting...”

Gu Hai’s forehead dropped to his hands, “It can’t be that torturous...”

____________

Are you addicted?

The original novel is written by Chai Jidan.

We do not own any of its content, we are translators and editors.

[andrewdburton]

A candid conversation about race in America

Minneapolis, Denver, NYC, Oakland, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Louisville, San Jose, Des Moines, Detroit. The list goes on. These are just some of the cities that have experienced protests in the past week.

George Floyd's murder (and murder-porn video) was one of the catalysts for these protests. But let's be clear: Sooner or later, this was going to happen. Things are not okay in America. America's continuing issue with race, inequality, and the routine acceptance of the mistreatment of black people and other people of color came to a head in the last couple of days.

Then, we had Amy Cooper in New York City calling the police on Christian Cooper unecessarily during a normal incident that plays out all the time – annoying people with their dogs off leash. That one call could have resulted in Christian Cooper's death.

In this episode of Michelle is Money Hungry, I'm going to get candid about race in America, money and opportunity, and what's next.

This is a very difficult show for me to do because I have so many thoughts racing through my mind. The goal of this episode is to give a better perspective of what people are angry about and to leave with ideas of how we collective can do better. And, honestly, I have to say something about this. And just so you know, this is not the first time that I've talked about race and wealth in America on my website and podcast. (But it's the first time J.D. has shared my work here at Get Rich Slowly.)

J.D.'s note: I'm not a podcast listener, but I listened to this episode. I liked it enough to ask Michelle if I could re-run everything here at GRS. I'm grateful that she agreed. The text here is, essentially, Michelle's outline so it might seem rough at times. I encourage you — if you have the time — to listen to the podcast instead. If you'd rather read/listen at Michelle's site, here's the original.

This is Winning?

We are not “winning” in the US and haven't been for many years. The fact of the matter is America, at its core, is dysfunctional and its dysfunction is currently on display.

America is an incredibly wealthy country.

It's considered a land of great opportunity and compared to other countries this is the case. We just had a private company launch US based astronauts into space via SpaceX run by an immigrant But, with all of that wealth we also have a huge problem with wealth distribution. Schools are unequal. There's a lack of access to affordable health care. There's a constant threat of danger due to gun-related violence. Access to good paying jobs is decreasing as business move manufacturing off-shore/

Americans also focus on the individual vs. the collective and that affects everything related to creating policies for citizens. Then, add racism to the mix and you get a dangerous mix.

I'd like to paraphrase a couple of things that I've heard several times during the past week about the George Floyd protests.

“Why are people looting? They're tearing up businesses and their own town. Why can't they protest without damaging property? Why can't the protestors do it differently?”

“George Floyd is just 1 man, I get that this was horrible but to riot and burn down your town for one person makes no sense”

Protest as a verb: To express an objection to what someone has said or done (via the online dictionary)

I would like to point out three really important things to consider.

First, Colin Kaepernick quietly protested by kneeling for years to protest black people getting shot by the police. He lost his livelihood, was ridiculed, and was blacklisted from a career that he could still have right now. He didn't shout, he didn't break anything, he just took the knee. And, he was told that he was protesting the wrong way. Which ironically people making the comment “why riot?” should be catching themselves on. I tend wonder did you also say that he was protesting the wrong way too.

Second, it's 2020. There's video FOR EVERYTHING. While there are protestors looting, there are also groups of white people who seem organized tearing up buildings during protests. Leading other participants to ask them what the hell are they doing. In fact, that even happened here in Denver where a George Floyd demonstrator called out an Antifa asshole who was defacing a statue in front of the State Capital.

Third, why were people more concerned about the treatment of the DOG in the Amy Cooper video vs. the fact that Christian Cooper, US Citizen and a human being, could have been killed due to her actions. In case you're like who's Amy? She's the chick who called the police on Christian Cooper, the black birder in NYC.

Fourth, if the public at large values dogs and buildings more than my black life that's something we need to reflect on.

It's NOT Just about George Floyd

The protests aren't just about the murder of George Floyd. The murder was the catalyst for something that has been coming for awhile. People just weren't paying attention. The protests are about the following:

The ongoing acceptance of black people being murdered by the police (and other people) ON CAMERA and getting away with it is bullshit. And, we're not going to take this anymore.

Black people accounted for 31% of police killing victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13% of the US population.

Lack of opportunity in a land of plenty.

Deepening poverty.

The almost daily rhetoric and actions taken by the current administration to systematically eliminate people's rights.

Basically, people are fed up with everything.

The Coronavirus

Added to this anger, is the anger associated with the Coronavirus response. It has not escaped my attention that the moment the talking points were that black/brown/and old people were the individuals most likely to die from the virus the conversation about it changed.

It felt like people were willing to sacrifice me and mine so that they could get hair cuts. That's just shitty. I work for myself from home. But many people of color work in roles that require constant interaction with people, increasing the likelihood of being exposed to the Coronavirus. But, those are also the jobs that people have lost because sporting events/restaurants/and retail won't rebound for years.

Forty million people have lost their jobs and over 100,000 have lost their lives. As I watched the protests several questions came to mind about the people who were protesting.

Who knew someone who had suffered at the hands of the police?

Who had lost a job because of the virus and they had nothing else to lose?

Who knew someone who had died because of the virus or gotten sick with lifelong physical and financial reprecussions?

Who had experienced being roadblocked professionally because of the color of their skin?

Who in the crowd has health insurance? Definitely not the 40 million people who have lost their jobs

I wasn't just looking at the screen and seeing people that I didn't know and couldn't feel empathy for. I got it. I 100% get their anger because I share and I want to share a glimpse into my experience being black in America. I will also share some other people's experiences as well.

Check Your Privilege

Every year, I have at least a minimum of two incidents of white women clutching their purses when I walk by. Even when I have a giant purse on my shoulder. I've had people ignore me when I'm talking to them – blatantly. I've been roadblocked for promotions and told by the directors of the program that I worked for that they didn't feel comfortable with me representing the program abroad. I've been followed in grocery and clothing stores. I've been referenced as the angry black woman I've been called the n-word.

I have a file with all details related to my ability to vote and I am obsessive about this. Why? Because a key part of the act was invalidated in 2013, because jurisdictions are trying to levy poll taxes in order to be eligible to vote (looking at you Florida) and because of how fearful people are to allow fair and equal access to vote and how hard they work to surpress your vote. Which should tell those of you who don't vote often how important your right to vote is.

I would like to get married and have two little boys who look like their dad. But, I'm afraid of having little boys that other people feel free to: harass and kill.

Depending on the situation I'm uncomfortable when the police are around and hate it when they drive near me when I'm driving. The last thing I want to deal with is any interaction with the police.

I was sitting on a coffee shop patio with headphones on having a conversation with my mastermind group two weeks ago. There were other people on the patio talking as well. An older white woman reprimanded me for talking too loud. Don't worry, I shut it down. But my friends Sandy Smith and Elle Martinez saw the whole thing. We were on a Zoom call.

I worry about my black male relatives, male friends, and their male kids.

It is a normal thing for people of color to have a conversation with their children telling them that the police likely not protect them and more likely hurt or kill them because they are a threat.

My experience is nothing compared to what my other friends and family members have dealt with. Why is it that my full equality as a United State's citizen is perceived as a threat to your equality? It makes no sense.

America will never be as great a country as it could be as long as the following remains true:

The lack of willingness to have candid and painful conversations about race and inequality. Our unwillingness to have these conversations keep us from truly knowing one another.

The continuing growth in the divide between the haves and have nots

Lack of access to quality health care

Lack of access to fair and equal ways to vote.

We accept unequal treatment of citizens by people in positions of authority

Those who benefit from a position of power don't stand up for what's right.

Another person's success doesn't endanger you. It benefits you. I live in a nice neighborhood. During the Coronavirus outbreak (which is still happening) I would walk around the neighborhood. No one looked stressed. I would see people exercising, riding their bikes, and spending time with their kids.

Most of the people in my neighborhood work white collar jobs and — let's be candid — are white. They were having a very different experience of the Coronavirus situation than other people that I know.

They were still getting paid to work or were able to work from home. They had some resources available to them that insured that they would be able to take care of their personal expenses. Maybe not indefinitely, but for awhile. I heard or saw conversations about purchasing properties now because now would be a great time to do so. People had access to the internet and could continue to educate their kids via online learning, take fitness classes, and order food and clothing instead of going into grocery stores.

I include myself in these observations. I have these privileges too. As I improve my life, I can't lose sight of how important it is to help other people along the way. There is a reason why I am so passionate about sharing personal finance content and how people can empower themselves making money selling what they already know.What is my success if other people are suffering?

What We Can Do

There is a lot that we can do to better the situation.

When your friends of color tell you that they feel like something is racist or are sharing an experience that was painful or scary for them-listen. Don't tell them how they should feel or how they should have reacted. It's insulting. Just listen. In fact regardless of the issue active listening is an important skill to develop.

Become self-aware, we all have our prejudiced or even racist thoughts regardless of color. Becoming self-aware of these biases helps us to manage them before they adversely affect someone else.

People of color, some of your White friends might be struggling with how to have these conversations and genuinely want to be a part of the solution. (J.D., for instance.) Give them some grace as they make mistakes during the process. But, speak up so they don't make them again. I've had some incredibly candid conversations with my white friends throughout the course of our friendships. I've had to because I was unwilling to let things slide by.

And remember, actions matter more than words — and so does your inaction.

What you do when I'm not in the room when people are making jokes and comments says a lot about YOU. When people make shitty comments online-people that you know, what will you do? Will you say nothing and be complicit because it's hard to stand up for people who aren't in the room?

Basically, will you take the easy way out or do the heavy lifting which is hard. Which means you may lose friends and family.

Be patient with one another. This is a lifetime of conversations. Connect people with opportunities that will grow their income and livelihoods. Become a personal and professional mentor. If you're a cop, get rid of the racists who've embedded themselves into the force and embrace community policing which works. Write testimonials (or better record video testimonials) for a product/good/or service that a POC friend has. That POC friend could do the same.

What Has Encouraged Me

Here's what has given me encouragement and hope recently:

The line of white women who used their privilege and stood in front of black protestors so that they wouldn't be harmed by the police.

The police who marched with protestors. This happened in a number of cities.

The black men who protected a police officer who got separated from his crew.

The Denver protester who was filmed calling out a person who was defacing the statue in front of the Colorado State Capital.

The often painful conversations and revelations that have been shared. We can't keep these things to ourselves.

The actions that people have taken. Speaking up, shutting things down, and being all in.

The love that has been sent my way from my friends of all colors who have checked on me and that I've checked on during this time. I've chosen well.

Figure out the answer to the following question “How does someone else doing well affect me?” There are a lot of people expending a lot of energy keeping people down. So you have to wonder why they fear people being equal or doing well.

Thank you for listening to the show, and I hope that you and yours are safe and well during these difficult times.

from Finance https://www.getrichslowly.org/race-in-america/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 117: The Legacy: Realm of Terror (1993) – Introduction

By Voltgloss

In 1992, Infogrames released Alone in the Dark, which put the player in the role of an unsuspecting investigator who experiences the horrors of the mansion of an eccentric magnate, after said eccentric magnate committed suicide. The player tries to escape from the mansion, the unspeakable lurking fears that haunt it in the dark and from the raving madness that the secrets of the mansion could deliver. It is exciting, deadly and … why do I suddenly have this overwhelming sense of déjà vu?

All the pictures into the mind/There’s a flashing in my eyes (Image still from here)

Yes, it’s time for a horror double bill here on The Adventure Gamer. The year after Alone in the Dark saw, not only Infogrames’s own Shadow of the Comet, but a competitor’s entry placed even more solidly in the “haunted house” genre. Because in 1993, Microprose released The Legacy: Realm of Terror, which puts the player in the role of an unsuspecting inheritor who experiences the horrors of the mansion of an eccentric Massachusetts family, as said family’s last surviving heir. The player tries to escape from the mansion, the unspeakable lurking fears that haunt it in the dark and from the raving madness that the secrets of the mansion could deliver. It promises to be exciting, deadly, and … why do I suddenly have this overwhelming sense of déjà vu?

We’ve just been in this place before

So the setup for Legacy is decidedly familiar. What about the gameplay? What we’ve got on our hands here, based on the manual and a bit of make-sure-everything-works tinkering, is an Adventure/RPG hybrid: a game where the player controls a single character exploring a “dungeon” (the mansion) in first-person perspective, with tile-based mapping and over fifteen different character statistics, all apparently with gameplay significance down the line. Something in the Elvira and Waxworks vein, then – but leaning even more heavily on the RPG side. Will the game stand on its own as an Adventure? Will it navigate the narrow straits of hybridization successfully, or will both halves combine to make less than a whole? We’re about to find out.

Higher on the street

The Legacy: Realm of Terror (also called simply The Legacy outside the United States) was the last game developed by British adventure game developer Magnetic Scrolls, after their acquisition by MicroProse. Between 1985 and 1990, Magnetic Scrolls had previously developed six graphical parser-based text adventures (and one “mini-adventure” offered to those who joined the short-lived “Official Secrets” adventure gaming club): The Pawn, The Guild of Thieves, Jinxter, Corruption, Fish!, Myth, and Wonderland. We’ve not covered any Magnetic Scrolls games previously on this blog – perhaps some Missed Classics treatment is in order down the line? [Admin note: Well, a reviewer did start Wonderland as our sixth Missed Classic, but he vanished after barely scratching the game. A replay is definitely in order.]  For now though, I’m playing through their first and only foray into mouse-driven, RPG-hybrid adventuring, published in 1993 for PC (and released digitally on GOG in December 2019).

See your body into the moonlight

Loading the game treats us to a cinematic intro where someone (our protagonist? someone else?) drives up to the spooky Winthrop House, accompanied by lightning flashes and tense, fast-paced music. Between the glowers of gargoyles our perspective passes through the front door, into a foyer (that we’ll see “for real” soon enough), up stairs and through a door – and promptly face-plants into the floor in a dimly lit hallway, blood filling our vision. An omen of things to come? The fate of the last visitor before us? We may never know! What we do know – as the game next tells us after showing a newspaper about the “Winthrop House heir” (us) being located – is that it’s time to select (or create) our character.

The fiction is gonna run it again

Character selection/creation lets you pick one of eight different protagonists, each with different backgrounds, character model design, and statistics. You can also manually adjust statistics for any one of the eight characters to tailor their attributes to your liking. The manual also promises that skills can be improved as we progress through the game, although there doesn’t appear to be any dedicated “experience” score or character “level”; rather, the game suggests that repeatedly using a particular skill can increase your proficiency at it, Quest for Glory-style. There are seven primary statistics, three of which have four secondary sub-skills, as detailed in the manual:

1. Knowledge – ability to “perform various operations requiring special training.” Sub-skills:

Electronics – for opening “electronic locks” and dealing with other “electronic objects”

First Aid – for restoring health via first aid kits

Meditation – for restoring magic power via “Power Crystals”

Mechanics – for opening “mechanical locks” and dealing with other mechanical objects

2. Strength – prowess with hand-held weapons, and boosts Health. Sub-skills:

Brawling – bare-handed punching prowess

Club – prowess with club-type weapons

Force – for forcing open doors

Lift – for picking up heavy objects

3. Dexterity – a “value for basic agility.” Sub-skills:

Blade – prowess with bladed weapons

Dodge – ability to avoid ranged weapon attacks

Firearms – prowess with firearms

Throw – ability to throw objects or weapons

4. Stamina – poison resistance and boosts Health

5. Willpower – prowess with magic and resistance to magical attacks

6. Health – our character’s life meter; death at zero “hit points.” Derived from Strength and Stamina.

7. Magic – or “magic points”; expended by casting spells.

And now, let’s meet our eight potential protagonists. Whom shall we pick? That’s up to you! I’ll be accepting votes in the comments to this post as to your first, second, and third choice of protagonist; I’ll then assign 5 points per first-choice pick, 3 points per second-choice pick, and 1 point per third-choice pick, and then using whichever character gets the most points. Ties will be broken by random roll. I’ll accept votes up until 72 hours after this is posted. Here we go!

Brad Norris. Sophomore at NYU, ski team captain and Debating Society member. Planning a “mondo party.” Never claimed to have deep motivations.

Brad is the default choice if you’re just clicking through as fast as possible, and perhaps by design he’s one of the most well-rounded statistically, with equal Knowledge, Strength, and Dexterity scores. Most of his sub-skills have a few bonus points added (the gold line segments extending to the right of the blue, red, or purple line segments below each sub-skill’s name).

Charlotte Kane. CEO of the charmingly-named Golgotha Holdings. Planning to turn Winthrop House into a luxury hotel and conference center.

Charlotte is one of the four options who comes with a spell already learned. No idea why a CEO knows the secrets of the Crimson Mists of Myamoto, but apparently it’s a spell to reduce physical damage taken. Statistically, she’s got very low strength, mediocre dexterity, but high knowledge (and particularly good at patching herself up with first aid kits). Lower health than Brad, but higher willpower.

Charles Weiss. Stage magician and self-described astrologer and occultist. Implicated in the Arlington “sacrifice” scandal. We don’t talk about the Arlington “sacrifice” scandal.

Charles eschews protective magic for a good old-fashioned fireball spell, leveraging the arcane power of not one, not two, but three words ending in “-eth.” Base statistics are generally low across the board (even his Knowledge score is just equal to Brad’s, though he’s specialized in Meditation where Brad isn’t). Where Charles put his bonus points is into his fire magic; see the length of the gold line segment below the “Flames of Desolation” spell name.

Lucy Weston. Sophomore at UCLA. Orphan who worked her way through school. Tennis and volleyball player. Thinks her inheritance is “totally rad” and “almost tubular.” 

Possibly modeled on horror films’ “final girl” trope, Lucy here is just as strong as Brad, has extremely high dexterity and health, and is apparently a crack shot (with the best skill in firearms out of all eight characters). As a tradeoff, her knowledge is at rock bottom.

Henry Jones. Head of the Department of American History at Penn State. Authority on the Salem witch-trials. No word on whether he has a son named Junior.

What horror game is complete without a university professor character? Henry here brings impressive knowledge to the table, with mediocre dexterity (though he’s spry enough to dodge and throw surprisingly well) and lots of points devoted to his “Sight of the Dark Walker” spell. I don’t have any information on what spells do beyond the description you see here; I’m guessing this lets you see in the dark and, maybe, helps with discovering secrets. Of course, all those points need a tradeoff somewhere; Henry has the least strength and health of all eight characters.

Jane Olson. Investigative journalist with the New York Daily Post. Looking to uncover the truth about the Winthrop family’s enigmatic disappearance.

Jane is our second well-rounded choice. She has very similar stats to Brad, with equal knowledge, strength, and dexterity scores and with solid health and willpower. Jane’s a bit better than Brad with at punching, dodging, forcing doors, and tinkering with electronics/mechanics; while Brad has the edge in first aid and throwing skill.

Robert “Boomer” Kowalski. USMC (retired). Purple Heart and Navy Cross holder. Veteran of actions in Grenada, Panama, and the Gulf.

Someone has to have the most strength of the bunch, and that someone is Robert. He’s best situated of the eight to beat down eldritch abominations with his bare fists, and is also ready to swing a mean blade or shoot a mean gun. Average dexterity and mediocre knowledge (though with combat training in the use of first aid kits). His weak point is very low willpower. What’s that going to mean in gameplay? We’ll see, but the manual suggests your protagonist can become terrified or go into shock at the horrors they’ll face. If willpower determines resistance to such effects, our friend Robert here is well-equipped … to go mad.

Isobel Gowdie. Widow and distant Winthrop family relative. There’s always been one Gowdie resident in the area, dating back to the 17th century.

Isobel, like Charles, is a fire-slinging offensive spellcaster. Mediocre stats across the board in exchange for very high willpower and a pumped-up Flames of Desolation spell. Compared to Charles, she has less knowledge (though is a bit better at first aid) and less prowess with weapons; but she actually is better at magic (in both raw magic and in her Flames spell) and has more stamina and health.

So, there’s our cast! Whom shall be our avatar for this spooky adventure? You all tell me. I look forward to your choice!

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it’s an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that I won’t be able to solve a puzzle without putting in an official Request for Assistance: remember to use ROT13 for betting. If you get it right, you will be rewarded with 50 CAPs in return. It’s also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it. All correct (or nearest) votes will go into a draw.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-117-the-legacy-realm-of-terror-1993-introduction/

[sienadhowausa]

Lawrence Durance Fundraising Part II

Good afternoon, I’m Lawrence Durance my name and how to get hold of me as it should be in the bottom of the screen. This is the second installment of a series of five that are dealing with major gift programs for small and medium sized nonprofits. Our first session that I had a week or so ago on YouTube was do we really need a major gift program?

And today we’re going to turn our attention to how do you develop a case for support for a major gift program for your organization. And we’re going to work through and see what difference it makes on how you do them. Now see if this fits you at all.

When I come in organizations and I asked to receive their case for support. Often what I will hear is we have a draft of our case was done by Stafford grant writer someone probably pretty well done. It was taken to the board. The board was asked to look at it. They did. They were asked to approve it. They did and they voted on it and often unanimously approved it and put it aside. That was the end of it.

You have a case on file but you don’t have buy in or ownership. And the reason you need buy in their ownership with major gift programs is that helps to motivate them to make major gifts not when they’re just handed a case for support. So how do we go about doing this? Get ownership. I want to first note to you an ad each is true in fundraising in my work. Developing your case for support.

Should the board lead and staff support it not the other way around. That’s easy enough for me to say; but how do you make that happen? I’m going to give you a way that I’ve seen at work with a number of organizations and see if that fits for you or some modification.

You bring together for a half day session or plus a plus session. And the purpose of the session is to look at and examine the future of the organization. And you invite your board they are the host. You have key senior staff and other stakeholders especially major donors and major give prospects and now you’ve got to be grouped together. What I suggest to you in the first instance is that you break him into small groups.

That way everybody will participate. And when you got broken into small groups pose this is the first question. If your organization were to disappear tomorrow what difference would it make if any? To the community you purport to serve. There’s no right or wrong answer to them.

Ask the groups to write down what their thoughts are individually write them down write them down then bring them back together once they’ve had time to do them and have them report out so everybody can hear what everybody else said. Have a staff person making close clear notes of what is gone on and watch for the threads that come through the common issues etc. then send them back into their small groups again and ask him to address this. We want for our organization for you to come up with.

We believe that statements we believe that no child should go to bed. We believe that every person deserves a hot meal a day whatever it is you believe and each group should come up with I would say I based my experience three four five. We believe that statements again.

There’s no right or wrong answer you just get the input them bring back everybody together and have them report out. And again the staff person take notes at this point you want to take a bit of a break. And the staff person or to keep you know that they will go away take the information has been presented and put it into some logical form on why you should exist what would happen if you disappeared.

What he believed that statements then come back after your break present that to the group. Put it up on flip chart have a printed out etc. however you want to do it and ask people for comments input. Does it accurately reflect where we are? That’s the end of what you’re going to do from that day. That takes a while to get through.

You may have other work you’re going to do but in your case that’s what you’re gonna end up with. And then the staff should be charged to go out and pull together a draft of their case. And then just share that back with the group at a later date and you have the makings and a framework for a vision for the future based on what this group’s done and now the staff completely and the needs we have. What kind of money we need to make this come about etc. etc.

Then I would suggest to staff to the chief executive send that out to everybody who participate this draft you have and let them comment back individually. And I won’t go into it here but I suggest doing that in writing don’t bring them back as a group to critique it but let them comment on the draft that you’ve done. And then you tidy that up and then take on board.

The common issues and concerns people have you now have a draft of the case and you have some ownership and some buy in and by buy in I mean these people will step up and they’re more likely to make significant gifts because they have been a part of coming up with what are going to be the issues in the direction of the organization.

Some boards feel threatened by this because they feel like it’s a board responsibility. And my comment to that is if you’re going to pay for everything. That’s fine. But if you need others to step up and make significant commitments they need to be able to have some. Piece of the action so to speak. So what do you do now?

Once you have this and you’ve got a draft I think you’ve got the makings of how you put together a case your case then can be used in brochures. It can be used in videos it can be used in social media etc. We’ve got a working viable case for support. Now what I suggest to you for homework out of the session is you go back take a look at what you have for a case. How did it come about?

Chief executive and board chair talked to each other. Is there real buy in? Is there ownership? Will board members keep prospects? Step up and financially support this with meaningful gifts. The answer is yes fine if the answers we don’t know or we’re really doubtful. Then you need to do something about that.

And you can either take on perhaps a little exercise like I’ve mentioned the workshop have a workshop or something else that fits you better. But the answer is not I don’t like what Lawrence Durance presented and we’re not going to do anything. The answer is we don’t like necessarily what we saw on YouTube but here’s where we’re going to do instead.

And at that stage of the game you’ll have a chance to pull together a case that makes sense that people can buy into maybe you don’t have a case for support. You still have to go through the same type of exercise. So at the end of the day what you have hopefully is a case that’s vibrant, alive. It’s clear, it’s compelling and it’s ready to be supported by your major donors. I hope this is helpful.

Now next week we’re going to turn to another topic. I have to take a peek at what that is. Oh we’re going to focus on. The question or comment I get from organizations look we haven’t focused much a major gifts in the past. We even doubt whether we have any major gift prospects much less donors. How do we find major give prospects and turn them into donors? But how do we find them the first instance? That’s it for the day. Have a great day. Thanks

The post Lawrence Durance Fundraising Part II appeared first on Lawrence Pierce Durance.

source http://lawrencedurance.com/lawrence-durance-fundraising-part-ii/ from Lawrence Durance http://lawrencedurance.blogspot.com/2017/02/lawrence-durance-fundraising-part-ii.html

[markgclarkus90]

Lawrence Durance Fundraising Part II

Good afternoon, I’m Lawrence Durance my name and how to get hold of me as it should be in the bottom of the screen. This is the second installment of a series of five that are dealing with major gift programs for small and medium sized nonprofits. Our first session that I had a week or so ago on YouTube was do we really need a major gift program?

And today we’re going to turn our attention to how do you develop a case for support for a major gift program for your organization. And we’re going to work through and see what difference it makes on how you do them. Now see if this fits you at all.

When I come in organizations and I asked to receive their case for support. Often what I will hear is we have a draft of our case was done by Stafford grant writer someone probably pretty well done. It was taken to the board. The board was asked to look at it. They did. They were asked to approve it. They did and they voted on it and often unanimously approved it and put it aside. That was the end of it.

You have a case on file but you don’t have buy in or ownership. And the reason you need buy in their ownership with major gift programs is that helps to motivate them to make major gifts not when they’re just handed a case for support. So how do we go about doing this? Get ownership. I want to first note to you an ad each is true in fundraising in my work. Developing your case for support.

Should the board lead and staff support it not the other way around. That’s easy enough for me to say; but how do you make that happen? I’m going to give you a way that I’ve seen at work with a number of organizations and see if that fits for you or some modification.

You bring together for a half day session or plus a plus session. And the purpose of the session is to look at and examine the future of the organization. And you invite your board they are the host. You have key senior staff and other stakeholders especially major donors and major give prospects and now you’ve got to be grouped together. What I suggest to you in the first instance is that you break him into small groups.

That way everybody will participate. And when you got broken into small groups pose this is the first question. If your organization were to disappear tomorrow what difference would it make if any? To the community you purport to serve. There’s no right or wrong answer to them.

Ask the groups to write down what their thoughts are individually write them down write them down then bring them back together once they’ve had time to do them and have them report out so everybody can hear what everybody else said. Have a staff person making close clear notes of what is gone on and watch for the threads that come through the common issues etc. then send them back into their small groups again and ask him to address this. We want for our organization for you to come up with.

We believe that statements we believe that no child should go to bed. We believe that every person deserves a hot meal a day whatever it is you believe and each group should come up with I would say I based my experience three four five. We believe that statements again.

There’s no right or wrong answer you just get the input them bring back everybody together and have them report out. And again the staff person take notes at this point you want to take a bit of a break. And the staff person or to keep you know that they will go away take the information has been presented and put it into some logical form on why you should exist what would happen if you disappeared.

What he believed that statements then come back after your break present that to the group. Put it up on flip chart have a printed out etc. however you want to do it and ask people for comments input. Does it accurately reflect where we are? That’s the end of what you’re going to do from that day. That takes a while to get through.

You may have other work you’re going to do but in your case that’s what you’re gonna end up with. And then the staff should be charged to go out and pull together a draft of their case. And then just share that back with the group at a later date and you have the makings and a framework for a vision for the future based on what this group’s done and now the staff completely and the needs we have. What kind of money we need to make this come about etc. etc.

Then I would suggest to staff to the chief executive send that out to everybody who participate this draft you have and let them comment back individually. And I won’t go into it here but I suggest doing that in writing don’t bring them back as a group to critique it but let them comment on the draft that you’ve done. And then you tidy that up and then take on board.

The common issues and concerns people have you now have a draft of the case and you have some ownership and some buy in and by buy in I mean these people will step up and they’re more likely to make significant gifts because they have been a part of coming up with what are going to be the issues in the direction of the organization.

Some boards feel threatened by this because they feel like it’s a board responsibility. And my comment to that is if you’re going to pay for everything. That’s fine. But if you need others to step up and make significant commitments they need to be able to have some. Piece of the action so to speak. So what do you do now?

Once you have this and you’ve got a draft I think you’ve got the makings of how you put together a case your case then can be used in brochures. It can be used in videos it can be used in social media etc. We’ve got a working viable case for support. Now what I suggest to you for homework out of the session is you go back take a look at what you have for a case. How did it come about?

Chief executive and board chair talked to each other. Is there real buy in? Is there ownership? Will board members keep prospects? Step up and financially support this with meaningful gifts. The answer is yes fine if the answers we don’t know or we’re really doubtful. Then you need to do something about that.

And you can either take on perhaps a little exercise like I’ve mentioned the workshop have a workshop or something else that fits you better. But the answer is not I don’t like what Lawrence Durance presented and we’re not going to do anything. The answer is we don’t like necessarily what we saw on YouTube but here’s where we’re going to do instead.

And at that stage of the game you’ll have a chance to pull together a case that makes sense that people can buy into maybe you don’t have a case for support. You still have to go through the same type of exercise. So at the end of the day what you have hopefully is a case that’s vibrant, alive. It’s clear, it’s compelling and it’s ready to be supported by your major donors. I hope this is helpful.

Now next week we’re going to turn to another topic. I have to take a peek at what that is. Oh we’re going to focus on. The question or comment I get from organizations look we haven’t focused much a major gifts in the past. We even doubt whether we have any major gift prospects much less donors. How do we find major give prospects and turn them into donors? But how do we find them the first instance? That’s it for the day. Have a great day. Thanks

The post Lawrence Durance Fundraising Part II appeared first on Lawrence Pierce Durance.

Source: http://lawrencedurance.com/lawrence-durance-fundraising-part-ii/

from PD Solutions, Inc. Fund Raising Counsel https://lawrencedurance.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/lawrence-durance-fundraising-part-ii/

[mayadoherty76]

Lawrence Durance Fundraising Part II

Good afternoon, I’m Lawrence Durance my name and how to get hold of me as it should be in the bottom of the screen. This is the second installment of a series of five that are dealing with major gift programs for small and medium sized nonprofits. Our first session that I had a week or so ago on YouTube was do we really need a major gift program?

And today we’re going to turn our attention to how do you develop a case for support for a major gift program for your organization. And we’re going to work through and see what difference it makes on how you do them. Now see if this fits you at all.

When I come in organizations and I asked to receive their case for support. Often what I will hear is we have a draft of our case was done by Stafford grant writer someone probably pretty well done. It was taken to the board. The board was asked to look at it. They did. They were asked to approve it. They did and they voted on it and often unanimously approved it and put it aside. That was the end of it.

You have a case on file but you don’t have buy in or ownership. And the reason you need buy in their ownership with major gift programs is that helps to motivate them to make major gifts not when they’re just handed a case for support. So how do we go about doing this? Get ownership. I want to first note to you an ad each is true in fundraising in my work. Developing your case for support.

Should the board lead and staff support it not the other way around. That’s easy enough for me to say; but how do you make that happen? I’m going to give you a way that I’ve seen at work with a number of organizations and see if that fits for you or some modification.

You bring together for a half day session or plus a plus session. And the purpose of the session is to look at and examine the future of the organization. And you invite your board they are the host. You have key senior staff and other stakeholders especially major donors and major give prospects and now you’ve got to be grouped together. What I suggest to you in the first instance is that you break him into small groups.

That way everybody will participate. And when you got broken into small groups pose this is the first question. If your organization were to disappear tomorrow what difference would it make if any? To the community you purport to serve. There’s no right or wrong answer to them.

Ask the groups to write down what their thoughts are individually write them down write them down then bring them back together once they’ve had time to do them and have them report out so everybody can hear what everybody else said. Have a staff person making close clear notes of what is gone on and watch for the threads that come through the common issues etc. then send them back into their small groups again and ask him to address this. We want for our organization for you to come up with.

We believe that statements we believe that no child should go to bed. We believe that every person deserves a hot meal a day whatever it is you believe and each group should come up with I would say I based my experience three four five. We believe that statements again.

There’s no right or wrong answer you just get the input them bring back everybody together and have them report out. And again the staff person take notes at this point you want to take a bit of a break. And the staff person or to keep you know that they will go away take the information has been presented and put it into some logical form on why you should exist what would happen if you disappeared.

What he believed that statements then come back after your break present that to the group. Put it up on flip chart have a printed out etc. however you want to do it and ask people for comments input. Does it accurately reflect where we are? That’s the end of what you’re going to do from that day. That takes a while to get through.

You may have other work you’re going to do but in your case that’s what you’re gonna end up with. And then the staff should be charged to go out and pull together a draft of their case. And then just share that back with the group at a later date and you have the makings and a framework for a vision for the future based on what this group’s done and now the staff completely and the needs we have. What kind of money we need to make this come about etc. etc.

Then I would suggest to staff to the chief executive send that out to everybody who participate this draft you have and let them comment back individually. And I won’t go into it here but I suggest doing that in writing don’t bring them back as a group to critique it but let them comment on the draft that you’ve done. And then you tidy that up and then take on board.

The common issues and concerns people have you now have a draft of the case and you have some ownership and some buy in and by buy in I mean these people will step up and they’re more likely to make significant gifts because they have been a part of coming up with what are going to be the issues in the direction of the organization.

Some boards feel threatened by this because they feel like it’s a board responsibility. And my comment to that is if you’re going to pay for everything. That’s fine. But if you need others to step up and make significant commitments they need to be able to have some. Piece of the action so to speak. So what do you do now?

Once you have this and you’ve got a draft I think you’ve got the makings of how you put together a case your case then can be used in brochures. It can be used in videos it can be used in social media etc. We’ve got a working viable case for support. Now what I suggest to you for homework out of the session is you go back take a look at what you have for a case. How did it come about?

Chief executive and board chair talked to each other. Is there real buy in? Is there ownership? Will board members keep prospects? Step up and financially support this with meaningful gifts. The answer is yes fine if the answers we don’t know or we’re really doubtful. Then you need to do something about that.

And you can either take on perhaps a little exercise like I’ve mentioned the workshop have a workshop or something else that fits you better. But the answer is not I don’t like what Lawrence Durance presented and we’re not going to do anything. The answer is we don’t like necessarily what we saw on YouTube but here’s where we’re going to do instead.

And at that stage of the game you’ll have a chance to pull together a case that makes sense that people can buy into maybe you don’t have a case for support. You still have to go through the same type of exercise. So at the end of the day what you have hopefully is a case that’s vibrant, alive. It’s clear, it’s compelling and it’s ready to be supported by your major donors. I hope this is helpful.

Now next week we’re going to turn to another topic. I have to take a peek at what that is. Oh we’re going to focus on. The question or comment I get from organizations look we haven’t focused much a major gifts in the past. We even doubt whether we have any major gift prospects much less donors. How do we find major give prospects and turn them into donors? But how do we find them the first instance? That’s it for the day. Have a great day. Thanks

The post Lawrence Durance Fundraising Part II appeared first on Lawrence Pierce Durance.

from Lawrence Pierce Durance http://lawrencedurance.com/lawrence-durance-fundraising-part-ii/ from PD Solutions, Inc. Fund Raising Counsel https://lawrencedurance.tumblr.com/post/157820887798

[lawrencedurance]

Lawrence Durance Fundraising Part II

Good afternoon, I’m Lawrence Durance my name and how to get hold of me as it should be in the bottom of the screen. This is the second installment of a series of five that are dealing with major gift programs for small and medium sized nonprofits. Our first session that I had a week or so ago on YouTube was do we really need a major gift program?

And today we’re going to turn our attention to how do you develop a case for support for a major gift program for your organization. And we’re going to work through and see what difference it makes on how you do them. Now see if this fits you at all.

When I come in organizations and I asked to receive their case for support. Often what I will hear is we have a draft of our case was done by Stafford grant writer someone probably pretty well done. It was taken to the board. The board was asked to look at it. They did. They were asked to approve it. They did and they voted on it and often unanimously approved it and put it aside. That was the end of it.

You have a case on file but you don’t have buy in or ownership. And the reason you need buy in their ownership with major gift programs is that helps to motivate them to make major gifts not when they’re just handed a case for support. So how do we go about doing this? Get ownership. I want to first note to you an ad each is true in fundraising in my work. Developing your case for support.

Should the board lead and staff support it not the other way around. That’s easy enough for me to say; but how do you make that happen? I’m going to give you a way that I’ve seen at work with a number of organizations and see if that fits for you or some modification.

You bring together for a half day session or plus a plus session. And the purpose of the session is to look at and examine the future of the organization. And you invite your board they are the host. You have key senior staff and other stakeholders especially major donors and major give prospects and now you’ve got to be grouped together. What I suggest to you in the first instance is that you break him into small groups.

That way everybody will participate. And when you got broken into small groups pose this is the first question. If your organization were to disappear tomorrow what difference would it make if any? To the community you purport to serve. There’s no right or wrong answer to them.

Ask the groups to write down what their thoughts are individually write them down write them down then bring them back together once they’ve had time to do them and have them report out so everybody can hear what everybody else said. Have a staff person making close clear notes of what is gone on and watch for the threads that come through the common issues etc. then send them back into their small groups again and ask him to address this. We want for our organization for you to come up with.

We believe that statements we believe that no child should go to bed. We believe that every person deserves a hot meal a day whatever it is you believe and each group should come up with I would say I based my experience three four five. We believe that statements again.

There’s no right or wrong answer you just get the input them bring back everybody together and have them report out. And again the staff person take notes at this point you want to take a bit of a break. And the staff person or to keep you know that they will go away take the information has been presented and put it into some logical form on why you should exist what would happen if you disappeared.

What he believed that statements then come back after your break present that to the group. Put it up on flip chart have a printed out etc. however you want to do it and ask people for comments input. Does it accurately reflect where we are? That’s the end of what you’re going to do from that day. That takes a while to get through.

You may have other work you’re going to do but in your case that’s what you’re gonna end up with. And then the staff should be charged to go out and pull together a draft of their case. And then just share that back with the group at a later date and you have the makings and a framework for a vision for the future based on what this group’s done and now the staff completely and the needs we have. What kind of money we need to make this come about etc. etc.

Then I would suggest to staff to the chief executive send that out to everybody who participate this draft you have and let them comment back individually. And I won’t go into it here but I suggest doing that in writing don’t bring them back as a group to critique it but let them comment on the draft that you’ve done. And then you tidy that up and then take on board.

The common issues and concerns people have you now have a draft of the case and you have some ownership and some buy in and by buy in I mean these people will step up and they’re more likely to make significant gifts because they have been a part of coming up with what are going to be the issues in the direction of the organization.

Some boards feel threatened by this because they feel like it’s a board responsibility. And my comment to that is if you’re going to pay for everything. That’s fine. But if you need others to step up and make significant commitments they need to be able to have some. Piece of the action so to speak. So what do you do now?

Once you have this and you’ve got a draft I think you’ve got the makings of how you put together a case your case then can be used in brochures. It can be used in videos it can be used in social media etc. We’ve got a working viable case for support. Now what I suggest to you for homework out of the session is you go back take a look at what you have for a case. How did it come about?

Chief executive and board chair talked to each other. Is there real buy in? Is there ownership? Will board members keep prospects? Step up and financially support this with meaningful gifts. The answer is yes fine if the answers we don’t know or we’re really doubtful. Then you need to do something about that.

And you can either take on perhaps a little exercise like I’ve mentioned the workshop have a workshop or something else that fits you better. But the answer is not I don’t like what Lawrence Durance presented and we’re not going to do anything. The answer is we don’t like necessarily what we saw on YouTube but here’s where we’re going to do instead.

And at that stage of the game you’ll have a chance to pull together a case that makes sense that people can buy into maybe you don’t have a case for support. You still have to go through the same type of exercise. So at the end of the day what you have hopefully is a case that’s vibrant, alive. It’s clear, it’s compelling and it’s ready to be supported by your major donors. I hope this is helpful.

Now next week we’re going to turn to another topic. I have to take a peek at what that is. Oh we’re going to focus on. The question or comment I get from organizations look we haven’t focused much a major gifts in the past. We even doubt whether we have any major gift prospects much less donors. How do we find major give prospects and turn them into donors? But how do we find them the first instance? That’s it for the day. Have a great day. Thanks

The post Lawrence Durance Fundraising Part II appeared first on Lawrence Pierce Durance.

from Lawrence Pierce Durance http://lawrencedurance.com/lawrence-durance-fundraising-part-ii/