#sometimes I quite like surveys and data lol

[readyplayerhobi]

BTS Fanfic Reader Survey Results

So! This week, I put out a request for all you lovely folk to do a survey for me. Initially, it was so that I could get a good gauge on the interest of my readers but so many people responded that I ended up just getting a pretty good idea of a lot of reader’s opinions on fanfics regarding BTS.

Now, to preface...this will be skewed obviously because I am a Hoseok majority fic blog and therefore it’s expected that will likely be the most popular member people read on here. However...the results may surprise you with what you expect.

238 people did this survey. For reference, apparently if you want only a 10% margin of error on the opinion of 10,000 people...you only need to survey 100 people. For a 5% margin, you would survey just under 400. Just the facts there for you lol

I’m not going to put these questions in order of how I put them in the survey and some had too many responses for me to make an accurate chart without it looking ridiculous so you’ll get a generalisation.

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Question 1

Now then...who expected to see that Taehyung would be the second lowest because I didn’t. I fully expected it to read as Hoseok then the maknae line. But instead, Hoseok took the clear win but Yoongi and Namjoon were surprisingly in the top four for a while. Jimin appears to have made a leap, but he’s only 1.3% ahead. To give you clear numbers, Jimin only got 3 more votes than Namjoon.

Question 2

Pretty even split here! So don’t worry people who want to write multi-chaptered stories, you’ll find a positive reception!

Question 3

Again, an almost even split. Which is both encouraging for people writing stories but also slightly discouraging knowing that people aren’t going to bother until you’ve finished it. But hopefully that would mean people would Netflix style binge!

Question 4

This surprised no one really, huh? The stats are overwhelmingly in favour of longer fics and I understand why. You get more from it and get to stay invested in a world for longer.

Question 5

Now, this made it look like everyone only liked to read fluff or smut when I looked at it but putting it into a chart actually give me a more in depth look! So, this is very interesting to read because while smut is very popular...people seem to like it mostly with other stuff. (for some reason it’s put them both ways round so take that into account). If we combine the multiple answers, then it’s pretty clear that fluff and smut together is the most popular combination of genres to read. After this, it’s the combination of all three with angst, fluff AND smut. Angst on it’s own isn’t hugely popular but people seem to like angst mixed in with everything else.

Question 6

What is your favourite sub-genre to read?

Take this with a pinch of salt because it will include multiple answers, so some people put slice of life and fantasy. But it still gives you a pretty clear indication that slice of life and college are the two most popular. I presume this to be because the fanbase/readership is often college aged which makes sense. Fantasy and supernatural are always clear winners in the fic verse! Other answers that were given include hybrid, mafia, idolverse, OT7, CEO/businessmen, soulmates, unrequited love and office.

Question 7

What is your least favourite sub-genre to read?

Unsurprisingly, horror was the least favourite genre. I don’t think anyone will be shocked over that, but I was a little surprised at how high single parent ranked! Also, science fiction being the second most unpopular *cries in Starfire*, but again, not surprising! Other answers include: yandere, CEO, artist, florist, r*pe, historical, idol.

Question 8

True is yes, false is no. It’s nice to see that a lot of people are willing to read fics that also include members of other K-pop groups for anyone who’s wondering about whether people may be interested in that!

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And that concludes our survey! I hope it was interesting for both readers AND authors! It’s a useful insight into the mindsets of people to see what they think regarding the stories that they read! Feel free to share :)

[otherkindstudy]

Results of Otherkind Survey #1 - Dreams

Thank you all for your responses! They've been very helpful with researching dreams in general among otherkind. Also, a big thank you to my friends in the community for helping boost this survey. I did not expect 171 responses! That’s huge!! 

A small disclaimer before I begin. The way that I personally interpret the data obtained from this survey it may be different than how you interpret it, and that is ok! My commentary is simply how I have interpreted this data, and is not to be taken as fact. I am not out here claiming to be a dream expert, and much of this is simply theory. 

For simplicity’s sake, I’ll be referring to the community in which the survey targeted as ‘otherkind’, and referring to humans who exclusively identify as humans as ‘HiH’ (human-identified-human). In case you didn’t see the announcement, I posted a similar survey in a large community of humans where they talk about their dreams, as a sort of control group. 

There was a question omitted from their survey, which was the ‘what labels do you feel apply to you’ one. We will be referring to this question as ‘Question 0′. 

So, without further ado, let’s get to the results! 

Question 0. What labels do you feel apply to you?

This is about what I expected! There is a lot of overlap between these communities. There’s not a lot to say about this, other than hi! - from ur other/fictionkin researcher friend

Now for the shared questions!

Question 1. Are you able to read written language in your dreams?

What I gather from these results is that otherkind are more frequently able to read in their dreams as opposed to human-identified-humans. If you combine the orange and green (sometimes and never) on both charts, you can see that otherkind seem more capable of consistently reading written language. 

Question 2.  Are you able to do physical activity normally in your dreams (as opposed to feeling like what you are doing is in 'slow motion')?

Otherkind also seem to have more mobility in their dreams compared to human-identified-humans. There is a solid 10% difference in otherkind who answered positively (always and frequently) compared to HiH. 

Question 3.  Have you met complete strangers in your dreams, without ever having seen them before in real life?

This one kind of surprised me! Human-identified-humans tend to meet complete strangers more often than otherkind. I wonder if this has to do with otherkind dreaming of people and places they once knew, or not meeting people at all in their dreams, as opposed to HiH’s ‘whatever the brain wants to throw out’. 

Question 4.  Are you able to taste, smell, or feel physical sensation in your dreams? 

Going down the line;

HiH are slightly more capable of tasting things. I know that much of otherkind (especially therians) would typically hunt for food as their kintypes, so perhaps taste isn’t quite the thing on their mind when eating food. (can’t relate)

Otherkind are slightly more capable of smelling things. My theory as to why this is, is many otherkind remember being entities with stronger senses than human, smell being a very common sense that can be hundreds of times stronger than a human’s. Then again, it is a 4% difference, so I could be reading too deep into it.

Both Otherkind and HiH are equally matched when it comes to feeling physical sensation. Around 10% of both can’t feel physical sensation!

Otherkind are more likely to lack any senses in dreams as opposed to HiH. Another really interesting answer. I don’t have any theories to explain this, but the information is there in case you want to do a dissertation on another 4% difference LOL

Question 5.  Can you use technology in your dreams (such as reading clocks, using smartphones, and using computers)? 

Now this really has me interested. When looking at the percentages, otherkind have a nearly 10% lead on HiH for each subject, excluding the ‘unable’ one, where they have a 10% deficit. Also keep in mind there were a larger amount of humans who answered the control group survey than there were otherkind. 

The most common on both sides of the coin were using smartphones, which I find makes a lot of sense! Many, many people, regardless of human-exclusivity use smartphones every day of their lives, so for them to crop up in dreams of both sides is understandable. 

Question 6. Can you view yourself in the mirror in your dreams? If yes, do you view yourself as you are in the physical world, or is it a reflection of your 'true self'?

This is where things got tricky. I had no idea how other people would answer this, so I left the question as a 'fill in the blank'. This yielded many answers, but there were about 5 common answers.

⦁ Viewing of True Self

⦁ Viewing of Physical Self

⦁ Viewing of Mixed Self

⦁ Playing of a Role In-Dream

⦁ Unable/Can't View Self

Being unable or never trying to view yourself in a reflection was by far the most common answer. Quite a few people just flat out didn't answer the question, either (in the future, please answer all the questions!). But, with the results we did get, I read all the answers and tallied them up.

Among the people who can view themselves in the mirror, it seems like most people can either view themselves as one or the other; their physical self, or their true self. It makes sense. I almost wonder if that has any correlation to how long they've known they haven't been exclusively human, but that's a study for another day. 

Another interesting answer was the 'mixed-self', which varied from a mixture of physical and true selves, or a mixture of true selves into one entity. There were a few answers relating to having extra limbs and features of a kintype, such as ears, tails, and wings, while also having the body of their physical self. There were also a few people who seemed to be able to morph into their true self at will in their dreams.

There were also a handful of people who said that they often play the role of someone else entirely in their dreams, not related to themselves at all, which seems to be common both in people who are HiH, and otherkind. 

Speaking of people who are HiH, their question was framed a little differently! My question to them was, “If you have seen yourself in a reflection in your dreams, do you tend to look like your physical form, or something else?” I am not going to make a graphic for their answers, because many of them (around 90%!) said that they saw their physical form, but for those who didn’t, they would say they would either ‘role play’, or... Get this! Be a specific animal, and they weren’t sure why. There were multiple answers like this! Unawakened otherkind, perhaps?

Question 7. Is there anything else you feel is special that happens in your dreams?

These answers were kind of a mixed bag of various things, which was completely what I expected. What I was looking for was similar answers, to try to identify any key traits that otherkind seem to frequently possess. And there were quite a few! I’m not going to elaborate on many of these, but here are some things many people had in common.

Otherkind seem to be more capable of lucid dreaming than HiH. Among the 170 participants of the otherkind survey, 15 mentioned lucid dreaming, while out of the 210 participants of the HiH survey, 8 talked about lucid dreaming in this section. 

Multiple winged therians mentioned flapping their arms like wings in their dreams. 

Both otherkind and HiH have a similar amount of people expressing that their dreams can be prophetic.

HiH often mention flying as something special they can do in their dreams, while very few otherkin mentioned flying as ‘special’. I’ve never considered it to be special myself, many people want to fly in real life, so why wouldn’t they dream about it? 

Another similarity between otherkind and HiH is being in the same place in recurring dreams. 

In Conclusion

Through this survey, I’ve come to a few realizations. One of which being, otherkind are marginally more in control and more aware of their dreams than human-identified-humans. Whether this is because of spiritual attachment, more cognitive activity, or something else is a topic for another day. In total, there were 171 Otherkind participants, and 210 HiH participants. I will be posting the survey results sheet so you can personally look at it after this post goes live!

I am very pleased with the results of this survey and can’t wait to do another here soon. Please feel free to elaborate in a response, send me an ask (which is now open), or make your own post and tag me in it! I definitely want to hear what people have to say.

Thank you again for your responses, and have a lovely rest of your weekend! 

[purplesurveys]

1106

survey by mickey-mouse

Who was the last person you couldn't take your eyes off of? I haven’t been feeling that way towards anyone, be it from real life or someone on the internet or a celebrity, for a while.

Do you drink the milk from the bowl after you eat all the cereal? I’ll try to drink some of it, since I do think milk tastes nice haha, but I keep it in moderation so that my stomach won’t end up being too upset.

Have you ever kissed anybody accidentally? Oh wow, how does this even happen? Hahaha but no I haven’t.

Who was the first person to wish you a Merry Christmas last year? Most likely a family member. My friends and I usually greet each other late into the evening.

Do you think it'll be the same person this year? It will probably be family again, yeah. I just can’t tell which one would be first.

Is your display picture in black and white? None of my profile photos on all social media are.

Do you know anybody who has had an online relationship? I don’t think so. I have some friends who met their SOs through dating apps, but I think all of them have since seen each other in person. I’m not sure I know of anyone whose relationship has been entirely online/virtual so far.

What food are you always in the mood for? No matter how full I am, I will always take a slice of pizza or two if it’s ever served at a table. That or chicken wings or spicy tuna salad.

When was the last time you played Guitar Hero? Safe to say more than a decade ago. I had always preferred Rock Band since I found it more fun that switching instruments was a main part of its gameplay, whereas you were stuck with the guitar on Guitar Hero.

What friend could buy clothes for you and not have to worry what they bought? Angela. We have nearly the same sense of style and we find the same things cute, so if I ever had to make a friend control my wardrobe for the day I will likely trust her the most.

1 thing that your guy best friend doesn't like about you: I don’t have a guy best friend. Hans is my closest friend of the opposite sex; while I don’t think he dislikes anything about me, I’m sure he thinks I’ve acted dumb about love and relationships many times before. Which is fine, we’re very honest and blunt about those things and I actually appreciate it when he gets brutally honest with me.

How about your girl best friend? Again, I don’t know if Angela doesn’t like a certain trait of mine but she’s well aware of my past stupid decisions i.e. staying in a harmful relationship.

Do you loan your friends money? No, but I’m ready to lend to my closest friends should they ever be in need.

Are Lucky Charms really magically delicious? I dunno, I’ve never tried.

When was the last time you had Lucky Charms anyway? See above.

Who is the last person you called long distance? I don’t do video calls with friends living in other countries, mainly because I’ve grown apart from them haha. My mom will sometimes start calls with relatives living abroad though; I believe the most recent one was a group video call with my dad’s side of the family, which included an uncle who lives in New York.

Do you sleep with a nightlight? No; I would find this too distracting and bright.

Is Lil Wayne really the best rapper alive? I never thought he was one of the best to begin with. Some of the songs he’s featured in are fine but I don’t like his slurred style of rapping very much.

What is the first text in your inbox? Like...the very first one in my inbox? I scrolled all the way down and it’s from Frances - an orgmate who has since disappeared off the face of the earth and blocked all her friends on social media lmao - asking about an org-related thing three years ago. Wherever she is, I hope she’s doing okay.

Are you taller than your siblings? I am the eldest yet smallest child in the family. My relatives get a kick out of it, which is fine because I do too HAHA

What are the first letters of your friends first names on your top 8? Myspace? Was never active on it.

When was the last time you almost cried from laughing? I can’t pinpoint an exact moment for you but this happens a lot when I watch 2 Days 1 Night, so this has probs happened recently.

Do you have “photoshoots” with your friends/family members? Not with me as the subject – I’m very camera shy and turn into an awkward stick once I’m asked to pose. But I love taking photos of loved ones, especially an SO.

Are you generous? To a fault.

Are you excited for Thanksgiving this year? I don’t celebrate that.

Are you excited for Thanksgiving ANY year? Yeah, I still don’t celebrate that.

Any plans for the weekend? I had plans to start a new series and spend a lazy day watching YouTube videos, but we haven’t had internet all day today and it’s felt quite deflating to have the first day of my weekend taken away from me. I’ve been running on data which is...fine, I guess, but I can’t use too much if I don’t want to keep paying for it. That said I’ve only been able to do surveys and stream music today. For tomorrow, I wanna go to a coffee shop and perhaps even treat myself to ramen because I’ve been craving.

Do you lay your clothes out the day before? Before Covid happened I planned out my clothes the night before, but I didn’t lay them out.

Who was the last person you bought a gift for? Andi; got them a dress and a skirt.

What was the last song you had stuck in your head? My Limb has been repeatedly playing in my head all day.

Are you ignoring anybody currently? Not ignoring, more of I’ve already given up on them.

Do you curse at your parents in a different language? I don’t curse at my parents in any language, lmfao.

Do you get the mailman a Christmas gift every year? We don’t have mailmen, buuuuut the maintenance staff in my village (trash collectors, security guards, those in charge of trimming the grass, etc) will usually hand each household an envelope in time for Christmas. My family and I help them out and place a certain amount in all envelopes.

Are you afraid of lizards? They are very common visitors in homes here so no I’m mostly not. They move very fast and get freaked out when they see humans though, so sometimes I’ll be shocked by them suddenly scurrying away.

How legible is your signature? I don’t make it legible at all so that it’s difficult to replicate. I actually get a lot of comments on it because my signature is mostly a lazy scribble and I don’t actually spell out any part of my name, which exactly fulfills my goal of making it hard to copy.

Do you think anybody else has a bedroom EXACTLY like yours? I actually live in a neighborhood where the houses are the same models, so I can confidently tell you that there are around 10-20 bedrooms that look similar to mine. But as for being styled and furnished exactly like mine, I doubt it.

How hot are your neighbors? Lol uh I don’t pay attention to this particular trait. All my neighbors are your typical suburban families with young kids, anyway.

Do you have pictures of clouds on your cell phone? A lot. I like looking up at the sky from time to time.

Do you send compliments through text message? Sure, when it’s appropriate and only with close friends.

Do/did your high school theme colors match? I never thought they didn’t go well together, that much I can say.

Do you own any Nike shoes? Several.

Have you ever rode in a VW Bug? Never.

How about a Mini Cooper? Never have, would absolutely love to.

What was the last fast food place you got food from? Yellow Cab. I got two pizzas and pasta for my family.

When you invite people to your house do you usually hang out in your room? I never invite people to my house because it’s too far compared to where most of my friends live, and it would only be a big hassle for everyone. As for my room, the only people who’ve been in it are Gabie and Angela/Hans, the latter only once.

Have you ever seen your crush/current bf/gf cry? I don’t have any of these.

Do you own any Spongebob merchandise? I’m pretty sure we have a Patrick plushie we continue to keep around.

Do you have any food traditions with any of your friends? My orgmates and I frequented a certain bar near our university; we went there whether it was to celebrate the end of an exam-filled week, or if we simply wanted to spend an ordinary Thursday with a few drinks. A few months ago they were in danger of closing because of the pandemic, but I hope life has been kinder to them recently.

Do you like Gwen Stefani? Erm, not particularly. Some songs of her I like, but I’m not a passionate fan.

Do you know anybody with a thick Jamaican accent? No.

Are you closer to your mom’s side of the family or your dad’s? Mom’s. Aside from being able to see them more often, our humor is also similar.

Have you ever been to a haunted house? I’ve stared at one, but never gone inside haha.

Yes or no: red eyeliner? Do whatever you want with your face and makeup, man.

Yes or no: red lipstick? ^ Still applies.

Would you ever own a pet black widow spider? No.

Do you wear holiday themed clothing? I don’t think I own any, so no.

At 6:00 tomorrow night where do you think you’ll be? On my way home, or preparing to head home, I hope.

Is it night or day right now? Evening.

What time did you get up today? Like 5:30. I fell asleep on the rooftop and got to see the pretty sunrise and the sky gradually change colors :)

[glue-thief]

Sanders Sides MBTI Types

I did this for The Umbrella Academy, so it was about time that I did this for Sanders Sides.

Logan - ESTJ

I know you’re probably confused. I mean, he’s literally the embodiment of logic, how could he not be xNTx? Well, it all goes down to cognitive functions. 

Logan is quite obviously a Te dominant. I can understand Ti, but I believe that his thinking function leans more to the extroverted side (lol, get it? Side?). 

I’ll copy and paste something I found about Te that I found on the MBTI subreddit that was posted by u/GodSteph:

“Te users believe in facts, data, and information they gather from Outside sources. They believe in survey results, in graphs, numbers that represent people's decisions and ideas. They feed their mind with information validated outside of their heads. For them, if results of different surveys or information seem accurate to lots of people, these results are accurate too. They don't stop and internally process if the information seems reasonable inside their heads. They dont validate it internally. They just accept it.”

Seems like Logan, right?

Now, you’re probably wondering why auxiliary Si rather than Ni.

Dominant and auxiliary Si users (xSxJ) are suckers for the rules. They don’t really think much about questions, theories, and things like that. That also makes sense for Logan. Every time he gets into an argument with Roman, it’s always about Rules vs. Innovation. Sure, Logan does veer off from your typical sensor when he references famous philosophers, but that’s probably because of his well-developed tertiary Ne.

So, yeah. Logan is an ESTJ.

Patton - ESFJ

Patton definitely leads with Fe. Fe focuses on the emotions around them and people who use it tend to be good at recognising the emotions of the people around them. Unhealthy Fe can be used to manipulate others and/or cause the person to care about what others think about them too much.

Patton has been shown to use healthy Fe by making sure that everyone else is happy and taking care of their needs like the dad he is. But unhealthy Fe does show up every now and then.

Unsympathetic!Patton is a classic example of using Fe to manipulate others. I won’t go into it too much because I know people aren’t really comfortable with thinking about Patton like that.

Unhealthy Fe that keeps seeking approval from others shows up every now and then as well. He feels like he needs to keep up the act of being happy all the time so the other Sides don’t worry about him. So yeah, Fe dominant for Patton.

Now, what about auxiliary Si? Well, like I said, Si users are suckers for the rules. Patton never wants to step out of line and is desperate to always stay morally right. Si users also tend to be very nostalgic, I’m pretty sure, and I don’t even have to explain that if you’ve seen the Moving On episodes.

So, yeah. Patton is an ESFJ.

Roman - ENFP

Do I even need to explain dominant Ne? Ne is literally the cognitive function that describes Roman.

I can see why someone might type Roman as an ENTP stuck in a Ne-Fe loop, but I think he uses Fi, not Fe. Fi is one of the hardest functions to explain, so this might be a little tricky. Fi has a lot to do with strong beliefs and morals. Fi also has a lot to do with authenticity, which is something that matters a lot to Roman since he’s always pushing himself to be completely original, and well, authentic.

So, yeah. Roman is an ENFP.

Virgil - INTP

Virgil is stuck in a Ti-Si loop.

“The Ti-Si loop traps the INTP in their introverted functions and causes them to neglect their extraverted functions. Instead of looking at possibilities and thinking of the future, the INTP becomes very caught up in analyzing the past for answers using Ti (Introverted Thinking) and Si (Introverted Sensing). This causes the INTP to become very nostalgic, thinking of the past and sometimes idealizing it. They might want to use this information to help them understand things better, searching for answers from mistakes or actions taken in the past. This can cause the INTP to overthink the situation quite a bit, since they aren’t relying on or trusting their functions in the way they are used to. They use this past information but will analyze it to death, not really knowing when they have figured out the right answers and solutions from what they have uncovered. Instead of grasping the full picture, the INTP becomes obsessive over the past and so they are often missing important facts and details. They are only seeing things from a much more narrow scope, feeling trapped in those emotions and behaviors from their past. The information they are gathering becomes much more subjective, and so they try to find ways to fill in the blanks and often come up with results which are missing facts that the INTP desperately needs. Not having those pieces can cause the INTP to seem a bit paranoid about their relationships, since they compare current connections to one’s from the past. If someone exhibits behaviors similar to another person the INTP once knew, they will often judge them based on this. Instead of trusting in their intuition, the INTP is relying too heavily on the past and finds themselves disconnected and possibly paranoid about people and the choices they have made.”

(Found here: https://personalitygrowth.com/INTP-ti-si-loop-what-it-means-and-how-to-break-free/)

The last bit really applies to Virgil. Roman and Logan have both slipped up and nearly pointed out that Virgil is paranoid. Also, “If someone exhibits behaviors similar to another person the INTP once knew, they will often judge them based on this.” really reminds me of the theory that Virgil was mistrusting of Roman before because he reminded Virge about Remus too much.

Deceit - INTJ

I AM SO SICK OF PEOPLE SAYING THAT DECEIT IS AN ENTJ. HE’S NOT. EVEN IF WE’RE TYPING BY DICHOTOMIES, HE’S AN INTJ.

First, my weakest point: if we’re typing by dichotomies, he’s an introvert. He looks down on social engagements (”Well, the bar for skipping an important occasion should be higher than a...social engagement.”), already indicating that he’s an introvert. Also, he absolutely loses it when he’s around others for too long. Look at how Deceit behaves near the end of SvS. He’s absolutely done with the others.

Next, my second weakest and second strongest point which will be copied and pasted from a point I made on Personality Database:

“An ENTJ would enlist the help of the people around him to reach their goals. Deceit does that with going to Remus in DWIT, but it's in a last-ditch effort to get Thomas to understand that Deceit is not trying to harm him. Originally, Deceit planned on solving his problem independently, just like an INTJ would. The only reason he got Remus to help him was that there were no other options. If there were, I can guarantee that Deceit would leave the other Dark Sides out of all of this.”

Finally, my last and strongest argument. He leads with Ni, not Te. His Ni is SO HECKING APPARENT, HOW COULD YOU NOT SEE IT? In all of the episodes where he made an important appearance (that one point in Why Do We Get Out of Bed in the Morning and the end-card for The Nightmare Instead of Christmas don’t count), he referenced numerous philosophers like Kant, Sterner, and Plato.

He’s also very vision-oriented rather than goal-oriented, which is more INTJ rather than ENTJ.

Besides, Deceit’s entire character’s vibe screams “wE lIvE iN a sOcIeTy”, and I can’t think of anything more INTJ than that.

So, yeah. Deceit is an INTJ.

Remus - ENTP

Just like his brother, Remus is obviously an Ne user. Some people think he leads with Se and I just don’t see it. Se users are in touch with reality and that’s just not Remus. His mind is always somewhere else, thinking about kidnapping a goose and waterboarding it until it honks out the truth about the Illuminati, then planning on roasting the goose to death and force-feeding it’s body to Roman who’s begging his brother for freedom (not based off of a true story).

So, why Ti rather than Fi? Well, if you stop and think for a moment, Remus is actually kind of smart. He’s constantly throwing around random facts (”Did you know that dork means whale *redacted*?”, *insert some forbidden knowledge about Jeffery Dahmer here*, *some stuff that he knows about religion for some reason*) which is peak Ti user behaviour. 

Remus also fits into a lot of ENTP stereotypes. His humour is either a) dirty, or b) dark. He loves mental sparring, or at least messing with other people’s heads. He’s extremely blunt and is not afraid to express his opinions on topics (”Have you forgotten about the part where I’m your creativity? Obviously I have opinions on the matter.”)

I can also see him being stuck in an Ne-Fe loop. I’m pretty sure that it was confirmed in a livestream that the only thing Remus wants is attention, which seems a lot like unhealthy Fe like I mentioned in Patton’s section. He also shows a lot of similarities with another ENTP character who’s stuck in a loop, Klaus Hargreeves.

So, yeah. Remus is an ENTP.

---

A lot of this was unedited, so there might be tons of mistakes or things that don’t really add up. I’m open to arguments for why the Sides are different types, but I’ve only changed my mind about someone’s type once, so yeah.

[foundcarcosa]

cclxxxv.

o1. What sort of qualities (physical, mental, or otherwise) are you attracted to in others? >> Some particular arrangement of their features that can’t be categorised. Non-delicate features. A difficult-to-pinpoint air of sensuality. A broad sense of humour. Adaptability, fluidity, puckishness, playfulness. A flair with words. Weirdness (wyrdness) without self-deprecation.  Sometimes it’s just the last one, honestly.

o2. When you think of your childhood, are the memories mostly happy or sad? >> They’re mostly dim. I mostly remember my childhood through the stories my father tells over and over again to anyone who’ll listen. I wasn’t very invested in the mortal realm back then. o3. What is it like being you? Is it enjoyable? >> It’s enjoyable when it is. It has downsides just like everything else does. But I do my best with what I’ve got. o4. What are your opinions on love? >> I have had a million opinions on it, and now I’ve settled into not needing to opine about it at all. It is what it is when it is how it is. o5. Is love something with which you have had a good or bad experience? >> Both, of course. I’d have a woefully unbalanced view on it otherwise.

o6. What is something that you find extremely annoying? >> The clicking sound that most computer mice make. o7. Do you ever feel guilty? What do you feel guilty about most often? >> Rarely, if ever. o8. Do you like to hug others, or does it make you uncomfortable? >> I love to hug in headspace. In meatspace, I have a thousand mental blocks about physical contact, so it’s less enjoyable. o9. Would you consider yourself judgmental? If so, in what ways? >> I don’t think I judge people any more than the average person does (although, of course, I have no actual data on that). 1o. What are your thoughts on the cause of homosexuality? >> I personally don’t understand it as a cause, per se, but a way of being human that has been so intensely and chronically stigmatised by civilisation that fighting for the right to exist and benefit from society has come to be a defining part of gay life. Which, I guess, makes it a cause... I don’t know. The point is, I don’t know how to answer this question. 11. Is there anyone that you hate? What caused you to hate this person? >> No. 12. Are you typically forgiving? What things will you not forgive? >> Maybe? I tend to let a lot of things go because I don’t have the energy to care about them after enough time has passed. If I feel that my penchant for letting-go is being taken advantage of, though, it’ll go very badly for them. 13. Are there any sayings or cliches that you dislike? >> Sure. 14. Are wild parties something that you enjoy? Why/Why not? >> Sometimes. Because I’m Dionysian and I’m always going to love a good party. Just not all the time. Partying has steeply diminishing returns. 15. Do you relate to any of the characters in the last book that you read? >> The last book I finished wasn’t fiction. 16. How likely are you to read for fun? >> Quite often. 17. Do you ever look down on other people? Why/Why not? >> Sometimes, because I was socialised to think of people as inferior/superior instead of just as people. It’s a habit I’ve mostly broken, but social conditioning will always have a habit of rearing its head when I’m not paying attention. 18. What kind of survey questions do you dislike being asked the most? >> Honestly, I don’t care. If I don’t have an answer, I just skip the question. 19. Does poor grammar bother you, or are you more inclined to let it go? >> I really don’t give a fuck about your grammar unless it restricts my comprehension (and 9 times out of 10 it doesn’t). 2o. What subjects did you find most interesting in school? Least? >> I don’t know, because the way I was taught subjects in school was detrimental to my actual learning and interest. 21. What do you think of stereotypes? Do you think that they are accurate? >> I think stereotypes are a byproduct of the way human brains process and collate and recall information. They’re shortcuts, and like all shortcuts, they have downsides. Whether they’re accurate or not depends on where you’re standing and how you think. 22. What is one stereotype that you feel is absolutely untrue? >> I don’t think that about any stereotype. I think they are true when they are, and false when they are, and the main problem is that when they’re false it’s usually a quite uncharitable falseness for the person/demographic in question. 23. Would you feel comfortable with short hair, or do you prefer long hair? >> I have short hair and I prefer it that way for maintenance reasons. I would love to have long hair but it’d have to be fake. 24. What do you think your style says about you, if anything? >> I don’t know what it says about me aside from that I like metal bands and being comfortable and sometimes I like looking like a Hot Topic advertisement but other times I like looking like an RPG character. 25. Do you care deeply about your looks? >> Not deeply. 26. How long did it take you to get over the last person you dated? >> Hm. 27. How often do you feel the need to cuss? >> Constantly, lol 28. Have you ever laughed at a racist joke or comment? >> Sure. 29. Name three unusual items in your room. >> I don’t know how to determine if anything in here is unusual, because it’s all perfectly usual to me. 3o. What are some things that you do on a daily basis? >> Aside from the obvious: check my social media, play Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, and do my daily Memrise/Duolingo goals. 31. Which do you enjoy more–hot or cold beverages? >> I enjoy both. 32. Do you take pride in the things you do? >> Sure. 33. Do you like to write for fun? Have you shown anyone this writing? >> Yes and yes. 34. Who is the most unusual person you have ever met? >> I really don’t know how to quantify that. 35. What was the last big decision that you had to make? >> I’m not sure. I don’t feel like I make many big decisions. 36. Do you drink? >> Yes. 37. Do you see a problem with teenagers drinking? >> I do see a problem with it, because teenagers are already impulsive and emotionally charged and consequence-blind by nature, and alcohol increases both of those things tenfold. Not to mention there are things about drinking that you learn to do after a while -- like stopping even when your mind is like “nooo drink MOOOORE 8D” because you know better -- that is difficult to do when you’re young and think you’re invincible. This is not even getting into the social ramifications, which can be staggering (especially from a teenager’s point of view)... 38. What is one moral or belief you have? >> Hm. I don’t know... I think individualism as a social construct (that is, not the act of being an individual, but the encouragement to set oneself apart from others and cease to recognise other people as intrinsically connected to oneself for better or worse) is harmful to humans on several levels, and that it’s served to perpetuate a lot of -isms and other things that we’re now fighting against. 39. Do you get angry easily? What kinds of things make you angry? >> No. I actually have a hard time remembering what makes me actually angry since it happens so infrequently. 4o. How often do you eat breakfast? What do you tend to have? >> I eat after waking up, so yeah, I guess I eat breakfast. I tend to have whatever’s easiest to grab or whatever my executive function has the energy for. 41. What were some of your favorite bands from childhood? >> Pearl Jam is one. 42. How have your music tastes evolved over the years? >> I haven’t stopped liking the stuff I used to like, I just added on more and more stuff as time went on. 43. Have you ever laughed at or insulted anyone else’s music taste? >> I prefer not to. 44. What kinds of foods do you normally crave? >> Veggie burgers, salty things, salad, greens (baby spinach and kale especially). 45. What are some of your favorite internet sites? >> tumblr, reddit, readcomiconline, wikipedia, aeon.co. 46. If the internet was not available right now, what would you do instead? >> Probably read and play video games. 47. What is the most time that you you have spent online in one day? >> That’s hard to quantify these days, with the Internet of Things being such a big part of my life. Technically, I’m always online in some capacity -- even if I’m not on my computer, I have my phone. When I’m playing video games I’m often connected to the internet (and some games are online just by design). 48. How would you describe your relationship with your family? >> Nonexistent. 49. Are there any junk foods you really enjoy? Which ones? >> Kettle-cooked potato chips... gas-station sandwiches lmao 5o. During what time of day are you most likely to do surveys? >> Either at night or in the morning.

[cckaisoo]

Mini Kadi Shippers/Supporters’ Survey Result

I would like to thank everyone for taking their time to respond to this survey. Your contribution is much appreciated. Anyway, this might sound a bit formal. But as long as I deliver the message, aite?

This is a mini kd shippers/supporters survey. I asked a question and collected responses which were consisted of a statement(s). I managed to collect a total of 99 responses in a span of 10 days.

Question:  i have an honest question. i’m really curious. who re u guys that ship/support kd? ks stans, ji stans, ex0-l, non-ex0-l, not even into kpop?

Next, I’ve analyzed the data using a simple coding method (use in a qualitative study). I’ve extracted a few important points from the data and divided it into two main categories - Group Stan & Bias. The subcategories were determined based on the amount of the same response

Group Stan - (1) EX0.L, (2) Non-EX0.L and (3) Not Stated Bias - (1) Jong.in, (2) Kyung.soo, (3) Jong.in & Kyung.soo and (4) Others

The unit used in the result is counted as per response [x/99].

1st Category: Group Stan

I think the highlight of this result is the Non EX0.L. Altho it's not many of them but I find it interesting that Non EX0.L take an interest in kd. These were some responses from the Non EX0.L.

º im not ex0.l anymore and if it weren't for kd i wouldn't be here (in the fandom) º just kai.soo-l. im not into kpop or ex.o anymore... i just exist here now just for kai.soo. tho i still go to ex.o concerts but just to see kai.soo. º I'm not a EX.O fan but I believe Kai.soo are dating  º not really an ex0.l i literally only went to ex0.rdium to see them both c:  º ...I'm a bt.s stan irl  º Im an ar.my but i've been shipping kai.soo almost since the beginning :) they are The only ship that I actually believe is real

The ‘Not Stated’ subcategory is self-explanatory. I believe it doesn’t affect the result that much.

2nd Category: Bias

Ks bias and ji & ks bias share the 1st spot on the chart with a total of 33 responses, respectively. I find it quite shocking. I expected that there would be more of ks bias since I’ve only heard many kd shippers are ks bias.

It is expected from my pov that there aren’t many kd shippers that biased ji, which I also find it interesting. Perhaps this has anything to do with his popularity among ifandom? Or they are more of them that ship other otp like se.kai etc? Mybe his past dating scandal affected stans in some way? //shrug.

The least frequent answers fell under ‘Others’; consisted of those who doesn't bias ji and ks, bias all ex0 and not stated specifically.

Conclusion

As per stated in the title, the result represent kai.soo shippers and supporters. This is not a proper survey since the data are varied and I’ve only managed to extract few points when they could have been more. So take this survey as it is~ Anyway, it was a fun mini survey and I also had fun analyzing the data! Click ‘Keep reading’ to check out all of the responses.

That’s all for now. Thank you and have a nice day :)

These are the raw data. So it is unorganized. Thank you for the participation!

Ks stan ji stan ex0l

ex0l

I love Jong.in and KaiSo0. And EX0. ❤ my one and only bias, ship and group.

Ks stan, ji stan and ex0 l

ji stan ks stan ex0l

ks stan, semi ji stan

Ks-ji stan and ex0 l

ex0-l, ksoo stan (but i love them all wtd)

Ex0 l def, soo stan altho jong.in is close 2nd

Kyungso0 stan and EX0-L definitely and semi Jong.in stan <3

EX0-L, Ksoo biased

ksoo stan

I am an ex0-l but not a kyungso0 stan nor a jong.in one (my biases are baek and jongdae)

but my sister, who supports kaiso0 too with all her heart, is a jong.in stan !

i noticed ji first because of dance, then i realised ji comes with ks as a package, so i started noticing kd and then i believed kd is real so im a supporter instead of a shipper. im not an ex0L but i do appreciate all members of ex0 because i genuinely think they each have something special. but i dont really follow the activities much. some of those i chat with thinks im in transition from a non ex0L to an ex0L. i dont ship any other pairings but i like se.kai which i think are bros. not jagi bros. but maknae dance bros. i dont know i can fit into ur data though but here is all my information.

I saw your post haha... I'm an ex0l and a Kyungso0 stan that is also becoming a Jong.in stan... So a kaiso0 stan. I can't choose only one of them. They come together haha.

EX0-L, JI stan, KS, stan, stan the group as a whole.

I dont consider myself an ex0*l, thou i buy their albuns, if i like a mv a lot, i´ll watch over /over again. Im just not into fandom culture, i find it toxic, with all the fanwars inside and out. I love kd, ji and ks the same and more than ex0 as a whole, I only follow blogs that are kd, ji and ks centric, but idc much about their acting jobs. So im not sure in what place im, but in a way it makes sense to me. lol!

I'm ks stan, I'm into kd because ks (and their love;;), I'm into e x o because kd.

im not ex0l anymore and if it weren't for kd i wouldn't be here (in the fandom)

i'm a ji and ks stan combined. i can't have one without the other. i make sure to check out whats going on with the both of them. but sometimes i do feel like i go more crazy over ji. i'm a capricorn and i have that same introvert personality, which is one of the reason why i love them both so much. i'm a ji stan ks stan and a kaiso0 stan.

im a ksoo stan and i ship kd so very much !! they make me so happy and are my motivation in life tbh ＿ﾉ乙(､ﾝ､)_ <3

kaiso0 biased, ex0-l

I'm a kyungso0 and jong.in stan, but kyungso0 is my ultimate bias. EX0-L.

Am a proud ks stan \(⊙♡⊙)/

i'm an ex0-l and a kyungso0 stan~

KD support

Kyung Soo stan

She's jong.in fan n even before i talked to her about kadi, she already knew theres something different about them (she did some digging on her own). I swear i didnt plant any idea on her haha

Ex0-L, 100% Kaiso0 shipper, Jong.in Stan, Kyungso0 Stan, all of EX0 Stan especially C.hen and Xiu.min because they seem to get neglected sometimes

D.o stan kai bais wrecker ex0l

I starded as a Jong.in stan then thanks to that I discovered kaiso0 and it made me take interest in ex0.Now I'm a kaiso0 supporter,ksoo stan,Jong.in ultimated biased and ex0-l :D

Ex0-l, Ji is my ub but Ks is in my top 3 members.

Ex0-l, ksoo stan but ji is very close.

just kai.soo-l. im not into kpop or ex0 anymore... i just exist here now just for kai.soo. tho i still go to ex0 concerts but just to see kaiso0. i still listen to ex0 songs but just a few chosen ones that i like.

Ex0l ks stan ji stan

ex0-l, ksoo stan !! ♡

Ex0l, jong.in and kyungso0 stan(i cant choose, both are my ultimate biases)😊

i saw jong.in in nylon kor~~ he made me stan ex0 then i discovered kadi... so im a jong.in stan kadi "shipper" (i think they r real, but then im also scared of projecting something that may not b there. i think i saw somewhere that its usually ji fans that r the worst "kadi shippers" or w/e lol anywaysss let me know what ur results r from the poll!!)

Am a proud ks stan \(⊙♡⊙)/

Not even into kpop but because of kaiso0, started listening to ex0 songs

ex0l & ksoo stan

Multi-fandom here! I stan both but mostly kyungso0 and lowkey yi.xing because he keeps making me swerve

For survey, I'm not a EX0 fan but I believe Kaiso0 are dating. If I have to choose, my favorite member is Baek.hyun and I like a couple of songs like Growl and Call Me Baby. I started thinking they're dating after I saw them at a concert a friend brought me to accompany her. They did fanservice with the rest but the way they acted towards each other was so different from what I know of fanservice. When I got home I searched them up. And Ka!'s dating scandal last year made me believe in them more.

Kyungso0 stan and i love jong.in and kaiso0 too

Kyungso0 stan. And became Jong.in stan because when you love ksoo you should love jong.in too

cannot decide because both of them came as a complimentary set agjsgsjgsjgs not really an ex0-l i literally only went to ex0rdium to see them both c:

ex0l. ksoo stan, ji stan, kai.soo shipper, um what else

ks and ji stand but i dont really follow ex0

An ex0-l OT9 stan♡

#kpop Stan since 2010#ks Stan#since 2012 *starts crying*

EX0-L, Ksoo biased

hi! im a ksoo stan that ships kd

I stan both. I only stan ex0. Forever an ex0l. Kaiso0 is real. 🐻💜🐧

was a jong.in stan now a kadi stan, i started to be a real/invested ex0l only after supporting their relationship

I'm a ksoo stans and kai comes in second and together they are THE power couple of my life

Kd supporter , Xiu.min biased/Ex0-l

jognog is my bias first. ksoo comes in later cause kaiso0.

Non-ex0-l

Mainly a ji stan but I love ks just as much. I adore kaiso0. I'm an Ex0-L but I don't listen to any other kpop.

ex0-l and kaiso0 shipper

I'm a jong.in Stan but ksoo cuteness never make me calm. ex0-l

ks stan, ji stan, ex0-l!!

EX0-L JONG.IN STAN

Started with overdose as a jong.in stan, I feel ashamed but I didn't even notice kyungso0 until much later. Then now I am a proud jongsoo supporter T_T

A proud ex0l and ji stan c:

Kyungso0 biased EX0-L. Love all members, including Jong.in. Kaiso0 is the only EX0 "ship" I take seriously.

for the kai.soo thing !! i wouldnt call myself ex0 l but i like ex0, jong.in stan (i love kyung.soo too. i only care about kai.soo basically anyway)

I am an ex0 & ji stan since their debut, they are only idol pairing I believe 100%, from watching ji closely over the years!

ks is my bias in ex0 but I'm a bt$ stan irl... ex0 is in my top 5 fav groups but I'm mostly with them for ks

before watching iotl i wasn't into kpop,ex0 is the first and only kr band i stan,cuz of actor do ks,ks is my bias,ji is my 2nd bias sometimes i wonder if ji is my bias now,i don't like all ex0 members but i consider my self an ex0-l,i listen to all their songs but i only watch the shows if ks or ji is in them, i'm only interested in ks and ji solo works not the others i've never watch other members movies,dramas,shows or v apps,their happiness is all that matters to me even though i'm muslim 1 i'm muslim and being gay is wrong according to my religious beliefs but looking at them all i see is love,no one around me knows about my love for them,they are my guilty pleasure 2

I'm a kyung.soo stan!

I am definitely a kai.soo supporter T_T Always! 100% jong.in stan and 100% kyung.soo stan! I don't know what is the criteria of being an ex0L! I do love their music and watch the variety shows they are in but I never bought an album or went to their concert!!

Kyungso0 is my bias

I'm ks stan, ex0-l, and start liking ji bcs if kd ;)

Se.hun fans, broken hearted kriso0 shipper

I'm Min.seok biased but I love couples, I started loving kd a couple months after I started liking ex0 and xiu.han. Kd is so cute and so real! But I'm lowkey a ji and ks stan...

so i stan both ji and ks i find them really talented and i like ex0 in general . I don't really stan other groups but i appreciate kpop a lot.

To your question, I ship kd and i'm ex0-l and Jong.in stan, but i got into EX0 bc of Kyungso0, i felt in love with him the first time i saw him <3 so basically a ksoo stan too(? im not sure :_

ex0-l since predebut era. originally a ksoo stan now both kd are my babies TvT

I’m a Kyungso0 and Jong.in stan ☺ Baek.hyun’s my bias wrecker though

I'm Kyungso0 stan followed by Jong.in. and I only ship Kaiso0

both are my biases but kji is my ult💕 ex0-l for lyf

I started shipping kai.soo back in 2013 when I was a casual ex0.l and didn't have a bias. Now my bias is jong.in :)

Ex0-l, my ult is kyung.soo, and jong.in follows!

ex0-l yi.xing stan HOLLA HOLLA love kaiso0. stan ksoo over jong.in just a lil bit.

EX0-L, I love all EX0 members! Baek.Hyun is my bias! <3

I'm a Ji Stan but I love both boys with all my heart

I'm a jong.in stan that was exclusively a jong.in stan before I cared abt or knew any other members. and then kaiso0, like immediately afer

Ksoo stan

ksoo and jgnog stan :^))))

Ex0-l - stanning both

I love all of ex0 members, but I'm Jong.in biased. I do support (believe in) KD since I entered the fandom 2 and a half years ago ^^

ksoo and nini stan

Im an arm.y but i've been shipping kaiso0 almost since the beginning :) they are The only ship that I actually believe is real

ji & ks stan, but i knew about and supported KD before i entered the fandom

Kyungso0 Stan ❤❤

I'm not an ex0-l but i like ex0.. and i recognise love when i see it

Yi.xing stan Kai.soo shipper!

[legggoes2qatar-blog]

First Offshore Job!!

I went for my first job on March 6th and stayed offshore until May 8th when I got to go back to land for the casing break (after begging the company man to let me go to drink beer) then I returned to the rig for the last section May17-28th. 

Here’s what I documented while offshore:

Day 1:

Arrived to the heliport at 5:30am. It is just like an airport but much smaller and no carry-on liquids limit! Watched a pre-boarding safety video, put on lifejackets and earplugs then loaded the helicopter. This was my first helicopter ride! I was surprised how gently the helicopter took off and landed, much more gentle than any airplane I’ve ridden. The platform we are working on for the next undetermined amount of time is smaller than I thought but from what I’ve gathered from other people this is a normal size except the accommodation is very, very small. I think the maximum number of people on here is around 200. I cannot see any land or buildings in the distance. However, it is quite hazy today. The water is a very pretty blue color and the waves today are bigger than I expected! Everyone has told me I will start hating all the blue soon but I am optimistic because blue is my favorite color. J

I am sharing a room with 3 coworkers. I am the only female on this rig. We share a bathroom with 2 other guys, 6 total. Due to the high capacity, there are no extra rooms to give me a private one but I don’t mind sharing so it’s a non-issue for me. Our room has bunk beds; I’m in one of the top bunks. There are curtains that go around the entire bed so you do have your own private area…kind of! The bed is comfortable except for the pillow, which is hard. There are constant PA announcements so it is not a little difficult to get a good night’s rest. The water depth here is only 12 meters so the waves don’t sway the rig, the drilling does. It feels like a small earthquake so I woke up twice confused because I wasn’t in California, haha! The food is very good! The water in the shower only stays hot for 2 minutes at a time so quick showers only.

So far I have enjoyed my first day offshore. The rig is still in set-up mode so we are looking at a possibility of not having anything to do for the next 3-7 days. I’m loving every second out here watching this operation!

 Day 2:

We still have no internet. There is not much more we can do until we are granted access to the rig internet. After dinner, I got to go up to the rig floor and stand in the dog house (driller’s cabin) to watch them make up the Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA). We are starting a new well so the first section will be the conductor pipe; water table protector, largest hole size. The tools used to drill the conductor are huge. I’ve seen big bits before but never a hole opener! **Note to self: find picture of 36” hole opener to post** We should begin drilling tomorrow if all goes according to plan!

 Day 3:

Still no internet—the struggle is real. We are able to call the base to talk to the Drilling Engineer and our Field Service Manager (FSM). Again, not much to do today. I learned a lot about running electrical cables and the sequence of the wires when using the crimping tool to change/add a head. We were supposed to start drilling today but it looks like we won’t start until early tomorrow morning. I am still enjoying myself. The SLB team that is with me is one other MWD Engineer and two Direction Drillers (DD). The DD’s are the age of my dad and the other MWD is 9 years older than me. All of them are very smart and funny.  Hopefully, tomorrow we get internet so I can do some studying on the tools we are going to be running.

 Day 5:

The mudloggers wouldn’t let us share their internet cable that runs from their unit, which is right next to ours, to the company man’s office in the accommodation and to the geologist’s office next to the accommodation. So, we had to run our own cable which required opening ceilings, drilling holes through walls and lots of zipties. It was a long process but, luckily, we have extra down time because there were some issues spudding the well. SLB won’t be running any of their MWD and directional tools until the 3rd section which was supposed to begin on the 10th of March but will likely happen around the 12th or 13th.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned how awesome the laundry service on offshore rigs are. You just put your dirty clothes outside your room and 3 hours later they’re back nice and clean. I think I would prefer staying offshore 24/7 if we got internet access. I’m still loving the ocean view!

 Day 6:

I slept so good last night! Best sleep since being here. At breakfast, I convinced the kitchen staff to let me have some of the company man’s strawberries…early win for the day! They are running conductor pipe today so nothing to do for us. Still no internet access, which is real annoying. The mudloggers got their internet access yesterday. l won’t be able to access the internet from the accommodation, but I can in our unit. I didn’t properly prepare for coming offshore. I learned I should have brought less clothes and downloaded a lot more books, I guess not that many lessons lol! I am very appreciative of my co-workers, we laugh a lot and talk a lot.

I’ve been doing a lot of studying during all this downtime. I will be going to school sometime in June and July. By then, I will be very prepared. Most people do this schooling with no field experience and I will have 5 months field experience. Because I don’t have internet access, I only have the first two school’s information downloaded and I have gotten through that material so I’ve begun bugging our DD’s about their job. I got a lot of the DD school information from one so I can start looking through that.

 Day 7:

Still no internet. In the accommodation room, on the 1st floor, there is a small collection of books so I won’t die of boredom after I finish the last 10 pages in the book I’m currently reading. I’ve also been collecting movies and TV shows from various people around the rig. I should have brought my big hard driver—another lesson learned.

This week has gone by fast. It is easy to lose track of the days. I’m excited to get to the section of the well where we start running our tools—it will be another big learning curve I am excited to learn but nervous about remembering everything in such a short time period. I will get to shadow during the 26’’ section and then be on my own for the rest of the well. Still not sure if they will keep me out here until Total Depth (TD).

Day 8:

We finally got internet access!!! We requested for 11 mac addresses to be granted internet access but they only gave us 4. So, to compensate we set up one of the laptops as a hotspot and now have wifi in the unit. But no one knows and no one should find out. It was so exciting to finally get on the internet and let everyone know I am okay. I had emails from people I wasn’t expecting and from people I wanted to contact to talk drilling stuff. The rig crew is installing to BOP so we aren’t neglecting work to play on the internet.

I was able to download two more books even though I already started a new book that I got from the Rec room.  Progress is happening! I think I will be out here from at least another 2-3 weeks.

Day 9:

We are finally drilling. Still not running our tool so I have more time to prepare for my job. The other MWD out here with me is leaving to go back to land and they are sending a new MWD on loan from Algeria. I’ll be switching to night shift tomorrow, hopefully things will be calmer during the night shift and I won’t have to talk to so many people (company man/manager/town). J

Day 13:

Time is flying by! I can’t believe I’ve already been here for almost two full weeks! It feels like 5 days. Night shift is really relaxed, partly because we still haven’t run our tool downhole and partly because most people are sleeping so no one is bugging us for data. I miss the sun because I liked looking at the ocean and watching the waves. Today we had TWO drills. Went to bed at 7am, woke up for the first drill at 10am, went back to sleep for maybe 5 minutes and the second drill started. Thankfully, I was able to go back to sleep. I had worked a double the day/night before so sleep exhaustion helped to get back to sleep quickly!

The night DD is fun. He plays music and dances! He’s become like my second dad—very protective. He says he doesn’t like the other guys here asking about me and talking to me so whenever the driller calls for a survey print out I send Yuri up to deliver it. But if the company calls, I’m the one that’s sent. I’ve been put on a mission to figure out how the guys in the surface room are able to get on facebook when it’s blocked for the rest of us. My coworkers tell me I need to use my “woman power”. I just laugh. Disclaimer, no one has been rude to me, just Uncle Yuri looking out!

I’ve been assigned a mentor just 2 days ago. Turns out to be a Texas A&M alumn! I thought I escaped all the Aggies because I’m working in Qatar and not Texas! He’s been extremely helpful, kind and very intelligent. I’m very appreciative for all of his help and for all that he is teaching me! I need to figure out a way to thank him BIG for all he has done for me!

 Day 19:

We have been on standby for 6 days now because of a bad cement job. I’ve been gathering 3-6 movies from people around the rig every day so my collection is getting pretty good. In the mornings I’ve been going up to the helideck to walk/run (running gets boring pretty quick without music and running in small circles). I especially enjoy watching the sun rise, it’s so beautiful over the water. Yesterday it was a really, pretty pink sunrise! I saw a big, brown sea turtle, first sea creature I’ve seen since coming here!

My normal schedule has become:

16:30-roll out of bed, throw on my coveralls, put on socks and crocs, brush teeth, head downstairs to the galley for dinner

17:30-walk into the unit, get the update for current operations and what happened during the day, joke around, get the latest rig gossip (yes boys gossip a lot!)

18:00-start shift

00:00-go to the galley (if operation permits) for some soup

5:00-6:00-go have breakfast

6:30-go to helideck (weather permitting) and walk/run

7:30-go take a shower

8:00-read until I fall asleep

REPEAT

Day 21:

The new joke in our unit has become “are you speaking English?” any time anyone has to ask “what”. It started because the other MWD from Algeria and the day DD from India have a really hard time understanding my English because of “my accent”. I also have a hard time understanding their English but we’re making it work. I’ve been learning some Hindi, French, Arabic, and Indonesian. Just a few words, mostly naughty words.

 Day 23:

Today and yesterday have been long! We got H2S (hydrogen sulfide gas) at surface so we’ve had to muster for 5 hours total yesterday and so far 3 hours today. H2S is a toxic gas, smells bad at low concentrations but can’t be detected by smell at medium-high concentrations which makes it very dangerous. Our unit is located right above the shakers where H2S is usually located. Because I am working night shift, my sleep has been majorly disturbed. After waking us up throughout the day to stand at our muster stations with SCBAs on, when day shift went to bed they decided against having everyone muster and just have those working night shift to muster. So, us working night shift are getting screwed out of sleep. I’m ready to get this section over with!

  Day 30:

We are experiencing problems with the well. We almost got to go home because it was going to take longer than a few days to remedy the issue but town called with a new plan that requires us to stay. I was looking forward to going back to land but I was also kind of bummed because I wanted to work with a Rotary Steerable System (RSS) that we are running in the next section. Right now it looks like I will be staying, you never know though, decisions are always made last minute!

The night DD working with me found some real coffee, not the instant nescafe crap! We don’t have a proper coffee machine nor do we have filters but in Indonesia they don’t make coffee the way we do in America. You scoop the ground coffee into your cup, add boiling water, stir, let it sit for ~5 minutes for all of the grounds to settle to the bottom and enjoy! It was a little weird at first but it’s totally worth having good coffee.

FINALLY BACK TO LAND!

As soon as I arrived on land, I dropped my bags off at the hotel, changed into normal clothes and met the Oil Installation Manager (OIM), rig superintendent and the mud engineer at a hotel bar to celebrate finishing the section. How good beer tastes after so long! After spend a couple of days in base testing tools and a few days sitting by the pool, I returned to the rig to finish drilling the well.

It was fun returning to people I knew. Drilling only took us about a week, the geologist called early TD because we hit water (not what you want when drilling for oil). One of the tools we ran in this run is brand new, only three in the world and two were on board with me. I was very nervous going into this run because I hadn’t run the older generation of this tool, never ran a LWD tool so I had to do a lot of studying and research to gain knowledge about the tool to be prepared for any issues during drilling. PLUS it was even more important for this run to go well because the tool is in the field test stage. Inshallah, all went really well and only took ONE run to finish! This was SO unlike the previous section where it took 9 runs to finish. It was such a happy feeling when TD was called. After all of the problems experienced throughout this well, I didn’t think we would actually finish it.

 My first hitch offshore was great. Challenging yet rewarding. It was an experience I won’t soon forget! Now it’s time to prepare for school in RUSSIA!

[swordarkeereon]

WOW! Reader Survey Goes Wild

When I sent out my reader survey yesterday I had no idea it would gather so much useful data in such a short amount of time. Usually when I do a survey I’m lucky if 20 people respond.  Really, I was trying to figure out where I was doing well, where I was failing, and where I needed improvement. I intend to keep the reader survey up for a month or so, just to get more responses and to make sure I’m on the right track. This morning I went to look at the survey and imagine my utter shock and surprise when I saw that over 100 people had responded!

Chances are it was the anonymity that sealed the deal. My point in doing the survey wasn’t to see who would say what, but to give readers an opportunity to tell me  how they felt about books, newsletters, other modes of communication — and for those who read my books, what they really liked, and conversely – also what they didn’t like.  A few readers took me up on that and were keen to share what they thought I was doing wrong, or what they dislike. Not just what they like. Even that was monumentally helpful.

Reading some answers brought tears of joy because I  had no idea some of my series’ had such avid fans.  In my mind – there are like 5 people who read everything I pen and love my work. So it was extremely validating and heartwarming to realize I don’t give myself enough credit and I greatly underestimate my reach.  To see one of my pen names among much bigger author names as a favorite… getting misty again. Excuse me for a second while I wipe my eyes.

Some things I’ve learned from the survey already:

Readers want to hear from authors regularly. While the majority of my readers only want to hear from me once a month, a surprising 1/4 of readers wanted weekly newsletters! I can’t say my reader demographic will apply to all writers, but I found this information very helpful. I’ve been failing my readers by not being a “regular” in their inbox.

Readers don’t just subscribe to newsletters for the freebies. They want real content. They want to know how I spent my Memorial Day, they want to know about public appearances, they want excerpts of books, they want to know when I have a sale going on any of my books, and they want to know when new books come out.  I thought the number of people wanting freebies and giveaways was much higher! I also thought no one cared about my public appearances.

Stephen King and JK Rowing are fantastic. I share a love of both of these authors with a surprisingly large number of those who also read my fiction! We have something cool in common! I love that! 🙂  Of course the bulk of my readers are also practicing Daemonolaters/Magicians/Pagans, so we have that in common, too.

A surprisingly large number of readers actually look at book trailers – at least 33%!  I thought that would have been MUCH lower.

Quite a few readers watch their favorite authors on YouTube – almost 40% of respondents.

My paranormal (demonic) erotic romances have a much bigger following than I realized. Really – I had no idea. I know, some of you are saying, “Well don’t your book sales show you this stuff?”  Well, yeah, but in the erotic romance genre in general, a lot of readers are just “passers by” who will eventually forget who you are because there are SO many of these books out there. Or they’ll read as much of your work as they can stand, and then move on to their next favorite author.

It was a close tie with OTS and Thirteen Covens! HAHA Thirteen Covens did squeak ahead with a few extra votes. 🙂   I even got to learn which covens were reader favorites, which was an EXTRA special treat for me. Thank you!  {{LOVE}}  Please tell me your favorite covens!  That is SO fantastic for me, you have no idea. LOL

You guys READ A LOT! I love this! Some are reading 50+ books a year.  I can sometimes squeeze 52-55 in a year, but not always.

My readers are more active and engaged than my local writer’s group with regard to responding to the call of a survey. LOL  Sorry, couldn’t resist. That’s both funny, and kind of sad.  😛

Thank you so much to everyone who has already responded, but if you haven’t – there’s still time! I am leaving the survey up the entire month of June!

[martechadvisor-blog]

Native Content 2017 and Beyond: Bedazzled!

Black, white, and grey! They aren’t colors. They don’t fall under the VIBGYOR spectrum. Yet, when someone says, ‘I bought a suit. It’s black in color’, do we actually have a ‘lol’ moment or raise an eyebrow and say, ‘No mate! Black is not a color’. And yes, what is the color of the words you’re reading right now? Black? Confusion here, right? A retrospection on one of our primary school Physics’ chapter, ‘Light’, may clear it. VIBGYOR is native to light!

Ok, let me contextualize native a bit more. You came to know about this ticketed/evented/paid Jazz gig in town and want to promote your next Techno gig in it. True, that the two music genres are totally different. But, when you curate your promotional content in context to Jazz and promote Techno in it (music is the connect!), that content is called native.  

Enter advertisements to the above scenario, its native ads, videos – native videos, and so forth. With digitalization and changes in media consumption, native ads have witnessed a ‘renaissance’. Any promotional content that appears seamlessly in-feed – that never-ending feed on social media walls and inboxes – and can be consumed by the audience without them feeling that they just saw an advert is pretty much termed ‘native content’.

Let’s explore this spectrum of ‘Native Ads’ (we will call it ‘Native Content’) with a 2017 perspective and beyond which has infinite colors and possibilities.

Native fits the ‘Millennial’ wavelength

Millennials on a daily average spend almost 18 hours with media in different forms. And, the primary device they use for this is mobile. Ad spend on mobile devices has finally taken over ad spend on desktops. Mobile as a platform is now experiencing serious amounts of efforts and money invested into it.

Millennials link their browsing and advertising experiences together. This means that any irrelevant or annoying ad results in immediate blocking. 64% of millennials use ad blocking software on content that muddles mobile sites. This suggests that they’re also very likely to block banner ads as they appear alongside articles, unlike native ads that are in-feed. With 91% of millennials discovering most of the content in-feed, native holds strong ground. Native content, by design, is meant to be read in-feed, which makes it integral to mobile browsing experience. As millennials now comprise 27% of the worldwide population, they (and their mobiles) have been and will be the skateboards for native content this year (and the years ahead).

Mike Kelly, CEO, Kelly Newman Ventures:

Ad blocking and banner blindness, banner ad retargeting, and the likes have created an increasingly negative consumer experience. Native advertising and content marketing done properly can engage users and foster interaction with the brand, which is what digital advertising is all about.

Native content: The sensorium beacon

“Find a truly original idea. It’s the only way I will ever distinguish myself. It’s the only way I will ever matter” – John Nash

Russel Crowe reiterated the above lines beautifully in ‘The Beautiful Mind’. Neuroscience tells us that reading is one of the strongest sensory perceptions. When a native headline is read, neural pathways in the brain are triggered that can create subconscious brand associations and decision-making. And, when that native content is original, it finds a special space in our brains. Try and recall some original lines from your favorite movies or books and you’ll know what we’re talking here!

Be it that last breakup text on WhatsApp or a piece of native CRM content on a B2B blog, the impact in the sensorium is deep. That’s what has made native content effective. Whether it’s 2017 or 3017, the human brain may evolve, but the sensory perceptions associated with words will remain strong.

The 2017 native ROI: A marketer’s spectroscope

For many years now, click-through-rate (CTR) has been the go-to spec for marketers to gauge engagement and ROIs on native content. It’s time that as a marketer, you move to something more substantial and insightful. Some call this crucial metric as ‘time on page’ or some say, ‘attention minutes’. Call it what you want, but take it seriously.

Every morning, while sipping your favorite brew, you go through your mobile apps and come across links. You click some of them. How many of those do you read on an average? Similarly, if you are a content specialist working on an ABM article for a blog, there will be ‘n’ number of tabs open on your web browser. Do you read them all? This is purely why gauging native content on the basis of CTRs don't give you the bigger picture on its consumption.

Attention minutes provide you the ‘reality’ of your native content’s effectiveness. This, in turn, allows you to get better with your next effort or know what worked well. There are few things through which you can further fortify the insights gained from attention minutes.

Track the traffic sources

By linking your attention minutes to the source which generated that particular traffic, you get a clear idea about which source is hitting the spot for you. You can focus your native content budgets on that source.

Scroll points

When you map scroll data to attention minutes, you get an idea on exactly which parts of your native content where most engaging. 

Form of content and type of device

Tethering attention time to the type of device and content helps you identify the right approach. For instance, you can determine if an infographic is being overlooked on mobile while the same is garnering attention on desktop. This enables you to dig deep to the cause of it. Image load time, fonts, choice of colors, and more such reasons!

Headlines

This helps marketers to find the engagement-heavy native content headlines and hence, distribution of budget can be optimized weeding out void clicks.

Social reach

Native content can’t be shared directly on social channels as it’s sponsored to appear on a specific space only. As a marketer, make sure that all your relevant brand identities appear within native content. Brand logo is an absolute essential. Leverage native by placing the links to your brand’s social pages around it. This way, you will identify how much social reach was generated through the engagement levels with native content.

Gleaming B2B native success stories

Sometimes, marketers or brands, in general, want to stay on the backfoot for native content. This is mainly because native content is always sponsored and brands tend to shy away from such investments. Maybe the thinking is ‘if you have to advertise, may as well do it openly!’ But, there are many inspirational, successful native content partnership stories which may make you spare some of that budget for native.

Hanna Fritzinger, Head of Marketing, VigLink:

According to Forrester, affiliate marketing will account for $6.8 billion in the US digital ad spend by 2020, a figure that is growing more than 10% per year. Affiliate links are inherently native, as they lend the user total control of their experience on a site. These links, strategically placed on a page, aid in delivering a reader to their desired destination without the disruptive, frustrating consequences of display or banner ads. With the rise of ad blockers, publishers will also continue their focus on generating new revenue streams, and the use of native solutions, specifically affiliate marketing, support their revenue and user experience priorities alike.

In a recent survey conducted by VigLink, the majority (67%) of publishers suspected their use of affiliate marketing to increase in the future. One area we continue to watch for growth will be the news publishers who previously wouldn’t have considered affiliate for their revenue or engagement strategies. We’ve already seen tremendous growth in this sector with publishers such as MSN, The Daily Beast, Post and Courier, and The Daily Caller, and suspect to see affiliate marketing continue to flourish within this elite group.

‘Programmatic Native’: An illumination

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) cleared Native OpenRTB 2.3 in March 2015, and the same year, in September, a partnership between AppNexus and Sharethrough saw the advent of ‘programmatic native’. Many ad/content pundits were apprehensive about the possibility of native content getting traded programmatically. Some still are, yet, one can’t deny the breakthroughs that can be achieved with it. Officially, ‘programmatic native’ has just turned two! You can’t expect a two-year-old to do what a 30-year old does. Still, when the former turns 30 someday, the realm of capabilities are manifold.

Programmatic native has allowed marketers and publishers to metamorphose digital campaigns with ads and content that are meaningful and better performing. There’s also been a proliferation of newer ad buying technologies whose rays have lit up dynamic content creativity and innovations in modern formats. But quite simply, programmatic native is placing unobtrusive ads into the feed flow (and not in the usual banner ad placeholders).

Seen the iPhone X video? I mean the shorter one (on Twitter) – it’s a minute long! With most mobile video content viewed without sounds, marketers are expanding their creative horizons. Brands are now creating native video ads with in-video texts, vividly-engaging imagery, and edgy captions. Native video will be a force to consider as mobile video increasingly continues to be the ‘format of choice’.

An example of a programmatic native. Image Source: Sharethrough

Brand safety and reputation are now a top priority for digital ad campaigns. Off late, Google had to face the brunt of many publishers and brands as their pre-roll ads appeared before hateful, offensive user-generated content (UGC) on YouTube. Chase Bank came to its rescue by conducting a manual inventory of all the sites (approximately 400,000) from which ad space was being purchased. 99% of those were culled out!

Programmatic native marketplaces can be the torchbearers of brand safety and help brands reach a parity on targeting their audiences programmatically. Such marketplaces are grounds for exclusory RTB (real-time bidding) auctions where publishers and marketers can team up to bid on preferred inventory at mutually-approved prices.

Kelly confirms:

Digital advertising is a demand-driven business. As more advertisers deploy native formats, an ecosystem will grow around the spending. We are seeing that now with Native exchanges popping up, more supply coming into the market, etc. I expect this will accelerate as the effectiveness of native becomes more measurable and apparent.

Marketers, advertisers, and publishers watch this space. Keep an eye on the number of times ‘programmatic native’ is being searched on Google from now on!

Native vs Display: We’ve got a winner!! (or have we?)

Well, this is not a ‘vs’ between arch rivals. It’s more of a transformational match up. And, the recent news of BuzzFeed getting back to its relationship with display ads, may leave some of us flummoxed. Scalability, in this case, stands out as the finishing line.

Dave Helmreich, COO, LiveIntent:

Email is one of the few channels we think that Native can scale. Native advertising relies on engagement and content that is appealing to a specific user. Email newsletters and alerts are requested content from a publisher. People request those ads and by nature, are more engaged than other mediums. So, the ground is fertile for driving people to Native experiences in the email newsletter environment. And because there is a certain degree of uniformity when it comes to design in email newsletters, it’s easier to scale. It’s simple for Publishers to capitalize on the enormous investment that brands have made in native advertising, even programmatically. Email subscribers are logged-in, opt-in, and asked for the content. Higher quality content like native advertising is sure to resonate and drive traffic in email. Our beta test of it in new ventures and our history of it in the past has shown exactly that.

Some numbers though, provide native an edge over display:

The numbers for native are good if not overwhelming. But yes, native and display can co-exist in the ad ecosystem, at least, for now.

Megan Sullivan-Jenks, Director of Marketing & Communications, Choozle:

Many marketers dubbed 2017 ‘the year of native advertising’ as big-name organizations started beefing up their native capabilities and drawing back on traditional display ad methods. When it comes to this war on native vs. display, the facts are: native ads have higher CTRs, engagement, and overall view-ability, but native still only accounts for a small portion of overall digital advertising spend. Display ads still reign supreme and will not be going away anytime soon as the dominant purchasing choice for many advertisers. That being said, advertisers need to be more cognizant when it comes to creating display ads to ensure user experience is not compromised – a factor that was a huge contributor to the success and popularity of native advertising this year.

Let there be light!

The confusion or debate over native and display/banners doesn’t necessarily indicate being in a state of darkness! Native content has had a good 2017 and will keep going from strength to strength. Adoption rates may vary, but will only improve. Debates on scalability and budgets won’t stop. A kaleidoscope doesn’t challenge or change VIBGYOR. It just adds a new dimension or perspective to light. That’s exactly what native content is all about – adding a perspective and context with compelling stories. And don’t worry, my favorite color is black too!

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor

[brynabroad-blog]

Russian Student Conference

Every Spring here in St. Petersburg, a local university hosts a huge conference to give students the opportunity to present and publish their own personal research projects on any and every theme you can think of – in Russian of course.   My advisor informed me of the conference last Fall when I got here and without a mere second thought I was like, “heck yeah, that sounds awesome!  I’m totally in.”  The idea of the thing is to choose a contemporarily relevant aspect of Russian culture that interests you (such as literature, immigration/emigration, politics, literature, literature, literature haha) and develop a research system that you feel will really help you get a feel for it (such as interviews, observation, study of pop culture, etc.).  I felt pretty good about it because It was always months and months and months away.  Until it wasn’t anymore haha.  Knowing myself as I do, I had the presence of mind and forethought to choose a topic for my project early: “What is the ‘Russian Dream’?”.  Everyone knows about the “American Dream” and I’m pretty familiar with the American drive for success and I wanted to know in what ways Russian culture’s conception of success and achievement of goals and dreams is similar and different.   My research was to consist mostly of interviews with Russian people, but would also include a survey of popular modern Russian films, watching for what the main hero’s quest was aimed toward and what helped/hindered his mission.  I also wanted to weave in the view of the Russian Orthodox Church as its presence in Russian culture for the last 1,000+ years has been unsurpassable.  I was able to start v..e…r…y... slowly interviewing people early on last semester and thus very effectively lulled myself into a very cozy, very false sense of security, and of being “ahead of the game,” haha.  All of a sudden it was time to submit my application to the conference (which luckily required only an outline of my project) and I hadn’t even started yet!

 I can go from feeling like I own the entire globe to feeling like I’m being squished under the weight of it in about 0.2 seconds. And vice versa.  I make that trip in both directions pretty often. Sometimes I think it’s because I’m crazy, but most of the time I’m pretty sure it’s just because I’m alive. In fact it’s probably a trip you’re quite familiar with yourself.  Anyway, this was one of those times haha and I felt very squished indeed.  I had just kept pushing the project off, feeling like I had plenty of time until it was LITERALLY three days before the presentation and all I had was my raw data with no previous start on pulling it all together into a paper to be published or a presentation.  Oh, and it was about this time that I received word that – not only had my concept been accepted, but mine would be one of the six main projects to be featured and presented at the plenary session of the conference. HA!  

             I cried some.  I whined and complained more than some.  I felt generally pretty sorry for myself and rued the day I signed up for the conference.  But wouldn’t you believe it, none of that got me anywhere.  When it came down to it I just had to pull a couple of all-nighters and handle it.  And though my positive emotions at the time were perhaps few, I am no happy to report, I did it!  The morning of the conference arrived.  I put together what I thought was a classy and stylish outfit (looking back at the pictures now though, I’m just like why??? Haha), did my makeup and my hair, and set off for the event!  I went over with one of my fellow classmates who was also participating and we met our advisor there.  During check-in, the girls at the desk asked, “which session are you presenting at?”  and I gurgled out, “Oh, um…. The Plenary session.” With a little dread and (now that I was actually prepared haha) more than a little excitement.  

           I really have no sense for good estimates of headcounts in crowds, but even I recognized that there were over 100 spectators in the hall, all seated and ready for the plenary session. Before I knew it, it was my turn to present!  I had worked hard on my paper and practiced and practiced my presentation.  I was ready!  But I was also very nervous.  Would people even be able to understand my Russian through my accent??  Well, I went for it, and honestly it was a hit!  I mean as much as a student project at a conference can be a hit haha.  I was pretty nervous, and while I was able to keep my voice steady for the most part, I was UNable to keep my hands steady haha and my notes rustled in my hands.  I spoke about my finding that while there’s no stereotypical cultural understanding of “The Russian Dream” like unto “The American Dream,” there definitely WAS a common theme in the dreams that Russian people had expressed to me.  That theme was – FAMILY.  “The Russian Dream” is less material and probably more meaningful.  People – even young people - are more concerned with creating and raising strong families than with climbing the career ladder. All career goals that were mentioned to me were in relation to being able to provide for the family – either future or current.  This holds in Russian pop culture as well.  The heroes of Russian movies aren’t rich, nor do they aspire to be – and if they are, it’s something they need to overcome, not something that helps them.  There’s usually a great moral feat to be accomplished (often involving family) and not only is material wealth not involved in the quest, material wealth is often a hindrance to the quest.  The Russian Orthodox church, which has so deeply influenced Russian tradition and culture for so many centuries that now, regardless of religion, the Church’s influence is so deeply woven into the culture it’s just taken for granted, professes this same idea – material wealth is a stumbling block to the truly good things in both this life and beyond it.  

             I had been so stressed out about that conference, but I left it that day on an actual cloud.  I had never given a presentation to a large group before and CERTAINLY not to an academic Russian audience.  But now I HAVE.  Honestly it was one of my best experiences of the whole year here.  I am SO GLAD that I signed up to do something so challenging, even though – and especially because! – it wasn’t required.  It would have been easy to just pass that up and save myself the effort.  But (now that it’s over lol) I’m so grateful that I maximized on the opportunity.  

[purplesurveys]

1017

survey by lets-make-surveys

1 - Are you one of those people who can watch TV shows and movies over and over again without getting bored? Yeah this is pretty much my approach to all of my favorites. if a show or movie is able to join that club, then I automatically have no problem watching it over and over. Case in point, Friends for TV shows and The Proposal for movies.

2 - If you drink coffee, do you like it plain or would you rather have something like a latte or something flavoured? I never take coffee black. I mean I’ve had a few sips of it from friends’ cups before, but it just made me miserable loooool.

3 - How did you used to dress ten years ago? Do you dress in a similar way now? Ten years ago I was 12 and had no fashion sense whatsoever. I just put on whatever hand-me-down I got or whatever my mom would get me when she’d go window shopping. Didn’t really start putting in effort in my outfits until the end of high school.

4 - When you’re grocery shopping, do you buy known brands or are you happy to go with the generic store version? Known brands, because most of the time they end up having a better quality as well. 

5 - Do you have a close relationship with any of your cousins? I’m super close with only one cousin, the eldest one on my mom’s side. He’s pretty much like an older brother to me and my siblings. Everyone else on my mom’s side is too young for me to get truly close with; my cousins on my dad’s side are too shy and also live too far away for me to be able to keep up a close relationship with them.

6 - Who was the last person to sleep over at your house? Does this person stay over often or was it more of a one-off? Gabie, I think. She stayed over a lot before, but obviously not anymore.

7 - Does bad weather put you off going out if you’ve got plans to do so? Have you ever cancelled plans due to the weather? Only if a typhoon is really strong; like now, and how they actually had to cancel work today because of the power outages everywhere and because residents in other cities are already being brought to evacuation centers where they can be safe. I had no idea work suspensions were a thing lmao so I was glad to read the message today; I didn’t know how I was going to work with only data and limited battery for both my phone and laptop (power’s been out in our house since 1 AM). :(

8 - When you’re on vacation, do you prefer doing the typical tourist things, or would you rather explore somewhere off the beaten track? I will enjoy a tourist thing or two, but otherwise I’d focus on the less-explored or less-visited attractions. It’s usually the museums or historical landmarks, which is a shame.

9 - Did your family travel a lot when you were younger? From the time I turned 11, which I think was the time my dad got a good promotion and money got a lot better at home. We’d go for vacations locally and abroad every time he was home, which was every 5-6 months.

10 - When was the last time you went shopping for clothes? Did you get anything decent or find any bargains? Around March, I think. Yeah, I found two tops that were both bargains.

11 - Is it true that accessories can make or break an outfit? For sure. With me, it’s bags.

12 - What is your worst memory from high school? What about the best? The absolute worst that I can remember was when we had to role-play as our chosen character in the novel we were taking up in Filipino class; and for some wild reason I chose the most extravagant, bitchiest, flamboyant character...for whom I do not have even the slightest acting chops. When I got to the front of the classroom that’s when I realized my mistake, blanked out, realized I wasn’t going to be able to act as her, and fumbled for the next five minutes. 

My favorite bits from high school were the lunch periods I spent with my friend group. Even if we don’t talk anymore, I’m just grateful I was able to find a home in a group in high school.

13 - Is there any trait in a potential partner that would be a total dealbreaker for you? Right now my biggest dealbreaker is if they aren’t Gabie...lol. Other than that, I imagine being hugely turned off by poor hygiene.

14 - Do you insist people use coasters if they’re putting drinks down in your house? No. I wish we did have coasters as I find them aesthetically pleasing haha, but my mom doesn’t find them necessary

15 - Have you ever been arrested? Were you guilty of whatever it is you were arrested for? Never been.

16 - Name five items on the shelf nearest to you: I don’t have shelves in my room.

17 - After meals, do you wash dishes up right away, or do you leave them in the sink and do a whole days worth at once? I leave them in the sink and soak it with water and dishwashing soap for an hour or so, so that by the time I get back to it it’s easier and quicker to wash. So I do leave them, but I don’t wait until I have 4353894753246 dishes to wash by the end of the day.

18 - What websites do you find yourself spending the most time on? These days I’m primarily on Google Suite, honestly. Work eats up my week.

19 - Do you still download music and TV shows? No. Nearly all media I consume these days is thanks to an online subscription. The only exception is YouTube, I think.

20 - Does your phone have a good battery life? How long does it last before you need to charge it again? I don’t know how it fares compared to other brands, but I’m generally okay with my phone’s battery life. It lasts around 2-3 hours if used continuously, but if I’m out all day and on the go, it can last a whole day with me.

21 - When was the last time you hit snooze? Yesterday.

22 - Did you ever play The Sims? Which expansion pack was your favourite, if you had any? I did play The Sims a lot before – mostly Sims 2 on the PS2, Sims 2 Pets on the PSP, and Sims 4 on the PS4. I never explored the expansion packs too much, though.

23 - Are there any popular film series or TV shows that you just don’t get the appeal of? Game of Thrones and any Marvel movie.

24 - As a child, did you receive pocket money or an allowance? How much did you get? Was it dependent on you doing chores of some kind? Eh, not really. I didn’t receive an allowance of any kind until I was in high school when I started to be given P100 (roughly $2) a day, which was enough for snacks and lunch. No, I didn’t do chores to get the money.

25 - Do you think your parents did a good job of raising you? Would you do anything differently with your own kids? They taught me manners, showing respect, and different values like recognizing my privilege, giving to the poor, understanding my enemies in school, etc. But my childhood seriously lacked emotional maturity, physical affection, and, generally...just being treated like a kid; and I definitely feel the effects from these until today. I was already yelled at from age 5, and that has made me afraid of anyone who ever so slightly raises their voice. I’d do a lot of things differently with my own kid/s.

26 - If something is bothering you, do you have to fix it right away? Not always. Sometimes I run away from it first.

27 - Are there any household jobs you enjoy doing? If so, what’s the reason that you enjoy those things? This isn’t much of a chore as washing dishes or cleaning the bathroom, but I love making my bed. It gives me a sense of productivity and accomplishment, and it’s honestly a form of self-care. I always have the option of letting my bed stay messy and then feeling like shit about it the whole day, so when I do make my bed and fold up my blanket and everything, it gets a little easier to pat myself on the shoulder.

28 - Do you still live in the area you grew up in? Would you like to live somewhere else one day? Where would you go? Yeah, we literally just moved to the village right next to the one I grew up in. I’ve lived here nearly all my life, so I can’t wait to move someplace else. In the city, preferably; with skyscrapers and the constant sound of traffic, construction, and people walking. I feel I’d be happier there.

29 - Do you smoke, drink or do drugs? How old were you the first time you tried those things?  Do you want to quit? I drink, vape, and smoke, but I’m not reliant on any of these. I had my first drink at 18, and I smoked and vaped for the first time when I was 21. No, I don’t have plans to quit.

30 - What’s one thing that really grosses you out? Is it something you have to deal with anyway? How do you cope? Cockroaches. Sometimes we’ll see a cockroach roaming around the house, but it’s super rare so I wouldn’t say I regularly deal with them. I cope by yelling for my mom or dad to come kill it, ha.

[outdoorsydiva]

Summer is almost upon us and my recent twitter survey revealed that the majority of families are still trying to solidify their summer travel plans! I’m here to help. Why not take your next summer vacation at a destination you may not equate with summer fun? Plan a summer vacation in Park City, Utah.

I know it sounds a little ludicrous but I discovered last summer on our family vacation to Park City, Utah that many ski resorts capitalize on their outdoorsiness and high altitudes and morph into outdoor adventure parks in the summer months. It’s pretty genius if you think about it!

Based on our epic family vacation last summer to Park City, Utah, here are the top 10 reasons your next summer vacation should include a visit to a ski resort:

1. Ride an Alpine Slide

I could really just end the post here to be honest. What’s more fun than sitting on a little seat and careening down a track that winds down the side of a mountain? Nothing. There’s nothing better so don’t argue with me about it.

Riding an alpine slide was freaking awesome for lack of a more sophisticated description. I was immediately 10 years old in my mind again. My son and I rode one at the Utah Olympic Park and one at the Park City Mountain Resort.

The ride at the Olympic Park slide was on a metal track and the ski resort slide was plastic. I think the Olympic Park slide may have been a tad bit faster but don’t quote me on that.  You can control your speed on both. The views are magical on both as well. The biggest difference is the Park City Mountain slide has 2 tracks side by side so you can race your opponent.

Alpine Slide at Utah Olympic Park #visitparkcity #oneparkcity #roadtrip #familytravel #sp #ODinUtah #adventuregram #adventureisalifestyle #travelblog #blacktravelers #traveloften #hardlyhome #blackadventuristas #greatoutdoors #outdoorgram #bucketlist

A post shared by OutdoorsyDiva.com (@outdoorsydiva) on Jun 11, 2016 at 10:25pm PDT

2. Ride an Alpine Coaster

Mmmk so I lied to you. There’s something better than riding an alpine slide. I’m sorry but not really sorry. That something better is riding an alpine coaster! I didn’t know that alpine coasters were a thing until the visit to Park City Mountain.

Built into the mountain is a metal track framework that first takes you way up on the mountain and then sends you zooming back down at top 30 mph for over a mile with vicious curves and dips along the way. You are strapped into a go-kart-like seat and you have hand breaks to slow you down if needed.

This thing flies!!!!!! Hands down this one of the most exhilarating adventures we’ve ever had. It reminds me of my days as an only child inventing rides in my room. This felt like a contraption that really shouldn’t work but it actually does.

3. Do an Extreme Zip Line

Zip Lines are old hats for many of you, I know. We’ve definitely done our fair share of zip lines all over the world but we enjoy it so it doesn’t really ever get old for us. When we learned we would be doing extreme zip lining at the Olympic Park we weren’t quite sure what qualified it as extreme.

Now it’s definitely very high up, but I wouldn’t say that made it extreme.  We had to ride the ski lift up to the top of the k120 nordic ski jump to do the zip line.

Photo Credit: Utah Olympic Park

Once you reach the top it’s evident why it’s called EXTREME zip lining. Riders are fitted into bucket seat harnesses and told to sit chair style with a big foam mat in front of you so you can’t see what’s coming. They count down (or sometimes not at all) and release the kracken. They send you 2 at a time so you can scream with a partner — how thoughtful of them. LOL

You are literally thrust down a stomach jolting steep drop before flying at up to 60 mph and 500 feet down to the bottom. It is actually the steepest zip line in the world according to the vendors! If you like thrills, this unassuming attraction is a must do. I promise this ain’t your grandma’s zip line.

4. Visit the Utah Olympic Park

The Utah Olympic Park was the site of the 2002 Winter Games. Now it is home to a museum and an abundance of activities. In the summer, you can do the alpine slide, 2 ziplines, a ropes course, a free fall, tubing or ride on a bob sled.

We really enjoyed watching the skiers train on the ski jumps! We were enamored with what they were able to do without any snow.

5. Explore Park City Mountain

Park City Mountain is the apex for summer fun. We just scratched the surface of all there is to do there.   There are zip line tours, mountain bike courses, the alpine coaster, alpine slide, putt putt course, gondola rides, an activities area for smaller kids, a golf course, and a climbing wall.

There’s no way you can bring the kids here and hear them complain of boredom. Tickets can be purchased for individual attractions for you can buy combo passes for the day which seemed to be the most cost effective plan.

The ski village is still super cute sans snow. Many shops weren’t only for the summer season but most of the restaurants were.

6. No Winter Weather

  I think the most obvious reason to visit a ski town in the summer is the mild weather! Snow is beautiful to look at but let’s face it, it has its down sides and inconveniences.  You also have to pack a lot more clothes and gear for a snow trip! In theory you save money on the expense of luggage fees by visiting in the summer.

The weather while we were there in Park City in June was perfect. We still needed a light jacket at night but during the day it was mild 70s. I certainly didn’t miss that Florida humidity back home.

7. Less crowded

Ski meccas like Park City are known for being hot spots in the winter but not so much in the summer months. Everywhere we went the crowds were manageable. We had no trouble getting a table at a restaurant or doing the activities we wanted to do.

8. Lower Rates For Accommodations

Rates for accommodations are much lower in the summer because that’s slow season for ski towns. We stayed at the DoubleTree by Hlton Hotel Park City – The Yarrow. Rates in the summer months start around $119 for a standard double room. In peak season the rates can be $300 a night and up!

If you are looking for budget friendly then a family friendly hotel like the DoubleTree is right up your alley. However, visiting in the off season means you can take advantage of the off season and stay at one of the swankier lodges like Deer Valley Resort for much less than it would be during ski season.

**Honorable Mention

I couldn’t justify adding a #9 to this post because technically you can get this year round and not just in the summer. However, I have to tell you, it’s worth a visit to Park City anytime to have the sumptuous beet humus avocado toast at Deer Valley Grocery Cafe.  Don’t tell me you don’t like beets because guess what?  Neither do I; I pick them off of everything.

However when a local says don’t you dare leave Deer Valley without having the beet humus avocado toast then you get the toast! It was divine. Stamp this one Foodie Adventurer approved.

Breakfast with a gorgeous mountain view. #breakfast #foodie #visitparkcity #deervalleyresort #nomnom #travelwriter #travelblogger #mountains #familytavel #ilovetravel #instatravelling #writetotravel @deervalleyresort #views #blacktraveler #foodgram #brunch

A post shared by OutdoorsyDiva.com (@outdoorsydiva) on Jun 11, 2016 at 7:56am PDT

Are you sold? Let’s chat in the comments. Have you visited a destination known for a certainl season in the off season?

    8 Reasons To Plan a Snowless Summer Vacation in Park City, Utah Summer is almost upon us and my recent twitter survey revealed that the majority of families are still trying to solidify their summer travel plans!

[purplesurveys]

1237

disclaimer I’ll be taking into account the last 24 hours for the first part because it’s 3 in the morning and I haven’t really done anything yet lmao anywho

survey by chasingghosts

Have you today?

Looked in a mirror? Yeah I took a shower earlier so I couldn’t really avoid the mirror in the bathroom.

Watered a plant? I don’t do plants. Can never take care of them to save my life.

Worn denim? I did, actually. Some package came for me earlier today and I didn’t really look the most decent, so before heading out to meet the delivery guy I grabbed the first jacket I saw, which was denim.

Washed your hair? Yes, when I took said shower a couple of hours ago.

Been in pain? Yup my back and shoulders feel like hell from sitting on my ass all day while at work.

Had a nap? Kinda, I guess? I fell asleep at around 9, 9:30ish...woke up at around 1 AM, and here I am now. I don’t plan on sleeping anymore.

Brushed your teeth? Yup.

Kissed someone? Just my dogs.

Used a cheese grater? No, I don’t think I’ve consumed any cheese today either.

Eaten something sweet? Nah, it’s all been salty/savory for me today.

Spoken to a stranger? Sure.

Dropped something? I drop my vape pen at least once a day, so yes.

Felt upset in some way? UGH yeah. Our internet disappeared at around 2 in the afternoon and it still hasn’t come back, and our service provider’s social media has been unsurprisingly unresponsive and useless. I’ve been using data since then and I’m just worried about how long this would take because I don’t want to keep spending just for extra load. I also have my Korean language classes this afternoon which will for sure require a lot of data :/

Drank coffee? I have a full mug of it beside me right now.

Walked for more than thirty minutes? LOL no, I’ve only stayed indoors.

Signed up for something? Hmm I don’t think so.

Travelled in a car? See two answers above this.

Opened a can? Nopes.

Thought about doing something crazy? Just me thinking about dropping another couple thousands on merch until I mentally slapped myself and told myself I’d be fucking stupid if I spent on one more piece of stupid merch.

Listened to a new song? Yes, I tried listening to Love Shot by EXO over dinner since my sister had started humming it. It was okay but I quickly shifted back to BTS right after hahaha.

Written in a notebook? No. I only do so when I practice my Hangul but I have yet to work on that today.

Fed an animal? Yes, I have pets.

Checked your emails? I mean that’s kind of the standard in my job lol I have my Gmail tab up throughout the 8 hours.

Told someone you love them? No.

Made a phone call? No, I’m rarely the one who makes the call.

Have you in the last week?

Travelled on a bus? I’ve never ridden a bus solely for commuting by myself. I’ve only been on them when it’s the arranged vehicle, like for school field trips or our family vacations. Our public buses are quite bleck and unsanitary and the drivers maneuver the buses like it’s their last goddamn hour on the planet, so I don’t get on them myself.

Washed your face? I mean yeah, when I take showers. I don’t really have a skincare routine though, if that’s what you mean.

Used a blender? We rarely have a use for a blender at home so we don’t even have one.

Received a phone call? No. My biggest pet peeve is when delivery riders call me up once they’ve arrived at our place just to say “I’m here,” but fortunately the one assigned to me today to deliver my package knew how to use the doorbell.

Talked to someone you dislike? Yeah I have to deal with a client I absolutely fucking despise everyday.

Consumed alcohol? I’ve thought of it, but then I thought of how sleepy I get whenever I drink alcohol and decided against it because I wanted to stay up tonight.

Eaten pasta? Yeah, my dad made Filipino-style spaghetti for dinner the other evening.

Planned for an event? Not an event per se but sure, I made some plans? Punk is slated to make his debut on AEW/return to pro wrestling next weekend or sometime soon, idrk - and this is a big fucking deal omg, 15 year old Robyn has arisen from her grave - and Andi and I made plans to watch it together so we can freak the fuck out.

Asked someone for a favour? Yes. I borrowed cash from my mom since the delivery fee for my packaging earlier was apparently cash on delivery.

Watched something funny? I mean I watch BTS clips pretty much everyday and a gigantic chunk of them are hilarious.

Trimmed your nails? No, but I did bite on them multiple times.

Browsed Reddit? I did actually! After a super long time of not doing so...I just decided to randomly check out r/bangtan to see what’s going on there. It’s mostly Americans though so idk if I’ll make a habit out of browsing.

Talked to yourself? Oh this happens a few times a day.

Purchased tickets for something? Nope.

Felt like you were annoying someone? Just about everyday.

Cleaned a toilet? I have not.

Reminisced about the past? Not really. I’ve made references to the past with friends, but we didn’t ~reminisce.

Used headphones? Yeah I always use my headphones when playing Rhythm Hive so I can hear the beats better.

Laughed with a friend? Many times. Always just virtually, though.

Cooked dinner and then didn't feel hungry? I don’t cook.

Written a list? LOL yes. My period had been coming and I noticed I was crying over the smallest, stupid things, so I started a list of the things I cried over the last week. The funniest item on the list is probably an ad that was shown to us during a campaign briefing...

Played an instrument? Nope.

Felt jealous or envious? I will sometimes feel the tiniest tinge of envy and wistfulness when I see my friends in happy and fulfilled relationships, but it passes in a second.

Ignored a text message on purpose? So many hahahahahahah

Congratulated someone? Yes!!! Graduation season was last week so I congratulated a shit ton of friends.

Have you in the last month?

Made a piece of art? Making art was never made for me, so no.

Rewatched one of your favourite tv shows or movies? Yep, I rewatched Friends a couple of weeks ago.

Called a plumber? Nope.

Been to a see a doctor? I mean, technically I guess yeah? When I had to get my vaccine shot.

Finished a book? I haven’t done that in a while.

Had a crush on someone? Just celebrities but I won’t count those.

Travelled on a train? I haven’t.

Worn heels? Haven’t done this either.

Been to a friend's house? I’ve been to Angela’s house semi-regularly, yup.

Shared a bed with someone? Nah.

Been to see a movie at the cinema? I haven’t been to the cinema in like a year and a half.

Paid attention to celebrity drama? Erm not really. I also haven’t been up to date with that, especially with American celebrities hahaha.

Felt anxious? Maybe not anxious but nervous.

Taken an elevator? Yeah in Mega since that place is so goddamn big.

Given someone the cold shoulder? Yep, my mom when she is being extra annoying/condescending.

Purchased a new book/game/movie? I guess you can say that? I bought a subscription pack on Rhythm Hive because I was using it regularly anyway.

Applied for a job? I already have a job, so no. I did get a job proposal on Linkedin a couple of weeks ago with another PR firm, but I took a look at their clients just to see if the offer was something I could sink my teeth into - and even though their brands were quite high-profile, they were in industries I didn’t particularly find interesting.

Used a printer? Nah.

Had lunch in a park? No.

Gotten a manicure or pedicure? I have not.

Made an appointment? Just for my shot but that’s it.

Had a blood test done? Noooooo not another one of those plz.

Suffered from a major bruise? Not a major bruise but a huge bloody gash on my thigh after a particlarly rowdy play session with Cooper. There’s still a very visible scar on me.

Researched a topic in-depth? I do this quite a bit in my work, yes.

Have you in the last year?

Been to the beach? No, I’ve mostly stayed at home since July 2020.

Visited someone in the hospital? I haven’t. Too risky.

Played pinball? No, it’s never interested me.

Travelled on a plane? I haven’t. :(

Worn a costume? Sure, for Halloween last year I went as Dora.

Been thrift shopping? Not that I can recall, no.

Thought about getting pregnant or got pregnant? Definitely not at this point in my life.

Made a big life decision? Uh yeah this past year was both the worst and best rollercoaster I’ve ever been on. I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since that shitty breakup...

Changed a lightbulb? Nope.

Framed something and put it on your wall? No but I have been meaning to do this for months. I just never get around to buying some actual picture frames lol.

Been stargazing? Not the professional kind of way with a telescope and all. I’ve just lied on my back at the rooftop to gaze at the night sky and the stars.

Made a new friend? So many!!! Reena is probably my bestestestest new friend <3 I mean we’ve met a while ago, as Angela’s mutual - even had a few drinks or so together - but we didn’t become closer until just a couple of months ago.

Added to a collection? I’ve had merch that arrive every week or so these days because I bought a ridiculous amount of shit between May and June when I was a new Army. I’ve substantially calmed down now, but I should expect to receive my running list of ordered merch up until September LMAO. At first I used to bitch about the really long shipping period considering all the products come from Korea, but after 3 or 4 fulfilled orders you kinda get used to it.

Been to the dentist? No.

Broken up with someone? Yessss. I didn’t know it at the time but it would turn out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Held a baby? Nah.

Created a budget? Yeah...doesn’t mean I’ve been successful. I always go over, hehe.

Confessed feelings for someone? There isn’t anyone to do that for.

Had surgery of any kind? Nopes.

Quit a job? No and I have no plans to anytime soon.

Been in a car accident? Nah but my dad has, c/o some stupid and unattentive motorcycle driver.

Purchased something worth over a grand? So in US dollar conversion, around P50,000? Hell no.

Been on vacation at least 500km/300mi from home? No. :( The farthest we’ve been to was Tagaytay and I think that’ll remain the same for a while.

Applied for an academic course? Yes, my Korean class.

Had your photo taken by a professional? No, it’s been over a year since my last professional shoot for my senior photos.