#thank you tobias for making this in a fun and easy key!

[karmicbias]

Ghost - SATANIZED (2025)

Chorded this out!

It's a little simplified, but a good starting point at least. Please let me know if you see any errors!

[utterlyinevitable]

Please can you continue the angst and do Bryce and MC breaking up after OHSY?

OK but... why would anyone break up with Bryce Lahela????? 

Bryce and MC (Becca) OHSY/OH3 Breakup 

Bryce and Becca’s relationship has always been easy. Everything flowed - their bodies fit together divinely. It was natural. 

So natural that they didn’t need to verbally define anything. They didn’t need to. 

Now that Keiki was at boarding school Becca could stay over more freely and more often. Nothing could have been better than evenings curled up on his couch with the duvet and a bucket of kettle popcorn.

As soon as they got the official letter that Edenbrook would not be operating any longer, Bryce put in for a transfer at Mass Kenmore. He’d applied to other places but Boston is where he needed to be. He has his apartment and needed to be close to Keiki. 

He was happy and a weight lifted off his shoulders when he got his acceptance letter. 

He kept the news mostly to himself, only casually dropping the info one night when he was grilled about his plans by the gang. 

He was attacked with a hug. Everyone was so happy for him. They celebrated with shots and then the afterparty in Becca’s room was slow and sweet. Savoring. 

For purely selfish reasons Becca would not apply to MK. She did not fit in with the likes of Tobias, June and Landry and really couldn’t trust a hospital that did. The idea of working beside them made her skin crawl.

But she didn’t want to be too far away from the life she built in Boston. 

So she applied everywhere within a 3-hour drive.

Nothing. 

No responses from anywhere, or bland rejections to try again next term. 

So she threw caution to the wind and applied to other cities: LA, Miami, Dallas, San Fran, Phoenix, New York.

Still, she hadn’t heard back from a single one.

In the office one night, while reassigning paperwork, she spoke of the issues with Ethan. 

He considered things and offered to reach out to Chief Fredricks at Weill in NYC.

She wasn’t thrilled about moving back home, but she accepted the gesture nonetheless.

The next week, she had a truly competitive offer from Weill.

The salary package and benefits were astounding. She couldn’t believe it. This opportunity was too good to be true.

She called Bryce immediately. “No way! That’s awesome, Becks!” “I know! And it’s not too far either, we can still spend long weekends together” “Totally. Look at us getting our lives together!”

Then, unexpectedly, Edenbrook was saved and Ethan offered her her position back.

She wanted to accept. Oh, man, did she want to stay. But the Weill gig was too good. Edenbrook could never match that. She’d be a fool to throw this opportunity away.

She declined and Ethan told her the position will still be available whenever she wants it. “You’re one hell of a doctor, Lao. When you’re ready, we’ll be here.” 

She thanked him and promised to revert back after her final year. “We’ll be on the same level then, you ready for that?” “No,” he huffed with a smirk. “You’ll always be a rookie in comparison.”

Later that evening, Bryce was waiting for Becca at her apartment. Every staff member at Edenbrook got the same email about their jobs being reinstated should they want them back. 

He was miffed she didn’t take the Edenbrook job. 

He understands her issue with the MK internal team but... her old job was safe. Nothing has to change for her.

That was the start of the longest goodbye.

They still made the best of their moments together.

He packed up all her things and they took a road trip down to move her in. She stayed in a family-owned apartment in Brooklyn and was lucky enough to save money that way.

It was a cute one bedroom. They christened it immediately.

As they settled further into their residencies and the weeks turned into months. The weekend meetings became less and less. 

Becca made a whole new group of friends and even ran into a few from her youth. She had a new local bar and 24/7 eatery. New parks and food trucks and cocky colleagues to help her destress after an egregious shift. 

Bryce couldn’t stand some of the MK doctors - they were arrogant and cocky, and not in the wholesome way he is. He tried to see the gang as much as possible. But Donahue’s was a bit farther now.

He spent most nights commuting home and leaving Becca video messages about his day when she’s unable to pick up his call.

Bryce never really noticed how lonely he was before Becca and Keiki made his apartment a home.

They’ve spent 4 weekends together before the distancing feelings started settling in. 

They were growing apart.

For their 5th weekend, Becca had to cut it short one day because of a case and then two hours before leaving Bryce was called into emergency surgery. Besides Tanaka, he was the only one available that knew the procedure forwards and backwards. 

Instead, they had a video chat date. They got in their pajamas and snuggled on their respective beds with a snack, some beer and started watching Deadpool 2 together.  

“I was thinking of coming back to Edenbrook next year,” she said randomly during the movie. That week was one of the toughest she’s ever had and all she wanted was the comfort she found in Boston. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in months!” “Better than when that hair product company sent you a free gift basket?” “100%. Without a doubt. I can’t cuddle my hair gel every night and leave kisses all over it’s body. I mean... I could but it’d be weird as hell.”

They talked about what that would be like and how fun living together for real would be.

Everything seemed good. 

They seemed happy. 

They seemed like they were planning a forever. 

Well, one of them was. 

Three months later Bryce finally made it down to see her. Their last few trips had been rescheduled again and again and again and it was finally here. 

He ran out of MK so fast no one dared to stop him. 

Becca planned a very lowkey date night for them in Williamsburg. They had Tacos at a pop up and drinks at an improv studio. Nothing seemed to be different. They held hands over the table at dinner, she rested her head in the crook of his neck perfectly carved to fit her. They joked and laughed as they walked arm in arm back to her place. 

Then why did they feel so distance? 

Why was she having trouble look him in the eye? 

Why did the edges of her lips curl down when she smiled now? 

He held her in his arms, folded her around him as they snuggled on her couch. 

That’s when she told him. A mumble into the heat of his skin. 

“I thought you were coming to Boston when you’re done?” Bryce was stunned. 

He thought they had settled on a plan weeks ago that she’d be back in Boston and they’d share his apartment and they’d start their lives together. 

“I was. But they offered me an opportunity of a lifetime, B. And it’s kinda nice being close to my family... I didn’t realize how much I was missing out on..”

He said the next words so quickly and full of honest intentions: “Do you want me to move?” 

She didn’t expect him to offer that. He knows how important his career is to him. 

“I couldn’t ask you to do that.” “Sure you could. I still have three years left of residency. Could transfer nearby.” “Another transfer? Don’t you think that’ll put you behind?” “I’m the top resident at MK and was at Edenbrook. Didn’t you know?” 

He tried to joke but the way she wouldn’t look him in eye has his chest constricting.

“Do.. do you not want me to move?”

Tbh she hadn’t given much thought to her relationship or goals in months. It was all just wishful thinking when she spoke of things with Bryce. 

She had her eyes on the prize and that was becoming the best doctor of her generation. She’d been much too busy fabricating her new life.

“I don’t know.”

Bryce sat back. He thought she was the one. “What are we doing, Rebecca?”

She gave a confused furrow of her brows.

“Are we end game?” he clarified, trying to keep his calm. 

Her jaw opened and closed, trying and failing to find all the words she needed him to hear; “I don’t know.” “Okay. I’ll tell you what I DO know. I love you and want to spend the rest of my life making you snort and smile. I can transfer residency and move here for you. All I’m asking, is if you feel the same way.”

There was a wall of silence between them towering so high. 

“I love you so much, Bryce.” 

It was said so softly he might’ve missed it if he kept talking.

The sadness etched on her face and the light reflecting off the glistening in her eyes told him she wasn’t ready to commit.

She wasn’t going to commit. 

Bryce grabbed his bag, snatched his keys and wallet from the table, and walked out the door.

[softlofty]

For Ringsy, number 8 "There's only one bed" heheh

154. “There’s only one bed…”

It’s late at night when Easy gets back. He slowly pushes the front door open, the living room dimly lit and his roommate sitting at the table.“Oh hey, I didn’t think you’d still be up.” Easy says, tossing his keys on the table and shrugging his jacket off.“I had some work to do,” Tobias replies, “plus I wanted to make sure you were okay.”Easy opens the fridge and bends down, grabbing a bottle of water. “Why would I not be okay?” He frowns.“Well anyone who voluntarily spends an evening drinking with my brother should be checked out.”

Easy rolls his eyes and takes a sip. “I still don’t get it you know. You hated each other for years and now you’re buddies?” Tobias asks incredulously.The cap of the bottle twists in his fingers as Easy thinks.It hadn’t felt that weird to him and Ringo. Sure, they had hated each other’s guts for years, but as time passed they grew closer. They had always run into each other, they couldn’t not see each other. Moments were shared.Ringo would sometimes show his more vulnerable and soft side to Easy, and every now and then Easy would let his judgement of Ringo slide and see that he just needed a friend.

And as much as Easy hated to admit it, Ringo had played a pretty big part in him coming out. It was nice to have someone ‘on the inside’.Easy had been out for a while now, and his friends, Ringo included, had encouraged him to step into the dating scene.So far it hadn’t brought him much further than two or three dates with the same guy, but it felt better than nothing.On more than one occassion Easy had found himself sitting on his couch with Ringo after a date, take-out on his lap, telling Ringo how his date had gone.Easy’s taste in men must need some fine-tuning because that bit was often more fun and enjoyable to him than the date itself.

“Time passes, doesn’t it,” Easy shrugs, “we’re friends now as well, aren’t we?” Easy gestures in between himself and Tobias.Tobias fixes him a stare. “That is not the same thing.” He closes his laptop. “I’m sure you know what you’re doing though.”Easy laughs. “Hmhm.” Tobias squeezes his shoulder as he walks past. “I’m off. Night.”“Night.” Easy echoes, leaning against the kitchen counter as he finishes his water.

He’s lost in thought when there’s a soft knock at the door. Easy turns his head and slowly opens the door.“Hey, sorry for dropping by so late.” Ringo whispers. Easy laughs softly. “We saw each other like twenty minutes ago, Ringo.”Ringo looks sheepish at that. Easy shakes his head. “D'you wanna come in, or?”Ringo shifts his weight from one foot to the other, tugging a hand through his hair.“Yeah, uhm,” He walks into the living room, Easy closing the door behind him, “normally I wouldn’t want to bother you, but one of Elli’s family members is staying at ours, and they gave her my room since I was out so late, they didn’t think I was going to come back.”

Easy narrows his eyes at him. “Why would they think you weren’t coming back?” Ringo just pushes his lips together, pointedly looking at Easy.“They really think you and me are…?” Easy asks, a hint of amusement on his face. Ringo smiles back at him.“They can’t make their mind up can they, either it’s weird that we’re friends or we’re sleeping together.”Easy looks at Ringo, waits for a teasing comment or a joke, but he just looks at him, a small smile on his face and eyes fond.“So, did you want to crash here?” Ringo clears his throat and nods.“Yeah, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“No, of course not,” Easy starts, looking from his bedroom back to the living room, “oh, there’s only one bed…”The flush on Ringo’s face deepens. “I can just… take the couch.”Easy looks at the couch, which is covered in Tobias’s paperwork and some other things which Easy does not feel like getting rid of.“And have you complain to me all day tomorrow about the ache in your back, no thanks.” Easy grins.Ringo still looks a bit apprehensive. Easy speaks again. “I can take the couch if you’re uncomfortable, but my bed is big enough for us both.”Ringo opens his mouth and then closes it again. Easy patiently waits, giving Ringo a small smile when he catches his eye.“I’m okay if you are.” He eventually says. Easy nods, following Ringo as they walk into his bedroom.

Ringo slowly sits down on the side of Easy’s bed, looking out of place and unsure of what to do next.“I sleep in a shirt and boxers, is that okay?” Easy says, turning the big light off and switching on the small lamp next to his bed.“Yeah, sure.” Ringo says, and he pauses for a moment, hands on his knees. “I left so fast I didn’t really bring anything, I’ll just sleep in my boxers.”Easy nods and sits down on the other side of the bed, both of them now facing the other way. Slowly Easy takes off his shoes, then his socks. He sighs for a moment before turning around. “Why is this weird all of a sudden?”Ringo turns around and looks at him, a shy smile on his face. “I don’t know. There’s no reason for it to be weird.”

Easy nods in agreement, and then stands up quickly, shoving down his jeans in one go and stepping out of them. “I’ll go and brush my teeth so you can change.”Five minutes later they’re both in bed. The light is still on, and Easy reaches out a hand to turn it off before freezing halfway.“Do you need a light for something, or?” Ringo shakes his head. “No, I’m alright.”There’s a small click and then the room is dark, only the moonlight filtering in through the window.They’re lying next to each other, on their backs, staring at the ceiling.Easy is just about to say goodnight and lay on his side when Ringo speaks.

“Thank you. For tonight.” Easy turns his head towards him.“It’s no bother, you can stay here whenever you need to.”Ringo shuts his eyes for a moment. “No, not for that. I mean, I appreciate that too, it’s just…” He pauses and breathes deeply, “thank you for hanging out with me tonight. I needed the company.”Easy frowns, but then he counts backwards in his head. “It’s four years today, isn’t it.”He can feel Ringo nod beside him. He keeps his gaze in front of him, figuring it might be easier for Ringo talk about this if he’s not looking at him.“I was actually really dreading it,” Ringo says, voice thick with emotion, “it was looming all day and I just didn’t want to be alone.”

Easy reaches out without looking and he feels Ringo grab hold of his hand. “The past years I’ve gotten through these nights with a bottle of whiskey and a locked door.” Ringo laughs but it’s hollow and bitter.“And then I bumped into you, and you just asked if I wanted to go for a drink. Just like that. Like any other day.” Easy runs his thumb over Ringo’s hand.“It was nice,” Ringo says quietly, “being with you and just laughing, and talking.”Easy slowly rolls his head towards Ringo. “You can talk about them. If you want to.” Ringo turns his head to look at him, their faces now close.“It’s okay.” Ringo looks Easy in the eyes. “This is nice.”

Easy gives him a small smile, and then leans in, slowly presses his lips to Ringo’s cheek, right next to his mouth, lingering for a moment before moving back again.When he looks at Ringo again, his eyes are closed, savoring the moment. Ringo swallows, and then opens his eyes.“Goodnight.” Ringo whispers. “Goodnight.” Easy whispers back, and before he has a chance to turn over and lay on his side, Ringo moves over, laying his head on Easy’s chest.Easy stills, then puts an arm around Ringo.“Is this okay?” Ringo whispers. “Yeah.” Easy whispers.

Easy stays like that, telling himself that he’ll wait until Ringo’s asleep and then he’ll turn over, but by the time Ringo’s asleep, so is he.

[axburrows]

“My Plague Journal”

By RICHARD LITTLETHOUGHT ‘The Voice of Truth, if by “Truth” you mean “Profoundly Right-Wing Assertions”.’

DAY IV

Readers, I do confess this self-isolation business is getting to me at the very roots! The other day, I was having a harmless browse of some of that P.G. Wodehouse – ‘fun for all the fam’, as the rappers would say. But several chapters in, my heart ached and a drowsy numbness pained my sense, as though of Benylin® I had drunk.

In my delirious state, I saw myself attired in a starched collar and claw-hammer coat to boot. My man-cave was gone. Looking around at this new opulent interior, I surmised that I’d entered into the employment of a top-drawer citizen: Mister Bertram Wooster! Distantly, I heard the tinkling of a bell. I pursued the sound up a long and winding staircase. I opened an oak panelled door and stepped into my master’s bedroom. He was lounging beneath candy-striped bedclothes, a little bell in his hand.  

‘You rang, sir?’ I said.

‘Now look here, Littlethought’, Wooster intoned, ‘My squeeze, Emily Maitlis, is coming round for supper later and I want to make a bit of an impression – if you catch my meaning?’

‘Indeed, sir.’ I said.

‘I’ve got a grocery list here for her favourite dish: Greek moussaka with a special side salad – Yukon potatoes, artichoke hearts and a caramelised fig – that sort of caper.’ He waved this scroll of decadence beneath my salt-of-the-earth nose. ‘Now be a sport and toddle down to Whole Foods, would you?’ 

‘Indeed, sir’, I intoned. I took the list and shimmered out.

Coming down Kensington High Street, the pavements billowed with a thousand coxcombs in primrose scarfs and crushable bushman’s hats. Through the window of a Wasabi, the Monopoly Man was licking ramen off a glass table top while a prostitute clapped. I turned and saw a parade processing up the road, at the centre of which was a massive Chinese dragon with the face of a polystyrene James O’Brien. Fire-eaters and acrobats pranced around it performing tricks, whilst Sandi Toksvig saluted the crowd from an amphibious rocket launcher. Jess Phillips played ‘I Will Survive’ on the ocarina. A marmoset was on Skype!!! I’m a stranger in my own country! I thought. 

Behind me, I heard a fragile voice singing from the doorway of an Alms House.

‘Jesus blood - never failed me yet - never failed m’yet - never failed me...’

‘Mister Farage!’ I said. ‘Whatever became of our Man of the Hour?’

‘I’ve been stripped of m’assets, boy. Stripped of m’assets.’

‘Wassat?’

‘M’Youtube videos have been de-monitised, I tells ye! All m’lovely Youtube videos!’ 

‘They’ll never get away with this, Nige! God’s honour, they won’t!’ 

‘Thruppence for a vodka jelly, will ye?’  

I was about to knee him in the groin and make a speech about the undeserving poor, when an affectless young man approached and forced a limp handshake. The young man then turned and gestured to a bunch of phlegmatic-faced tweens in furs doing coke off a padlock key.

‘Hey, guys, come on over!’ he said. ‘It’s a load of pre-gentrification First Peoples!’ 

They introduced themselves as characters who’d escaped from an Andrew Doyle satire. They were now surviving hand-to-mouth as a band of marauding postmodernists. They tried to impress me by showing me colourful objects from their ‘superior culture’, including Nespresso pods, scalp wax and a pencil sharpener from the Barbican Centre. A young woman in turquoise brogues read a poem about having adulterous sex in a library. When I told her I thought poetry was a form of character weakness, she cried onto her shoes (AND HER LACES TO BOOT!!hooho!). One tired-looking bloke – who claimed that sleep patterns were ‘just a construct’ and favoured instead a politicised version of rest known as ‘free-sleep’ – asked if I’d considered taking ‘powerful antidepressants’ to cure my conservatism. I told him that I was in love with my own sadness. I said I wanted to live my life ‘like a powder keg: short but sweet’ – I winked at the shoe-lady. The bloke explained that he wanted to live his life like an otter: ‘a very long and chilled one’, on his own, lying on a beanbag, eating stems of barley, with infrequent but carefully scheduled sessions of masturbation. I looked him squarely in the eyes and asked if he’d ever had a wet shave. The woman interjected and said I should join a Union, as ‘a working-class person!’ 

‘Who’re you calling working-class?!’ says I. ‘I’m a small business owner, don’t y’know!’

………………

I was referring to a small business I tried to establish in the late 90s, selling knock-off Toby jugs from the boot of my Mazda, just off the A13 trunk road. We got busted by a gang of hired bravoes sent by the Wedgwood company. I was left lying on the verge with a pair of broken legs surrounded by shards of homemade ceramics. The police managed to trace the bravoes as far as Stoke-on-Trent where the trail ran cold, thanks to a conspiracy of silence among the city’s terrified residents. I had a meltdown not long after that. In my despair, I overdosed on Vick’s VapoRub and tried walking into the sea one night down in Billericay. I was saved, after I mistook the inchoate outline of a miniature schnauzer for the spiritual form of a Toby Jug. It hovered above the sand, glowing. 

Don’t give up, Dick. Don’t give up the ju-ugs! 

But I can’t, Tobias, mate. The porcelain industry is eating me alive! 

No one else can potter like you, Dick! That’s the truth.

But the jugs have become a burden, mate!  

It is your destiny, Dick. The jugs are your destiny! Swear. Swear. 

What are you? Angel or Devil?

I AM IN HELL!!!!

………………….

Once I had absquatulated from the students, I entered the vast baize complex of Whole Foods. I’d never seen so many vegetables in my life [INSERT GIBE ABOUT THE SCOTTISH]. The building was at least 100 storeys high, buzzing with flying cars and hydraulic escalators. It was like the Tower of Babel itself! Fritz Lang’s Metropolis crossed with a farmer’s market.  

The affluence of the place sickened me to my very claw! I walked past some Houynhnhnms, cantering along the ‘Oats’ aisle. They gave me sideways glances and whispered to one another. 

‘Darling, is that a Leaver?’

‘Darling, do you know, I think it might well be!’ 

‘In Whole Foods? I say, do you think he’s here to get his methadone injection? Someone should tell him, it’s not that kind of supermarket.’ *Goya-esque braying*

I’m a creep, I thought. I’m a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don’t belong here.

Near an aisle of artichokes, my bum was perused by the ghost of W.H. Auden. 

‘Sir! If I may say’, he whispered, ‘Your arse is so muscular, I should wish to immortalise it in verse!’ I bristled at the scent of cherry brandy on his lips.

‘I concur, Wystan!’ crooned the fay shade of Lytton Strachey. ‘A truly delectable specimen.’

I swung at them. ‘Naff orf, you bloody wagtails!’

‘Oh, I say!’ preened Wystan Hugh.  

At which point the ghost of Jean Cocteau approached, his eyes gleaming like a deviant, his fingers wriggling, ‘Ohohoho! Il a un cul chaud!’ 

‘Now look ere, Frenchy! One step over this ere threshold and I’ll knock yer flippin block off, comprehend-e?’

‘Je recommanderais le chou-fleur.’

‘Watch it! I’m warning you!’

‘Oh, Jean. You old nag!’

‘Oui. Je suis un cinéaste.’

‘I can’t make head nor tail of this! I bluddy hate these romance languages’ I said to myself, sotto voce. I felt a stranger in my native land.

Once I had absquatulated the scene, I returned to the penthouse to prepare supper while Wooster billed and cooed with Ms Maitlis. (It was like the courting ritual of kestrels!!) Around midnight, I brought in the third course of banana shallots. The room was billowing with the scent of orange blossom and legal highs; I nearly fainted. Maitlis wore large, exotic torques from the Barbican Centre gift shop. She was hunkered over a big, indulgent glug of “Chateau de Liz Kendall”. Her eyes were as brown as spear handles!! Her face was firm yet glam, like the prow of a Russian oil tanker steered by Bianca Jagger. Her throaty voice, with its alluring masculine depths, was both thick and sweet, like oil on a scone (in an M&S advert sponsored by Shell). 

‘Your butler’, she intoned. ‘A bit wet behind the ears, don’t you think?’

‘Oh gawd,’ my master said, his saliva moonlit, ‘don’t I know it, Ms Emma! Hum-hum-hum-hum.’

Now easy, Dick, says I to mine-self. Easy does it now. 

Her voice sank deeper: ‘If you want to move in with me, Wooster, we’re going to have to find you a new man!’

‘If you like, I could fire this bounder on the spot! Just for you. I would do that, Emily. For you I would! If you’d like!’ 

She grinned and they stared into each other’s eyes for a good minute. Then she glanced up at me, a touch dismayed. Wooster turned around - he had a scheming look. 

‘Oh, fetch us dessert, would you, Littlethought?’

I shimmered out. I returned a few moments later with an inappropriately large jelly designed by Norman Foster. 

‘Ta, Littlethought.’

‘Sir.’

‘Oh, and Littlethought?’

‘Sir?’

‘You’re dismissed.’

‘Sir?!’

‘Dismissed. Arrivederci, Littlethought. We’re replacing you. Don’t come back tomorrow. You can leave your key card on the salver.’

I TOOK OUT A BOMB. I SCREAMED LIKE A CELT!

‘I say, steady on there, Littlethought!’

‘YIPPEE-KI-YAY, MOTHERFUCKERS!’ I intoned.

‘I didn’t know you spoke French, Littlethought!’

I pulled the cord! ‘FOR ENGLAND!’

Unfortunately, I was the only casualty. I wish I had died to avoid legal culpability. But it was a British explosive, so I incurred only minor tissue scarring. My master and Ms Maitlis immediately pressed charges. Because of my two-year-long media campaign against legal aid, I could only afford to be represented by a sparrow. The sparrow had yet to graduate to the bar, having only recently built his nest outside the chambers at Gray’s Inn where I hoped he’d at least absorbed something of the finer points of tort law. I appeared in court the following week in a plaster cast, where I was sentenced to life by Justice Lady Hale. 

‘Well, well, well, Mithta Littlethought’, lisped Lady Hale. ‘A Leaver in the dock, I thee! It mutht be my lucky day! Yum yum yum!’ (She rubbed her stomach and mimed eating me - which I thought excessive.) A roll call of witnesses for the prosecution sealed my fate: Kojack, David Blunkett, and Charlotte Church in a bonnet who jumped up on the plaintiff’s bench and called me ‘a witch’ and then fainted. Lady Hale said I was ‘weak and scum’ - or ‘thcum’, to be precise (which is Welsh for ‘seamen’, FYI). 

‘I thenenth you to 55 yearth, Mr Littlethought!’ she crooned. ‘55 backbwaking yearth!’ 

She banged her gavel. A loud cheer broke out across the gallery. I looked at my sparrow in his tiny little fucking wig, cursing him with my very blood. 

‘May God have merthy upon your thoul, Mithta Littlethought!’ Hale said. 

The sparrow immediately took wing – with my car keys in its beak – and escaped from a clearstory window. I’d lost everything. As I was bundled out of the courtroom, my faithful but still vividly puce-legged wife, Vanessa, surreptitiously passed me a cyanide capsule and an After Eight mint. She kissed me. 

‘I’ll never forget you, Monsieur Robespierre,’ she said. ‘I’ll never forget you – you – you – YOU…’

I woke up. My body was covered in sweat. It had all been a dream. I sighed with relief. I drew back the coverlet. But then, in the palm of my right hand: was a melted After Eight! Had it really been a dream? Yes. I had fallen asleep on top of a box of After Eights. I showered the mint chocolate off my cords and wept.

 -----------   b l  a  c  k  o  u   t  ------------

Grams:           ‘Underneath the   Arches’  (Flanagan/ Allen - ft. Dua Lipa)

CODA:

[red-panda-12]

I have a confession to make, the first movie on this list of films watched in August, was actually watched on the last day of July! Oops! However the number of films seem to be increasing as the year progresses. Some 20 films were watched in August, a new record! If you have seen any of the below films, let me know what you thought of them.

The Old Guard ✩✩✩

A group of mercenaries, all centuries-old immortals with the ability to heal themselves, discover someone is onto their secret, and they must fight to protect their freedom.

I surprisingly enjoyed this graphic novel adaptation of immortal warriors fighting for good. I thought Charlize Theron was fantastic in her portrayal as Andy/Andromache. I look forward to the sequel.

The Old Guard

Happy Death Day 2U

Happy Death day 2U ✩✩✩

Tree Gelbman wakes up in horror to learn that she’s stuck in a parallel universe. Her boyfriend Carter is now with someone else, and her friends and fellow students seem to be completely different versions of themselves. When Tree discovers that Carter’s roommate has been altering time, she finds herself once again the target of a masked killer. When the psychopath starts to go after her inner circle, Tree soon realizes that she must die over and over again to save everyone.

I preferred this sequel to the original. I liked the fact that the groundhog day-esque film had a reason for why the loop was happening. Good fun!

Please Stand By ✩✩

Wendy sees things differently: she’s fiercely independent, with a brilliant mind and a mischievous sense of hilarity. Wendy also has autism. To her, people are an indecipherable code and the world is a confusing place. Inspired by her no-nonsense caregiver, Wendy comes of age and escapes from her care home on the road trip of a lifetime to deliver her 500-page script to a screenwriting competition.

One of those pull at the heartstrings kind of films. Dakota Fanning plays an autistic woman who travels by public transport to hand deliver her script for a competition. Quite enjoyable.

Please Stand By

Naked

Naked ✩✩

Rob Anderson is all set to marry the girl of his dreams, but can’t quite get to the altar. He finds himself caught in a time loop, waking up naked in a hotel elevator over and over again.

Continuing with the groundhog day theme, an easy to watch comedy with some laugh out loud moments.

Masterminds ✩✩✩

When David Ghanatt is convinced by his work crush, Kelly Campbell and her accomplices to join in a far-fetched plan to rob a bank vault, David soon throws everything on the line for love, money, and a life of excitement.

Another comedy supposedly based on true events. The moral to the story is beware of who you become friends with!

Masterminds

7500

7500 ✩✩✩

Tobias Ellis starts his shift as a co-pilot and everything seems normal, but things quickly take a turn when terrorists storm the cockpit of his Airbus A319, and hijack the plane.

I enjoyed this film more than David did. I felt empathy for the pilot and enjoyed the tension throughout.

The Majestic ✩✩✩

Peter Appleton, a scriptwriter suspected of being a communist, meets with an accident that makes him lose his memory and live with a different identity.

A case of mistaken identity ultimately helps a town heal from its losses after the Second World War, with Jim Carrey in a a more mature role.

The Majestic

Life of Crime

Life of Crime ✩✩

A corrupt real estate developer refuses to pay ransom to two amateur criminals for the release of his kidnapped wife. Confounded, they try to find different ways to deal with the unusual situation.

It pays to learn about your target before kidnapping them in this crime/comedy drama. It was a miss from me however.

Thanks for Sharing ✩

A recovering sex addict (Mark Ruffalo) tries not to fall off the wagon as he woos a new girlfriend (Gwyneth Paltrow) who feels the need to express her rampant sexuality.

Thought this was an awful film, I really couldn’t warm to any of the characters. I was glad when the end credits rolled.

Thanks for Sharing

Knowing

Knowing ✩✩✩✩✩

A teacher chances upon an encrypted code in a time capsule that makes him believe he can alter the chain of events that are about to unfold.

I love this film! There is just enough mystery, threat and menace to keep you on the edge of your seat with a powerful ending. It could happen!

The Mist ✩✩✩✩

David and his son are trapped in a supermarket along with some other townsfolk, when suddenly a mist engulfs the entire city, bringing along bloodthirsty creatures that devour anyone in their path.

Felt like watching end of the world films hence Knowing and War of the Worlds! The Mist has a heartbreaking ending and the monsters are really good graphically for the age of the film. A good watch.

The Mist

War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds ✩✩✩✩

Ray Ferrier, a dockworker, is ready to spend a weekend together with his children. However, an alien tripod descends on Earth threatening to wipe out humanity.

When I first watched this 2005 Tom Cruise film I didn’t really like it, but on second watching I’ve developed an appreciation of it. I still love the tripods though.

The Day the Earth Stood Still ✩✩✩✩

An alien lands and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.

This is the original 1951 version and was an enjoyable watch. It was a film of it’s time, during the Cold War, and had a peace not war message. A surprisingly good film.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Interstate 60

Interstate 60 ✩✩✩

Neal Oliver, a young artist travelling on the mysterious highway 60, meets a half-leprechaun who grants him one wish, but has a wickedly funny way of fulfilling them literally.

A film David enjoyed more so than I did. Be careful what you wish for is the morale to this story and with a star studded cast I wanted to enjoy it more than I did.

The Invasion ✩✩

A psychiatrist finds out about an epidemic that changes human behaviour. She also discovers that her son might be the key to preventing this deadly epidemic.

We were looking at body snatcher films and saw this modern version from 2007 with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. It wasn’t a bad thriller.

Invasion

Trainwreck

Trainwreck ✩✩

A young magazine writer is made to believe that relationships and marriages hold no value. However, a chance meeting with a sports doctor forces her to rethink her principles.

I quite enjoyed these two comedy films by Amy Schumer. Trainwreck was a heartwarming romance whereas I Feel Pretty was a film empowering women of all shapes and sizes.

I Feel Pretty ✩✩✩

An ordinary woman who struggles with feelings of insecurity and inadequacy on a daily basis wakes from a fall believing she is suddenly the most beautiful and capable woman on the planet. With this newfound confidence, she is empowered to live her life fearlessly and flawlessly, but what will happen when she realizes her appearance never changed?

I Feel Pretty

Deuce Bigalow

Deuce Bigalow ✩✩

Deuce Bigalow, an aquarium cleaner, is forced to become a male prostitute in order to repay the man whose house he wrecks while he is babysitting his pet fish.

I think I laughed more at the trailer than the actual film! Silly fun with Rob Schneider.

The War With Grandpa ✩✩✩

Peter and his grandpa used to be very close, but when Grandpa Jack moves in with the family, Peter is forced to give up his most prized possession: his bedroom. Peter will stop at nothing to get his room back, scheming with friends to devise a series of pranks to drive him out. However, grandpa doesn’t give up easily, and it turns into an all-out war between the two.

Another comedy from Robert De Niro and one I enjoyed. The rivalry between grandpa and grandson had hilarious consequences. A good watch for all the family.

The War With Grandpa

Frozen

Frozen ✩✩

Three snowboarders are stranded on a chairlift while riding up Mount Holliston. When the night lights suddenly go off, they either need to find their way down or freeze to death.

Not the Disney Frozen but a 2010 release where three skiers get stranded on a chairlift and a life or death fight ensues. Watchable.

Tesla

Tesla ✩✩

Visionary inventor Nikola Tesla fights an uphill battle to bring his revolutionary electrical system to fruition, then faces thornier challenges with his new system for worldwide wireless energy.

A hero of mine really deserves a better film than this, however Ethan Hawke didn’t do too bad a job portraying the Croatian visionary. David was disappointed at the lack of pigeons!

Have you seen any films recently that you have enjoyed or disliked? Any recommendations?

Thanks for reading!

Christine x

A Year in Film: August 2020 I have a confession to make, the first movie on this list of films watched in August, was actually watched on the last day of July!

[shervonfakhimi]

The NBA Characters Who Can Shape the Second Half of the NBA Season

The 2nd half of the NBA calendar is nearly upon us. After going through the seemingly endless malaise of the dog days of the NBA season, the tone was set for the end of the season with that jaw-dropping, epic All-Star game on Sunday Night. However, there is still plenty to be sorted out between now and June. With that being said, there are a few players that can determine how the rest of the season (or beyond) shapes out. So let’s go through some of them! 

Ja Morant PG Memphis Grizzlies: Vegas projected the Grizzlies at 27.5 wins to start the season. They’re already at 28 wins with 28 more games to go, in large part because of rookie sensation Ja Morant. We all know Ja can fly effortlessly and nearly end careers, but that isn’t nearly half of what makes Ja special. Not only is he an insane athlete, but he’s great at reading the floor and making the right play off of it, and can use his speed to help him do so. Give him space and dare him to shoot from deep, he can do that too and make you respect his jumper, as evidenced by him shooting 35.8% from three. He’s unselfish too and great at not only pushing the ball up the floor himself in transition but throwing the ball ahead to get his teammates easy dunks, a key reason why the Grizzlies are fifth in the league in pace and have had an offense in the top half of the NBA for the last two months. Though their defense ranks in the bottom half of the NBA (16th in defensive efficiency, per NBA.com), the Grizz occupy the 8th seed and lead the 9th seeded Portland Trail Blazers by four(!) games, giving them plenty of breathing room for the time being. If this Grizzlies squad with Jaren Jackson Jr., fellow rookie Brandon Clarke, and Dillon Brooks, headed by Ja Morant keeps this up and holds off the scorching Damian Lillard and the scintillating fellow rookie and former AAU Teammate of Ja Morant Zion Williamson and his New Orleans Pelicans, the next generation of the Grit n’ Grind Grizzlies will be back in the playoffs. Not only would we get a very fun playoff series were that to take place, but we’ll also get plenty of highlights in the process, courtesy of the future of the NBA: Ja Morant.

Kyle Kuzma SF/PF Los Angeles Lakers and Buyout Candidates: Not much has changed from the time I wrote about Kuzma at the beginning of the season, and that is kind of the problem. Kuzma has shown flashes this season, including a 36 point barrage against the Oklahoma City Thunder that I was there to see, but still, there have been stumbling blocks as the third-year player acclimates to a title-contending team, whether it be mishaps defensively, rushed shots early in the shot clock or simply not reading the floor properly. Though the boost in effort on the glass and on defense has been nice to see, he just hasn’t been able to put all of the little things together consistently to prove he absolutely *should* be on the floor in crunch time situations. A possible (should be?) closing lineup of Kuzma, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Danny Green, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has a Net Rating of +23.3, per NBA.com. When Kuzma shares the floor with James and Davis, the Lakers Net Rating is +17.9, a very solid number (that number drops to -17.7 when LeBron is the one of those three that exits the floor). At this stage, even as a Kuzma optimist, Kuzma feels like more of a wild-card that can flip the outcome of a playoff game should he get hot more so than a guy who can be a reliable contributor to a championship team. The more he can flip that perception the better the chances the Lakers have of winning the championship.

Ben Simmons PG/PF and Joel Embiid C Philadelphia 76ers: I think it is important to remember that it wasn’t always the case that the Sixers had issues offensively when Simmons and Embiid to share the floor. Sure, their skill sets don’t properly mesh with Simmons’ inability to shoot even 15 footers, let alone threes, but that hasn’t stopped two monster talents to be a major problem for the opposition. Among lineups that played at least 100 minutes in 2017-18, the Sixers’ starting lineup of their two All-Stars, JJ Redick, Dario Saric, and Robert Covington had the seventh-best Net Rating in the entire NBA of +20.5 points per 100 possessions, and an offensive rating of 115.4. Last season, with Jimmy Butler and Wilson Chandler in the spots of Saric and Covington, the Sixers’ Net Rating was +12.6 and boasted an offensive rating of 116.3. With Tobias Harris in Chandler’s spot, it jumped even higher to a +19.4 Net Rating and an offensive rating of 121.9. That lineup was able to host their stars, a tough rugged playmaker able to create his own shot and finish in the clutch in Jimmy Butler, one of the best shooters in the league in JJ Redick and a guy in Tobias Harris who could do a bit of everything offensively. This season after not retaining Redick and Butler, however, has brought some difficulties. After bringing in Al Horford and Josh Richardson to replace Redick and Butler in the starting five, that lineup’s Net Rating has fallen to +8.5; solid thanks to an astounding 97.1 Defensive Rating (better than any previous lineup but it wasn’t as if those lineups were yearning for defense) but an offense that averages nearly 10 fewer points per 100 possessions.

There is no team where it is easier to scheme its primary option away from his sweet spot than the Sixers and Embiid. Simmons already camps out in the dunker spot; Horford may be a good shooter from deep but that doesn’t mean he wants to stay there permanently. A zone instantly throws this team off. Without a true playmaking guard (Josh Richardson and new addition Alec Burks are capable) to truly put fear in defenses from all levels, scoring has been difficult to come by, especially on the road, where Philadelphia’s shooters haven’t been able to enjoy the comforts of their own building to give them a boost (the Sixers have shot 37.5% from three at home, as opposed to 33.6% on the road). In some different universe, there’s a world where a completely healthy Washington-Markelle Fultz fixes all of this and is the extra star added to the original lineup in 2017-18 and is the difference that takes Philadelphia over the top. Unfortunately, that isn’t this universe, meaning Simmons and Embiid have to find a way to coexist better than they have before. Maybe their game against the Clippers is the start of that; the Sixers benched Al Horford (whom the Sixers actually have a negative Net Rating when he shares the floor with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid) for Furkan Korkmaz, which looked like it freed up the Sixers offense a little. They still have the talent and time to make up ground in the East. Their stars have to do what it takes to help the Sixers do so, or changes aplenty could be made there.

Eric Bledsoe PG Milwaukee Bucks: The Milwaukee Bucks are a wrecking ball. They’re on pace for 70 wins should they want it. Their point differential lead over the next highest point differential (+4.7) is essentially the same gap from the second-highest point differential (the Lakers at +7.4) to the 11th-highest point differential (the Thunder at +2.6). The Bucks are so good, they have a Net Rating of +7.5 points per 100 possessions… when the reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo (who is only playing just below 31 minutes a game) *isn’t* on the floor. Khris Middleton more than deserves his second consecutive All-Star selection. They only play solid, smart players who know what they’re doing on both ends of the floor. But if they have a question mark, even more so than if Giannis can make jumpers to keep defenses honest, is if Eric Bledsoe can do so.

Bledsoe had a great season last season and is having another one this season. However, when they needed him the most, Eric Bledsoe turned into a pumpkin. As Prodigy once said, Bledsoe was shook, and that wasn’t a first for him. In his first playoff series as a starter with the Bucks, there was the infamous back-and-forth with former Celtic Terry Rozier, which included Rozier hitting big shots over him and the Celtics ending the Bucks’ season. The season after didn’t do Bledsoe many favors either. Taking out the so-called ‘series’ against the Blake Griffin-less Pistons, Bledsoe shot 45-126 from the field for a modest 35.7% and shot 20.7% from deep. Those numbers were even worse in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Toronto Raptors, where he shot 29.8% from the field and 16.4% from deep. He posted an effective field goal percentage of 48.2% and 45.7% in his first two postseasons in Milwaukee. This important because if defenses aren’t going to respect Giannis’ jump shot and take away his special ability to attack the rim and if Bledsoe isn’t going to make shots from deep, then they’ll help off of Bledsoe and send even more attention Giannis’ direction. However, perhaps there is some positivity on this front. The Athletic’s Eric Nehm wrote earlier this season about Bledsoe’s jumper and how Milwaukee is working on improving it. You can see him launch with more confidence on pull-up threes, whether it be in the half-court or transition. The Bucks are very good and could very well win the title this season. But they’ll need Bledsoe and his jumper to help them get there.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown F Boston Celtics: The Celtics are really good. Kemba Walker has been everything as advertised both for his play and leadership, Gordon Hayward looks more and more like his former Utah self (his player option this summer is going to be a very interesting decision, I think), and, perhaps most importantly, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown appear to have taken a leap. While Brown was not named an All-Star (though he certainly had a case and easily could have made it), Tatum showed us a little bit of everything the night before All-Star weekend where he outplayed and completely took out Kawhi Leonard late in the 4th quarter and overtime. Both Brown and Tatum are averaging over 20 points per game and shooting over 38% from 3. Both have bought more into their roles off the ball and improved their shot selection (though Tatum could still improve shooting from two-point range). The Celtics are in the top 5 of both offensive (fifth) and defensive efficiency (third); only the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers can say the same. They are legit title contenders. But can these two keep this up in the postseason? Tatum and Brown were great in the 2018 postseason but saw their production tumble last year. In clutch situations (when a game is within the last 5 minutes and the score is within 5 points), per NBA.com, the duo of Tatum and Brown have both been more efficient than All-Stars Kemba Walker and Gordon Hayward. We saw glimpses of Kemba struggling to get good shots off late in games in the FIBA World Cup of 2019 when Frank Ntilikina played better defense on him than Jackie Moon trying to not give up free corn dogs (interestingly enough, the night against the Clippers when Tatum was dominating, Kemba took the final shot before overtime, where he missed a contested jumper). Boston’s going to need to close very good teams out, and they’ll need Tatum and Brown to help them do so.

Victor Oladipo SG Indiana Pacers: The Indiana Pacers were off to the quietest 30-17 start in NBA history (someone out there reading this has to get the show!), but have dropped six of the eight games Oladipo has played upon his return. The Pacers have played very admirably in his absence; Domantas Sabonis turned into an All-Star and Malcolm Brogdon showed much more as a number one option than anybody could have expected. Oladipo coming back settles everyone into roles more suited for them. It’s going to take Oladipo time to get in a rhythm and get his timing back to what it was before his injury and his career 2017-18 season when he pushed the LeBron-led Cavs to a Game 7 in the first round, but if he can get to that level, he can absolutely flip the fortunes of many this postseason. He still has yet to crack 30 minutes in a game this season, but he did provide a glimmer of the potential he possesses when he hit this shot to send the game to overtime against the Chicago Bulls in his first game back. How Oladipo looks on the floor will be very fascinating for the duration of the season.

Jamal Murray PG/SG and Michael Porter Jr. SF/PF Denver Nuggets: Jamal Murray has always been an enigma for me. I don’t see a budding star like many do, but he will give flashes of brilliance like his 32 point, 10 assist outing against the Lakers before the All-Star break. Murray’s numbers this season have been essentially the same as they were last season when the Nuggets were bounced off their own floor in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals. He can score, but the consistency has not been there as much as I would like it to be. The same could be said for the even more volatile and raw Michael Porter Jr., whose flashes may be the most fun and tantalizing in all the NBA. It is too much to ask MPJ to become the scoring dynamo the Nuggets did to take some pressure off Nikola Jokic, but it isn’t hard to imagine the potential of the Nuggets as title contenders if they can get the dynamic scoring ability in tough situations that Murray and Porter Jr. can provide. The Nuggets are 7th in offensive efficiency and 10th in defensive efficiency, the marker of a legit playoff team. The Nuggets can play with anybody, but their offensive firepower is still in question. Murray and Porter Jr. need to answer those questions to boost their title chances.

Donovan Mitchell SG Utah Jazz: What exactly are the Jazz? They boast a top 8 offense and defense but have a record below .500 against teams that are above .500 this season. They’re a very good team with two very deserving All-Stars in Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, but are teams going to fear them in the postseason? They brought in Bojan Bogdanovic through free agency, Fayetteville’s Finest Mike Conley and Jordan Clarkson via trade, and elevated Georges Niang to the rotation to alleviate some of the ball-handling duties away from Mitchell and give him more room to operate, and that has helped him have an All-Star season and the most efficient one of his young career so far. His usage rate has gone down from 30.9% a year ago to 30.4% this season and 29.9% since Christmas once all of their acquisitions have gotten time to acclimate to the team. He put it all together against the New Orleans Pelicans roughly a month ago, dropping a career-high 46 points on their heads. The Jazz have great depth and arguably the best defensive anchor in Rudy Gobert, but do they have enough firepower to get through the loaded western conference? They may have enough to win a series, but I’m not sure they have enough for three series. Is Mitchell ready for shootouts like the one he took part in against Brandon Ingram and the Pelicans? If he is, then Utah shouldn’t have much to be worried about, because he again will have to do a brunt of the heavy lifting for the Jazz offensively if they can’t get Conley back to his previous Memphis self. If he isn’t (this isn’t to blame him because Mitchell is a great player and a player I really love watching), then Utah’s goals will likely fall short of what they were before the season.

PJ Tucker PF/C and Russell Westbrook PG/SG Houston Rockets: It’s been six games in the Rockets’ experiment to forego a center and play super small. On the season, they have the 4th most efficient offense and the 15th most efficient defense, not exactly championship material. Their offense has hovered around the 113 points per 100 possession mark in these last six games, but their defense has been a little worse in that span. However, over the course of the season, when PJ Tucker is on the floor without a center (Clint Capela, Tyson Chandler nor Isaiah Hartenstein have played center for the Rockets this season), their offensive rating sits at 116.4 points per 100 possessions, which would be second in the NBA behind the Dallas Mavericks, but have a defensive rating of 111.8, which is the same mark as the New York Knicks (if you’re ever doing something the Knicks are doing, that’s never something good). Their rebound percentage (46.4%; an estimate of the percentage of available rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor) would be dead last in the NBA with that non-center lineup and has been even worse since Jan 31st, the first game of their new style of play. This is quite the sacrifice they’ve made to get the most out of Russell Westbrook, but the reason nonetheless why they made this move.

I’m not the biggest fan of Russell Westbrook’s game. I didn’t think he should’ve won his MVP, but who cares he won it. His shot selection has been a major factor in drawing my ire (his defense, which is drastically overrated in my opinion, has been another), but that’s started to disappear during these six games. The Rockets have essentially unleashed him as a 6’3” Ben Simmons to rampage through the paint with spacing galore. In five of the six games (he missed a game against Phoenix), he’s averaging 34 points per game and, more importantly, has shot just 11 threes in that span, important when considering Westbrook is literally the worst three-point shooter in NBA history amongst those who meet the volume pre-requisite. There was a game against Portland this season where he shot 11 threes in that one game alone!

I still am pessimistic about the Rockets and their ability to ride this style of play into a deep playoff run. However, they need the best version of Russell Westbrook possible to even think about doing something and are getting it now. PJ Tucker will need to hold up and Westbrook will have to keep this up. Will either, let alone both, happen? I don’t think so. But it’s going to be interesting nonetheless to find out and see what happens.

Spencer Dinwiddie G Brooklyn Nets: It has been a weird season for the Brooklyn Nets. Though this season was always going to be a transition season of sorts while some 7-foot dude recovers from a torn Achilles, it still has to be rather disappointing to be on the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff standings after their splashy summer. However, this has put another spotlight on the young core of the Nets, most notably Spencer Dinwiddie. Kyrie Irving has played only 20 games. Caris LeVert has played only 28 games. This has thrust Dinwiddie into the role of a primary option, a role he has done well with to keep the Nets alive as the 7th seed. His efficiency has dipped a little bit with the increase in usage from last season to this one (Last season, Dinwiddie used 24.2% of Brooklyn’s possessions. This season, his usage rate has gone up to 29%.), but that is par for the course for the boost in usage. He’s still averaging a career-high in points, rebounds, assists and an assortment of advanced statistics. The issue is, he and Kyrie have similar strengths and weaknesses. Though the Nets have been fairly successful with both Dinwiddie and Irving on the floor, the Nets went 1-4 upon Kyrie’s return when both were in the starting lineup and 3-1 with Dinwiddie coming off the bench (though basically, any lineup could’ve beaten the Nets twice and the Bulls). You’d have to wonder whether or not the Nets re-sign Dinwiddie this summer once he is a free agent given the redundancy and the possibility to address more glaring holes on the roster, but Kyrie Irving reaggravating his shoulder injury complicates matters. Dinwiddie is a very good and fun player who has revived his career in Brooklyn and has hit numerous big shots while giving them plenty of scoring when they’ve needed it this season. The Nets aren’t going anywhere this year. The last couple of Eastern playoff spots are up for grabs. Spencer Dinwiddie will have something to say about it.

[manage-management]

An interesting book that actually has something new to say about value investing Most investing books are essentially marketing material about how the author buys companies that are not only cheap, but also high-quality and low-risk. Oh and the company has growth potential too! And the chairman of the board isn't a man, he's a unicorn! It drives me crazy because I'm dying to learn something, and all these books do is say, "This is important, and so is this, this and this." The problem is: when you stress the importance of everything, you stress the importance of nothing. Go to Amazon

Take it with a grain of salt. This is an important, interesting, and entertaining book. The author chose a fascinating topic and did a great job describing the historical developments that influenced the evolution of activist investment strategies over time. The book is filled with information and historical facts, is well organized, well written, etc. Overall, a very enjoyable read. Something not easy to accomplish when it comes to finance books. Go to Amazon

Unique Book - A Must Read I've read many, many books on investing. I would easily rank this among the very best. It's tools for valuation - whether a firm has positive or negative income, highly leveraged or no leverage - are unique and indispensable. Not only does this this give you an excellent stock filter, it goes in-depth and lays the case out in detail why deep value investing is superior to other forms of investing. It is a simple thing to understand, but without a conceptual framework for making decisions, a lot of investors get scared out of buying stocks that have had setbacks and thus priced at deep discounts. I saw Tobias's talk at Google, looked up the book on Amazon, immediately purchased and read it, and haven't looked back. This stands apart from other (still excellent) books on investing, as it has a very deep focus on a concept that is well-known but not well understood. Go to Amazon

Very nice book on value investing Very nice book on value investing. I liked the mix of history and deep value investing content providing factual based data. Reading the deep value is well worth the time. With so many investing books out there, I found this book is also fun to read to with history lessons from great investors (like Buffett, Carl Icahn) but mostly a theory supported with evidence/factual based data – which I appreciate. Many thanks Tobias. Go to Amazon

Well worth the read... key insights on what REALLY drives returns from Value Investing Thoroughly enjoyed the book, particularly the last couple of chapters on the Deep Value thesis and the back-tested results to support this. Go to Amazon

Perfect fit for my investing style Perfect fit for my investing style. Eliminate behavioral errors, do what works, no matter how counter-intuitive it might be, Go to Amazon

If you're looking for insight, look elsewhere! Deep Value is the deep value investor’s bible. I invest in stocks listed in Singapore Stock Exchange. ... Persuasive The Irony of the Title I found this analysis of investment strategies to be very ... At last . . . a value investing book with something new to say Five Stars I loved this book

[mediacalling]

How to Engage With Your Social Media Followers Quickly and Authentically

How do you feel when people comment on your social media posts?

Awesome, right?

A comment is or some form of engagement is usually a sign that people love your social media content. And it’s important to reciprocate and respond to these interactions.

But at the same time, engaging with your followers can be time-consuming. If you are a solo social media manager or a small business owner, you know you don’t have the whole day to engage with your followers.

So how can you minimize the time it takes to engage with your followers and still be authentic at the same time?

In this post, we’ll share the tactics and tools we use to engage with our amazing social media followers quickly and authentically. 

5 creative types of replies you can use

If you have been replying to comments and mentions with a thank you, that’s a great first step. But it can be easy to fall into the habit of using a few standard replies. I’m definitely guilty of that!

There are many ways you can spice up your replies, show your brand’s personality, and delight your followers. Here are some that I like:

1. Questions

That’s awesome! Any top books in your program? – Bonnie

— Buffer (@buffer) September 11, 2017

Instead of a simple “Thank you”, I love to engage with the person further and continue the discussion. A great method is to ask for her or his opinions on the topic.

For example, if someone commented on your social media post that links to a blog post, you could ask the following questions:

What is your favorite part of the blog post?

What’s your main takeaway from the blog post?

Do you agree with the idea mentioned in the blog post?

How has your experience with (a strategy or tool) been like?

Have you tried any of the tips in the blog post before? If yes, how did it go?

If they reply to your questions, that’s awesome! You can continue the conversation and build a good relationship with them.

2. Emojis

The easiest way to make your replies a little more fun is to include emojis. 

As emojis become part of the social media language, most people are used to seeing and using emojis in their social media posts and comments.

It is also an efficient way to convey your tone and emotions in your replies. Unlike talking face-to-face or on the phone, it’s not easy for your followers to pick up your tone and emotions in a text reply. But with a happy emoji such as , your followers would know instantly that you’re smiling while replying.

Both Mac and Windows have a shortcut for adding emojis. If you’re on a Mac, an emoji app that I would recommend is Rocket. It allows you to quickly type emojis by starting with a colon (:). Here’s a demo from the website:

3. Images

You can also schedule posts for custom days and times by clicking on the small arrow next to “Add to Queue” -Kelly http://pic.twitter.com/m3Jxfd8icy

— Buffer (@buffer) August 31, 2017

Sometimes, the fastest and easiest way to show or explain something on social media is to use an image — especially on Twitter where you have only 140 characters.

We found that images are generally best for answering support questions where we have to show or point to something.

Tools like CloudApp, Nimbus, and Droplr (which we’ll discuss below) allow you to add annotations to your images, making your explanation clearer.

4. GIFs

Woohoo!! :cue the happy music: We’re thrilled to have you with us on Awesome, Tobias! Shout if any questions come up -Kelly http://pic.twitter.com/uo3UvjZZKb

— Buffer (@buffer) August 25, 2017

Using GIFs is our favorite way of thanking people who shared our content, gave us a shout out, and more.

With the new GIF button on Twitter and Facebook, you can easily find and add a GIF to your replies.

If you would like to create your own GIFs, here’s our guide on how to create your own GIFs in minutes.

5. Videos

@sippey we miss you #askmedium http://pic.twitter.com/maV5NwdJFf

— Medium (@Medium) February 10, 2015

In 2015, the User Happiness team at Medium did a #AskMedium campaign where they answered questions with video replies. And their followers loved it!

In a blog post about Twitter’s video feature, Gary Vaynerchuck explained why video replies are great for engagement:

It takes me nine to twelve seconds to make a video and reply, but those extra seconds hold a lot of meaning. Not to mention it’s more personal, visual, and we are living in a world where the visual is often regarded as a better engagement than the written.

It’s easy to Like a comment or reply with “Thank you!”. Recording a video reply — even a short one — takes a little more effort, which shows your followers how much you care about them.

6 ways to save time while engaging with your followers

While engaging with your followers is important, you likely also have many other important things to do, such as creating content, planning, or running your business.

Here are six strategies to help you save time while you engage with your followers.

1. Craft your replies to common comments in advance

Thanks for sharing this informative video!

How do you work as a social media team of one?

Do you have any tips for growing an Instagram account?

These are some of the common comments we get, and you likely have yours.

Preparing the answers to these common comments and questions can help you reply faster as you don’t have to think on your feet.

I would recommend coming up with a few variations so that you aren’t always replying with the same phrases. For example, instead of saying “Thanks for reading our blog post!”, you could also say the following:

Yay! Thanks for reading this! (GIF)

You rock for reading our blog post!

Thank you for checking it out! Will you be trying any of the tips mentioned?

Thanks! Have you tried any of the tactics before? It’ll be great to hear how it went for you!

2. Have a handy list of GIFs, emojis, and more

Besides searching for GIFs on Twitter and Facebook, I have a folder of my favorite GIFs for various types of replies. This way, I can grab and use them quickly without having to search. (There have been times when I was looking for a particular GIF and just couldn’t find it through search).

Here are some of my favorites:

Aww, thank you:

You’re welcome:

Awesome:

Excited:

You could download your favorite GIFs into an easily-accessible folder so that you can grab one quickly whenever you are replying to comments on your social media posts.

To download a GIF from GIPHY, click on “Download” on the right of the GIF and select the file type you want.

You could do the same for commonly-used screenshots and videos and also create a list of your favorite emojis in an Evernote note (or your preferred note-taking app) for quick access.

3. Use productivity tools

Using tools is another great way to help you reply your followers faster. Here are a few tools that we use:

Text Expander: Instantly insert snippets of text

With Text Expander, you can quickly type commonly-used phrases with just a few characters. For example, instead of typing “Thank you for sharing this post”, you could type “tks1” and Text Expander would automatically expand it.

If you have come up with a list of replies according to tip 1 above, you could add them to this app. You can customize the abbreviation for each of your snippets.

Other tools like Text Expander: Alfred, Typinator, and Phrase Express

CloudApp: Quickly create & share GIFs, annotated screenshots, and more

With CloudApp, you can capture anything on your screen as an image, GIF, or video in just seconds. You can even record a video of yourself — which is great for creating video replies!

CloudApp will automatically add a link to your file to your clipboard. You can then paste it into your reply or download the file and add it to your reply.

What I love about CloudApp is that I can access its features by just hitting a few keys on my keyboard.

Cmd/Alt + Shift + 5: Take a screenshot

Cmd/Alt + Shift + a: Take a screenshot and add annotations

Cmd/Alt + Shift + 6: Take a screen recording (as a GIF or HD video)

Cmd/Alt + Shift + 8: Record a video with your computer’s camera

Other tools like CloudApp: Nimbus, Droplr, and Dropbox

4. Use a social media engagement tool

Our top tip for engaging with social media followers quickly is to use a tool that’s built specifically for social media engagement.

Instead of having to log in to each social media platform and open each notification in a new tab, you can efficiently reply to comments and mentions from a single place.

Our favorite social media engagement tool is Buffer Reply.

With Buffer Reply, you can have all your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram conversations in a single inbox. It works even better if you are in a team as you can respond to conversations together.

There are also many other social media engagement tools out there, such as Facebook’s unified inbox, Hootsuite, and TweetDeck.

5. Use automation to assist you

This is where a social media engagement tool can be super helpful. For example, we set up automation rules with Buffer Reply, such as the following, so that we can respond to social media conversations as quickly as possible.

Filter out spam and automated tweets and automatically close those conversations – so that we can focus on those that require a reply

Move Facebook and Instagram comments into a separate folder – so that Brian Peters, who manages our Facebook Page and Instagram account, can focus on them

Move tweets with our support hashtag, #BufferSupport, into a separate folder – so that our Customer Advocates can reply to them as soon as possible

Automation tools like Zapier and IFTTT can also be useful here. The way they work is that an activity in an app will trigger another activity in another app. For example, if you want to reply as soon as someone mentions your brand on Twitter, you could use Zapier to send any Twitter mentions into your Slack.

Here are more social media engagement and monitoring automation by Zapier.

6. Schedule time to engage

It’s great to jump onto any comments immediately and give a prompt reply. If it doesn’t disrupt to your workflow, you should probably keep it up!

But for many of us who wear multiple hats, constantly stopping our work to reply to a comment can affect our productivity (unless your main role is to reply and help customers on social media).

One thing that Brian, who manages our social media profiles, do is this: he schedules two 30-minutes time blocks every day to respond and engage with our community. Here’s how engaging with our community fits into his morning schedule:

How do you engage with your followers?

Engaging with your followers is a great way to build your brand. While the process can sometimes be time-consuming, there are tactics and tools that can help to minimize the time it takes for you to engage with your followers while staying authentic:

Craft your replies to common comments in advance

Have a handy list of GIFs, emojis, and more

Use productivity tools like TextExpander

Use a social media engagement tool

Use automation to assist you

Schedule time to engage

I would also love to learn from you. How do you engage with your followers? What tips do you have for those who want to minimize the time it takes to engage with their followers? 

—

Image credit: Unsplash

How to Engage With Your Social Media Followers Quickly and Authentically posted first on http://ift.tt/2qbaJ0t

[mariemary1]

How to Engage With Your Social Media Followers Quickly and Authentically

How do you feel when people comment on your social media posts?

Awesome, right?

A comment is or some form of engagement is usually a sign that people love your social media content. And it’s important to reciprocate and respond to these interactions.

But at the same time, engaging with your followers can be time-consuming. If you are a solo social media manager or a small business owner, you know you don’t have the whole day to engage with your followers.

So how can you minimize the time it takes to engage with your followers and still be authentic at the same time?

In this post, we’ll share the tactics and tools we use to engage with our amazing social media followers quickly and authentically. 

5 creative types of replies you can use

If you have been replying to comments and mentions with a thank you, that’s a great first step. But it can be easy to fall into the habit of using a few standard replies. I’m definitely guilty of that!

There are many ways you can spice up your replies, show your brand’s personality, and delight your followers. Here are some that I like:

1. Questions

That’s awesome! Any top books in your program? – Bonnie

— Buffer (@buffer) September 11, 2017

Instead of a simple “Thank you”, I love to engage with the person further and continue the discussion. A great method is to ask for her or his opinions on the topic.

For example, if someone commented on your social media post that links to a blog post, you could ask the following questions:

What is your favorite part of the blog post?

What’s your main takeaway from the blog post?

Do you agree with the idea mentioned in the blog post?

How has your experience with (a strategy or tool) been like?

Have you tried any of the tips in the blog post before? If yes, how did it go?

If they reply to your questions, that’s awesome! You can continue the conversation and build a good relationship with them.

2. Emojis

The easiest way to make your replies a little more fun is to include emojis. 

As emojis become part of the social media language, most people are used to seeing and using emojis in their social media posts and comments.

It is also an efficient way to convey your tone and emotions in your replies. Unlike talking face-to-face or on the phone, it’s not easy for your followers to pick up your tone and emotions in a text reply. But with a happy emoji such as , your followers would know instantly that you’re smiling while replying.

Both Mac and Windows have a shortcut for adding emojis. If you’re on a Mac, an emoji app that I would recommend is Rocket. It allows you to quickly type emojis by starting with a colon (:). Here’s a demo from the website:

3. Images

You can also schedule posts for custom days and times by clicking on the small arrow next to “Add to Queue” -Kelly pic.twitter.com/m3Jxfd8icy

— Buffer (@buffer) August 31, 2017

Sometimes, the fastest and easiest way to show or explain something on social media is to use an image — especially on Twitter where you have only 140 characters.

We found that images are generally best for answering support questions where we have to show or point to something.

Tools like CloudApp, Nimbus, and Droplr (which we’ll discuss below) allow you to add annotations to your images, making your explanation clearer.

4. GIFs

Woohoo!! :cue the happy music: We’re thrilled to have you with us on Awesome, Tobias! Shout if any questions come up -Kelly pic.twitter.com/uo3UvjZZKb

— Buffer (@buffer) August 25, 2017

Using GIFs is our favorite way of thanking people who shared our content, gave us a shout out, and more.

With the new GIF button on Twitter and Facebook, you can easily find and add a GIF to your replies.

If you would like to create your own GIFs, here’s our guide on how to create your own GIFs in minutes.

5. Videos

@sippey we miss you #askmedium pic.twitter.com/maV5NwdJFf

— Medium (@Medium) February 10, 2015

In 2015, the User Happiness team at Medium did a #AskMedium campaign where they answered questions with video replies. And their followers loved it!

In a blog post about Twitter’s video feature, Gary Vaynerchuck explained why video replies are great for engagement:

It takes me nine to twelve seconds to make a video and reply, but those extra seconds hold a lot of meaning. Not to mention it’s more personal, visual, and we are living in a world where the visual is often regarded as a better engagement than the written.

It’s easy to Like a comment or reply with “Thank you!”. Recording a video reply — even a short one — takes a little more effort, which shows your followers how much you care about them.

6 ways to save time while engaging with your followers

While engaging with your followers is important, you likely also have many other important things to do, such as creating content, planning, or running your business.

Here are six strategies to help you save time while you engage with your followers.

1. Craft your replies to common comments in advance

Thanks for sharing this informative video!

How do you work as a social media team of one?

Do you have any tips for growing an Instagram account?

These are some of the common comments we get, and you likely have yours.

Preparing the answers to these common comments and questions can help you reply faster as you don’t have to think on your feet.

I would recommend coming up with a few variations so that you aren’t always replying with the same phrases. For example, instead of saying “Thanks for reading our blog post!”, you could also say the following:

Yay! Thanks for reading this! (GIF)

You rock for reading our blog post!

Thank you for checking it out! Will you be trying any of the tips mentioned?

Thanks! Have you tried any of the tactics before? It’ll be great to hear how it went for you!

2. Have a handy list of GIFs, emojis, and more

Besides searching for GIFs on Twitter and Facebook, I have a folder of my favorite GIFs for various types of replies. This way, I can grab and use them quickly without having to search. (There have been times when I was looking for a particular GIF and just couldn’t find it through search).

Here are some of my favorites:

Aww, thank you:

You’re welcome:

Awesome:

Excited:

You could download your favorite GIFs into an easily-accessible folder so that you can grab one quickly whenever you are replying to comments on your social media posts.

To download a GIF from GIPHY, click on “Download” on the right of the GIF and select the file type you want.

You could do the same for commonly-used screenshots and videos and also create a list of your favorite emojis in an Evernote note (or your preferred note-taking app) for quick access.

3. Use productivity tools

Using tools is another great way to help you reply your followers faster. Here are a few tools that we use:

Text Expander: Instantly insert snippets of text

With Text Expander, you can quickly type commonly-used phrases with just a few characters. For example, instead of typing “Thank you for sharing this post”, you could type “tks1” and Text Expander would automatically expand it.

If you have come up with a list of replies according to tip 1 above, you could add them to this app. You can customize the abbreviation for each of your snippets.

Other tools like Text Expander: Alfred, Typinator, and Phrase Express

CloudApp: Quickly create & share GIFs, annotated screenshots, and more

With CloudApp, you can capture anything on your screen as an image, GIF, or video in just seconds. You can even record a video of yourself — which is great for creating video replies!

CloudApp will automatically add a link to your file to your clipboard. You can then paste it into your reply or download the file and add it to your reply.

What I love about CloudApp is that I can access its features by just hitting a few keys on my keyboard.

Cmd/Alt + Shift + 5: Take a screenshot

Cmd/Alt + Shift + a: Take a screenshot and add annotations

Cmd/Alt + Shift + 6: Take a screen recording (as a GIF or HD video)

Cmd/Alt + Shift + 8: Record a video with your computer’s camera

Other tools like CloudApp: Nimbus, Droplr, and Dropbox

4. Use a social media engagement tool

Our top tip for engaging with social media followers quickly is to use a tool that’s built specifically for social media engagement.

Instead of having to log in to each social media platform and open each notification in a new tab, you can efficiently reply to comments and mentions from a single place.

Our favorite social media engagement tool is Buffer Reply.

With Buffer Reply, you can have all your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram conversations in a single inbox. It works even better if you are in a team as you can respond to conversations together.

There are also many other social media engagement tools out there, such as Facebook’s unified inbox, Hootsuite, and TweetDeck.

5. Use automation to assist you

This is where a social media engagement tool can be super helpful. For example, we set up automation rules with Buffer Reply, such as the following, so that we can respond to social media conversations as quickly as possible.

Filter out spam and automated tweets and automatically close those conversations – so that we can focus on those that require a reply

Move Facebook and Instagram comments into a separate folder – so that Brian Peters, who manages our Facebook Page and Instagram account, can focus on them

Move tweets with our support hashtag, #BufferSupport, into a separate folder – so that our Customer Advocates can reply to them as soon as possible

Automation tools like Zapier and IFTTT can also be useful here. The way they work is that an activity in an app will trigger another activity in another app. For example, if you want to reply as soon as someone mentions your brand on Twitter, you could use Zapier to send any Twitter mentions into your Slack.

Here are more social media engagement and monitoring automation by Zapier.

6. Schedule time to engage

It’s great to jump onto any comments immediately and give a prompt reply. If it doesn’t disrupt to your workflow, you should probably keep it up!

But for many of us who wear multiple hats, constantly stopping our work to reply to a comment can affect our productivity (unless your main role is to reply and help customers on social media).

One thing that Brian, who manages our social media profiles, do is this: he schedules two 30-minutes time blocks every day to respond and engage with our community. Here’s how engaging with our community fits into his morning schedule:

How do you engage with your followers?

Engaging with your followers is a great way to build your brand. While the process can sometimes be time-consuming, there are tactics and tools that can help to minimize the time it takes for you to engage with your followers while staying authentic:

Craft your replies to common comments in advance

Have a handy list of GIFs, emojis, and more

Use productivity tools like TextExpander

Use a social media engagement tool

Use automation to assist you

Schedule time to engage

I would also love to learn from you. How do you engage with your followers? What tips do you have for those who want to minimize the time it takes to engage with their followers? 

—

Image credit: Unsplash

Thank How to Engage With Your Social Media Followers Quickly and Authentically for first publishing this post.

[enough-finance]

Unique Book - A Must Read I've read many, many books on investing. I would easily rank this among the very best. It's tools for valuation - whether a firm has positive or negative income, highly leveraged or no leverage - are unique and indispensable. Not only does this this give you an excellent stock filter, it goes in-depth and lays the case out in detail why deep value investing is superior to other forms of investing. It is a simple thing to understand, but without a conceptual framework for making decisions, a lot of investors get scared out of buying stocks that have had setbacks and thus priced at deep discounts. I saw Tobias's talk at Google, looked up the book on Amazon, immediately purchased and read it, and haven't looked back. This stands apart from other (still excellent) books on investing, as it has a very deep focus on a concept that is well-known but not well understood. Go to Amazon

Very nice book on value investing Very nice book on value investing. I liked the mix of history and deep value investing content providing factual based data. Reading the deep value is well worth the time. With so many investing books out there, I found this book is also fun to read to with history lessons from great investors (like Buffett, Carl Icahn) but mostly a theory supported with evidence/factual based data – which I appreciate. Many thanks Tobias. Go to Amazon

An interesting book that actually has something new to say about value investing Most investing books are essentially marketing material about how the author buys companies that are not only cheap, but also high-quality and low-risk. Oh and the company has growth potential too! And the chairman of the board isn't a man, he's a unicorn! It drives me crazy because I'm dying to learn something, and all these books do is say, "This is important, and so is this, this and this." The problem is: when you stress the importance of everything, you stress the importance of nothing. Go to Amazon

Well worth the read... key insights on what REALLY drives returns from Value Investing Thoroughly enjoyed the book, particularly the last couple of chapters on the Deep Value thesis and the back-tested results to support this. Go to Amazon

The Irony of the Title The book is called Deep Value, and by reading it, you gain the same result as the principles described in the book. If you're a value investor pick it up, but if you like losing money, find another book. Go to Amazon

Persuasive This is an inspiring and persuasive read for anyone wanting to pursue value investing and provides practical advice on how to implement such a strategy Go to Amazon

Great read The book directly instructs you on what value investing is and how to identify a valuable company. Very counterintuitive style with great examples and easy to understand ratios. Go to Amazon

A fascinating and powerful book on the merits of deep value investing Mr. Carlisle presents a fantastic book that explores the fascinating and powerful world of deep value stocks. Deep Value is filled with counter-intuitive insights that will make you question conventional investing practices. I view the main theme running through the book as the power of thinking differently. Below are some of the key insights which I came away with after reading Deep Value. Go to Amazon

Perfect fit for my investing style I invest in stocks listed in Singapore Stock Exchange. ... I found this analysis of investment strategies to be very ... At last . . . a value investing book with something new to say Five Stars I loved this book Five Stars I love this industry A must read for value investors

[rolandogapud-blog1]

Understanding Business Development – Rolando Gapud

Business Development is a mysterious title for a little discussed function or department in most larger companies. It’s also a great way for an entrepreneur or small business to have fun, create value and make money.

Good business development allows businesses to profit by doing something that is tangential to their core mission. Sometimes the profit is so good, it becomes part of their core mission, other times it supports the brand and sometimes it just makes money. And often it’s a little guy who can be flexible enough to make things happen.

Examples:

Starbucks licenses their name to a maker of ice cream and generates millions in royalties.

A rack jobber like Handleman does a deal with a mass marketer like K Mart. K Mart gives them room in the store to sell records and gets a cut, Handleman does all the work.

AOL buys AIM instant messaging software and integrates it into their service.

Years ago, I licensed the rights to Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels from a business development person at his publisher and turned the books into a VCR murder mystery game which I licensed to a business development person at Kodak, a company that was experimenting with becoming a publisher. (Isaac made more from this project than he did from many of his books).

Best Buy offers extended warranties on appliances you buy. They don’t provide the warranty, of course, a business development person did a deal with an insurance/service company to do it and they share the profit.

The Princeton Review built a huge test prep business, but only by licensing their brand to a series of books which did the lion’s share of their marketing for them.

You don’t see business development from the outside, particularly all the potential deals that fail along the way. Many companies, though, spend millions of dollars a year looking for deals and then discovering that they pay off many times over. Others, particularly smaller competitors, are so focused on their core business that it never occurs to them to consider partnerships, licensing, publishing, acquisition and other arrangements that might change everything. Harley Davidson probably makes more money on business development than they make on motorcycles.

Ronaldo Gapud says that,

The thing that makes business development fascinating is that the best deals have never been done before. There’s no template, no cookie cutter grind it out approach to making it work. This is why most organizations are so astonishingly bad at it. They don’t have the confidence to make decisions or believe they have the ability to make mistakes.

Think about the Apple Nike partnership on making a device that integrates your iPod with your sneakers. This took years and cost millions of dollars to develop. Most companies would just flee, giving up long before a deal was done and a product was shipped.

Here are some tactical tips on how to do business development better Given by Ronaldo Gapud

Process first, ideas second. If you’re going to be bringing new partners and new ideas into your organization, you need a process to do it. Professionals don’t, “know it when I see it.” Instead, professionals think about the abilities of their company and strategies necessary to bring ideas in, refine them and launch them. Great business development people don’t waste time in endless meetings with random vendors or hassle about tiny details up front. Instead, they have an agenda and a project manager’s understanding of what it means to get things done. They don’t keep the process a secret, either. They share it with anyone who wants to know. Someone needs to say, “here’s how we do things around here,” and then they have to tell the truth.

Who decides? Because every great business development project is different, it’s incredibly easy to get stuck on who can say yes (of course, everyone can say no). Professional business development people intentionally limit the number of people who are allowed to weigh in and are clear to themselves and their potential partners about exactly who can (and must) give the go ahead. Don’t bother starting a business development deal unless you know in advance who must say yes.

Courtship, negotiation and marriage. Every deal has three parts, and keeping them straight is essential. During the courtship phase, you win when you are respectful, diligent, enthusiastic, engaging, outgoing, and relentless in your search to make a connection. Do your homework, research people’s backgrounds, learn about their kids, visit them–don’t make them visit you. Look people in the eye, ask hard but engaging questions, you know the drill. Basically, treat people as you’d like to be treated, because the people you most want to work with have a choice, and they may just not pick you. Hint: if you skip the courtship part, the other two stages probably won’t come up.

Buyer and seller. If you’ve ever pitched a product or service to a business, you know how soul-deadening it can be. The buyer works hard to make it clear that she’s doing you a favor, and you need every dog and every pony available at all times (and you better be the cheapest). But business development doesn’t have this dichotomy. Both sides are buying, both sides are selling, right? So talented business development people never act like jaded buyers, arms folded, demanding this and that. Instead, from the start, they seek out partners.

Enthusiasm is underrated. Business development people are exploring the unknown. That means that there’s more than cash on the table, there’s bravery and initiative and excitement. The best business development people I’ve ever worked with are able to capture the energy in the room and amplify it. They’ll build on the ideas being presented, not make them smaller.

Close the open door. I regularly hear from readers who are frustrated because a big company wasn’t willing to hear a great idea they mailed in. Here’s the thing: there isn’t a shortage of ideas. There’s a shortage of execution. That means that successful business development teams look for proven partners and organizations with momentum. A key part of that is the decision to say no early and quickly and respectfully to people who don’t meet that threshold.

Call the lawyers later. A business development deal that never happens is one that’s sure to cause no problems. While the legal clarity you need is important, there’s plenty of data that shows that ten page NDA agreements and onerous contracts early in the process don’t protect you, they merely waste your time and energy.

Cast a wider net. The Allen and Co. annual gathering is a dumb place to choose a merger partner. Limiting the number of potential partners to people you’ve met at a trade show is also silly. Business development (when it works) creates huge value for both sides, so better to be proactive in searching out and soliciting the organizations that can make a difference. Here’s a simple way to widen your net: start a blog and go to conferences to speak. Describe your successful business development projects to date and let the world know you’re looking for more of them. How many amazing partnerships could the Apple store launch? How many great books could Starbucks highlight? Not only don’t they do this, they hide. Don’t hide.

Talk to the receptionist. This is huge, and so important. When a great partner shows up at your doorstep, do you know? Here’s a test: call your organization (pretending to be from some respected organization), describe a business development opportunity and ask who can help. If you’re not immediately transferred to your office, you’ve failed, right? Make it easy for the right people to know that you’re the right guy.

Hire better. How do you decide who to put in this job? I’d argue that glibness and charisma aren’t as important as strategic thinking, project management and humility.

Structure deals with the expectation of success. The only real reason to do business development deals is because when they work they’re so powerful. Andrew Tobias put his name on a piece of software that ended up earning him millions of dollars. It’s easy to get hung up on all the bad things that could happen, but keep your focus on how the world looks when you get it right.

End well. Most of the time, even good business development deals fall down before the end of the negotiation process. If a deal doesn’t come together, say so. Acknowledge what went wrong, thank the other party and end well. If it does come together, track the integration and stay involved enough to learn from what works and what doesn’t. I’m still waiting to hear from people who said they’d get back to me “tomorrow” fifteen years ago, but I’m losing hope… Ending well not only teaches you how to do better next time, but it keeps doors open for when you need to come back to someone who you should have done a deal with in the first place.

To know more About Ronaldo Gapud, Please visit About Rolando Gapud

[thegeeklee]

Good Game TV Show Cancelled

Today it was announced that the long running Australian TV Show Good Game had been cancelled. This includes the main Good Game show, Good Game Pocket and Good Game Well Played. Good Game Spawn Point, it’s weekly show for younger gamers (G and PG rated games) will continue to be produced on ABC ME hosted by Bajo, Goose and Rad.

An official statement was posted this morning on the Good Game’s facebook page:

OFFICIAL STATEMENT

Sad news. After the program’s summer break, two of the key presenters of Good Game announced they were leaving to pursue other opportunities.

In light of this major setback, and changes in the way audiences are choosing to get their information about gaming, the ABC has decided to end the long and successful run of the show. We plan to continue Spawn Point in a new format.

We expect to retain all the remaining Good Game team.

The ABC would like to acknowledge the wonderful work of Janet Carr and all of the Good Gamers. Any show that makes it to a 10th birthday is something to be proud of. Good Game pioneered video game TV. Its commitment and innovation has been repeatedly and appropriately awarded. The show has had a tremendous run and plenty of adventures, none of which would have happened without the ongoing love and support of you, the GG community.

Thank you.

 Those two “key presenters” were Hex (co-host of Good Game and Good Game Spawn Point) and Nichboy (host of the daily online show, Good Game Pocket). Neither host had shown any indication about leaving prior to today. All online messaging prior to this sounded like Good Game was looking forward to a big year ahead in 2017. This calls into question the PR statement as to what has really happened. If hosts did leave on their own accord, they can be replaced. There’s no reason to axe 3 shows because of it. There are some indicators that there could be more to this story than we know at this point.

Around the 3rd quarter of 2016 saw the host of Good Game Well Played, Hingers leave. He did have multiple other things on the go though such as stand up comedy, doing fill in shifts on Triple J radio and SBS’s The Feed TV show. The trigger for this leaving however was taking up a job commentating at Riot, creators of the popular eSports game, League of Legends. So at that point there did not seem to be reasons for concern.

Unfortunately though there were more high profile departures from the Good Game team by the end of 2016. Series creator and Executive Producer Janet Carr left. Director of the main Good Game show Ben Shackleford also left, as did production co-ordinator Sam Gordon. Tobias Venus whom had only just started with the team in 2016 was also reportedly let go. It’s hard to tell at this stage but there may be more of the team whom have left or not had contracts renewed.

With all these key staff leaving last year, perhaps that should have been a sign that something was up. The PR statement makes it sound like they just randomly decided to axe 3 shows because two presenters left, which just doesn’t add up. It’s makes more sense that it’s something more to do with the new direction of the ABC is going.

When the Coalition Government took power in 2013, there had been sustained attacks from the Government on the ABC, both culturally, claiming left wing bias and also on a funding front, cutting budget of the national broadcaster. Even when Malcolm Turnbull took over as Prime Minister, whom had previously been a regular friend of the ABC, the pressure against the ABC did not seem to subside much.

The key moment however was when ABC Managing Director Mark Scott was replaced by Michelle Guthrie in mid 2016. Guthrie had formerly worked for Google and the Rupert Murdoch owned News Corp. It is argued that News Corp had much influence in the election of the Coalition Government in 2013 with anti Labor Party newspaper covers such as the infamous “Kick This Mob Out” article. It has been suggested by some that the Coalition would like to privatise the ABC. This caused a lot of backlash and protest from the community, but perhaps recent decisions under Guthrie’s leadership suggests another way of attacking the ABC. Good Game is far from the only show affected. Science show Catalyst was heavily stripped back for 2017, from a regular show to occasional special reports, seeing many staff given the chop. Radio National had a heap of music shows cancelled and conservative commentators taking their place. The ABC also closed down The Drum website, which regularly featured opinion articles. ABC’s chief operating officer, David Pendelton and director of television, Richard Finlayson also recently announced they were leaving the ABC.

One of the reasons supposedly behind changes is the evolving media landscape, reiterated by the line in the official statement “changes in the way audiences are choosing to get their information”. It’s easy to get caught up in buzzwords like “innovation” and “agile”. However if it was true that the new digital media landscape is the reason behind these changes, then why these specific changes? If there’s a show that’s going to understand technology, surely it’s a science show like Catalyst? And coming back to Good Game, it’s literally a show dedicated to technology.

Good Game already had all of it’s shows available on youtube and iView. Good Game Pocket in particular took the similar approach that modern youtubers and twitch streamers take, by providing current daily news and let’s play videos, regularly interacting with it’s audience. So if it’s all about moving with the times, why would you cancel the most innovative show on the ABC?

Good Game originally started in 2006. I would guess I probably started watching around 2008, as at the time the hosts were Bajo and Junglist. Junglist was replaced by Hex under controversial circumstances in 2009. There is of course varying stories behind the reasoning behind this, but the official line from the ABC was that Junglist had been underperforming. Fans of Junglist still to this day, 7 years later suggest Good Game lost it’s hardcore gaming edge with dumping Junglist. Fans of Hex on the other hand praised her presence in helping create a more inclusive gaming community in Australia, with a well known female role model within the industry.

Once Good Game got past that turbulent time, it went from strength to strength. Good Game the main show was for adult gamers. Good Game Spawn Point was created children. In more recent times Good Game Pocket was created to provide regular current content and Good Game Well Played to cover the specialist nature of eSports. Good Game has always had a great mix of quality reviews that could completely change my mind about a game, insightful reports about the game industry and serious issues that affect the culture, all while maintaining a sense of fun and comedy. In the 90s there was a gaming TV show on channel 9 I watched as a kid called The Zone. My rose tinted glasses would tell me that it was great show, but that was so long ago, it’s hard to judge now. Any other gaming show that has featured on mainstream television in Australia has usually been nothing more than an advertorial for games publishers wanted to push.

Not Good Game though. Due to it being produced at the government funded ABC, it was literally part of it’s charter to not be commercial and instead provide unbiased reviews. This no doubt has garnered much respect both from fans and the industry alike. Yes you can not deny the popularity of youtubers and streamers. When people like Pewdiepie have over 50 million subscribers, you can not ignore the fact that at the very least, young people are moving away from traditional TV and getting their fix online instead. But I will argue a few points.

The ABC isn’t a station for young people. It’s for all ages. So even if the younger audience is moving on (though lines at conventions to meet the hosts of Good Game would say otherwise), what about older gamers? The average age of a gamer is 36 nowadays. Gaming isn’t just for kids, but this move by the ABC makes it look like is by only retained the kids version of Good Game. And wasn’t it the kids that are consuming their entertainment online? So why keep the kids show, but ditch the adult show? What about the adult gamers. Perhaps they haven’t moved to online for their quality gaming entertainment fix. So wouldn’t it make sense for the nation’s broadcaster to keep the show that is aimed at them? I’ve seen comments by older gamers saying they will miss the show as they don’t have much time in their lives to seek quality gaming information, and Good Game provided it in a short burst of 30 minutes once a week. I have to agree with this to an extent. Good Game (the main show) is the only TV show I can think of, that I always went out of my way to watch each week when it was broadcasted live. Now this ritual is gone and even less reason to continue to watch free to air TV and Australian content. If you are ditching shows because you are competing with online, then what happens to the ABC in the future?

I would also argue that you can’t compare content created for the internet versus a traditional TV production. There’s a reason there’s a team involved in the production of Good Game as opposed to one person with an internet connection and a webcam. It’s because Good Game had more depth than most video content you find on the internet. Most gaming video content online is people spewing their freestyled opinions on subjects (check out The Geeklee unboxing videos for example!), or simply just playing through a game (sometimes to the detriment of game developers).

You wouldn’t find an in-depth report on mental illness and gaming. Or visiting school kids to discuss the games they developing. This takes research. It tells stories about Australia. It tells stories about gamers. It tells stories about people, which is what the ABC is supposed to be about. This is part of what Good Game provided, which I feel you would rarely find elsewhere. Online has been great for democratizing discussion (I mean hey, look at this very blog), however it has also caused the cheapening of journalism and critiquing, due to the lack of money and the 24/7 news cycle. Now it’s more about whether you can get a great click bait title to get hits rather that quality reporting (as is evidenced by many media organizations downsizing).

So what can I say, it doesn’t make sense logically, but I also have decent suspicions as to why it has happened. All I can say for sure is how much of a positive influence Good Game has on me over the years, and how much I’ve enjoyed it. The Good Game presenters felt like good friends I didn’t personally know. 10 years is a long run in the TV world, especially these days. I just can’t see in this instance, why it had to be the end. Maybe one day it may return if Good Game Spawn Point continues to prosper.

I want to thank all of those involved in Good Game, both past and present for your passion and dedication to gaming and this TV show. It really showed through everything you did. You changed the Australian gaming culture and industry. You provided endless hours of quality content which not only respected the intelligence of gamers of all ages, but created a welcoming, inclusive and accessible environment whether you were a “noob” or a core gamer. It feels ironic that Good Game was at the peak of it’s game, celebrating 10 years and now this happens. I hope those leaving go onto good things, and those remaining can at least keep providing a quality gaming show for the kids of Australia. They deserve it. I just hope adult gamers can have this gap filled by something else of a similar quality in the future.

#putoutyourcontrollers

#praiseboll

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[manage-management]

An interesting book that actually has something new to say about value investing Most investing books are essentially marketing material about how the author buys companies that are not only cheap, but also high-quality and low-risk. Oh and the company has growth potential too! And the chairman of the board isn't a man, he's a unicorn! It drives me crazy because I'm dying to learn something, and all these books do is say, "This is important, and so is this, this and this." The problem is: when you stress the importance of everything, you stress the importance of nothing. Go to Amazon

Take it with a grain of salt. This is an important, interesting, and entertaining book. The author chose a fascinating topic and did a great job describing the historical developments that influenced the evolution of activist investment strategies over time. The book is filled with information and historical facts, is well organized, well written, etc. Overall, a very enjoyable read. Something not easy to accomplish when it comes to finance books. Go to Amazon

Unique Book - A Must Read I've read many, many books on investing. I would easily rank this among the very best. It's tools for valuation - whether a firm has positive or negative income, highly leveraged or no leverage - are unique and indispensable. Not only does this this give you an excellent stock filter, it goes in-depth and lays the case out in detail why deep value investing is superior to other forms of investing. It is a simple thing to understand, but without a conceptual framework for making decisions, a lot of investors get scared out of buying stocks that have had setbacks and thus priced at deep discounts. I saw Tobias's talk at Google, looked up the book on Amazon, immediately purchased and read it, and haven't looked back. This stands apart from other (still excellent) books on investing, as it has a very deep focus on a concept that is well-known but not well understood. Go to Amazon

Very nice book on value investing Very nice book on value investing. I liked the mix of history and deep value investing content providing factual based data. Reading the deep value is well worth the time. With so many investing books out there, I found this book is also fun to read to with history lessons from great investors (like Buffett, Carl Icahn) but mostly a theory supported with evidence/factual based data – which I appreciate. Many thanks Tobias. Go to Amazon

The Irony of the Title The book is called Deep Value, and by reading it, you gain the same result as the principles described in the book. If you're a value investor pick it up, but if you like losing money, find another book. Go to Amazon

Perfect fit for my investing style Perfect fit for my investing style. Eliminate behavioral errors, do what works, no matter how counter-intuitive it might be, Go to Amazon

If you're looking for insight, look elsewhere! Deep Value is the deep value investor’s bible. I invest in stocks listed in Singapore Stock Exchange. ... Persuasive I found this analysis of investment strategies to be very ... At last . . . a value investing book with something new to say Five Stars I loved this book Well worth the read... key insights on what REALLY drives returns from Value Investing

[manage-management]

An interesting book that actually has something new to say about value investing Most investing books are essentially marketing material about how the author buys companies that are not only cheap, but also high-quality and low-risk. Oh and the company has growth potential too! And the chairman of the board isn't a man, he's a unicorn! It drives me crazy because I'm dying to learn something, and all these books do is say, "This is important, and so is this, this and this." The problem is: when you stress the importance of everything, you stress the importance of nothing. Go to Amazon

Take it with a grain of salt. This is an important, interesting, and entertaining book. The author chose a fascinating topic and did a great job describing the historical developments that influenced the evolution of activist investment strategies over time. The book is filled with information and historical facts, is well organized, well written, etc. Overall, a very enjoyable read. Something not easy to accomplish when it comes to finance books. Go to Amazon

Unique Book - A Must Read I've read many, many books on investing. I would easily rank this among the very best. It's tools for valuation - whether a firm has positive or negative income, highly leveraged or no leverage - are unique and indispensable. Not only does this this give you an excellent stock filter, it goes in-depth and lays the case out in detail why deep value investing is superior to other forms of investing. It is a simple thing to understand, but without a conceptual framework for making decisions, a lot of investors get scared out of buying stocks that have had setbacks and thus priced at deep discounts. I saw Tobias's talk at Google, looked up the book on Amazon, immediately purchased and read it, and haven't looked back. This stands apart from other (still excellent) books on investing, as it has a very deep focus on a concept that is well-known but not well understood. Go to Amazon

Very nice book on value investing Very nice book on value investing. I liked the mix of history and deep value investing content providing factual based data. Reading the deep value is well worth the time. With so many investing books out there, I found this book is also fun to read to with history lessons from great investors (like Buffett, Carl Icahn) but mostly a theory supported with evidence/factual based data – which I appreciate. Many thanks Tobias. Go to Amazon

The Irony of the Title The book is called Deep Value, and by reading it, you gain the same result as the principles described in the book. If you're a value investor pick it up, but if you like losing money, find another book. Go to Amazon

Perfect fit for my investing style Perfect fit for my investing style. Eliminate behavioral errors, do what works, no matter how counter-intuitive it might be, Go to Amazon

If you're looking for insight, look elsewhere! Deep Value is the deep value investor’s bible. I invest in stocks listed in Singapore Stock Exchange. ... Persuasive I found this analysis of investment strategies to be very ... At last . . . a value investing book with something new to say Five Stars I loved this book Well worth the read... key insights on what REALLY drives returns from Value Investing

[manage-management]

Unique Book - A Must Read I've read many, many books on investing. I would easily rank this among the very best. It's tools for valuation - whether a firm has positive or negative income, highly leveraged or no leverage - are unique and indispensable. Not only does this this give you an excellent stock filter, it goes in-depth and lays the case out in detail why deep value investing is superior to other forms of investing. It is a simple thing to understand, but without a conceptual framework for making decisions, a lot of investors get scared out of buying stocks that have had setbacks and thus priced at deep discounts. I saw Tobias's talk at Google, looked up the book on Amazon, immediately purchased and read it, and haven't looked back. This stands apart from other (still excellent) books on investing, as it has a very deep focus on a concept that is well-known but not well understood. Go to Amazon

Very nice book on value investing Very nice book on value investing. I liked the mix of history and deep value investing content providing factual based data. Reading the deep value is well worth the time. With so many investing books out there, I found this book is also fun to read to with history lessons from great investors (like Buffett, Carl Icahn) but mostly a theory supported with evidence/factual based data – which I appreciate. Many thanks Tobias. Go to Amazon

An interesting book that actually has something new to say about value investing Most investing books are essentially marketing material about how the author buys companies that are not only cheap, but also high-quality and low-risk. Oh and the company has growth potential too! And the chairman of the board isn't a man, he's a unicorn! It drives me crazy because I'm dying to learn something, and all these books do is say, "This is important, and so is this, this and this." The problem is: when you stress the importance of everything, you stress the importance of nothing. Go to Amazon

Well worth the read... key insights on what REALLY drives returns from Value Investing Thoroughly enjoyed the book, particularly the last couple of chapters on the Deep Value thesis and the back-tested results to support this. Go to Amazon

The Irony of the Title The book is called Deep Value, and by reading it, you gain the same result as the principles described in the book. If you're a value investor pick it up, but if you like losing money, find another book. Go to Amazon

Persuasive This is an inspiring and persuasive read for anyone wanting to pursue value investing and provides practical advice on how to implement such a strategy Go to Amazon

Great read The book directly instructs you on what value investing is and how to identify a valuable company. Very counterintuitive style with great examples and easy to understand ratios. Go to Amazon

A fascinating and powerful book on the merits of deep value investing Mr. Carlisle presents a fantastic book that explores the fascinating and powerful world of deep value stocks. Deep Value is filled with counter-intuitive insights that will make you question conventional investing practices. I view the main theme running through the book as the power of thinking differently. Below are some of the key insights which I came away with after reading Deep Value. Go to Amazon

Perfect fit for my investing style I invest in stocks listed in Singapore Stock Exchange. ... I found this analysis of investment strategies to be very ... At last . . . a value investing book with something new to say Five Stars I loved this book Five Stars I love this industry A must read for value investors

[enough-finance]

Unique Book - A Must Read I've read many, many books on investing. I would easily rank this among the very best. It's tools for valuation - whether a firm has positive or negative income, highly leveraged or no leverage - are unique and indispensable. Not only does this this give you an excellent stock filter, it goes in-depth and lays the case out in detail why deep value investing is superior to other forms of investing. It is a simple thing to understand, but without a conceptual framework for making decisions, a lot of investors get scared out of buying stocks that have had setbacks and thus priced at deep discounts. I saw Tobias's talk at Google, looked up the book on Amazon, immediately purchased and read it, and haven't looked back. This stands apart from other (still excellent) books on investing, as it has a very deep focus on a concept that is well-known but not well understood. Go to Amazon

I love this industry I am a CPA and specialize in all tax aspects of the investment management industry: fund tax compliance and planning, GP tax compliance and planning, wealth planning, etc. My clients range from very large international investment managers, to very small one-office investment managers who offer SMAs. I love this industry!!! I recommended Deep Value to a Big 4 Accounting Firm Investment Management leader and he ended up reading it twice, just as I did. Go to Amazon

Very nice book on value investing Very nice book on value investing. I liked the mix of history and deep value investing content providing factual based data. Reading the deep value is well worth the time. With so many investing books out there, I found this book is also fun to read to with history lessons from great investors (like Buffett, Carl Icahn) but mostly a theory supported with evidence/factual based data – which I appreciate. Many thanks Tobias. Go to Amazon

An interesting book that actually has something new to say about value investing Most investing books are essentially marketing material about how the author buys companies that are not only cheap, but also high-quality and low-risk. Oh and the company has growth potential too! And the chairman of the board isn't a man, he's a unicorn! It drives me crazy because I'm dying to learn something, and all these books do is say, "This is important, and so is this, this and this." The problem is: when you stress the importance of everything, you stress the importance of nothing. Go to Amazon

Well worth the read... key insights on what REALLY drives returns from Value Investing Thoroughly enjoyed the book, particularly the last couple of chapters on the Deep Value thesis and the back-tested results to support this. Go to Amazon

The Irony of the Title The book is called Deep Value, and by reading it, you gain the same result as the principles described in the book. If you're a value investor pick it up, but if you like losing money, find another book. Go to Amazon

Persuasive This is an inspiring and persuasive read for anyone wanting to pursue value investing and provides practical advice on how to implement such a strategy Go to Amazon

Great read The book directly instructs you on what value investing is and how to identify a valuable company. Very counterintuitive style with great examples and easy to understand ratios. Go to Amazon

I invest in stocks listed in Singapore Stock Exchange. ... I found this analysis of investment strategies to be very ... At last . . . a value investing book with something new to say Five Stars I loved this book Five Stars A must read for value investors Questionable Research