#the camera like i remember or not before I try and troubleshoot it

[wild-battlebond]

i was feeling nostalgic for poképark so i decided to play it on my steam deck (i have a wii + the disc but handhelds are more convenient) and it actually works quite well. the motion controls are situational enough that they can be mapped to buttons without interrupting normal gameplay

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Killing Time 1

Warnings: this fic will include elements, some dark, includes violence, noncon/dubcon, and other untagged triggers. Please take this into account before proceeding. It is up to curate your online consumption safely.

Summary: a job offer could be an escape from your old life, but the new one, may not hold freedom.

Characters: Kraven the Hunter, August Walker, Lloyd Hansen, James Conrad, God the Bounty Hunter, Court Gentry

Author’s Note: Please feel free to leave some feedback, reblog, and jump into my asks. I’m always happy to discuss with you and riff on idea. As always, you are cherished and adored! Stay safe, be kind, and treat yourself💜

Your frustration mounts as you click the permissions again to allow the camera and microphone access. It’s so annoying! It just keeps running you in circles. Great. This is off to a good start. Late for the interview. That’s always the best first impression. 

When at last your firewall stops blocking the call, you flinch at the sight of yourself in the corner. You’re further jarred by the man staring back at you. Your mouth opens and for a moment, you’re frozen. You were so focused on troubleshooting, you forgot about what was waiting on the other end. 

“Oh, hi,” you squeak. “Sorry, I--” you look around, glancing through the clear walls of the library study room. It’s the first time you’ve been to this branch but you didn’t think the clutter of your apartment would make a good backdrop. “I was having issues with my camera.” 

“Quite alright,” he responds with a grin and a lilted accent. He sounds as professional as he looks. 

He wears a grey jacket over a muted teal shirt that lights up his eyes, even over the screen. His short hair is combed back neatly and there’s not a speck of stubble on his jaw. Under the structure of his attire you can tell he’s well-built. 

You resist the urge to look down at yourself. A white blouse. Boring but professional. It gets the job done. Hopefully. 

You force a smile. 

“Thank you for meeting with me,” he begins through your nervous silence. “I do appreciate your time and I would hate to waste it. So, we can hop right in.” He looks unflinchingly into the camera, “oh, let us not go so far past courtesy. I am James, we’ve been corresponding, yes?” 

“Uh, yeah, I remember. James.” You gulp. 

He says your name with a keen inclination. “This is rather not the position which requires those cliche questions so I won’t trouble you with asking what animal best reflects your personality.” 

You cough out a humouring chuckle and fold your hands on the desk. 

“Forgive if I should seem to the point. You see, it’s a very practical position. I think it’s best we go over what is expected before we go into the finer details; expenses, relocation, dates--” 

“Mm,” you squeak and put a finger up, “s-sorry, um, I thought we were interviewing but it sound like you’ve made a decision?” 

“Well, yes, I’ve reviewed your CV and your submitted profile and your answers to the questionnaire were acceptable. I didn’t think there was much else to consider,” he intones. You shift and try to hide your surprise. 

“No, of course, that makes sense,” you say. “Thanks, I guess I was confused.” 

“Not to worry. I find that written communication can often lack clarity so I thought it best we have a face-to-face in this circumstance,” he looks down as if he has a book or paper before him. “So, did you have any questions before I proceed?” 

“No, no, really, I'm sure you’ll answer them all.” Your cheeks bloom in a half-smile. You were so nervous about getting the job but you’ve already got it. 

“Right then,” he sits back and once more stares down the camera. “It is a very old property but the upkeep has been consistent. There should not be any glaring necessities for maintenance, this more of a custodial position. So, you would be the one to keep the place clean, make sure it is aired out, tend to the lawns but we do employ a grounds keeping service that comes fortnightly to trim.” 

You nod. It’s intriguing. You were sent photos of the property but you’re not quite sure of its purpose. Judging by the clustered pines in the background, you would guess it’s remote. A getaway that could be a goldmine for those wanting a vacation from the urban jungle. 

“You would have a roster, you see, of those you could contact for service so you will not require any specialisations. You are the day-to-day and would be expected to bring in the appropriate support for higher-touch difficulties.” 

“Right,” you try not to show your anxiety. 

“Albeit I should warn you that the reception in that location is not the greatest so if you cannot call out, you would need to keep trying. It will eventually catch but uh, not to mind, as long it is attended is what matters, not when,” he says.  

���Mhm, that makes sense. Um, can I ask what the property is? Is it like a summer home or...” 

“Ah, family inheritance,” he answers primly. “I’ve not much use for it past the sentimental value and I thought of leasing it for traveling parties but I’ve heard horror stories. Right now, I’m merely sitting on it until I figure out exactly what to do with it.” 

“Oh, right. Wow. Quite the inheritance.” 

“Hm, yes, my uncle did rather adore me. I was the only one named in his will but he was a bit of a curmudgeon.” He laughs. “Now, I must ask the most important question--” 

Before he can, the door swings open and you jump in your seat. Your heart sinks. You signed the room out for ninety minutes. You thought it would be more than enough. Surely it hasn’t been that long. 

Shoot. It’s him. How did he find you? You deliberately went out of your way so that he couldn’t. 

“Jake,” you stand and turn to him, trying to block the computer. “What are you doing?” 

“There you are,” he touches his chest as if he should be the one so afraid. “You didn’t come home--” 

You growl and cross your arms. 

“Jake, go away,” you grit out. “Not right now. Please.” 

“I had to make sure you’re okay,” he steps into the room and you push yourself back against the table. “Who else is going to look after you?” 

“I will scream, alright,” you warn. “Now leave me alone. I’m tired of telling you.” 

He sighs and his jaw squares. “I don’t get you. You act like I’m such a bad guy and I haven’t done anything to you. I never hurt you but you hurt me. You just spit in my face--” 

“Pardon,” the voice rises from the speaker at your back. “If I may, she is occupied and you are interrupting. I have a mind to contact emergency service should you persist.” Your mouth falls open and you turn to look at your laptop. James leans forward to glare at the lens, “Not sure who you are, fellow, but the lady has been clear.” 

“Who-- who is he?” Jake sputters. 

“Please, just go,” you plead. “Or I will call the police.” 

Little good they will do, you think, but that doesn’t need to be said aloud. 

He frowns and his eyes glint dangerously. You stare back at him, tense, fingers curling and uncurling nervously. That man on the screen won’t stop him and you don’t know if anyone would hear you from the desk. 

“Fine, guess I’ll see ya around,” he relents and backs out. 

You don’t move until he snaps the door shut. You hurry over and twist the lock on the inside. You don’t know why you didn’t do that before. 

“Are you alright?” James asks, drawing you back to the desk. 

You sit and look at the keyboard, “I’m very sorry. I...” 

“He doesn’t sound like a friend,” James says. You shake your head. “Well, then, it does sound like you’re in need of a fresh start. I do hope this can be that for you.” 

You look up and bat away the glimmer on the brims of your eyes. You’re not just afraid, you’re embarrassed. His kindness is as comforting as it is unexpected. 

“Thanks, um, anyway...” you exhale, “you were going to ask something.” 

“Yes, uh, yes, I was,” he reconfigures and puts another smile on. “When can you depart? I would of course arrange travel to be sure you get here safe and sound.” 

“Oh, when... whenever is best. Not to be too desperate but as soon as possible,” you say. 

“Wonderful,” he praises, “absolutely wonderful. Is tomorrow too soon? Pardon my own desperation.” 

“Tomorrow?” You utter and shake your head. “Tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow.”  

It's sudden and scary but it’s good. The sooner you go, the less time Jake has to figure out what you’re doing. The less chance he can follow. It’s an escape. Not a perfect one but it’s all you have. 

🩸

You spend all night packing. You parse down what you have to the essentials and put the rest in bags. You don’t care about the furniture. You say as much in your email to your landlord, telling him to use your deposit for the disposal. 

You whittle your life down to three bags. A large suit case, a knapsack, and a single purse. You have it ready to go by the door. 

You feel uneasy about it. You stare at your luggage, the lights off, windows closed. Your phone buzzes and you put it to silent, ignoring the messages from your personal pest. You’ll be done with him too. You wonder if you should just toss your cell. 

You don’t sleep. You can’t. You still can’t believe you’re getting out. You hope you haven’t given the game away. 

There’s a tap on the window. You nearly roll onto the floor. You look over and hear it again, a harder impact. Are you serious? He’s throwing stones. He could break the damn glass. 

You shake your head. You won’t fall for it. Not again. You remember when he came to your door and cried until you opened up. He even smeared ketchup on his face to make you think he was hurt. It’s hard to tell the difference through a peephole. 

Almost there. Almost out. You just need to make it a few more hours. 

As you ignore the incessant tapping and the light of your phone glowing ever few minutes, your thoughts turn bitter. You should message everyone who turned their back on you and tell them exactly what they’ve put you through. Somehow, you think they’d care as much as they did before. 

Sleep eludes you but a foggy daze comes over you as the windows soften with the early morning. There’s no more pebbles bouncing off the pane. Just you and the buzz of the sleeping city. 

Your alarm chimes and you get up as your head pulses. You’re used to the constant fatigue. It will ease up and you’ll just feel a bit heavy. When it’s normal, you don’t notice as much. 

You get ready and have an instant coffee by the door. James messages just before nine. Your car will be there in ten. Oh, early. You don’t mind about that. 

You won’t go out and wait. You’ll stay here, where it’s safe. 

When your phone goes off again, you expect it to be Jake. It’s James. Whew. You’re so close, you can’t believe it. 

You grab your knapsack and purse, and drag your suitcase out behind you. You lock the door and throw the key through the mail slot. You hurry down the hall and take the stairs over the elevator.  

You don’t look back or anyway but forward. You look at your cell. 'Black Jaguar’ followed by a plate number. Jaguar? Holy moly. 

The tinted window rolls down and reveals the same face from the Zoom call. You didn’t know he was coming himself. You assumed he was sending a cab or something. You slow as you come out the door. He smiles and pops open the door. 

Before you can come forward, another figure appears, blocking your way. 

“Hey, I've been calling all night,” Jake says. You stop short and nearly yelp. Of course! 

“Jake, move.” 

“Where are you going?” He looks at your bags desperately. “Wait, you can’t--” 

“Pardon me, sir, is there some issue?” James strides up behind him. 

Jake turns to face him and stiffens, “and who are you—wait, you’re that guy from the computer.” 

“I’m none of your business, as is her life,” James insists. “Now, seems you’re used to picking on those smaller than you but let’s see how you do against me?” 

James steps closer. He’s a few inches taller than Jake. You can’t move as they stare each other down. You wait, expecting chaos. 

“I was only talking,” Jake shows his palms and shrugs. “It’s whatever. She’s a bitch anyways.” 

He turns and snarls over his shoulder at you. You back up. As Jake turns, he’s knocked off kilter as James hurls his fist into his jaw. The shorter man staggers and falls to one knee, catching himself in the grass. 

“Well, that was a lovely chat,” James smirks and beckons to you, “shall we?” 

[spirit-jello]

Im gonna fill ur page with requests BUTTTT

Imagine cockwarming gamer bf! while he's on a stream and ur trying ur best not to move

(and failing miserably bcuz everytime you move he pushes deeper inside u just so that u moan and he can humiliate the fuck out of u with millions of ppl watching)

Soooo I didn’t know who you were talking about so I just assumed I could choose my baby~ I hope you enjoy!

You were currently reading something online while your boyfriend was streaming. You were a bit needy, but since he was busy with his game, you decided to help yourself with some spicy stories. 

“Babe, can you come in here for a second?” You heard Gyuvin call out, so you quickly composed yourself and walked into his office. “Hm? Are you done streaming already?” you asked, and froze when you saw his camera was still on.

“No~ but I wanted to show you off! The viewers kept asking about you.” He smiled cheekily, pulling you closer by the waist. You giggled, before letting out a squeak as he started to pull you on his lap. “W-wait baby I can stand” You laughed nervously, not wanting Gyuvin to feel your wetness through the dress because you stupidly decided not to wear panties. You remembered your thought process, ‘easier access for when he’s finished.’ God you hate yourself right now.

“But how are they going to see your cute face?” He pouted, finally getting you to sit down and wrapping his arms around your waist. Luckily(for him not you) he could still easily play his game, so you stayed silent, trying not to squirm too much.

As for him, he didn’t notice at first until he started bouncing his leg in excitement, it going in between your thighs. Now he feels your slick on his pants. At first he started getting flustered, faltering his quick skills for a moment, before smirking at an idea that popped into his head.

Oh dear. You saw his dark eyes through the webcam, and knew you were fucked. Funnily enough, you didn’t think literally. 

“Give us one second viewers~ I have to fix something really quick” Gyuvin grinned, seeming innocent but you knew otherwise.

As soon as he muted and turned off his webcam, he lifted you up slightly and unbuttoned his jeans. “What are you doing??” you squeaked out, feeling his bulge through his boxers.

“More like what were you doing? Were you touching yourself without my permission?” He tsked teasingly, before pulling out his dick. “Baby, we can’t do this! Your viewers would start to worry if you’re gone this long-”

“Who said I was gonna be gone?” He gave a quick peck on your cheek before lining up to your folds, slowly pushing inside causing you to moan softly.

“Your punishment, cutie, is that you’re going to stay still on my cock, and if you even slightly move, I’ll bounce you once or twice. You wouldn’t want the viewers to hear your slutty moans would you?” You looked at him in shock, and a little bit of lust. 

“I’m back, viewers! Just had to troubleshoot some things.” Gyuvin smiled at the camera after turning everything back on, returning to his game.

For the first half, you were pretty obedient. But then you slowly got more flustered as time went on. You’d let out whimpers from time to time, as your pussy would pulse in need without warning.

Without thinking, you squirmed trying to calm yourself down. By the time you realized what you’ve done, it was too late; He acted as if he was just readjusting, when really he gently thrusted up into your special spot. You let out a little ‘eep!’ but luckily you were able to bite back anything more. Meanwhile, the chat has been overflowing with thirsty comments about you, causing Gyuvin to chuckle. 

“Guys, sorry to inform you but y/n is mine. Isn’t that right babe?” Gyuvin looked at you but instead of waiting for an answer, he decided to be an asshat and thrust up a bit rougher causing you to let out a soft moan.

_craddymommy_: Is she ok? >_>

Your_mom_69: Dayum she made that sound?

BigDEnergy_420: hot ;)

God this was humiliating. Also the last two are such lazy ass names? “She’s fine, just feeling a little flustered, she is camera shy right hun?” He pulled you closer as if that was possible, you staying silent.

As a warning, he pinched the inside of your thigh as you bit back a whine; “It’s rude to ignore the chat you know.” He whispered in your ear, before pulling back and continuing the game.

As he went on, every once in a while you’d move and he’d move his hips to hit your g-spot. 

After an hour more of ‘torture’ and many moans and concerned chatters, he finally leaned back and stretched, ending the live with “Sorry guys, I need to fuck my girlfriend.” 

Right after the end button was hit, Gyuvin wrapped his arms around your waist, one hand going down to your clit as he fucks into you roughly. “You know how- haah- how difficult it was to not fuck you into oblivion with millions of people watching you cum from my cock?” He moaned in your ear, before getting bored of the position and turned you around, picking you up easily with his dick in you at the same time, before going to your bedroom while occasionally slapping your ass. Barely making it into the room, he threw you down on the bed on your stomach. He pulls your ass up and goes back into your tight pussy, pounding hard causing your moans to turn into screams of pleasure.

“F-fuck~ Slow down- ah~!” You whined, with him just ignoring you. As you babbled almost incoherently, him letting out a raspy laugh as if he wasn’t just as needy. “Fuck baby, you drunk off my dick already?” He slammed into you, his balls slapping against your thighs.

As if you weren’t already fucked dumb, he started spanking you leaving handprints. 

“Mm~ such a fucking good girl. Mine. Say it. Say you’re mine.” He growled, suddenly getting possessive thinking of the viewers who might be jacking off over your moans. Sadly you were too dumb to respond, causing him to flip you around and pulling you into a deep kiss.

“Mine~ don’t you fucking forget that” He muttered against your lips.

 It didn’t take much longer before you were close, and right when you came, he followed shortly after. 

A few moments of being out of breath, and him laying down next to you, Gyuvin looked to his side to see you passed out. Letting out a weak chuckle, he got up with a groan and picked you up bridal style, carrying you to the bath. <3

A/N→Hope you enjoyed ya nasty(Kidding ILY POOKIE) This was way longer than I thought it’d be 💀

[hanhonymous]

The Trainee’s workplace authenticity

One of my favorite things about workplace TV shows is when the characters actually do work. AND when the details of such work are not only relatively accurate, but also essential to how the characters relate to themselves, the world and each other. So far, "The Trainee" is giving that to me in the first two episodes.

Having interned/been an assistant at a TV production company and later moving to entertainment journalism and managing interns/junior writers there, I can appreciate both Ryan's and Jane's POVs. Here's what I liked so far:

Good Pick's pink tube slide and movie theater seats in the lobby - A lot of these entertainment-adjacent companies take a cue from Silicon Valley and have this frivolous, frat-boy design aesthetic -- bean bag chairs, foosball tables, etc. I worked in an office that had a ping-pong table. The idea is to make it fun enough that people want to stay in the office and work longer, which isn't really all that great. You stop seeing that fun stuff after a while and just want to get home. That said, I'd love to work in a company with a fire pole in it, but that would be too much of a liability.

Ryan's fluke hiring - Baimon totally hearing what he wants to hear from Ryan in that sham interview is hilarious but sadly not all that unusual. What sucks is that this is unfair to the manager who then must work with the unqualified person, and unfair to that person hired also, who isn't the best fit for the position. I've been the person saddled by the unfortunate hire and have had to make do … and sometimes you can figure it out, but often you're left doing extra work to make up for their deficits. If it's just an intern, no problem -- they'll be gone in a few months. I felt Jane's pain!

Ryan's uncertainty & silence - That said, Ryan clearly wants to do well but is out of his depth since this was not even what he was learning in school. I remember the first day as a journalist for a small company where I kind of was on my own, and nobody told me what to do. I was like, "WTF??" Part of you doesn't want to ask questions lest you expose your imposter identity, but you're also wondering just how long you can do nothing before someone notices.

The printer always breaks down -- always. You get pretty good at troubleshooting everything until resorting to calling a technician

Jane's prickly demeanor - The fact is that in any company, people who are competent can move up, but that doesn't automatically infuse them with good managerial skills. I think workshops, etc. are a must for anyone who gets promoted and suddenly have people reporting to them. Everyone can get frustrated when they're overwhelmed, so I do have some sympathy for Jane. He does have one skill that I think is essential to be a good manager: identifying and acknowledging the strengths of an employee. It really makes all the difference that he finally sees Ryan as an asset, not a hindrance.

Ryan's skills aren't that bad at all - As soon as Ryan tells his family that he's no help to anyone at work, he immediately shows five different ways how much he's relied on by his family. Yes, people who are competent, reliable and can anticipate needs (like how his sister needs to be reminded to charge the battery after using the camera) will be able to apply those skills to other situations and can go far. Ryan just needs to familiarize himself with the industry first in order to know how he can fill in the gaps. (I believe in being able to change careers and taking big pivots in life.)

The interns banding together - OMG I remember sometimes just being unsupervised while trying to get a project together, and there is a strange bond you have being the youngest and least experienced. And you do have the most stupid conversations.

Being one cog in a bigger machine - I really appreciate how they show all the different departments that have to come together to make one project work -- especially when last-minute changes need to be implemented or a persnickety client has opinions. You complain, you worry, you put in extra late hours and have to make 11th-hour fixes -- but it's so satisfying to see it all come together. Shit goes down, and you fix it.

Hiring extras - The hiring of extras at Good Pick was different from what I've experienced. I actually have been an extra, and what I'm used to is being part of a company or agency that has you in their database, and then you get picked or cast by that company and sent to your gig. But that's in Hollywood and for TV shows & movies. It's probably different for ad houses or in Thailand, but I did like how they showed that it is still a casting process. There are deliberate decisions made, and certain looks sought out. I thought it was hilarious that Ryan's first thought for hiring the salaryman was to get an uncle from the same restaurant as the auntie. If he had his way, everyone in that restaurant would be hired for some gig or another.

Ryan getting scammed by the extra - I was screaming at Ryan as soon as he offered to pay that scammer extra. Just … no, boy. You had to have known that was shady. BUT despite being duped, he was willing to think on his feet and try to solve a problem by being proactive, and that does happen. And so do mistakes. He just needs to calibrate his radar for what is OK. (I'm glad Jane saw that.) Ryan is lucky that it only cost him 1,000 baht for that lesson.

Extras must be on hand and wait - OK this is a scene in the preview for Episode 3, but I was so happy to see it: Extras in Hollywood actually cannot just spend 5 minutes or whatever to do their job, even if that's how much you see them onscreen. There's a ton of hurry up and wait on film sets, and so extras have to stay in Holding -- usually just a designated area with some chairs (sometimes you get tables) -- until you're needed. And production schedules never run on time, so it can be hours or even days. You're lucky if you're there long enough to get a meal, if the temperature is nice, if you're able to make friends with the others and if there's wifi. Sometimes you bring your own clothes for wardrobe based on what you're told, and sometimes the wardrobe department supplements your wardrobe with extra pieces to help complete a specific look. And yeah, you're not able to leave except for the bathroom, so Ryan definitely shouldn't have let that one extra wander off.

"Ryan After Work" - I like these post-credit sequences that give extra insights into the job. And while the first one was more instructional, explaining how the production house differed from an agency, the second was more about the cohort camaraderie (and hinting at Ryan's positive feelings toward Jane). I hope the romance aspect of the show doesn't overshadow the work specificity going forward!

[trekwiz]

One thing that really annoys the hell out of me in Cities Skylines 2: bus roads are literally useless.

Ostensibly, they're for busses and city service vehicles only. But they're broken. They allow all traffic through them. Yet CO falsely considers this to be a feature, not a bug.

And people defend them with stupid comments like, "well, people break the law in real life. You're supposed to give them a better route."

No, people in real life aren't going to cause a traffic jam on a road they're barred from. You might get 1 or 2 people chancing it, not hundreds. Once you get 10, a cop or a camera will sort it out quickly.

And I don't want to troubleshoot that traffic. I'll get to it; removing service vehicles from traffic is the start of that troubleshooting, and intended to fix a specific issue before it becomes a problem. Especially since making mass transit move faster should also reduce that traffic anyway. I actively do not want to mess with the traffic in other ways if I'm trying to use a bus road; I really wish the game would stop being an asshole about it.

The road should do what it says it does. Let me get my busses and garbage trucks out of traffic. If a services-only road can't do that, it shouldn't exist in the game at all.

It's functionally no different from any other road, so why lie and say it does something else? There's no bigger frustration than when a game lies to you about its own function, because that never needs to happen.

I almost always lose interest in playing when I try to use bus roads and remember, "oh yeah, they're never planning to fix these."

[libraford]

The good news is that he found a different job and next week is his last week and I only have to work with him 2 more times and only one of those times will I be alone.

Tech talk and rant below.

But in my opinion, we should have fired him earlier on because two weeks into the season he was unclear of what any of the equipment apart from the camera actually did.

The camera takes the picture.

The lights light the subject.

The computer matches the subject to the picture.

The transmitter connects the camera to the lights wirelessly, so that when you take the picture the lights flash automatically.

The sync cord connects the camera to the computer so that the image is displayed on the screen.

The skyport connects the lights to the computer so that they automatically adjust.

Its just all the electronics going through a circular systems check to make sure they are firing properly and matching it up against our white balance test. I know it sounds complicated, but its literally just a circle.

I understand that this can be complicated for someone who is used to 'click button, get picture.' But having the same problems over and over again because he doesn't understand the proper procedure and doesn't look at the checklist that he swears he never received even though I gave him my laminated copy and having to fix all of the problems that are literally because he didn't respect me enough to listen when I explained it to him cuts into the time that could be spent getting ready.

Now we are a month and a half in and on Tuesday he asked me what the skyport does.

If your skyport fails, you have to adjust your lights manually.

Therefore... skyport makes the computer talk to your lights.

And every time something fails, he says 'this would be so much easier without computers' and I'm like. Fine. Okay? Try to match 900 student names to photos without a computerized indexing system. Try getting the light to be consistent without a startup exposure test.

No sense of troubleshooting, which isn't very difficult. If something isn't right, restart the computer and try again. If you get a repeat of the problem, call Freddie from IT. But usually, a reboot fixes most problems.

But then he started breaking the rules, and in a very intentional way. Like at first it was 'oh I didn't know I wasn't supposed to show them the photo' even though we went over this in training. Then it was 'well, I'm not supposed to show you the photo but if you come back here while I'm adjusting my lights I can't stop you.'

At first it was 'hey, Jay, remember what Freddie said about the no-touch policy during training? I know you want to make the kids like you, but its very unprofessional to ask them for a high five, especially since these schools are very strict about their own no-touch policies and also did we not just go through a wholeass pandemic?'

And now students are complaining about him physically adjusting their posture with his hands.

Like... I don't mind bending the rules a little. But before you can bend the rules, you have to understand why the rules are there, so that when they are bent there is a good reason. The rule about showing photos is there to make workflow consistent. The no touch rule is for the safety of ourselves and the students.

But breaking the rules constantly just out of disrespect means that I can't bend them myself. I have to be a hardass. I hate being a hardass. But if I'm not a hardass and someone tells me that he's violating our no-touch policy, the company gets in deep trouble.

Not that he'll ever... ever follow my advice on the subject because as previously mentioned- he respects no one here. He has 15 years experience as a photographer and is too good for this place. Why would he listen to someone under 40 with three years experience dealing with schools?

His pictures aren't even very good. They're average.

Just two more jobs with him and then he's off to do something else and gods I hope he's better at that than he is a school photographer.

[gra-sonas]

Day after day this summer, with covid-19 shuttering much of the world, Lily Cowles would enter a small sewing room in her family’s 18th century home in Northwest Connecticut, crawl inside some blankets, and scream. Along with her wails, she’d repeat the same phrases, over and over — all part of a daily ritual that spanned some four hours, until a collection of voices told her they were satisfied. Then she would collect herself, climb out from the blankets and greet her boyfriend who could hear her through the walls in the next room.

“Man, you died a lot of ways today,” he’d say.

“I don’t know why they killed me so bad,” Cowles would reply.

Such were the unusual conditions for Cowles and others when recording the dialogue — and other vocalizations — for the upcoming game “Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War,” the newest addition to the famed and fanciful war sim series. The blanket-draped fort served as the actress’s workstation, with a host of audio producers providing directions via video conference. Occasionally those instructions included imagining a wide variety of fates for her character, requiring lengthy sessions capturing death cries. All of it was part of a months-long, pandemic-related process to produce the game, one that proved both challenging in its never-before-done nature and cathartic for its ample opportunities to exorcise the many anxieties of 2020.

“It just felt so good to scream for that long,” said Cowles, who plays MI-6 operative Helen Park and supplied the character’s voice for both the game’s story and multiplayer modes. She recalled one session in which the game’s audio producers recorded her falling from a 30-story building. “I was like, ‘can we make it 40 floors? I could really use the extra 10 [stories] of just straight screaming.’ It just felt like a real relief.”

The unorthodox routine was shared by “Cold War’s” cast of 125 actors as they pivoted to follow safety protocols related to the novel coronavirus, which temporarily shut down the game’s production in March. The latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise, releasing Nov. 13, was completed with both developers and actors working remotely and overcoming a variety of logistical challenges.

“At the time [in March, when covid cases escalated in the United States] we thought it might be like 20 people or 50 percent of the studio who would have to work from home, and maybe that would be for like two weeks,” Dan Vondrak, Senior Creative Director at Raven Software, said. “And then it was everybody. … In my head, I was thinking, if this thing lasts six to eight weeks, we can’t get it done. That’s impossible.”

For Cowles and the game’s other actors, that meant recording lines of dialogue — and their many screams — from the confines of their homes. That process normally would be captured in large part during live shoots using motion capture suits on a studio sound stage. During the pandemic, capturing those recordings provided a unique challenge for narrative producer Natalie Pohorski and her team.

“One of those areas I thought we were just dead in the water was the external talent [voice overs],” Vondrak said. “I can’t have actors go into a studio. So, how is this going to work? And what Natalie and the narrative team did to get that to work and have people recording at home was unbelievable.”

Before dispersing from the studio, Pohorski and Vondrak estimated they had between 50 and 60 percent of the voice over work finalized. Working with their partners at Activision (the game’s publisher) and Treyarch (“Cold War’s” co-developer), Pohorski and her team shipped the actors crates filled with recording equipment that included helmets wired with microphones, sound mixing boards and materials to improve the acoustics around their homes.

“They sent me this giant Pelican briefcase that looked like I’m an arms dealer,” Cowles said.

Veteran actor Bruce Thomas, who plays the role of CIA agent Russell Adler in the game, already had a 5-foot-by-5-foot sound booth he’d constructed in his apartment adjacent to his kitchen. He’d used it to previously to record voice overs, including for some commercials, but he’d never recorded himself there quite so regularly — or at quite the same volume level. To that end, he sought to get ahead of any potential problems with a kind gesture and a heads-up for his neighbors about any yells they may hear through the walls.

“I delivered cookies and a little note to their doors right next to me and below me,” Thomas said. “I just moved here in January, so I hadn’t really met them yet, and I got a text message from the person below me who was like, ‘Oh my God! You do that for a living? How cool is that? Even if I hear you, don’t worry about it.’”

The conditions also required the actors to perform another role as well: that of audio engineer, recording and tinkering with sound levels to ensure quality and consistency. The studio’s engineers would call actors and walk them through proper setups and troubleshoot issues, but when something went wrong, the actors would have to be the ones to fix it manually. Turns out CIA operatives have the same tech troubles as other remote workers.

“Because of covid, everybody’s home and sharing bandwidth,” Thomas said about the Internet connection in his apartment building. “Sometimes it would just cut right out [during an online recording session]. And sometimes when that happens, a glitch will happen on your laptop and so you have to reboot it.”

The recording process consisted of four sessions per day, every day of the week, according to Pohorski, who also noted they wrapped at a similar time compared to what they’d anticipated in their pre-pandemic production schedule, even as they navigated challenges that would have been easily addressed in their usual studio setting.

“To not be able to just walk up and touch the screen and act out what I was talking about … ‘I want the guy’s head to turn this way,’ … I was trying to do it real time in a video camera,” Vondrak said. “Just the communication of that last 20 percent [of the game] was probably the most difficult.”

The on-the-fly evolution of several standardized processes did carry some fringe benefits, according to both the developers and actors. On the development team, Vondrak noted some people seemed more willing to contribute their opinions to the creative process when they didn’t feel the pressure of speaking up in a formal meeting. For the actors, Cowles said her isolated, remote location led her to take more chances with her character.

“I think I was able to make facial expressions and noises that, in a normal setting, my body would be like, ‘Don’t, don’t, don’t. You don’t want to make that noise. Don’t make that face,’" Cowles said. “But I was alone in this thing, and you know, the context in which we’re working [as characters] is this crazy war zone where horrible things are going down. Right? And no one in that situation is thinking about the sound they’re making or the face that they’re making. … I think that led to a degree of authenticity in my work.”

Another silver lining, according to Vondrak, was the increased flexibility in scheduling follow-up sessions for VO work. Oftentimes VO recording sessions are pegged to specific times of the year when the developers can gather all the actors in one place and free them from their other projects. (For example, Thomas is also the motion capture actor for Master Chief for the upcoming game “Halo: Infinite.”) With everyone working from home, the actors’ schedules became more flexible.

“It was like, wait a minute, we can just go back to these people and have them pop out of their family room, into their closet and record some VO lines,” Vondrak said. “Normally it would have been like, ‘We need some new lines.’ And [the schedulers] would have said, ‘Well, the next pick up session where everyone’s going to be in the studio is June.' It’s [normally] a very slow, formal process."

The flexibility did carry an occasional side effect of home life encroaching on the working world, and vice versa, often providing a uniquely 2020 kind of amusement.

Cowles remembered recording a scene in which her character laments the loss of one of her companions, screaming his name repeatedly as a helicopter whisks her away.

“I came out of the sewing room, and my boyfriend is like … ‘So, who is he?’” Cowles said. “I was like, ‘Don’t worry about it. He’s dead now.’”

[the-headbop-wraith]

1 _ Whisper

 The dream again.

Falling into the black.  Crooked spikes stretching up, reaching.  Hungry teeth to skewer meat, then it’s all over.  Mercifully quick.  He couldn’t believe it happened, he hadn’t the strength to stop it.  What had happened?

It was all a blur after that.  He remembered how cold he felt, how weak he was as Vivi screamed at him.  He didn’t understand what had happened at first, if he had been aroused suddenly from a dead sleep.  He thought he was asking, nearly begging her to explain.

“What happened? What happened?”  But his mind couldn’t coordinate the confusion of words in his throat with his numb lips.  Too much pain and his body was impossibly weak.  Bright lights burned into his eyes.  And Mystery.  It was Mystery, wasn’t it?  Sitting beside the people jerking at his clothing and jamming needles into his body.  He remembered those red eyes staring at him with such clear focus, as if gazing through him and into his soul.

__

The hot sun dug into his eyelids, making his face feel unnecessarily warm.  He opened his eyes a crack and glared through the windshield tilted above him.  Judging by the suns position in the sky it had to be a little before noon, but it was hard to decide the specific time of day following the falls hourly time change.  He blinked at the wetness in his eyes and reached his hand up to dry his face, but rather rub his eyes gently he smashed the mechanical arm into his nose and prompted him to jolt upright.

“Oh god,” Arthur groaned.  He pressed he cold palm to his face to ease the pain.  His rash motions upset the dog curled up in his lap, and with a whimper Mystery squirmed around until he was facing Arthur, concern in his eyes.  “M’okay.”  He reached his flesh hand to the dogs head and scratched behind his ear.  “Still not used to this.”

After reassuring his companion, he moved his good arm to drape over the drivers back seat and pulled himself up more to sit.  Arthur had the front seats to lay across, while Vivi took the more spacious back.  Arthur watched Vivi where she was curled up in a nest of sleeping bag and a blanket, the pillow in her care was a few feet from her head.  Arthur pulled up his own blanket, crushed between him and the seats, and carefully this time dabbed at his sticky face.

Mystery gave a low whine as he leaned across his companions lap and nudged his cool nose at the digits of the false arm.  Arthur couldn’t feel the fur or the nose, but he could detect the pressure and distress the dog projected his way.  Arthur put his arm around the dogs neck and pulled him closer and pressed his face into the soft white fur.

“It’s okay,” Arthur murmured.  “It’ll be okay.”  Mystery curled up into a tight ball against his chest as he leaned back on the driver’s door.  Arthur shut his eyes and worked to ease the sorrow from his mind before Vivi awoke and questioned his broken expression.

 __

The assignment was a relatively simple one.  No mention of spiritual hostility but the owners of the home just voiced concerns, they didn’t want to believe that someone had been confined to their home and the activity had been growing more frequent as of late.  Arthur had noticed that their group had been given easier and less assignments, but that shouldn’t have come as a great shock.  Vivi didn’t seem to mind, he knew she worried about him too much. 

They unpacked the essential equipment from the van and hauled the readers and the camera to the upstairs bedroom, where the couple noted most of the activity.  Mystery remained in the back keeping an eye on the laptop, that was connected to the camera that was already recording in the house.  Arthur swore the dog was looking for something.

“I’m getting some high electric readings from the walls here, where the plugs are, “Vivi said.  She held the small electric reader in her hand as the lights flared on the top.  “That would easily explain the creepy feelings they’ve been getting.”

Arthur had gone into the bathroom, admiring the cleanliness of the floor and sink area, where the couple had set their towels.  “The place was built in the 1800s,” he added.  “But it was recently renovated when they moved in,” he paused.  “How long ago was that?”

“Two years,” Vivi said.  She moved the sensor towards the ceiling fan above the bed. “It correlates with their accounts that the activity had been increasing, since they moved in.”

Arthur did some of the math in his head, but Vivi was the one that kept on top of the local history of their assignments and the finer details of witness accounts.  “Did they start renovations before they moved in, or after?”

“Between.”  Vivi appeared in the doorway of the bathroom.  She lowered the black device gripped in her hand, as she scanned over the walls and mirror.  “They had to restore some of the house to make it livable, then finished up after they were settled.”

Arthur tried the faucets and listened as the water rumbled in the pipes somewhere in the walls.  The sound was nonspecific, but the couple said they heard voices.  “What I wouldn’t give to recount a timeline with the accuracy you have,” Arthur said.  He turned the water up full blast and the rumbling stopped.

“I just pay attention,” Vivi said, a slight shrug and the hint of a smirk in her lips.  “Nice bathroom.”

“You do more than that,” Arthur insisted.  “I’m terrible with dates and history and… keeping facts straight in my head.”

Vivi opened the cupboard nearest to the bathrooms doorway and knelt to examine the interior.  Freshly folded towels were stacked inside, a few shampoo bottles and some bars of packaged soap met her eyes.  The silver pipes in the back looked solid.  “You’re great with the equipment,” she said, and giggled.  “I can barely update my iPod without it crashing.  Thanks, by the way.”

“You’re welcome,” Arthur said.  Whenever her iPod did freeze up, which was too often in his opinion, Arthur would troubleshoot it for her.  He shut off the water and listened.  “Hey, Vivi?”

“Yeah?”  She stood up.  In the walls there was a faint rattle as somewhere in the pipes the pressure stabilized after use.  Vivi raised the electro gauge towards the bright lamps above the mirror and registered a high increase in current.  “Looks like this might just be your typical case of shoddy restoration. Arthur?”  She turned to him when he failed to continue after her prompt.  “What’d you need?”

Arthur shakes his head.  “Er, ah— The owners left the attic open for us.  Sorry,” Arthur said, smiling.  “I was thinking over the interior layout of the house, and it seems like common draft through vents in the roof.  Maybe we should check that out next?”

“Good plan.”  Vivi closed the cupboards and exited the bathroom.  “After running the water, we might get some interesting sounds.”

With a sigh Arthur followed.  “Yeah.  That’s what I meant.”  As he moved past the windows he couldn’t resist a glance at his arm, glinting under the bright light beside his amber vest.

__

The assignment turned out more successful than Vivi and Arthur had initially thought.  A lot of their paranormal investigations turned out to be nothing but the usual in old homes and unkempt buildings - the foundation settling, old uninsulated wiring, even bats in the walls; there were the few cases of sham artists with tape recorders that played from hidden spaces or rigging designed to catch the camera at a specific moment.  A lot of disappointments, but the college funded their research regardless if anything was found.  Sometimes exposing the falsities was enough as far their providers was concerned, but it was no satisfaction to find out their time had been wasted with overactive imaginations.

It was far into the night, Arthur was fueling himself with endless cups of bitter coffee while Vivi sat in the back of the van roving over the laptop and the evidence she was checking.  While she listened for electronic voices, she worked with duplicates of all the images gathered trying to edit out the fuzziness of the night vision cameras.

“Arthur,” Vivi piped, as she leaned over the drivers seat.  “What does this sound like to you?”  She set the laptop down on the passengers seat and fitted the ear muffs over his ears, as Arthur kept his attention of the dark shapes of the forest around them.  This was a common ritual as they drove, which was reason why he took the longer and sometimes outdated back roads.  Arthur tilt his head as he focused on the loud scratching filled his ears of the raised volume.  He was wary that a sudden sound would shut through his brain of something unnamed, usually someone’s heightened whisper as he or Vivi asking questions.

The voice that came through was an older woman, not Vivi by a long shot, not the home owners that had been outside at the time.  Arthur had adjusted his senses well to identifying white noise that came through the electric recording and easily distinguished between a falsified recording and the genuine paranormal.

“Sounds like, ‘made the garden,’” Arthur finally said.  “Weird.”

“I know, that’s what I thought.”  Vivi slipped the ears muffs off Arthur’s head and raised up the laptop from the passengers seat.  Mystery watched from his elected spot on the middle seat, curled beside Arthur’s leg.  “That would correlate to the images I’m working on, the one’s of the figure staring out the master window into the backyard.  It’s sweet if you think about it.”

Arthur smiled.  “You mentioned that the house was uninhabitable when the new owners first bought it?” he said, his smile widening.

“Yeah, I did.”  Vivi went ahead and double checked her current data, before closing the programs and shutting the laptop down.  “Total wreck,” she went on.  “Renovations would’ve cost nearly as much as the home itself.  The yard was dead, full of weeds and junk.  Then the owners moved in, cleaned it up.”  Vivi stuffed the laptop up under the passengers seat, before she crawled over cushion to sit beside Mystery.  Vivi set her hand between the dogs shoulder blades and scratched as he uncoiled and sat up.  “Mrs. Ricewell wanted a garden.”

Vivi let her voice trail off, as Arthur poured himself another cup of lukewarm coffee.  “Sounds straightforward to me,” he said.  His metal hand fumbled to hold the plastic cup as he lifted it from the cup holder and to his lips, careful not to spill again.  “Nothing hostile.  Just there because the house was restored.  I think that just sometimes happens.”  Arthur took another sip and winced.  The coffee was terrible.

“Hmm?”  Vivi asked.

“Energy, I think.  Like a battery,” Arthur said.  He lowered the cup back to the cup holder; Vivi helped him guide his arm when it was apparent his aim was off.  “I’ve been thinking up some theories for our separate report’s, and did my own research on places that have been abandoned.  Other paranormal researches support the idea too, that activity kicks back up in a home again if people start to fix up the place.  A house with no running energy, no people, it starts to degrade and maybe any spirits there begin to drift away.  Spiritual energy has to be powered by something, it doesn’t make sense that a ghost is there just because.”

Vivi pondered over this as the van rumbled down the old road.  The headlamps illuminated the skeletal trees and brush struggling to claim the earth that was paved over, in time there wouldn’t be a road here and the area would be forgotten.  Aside from the soft light inside the vehicle there was no other radiance this far out from town and the stars blazed among wistful clouds with the backdrop of the dazzling quarter moon, outlining the gnarled tree branches with a golden haze.  The sky beneath the moon, perhaps seared by some far off town, was a bubbling fuchsia beneath the dark sky.

“That would explain why activity kicks up when were around, if there’s any,” Vivi said.  “You need to figure out a way to make dampers for the equipment, so spirits don’t tap into the batteries.  It’s getting expensive to pack spares for just in case.”

“Good idea,” Arthur said, smirking her way.  “Can’t believe I never thought of that.”

Vivi returned the smile.  “That’s why we make such a great team,” she said.  She gave Mystery a scratch on his shoulder when he leaned her way and yipped.  “You too Mystery.  You keep us from staying mad at each other.”

Arthur was about to reach over and take another swig of his coffee, when the engine faltered under his feet.  He hesitated as the lamplights pulsed and the low rumble of the motor began to sputter out.  “Oh no,” he muttered, raising a foot to the break to disengage cruise.  “No-no… don’t do this.”  He brought his hand back from the steering wheel when a bright flash zipped through his eyes and the interior light of the cab dimmed, leaving the impression of red in his retinas.  “C’mon, don’t do this.”  He pressed his foot to the gas and turned to give Vivi a defeated look as the lights dimmed once more.

“Arthur,” she said.  “Did you fill up the tank like I told you to?”

“I did.  I did!” he pleaded, grinning sheepishly.  “I’m sure I did.”  Arthur wasn’t so certain at this time, as the engine gave a final whine, then died completely.  “Yeah,” he urged.  “I remember putting the receipt in my pocket.”

“Then what could be the problem?”  Vivi watched the erratic movement of the boo charm as it began to twist to a stop.  She leaned forward opening the glove back in front of her and dug through the papers and spare battery boxes until her hands snapped over the flashlights handle.  She handed the flashlight to Arthur as he reached under the steering wheel, feeling for the release handle with his good arm.  “We’ve never had trouble with the van before.”

“I know,” he mumbled.  The handle creaked as he jerked it out and the hood of the van thudded.  “I’ll give it a look, see if something came loose.  This roads not in the best of shape.”

Vivi watched as Arthur got out.  When he shut the door, his beam bobbing under the dull haze of the night, she shared a glance with Mystery.  “It’ll be all right,” she cooed.  “he’ll be right back.”  Mystery let out a soft whine that startled Vivi in its evident distress.

The hood of the van snapped up and Vivi watched the dark panel as the light bobbed around the sides and through the tight crease at the base of the windshield.  She could hear Arthur fiddle around, his metal arm making audible clanking as he snapped it to the edge of the van whenever he leaned forward to fiddled with wires with his good arm.  It seemed like hours that he worked and Vivi in that time had rested her hand on Myster’s head massaging his scalp, while the dog no doubt bore holes through the van’s hood to where Arthur stood.  Finally, the hood swept down with a harsh snap and Arthur rounded the side to the driver’s side door.

“Can you give me some 99?” he asked, holding the flashlight as Vivi reached for the cup holders.  They had a pump bottle of disinfectant in one of the cupholders, and Vivi leaned over to squirt the jelly liquid on his flesh palm.  She pulled up a blue bandanna from the passenger doors pocket, the cloth had numerous dark stains on it and she used it to rub the grease off of Arthur’s hand.

“Thank you,” he said.  He set the flashlight on the driver’s seat, and took the cloth when it was offered to him and cleaned off his metal knuckles.  “I couldn’t find anything wrong with the engine.  Absolutely nothing.”

Vivi thought over this as she watched him in the dark.  Cool air breezed in through the open door, the night was filled with the scent of dirt and oil.  “I’ll see if I can call a tow truck,” she said at last.  Arthur made a sound under his breath but didn’t argue.  Arthur moved the flashlight aside as he climbed up into the driver’s seat and shut the door.  Vivi climbed over the seat into the back hunting for the phone.  “Can you hand me the light?”

Arthur looked over as the light swung up when Mystery picked it up and handed it back to Vivi.  She thanked the dog, and Arthur slumped down in his seat a little more.  He ran through his mind all the methods he had used to replace and maintain the van, he was a trained mechanic and about a third of the engine was digital.  It made no sense, and it annoyed him.  Arthur kept his irritation to himself.

After several minutes, Vivi climbed back over the seat with the light while her thumb jammed at the touch screen of the phone.  “No signal,” she said.

The three shared a collective sigh.  For what felt like hours they sat debating a plan separately, not speaking until they had run through all the ideal scenarios until they had gathered a potential solution.

“We could tie Myster’s collar to the front bumper and have him pull us,” Arthur suggested.  To this the dog growled, eyes flashing in the soft light of the flashlight at his paws.  “Kidding.  Kidding.  Touche.”

“Or,” Vivi says, smoothing down Mystery’s raised ears, “you can put the van in neutral and push us for a bit.  Maybe we’re just in a ditch?”

For a while Arthur said nothing, only gazed forward into the black daggers of trees and flat nothing.  He nodded.  “Knew you were going to suggest that,” he said.  Arthur took the gear shift and struggled with the handle, it felt like it was fighting him.  He adjusted the keys in the ignition trying to release the lever, partly he hoped the engine would just roar to life.  He managed to unstick the handle and switched the van to neutral.  As Arthur climbed out, Vivi hopped to the driver seat.

“Be careful, Arthur,” she urged.  “Don’t strain yourself too much.”

“I know, I know.”  Arthur braced his toes to the road and gripped the frame of the door.  Nothing happened for a while, until he grunted and adjusted his stance to a more comfortable position.  Slowly, the van creaked forward.  “Having fun?” he snorted.

“Not really,” Vivi confessed.  They gained momentum and she became worried that they were heading up a hill that was steeper than she first anticipated.  “Remember what I said.”

“I’m okay.  Just let me concentrate.”  Arthur felt his heart pounding, his left side throbbed where the compromised veins detoured circulation in his body.  “Maybe you and Mystery should get out,” he panted.  “Follow the van.  It might help.”

There was a pause, Arthur didn’t try to study the expression on Vivi’s face, not in the dark.  He remained focused on the road and the rubber tires crunching gravel.  At last with hesitance she says, “You think that might really help?”

“I’m just kidding,” he said, with a hint of a chuckle.  “I’ll quit here in a second.  Have you gotten a signal on the phone?”

He saw the flutter of light in the corner of his eye as no doubt Vivi checked the phone at his prompt.  Arthur felt something of relief when she gasped, but he didn’t expect her next exclamation.

“Art.  Look!”  Arthur raised his head and saw a shape down the road. An ambiguous and large shape with flat sides, in contrast with the sharp twisted angles of the surrounding woods. At first he couldn’t decide what it was Vivi wanted him to see, but as his eyes adjusted he could make out the soft tones of pink brushed down the sweeping sides of flat surfaces. Above the knotted tree branches curled the jagged horizon of symmetrical points across the top, dark slates slopped downward and glimmered beneath the moon. He felt a surge of adrenalin in his body as his mind began to place what the shape was that should be obvious to his eyes. “I’m not imagining it, am I?” Vivi said, skepticism in her tone. It was dark, it would be easy for the wishful mind to conjure an auto repair shop in the middle of the thick woods. But no, Arthur could see fully what Vivi was staring at.

“No,” Arthur huffed, trying to catch his breath.  “It’s a house maybe?”

“More than a house,” Vivi went on.  “A mansion.”  She gazed unmoving for several minutes, as Arthur panted and strained with the heavy vehicle.  “You wanna stop now?”

Arthur glanced up, saw the high wall glide from the black tangle of dry shrubs and grass.  “No,” he assured.  “Just a few more feet, then I’ll stop.”  He regretted that almost immediately.  The building was much further away than he anticipated, and more than once he debated on just stopping where they were.

“We’re here, Art.  You can stop now.”  Vivi reached over to grip his shoulder as his feet began dragging over the asphalt.  “Sorry, it looked a lot closer than it was.”

Arthur leaned against the door as he caught his breath, his knees trembled now that he had stopped.  “Yeah,” he said.  “Things always change perspective in the dark.  Dumb.”

“You okay?” Vivi asked, still holding his shoulder as he shuddered and gasped.  “You’re not gonna collapse, are you?”

Arthur laughed and choked on his breath.  “I’m not delicate china, Vi.  Just a little out of breath.”  He felt his metal arm slump at his side and leaned its way.  “How’s the phone?”

There was a flash in his eyes as the screen pulsed on.  “Better than you,” Vivi answered.  “But still no sig— Shit.”

Arthur grimaced as he looked up.  “Don’t tell me.”

“No power.” They said in unison.  Mystery gave a soft whimper and shuffled around in the passenger seat.  “Fuck,” Arthur muttered.

Vivi sighed and set the phone down in the cup holder with the disinfectant.  “Let’s stay optimistic,” Vivi says, “and presume that whatever can go wrong at this point, must.”

“Yeah.”  Arthur felt some of his strength come back and stood straight, turning to the tall building that they were stationary before.  He blinked at the haze of the windows, the dark bronze coloration of the roof and ascents of the front door.  A cold tingle worked up his spine and he visibly shook.  “Place is spooky,” he said, louder than he meant too.

Nothing was said for a long time and a harsh silence fell over them, as if the dark windows and walkway of the home was judging their presence.  It was an eerie sensation and Arthur decided he was the only one that felt it.  Arthur jumped when Vivi broke the silence with a sudden statement.

“We should go inside.”  Vivi nudged Arthur as she lowered down from the drivers seat, he stepped back as her feet crunched the dirt underfoot.  The car doors clicked when she hit the unlatch button and she moved along the vans side to the back.

Arthur stuttered, “What?”  He saw Mystery’s white fur skip through the light of the flashlight as he took up the torch and dropped from the open door of the cab.  “Someone probably lives there.”

“You’re probably right,” Vivi says, around the back door of the van.  Arthur leans through the driver’s side door as she climbs inside.  “But it looks abandoned.”

Arthur glanced back at the yard under the bright glow of the moon and the cobblestone path that led up, toward the shimmering front of large doors that were ornate with stylized, lace frame beneath the forward facing balcony.  Staring at the home, it seemed much large and imposing as he gawked at.

“Looks abandoned doesn’t always mean abandoned,” Arthur snapped.  “I can push the van a little further up the road, it wouldn’t be trouble.  Besides, it’s probably filthy inside.  Could be infested with insects and mold.  C’mon Vi, I don’t like the looks of this place.”

The beam of the flashlight hovered towards him and behind Mystery was the girl in blue, her rosy glasses caught the diverted light below her knees.  “Let’s check it out, first,” Vivi said, touching his metal wrist.  “You never like the looks of any place that looks deserted.”  He looked away as she leaned towards him, seeking his eyes in the dark.  “I’m sure the place isn’t as gloomy as it looks,” she says.  “I think there are lights on inside.”

“It might just be the flashlight,” Arthur said.  He reached down and took the torch from Mystery’s mouth.  Arthur turned the light towards the front lawn and ran the dim beam over the front posts of the door and the shingles that made up the walls.  “And some of the windows are boarded up.”  He felt a cotton bag pressed into his chest, and wrapped his arms around the sack.  “Is this the holy water?”

“And charms, and dispel,” Vivi responds, as she moves to the back of the van again.  “We’ll take a quick peek inside and if it’s as dilapidated as you reason, we can just come right back out.  No more than five minutes.”  Arthur can hear her rummage around, most likely searching for the sleeping bags.  “Can you bring the light over?”

“Three,” Arthur says.  He shines the light over her shoulder as she gathers her overnight bag and jams a folded blanket through the arm loops.  “But any sound, and sort of scuffling that sounds like a rodent and we are gone.”

“Four and a half,” Vivi counters.  She grabs his bag and slides it towards him.  “But I’d feel a lot better if you were there with me.  It’d be lonely if Mystery and I were in there alone.”  Vivi reaches down to stroke Myster’s head as he leans up towards her.

Arthur groans, “Why do you have to be so assertive?”  He frowns as Vivi kneels before him and pinches his cheek.

“Because one of us has to be,” she says, a smile beaming off her lips.  Vivi struggles to life his bag and her own, but Arthur takes her heavier bag and steps back.  As Vivi steps off the back bumper, Arthur turns the soft yellow haze of the flashlight to the cracked tarmac.  “Don’t—” Vivi begins, before she’s cut off by Arthur’s voice.

“It’s cool.  I’m not going to break myself,” Arthur snaps.  “The only thing breaking around these parts is my masculinity. Really Vi, if I need help I’ll ask.”  He slings her bag of her shoulder, and holds the flashlight and the sack of paranormal supplies in his metal arm.  He turns and adjusts the light on the road broken by age and stringy weeds.

“Sometimes you forget to ask,” Vivi says at his back.  “That’s what worries me.”

Arthur turns back but neglects to frame her with the flashlight.  Mystery mulls around Athur’s feet, as he studies Vivi’s outline under the golden cast of the moon.  Vivi stares through the dark at him and Arthur detects that uncanny sense of being seen through.  After a moment he says nothing, instead he turns away towards the looming edifice before them.

When the doors slam shut Arthur calls back, “Can you see well enough?”  Vivi’s beside his shoulder and hums a confirming sound.  Side by side they move forward, bundles of cloth shifting and whispering as they struggle not to drop something onto the dusty cobblestone steps.  In the vapor of the light Mystery’s outline glimmers as he trots ahead leading the two, head forward and ears high.  Arthur takes his eyes off the dog and stares up as the mansion seems to rise and swell at their approach, as though taking a defensive stance to their intrusion. 

The home felt much closer than it actually was and the path seemed to lead up and up with each step, the sensation boggled Arthur’s mind.  A familiar chill began to work at the base of his spine and he shuddered, despite how hot his blood had become from exerting himself with pushing the van.  The twisting unease built in his gut the closer they moved to the porch, and in the dark glass above the carved wood of the front door Arthur was certain he saw a glimmer of red.

“You okay?” Arthur asked.  His voice was soft and nearly cracked, but Vivi didn’t catch the distress.

“Yeah.  It’s a beautiful old home,” she said.

Arthur could’ve cried.  Beautiful, she had called it.  Many dangerous places could be beautiful and deadly all in the same structure.  Was it the intent of animals that contained fatal poisons to mesmerize the gullible as they scurried away?  Or was it to intentionally attract the weak minded, and eliminate those disastrous genes from the infinite line of descendants to follow?  He didn’t want it to be true, it couldn’t be.

He felt a mild vibration on his arm and swung the flashlight beam enough to see Vivi, her hand wrapped around the wrist band of his metal arm.  “I’ll get the door,” she whispered.

“Yes,” Arthur said back, unsure if he had said anything at all.  He raised the light to the tarnished metal of the door handle as Vivi moved forward.  Arthur glanced around as the latch clanked under Vivi’s grip.  The shadow of the house felt icy, but it was fall and shrouded areas seemed to shelter frigid pools from the sun.  He jerked his head, certain Mystery had moved behind him but there was no shape or shadow there.

“Arthur?” Vivi sounded confused.

“Sorry.”  Arthur raised the light back to the handle, and where Vivi with Mystery stood coated in dark shades and hazy fuchsia.

Vivi shielded her eyes from the sudden light.  She had set his bag beside the door as the pressed her shoulder to the old oak.  “No.  I—” She stopped and sighed.  “Never mind.  Just my imagination.”   As Arthur choked out a sound, she gave a hard shove to the rough wood with her shoulder and the doors snapped open, as if cracked apart after centuries of desertion.  “Got it!  Can you bring the light in over here?”

With little coaxing Arthur shuffles forward, his metal arm latched over his chest and the provision bag, fingernails digging into his palm around the handle of Vivi’s bag.

The interior of the house was icy and Arthur almost expected to see his breath as he stepped into the oppressive gloom.  The bulb of light from the torch fell onto velvety rich, red carpet.  It rasped under Vivi’s feet as she stepped through the threshold into the black entrance hall.  “Wait for me,” Arthur called, hurrying after her and Mystery.  The sense of foreboding had faded completely, but it didn’t feel right.  In its place was left a vacant and isolated sensation, and Arthur instantly mourned the loss of accusation the front windows had piled on his subconscious.

“It’s not so bad in here,” Vivi said.  She stood center of the carpet, Mystery had stopped to sit close beside her feet.  “I thought it’d be dusty and dank, but no.  It’s almost, homey.”

The atmosphere was deafening and contained, evolving into a sense of suspension where time became meaningless.  Arthur passed the torch beam over the blue wall paper and the tiled floor beneath the carpet.  It was just a long hall.  He adjusted the light, trying to identify what hazards might lay in their path.  The beam of light instead caught Mystery’s gaze as the white face turned to meet his eyes, the look caused Arthur to freeze.  It was peculiar and unnatural, an expression that a dog’s face should not be able to fabricate and the suggestion of it startled Arthur at first before he recognized the actual shape of Mystery where he sat.  He had only a few seconds to register it was the dog with the red collar, before the soft vapor of light of the torch sputtered and dimmed.  Vivi’s voice broke through the crushing silence, before a loud swoosh filled the foyer followed by the ear splinting boom of the doors.  The tremor of vibrations faded from their minds as the moonlight from outside and the torch of the flashlight, were cut off completely.  A ringing persisted, and Arthur recognized the sound of blood pulsing through his eardrums in the complete absence of sound and dimension.

No one made a sound, no one moved.  No matter how Arthur strained his eyes could not perceive the wall of black that filled his eyes.  After years of waiting, Arthur believes he has been left behind.  He takes a breath of the sharp air and is about to cry out, when he catches hold of Vivi’s voice very near his side.

“Arthur,” she whispers.  “Arthur.  Do you see that?”  She points, but he can’t see anything.  Her voice is comfort enough, and he feels reassured.  Arthur is about to reach out for Vivi, when his eyes too lock on what she must have found.

At first it looked like the glimmer of her glasses, but it was high up towards the ceiling of the room somewhere in the dark.  The thick haze around it illuminates as the wavering flame dips and sways in nothingness with no visible tether.  Their eyes follow the slow motion of the fuchsia orb as it glides downward to greet its guests.

[amillionsmiles]

checking (you) out (Pidge/Lance)

Summary: Katie works the tech desk at the university library. Lance never remembers to wipe his memory card before returning the camera equipment, which is how she becomes intimately familiar with his life via, of all things, his vlogs. A/N: finally get to post this in full!  Written for @plance-zine ; it was wonderful to be part of such a project, and shoutout to the mods for keeping everything running smoothly! :)

[Read and review here] or continue under the cut.

People, Katie has decided, are predictable.  Watch them for long enough, and their everyday motions start to read like clockwork.  At 9 AM on Thursdays, she shows up for her shift behind the library’s tech desk. At 9:20, the girl with space buns and an artfully distressed jean jacket strides in, heading straight for one of the study pods.  At 9:25, somebody blows through the doors in a last-minute effort to print materials for their 9:30 class. And at 10:50, ten minutes before Katie’s shift ends, Lance McClain shows up, laboring under the weight of a camera bag, backpack, and tripod.

Katie reaches for the scanner as Lance puffs his way toward her, depositing the tripod on the table with a heavy clunk.   It takes him another minute to locate his student ID card: he checks the pocket of his cargo jacket first (not there—it never is) before wriggling his fingers into his jean pocket instead.  When he hands the plastic over, it’s warm from being pressed against his thigh.  

Katie spares it a passing glance as she pulls up the ‘Equipment Return’ form, filling in the requisite information.

“You’re good to go.”  She gives him a thumbs-up, careful not to look him straight in the eye.

“Cool, thanks.” Flashing a bright grin, Lance backpedals toward the doors, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.  

Once he’s disappeared completely from view, Katie unzips the camera bag. She flicks the dial to on and goes straight to display mode.  Sure enough, the schmuck hasn’t bothered wiping the memory card.  

Smirking, Katie kicks her feet up on the table and leans back in her chair.  

Let the entertainment begin.

o.O.o

Lance McClain does not know her name, and Katie is completely content with this.  She applied for her gig at the tech desk specifically because it required minimal human interaction.  Nobody expects her to make conversation; they just want to check out equipment and leave.  Occasionally she has to troubleshoot a printer jam or direct tourists to the bathrooms; most of the time, though, she just does her homework and gets paid.

Still, when someone visits at least twice a week, it’s hard not to notice.  The first time Lance left recording footage behind on the camera had sparked her interest, and from there it wasn’t too hard to find his YouTube channel, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  Which was how she knew that he was a second-year bio major with a side-job at the Starbucks in the Garrison, the student union, and in his free time he liked to record himself attempting to do stunts with his skateboard, if not narrating a funny story about his day or answering the call of things like the Cinnamon Challenge.  

Katie and Keith had gotten halfway through that video before Keith closed her laptop.

“I can’t watch you do this to yourself,” Keith said, shaking his head.  “Katie, you’re too good for him.”

“I’m hate-watching!” Katie justified, attempting to wrestle her Chromebook from Keith’s grip.  

“You know way too much about him to just be ‘hate-watching,’” said Keith, making air quotes with his left hand.  “You have his student ID number memorized.”

Katie glared.  She regretted letting that piece of information slip.  Memorizing Lance’s ID hadn’t even been intentional—it’d only happened because of how many times she’d typed his information into the system during checkout.  

“You go to office hours just so you can breathe the same air as your TA for an extra 120 minutes,” she retorted.  “You don’t get to lecture me on sad.”

Anyways.  All of this is to say that despite what Keith thinks, she does not have a weird, borderline crush-fascination with Lance.  And when she stumbles into Green Library’s 24-hr study room at 3 AM to work on a CS project, he’s the last person she’s expecting to see.

Lance is slouched in a swivel chair, earbuds plugged into the desktop in front of him.  One dangles loosely around his neck, the other shoved in his ear. Upon hearing someone else enter, he lurches to attention.  Katie pretends not to notice—she fully intends to sit on the other side of the room—but Lance doesn’t give her the chance.

“Hey!  You’re tech-desk girl!”

It’s a dumb nickname.  Definitely not something to get excited about, and Katie schools her features to reflect that.  She’s above all… this. Unaffected. “I have a name.”

A quirk of the lips.  Lance somehow manages to hook an ankle around the chair closest to him and spins it so the seat faces toward her, an offering.  “Wanna tell it to me?”

It’s uncannily close to the Pick-up Line Challenge video he posted to his account a month ago.  Katie tries not to think too hard about that.

“What’s in the thermos?” she asks instead, setting her backpack down and warily accepting the chair.  

“Redbull and coffee.”  Lance’s leg bounces under the table, fingers tapping a jittery rhythm on the keyboard.  “Wanna try some?”

“No thanks.  It sounds unholy.”

“Oh, it is.  Definitely a personal low, but sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.”  As he gulps his strange concoction, Lance’s face wrinkles, throat flexing as if he’s swallowed a frog.  “God, this is like… sacrilege for me.” His voice lowers, confiding. “I’m a barista.”

“I know,” blurts Katie.  Immediately after, she freezes, hoping that the comment will drop unnoticed.

No such luck.  Lance raises an eyebrow, questioning.  A strange light has entered his eyes; by admitting that she’s paid attention to him, Katie has suddenly become the sole focus of his attention.  

How much to admit?  Best to be blunt—rip it off like a bandaid.  The best defense is offense, and all that.

“You never delete your videos off the camera before you return it,” she says.

Whatever explanation Lance had been anticipating, this one catches him off guard.  His face contorts as he tries to process the information. “I—my videos?”

It’s almost too easy, slipping into the impersonation.  “Hey guys, it’s ya boi Lance, and today I’ll be—”

“Okay, okay.”  Lance waves his hands, cutting her off.  “Please do not continue.”

“I thought you’d be flattered hearing your own lines back at you.”

“Not like that, it’s weird!  You make me sound like a tool.”  He sighs. “Well, now I’m disappointed.”  

Katie frowns.  “Why?”

“I don’t know! I thought it’d be cool if you knew stuff about me because I was like, your secret Starbucks crush or something.”  At this, he shoots her a hopeful look.

“I don’t drink coffee.”

“We sell other stuff.  Also, you still haven’t told me your name.”

“It’s Katie,” she finally relents, breaking eye contact to pull her laptop out of her bag.  When she looks over again, Lance is resting his chin on his hand, staring at her thoughtfully.

“What.”

“So does this mean you subscribe to my YouTube channel?”

“No.”

Lance pouts.  “Why not?”

“I like the raw footage better.  It’s funnier. Like the first take of the spicy noodle challenge, where you spewed milk out of your nose?  Classic.” She cranes her neck to look over his shoulder. “What are you working on, anyways?”

“Nothing!” Lance pushes his body between her and the screen, the broad line of his back blocking her view.  

“Doesn’t sound like nothing if you’re being like that.”

“Hey, haven’t you heard about this thing called privacy?  4th Amendment! Search and seizure! Gimme back the mou— ow!”

Years of wrestling with Matt has made Katie adept at underhanded maneuvers; with Lance still rubbing his side from where she pinched him, she takes control of the mouse and opens up the window he’d minimized earlier.  Onscreen, several scenes are being recolored and spliced together; she recognizes the footage from earlier today.

“Do you always make your videos on the school computers?”

“I have my own laptop. It’s just shitty and will only run like, 2 programs at a time, and all that’s being directed towards a stats project right now.”  Lance eyes her sideways. “Hey, what major are you? Or, wait—are you a freshman? Have you even declared yet—”

“I’m a sophomore.  Computer science and math.”

“Ah, the double major.”  Lance nods, then puffs out his chest.  “Guess what I am.”

Common sense tells Katie that she should play dumb.  Let him have the satisfaction of correcting her. But her overwhelming need to prove she knows things wins out.

“Pre-med bio.”

Lance blinks.  “Wow, first guess.”  His surprise turns sly.  “You do have a crush on me.”

Katie rolls her eyes.  “Don’t flatter yourself.  All it takes is a quick LinkedIn search.”

“Yeah, but you only fully read through someone’s LinkedIn when you’re a) hiring or b) evaluating their bae potential.  It’s okay—” he holds up a hand, cutting off her protest, “—I’m honored, truly.”

“You’re ridiculous.”  This entire interaction has gone so far off the rails, she doesn’t know how to begin redirecting it.  Lance, meanwhile, shifts focus easily, pulling a camera out of his backpack and popping the lens cap off with practiced ease.  The next thing Katie knows, it’s pointed at her, Lance narrating: “You’ve heard of Sleepless in Seattle, but we’re here with Sleepless in the Study Room, guest-starring my new friend Katie!”

“What—who said we were friends?” says Katie, trying to duck out of the frame.  Lance is an unerring videographer, though; he follows every motion.  Backed into a corner, Katie swats at the lens before remembering that it’s from the tech desk and, therefore, her responsibility.  She stays her hand.

“We’ve been talking for over half-an-hour,” Lance says, flashing his phone at her, where 3:30 AM makes itself known in thin white strokes.  “I’d say that counts for something.”

His smile is bright and close.  It’s probably the lack of sleep that’s making her loopy, but the feeling underneath her skin is not unlike a sugar rush.  

“I guess,” she says.

o.O.o

She regrets everything the next morning.  The minute she gets behind the tech desk, Katie thumps her head down and starts calculating. If she naps in ten minute increments, maybe she’ll recuperate some of her lost sleep and still manage to do her job.

The hours crawl by slowly.  At 10:50, the characteristic whoosh of the automatic doors awakens her from her latest sleep cycle, and from somewhere above, an entirely too chipper voice says: “You look like you could use a pick-me-up.”

“This is your fault,” Katie groans, raising her chin to glower at Lance.  “Because of you, I got distracted, and then I had to stay up even later to finish coding.”

“I know, I was there.  You are a very aggressive programmer, by the way.”

“Just pass over your card so I can check this equipment back in,” she grumbles, wiggling her fingers in demand.  Instead, though, Lance curls her fingers around a warm paper cup.

Katie stares at it blankly.  “I told you I didn’t drink coffee.”

“It’s my special blend,” Lance insists.  “You’ll like it, promise.”

“Yeah, well, it’s going to have to wait ten minutes,” sighs Katie, pushing it to the side and heaving the camera and tripod over the desk. “I’m not allowed to have drinks back here.  On-duty policy.”

“Then I’ll keep it safe in the meantime,” says Lance, snatching it back.  “I’ll just be over here.”

Katie watches him stake out a table.  Blinks a few times, to confirm that he’s still there.  This isn’t part of their usual routine. It feels strange but not entirely unwelcome.  

When she flicks to the camera’s memory card, it’s clean.  That’s weird, too—that they actually had a fully fledged conversation, and he took something she said to heart.  In fact, the other night, she’s pretty sure she made him laugh. And there’d been a moment, where Lance had tipped his head back, eyes crinkling, and Katie had thought: shit, maybe Keith had been onto something after all.

When her shift ends, she heads over to the table that Lance has staked out.  In characteristic Lance fashion, he’s already found a way to unfold himself over all the available space: backpack slung over the back of an empty chair, feet kicked up on the seat opposite him.  Katie nudges them aside as she sits down, reaching over to grab her coffee, and Lance’s face brightens.

“By the way, your earbuds aren’t plugged in completely,” she says, sipping her drink.  Lance, despite only knowing her from their interactions the night before, has somehow guessed at her sweet tooth, and the foamy latte goes down easily.  “Nice music.”

Lance rips the buds from his ears, gaping down at his phone in horror. Onscreen, a disturbingly animated baby waves its arms, singing, Yes papa, as a banjo strums in the background.  Katie marks that down as another piece of information on Lance: listens to educational children’s music in his free time.

“In my defense, it’s for a project.”

“Sure it is,” she says, slapping Lance’s hand away when he tries to grab the coffee back in retaliation, and it’s so natural to mess with him like this, to laugh and call him noodle arms and have everybody else glare at them for being disruptive.

I think it counts for something, Lance had said the other night.

Something, indeed.  

[cheeseeatingtrashmonster]

Something Breakable

Nelix Week day 3: First Date.

Read the whole month on AO3

This is dedicated to the spouse-human for helping me come up with this idea. Our first date was WEIRD.

First Date

"Stop that," Felix said. There was no bite to his voice so Nino ignored him.

"I got your tie in that shot," Nino said, working on getting a new camera angle to capture the beautiful dinner and table setting before him. He glanced up at the smile Felix was suppressing. Oh yes, overall, a very nice sight in front of him.

"I don't even like this tie. Delete that one," Felix said.

"You don't?" Nino asked, taking one more picture that most definitely included Felix's tie again. "It's a good color on you."

"Really?" Felix asked, running a hand over the tie. He hoped that if his face was as red as it felt that Nino would blame the excessive heat in the restaurant.

"Yeah. You look nice tonight."

"I showed up in my work clothes."

Nino shrugged. "You still look nice."

Felix managed to stutter out a "thank you" just as their waiter came to check on them. By the time they were alone again Felix felt less flustered. Felix usually felt like he did a good job of acting normal around Nino, but every now and then Nino said something like that and it felt like the world was thrown off its axis for a few minutes. Felix Agreste had it bad for Nino and there seemed to be nothing he could do about it.

"So how's that new work project coming?" Nino asked. "Will this be the app that gets you the investment money to start your dance school?"

"I seriously doubt it," Felix said. He went on to explain what the app did and why he didn’t give it a high expectation of success. Nino didn’t understand all of it, but Felix had gotten better at figuring out when he was leaving Nino behind and explaining better. It was a far cry from a few months ago when Felix would alternate between giving the shortest, vaguest answers possible and rambling at length about something Nino had never heard of before.

“Enough about that,” Felix said after a minute. “How’s the club?”

“Not all that interesting,” Nino said. “I got new headphones. I learned how to repair one of the stage lights. One of the regular bartenders got into a screaming match with his manager and quit.”

“That sounds interesting. It wasn’t the tall, skinny man with the eyes that-”

“-that look like they’re staring into your very soul?” Nino finished. “Yeah, him.”

“I’m not surprised.”

They chatted a bit more about work before moving on to family, and then onto books they had been reading and the play that Nino had dragged Adrien and Marinette to see the week before. Before too long they were walking in the crisp fall air through the nearby park.

“So, is DJing it for you?” Felix asked, taking in the color of the leaves and the smell of autumn and the wet squelch of his shoes on the damp leaves covering the path. “I know it’s been your goal for years, but I always got the feeling you didn’t think of it as long term once you achieved your goal.”

“You’re right,” Nino said. “I figure I can only keep this schedule up for another year or two before I’m craving a more normal sleep cycle and less deafening work environment.”

“Do you have plans for when that time comes?”

“I haven’t told anyone yet but I’m considering book editing. I’ve been taking those night classes I mentioned? And I’ve already been asked to work as a tutor for the literature department. I really like reading, and I really like helping people troubleshoot the stuff they’re working on. I know it’s not necessarily the easiest line of work to get into, but… I dunno, it excites me.”

“I think you’d be great at it,” Felix said. “Why haven’t you told anyone?”

“Most people think that since I was so set on DJing from such a young age, it’s the only thing I should want to do. I guess I’m just expecting a lot of judgement for it.”

“Anyone unwilling to support you in whatever you decide is important to you is unworthy of your time and attention.”

“Has that been your philosophy with the dance school thing?” Nino asked, taking on a teasing tone. “Every time someone says something negative about it, they become unworthy?”

“The comment that irritates me most is when someone questions my ability to work with children. I love children. They’re honest and have had less time to develop ridiculous assumptions. I am Nath and Chloe’s on-call babysitter, I’ll have you know.”

“To be fair, I think when they started dating, I remember them telling you that you became automatic godfather of their children because you set them up in the first place, so the on-call babysitter thing doesn’t surprise me in the least.”

As they wandered the paths they continued to talk about the future. Felix's dance school plans, what Nino would probably miss about DJing when he left. Eventually ended up at the unofficial halfway point between their apartments.

"Would you like to come back with me?" Felix asked. "Marinette is out, possibly for the rest of the night. I have that book I was telling you about, if you'd like to borrow it."

Nino shoved his hands in his pockets to try and cover how flustered he felt. It was a simple question. He had hung out with Felix alone in his apartment tons of times. What made this time different?

"Yeah, sounds good."

There! Simple, to the point, no worries!

And then he tripped and almost fell on his face.

"Alright there?" Felix asked, grabbing Nino's arm as he stabilized.

"Fine!" Nino said, becoming much too aware of every point of contact between Felix's hand and his arm. How were his hands so warm in this weather? "Just channeling Marinette, I guess."

"I get enough of her," Felix said, throwing an arm around Nino's shoulders. "She's a great roommate when she's deep in a project or rage-cleaning, but I could do with fewer anxiety spiral rants and broken dishes."

Nino stopped and turned to look at Felix without dislodging the arm holding him close.

"Felix."

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"Complaining about Marinette? She's aware of these issues, I'm not talking about her behind her back or anything. And she's made clear to me what parts of living with me are less than-"

"Dude. Your arm. You're voluntarily touching me."

Felix tried to pull away, but Nino wrapped an arm around his back and held him in place.

"You act like I've never showed you the slightest affection before," Felix said, relaxing just a bit as they continued walking.

"You definitely haven't. I'd have remembered that." Wait, did that give too much away?

Whether he had or not, Felix let that comment go as they entered his apartment building and he fished out his keys.

“Whatever happened to that cello thing you were working on?” Felix asked as he unlocked his front door.

Nino laughed. “I had forgotten about that one. I swear, you remember my projects better than I do.” He pulled out his phone as he kicked off his shoes and brought up the recording. “I actually finished it, but by the time I was done with it I hated it.” He hit play and cello music filled the apartment.

"It's missing something," Felix said as he cleared Marinette's things from the couch. "Something to drink?"

"Water, please."

They settled on the couch, the book Felix had offered to loan Nino forgotten as they tried to figure out what was missing from the cello recording. It was nice, but Felix found himself a little too preoccupied with the way Nino's glasses moved when he scrunched his nose and how he would mime the motions to play certain parts of the cello piece and how soft his lips looked and how Nino's eyes would linger on his own face at times. He wasn't much help, but he didn't much care so long as Nino didn't look like he was planning to leave any time soon.

The front door banged open and they heard Marinette swear as she shut the door as quietly as possible. When she reached the living room she waved and gathered up the things Felix had moved off the couch.

"How was your date?" Marinette asked. "I saw the pictures of your dinner. Felix, I can't believe you didn't say anything beforehand! You were so calm before you left, you're usually a mess before dates."

Nino was vaguely aware of his glass slipping from his hand and shattering on the floor, but seeing as he couldn't feel his fingers, it didn't really surprise him.

"I thought you were doing something with Adrien tonight," Felix said, jumping up to get a towel for the water and a broom for the glass shards.

"I did, but he has an early morning flight to the next filming site. I didn't know you guys were coming back here, so I'll just disappear into my room and you two pretend I'm not even here, okay?" She grinned at them. "I'm so glad this finally happened. I love you both, but if I had to listen to either of you pining after the other for another minute I was going to lose my mind. Have a good night!"

Felix gathered up the remains of Nino's glass and swept until he was sure all the fragments were gone. With mechanical movements he returned the broom to the cupboard and sat back down next to Nino.

"Did I miss something?" Felix whispered. "Did I completely miss something?"

"Was that a date?" Nino asked. He turned to Felix suddenly. "Wait, did you want it to be a date? Which of us came up with the idea of dinner?"

"Oh, I've moved on from the fact that neither of us realized we pretty much just went on a date," Felix said, still facing forward. "Marinette said that we both were pining."

Nino covered his face with his hands and sighed. "And she didn't think to tell either of us?" He looked at Felix again. "After all the drama she and Adrien went through?"

"They at least had secret identities preventing them from figuring it out," Felix said, turning to Nino with a self deprecating smile. "It turns out I was doing a better job hiding my feelings for you than I thought."

"So, just to confirm," Nino said, feeling his face heat up, "you have feelings to hide in the first place?"

"Nino," Felix slid a little closer on the couch. "That was the best first date I've ever had, and not just because I didn't know it was a date and therefore couldn't self-sabotage myself from nerves."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Then let me know if this does," Felix whispered, leaning in to kiss Nino. He intended it to be a quick kiss to gauge Nino's interest. He didn't expect Nino to respond immediately, putting one hand on Felix's knee and the other cradling the back of his head. They kissed until they were breathless and Nino pulled away.

"I guess that answers my question," Nino said.

"I would hope so," Felix said, letting his eyes map every feature of the face before him.

"Can I retroactively ask you out, making tonight our first date?" Nino asked.

"I don't think it works like that," Felix said. He looked around the room, thinking for a moment. "But if you want, I could put on a movie, and the rest of the night could be our first date?"

This time when Nino said, "Yeah, sounds good," the stakes were higher but he had never felt less nervous.

When Marinette found Nino and Felix asleep and cuddling on the couch a few hours later, she covered them with a blanket, turned off the looping DVD menu, and texted Adrien that her plan to pretend she thought they had been on a date had worked perfectly.

[mysocialfox458]

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Sims 4 Cc Tracker Zerbu

Sims 4 Corrupt Cc Tracker

Download tens of thousands of free premium quality creations and custom content for The Sims, Sims 4, Sims 3 games - no login required and updated daily. Always check for updated mods after a Sims 4 Patch/Update; at the Mods Tracker on which ones are broken or now updated. Also EA Forums do a regular post for tutorials, mod usage & broken mods/cc. I use Sims 4 Studio for batch fixes it solves a lot of problems in bulk (but not all.) Also available for Mac.

The new chapter in the Sims story

This title has been a cultural phenomenon since 2000, when the first installment was released. The game crossed demographics, and everyone became a fan of the series. Now it’s on its fourth outing; how has the series held up?

From baby steps to retirement

The greatest micro simulation game is back. Sims 4 has big shoes to fill. Is this sequel up to the task?

The premise is the same: create your avatar, build your dream house, fall in love, watch your children grow - choose your life. As ever, there’s a lot that you can buy for your Sims, from stove tops to guitars and everything in between. You can share creations of your with other players online, and the detail work that’s gone into some of the objects in this game is incredible.

But you could be forgiven for thinking that there should be more in Sims 4 than there were in any of the previous games. Sadly, this is not the case.

There’s no swimming. You can’t make pools and you can’t toss your Sims in, remove the ladders, and wait for them to doggy-paddle themselves into an early grave. That was one of the most iconic things about the franchise up until now and it’s a curious thing to remove. The whole point of the game is to have complete control over the life of the Sim, so why take any of that control away from the player?

The avatars are now much more competent than they were in the last game. You don’t have to babysit them all the time, and while that might be good for some, it still takes away the player’s control.

While the game looks good and runs pretty well, it doesn’t really make up for the issues here. The loading screens take forever when you first start the game. This is a legendary trait of any Maxis game, but this time it’s really something else. If that weren’t enough, the most critical visual component in the game is broken: the camera. How can this be? Did the developers not playtest the game? Do they not realize the camera is broken?

It’s frustrating, because the team and Maxis / EA could have had a smash-hit here. But modern corporate practices are probably responsible for the underwhelming game that is The Sims 4.

Where can you run this program?

You can run this game on Mac OS and Windows computers.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes; in fact, The Sims 3 can offer you a better experience. If you’re looking for other Maxis sim titles, try any of the SimCity games.

Our take

While The Sims 4 does little to improve upon the groundwork laid by its predecessors, it’s still a fun game at its heart. The customization and in-game object shopping could take you hours alone, but it feels like this game is being purposefully left empty. Considering that the franchise has always banked on the expansion packs to turn an extra profit, that could be the reason it feels so bare.

Should you download it?

Yes. Despite its flaws, Sims 4 could be fun, and it might be more enjoyable if you haven’t played any of the previous games.

Highs

Good graphics

Attention to detail

Online sharing

Lows

Less content than previous entries

Camera issues

Long loading screens

The Sims 4for Mac

This tutorial deals specifically with fixing Create-a-Sim items. For a way to fix the CC chairs that broke with The Sims 4 in March 2021, read this article.

If you play with Sims 4 mods or CC, then you are probably familiar with the hellish visions of Sims being transformed into punctuation marks that look like they have crawled out from the underworld. (PS: Wouldn’t an underworld pack in The Sims 4 be awesome?).

Moving on. We love using Sims 4 custom content. That’s not hating on EA or The Sims 4 team, there’s just so much gorgeous stuff available. And bunk beds. There are functional Sims 4 CC bunk beds.

Apple Cc Sims 4

The problem with Sims 4 CC is that sometimes it can break. Mods and CC break with updates or sometimes you download them in a broken state. It can be quite traumatising to see the Punctuated Sims from Hell appear.

That question mark slapped in the middle of their virtual foreheads will make you question your life decisions and haunt your dreams.

If you are a bit of a Sims 4 custom content hoarder, then it can feel like a real struggle to figure out which CC is broken.

We have all had that moment where we get so fed up with broken Sims 4 CC that we just go and delete the whole mods folder and start over. Once that recycle bin has been emptied, regret follows instantly.

But there is an easier and far less traumatic way to fix broken CC in The Sims 4. It works best for Create a Sims (CAS) content that’s broken, but you can also use it to get rid of Build/Buy custom content that’s broken or that you no longer use or simply don’t like the look of.

It is also a great way to find any custom content that might be missing from your game. This is useful if you have downloaded some Sims households, lots or objects that do not show up in your game.

Best way to fix broken or bad CC in The Sims 4

To easily fix broken or bad custom content in The Sims 4, you will need to use the Sims 4 Tray Importer from L’Univers Sims. It’s a completely free download and it is safe to use. You can download The Sims 4 Tray Importer from the official website over here.

This little application is life changing for Sims 4 players who use a lot of CC. If you have a bad batch of broke custom content, it can help you clean things up in no time.

Once you have installed The Sims 4 Tray Importer (which runs separately to your Sims game), you will be able to quickly delete any broken CC whenever you want. It can even help you clean up your library if it has gotten a bit full.

To get started, you will have to save a household in The Sims 4 with Sims dressed in the broken custom content.

Don’t worry about how they look. They’re not going for a fashion show, they are going into the bin. Do you care what your garbage looks like before you chuck it out? Yeah, didn’t think so.

How to use The Sims 4 Tray Importer to fix broken CC: Step by step

As mentioned already, save your broken Sims to your library to get rid of CAS CC that is broken. If you are trying to delete build/buy CC, then save a room or lot.

We find it is quite useful to have a “delete me” room next to every build, so that we can easily put objects into it we want to delete later. For this example, we will only deal with broken CAS CC in The Sims 4.

You can access all the households, lots and rooms in your library through The Sims 4 Tray Importer. You can refine accordingly using the filters shown here.

Here is a household of ours. For our American readers, this is the national rugby team of South Africa. Well, our version of some of them anyway. For our English readers: Do you remember the 2019 Rugby World Cup?

Once you have found the offending family (they will show up like the zombies from CAS, or you can name the family “broken” or “delete this” to make it easier).

If you want to just get rid of a household, room or lot without also deleting the CC, you can switch over to the files tab. Highlight the files and right click.

Then select the “Show containing folder” option. Your Tray folder will open with the files highlighted. You can just hit delete in the folder and the files bell be deleted.

To get rid of broken Sims 4 Custom Content or find missing CC by using TS4TI, switch over to the CC tab on the application.

You will see a list of all the CC in use for that household, room or lot. Any missing mods or CC will show up highlighted in red like in the screenshot below.

If you want to find the missing CC, right-click and use the “Find on Google” option. Note: Some users recently reported that there are issues with this option showing up. If you are having problems, refer to the TS4TI support forum. There could be an issue with your firewall blocking access or you might be running an out of date version, or other similar issues. It is best to check with the app’s developers for troubleshooting. If the option is there, a browser tab will open and you will find the websites where the CC is hosted. You can then download it and add it to your mods folder. This is quite useful to help find missing meshes.

If you simply want to get rid of the bad or broken CC, click over to the CC tab, select the items and right click to open your Sims 4 mods folder by using the “show in folder” option (like you did with the household/lot/room files earlier).

Sims 4 Cc Tracker Zerbu

If you select more than one item of Sims 4 CC to delete, several windows will open up with the selected items highlighted in your mods folder. You can just delete them one-by-one by going through each window and hitting delete.

Sims 4 Corrupt Cc Tracker

And that’s it. This easy way to find and delete broken or bad CC in The Sims 4 works for rooms, lots and CAS items. If you found this tutorial helpful, sign up to our Sims 4 newsletter over here or check out the rest of our Sims 4 content here.

[karmies]

Super Affiliate System Pro Review [2021] - Does John Crestani Deliver?

  So, you've probably seen yet another guru flaunting tons of money in front of the camera, right? You want to know if it's possible to make 10k/month with "a few hours of work per week"?   First of all, you deserve a round of applause for taking the time to do your research on the Super Affiliate System course. Many people (incluiding me) fall in the trap of getting rich quick at the beginning of their online journey.   If you're here to find out whether the Super Affiliate System Pro program is worth investing in, then you're in the right place.   So, what's the truth? Is it possible to make tons of money fast?   Well ... yes. But there is a difference between making money fast and making money fast and easy.   If you want to make money fast and easy, then first of all you're in the wrong mindset. I can totally get why you would want this. I wanted the same thing, like any other beginner.   A couple of years ago, when I just graduated college, I really wanted to make money online so I don't need to get a corporate job. But my parents were pushing me to play it safe and find a well-paying job.   It felt awful to stay in a cubicle for 12 hours a day. I vividly remember spending all my free time trying to make money online so I can get out of there.   But the little time that I had wasn't enough to build a legitimate business. After that, I realized that I can fake being sick and get 1 month off of work.   So i decided to spend every waking hour to learn how to run ads to a landing page so that I can get commissions. The problem was that my parents realized what I was doing and they threatend to kick me out of the house.   After a couple of days, I got my first sale and I was the happiest guy in the world. Fast forward to today, I make a full time living online and feel very grateful for that.   In the end, the most important thing is that I proved my parents that I can make it by myself. I can now send them money every month so they can go on vacations wherever they want.   Also, I started this blog in order to help guys who are looking to start making money online, so they don't get scammed by fake gurus.   If you want to know if the Super Affiliate System is for you, then you're in the right place. Let's start with the course creator.   Who Is John Crestani?     If there is such a thing as a make money online guru stereotype, that must be John Crestani. He flaunts is money in front of the camera and makes bold statements about his course.   He says that he can turn anyone into an online business owner without knowing anything about business (keep reading because I will discuss this as well).   John started his affiliate marketing business when he was only 21 years old. Fast forward to today, he makes millions of dollars online and was featured on sites like Forbes and Entrepreneur.com.   OK. You're probably thinking that he is a scammer. I will tell you now that he is not.   He is just flaunting money in front of you because he knows that this is the best way to get your attention.   Let's have a look at what you get once you give him money.   What Is The Super Affiliate System Pro?   This is the 2020 version of his course, which was launched a couple of years ago, in 2015. Since then it's been through a couple of changes.   Finally, now it's called Super Affiliate System Pro. The difference is that John updated the course and now gives you a couple of cool new bonuses (more on that later).   That's a very good thing because for that amount of money, you probably expect up to date material. That's why John updates it nearly every year.   The course's goal is to transform you into a paid traffic expert. It teaches you how to run ads on YouTube, Facebook, Google, solo ads and native advertising.   You are probably scared because you will need a budget in order to run ads. John knows this very well and that's why he teaches you how to start with $5/day.   After you find a profitable ad, he teaches you how to scale it. Also, he provides you with audience templates, so you can target people who are already interested in what you are promoting.   Super Affiliate System Pro Review     The course used to be structured into 6 weeks of training. John updated the course and that's not the case anymore.   There are 14 modules in the course, and they get unlocked based on you finishing them.   So you can't watch the next module unless you finished the previous one. If you ask me, that's great. It forces you to learn everything inside the course so you have a better understanding on how everything works.   Also, there is a ton of other stuff besides the course (more on that later)   These are the core 14 modules:   - Getting Started (this is just an introduction module) - Module 1: Affiliate Networks - Module 2: Sales Funnels and Websites (John provides you his very own sales funnel software - keep reading if you want to know how that is) - Module 3:Solo Ads (email ads) - Module 4: Google Ads - Module 5: Youtube Ads - Module 6: Social Media Ads (other social media networks such as Instagram or Facebook) - Module 7: Finding Effective Ads (this is super important: how to do copywriting, research and other mandatory skills you need to have) - Module 8: Creating Great Ads - Module 9: Analytics and Split-testing (very important for not wasting money) - Module 10: Planning Your Strategy - Module 11: Accelerating Your Outcomes (how to scale properly) - Module 12: Troubleshooting (in case something goes wrong) - Module 13: Scaling Your Business (pretty self-explanatory) - Module 14: Wrap Up and Next Steps I'm not gonna lie, this is one of the best paid ads course I've ever been through. It's literally packed with information.   If you're a beginner, my advice is to not try and run ads on all of these networks. You will get overwhelmed.   Instead, pick one (I would pick YouTube ads if I were you) and master it. After you get comfortable with it, you can jump into another one.   Also, there is A TON more stuff inside. Keep reading if you want to see what else is included.   What Else Is Included In Super Affiliate System?     In my opinion, John gives you a resource that is worth the price of the course alone. I don't know why he does this.   He gives you the exact audience that you can target for various products. These are lists of people that are proven to convert.   So, you can just run ads to these lists in order to take them on a presell page (that he also gives you). Even a baboon could make money with this.   These lists are in various niches, such as "make money online", blood pressure, credit card debt, brain boosting, diet, gambling and anything else you could think of.   Another nice thing is the collection of presell pages. These are basically landing pages that you run your ads to.   They are also in various niches, such as back pain, manifestation, battery reconditioning (i made good money with this one) and a lot more.   He also gives you legal resources. These are legal letters that you can send to Facebook and Google if you violate their policies. These were written by John's lawyers so you can be sure that they work.   Also, you will get recommendations of ad networks that are more "budget-friendly" so that you can maximize your profits. This is a very good resource if you want to save some money in the beginning.   Obviously you will get ad swipes for all these networks, so you literally don't need to have any marketing knowledge before getting this course.   John created a landing page tool that you have access to. So, you will save $97/month that you would have paid for Clickfunnels. Super Affiliate System Bonuses   There are also a couple of other cool bonuses included. I don't know if John will limit the access to them.   If you already own Super Affiliate System, you have access to them already.   - ​BONUS #1: When You Succeed, Your Entry is FREE - Worth $1,997.00 - ​BONUS #2: Free Traffic - Costs $0 to Get Started - Worth $647.00 - ​BONUS #3: $1,245 in Completely FREE Ad Credits - Worth $1,245.00 - ​BONUS #4: Buyer Data for Artificial-Intelligence Ad - Worth $1,997.00 - ​BONUS #5: Make High Ticket Commissions - Worth $1,950.00 - ​BONUS #6: Case Studies of $0 to $50,000 - Worth $747.00 - ​BONUS #7: Extra Login For Spouse/Biz Partner - Worth $997.00 - ​BONUS #8: 1-on-1 Call With John Crestani - Worth $5,000.00   Also, the Facebook group is one of the best I've been part from. There are so many motivational posts inside.   A lot of people have success with this course. Here are some of them:       If you ask questions in the group, they will be answered. I found the community very supportive.   Oh, and there are also weekly group coaching calls with John's team. Those are really nice.   What I Like About Super Affiliate System   It's very extensive when it comes to paid advertising. You will not only learn Facebook ads, but also Google, YouTube and any other kind of ads you can think of.   This is one of the most beginner-friendly courses that I've been part of. Everything is explained step by step, so you don't get overwhelmed.   Of course it's possible to get overwhelmed if you try to apply everything at once. But John will tell you how to go about the course.   Also, you can get almost immediate results. Paid ads are absolutely amazing. You can see right away what works and what doesn't.   You get presell pages and target audiences, which is pure gold   What I Don't Like About Super Affiliate System   It focuses only on paid ads. There is no SEO or other free strategies in this course.   Keep in mind you will need extra money for ads (I recommend you have about $250 extra).   But honestly, if you start making money with paid ads, having a website is something you can do for fun (like me).   Conclusion   Super Affiliate System Pro is one of the best courses that I reviewed on this blog.   You get those target audiences that you can immediately start running ads to. I'm telling you, this is amazing.   I don't know how John managed to include those in the course. If you follow the instructions and apply everything inside of the course, you will make money.   This is a very good course and I would recommend you go ahead and purchase it. You will thank me later. Read the full article

[augustwash1]

Backed Smartphone Ideas To Actually Increase Your Productivity

Several days ago I watched a talk show in which the guest was asked to guage the type of several people in line with the looks of these cellphones. It's true that Google includes a few hidden developer-facing” choices that a lot of people would not be aware of. Generally, our set of Chrome tips and tricks for Android consumers contains easy-to-follow, useful tidbits that may help enhance your entire mobile browsing experience. Thankfully, practicing cellphone safe practices is easy with recommendations like these. These iPhone photography tips will guide you in creating better images with your iPhone. Keeping the iPhone X guidelines in mind, you can access all of the new and much more handy iPhone X machine. Google along with other similar cloud service providers like Megaupload have been involved in different shady dealings including people's personal data. Sound good quality can remain an issue as a result of design of the phone, the caliber of the cellular system and compression algorithms used in long-distance calls 167 168 Audio quality can be improved using a Further in the following paragraphs we have discussed some essential and effective tips that will help you in saving the life span of your battery to an excellent extent. Specialists in mobile phone repair share some guidelines below on how best to save money for your mobile phone repair. If you are a parent struggling to regulate your screen time and hoping to set a good example for your children, below are a few tips and suggestions that will help you learn to balance screen time and family time regularly. Have a look at these three tips for iPhone battery daily life : Try disabling power-hungry benefits, buying a battery pack, or setting it up tested at an Apple company Store to be sure it's working within ordinary parameters. They also avoid overheating in the battery pack and electronic components of the cellphone. These common-sense guidelines can help keep you as well as your information protected. We asked four skilled 500px photographers to share their tips for making the most of your phone's camera. for maximizing battery living. They're extremely convenient and useful smartphone tips and tricks that not a lot of people know. Those tips are very nice and ideal for people who play that game. In this posting, I'll give you some tips that apply to photography generally and cell phone cameras, in particular, to help you on your journey to better mobile phone photography. This ipad iphone recommendations is not for all models. Running iOS 13 , to provide these a go. And feel free to share your favorite iPhone tips and tricks, too (my contact information is below). We have a complete feature on Photos tips and tricks , but here are some worth considering. As part of your before, visually impaired folks have so much engineering at their fingertips to greatly help them create and take full advantage of more opportunities in living. Here are some strategies for doing this on your own games (or apps), based on my experiences. By remembering a few simple guidelines, we can dramatically improve the battery living on our iPhones and Android os phones. The iPhone has a few features that are not visible to users - so here are some tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your smartphone. It might be possible when someone utilizes your cellphone and does indeed activities that allow viruses to infect your smartphone. https://techincidents.com/complete-android-hacking/ Outside of Samsung's gangbuster work in smartphones preserving it on top at 26 percent, the only other company to move up being an individual cellphone company was Apple,

This short article includes 12 iPhone guidelines, including guidelines for iPhone 4 4, create your iPhone more productive and will save you from working on your iPhone at all times. These tips work on older iPhone models, as well, given that your product is running Apple's most recent iOS 12 application or final year's iOS 11 update. Now the same edition is generating the rounds at some other certification bodies, tips MySmartPrice , On the other hand, such as for example credential reuse , this can pave the way for less complicated hacking by malicious events. Factory reset isn't the only way to resolve communication problems with your Google sensible you're having trouble connecting your Google Residence to your network, different equipment or the cloud, try these troubleshooting tips. Best Practices for Smartphone Security - After an explanation of security threats, this web site offers ten tips for keeping a smartphone safe, including backing up and securing data. Following these tips it is possible to greatly enhance the performance of your cell phone. The 47 Search engines Pixel hints described above will let you master and enjoy your brand-new Google Pixel phone. Rather than strategies for (all) photographers perchance you could focus on tips for cell-phone photography. Here are several iPhone 8 guidelines to have the most out of it. Our upcoming cybersecurity ideas are more smartphone-centric. Although these Android request development tips do not guarantee success for the venture, they will enable you to have the very best shot at Android application development. If you need to develop a healthier - slightly less reliant - relationship together with your cellphone, we've curated some uncomplicated ideas to lessen your device's grasp and help you use it for an objective and in moderation. The awesome COOPH crew are out taking images with smartphones again but this time, The issue is finding the cellphones that work very best for your needs. Limit overall time spent using a cellphone.

[amyddaniels]

The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Yoga Online: 10 Digital Platforms You Should Consider Right Now, Plus Pro Audio, Lighting, and Camera Tips

Keep calm, troubleshoot tech, and teach on: Here's what yoga teachers are leaning on for their classes, trainings, online courses, and community conversations, so you can build something that lasts beyond the pandemic.

As studios and retreat centers shuttered their doors in response to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, studio owners and yoga teachers had some choices: They could completely cancel their classes, workshops, and trainings... or they could get creative with their wifi and webcams. Many landed on the latter, and it's resulting in a defining shift in the business and teaching of yoga. 

So, how exactly are high-profile teachers making it happen? YJ spoke to ten folks, including Carrie Owerko, Jillian Pransky, and Tracee Stanley, to find out which online platforms they're leaning on and why, so you can get a snapshot of what's out there, along with some takeaways from their trial runs. Yes, in the last few months, you've probably already been on a class or call via Zoom, which is on the list below, but teachers who are using it on the regular and have discovered, even created, new platforms have some tips and tricks to share. We're confident that, from their great experimentations, you'll pick up a new idea, process, or perspective.

See also Tools for Teachers

And don't feel like you have to rush to do it all. "Identifying short- and long-terms goals will be extremely helpful, because that will factor into why you choose a platform," says Owerko, who recently launched The Playground, a subscription and live stream service. "Are you looking for a quick short-term fix while you're unable to teach in-person classes, or are you wanting to create something that will be around long after COVID-19 has passed?"

Finally, words of wisdom: Perfection is relative, and students are forgiving. "Building the plane as you're flying it" is a common phrase in these times—and it's assuring because teachers who seem to have it under control are in reality courageously figuring it out as they go. In a way, it's been a practice of yoga—the yama aparigraha, or letting go, comes to mind—to embrace new technology and everything that comes along with it. Every single teacher warned us of the inevitable tech hiccups, so there you have it: Even if you've been doing this awhile, expect out-of-the-blue mic mishaps and sluggish connections. Keep calm, troubleshoot, and teach on.

See also Struggling With Self-Promotion? How One Yoga Teacher Learned to Unleash Her Voice with Authenticity and Ease

To Stream Studio Classes... 

Try: Zoom + Mindbody

Who’s using it: Sarah Platt-Finger, co-founder of ISHTA Yoga in New York City

Sarah Platt-Finger, co-founder of Ishta Yoga in New York City, recommends that studios that wish to offer classes online incorporate Zoom into their MindBody account, to keep a sense of community intact.

How does it work?

“Students pre-register for class on the MindBody link on our website. We create a Zoom meeting for each class, and about 30 minutes prior to the class start time, we send a link for them to join the ‘meeting,’ including the props that they will need. The host opens up the space about 15 minutes before the class begins, so our students can turn on their webcams, see each other, and enjoy some community space.”

What are the upsides?

“The students can communicate with one another and with the teacher both before and after classes, so it creates a community feel—even though we are not physically in the same space. I love to be able to see the students' names, even if their cameras are off, so I can say hi.”

What should teachers keep in mind?

“Like any digital offering, there will always be technical issues. We highly recommend having at least one administrator to ‘host’ the session and answer any technical questions that come up for students along the way. It is very hard for the teacher to teach and tend to the tech side of it at the same time."

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Zoom recommends having at least 2 hosts for groups of over 20, so you might want to consider that if you have a large class.”

Hot tip:

“You will not be able to use music by just playing it on your computer, because the sound gets muffled, and it will compete with your words. Instead, in advance, send a link to the playlist you’d like students to use.”

Pricing: 

Zoom starts at $14.99 per month per host for up to 100 participants. Add-ons include additional storage space for recordings and additional hosts. Learn more here. 

MindBody starts at $129 per month. Learn more here.

Try: Fiteo

Who’s using it: Alia Sebben, founder of Amana Yoga in Boulder, Colorado, and co-founder of Fiteo

Alia Sebben, founder of Amana Yoga in Boulder, Colorado, co-founded Fiteo to help boutique studios create premium digital classes

Why did you decide to build this? What problem did it solve?

When COVID hit and we closed our doors in early March, I knew we had to continue serving our community and preserve the business I've worked to build over the last six years. The Amana teachers and I started filming content as soon as we closed our doors March 12, and when I began researching how to give access to the content, I realized the options were very limited. You can put up free content on YouTube, but you're only granted a paywall option after 10,000 followers. Everyone was and is using Zoom for live classes, but the quality just isn't what we were hoping for. We realized that most boutique studios wouldn't have the capital to activate a quality live streaming component as well as have the team in place to get a solid library of on-demand classes up for their community. So we transitioned Amana Online, the name we gave our virtual yoga studio, to a shared platform called Fiteo. We have studios in Singapore, a leading US CrossFit Gym: CrossFit Roots, Yoga Pearl in Portland and many more signing on. I like to think of Fiteo as a virtual class pass, but where the studios see the lion share of the revenue.

How does it work?

Any gym or studio can contact us at join.getfiteo.com and fill out a questionnaire. We share best practices for filming content and help you set up your live streaming offering. Once you've filmed content, you send it our way and we brand your videos and get them up on your studio's page on the Fiteo site. We also help you set up a schedule for your live stream offerings and offer tech support along the way. You charge your community whatever membership fee you'd like, and you provide Fiteo with a list of folks you'd like to have authenticated onto the site. We just ask for $7/subscriber. No additional fees.

What are the upsides?

A quality online offering that combines both live streaming and on-demand content that is easily accessible for your members. All of your live stream classes can be recorded and they are incredibly high quality (especially compared to Zoom). You members just need to log in and hit play. They don't have to worry about different invites for each class, passwords, and more. Your members also get an added benefit of experiencing amazing studios throughout the country, and have access to a variety of workouts. This is a long-term solution to the hopefully short-term problem of COVID. Plus, it can be a passive revenue stream when you re-open.

What should teachers keep in mind?

To remain in an abundant mindset and think about the long game. We've all been navigating a ton of change, and moving online sometimes feels like a hefty feat. Thanks to Fiteo, you can bypass all of my trials and errors and benefit from our experience and team of tech savvy individuals.

Any challenges to watch out for?

You need a good internet connection!

Hot tip: As Yoga teachers, I think it's really important to remember we didn't invent the wheel and that we are stronger together. Community is where it's at and Zoom classes won't work forever.

Pricing: Starts at $7/subscriber. Learn more at getfiteo.com and amanayogaonline.com

To Stream Your Own Classes and Trainings...

Try: Zoom (yes, again!)

Who’s using it: Jillian Pransky, yoga teacher and author of Deep Listening: A Healing Practice to Calm Your Body, Clear Your Mind, and Open Your Heart

Jillian Pransky, yoga teacher and author, recommends offering Zoom classes, workshops, and trainings—and maintaining grace, and a sense of humor, in the face of tech blips.

How does it work?

“I set up free Monday Meditations, along with paid live classes, workshops, and trainings. For classes and workshops, I use the webinar feature, which integrates with my Paypal account; for trainings, I use the meeting format so we can all get on the webcam. I share my schedule of offering through my newsletters, website, and social media accounts, and students can click on each class and sign up through Zoom’s registration page. (You can set up an email opt-in manually.)  Zoom sends out reminders a day and an hour prior to class; I use the automatic follow-up emails to share links to the recordings as well as my upcoming classes.”

What are the upsides?

“It’s an honor to share virtual space with so many students, all over the world, during this time. After class I spend time in ‘chat’ connecting to every student who sticks around and says hi.

Also, in my trainings, I’ve set up a poll for students to answer at the beginning, so we know who’s in the room. As a host, you can also group students together in small virtual breakout rooms so they can get to know each other or complete an exercise together.

Plus, my dog Sunday has managed to become my star pupil on camera, whether he's napping or sitting calmly: He’s an example of what it’s like to restore and relax.”

What should teachers keep in mind?

“Approach your sessions as you’d approach your practice: With an open mind, free of judgment. You’re juggling so many technical aspects of class—lighting, mic packs, sound quality, students figuring out how to join class—and things are going to happen. Get to know the platform and interface, plan and prepare as much as possible, and maintain a clear, calm mind to get through crackling sound or weak wifi with grace… and a sense of humor.”

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Make sure you have enough bandwidth. (You may have to ask your family to forego Facetime and Netflix during class.) If you use a mic, keep a backup around in case something goes awry with the sound. And understand you can’t do it all: Enlist help to handle customer service or technical difficulties during class.”

Hot tips:

“Record your practices and make them available for a limited period of time after each class. You’ll create your own bank of classes that you can share in various formats and subscriptions later on.

You can spotlight your video so that, when you record, zoom is recording your video, and not your students.' However, if you wind up recording students, Zoom let's you set up a waiver that students must check so they know they will be captured if they enable their webcams."

Plus, I just discovered that you can feed in a separate audio input for a cleaner background music. Just make sure you have rights to the music if you plan to distribute the class recording later on.”

Pricing: Starts at $14.99/month per host for up to 100 participants. Add-ons include additional storage space for recordings and additional hosts. Learn more here.

To Create Subscription & Live Stream Services...

Try: uscreen

Who’s using it: Carrie Owerko, founder of The Playground

Carrie Owerko, founder of the online yoga subscription called The Playground, suggests using this time to build something that will last beyond the pandemic. 

Why did you choose it? 

"My creative partner Jamey Welch and I were busy creating an online subscription learning platform several months before the Covid-19 pandemic. I teach all over the world and wanted to have a way to stay connected to teachers and students. My platform is an ongoing and ever-expanding library of classes and live events. The pandemic simply accelerated our launch. We embraced the idea that perfect is the enemy of the good, and just went for it. The spirit of The Playground is just that: It is about getting in there and diving into the process of a practice that is a discipline infused with PLAY!"

How does it work? 

"Uscreen has various packages depending on your needs. We were interested in the level we chose because, among other things, there was a live stream option. Before our soft launch, I used Zoom to conduct live classes. I knew that was temporary, and we were already working on getting the first iteration of The Playground up and running. Once that was accomplished, we switched to streaming our Live events directly from The Playground. No Zoom needed."

What should teachers keep in mind? 

"I can only speak to my own experience, which is that of building this ongoing and ever-expanding platform. The live classes are only a part of it. To launch a platform like this takes a lot of work, but I love my work—so it's okay. Like everything these days, there is a lot of new learning required, so be prepared for the feelings of confusion that may arise!"

What are the upsides? 

"An investment in building relationships, a community, in the future. It is like the difference between reading a book, an article, or something that requires some concerted focused effort on your part, versus reading a tweet or a short social media post that you will forget soon after. There is an emotional investment as well. The more of ourselves we invest in something (in terms of energy, time, and heart), the better and more rewarding it is."

Any challenges to watch out for? 

"Well, I am not very well-versed in technology. I've done a lot of online learning (both as a student and as a teacher) and am grateful, really grateful, for what technology offers. But it can also be frustrating (like all learning as adults!) for those of us who are not very tech-savvy. Consult those who know more than you! Don't worry about feeling silly or stupid. Ask for help. Embrace the suck, as the saying goes. Be willing to make mistakes, and make them in public! Be willing to fail temporarily in order to reap the reward of putting your heart and mind into something you believe in."

Any hot tips? 

"Well, my friend and inspiration The Movement Maestro says 'go as far as you can see, and when you get there you will see farther.' That is it. Do it. Try it. That is how you will know if something works for you and your goals."

Pricing: Basic plans start at $99 per month. (Learn more here.)

To Host Your Online Courses...

Try: Thinkific

Who's using it: Tracee Stanley, teacher and guide of meditation and Yoga Nidra, creator of Empowered Life Oracle Cards

Tracee Stanley, teacher and guide of meditation and yoga nidra, built her self-led online meditation and self-inquiry course via Thinkific. 

Why did you pick it? 

"This platform was recommended to me by my website designer, Sari Gelzer, when we were looking for ways to easily create evergreen course content for my students. It was very easy to upload content and keep things organized for a multi-week course." How does it work? 

"Thinkific is a full-service online platform that hosts your courses so that all you have to do is upload the content. They offer a range of prices—from Free to Pro—so that you can scale your investment in the software as usage of your courses increase."  What should teachers keep in mind? 

"This platform is great for everything from a month-long course to a longer certification program. The platform does have a linear course feel, which works well for certain courses when you want to release the content over time. However, if you plan to have a membership where people receive content monthly and can browse the content, you may prefer a different design."  What are the upsides? 

"Thinkific makes it easy to set up a meditation course, for instance, that is beautiful and easy-to-navigate for our students. The sales page templates work well at featuring content that's included in the course. And, you can integrate your course with mailchimp and other online marketing platforms." Any challenges to watch out for? 

If you wish to fully customize the look of your platform so that it's in line with your brand, you need to get the Pro+Growth version to have CSS editing access. You may wish to design a separate sales page over which you have more design control, and link to the Thinkific checkout link from there. Hot tip: 

"Use a subdomain such courses.yoururl.com to maintain your branding.

See it for yourself:

"Check out Empowered Wake Up, a self-led course I created on Thinkific here." 

Pricing: Basic plan starts at $49 per month. Learn more here.

To Host Online Courses or Trainings...

Try: Kajabi + Zoom

Who’s using it: Jivana Heyman, founder of Accessible Yoga

After deep consideration, Jivana Heyman, founder of Accessible Yoga, is offering his first-ever virtual training through zoom and Kajabi because he believes the latter offers a simple, streamlined user experience. 

Why did you pick it?

"I chose Kajabi for my first-ever Accessible Yoga online training because it's a learning management system that offers lots of tools in one integrated package. I really like that it has a very clean and organized user experience so that the online training experience is easy and accessible. It also has lots of marketing and website building tools, as well as a vibrant community of users."

How does it work?

"It's a very substantial tool for building all kinds of online businesses, but most often it's used for online schools and courses. It houses all our needs in one place: mailing lists, marketing email pipelines, special offers, and support for online learning with the ability to track students' progress through a course, as well as assessments."

What should teachers keep in mind?

"This system may be too big and expensive for someone who is only offering public classes. But if you're offering online teacher training, this could be a great tool for you. It's not a streaming service, so we also need to use Zoom to stream the classes and then we'll upload the videos to the platform."

What are the upsides?

"One thing I'm really excited about is Kajabi's potential for growth. Over the years I've found that I eventually outgrow most software that I use, so I was really looking for a system that had a lot of flexibility and active developers who are working to improve the system. I'm hoping I can eventually offer more courses through my platform and house it all there. I also love how simple and clear its design is."

Any challenges to watch out for?

"Well, offering online teacher training is new to me, so I'm just figuring it all out now! It has a monthly fee, so there is a substantial investment and consideration about paying the monthly fees for a long time if I want to keep growing on this platform."

Hot tip:

"Kajabi has a great Facebook user community where many of our questions are already answered. It's a great addition to the regular support."

Pricing: Basic plan starts at $119 a month. (Learn more here.)

To Facilitate Mentorship Sessions & Community Conversations...

Try: WebinarJam

Who’s using it: Barrie Risman, yoga teacher and author of Evolving Your Yoga: 10 Principles for an Enlightened Practice

Barrie Risman, yoga teacher and author, facilitates mentorship sessions and community conversations through WebinarJam. 

How does it work? 

“WebinarJam is a live webinar platform. It offers unlimited webinars, live chat, automated reminders, recordings, a registration page builder, and payment integration.”

What are its benefits?

“It allows for cleaner delivery of live presentations then video-conferencing services like Zoom because you don’t have the distraction of extraneous noise, participants’ cameras, or people coming in and out. It can also handle more participants than many video-conferencing services. There is a solid registration process, and payment integration is easy. You can customize as many email reminders as you want. Events are recorded and can be automatically emailed to participants who miss the live event.”

What should teachers keep in mind?

“It’s a good option for paid classes and content. It’s less efficient for free offerings because of the registration process. However, you always know those who participated because they sign up with their email addresses.”

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Participants can only participate via chat, so one constraint of this platform is that you can’t see people, and there’s limited interaction with your audience.”

Hot tip: 

Professional and enterprise plans include a “Panic Button”—if your connection starts getting sketchy, hit the button and it’ll reboot you and all participants into a fresh room.

Pricing: Basic plan starts at $499 a year. Learn more here.

For No-Fuss Live Classes...

Try: Instagram Live

Who’s using it: Bee Creel, yoga teacher in New York City and co-founder of the wellness community Mood Room.

Yoga teacher Bee Creel invites her students on the mat through scheduled Instagram Live classes and call-outs for Venmo donations 

How does it work?

“I have created a weekly schedule that I publish on my Instagram on Sundays so that people can plan ahead for the week. Then I just set up my phone on a tripod and go live on Instagram. Many of my classes have been donation-based, and I’ve been simply asking students to donate via Venmo @bridget-creel. Venmo is an app that syncs right up to the bank account. It is safe, secure, and easy to use.”

What are the benefits?

“One of the biggest benefits to recording an Instagram Live video is that you can publish the video on your account for 24 hours. If people cannot make it at the time you record it, the class is available for their viewing pleasure for 24 hours.”

Any learnings you want to pass along to teachers?

"Consistency is important, along with making things as 'normal' and routine as possible."

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Frustration. We are working with technology, and there are mishaps. My biggest advice is to be gentle with yourself. It is a gift that we are still able to teach and provide content, and your students will show up for you if you do your best!”

Pricing: Instagram is free when you sign up. Venmo takes minimal fees (up to $10) if you request an instant transfer, otherwise the transfer is free. Learn more here.

For DIY Membership Offerings...

Try: Patreon + a video platform like Vimeo or YouTube

Who’s using it: Britt Tagg, yoga teacher

Yoga teacher Britt Tagg created a Patreon to sell her online class recordings, which have to initially be uploaded into a separate video platform, such as Vimeo or YouTube.

How does it work?

“Patreon is a platform that functions similarly to social media, except you can create paid memberships in order for students to access your content. I offer different membership options that make it affordable. The pre-recorded classes vary in length and style and are made available anytime. The various memberships each include different packages and perks.”

What are the benefits?

“You have a platform to create your own business. It's not just for yoga instructors. It's for artists, musicians, cafes, too. You create the content and determine what, when, and how students can access it.

Patreon is pretty user friendly. You create your profile, similar to how you would for other social media outlets. Then you decide what pricing 'tiers' you would like to offer. You can't store videos on Patreon, so you have to upload your video to a third-party platform, like Vimeo or YouTube, and then embed that link into Patreon. There are tons of helpful tutorials as your create your Patreon account. 

Sharing your Patreon on other social media outlets helps spread the word. People pledge money/become patrons and are charged once a month. They can cancel anytime."

Any other useful tips?

“Stay engaged with your patrons. And use other social media outlets to help spread the word. Also, create polls and special offers whenever you can. It keeps patrons interested.”

Any challenges to watch out for? 

"Getting people excited to see you online rather than in person is kind of a challenge."

Pricing: Patreon's Pro plan starts at 8% of your monthly earnings. (Learn more here). Vimeo starts at $7 per month. (Learn more here.) YouTube is free with registration but a Premium plan starts at $11 per month. (Learn more here.)

For All-in-One Virtual Studio Classes & Subscriptions...

Try: Union Fit

Who’s using it: Rina Jakubowicz, yoga teacher and author of The Yoga Mind: 52 Essential Principles of Yoga Philosophy to Deepen Your Practice

Rina Jakubowicz, yoga teacher and author, says that Union Fit feels like an all-in-one virtual yoga studio—all you have to do is schedule your class, show up, and teach.

How does it work?

“It’s like an online yoga studio that in some ways functions similarly to MindBody, in which students sign up for a class, but then they click on it at the time of the class, and wait for the teacher to live stream. It's drawn teachers like Gary Kraftsow, Schuyler Grant, and Shiva Rea. I think it’s eventually going to replace some physical yoga studios." 

What are its benefits?

“It’s a one-stop shop for students to pay and practice. As a teacher, it’s relatively easy to navigate: You can set up one-off or regular classes and workshops, along with membership subscriptions. There’s an option to record classes so they can be played back later to paying customers or seen by members who have an unlimited plan. 

In order to film your classes, teachers use the app Larix Broadcaster on your phone or via OBS: Open Broadcaster Studio application on your computer. You can use a regular mic or noise-canceling AirPods as a microphone for better sound quality. Make sure you have the right setup, which includes visually appealing surroundings and a strong, reliable upload wifi speed.

As a teacher, it automatically records your classes to your library, and you can download it after you’ve taught."

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Sometimes the wifi gives out when the upload speed isn’t strong enough. Also, like all live streaming, technical issues—like with audio and visual continuity—come up, but the team at Union.fit try to assist as much as possible, and are very customer friendly. 

You also can’t see who’s taking class, like you can in Zoom, but there are some pros to that. However, the team at Union.fit is always updating the platform features to be competitive. Bottom line: You could have your own virtual yoga studio and reach hundreds of thousands of students internationally!"

Pricing: Learn more here.

Pro Camera, Audio, and Lighting Tips 

We asked Alia Sebben, co-founder of Fiteo, to serve up some quick how-tos on the gear to invest in and the strategies to employ for making top-notch yoga videos at home or in your studio space. Watch the below for her sage advice and to get started.

Filming Tips for Teaching Yoga Online

Going Digital: Filming Tips for Teaching Yoga Online (; 4:14)

Audio Tips for Teaching Yoga Online

Going Digital: Audio Tips for Teaching Yoga Online (; 4:19)

Lighting Tips for Teaching Yoga Online

Going Digital: Lighting Tips for Teaching Yoga Online (; 4:45)

[krisiunicornio]

Keep calm, troubleshoot tech, and teach on: Here's what yoga teachers are leaning on for their classes, trainings, online courses, and community conversations, so you can build something that lasts beyond the pandemic.

As studios and retreat centers shuttered their doors in response to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, studio owners and yoga teachers had some choices: They could completely cancel their classes, workshops, and trainings... or they could get creative with their wifi and webcams. Many landed on the latter, and it's resulting in a defining shift in the business and teaching of yoga. 

So, how exactly are high-profile teachers making it happen? YJ spoke to ten folks, including Carrie Owerko, Jillian Pransky, and Tracee Stanley, to find out which online platforms they're leaning on and why, so you can get a snapshot of what's out there, along with some takeaways from their trial runs. Yes, in the last few months, you've probably already been on a class or call via Zoom, which is on the list below, but teachers who are using it on the regular and have discovered, even created, new platforms have some tips and tricks to share. We're confident that, from their great experimentations, you'll pick up a new idea, process, or perspective.

See also Tools for Teachers

And don't feel like you have to rush to do it all. "Identifying short- and long-terms goals will be extremely helpful, because that will factor into why you choose a platform," says Owerko, who recently launched The Playground, a subscription and live stream service. "Are you looking for a quick short-term fix while you're unable to teach in-person classes, or are you wanting to create something that will be around long after COVID-19 has passed?"

Finally, words of wisdom: Perfection is relative, and students are forgiving. "Building the plane as you're flying it" is a common phrase in these times—and it's assuring because teachers who seem to have it under control are in reality courageously figuring it out as they go. In a way, it's been a practice of yoga—the yama aparigraha, or letting go, comes to mind—to embrace new technology and everything that comes along with it. Every single teacher warned us of the inevitable tech hiccups, so there you have it: Even if you've been doing this awhile, expect out-of-the-blue mic mishaps and sluggish connections. Keep calm, troubleshoot, and teach on.

See also Struggling With Self-Promotion? How One Yoga Teacher Learned to Unleash Her Voice with Authenticity and Ease

To Stream Studio Classes... 

Try: Zoom + Mindbody

Who’s using it: Sarah Platt-Finger, co-founder of ISHTA Yoga in New York City

Sarah Platt-Finger, co-founder of Ishta Yoga in New York City, recommends that studios that wish to offer classes online incorporate Zoom into their MindBody account, to keep a sense of community intact.

How does it work?

“Students pre-register for class on the MindBody link on our website. We create a Zoom meeting for each class, and about 30 minutes prior to the class start time, we send a link for them to join the ‘meeting,’ including the props that they will need. The host opens up the space about 15 minutes before the class begins, so our students can turn on their webcams, see each other, and enjoy some community space.”

What are the upsides?

“The students can communicate with one another and with the teacher both before and after classes, so it creates a community feel—even though we are not physically in the same space. I love to be able to see the students' names, even if their cameras are off, so I can say hi.”

What should teachers keep in mind?

“Like any digital offering, there will always be technical issues. We highly recommend having at least one administrator to ‘host’ the session and answer any technical questions that come up for students along the way. It is very hard for the teacher to teach and tend to the tech side of it at the same time."

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Zoom recommends having at least 2 hosts for groups of over 20, so you might want to consider that if you have a large class.”

Hot tip:

“You will not be able to use music by just playing it on your computer, because the sound gets muffled, and it will compete with your words. Instead, in advance, send a link to the playlist you’d like students to use.”

Pricing: 

Zoom starts at $14.99 per month per host for up to 100 participants. Add-ons include additional storage space for recordings and additional hosts. Learn more here. 

MindBody starts at $129 per month. Learn more here.

Try: Fiteo

Who’s using it: Alia Sebben, founder of Amana Yoga in Boulder, Colorado, and co-founder of Fiteo

Alia Sebben, founder of Amana Yoga in Boulder, Colorado, co-founded Fiteo to help boutique studios create premium digital classes

Why did you decide to build this? What problem did it solve?

When COVID hit and we closed our doors in early March, I knew we had to continue serving our community and preserve the business I've worked to build over the last six years. The Amana teachers and I started filming content as soon as we closed our doors March 12, and when I began researching how to give access to the content, I realized the options were very limited. You can put up free content on YouTube, but you're only granted a paywall option after 10,000 followers. Everyone was and is using Zoom for live classes, but the quality just isn't what we were hoping for. We realized that most boutique studios wouldn't have the capital to activate a quality live streaming component as well as have the team in place to get a solid library of on-demand classes up for their community. So we transitioned Amana Online, the name we gave our virtual yoga studio, to a shared platform called Fiteo. We have studios in Singapore, a leading US CrossFit Gym: CrossFit Roots, Yoga Pearl in Portland and many more signing on. I like to think of Fiteo as a virtual class pass, but where the studios see the lion share of the revenue.

How does it work?

Any gym or studio can contact us at join.getfiteo.com and fill out a questionnaire. We share best practices for filming content and help you set up your live streaming offering. Once you've filmed content, you send it our way and we brand your videos and get them up on your studio's page on the Fiteo site. We also help you set up a schedule for your live stream offerings and offer tech support along the way. You charge your community whatever membership fee you'd like, and you provide Fiteo with a list of folks you'd like to have authenticated onto the site. We just ask for $7/subscriber. No additional fees.

What are the upsides?

A quality online offering that combines both live streaming and on-demand content that is easily accessible for your members. All of your live stream classes can be recorded and they are incredibly high quality (especially compared to Zoom). You members just need to log in and hit play. They don't have to worry about different invites for each class, passwords, and more. Your members also get an added benefit of experiencing amazing studios throughout the country, and have access to a variety of workouts. This is a long-term solution to the hopefully short-term problem of COVID. Plus, it can be a passive revenue stream when you re-open.

What should teachers keep in mind?

To remain in an abundant mindset and think about the long game. We've all been navigating a ton of change, and moving online sometimes feels like a hefty feat. Thanks to Fiteo, you can bypass all of my trials and errors and benefit from our experience and team of tech savvy individuals.

Any challenges to watch out for?

You need a good internet connection!

Hot tip: As Yoga teachers, I think it's really important to remember we didn't invent the wheel and that we are stronger together. Community is where it's at and Zoom classes won't work forever.

Pricing: Starts at $7/subscriber. Learn more at getfiteo.com and amanayogaonline.com

To Stream Your Own Classes and Trainings...

Try: Zoom (yes, again!)

Who’s using it: Jillian Pransky, yoga teacher and author of Deep Listening: A Healing Practice to Calm Your Body, Clear Your Mind, and Open Your Heart

Jillian Pransky, yoga teacher and author, recommends offering Zoom classes, workshops, and trainings—and maintaining grace, and a sense of humor, in the face of tech blips.

How does it work?

“I set up free Monday Meditations, along with paid live classes, workshops, and trainings. For classes and workshops, I use the webinar feature, which integrates with my Paypal account; for trainings, I use the meeting format so we can all get on the webcam. I share my schedule of offering through my newsletters, website, and social media accounts, and students can click on each class and sign up through Zoom’s registration page. (You can set up an email opt-in manually.)  Zoom sends out reminders a day and an hour prior to class; I use the automatic follow-up emails to share links to the recordings as well as my upcoming classes.”

What are the upsides?

“It’s an honor to share virtual space with so many students, all over the world, during this time. After class I spend time in ‘chat’ connecting to every student who sticks around and says hi.

Also, in my trainings, I’ve set up a poll for students to answer at the beginning, so we know who’s in the room. As a host, you can also group students together in small virtual breakout rooms so they can get to know each other or complete an exercise together.

Plus, my dog Sunday has managed to become my star pupil on camera, whether he's napping or sitting calmly: He’s an example of what it’s like to restore and relax.”

What should teachers keep in mind?

“Approach your sessions as you’d approach your practice: With an open mind, free of judgment. You’re juggling so many technical aspects of class—lighting, mic packs, sound quality, students figuring out how to join class—and things are going to happen. Get to know the platform and interface, plan and prepare as much as possible, and maintain a clear, calm mind to get through crackling sound or weak wifi with grace… and a sense of humor.”

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Make sure you have enough bandwidth. (You may have to ask your family to forego Facetime and Netflix during class.) If you use a mic, keep a backup around in case something goes awry with the sound. And understand you can’t do it all: Enlist help to handle customer service or technical difficulties during class.”

Hot tips:

“Record your practices and make them available for a limited period of time after each class. You’ll create your own bank of classes that you can share in various formats and subscriptions later on.

You can spotlight your video so that, when you record, zoom is recording your video, and not your students.' However, if you wind up recording students, Zoom let's you set up a waiver that students must check so they know they will be captured if they enable their webcams."

Plus, I just discovered that you can feed in a separate audio input for a cleaner background music. Just make sure you have rights to the music if you plan to distribute the class recording later on.”

Pricing: Starts at $14.99/month per host for up to 100 participants. Add-ons include additional storage space for recordings and additional hosts. Learn more here.

To Create Subscription & Live Stream Services...

Try: uscreen

Who’s using it: Carrie Owerko, founder of The Playground

Carrie Owerko, founder of the online yoga subscription called The Playground, suggests using this time to build something that will last beyond the pandemic. 

Why did you choose it? 

"My creative partner Jamey Welch and I were busy creating an online subscription learning platform several months before the Covid-19 pandemic. I teach all over the world and wanted to have a way to stay connected to teachers and students. My platform is an ongoing and ever-expanding library of classes and live events. The pandemic simply accelerated our launch. We embraced the idea that perfect is the enemy of the good, and just went for it. The spirit of The Playground is just that: It is about getting in there and diving into the process of a practice that is a discipline infused with PLAY!"

How does it work? 

"Uscreen has various packages depending on your needs. We were interested in the level we chose because, among other things, there was a live stream option. Before our soft launch, I used Zoom to conduct live classes. I knew that was temporary, and we were already working on getting the first iteration of The Playground up and running. Once that was accomplished, we switched to streaming our Live events directly from The Playground. No Zoom needed."

What should teachers keep in mind? 

"I can only speak to my own experience, which is that of building this ongoing and ever-expanding platform. The live classes are only a part of it. To launch a platform like this takes a lot of work, but I love my work—so it's okay. Like everything these days, there is a lot of new learning required, so be prepared for the feelings of confusion that may arise!"

What are the upsides? 

"An investment in building relationships, a community, in the future. It is like the difference between reading a book, an article, or something that requires some concerted focused effort on your part, versus reading a tweet or a short social media post that you will forget soon after. There is an emotional investment as well. The more of ourselves we invest in something (in terms of energy, time, and heart), the better and more rewarding it is."

Any challenges to watch out for? 

"Well, I am not very well-versed in technology. I've done a lot of online learning (both as a student and as a teacher) and am grateful, really grateful, for what technology offers. But it can also be frustrating (like all learning as adults!) for those of us who are not very tech-savvy. Consult those who know more than you! Don't worry about feeling silly or stupid. Ask for help. Embrace the suck, as the saying goes. Be willing to make mistakes, and make them in public! Be willing to fail temporarily in order to reap the reward of putting your heart and mind into something you believe in."

Any hot tips? 

"Well, my friend and inspiration The Movement Maestro says 'go as far as you can see, and when you get there you will see farther.' That is it. Do it. Try it. That is how you will know if something works for you and your goals."

Pricing: Basic plans start at $99 per month. (Learn more here.)

To Host Your Online Courses...

Try: Thinkific

Who's using it: Tracee Stanley, teacher and guide of meditation and Yoga Nidra, creator of Empowered Life Oracle Cards

Tracee Stanley, teacher and guide of meditation and yoga nidra, built her self-led online meditation and self-inquiry course via Thinkific. 

Why did you pick it? 

"This platform was recommended to me by my website designer, Sari Gelzer, when we were looking for ways to easily create evergreen course content for my students. It was very easy to upload content and keep things organized for a multi-week course." How does it work? 

"Thinkific is a full-service online platform that hosts your courses so that all you have to do is upload the content. They offer a range of prices—from Free to Pro—so that you can scale your investment in the software as usage of your courses increase."  What should teachers keep in mind? 

"This platform is great for everything from a month-long course to a longer certification program. The platform does have a linear course feel, which works well for certain courses when you want to release the content over time. However, if you plan to have a membership where people receive content monthly and can browse the content, you may prefer a different design."  What are the upsides? 

"Thinkific makes it easy to set up a meditation course, for instance, that is beautiful and easy-to-navigate for our students. The sales page templates work well at featuring content that's included in the course. And, you can integrate your course with mailchimp and other online marketing platforms." Any challenges to watch out for? 

If you wish to fully customize the look of your platform so that it's in line with your brand, you need to get the Pro+Growth version to have CSS editing access. You may wish to design a separate sales page over which you have more design control, and link to the Thinkific checkout link from there. Hot tip: 

"Use a subdomain such courses.yoururl.com to maintain your branding.

See it for yourself:

"Check out Empowered Wake Up, a self-led course I created on Thinkific here." 

Pricing: Basic plan starts at $49 per month. Learn more here.

To Host Online Courses or Trainings...

Try: Kajabi + Zoom

Who’s using it: Jivana Heyman, founder of Accessible Yoga

After deep consideration, Jivana Heyman, founder of Accessible Yoga, is offering his first-ever virtual training through zoom and Kajabi because he believes the latter offers a simple, streamlined user experience. 

Why did you pick it?

"I chose Kajabi for my first-ever Accessible Yoga online training because it's a learning management system that offers lots of tools in one integrated package. I really like that it has a very clean and organized user experience so that the online training experience is easy and accessible. It also has lots of marketing and website building tools, as well as a vibrant community of users."

How does it work?

"It's a very substantial tool for building all kinds of online businesses, but most often it's used for online schools and courses. It houses all our needs in one place: mailing lists, marketing email pipelines, special offers, and support for online learning with the ability to track students' progress through a course, as well as assessments."

What should teachers keep in mind?

"This system may be too big and expensive for someone who is only offering public classes. But if you're offering online teacher training, this could be a great tool for you. It's not a streaming service, so we also need to use Zoom to stream the classes and then we'll upload the videos to the platform."

What are the upsides?

"One thing I'm really excited about is Kajabi's potential for growth. Over the years I've found that I eventually outgrow most software that I use, so I was really looking for a system that had a lot of flexibility and active developers who are working to improve the system. I'm hoping I can eventually offer more courses through my platform and house it all there. I also love how simple and clear its design is."

Any challenges to watch out for?

"Well, offering online teacher training is new to me, so I'm just figuring it all out now! It has a monthly fee, so there is a substantial investment and consideration about paying the monthly fees for a long time if I want to keep growing on this platform."

Hot tip:

"Kajabi has a great Facebook user community where many of our questions are already answered. It's a great addition to the regular support."

Pricing: Basic plan starts at $119 a month. (Learn more here.)

To Facilitate Mentorship Sessions & Community Conversations...

Try: WebinarJam

Who’s using it: Barrie Risman, yoga teacher and author of Evolving Your Yoga: 10 Principles for an Enlightened Practice

Barrie Risman, yoga teacher and author, facilitates mentorship sessions and community conversations through WebinarJam. 

How does it work? 

“WebinarJam is a live webinar platform. It offers unlimited webinars, live chat, automated reminders, recordings, a registration page builder, and payment integration.”

What are its benefits?

“It allows for cleaner delivery of live presentations then video-conferencing services like Zoom because you don’t have the distraction of extraneous noise, participants’ cameras, or people coming in and out. It can also handle more participants than many video-conferencing services. There is a solid registration process, and payment integration is easy. You can customize as many email reminders as you want. Events are recorded and can be automatically emailed to participants who miss the live event.”

What should teachers keep in mind?

“It’s a good option for paid classes and content. It’s less efficient for free offerings because of the registration process. However, you always know those who participated because they sign up with their email addresses.”

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Participants can only participate via chat, so one constraint of this platform is that you can’t see people, and there’s limited interaction with your audience.”

Hot tip: 

Professional and enterprise plans include a “Panic Button”—if your connection starts getting sketchy, hit the button and it’ll reboot you and all participants into a fresh room.

Pricing: Basic plan starts at $499 a year. Learn more here.

For No-Fuss Live Classes...

Try: Instagram Live

Who’s using it: Bee Creel, yoga teacher in New York City and co-founder of the wellness community Mood Room.

Yoga teacher Bee Creel invites her students on the mat through scheduled Instagram Live classes and call-outs for Venmo donations 

How does it work?

“I have created a weekly schedule that I publish on my Instagram on Sundays so that people can plan ahead for the week. Then I just set up my phone on a tripod and go live on Instagram. Many of my classes have been donation-based, and I’ve been simply asking students to donate via Venmo @bridget-creel. Venmo is an app that syncs right up to the bank account. It is safe, secure, and easy to use.”

What are the benefits?

“One of the biggest benefits to recording an Instagram Live video is that you can publish the video on your account for 24 hours. If people cannot make it at the time you record it, the class is available for their viewing pleasure for 24 hours.”

Any learnings you want to pass along to teachers?

"Consistency is important, along with making things as 'normal' and routine as possible."

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Frustration. We are working with technology, and there are mishaps. My biggest advice is to be gentle with yourself. It is a gift that we are still able to teach and provide content, and your students will show up for you if you do your best!”

Pricing: Instagram is free when you sign up. Venmo takes minimal fees (up to $10) if you request an instant transfer, otherwise the transfer is free. Learn more here.

For DIY Membership Offerings...

Try: Patreon + a video platform like Vimeo or YouTube

Who’s using it: Britt Tagg, yoga teacher

Yoga teacher Britt Tagg created a Patreon to sell her online class recordings, which have to initially be uploaded into a separate video platform, such as Vimeo or YouTube.

How does it work?

“Patreon is a platform that functions similarly to social media, except you can create paid memberships in order for students to access your content. I offer different membership options that make it affordable. The pre-recorded classes vary in length and style and are made available anytime. The various memberships each include different packages and perks.”

What are the benefits?

“You have a platform to create your own business. It's not just for yoga instructors. It's for artists, musicians, cafes, too. You create the content and determine what, when, and how students can access it.

Patreon is pretty user friendly. You create your profile, similar to how you would for other social media outlets. Then you decide what pricing 'tiers' you would like to offer. You can't store videos on Patreon, so you have to upload your video to a third-party platform, like Vimeo or YouTube, and then embed that link into Patreon. There are tons of helpful tutorials as your create your Patreon account. 

Sharing your Patreon on other social media outlets helps spread the word. People pledge money/become patrons and are charged once a month. They can cancel anytime."

Any other useful tips?

“Stay engaged with your patrons. And use other social media outlets to help spread the word. Also, create polls and special offers whenever you can. It keeps patrons interested.”

Any challenges to watch out for? 

"Getting people excited to see you online rather than in person is kind of a challenge."

Pricing: Patreon's Pro plan starts at 8% of your monthly earnings. (Learn more here). Vimeo starts at $7 per month. (Learn more here.) YouTube is free with registration but a Premium plan starts at $11 per month. (Learn more here.)

For All-in-One Virtual Studio Classes & Subscriptions...

Try: Union Fit

Who’s using it: Rina Jakubowicz, yoga teacher and author of The Yoga Mind: 52 Essential Principles of Yoga Philosophy to Deepen Your Practice

Rina Jakubowicz, yoga teacher and author, says that Union Fit feels like an all-in-one virtual yoga studio—all you have to do is schedule your class, show up, and teach.

How does it work?

“It’s like an online yoga studio that in some ways functions similarly to MindBody, in which students sign up for a class, but then they click on it at the time of the class, and wait for the teacher to live stream. It's drawn teachers like Gary Kraftsow, Schuyler Grant, and Shiva Rea. I think it’s eventually going to replace some physical yoga studios." 

What are its benefits?

“It’s a one-stop shop for students to pay and practice. As a teacher, it’s relatively easy to navigate: You can set up one-off or regular classes and workshops, along with membership subscriptions. There’s an option to record classes so they can be played back later to paying customers or seen by members who have an unlimited plan. 

In order to film your classes, teachers use the app Larix Broadcaster on your phone or via OBS: Open Broadcaster Studio application on your computer. You can use a regular mic or noise-canceling AirPods as a microphone for better sound quality. Make sure you have the right setup, which includes visually appealing surroundings and a strong, reliable upload wifi speed.

As a teacher, it automatically records your classes to your library, and you can download it after you’ve taught."

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Sometimes the wifi gives out when the upload speed isn’t strong enough. Also, like all live streaming, technical issues—like with audio and visual continuity—come up, but the team at Union.fit try to assist as much as possible, and are very customer friendly. 

You also can’t see who’s taking class, like you can in Zoom, but there are some pros to that. However, the team at Union.fit is always updating the platform features to be competitive. Bottom line: You could have your own virtual yoga studio and reach hundreds of thousands of students internationally!"

Pricing: Learn more here.

Pro Camera, Audio, and Lighting Tips 

We asked Alia Sebben, co-founder of Fiteo, to serve up some quick how-tos on the gear to invest in and the strategies to employ for making top-notch yoga videos at home or in your studio space. Watch the below for her sage advice and to get started.

Filming Tips for Teaching Yoga Online

Going Digital: Filming Tips for Teaching Yoga Online (; 4:14)

Audio Tips for Teaching Yoga Online

Going Digital: Audio Tips for Teaching Yoga Online (; 4:19)

Lighting Tips for Teaching Yoga Online

Going Digital: Lighting Tips for Teaching Yoga Online (; 4:45)

[cedarrrun]

Keep calm, troubleshoot tech, and teach on: Here's what yoga teachers are leaning on for their classes, trainings, online courses, and community conversations, so you can build something that lasts beyond the pandemic.

As studios and retreat centers shuttered their doors in response to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, studio owners and yoga teachers had some choices: They could completely cancel their classes, workshops, and trainings... or they could get creative with their wifi and webcams. Many landed on the latter, and it's resulting in a defining shift in the business and teaching of yoga. 

So, how exactly are high-profile teachers making it happen? YJ spoke to ten folks, including Carrie Owerko, Jillian Pransky, and Tracee Stanley, to find out which online platforms they're leaning on and why, so you can get a snapshot of what's out there, along with some takeaways from their trial runs. Yes, in the last few months, you've probably already been on a class or call via Zoom, which is on the list below, but teachers who are using it on the regular and have discovered, even created, new platforms have some tips and tricks to share. We're confident that, from their great experimentations, you'll pick up a new idea, process, or perspective.

See also Tools for Teachers

And don't feel like you have to rush to do it all. "Identifying short- and long-terms goals will be extremely helpful, because that will factor into why you choose a platform," says Owerko, who recently launched The Playground, a subscription and live stream service. "Are you looking for a quick short-term fix while you're unable to teach in-person classes, or are you wanting to create something that will be around long after COVID-19 has passed?"

Finally, words of wisdom: Perfection is relative, and students are forgiving. "Building the plane as you're flying it" is a common phrase in these times—and it's assuring because teachers who seem to have it under control are in reality courageously figuring it out as they go. In a way, it's been a practice of yoga—the yama aparigraha, or letting go, comes to mind—to embrace new technology and everything that comes along with it. Every single teacher warned us of the inevitable tech hiccups, so there you have it: Even if you've been doing this awhile, expect out-of-the-blue mic mishaps and sluggish connections. Keep calm, troubleshoot, and teach on.

See also Struggling With Self-Promotion? How One Yoga Teacher Learned to Unleash Her Voice with Authenticity and Ease

To Stream Studio Classes... 

Try: Zoom + Mindbody

Who’s using it: Sarah Platt-Finger, co-founder of ISHTA Yoga in New York City

Sarah Platt-Finger, co-founder of Ishta Yoga in New York City, recommends that studios that wish to offer classes online incorporate Zoom into their MindBody account, to keep a sense of community intact.

How does it work?

“Students pre-register for class on the MindBody link on our website. We create a Zoom meeting for each class, and about 30 minutes prior to the class start time, we send a link for them to join the ‘meeting,’ including the props that they will need. The host opens up the space about 15 minutes before the class begins, so our students can turn on their webcams, see each other, and enjoy some community space.”

What are the upsides?

“The students can communicate with one another and with the teacher both before and after classes, so it creates a community feel—even though we are not physically in the same space. I love to be able to see the students' names, even if their cameras are off, so I can say hi.”

What should teachers keep in mind?

“Like any digital offering, there will always be technical issues. We highly recommend having at least one administrator to ‘host’ the session and answer any technical questions that come up for students along the way. It is very hard for the teacher to teach and tend to the tech side of it at the same time."

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Zoom recommends having at least 2 hosts for groups of over 20, so you might want to consider that if you have a large class.”

Hot tip:

“You will not be able to use music by just playing it on your computer, because the sound gets muffled, and it will compete with your words. Instead, in advance, send a link to the playlist you’d like students to use.”

Pricing: 

Zoom starts at $14.99 per month per host for up to 100 participants. Add-ons include additional storage space for recordings and additional hosts. Learn more here. 

MindBody starts at $129 per month. Learn more here.

Try: Fiteo

Who’s using it: Alia Sebben, founder of Amana Yoga in Boulder, Colorado, and co-founder of Fiteo

Alia Sebben, founder of Amana Yoga in Boulder, Colorado, co-founded Fiteo to help boutique studios create premium digital classes

Why did you decide to build this? What problem did it solve?

When COVID hit and we closed our doors in early March, I knew we had to continue serving our community and preserve the business I've worked to build over the last six years. The Amana teachers and I started filming content as soon as we closed our doors March 12, and when I began researching how to give access to the content, I realized the options were very limited. You can put up free content on YouTube, but you're only granted a paywall option after 10,000 followers. Everyone was and is using Zoom for live classes, but the quality just isn't what we were hoping for. We realized that most boutique studios wouldn't have the capital to activate a quality live streaming component as well as have the team in place to get a solid library of on-demand classes up for their community. So we transitioned Amana Online, the name we gave our virtual yoga studio, to a shared platform called Fiteo. We have studios in Singapore, a leading US CrossFit Gym: CrossFit Roots, Yoga Pearl in Portland and many more signing on. I like to think of Fiteo as a virtual class pass, but where the studios see the lion share of the revenue.

How does it work?

Any gym or studio can contact us at join.getfiteo.com and fill out a questionnaire. We share best practices for filming content and help you set up your live streaming offering. Once you've filmed content, you send it our way and we brand your videos and get them up on your studio's page on the Fiteo site. We also help you set up a schedule for your live stream offerings and offer tech support along the way. You charge your community whatever membership fee you'd like, and you provide Fiteo with a list of folks you'd like to have authenticated onto the site. We just ask for $7/subscriber. No additional fees.

What are the upsides?

A quality online offering that combines both live streaming and on-demand content that is easily accessible for your members. All of your live stream classes can be recorded and they are incredibly high quality (especially compared to Zoom). You members just need to log in and hit play. They don't have to worry about different invites for each class, passwords, and more. Your members also get an added benefit of experiencing amazing studios throughout the country, and have access to a variety of workouts. This is a long-term solution to the hopefully short-term problem of COVID. Plus, it can be a passive revenue stream when you re-open.

What should teachers keep in mind?

To remain in an abundant mindset and think about the long game. We've all been navigating a ton of change, and moving online sometimes feels like a hefty feat. Thanks to Fiteo, you can bypass all of my trials and errors and benefit from our experience and team of tech savvy individuals.

Any challenges to watch out for?

You need a good internet connection!

Hot tip: As Yoga teachers, I think it's really important to remember we didn't invent the wheel and that we are stronger together. Community is where it's at and Zoom classes won't work forever.

Pricing: Starts at $7/subscriber. Learn more at getfiteo.com and amanayogaonline.com

To Stream Your Own Classes and Trainings...

Try: Zoom (yes, again!)

Who’s using it: Jillian Pransky, yoga teacher and author of Deep Listening: A Healing Practice to Calm Your Body, Clear Your Mind, and Open Your Heart

Jillian Pransky, yoga teacher and author, recommends offering Zoom classes, workshops, and trainings—and maintaining grace, and a sense of humor, in the face of tech blips.

How does it work?

“I set up free Monday Meditations, along with paid live classes, workshops, and trainings. For classes and workshops, I use the webinar feature, which integrates with my Paypal account; for trainings, I use the meeting format so we can all get on the webcam. I share my schedule of offering through my newsletters, website, and social media accounts, and students can click on each class and sign up through Zoom’s registration page. (You can set up an email opt-in manually.)  Zoom sends out reminders a day and an hour prior to class; I use the automatic follow-up emails to share links to the recordings as well as my upcoming classes.”

What are the upsides?

“It’s an honor to share virtual space with so many students, all over the world, during this time. After class I spend time in ‘chat’ connecting to every student who sticks around and says hi.

Also, in my trainings, I’ve set up a poll for students to answer at the beginning, so we know who’s in the room. As a host, you can also group students together in small virtual breakout rooms so they can get to know each other or complete an exercise together.

Plus, my dog Sunday has managed to become my star pupil on camera, whether he's napping or sitting calmly: He’s an example of what it’s like to restore and relax.”

What should teachers keep in mind?

“Approach your sessions as you’d approach your practice: With an open mind, free of judgment. You’re juggling so many technical aspects of class—lighting, mic packs, sound quality, students figuring out how to join class—and things are going to happen. Get to know the platform and interface, plan and prepare as much as possible, and maintain a clear, calm mind to get through crackling sound or weak wifi with grace… and a sense of humor.”

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Make sure you have enough bandwidth. (You may have to ask your family to forego Facetime and Netflix during class.) If you use a mic, keep a backup around in case something goes awry with the sound. And understand you can’t do it all: Enlist help to handle customer service or technical difficulties during class.”

Hot tips:

“Record your practices and make them available for a limited period of time after each class. You’ll create your own bank of classes that you can share in various formats and subscriptions later on.

You can spotlight your video so that, when you record, zoom is recording your video, and not your students.' However, if you wind up recording students, Zoom let's you set up a waiver that students must check so they know they will be captured if they enable their webcams."

Plus, I just discovered that you can feed in a separate audio input for a cleaner background music. Just make sure you have rights to the music if you plan to distribute the class recording later on.”

Pricing: Starts at $14.99/month per host for up to 100 participants. Add-ons include additional storage space for recordings and additional hosts. Learn more here.

To Create Subscription & Live Stream Services...

Try: uscreen

Who’s using it: Carrie Owerko, founder of The Playground

Carrie Owerko, founder of the online yoga subscription called The Playground, suggests using this time to build something that will last beyond the pandemic. 

Why did you choose it? 

"My creative partner Jamey Welch and I were busy creating an online subscription learning platform several months before the Covid-19 pandemic. I teach all over the world and wanted to have a way to stay connected to teachers and students. My platform is an ongoing and ever-expanding library of classes and live events. The pandemic simply accelerated our launch. We embraced the idea that perfect is the enemy of the good, and just went for it. The spirit of The Playground is just that: It is about getting in there and diving into the process of a practice that is a discipline infused with PLAY!"

How does it work? 

"Uscreen has various packages depending on your needs. We were interested in the level we chose because, among other things, there was a live stream option. Before our soft launch, I used Zoom to conduct live classes. I knew that was temporary, and we were already working on getting the first iteration of The Playground up and running. Once that was accomplished, we switched to streaming our Live events directly from The Playground. No Zoom needed."

What should teachers keep in mind? 

"I can only speak to my own experience, which is that of building this ongoing and ever-expanding platform. The live classes are only a part of it. To launch a platform like this takes a lot of work, but I love my work—so it's okay. Like everything these days, there is a lot of new learning required, so be prepared for the feelings of confusion that may arise!"

What are the upsides? 

"An investment in building relationships, a community, in the future. It is like the difference between reading a book, an article, or something that requires some concerted focused effort on your part, versus reading a tweet or a short social media post that you will forget soon after. There is an emotional investment as well. The more of ourselves we invest in something (in terms of energy, time, and heart), the better and more rewarding it is."

Any challenges to watch out for? 

"Well, I am not very well-versed in technology. I've done a lot of online learning (both as a student and as a teacher) and am grateful, really grateful, for what technology offers. But it can also be frustrating (like all learning as adults!) for those of us who are not very tech-savvy. Consult those who know more than you! Don't worry about feeling silly or stupid. Ask for help. Embrace the suck, as the saying goes. Be willing to make mistakes, and make them in public! Be willing to fail temporarily in order to reap the reward of putting your heart and mind into something you believe in."

Any hot tips? 

"Well, my friend and inspiration The Movement Maestro says 'go as far as you can see, and when you get there you will see farther.' That is it. Do it. Try it. That is how you will know if something works for you and your goals."

Pricing: Basic plans start at $99 per month. (Learn more here.)

To Host Your Online Courses...

Try: Thinkific

Who's using it: Tracee Stanley, teacher and guide of meditation and Yoga Nidra, creator of Empowered Life Oracle Cards

Tracee Stanley, teacher and guide of meditation and yoga nidra, built her self-led online meditation and self-inquiry course via Thinkific. 

Why did you pick it? 

"This platform was recommended to me by my website designer, Sari Gelzer, when we were looking for ways to easily create evergreen course content for my students. It was very easy to upload content and keep things organized for a multi-week course." How does it work? 

"Thinkific is a full-service online platform that hosts your courses so that all you have to do is upload the content. They offer a range of prices—from Free to Pro—so that you can scale your investment in the software as usage of your courses increase."  What should teachers keep in mind? 

"This platform is great for everything from a month-long course to a longer certification program. The platform does have a linear course feel, which works well for certain courses when you want to release the content over time. However, if you plan to have a membership where people receive content monthly and can browse the content, you may prefer a different design."  What are the upsides? 

"Thinkific makes it easy to set up a meditation course, for instance, that is beautiful and easy-to-navigate for our students. The sales page templates work well at featuring content that's included in the course. And, you can integrate your course with mailchimp and other online marketing platforms." Any challenges to watch out for? 

If you wish to fully customize the look of your platform so that it's in line with your brand, you need to get the Pro+Growth version to have CSS editing access. You may wish to design a separate sales page over which you have more design control, and link to the Thinkific checkout link from there. Hot tip: 

"Use a subdomain such courses.yoururl.com to maintain your branding.

See it for yourself:

"Check out Empowered Wake Up, a self-led course I created on Thinkific here." 

Pricing: Basic plan starts at $49 per month. Learn more here.

To Host Online Courses or Trainings...

Try: Kajabi + Zoom

Who’s using it: Jivana Heyman, founder of Accessible Yoga

After deep consideration, Jivana Heyman, founder of Accessible Yoga, is offering his first-ever virtual training through zoom and Kajabi because he believes the latter offers a simple, streamlined user experience. 

Why did you pick it?

"I chose Kajabi for my first-ever Accessible Yoga online training because it's a learning management system that offers lots of tools in one integrated package. I really like that it has a very clean and organized user experience so that the online training experience is easy and accessible. It also has lots of marketing and website building tools, as well as a vibrant community of users."

How does it work?

"It's a very substantial tool for building all kinds of online businesses, but most often it's used for online schools and courses. It houses all our needs in one place: mailing lists, marketing email pipelines, special offers, and support for online learning with the ability to track students' progress through a course, as well as assessments."

What should teachers keep in mind?

"This system may be too big and expensive for someone who is only offering public classes. But if you're offering online teacher training, this could be a great tool for you. It's not a streaming service, so we also need to use Zoom to stream the classes and then we'll upload the videos to the platform."

What are the upsides?

"One thing I'm really excited about is Kajabi's potential for growth. Over the years I've found that I eventually outgrow most software that I use, so I was really looking for a system that had a lot of flexibility and active developers who are working to improve the system. I'm hoping I can eventually offer more courses through my platform and house it all there. I also love how simple and clear its design is."

Any challenges to watch out for?

"Well, offering online teacher training is new to me, so I'm just figuring it all out now! It has a monthly fee, so there is a substantial investment and consideration about paying the monthly fees for a long time if I want to keep growing on this platform."

Hot tip:

"Kajabi has a great Facebook user community where many of our questions are already answered. It's a great addition to the regular support."

Pricing: Basic plan starts at $119 a month. (Learn more here.)

To Facilitate Mentorship Sessions & Community Conversations...

Try: WebinarJam

Who’s using it: Barrie Risman, yoga teacher and author of Evolving Your Yoga: 10 Principles for an Enlightened Practice

Barrie Risman, yoga teacher and author, facilitates mentorship sessions and community conversations through WebinarJam. 

How does it work? 

“WebinarJam is a live webinar platform. It offers unlimited webinars, live chat, automated reminders, recordings, a registration page builder, and payment integration.”

What are its benefits?

“It allows for cleaner delivery of live presentations then video-conferencing services like Zoom because you don’t have the distraction of extraneous noise, participants’ cameras, or people coming in and out. It can also handle more participants than many video-conferencing services. There is a solid registration process, and payment integration is easy. You can customize as many email reminders as you want. Events are recorded and can be automatically emailed to participants who miss the live event.”

What should teachers keep in mind?

“It’s a good option for paid classes and content. It’s less efficient for free offerings because of the registration process. However, you always know those who participated because they sign up with their email addresses.”

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Participants can only participate via chat, so one constraint of this platform is that you can’t see people, and there’s limited interaction with your audience.”

Hot tip: 

Professional and enterprise plans include a “Panic Button”—if your connection starts getting sketchy, hit the button and it’ll reboot you and all participants into a fresh room.

Pricing: Basic plan starts at $499 a year. Learn more here.

For No-Fuss Live Classes...

Try: Instagram Live

Who’s using it: Bee Creel, yoga teacher in New York City and co-founder of the wellness community Mood Room.

Yoga teacher Bee Creel invites her students on the mat through scheduled Instagram Live classes and call-outs for Venmo donations 

How does it work?

“I have created a weekly schedule that I publish on my Instagram on Sundays so that people can plan ahead for the week. Then I just set up my phone on a tripod and go live on Instagram. Many of my classes have been donation-based, and I’ve been simply asking students to donate via Venmo @bridget-creel. Venmo is an app that syncs right up to the bank account. It is safe, secure, and easy to use.”

What are the benefits?

“One of the biggest benefits to recording an Instagram Live video is that you can publish the video on your account for 24 hours. If people cannot make it at the time you record it, the class is available for their viewing pleasure for 24 hours.”

Any learnings you want to pass along to teachers?

"Consistency is important, along with making things as 'normal' and routine as possible."

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Frustration. We are working with technology, and there are mishaps. My biggest advice is to be gentle with yourself. It is a gift that we are still able to teach and provide content, and your students will show up for you if you do your best!”

Pricing: Instagram is free when you sign up. Venmo takes minimal fees (up to $10) if you request an instant transfer, otherwise the transfer is free. Learn more here.

For DIY Membership Offerings...

Try: Patreon + a video platform like Vimeo or YouTube

Who’s using it: Britt Tagg, yoga teacher

Yoga teacher Britt Tagg created a Patreon to sell her online class recordings, which have to initially be uploaded into a separate video platform, such as Vimeo or YouTube.

How does it work?

“Patreon is a platform that functions similarly to social media, except you can create paid memberships in order for students to access your content. I offer different membership options that make it affordable. The pre-recorded classes vary in length and style and are made available anytime. The various memberships each include different packages and perks.”

What are the benefits?

“You have a platform to create your own business. It's not just for yoga instructors. It's for artists, musicians, cafes, too. You create the content and determine what, when, and how students can access it.

Patreon is pretty user friendly. You create your profile, similar to how you would for other social media outlets. Then you decide what pricing 'tiers' you would like to offer. You can't store videos on Patreon, so you have to upload your video to a third-party platform, like Vimeo or YouTube, and then embed that link into Patreon. There are tons of helpful tutorials as your create your Patreon account. 

Sharing your Patreon on other social media outlets helps spread the word. People pledge money/become patrons and are charged once a month. They can cancel anytime."

Any other useful tips?

“Stay engaged with your patrons. And use other social media outlets to help spread the word. Also, create polls and special offers whenever you can. It keeps patrons interested.”

Any challenges to watch out for? 

"Getting people excited to see you online rather than in person is kind of a challenge."

Pricing: Patreon's Pro plan starts at 8% of your monthly earnings. (Learn more here). Vimeo starts at $7 per month. (Learn more here.) YouTube is free with registration but a Premium plan starts at $11 per month. (Learn more here.)

For All-in-One Virtual Studio Classes & Subscriptions...

Try: Union Fit

Who’s using it: Rina Jakubowicz, yoga teacher and author of The Yoga Mind: 52 Essential Principles of Yoga Philosophy to Deepen Your Practice

Rina Jakubowicz, yoga teacher and author, says that Union Fit feels like an all-in-one virtual yoga studio—all you have to do is schedule your class, show up, and teach.

How does it work?

“It’s like an online yoga studio that in some ways functions similarly to MindBody, in which students sign up for a class, but then they click on it at the time of the class, and wait for the teacher to live stream. It's drawn teachers like Gary Kraftsow, Schuyler Grant, and Shiva Rea. I think it’s eventually going to replace some physical yoga studios." 

What are its benefits?

“It’s a one-stop shop for students to pay and practice. As a teacher, it’s relatively easy to navigate: You can set up one-off or regular classes and workshops, along with membership subscriptions. There’s an option to record classes so they can be played back later to paying customers or seen by members who have an unlimited plan. 

In order to film your classes, teachers use the app Larix Broadcaster on your phone or via OBS: Open Broadcaster Studio application on your computer. You can use a regular mic or noise-canceling AirPods as a microphone for better sound quality. Make sure you have the right setup, which includes visually appealing surroundings and a strong, reliable upload wifi speed.

As a teacher, it automatically records your classes to your library, and you can download it after you’ve taught."

Any challenges to watch out for?

“Sometimes the wifi gives out when the upload speed isn’t strong enough. Also, like all live streaming, technical issues—like with audio and visual continuity—come up, but the team at Union.fit try to assist as much as possible, and are very customer friendly. 

You also can’t see who’s taking class, like you can in Zoom, but there are some pros to that. However, the team at Union.fit is always updating the platform features to be competitive. Bottom line: You could have your own virtual yoga studio and reach hundreds of thousands of students internationally!"

Pricing: Learn more here.

Pro Camera, Audio, and Lighting Tips 

We asked Alia Sebben, co-founder of Fiteo, to serve up some quick how-tos on the gear to invest in and the strategies to employ for making top-notch yoga videos at home or in your studio space. Watch the below for her sage advice and to get started.

Filming Tips for Teaching Yoga Online

Going Digital: Filming Tips for Teaching Yoga Online (; 4:14)

Audio Tips for Teaching Yoga Online

Going Digital: Audio Tips for Teaching Yoga Online (; 4:19)

Lighting Tips for Teaching Yoga Online

Going Digital: Lighting Tips for Teaching Yoga Online (; 4:45)