#the ceo of cm told me so

[lilliesthings]

That handcuff exchange in Sex Birth and Death had no business being this aesthetically pleasing.

[captainsarahscratches]

HAPPIER PT.2

......

The next part will definitely have smut so be warned.

......

Within a few minutes, your jaw is agape. Tony is stunned and CM Punk just tore your CEO and EVPs a whole new asshole, and for what???

The madness continued, you're trying to explain your way out of this to press, Tony is beyond pissed. MJF is now pissed off because his return was fucked over. You just got the press to start to disperse. Then all of the sudden you hear clattering and yelling from afar. Someone yells for security and then you and Tony run down the hallways to find the noise. Claudio is trying to get people to calm down and get people away from the door. Mox is yelling and telling someone to fuck off. Then you hear Kenny's voice, "MOTHERFUCKER!?!"

You barged your way through the crowd, and you didn't know what to expect exactly, but it definitely wasn't this. Punk is in the back with a chair in hands, which Matt is trying to get away from him. Nick is by the wayside looking dazed as all hell. Kenny is holding Punk's dog in one hand and has Ace in a headlock with the other arm.

"What the fuck man, did you just fucking bite me??? Fuck, Jesus Christ!"

Within the next few minutes, security is in the room everyone is separated and the men are escorted out separately.

Your job was utter hell the next two months. Constantly trying to explain what happened without really having an answer. But all you truly cared about was Kenny. Nine months away and comes back on top for one night and it's ripped away from him. You fight like hell to get things straightened out and finally succeed.

Although, it's been two months. You've only talked to Kenny briefly during this time and typically about work. But that didn't mean that you forgot what happened before the chaos. However, you were confident that when the storm settled, and you could breathe again, you would ask Kenny about that kiss. You were positive everything would be fine... until he left for Japan

You didn't think much of it at first, he loves Japan and hasn't been there in a long time. He's not hurt anymore so he can actually enjoy himself. At that point, you had contacted the boys and told them it was safe to regain their social media presence. You even encouraged them to post something until related to the incident. Then Kenny posted a picture with Kota...

He had mentioned him before of course, and in a fond manner. Talking about how they are still friends and considers him one of the closest people in his life. He never stated that he still had feelings for him of anything of the nature but still it made you worry.

Either that kiss really was just him being him and meant nothing romantic. You started to tell yourself thaf he had kissed his friends in the past, usually in the ring and for the camera but still. Thought they at least knew it was going to happen.

Or that kiss did mean something but you took to long to say anything to him and lost your chance. Now he's hurt that you didn't respind correctly and falling back into familar arms. Either way had made you sick to your stomach and mad at yourself for letting him leave.

The last two weeks you've kept your distance from him. Unaware of how to proceed. But tonight the elite is returning, and in a big way. The start of a best of 7 series you came up with to not detour from the other teams. A few hours before the show, the three of them approached you. Matt, Nick, and Kenny stood in front of you hugged you. Thanking you for everything you have done and standing by them. Then he said it, "I mean it y/n, you're an amazing friend." and kissed you on the cheek.

Kenny walked away, as did Nick, but Matt stayed. He saw you freeze and your face fall. "Are you okay y/n?"

You scoff softly, "A friend..." looking down at the ground "Well I guess that answers that. After all this time and everything I've done and he still can't see that I love him"

"Woah..." Matt stunned but understanding. Putting his hand on your shoulder "It's okay, you know Ken-, Kenny's great at expressing himself on the mic, but only as Kenny Omega. You and I both know Tyson isn't as talented. I mean come on, he even legitimately answers to his ring name. Like he's an actual video game character."

You softly chuckled to yourself and Matt smiled at the fact he got a laugh out of you. "Look, I don't know what exactly is going on in his mind but I think it's worth talking to him. He talks about you all the time but doesn't say much when he's around you. And I think that says something right there, but you guys need to talk." He told you.

"He doesn't want to talk, every time I've tried he's always been short with me or changed the subject." You replied.

"Well, maybe you need to get Kenny to talk to you then, not Tyson. Kenny is the way he gets his real thoughts out half the time anyway. "

With that vague advice, Matt walked away and prepared for the night. Leaving you contemplate how to get Kenny to talk to you over Tyson.

As the night continues and the Elite is about to return, fans chanting their theme throughout the stadium. You remind the men that your social media team will be trying to get shots of them and their new entrance. Seconds away, from the entrance Kenny looks over at you and looks like he wanted to say something important but the Death Triangle's music just ended and trotted to the curtain. Matt quickly popped up on the other side of you, "Hey, make sure to hang around after the match. I think someone wants to talk. Just give him a shot." You said of course as you rushed him back to his spot.

The match continues, leaving fans confused as the Elite doesn't immediately win their championship away. Then a roar overtakes the building as they announce the best of seven series, you smile still very proud of yourself that they took your idea.

The cameras are down, and the crowd stays as Kenny talks to the crowd. Charming, charismatic, and surprisingly fluent storytelling for him to just be making it up as he went along. His speech continues, and you walk down the ramp to ensure your team is getting the shots they need. Kenny sees you by ring side, crouched down to not block the view. He smiles at you and your face grows red again.

You've seen him in the ring hundreds of times in person but something about him, just purely in his element was always so satisfying to watch. You continue to watch him, and then see Matt smile and wink your direction. Grabbing your attention he points to Kenny in the ring. You listened closer to what he was saying.

"I've gotten to spend to spend a lot of time with my best friends in the whole wide world, given a lot more than I anticipated, but I loved every second of it and glad to step back here tonight with them as a trio. But we didn't do this alone, we had some amazing support. From their Matt and Nick's wives and from someone very special to my heart. I want to thank all of you." In that moment, Matt and Nick are looking at you, your heart is racing and all you can see is Kenny looking straight at you with that smile you love so damn much.

The crowd has mixed reactions to him alluding to a significant person, and Kenny being the tease he is gives him no other information to what he means. "They are truly one of the kindest, selfless, and genuine people I have ever met. And not to really jump the gun, but i guess i did that a few weeks back, but I love them." He smiled and had to regain his composure again as he started to stumble over his words. You looked back at the Bucks, Matt looked shocked he said that and Nick looked exasperated at the fact he just said that first thing. They both look back at you and one of your interns nudges your shoulder and smiles.

Kenny proceeds to wrap up his speech, nervously smiling through his words the rest of the way. You retreat backstage why the three of them work the crowd as they depart. Kenny catches you for a moment, "Hey, wait for me. If that's okay." You can't stop smiling and your face is still red and you nod to agree. He looks down at you for a second and smiles again. "Okay. I'll see you soon."

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony's Stupid Daily Blog (727): Thu 14th Mar 2024

Up early for a driving lesson. I already have my full driving license but I haven't driven for over ten years and so I've decided to take a few lessons to jog my memory and work off the rust to make sure I don't accidentally kill someone (if I kill someone with a car I want it to be fully intentional). The instructor arrived at 9AM and seemed flabbergasted at the fact that I hadn't driven in so long. I explained to him that I just preferred motorbikes and that I was never able to shake the urge to look down at the gearstick when I needed to change gear. I asked him whether or not he thought it might be better for me to get an automatic car and he said in his opinions manual cars are better but I think he might have just said this to mae sure I didn't ditch him to start learning how to drive automatics (which to be honest I probably still will. I only booked a few lessons with this guy because I couldn't find an automatic driving instructor in time). Very early in the lesson he told me that in any gear above first if you ease all the way off the clutch and the ignition then the car will move forward on it's own. This must be a fairly new thing because I'm certain that when I was taking lessons with my old instructor Joe if you did this then the car would definintely stall. I was understandably a little bit nervous and sometimes unaware of how sensitive the pedals were but for the most part I drove with caution and didn't make any major mistakes. I've got another lesson booked in with this guy next Wednesday but I'm still going to try and find an automatic driving instructor in the mean time because to be honest having to change gears all the time was still bugging me. To be honest I can't for the life of me understand why you would bother building cars with manual gearboxes if you have the ability to build cars that change gears automatically.

When I got back in the house I watched last nights Dynamite which featured the eardrum shattering debut of Mercedes Mone FKA Sasha Banks. The crowd gave her a thunderous ovation and I have to admit that hearing an arena full of people chant "CEO" is pretty cool. This nickname is a nice play off her old WWE character but with a twist. I was really disappointed when CM Punk got fired as I thought he was a perfect fit for AEW and if utilised correctly could be the key to AEW bridging the gap between itself and WWE. However I think Ospreay, Okada, Mercedes and main event Swerve and Wardlow should more than fill the gap IF they are booked well. This evening I ordered a pizza and about fifteen minutes later I saw a guy with a delivery rucksack pull up outside my house on a pedal bike and gesture to me to ask if I''d ordered food. I thought this guy must pedal faster than Lance Armstrong if he's managed to get from the city centre to my house after only fifteen minutes and also the staff at La Dolce Vita must have bought a new superpowered oven to have cooked the fucker in less than fifteen minutes. As I suspected though the guy had the wrong house and it was a McDonalds delivery that he had in his rucksack. It’s a good thing I’m not an arsehole or else I could have just kept it and treated myself to two dinners. Once my pizza finally arrived I tuned into last night's Hollyoaks. At one point Leela was complaining to Peri about Joel's behaviour and Peri told her that she was 37 and she wasn't likely to meet another guy like Joel so she should just get over it. I could have forgiven Peri for covering for her killer boyfriend and for almost killing Dave but age shaming her goddess mother Leela by implying that 37 is not young? Now she has gone too far! Elsewhere Tony was consoling Ste over his guilt with a relaxing cup of tea. I put the following hypothetical scenario on Twitter:

Tony: Here drink this it'll make you feel better Ste: I CAN'T HANDLE THE GUILT ANYMORE I NEED TO GET THIS OFF MY CHEST! Tony:

There was also some more sinister shit with Frankie and JJ and to be honest now that I know that JJ has been sexually abusing his own sister, future episodes with these characters are going to be a tough watch. I know soaps are always heavy on the drama but JJ, Ste and Joel all going through the worst shit imaginable. Is it too much to ask for the odd lighthearted storyline to offset the tragedy every now and again? I will say though that watching Warren doesn't feel like much of a chore any more given his empending departure. For the first time in a long time I haven't muted the sound and watched a YouTube video while Warren is on screen because I know that he's leaving soon!

[blogger8659]

Don’t know how well this will do. but I wanted to Try something new! Don’t know if anyone cares, but if interested feel free to send me ideas and request, or even questions. 

Full name: Yun Ara-Hana

pronouns : She/Her

birthdate : September 1st, 1997

place of birth: Soul, South Korea

hometown :  Soul, South Korea

Sexuality: Bisexual

height : 5ft 5in/165.09 Cm

blood type : AB+

ABOUT:

Ara-Hana, born in Soul, is the only child of Yun Sungho and Minsuh who are the CEO’s of a popular Hotel Chain across the world. Her parents love her, and accept her, but they aren’t really close since they are often gone due to business. They are very encouraging of her in whatever she does, but she is more something they can brag about than anything. She was basically raised by staff, tutors, and nannies. She spent a lot of time in America as a kid since her parents were extending their hotel chain there, and so she is fluent in English and knows a lot of the culture(Korea will always be her home though). 

Her first language is Korean, but she is fluent in English as well as American and Korean sign language as her family hired a lot of deaf staff, and she wanted to make it as easy as possible for them, and be able to talk to them. 

She has an I.Q. of 144, but she made sure to enter graduate school with Jeon Jungguk.

They let Ara-Hana join Big Hit and BTS (As if almost glad they didn't have to take care of her much). They don't talk often. They pay her a huge allowance, and would give her extra when they cancel on her. Sometimes without telling her.

Ara-Hana was trained in several forms of traditional dancing for events, but she finds it hard to dance non traditional dances, but works hard to be perfect at all her choreo.. She was also given voice lessons cus she was interested. She learned how to rap by herself because her parents refused to give her a teacher(She was/is a huge fan of Agust D).

She joined Big Hit after she performed at a street festival for a competition. A Big Hit scouter saw her, and told her she should audition at Big Hit. She became a trainee soon after. Very soon after that she met/joined BTS as the last member and the only female in the group.

Line: Rap line(4 rapper and 4 vocal). She is a vocal sub(and she eventually becomes more vocal line). Maknae line, ‘97 line. She is part of the visual line

[madamhatter]

friendlyneighbourhoodscientist inquired:  ✵ + Komui x Sophie~ Send me a ✵ + a ship and i’ll tell you who does what at christmas! | accepting ! | @friendlyneighbourhoodscientist​

Who spends hours putting up lights only to get tangled in them and storm off? Oh, sweet Komui decided upon himself that he would decorate the apartment this year to surprise his partner. He surely doesn’t have any ulterior motives to decorate the house like avoiding completing paperwork and grading papers as a university professor. Not at all! However, the apparent curse of messiness that comes with Komui strikes again as he begins unboxing decorations from last year and it all begins piling up. Towering the living room now are new decorations and the lights are now partially covered by the unhung stockings and other assortments of holiday decor. Let’s just say Komui abandoned ship and was caught by his loving assistant when she came back home. Who accidentally eats a whole box of Christmas chocolates in one sitting? Komui would be guilty of munching away on sweets while working at his desk. Several of the faculty gifted the young professor sweets as a present, hoping it wouldn’t cause a disastrous mess like last time. Additionally, they gifted some to his partner, given how frequently she visits his office and is his “unofficial” T.A. Sophie isn’t a fan of chocolates, so she will graciously offer them to Komui in a hurry, kissing him quick, before she needs to run back to work.  Who insists on watching the cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies? Taking advice from her sisters, and wanting to indulge in domestic life, Sophie would ask her partner on the occasion to sit down and watch some “classic” movies with her. I believe she would try (American) Hallmark Christmas movies before she sinks in the couch, slightly confused by some plots (or how several of them are ripped off from classical books). Komui, kindly, would sit beside his partner and drinking his coffee, keeping himself awake and his partner company. Though, I see that the movies would be changed to actual classic movie films (being Rankin & Bass movies since Sophie adores those). Who insists on playing nothing but Michael Buble in the few days running up to Christmas? Stuck in an office or alcove for most of her life, Sophie wouldn’t want anything more to find herself whisked away in her imagination or any of the daydreams she dreamt up as a kid. While she finds herself compromised, happily dating Komui yet also working still as the company head, Sophie will begin taking new strides. One of them being playing more holiday songs both at Komui’s office and their shared apartment. In both occasions, the 5′4″/162 cm woman would take her 6′4″/193 cm by the hand and guide him into a dance! She doesn’t mind the height difference and she would take the lead, mouthing out the words to cover songs by Michael Buble, showing Komui some proper dance moves~! Who gets their presents wrapped at the mall so the other cant go snooping? Truth be told, I wouldn’t find them resorting to this method. As far as surprises go, the mad scientist and mad hatter tend to live on spontaneity, given how the other inspires the other. I could see them using their schedules instead to wrap their presents at their apartment when the other isn’t there. However, if I had to pick, maybe it would be Komui, especially if it was during finals week before the holidays. Bless that man but this schedule would be BUSY. Who insists on making snow angels? I see this as a toss-up! I could see either suggesting this arrangement, depending on the timeline of the relationship (pre-dating, dating, etc.). I could see Komui suggesting at points since Sophie hesitates and skirts around A LOT when it comes to her own feelings and wants. He’s rather well-read in her body language -- already finding it cute with her over-reactions and quick timing. Sophie would suggest would doing it if there isn’t any person there and it’s early in the morning while walking to the bus stop. Though, she would profusely apologize and blush, realizing how soggy their clothes would end up. 

Who put Christmas outfits on all the pets? The Komulin series 100% count as pets (or children) and it’s a joint effort. Sophie would be more open to messing with the idea of creating matching sweaters (or accessories) for the robots. Komui is interested in the idea, already very affectionate of his works. Even if they’re considered state-of-the-art robots, the older versions still need the same love and maintenance when they can’t perform their particular functions for a while.  Do they go to family’s or have a quiet day in? Forever honor-bound to their families, far too dedicated in their work, Komui and Sophie would spend their holiday with their family (being their sisters and Sophie’s stepmother). I could see them actually inviting their loved ones over and getting ready for a wonderful Christmas dinner. Though I’ll be honest, I could see them going the extra step in inviting their family to stay over for the 25th (or staying for a few days). I could see them wanting a quiet day in, but it could be possible with family too.

Who insists on wearing matching ugly Christmas jumpers? Komui Lee is enamored with the idea of sporting an ugly Christmas sweater and any of Sophie’s creations. It wouldn’t be on Sophie’s lists of considerations to even consider making matching sweaters. But, if Komui mentions it to her, she will definitely take the extra step to make the matching sweaters, which they both would proudly wear around at home. Komui, however, definitely wears it out and happily boasts it.  Who waits up until midnight to give the other their present? Disastrous schedules that these two have, I could see the two of them trying to sleep in on the 24th. However, with enough tossing and turning from Sophie, I could imagine Komui’s snapping from his deep snoring to note her restlessness. It would be from there that Sophie would suggest giving him her present because she just can’t wait to, damn it! Who insists on hand-made presents only one year? Neither! Komui is an expert tinker and Sophie is a mastered hatmaker, making things handmade is already in their systems. I could see Komui considering extra items for Christmas, however, if he wanted to get the right reactions from Sophie.  Who puts mistletoe on every door frame? By no means would Sophie ever attempt doing this. Even in her relationship with Komui, she wouldn’t even attempt or humor the thought of hanging up mistletoes. However, there is certainly a problem when your partner is an entire foot taller than you and could easily place back up all the mistletoes that took you more than an hour to take down. I would say that Komui would be up to these kinds of games, even going as far as hanging a mistletoe above him while Sophie jumps on her feet to get that darn thing! And then he can sneak in a kiss while she’s jumping and :’) my heart Who gets too drunk at the work Christmas party and has to be picked up at 9:15pm? Alcohol and Sophie do not go well together when she has to continue doing her work as a CEO/company head. If she is made to go to an event with numerous associates, affiliates, and partners, she would MOST likely get herself drunk on the basis of ‘social drinking,’ when she’s using it as a terrible form of anxiety coping. Thankfully, with Komui as her plus one, they could easily leave the party together. If it was at Komui’s place of work, however, I would find that the scientist keeps his intake in check -- as opposed to his obsession with coffee.  Who gets angry and almost tells kids that Santa isn’t real? Oh god no? I can’t see them getting so angry to tell ANY child that. However, I do fear the thought of Komui and Sophie getting deep into the conversation about Santa and when they spoke to their sisters about the truth about Santa. It might slip up with any curious ears around. Though, in an odd way, I could see Komui humoring wanting to tell the child early if they’re entirely persistent to prove it’s scientifically possible for Santa to exist and some robotics experts can’t tell them otherwise! But, he would take a step back, encouraging the child to pursue his theory while Sophie is nodding along, keeping her cool.

[its-annanguyen]

Final Thoughts on Experience

INTRODUCTION

As a Bachelor of Applied Science candidate, I am more focused on the interface design aspect, mainly dealing with web + mobile design & development. I enjoy creating digital arts with a combination of computer programming in HTML/CSS. My hope is to become a UI/UX developer at a high-tech company like Google, Amazon, or even Yelp. That is why I am thankful to have interned at One Wave Designs during the summer of 2018 from June 1st to August 31st as a Web Design & Development Intern.

INTERNSHIP PROCESS

Learning Experience

As a Yelp Elitist, I searched up the “Best Web Design Company” on Yelp, in which One Wave Designs popped up as the first search with a 5-star rating! I gave it a shot and emailed the President/CEO/Owner of the company, Paul. He responded back asking for my resume and portfolio where I finally got a response a month later that I got the internship position!

During my time as an intern, I was responsible for mainly 3 things: web design & development, layout concepts, and SEOs. I mainly worked on 8 projects in 10 weeks. I learned that SEOs (Search Engine Optimization) is very important in web development because websites with good SEOs will always appear at the top of the search list depending on keywords that you use. For instance, if I were to type “Hawaii Web Design” in Google Search, One Wave Designs will be the first to pop up under all the other Google ads search. I learned how to hyperlink emails (mailto:) and phone numbers (tel:), which are also important factors in SEOs. Hierarchy, or the way you order the sizes of the header and texts, also matters too. When you’re adding images or links, it’s good to add a title or alt texts to increase SEO keyword searches. Lastly, saving/uploading images that are 200K or less is great for websites because it loads a lot faster.

I learned how to use 2 types of content management system (CMS), DNN Software and WordPress. I am very familiar with WordPress, it was my first time hearing about DNN. Unfortunately, though, DNN is not used as often anymore and non-developers are shifting to easy CMS like WordPress.I really liked using DNN because of how much coding is involved, whereas WordPress is almost dragging-and-dropping... this is more ideal for non-coders.

I learned how to use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software called FileZilla. This allows me to be flexible and customize a website through HTML/CSS coding. Basically, I can manipulate a style of the website by changing up the codes - which can only be done by FTPing and coding. It’s very confusing to explain and understand... I never heard anything like it before until I interned here! After taking web design & development course here at UHWO, I learned that it’s always a smart idea to make copies of the original files that I’ll be editing incase I mess up the codings. Don’t want to repeat that mistake again because there was a time where I had to reset the entire website and build it from scratch. :(

Layout concepts were the MOST STRESSFUL projects I had to do when I interned here. I honestly kind of dreaded it. Paul hated doing layout concepts too! Which explains why I always worked on them instead of him. These 4 software helped me a great deal when I had to make layout concepts/drafts for potential clients:

WhatTheFont.com

Google Fonts

Pantone Color Picker

iStockPhoto.com

WhatTheFont.com allowed me to upload a screenshot of a word so that it can identify the font types for me. Once it generates a few options of fonts, I’d download them (for free) using Google Fonts. Fonts that I find on Google Fonts are great for websites because it doesn’t have to be embedded. Another thing with the web is determining the color, so that’s why I always use the color picker on the Pantone website. Lastly, copyrights and permissions on images/videos/etc. are always questionable. That’s why I always look up stock photos on iStock since we have a subscription with them anyways. 

Discoveries

I feel like I’ve grown as a person over the years. I used to be so shy and quiet, never being the first person to speak or raise my hand. Through this internship among other things, I learned how to speak up and ask questions when I needed to. If this is an unpaid internship that I am devoting much of my time to, I EXPECT to learn quite a few things. It never hurts to ask questions because that’s how you learn -- this is my motto. I learned that I am not that great at criticisms or taking in constructive feedback. I want to learn how to be more patient because there were times I’d get super annoyed when my supervisors would tell me what to do when I’m already doing it or will do it. Also, seeing how much projects I’ve done in such a short time span, I discovered that I am a very quick self-learner. As Paul mentioned, every client will have different expectations when it comes to building their website, which is why he couldn’t help/guide me as much as he should’ve. But in a field like web design/development, everything to customizable and flexible, so there’s never just “one way” to work on every single project.

Sample Work

Here’s a GIF image I found that totally speaks to me when it comes to designing layout concepts: the struggle with making the sizes exact. I was able to learn what the difference is between changing an “image size” and a “canvas size” on Photoshop because of this!

CONCLUSION

I wouldn’t mind working in a place similar to my internship~ I mean, I accepted a job position with One Wave Designs after finishing up my internship hours so that says something :D until this day (December) I am still with them. After 6 months, I learned a lot from working at a small yet successful company. There’s sooOoOoOoo much stress that comes with it. There were several times when Paul would dump a handful of projects on me despite my limited schedule and time constraint. I would lose my cool with him at times, and that’s where I reached my boiling point and told him I had enough. That’s when I discovered how much courage I had. Just a few days ago, I turned in a 30-day resignation letter to him, planning to resign by the end of this year since my last semester of college will be a stressful one yet. After Paul received my letter, he decided to give me a freelance position and allowed me to work whenever I can and work from home instead of in the office (lolol). This is what I’ve always wanted!

To conclude, it was a great experience interning here, but it was even better when I actually got paid. Sometimes I would question whether the amount of work I’m doing would even equate to how much I was getting paid by the hour. Ultimately, I was in it for the long run to build my experience and resume. I finally learned when/where to draw the line, which I should’ve done a lot sooner. 

In the end, I learned that it’s good to build relationships with others and never be afraid to ask questions. Since I showed a lot of dedication and commitment when working here, I was able to earn Paul’s trust and was able to get things my way most of the time. I take internship experience very seriously. I’m here to learn so I’m not afraid to ask questions when I need to.

Whoops, forgot to add my presentation slides here: CM 390 Presentation

[aurigardyn]

tagged by @history-rover ! She knows I could never resist.

1. Are you named after anyone?

Yes, after both my grandmother and mother

2. When was the last time you cried?

I’m a crier sjshddk I cry easily

3. Do you have kids?

Unless cats count, no

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

I am told I am fluent in the language of sarcasm

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

The way they stand and then the look in their eyes. Most people never learn how to shield their emotion, most of the time they’re transparent just by how they hold their stance

6. What is your eye color?

Brown, I guess

7. Scary movie or happy ending?

Happy ending

8. Any special talents?

People say I’m a natural charmer and good with negotiation, so I guess they count?

9. Where were you born?

London

10. What are your hobbies?

Tending to my garden, petting my cats, reading, traveling, bugging Fran

11. Do you have any pets?

YES! 3 cats

12. What sports do you play/have you played?

Basketball, badminton, swimming, baseball

13. How tall are you?

163 cm

14. Favorite subject in school?

Weirdly, chemistry. And World History

15. Dream job?

Whichever that doesn’t require me driving an hour through hellish traffic (jk, I wanted to be a CEO)

I’m gonna tag @reynadia @tododekunn @awkwardmomfriend @kingtodoroki @whenwordsflyoffthepage and @crzangel

[gomustanggirl16]

Disappointments

So, I know I should spout something about how life is an adventure and everything will turn out, but I really, really don’t feel like it. Because I can’t guarantee that. No one can, and if you say “that’s not true.” than clearly you’ve never heard the stories I have or known some people. Trust me, there are some, who’s life adventures don’t turn out and they end up going completely insane. And for those who think “no, it’s good. It’s a bitch but it’s good.” than chances are you’re doing it wrong, because it cannot be both a bitch and good. You can have good things around you, light times sure, but if it’s not enough to overshadow the bitch of it all then it’s not good enough. I also know people who go through life thinking everything around them is a sign from God and have been bitch slapped more times than I can count, but use God as an excuse to make it better. I believe in him, I do, but I also know he gave us our own free will and to attempt to throw things at us would kind of ruin his whole purpose. At least to me. I also don’t blame Satan either, because he knows we have our own ways of messing everything up ourselves, because we are people. Eve didn’t have to do what Satan said, she didn’t have to do what God said either (would life have been better yeah probably), but we’d also be kind of brainwashed so...it’s a toss up.

I guess what I’m trying to get at, is that blaming something or trying to make it something it’s not is really fucking pointless. For those who don’t believe in God or religion, you probably already have a semi-idea of what I mean. Or maybe you don’t I don’t know. What I do know is this: disappointments are everywhere. They come with life, they are the only thing that are actually guaranteed. A lot of times they are also called consequences, but no matter what it’s all bad. People will always let you down, not everyone, but everyone has someone they let down at some point in there life and maybe it was only temporary, but for many it wasn’t. But you know, we hear a lot about people disappointing us, but lets face it, it’s really ourselves we disappoint the most. Hence why it’s a guarantee in life. I wish it were different but it’s not. We dream, we set goals, and we disappoint. 

All I wanted was to get my medical coding certification. I changed majors three times. Well two technically, but medical coding was the only constant throughout it all and halfway through last semester I said to myself “what the fuck are you doing? You hate people, so why are you going into a major that requires you to tolerate them?” Basically I put my head back on straight, but then the emails from my schools financial aid kept coming, asking for verification. My mother told me, that they have a right to randomly select people for this and I said okay because she told me she had it handled. That was back in August after they okay-ed my payment plan. Then they didn’t pay. Anything. None of it like they said they would because they needed verification, despite the fact we kept sending them the same documents over and over and over again. The semester ended and suddenly I had racked up $4000 US dollars in dues. 

They eventually asked for different documents and we had hoped it was moving forward and I went to register for the last two courses I needed to get my certification and they wouldn’t let me because of what I owe. My brother was having the same stupid problem, except his got it fixed with one verification email and boom he registered (I go to a community college, he goes to University that costs almost $43,000 a year so you think there process would be more difficult but different financial aid companies). Then Christmas and New Years passed and I got fed up about two weeks ago when I saw that one of the classes only had three seats left. One time slot too, while the other class had two time slots and twenty seats between the two left. But these two classes are only offered in the spring, if I missed them, I would have to wait a whole year. I’d have to buy new books again, and I spent almost $1300 on them last semester because for some reason they put up the books we’d need for the next three classes so I got them a semester early, I wasn’t pissed then because they were so damn hard to get I wouldn’t have to worry, well now...now I have books I don’t need because as of last night the last three seats went. I called the school Friday because earlier in the week I got an email asking for one more thing then one saying they didn’t need more and then Friday morning I woke up to a fucking email saying I was selected again for verification! Well the school office was closed but the actual financial aid company wasn’t and the lady informed me they got my papers and that she had no idea why the school sent me the email, but they didn’t need anything more and to just wait. Also no, they wouldn’t let me pay any of the money I owed myself, but granted I also wouldn’t be in this mess if I had four grand. 

So I waited, and then last night I got this nagging feeling to check the list and I did, and the seats were gone. Two classes. That’s all I needed and now...now I don’t know what to do. I know they won’t reimburse me for the books, I called my father to ask him to go yell at some people with me, because he’s fucking scary when he yells and I cry when I do. I have now wasted upwards of six thousand dollars on this and have nothing to show for it. I don’t have any money to transfer and classes have already begun in most other schools. I loved the teachers, it was a great environment but now I gotta call this sweet little old lady in my class and tell her goodbye because I won’t be seeing her ever again because she can get her certification at 85 fucking years old, but because I depend on people I can’t. It’s not like the school gave out the test anyways I’d have to go elsewhere for it, but still I needed those classes I can’t take the exam because I haven’t started the last two books. I already took a year off because of health and I thought this was my chance, I spent everything I saved up for a trip to Paris, on school and now all I can think is “you should have gone to Paris, it wouldn’t have put you through so much stress.” And now my passports about to expire to so, missed that chance. And yes, I’m aware you can renew it, but I don’t have a fucking job right now, or $150 to be spending on getting it renewed. As is I needed a new battery for my car Monday (God Monday fucking sucked!) and had to borrow $800 from my grandmother because they found a shit ton of broken things.

So...I can blame financial aid, I want to, but one of the non medical reasons I didn’t go back was because they were giving me an issue about some document they needed to renew it back then. I should have known better, I really should have. I could also blame my parents who got divorced in August and half the shit the financial aid people needed was to verify they were indeed living separate lives, and while the lady assured me it was a random process, lets face it, it wasn’t. But I’m not going to blame them either, because life with those two married was a shit fest I never want to go through again. I’m glad it ended, though now I gotta buy my mom a divorce cake because I fucking promised her a divorce cake and still haven’t gotten her one so now not only does she hold John Bon Jovi over my head she now also holds this to.

But really, I blame me. I went to college right out of high school because I wasn’t going to be that kid they warned us about. You know the bum who doesn’t go, and does drugs and gets pregnant without a husband. You know, a baptists worst nightmare. I thought I needed a major because certifications weren’t enough. I put myself through hell because I thought a stupid certification would look meaningless to an employer without a degree and you wanna know something? They’re both stupid pieces of paper we all end up shoving in a box unless we’re CEO’s or physicists who think they’re god. You don’t bring the damn thing to an interview they don’t ask to see it. They call the school and ask for someones word. Its the truth, is it not? 

Instead of listening to my heart, I listened to everyone else around me, and not the ones I should have. I also should have listened to my mother when she told me to go to the school she went to and god I really wish I had. So now, I can’t get my certification and I can’t go to Paris and I can’t get a real job because the assholes who look expect coding to be a degree and also that I have the certification. It’s one thing to say I’m working towards it’s another to say, “well I was and now I can’t until I fix some things.” So I’m stuck at the shit hole I work at now. 

And it’s all because I didn’t want to be a disappointment. 

You know, being a disappointment to others is one thing. People have different standards that just aren’t you, and then the people you wish death on because they abuse their kids. But there’s nothing worse than disappointing yourself. You are who you are, you know who you are, whether you know it yet or not, so you’d think we’d know to listen to the right people, listen to ourselves, but somehow we keep thinking others opinions matter more. It’s sad really, but it’s the truth. We run away and do what we can only to turn ourselves into the thing we fear most. 

So I ask you, are you really doing what you’re doing because it’s what you want, it’s what you know is best for you, it’s the right thing for your health, your mind, life? Or are you doing it because the fear of being a disappointment is controlling your life?

This was the only thing I wanted, but because I felt like I had something to prove I ended up loosing everything. Sure, it’s not gone forever, but it sure would have been nice to have a desk, and have my mini-Cap Pop key chain in my space, a steady flow of work and cash and health insurance not connected to my mother. And my book! My ICD-10-CM code book oh! It’s so pretty! I have it all tabbed accordingly and noted and if this takes me longer than six months to fix I’ll have to buy the updated version with having barely used the one I had and it’ll have all been a waste. On the upside according to one interviewer I have enough qualifications to answer phones and explain the billing process to patients. 

[eris0330]

Undisclosed (Stigma S. 2) | One

☽Pairing☾ ; Jin | Reader

☽Genre☾ ; Angst | Fluff 

☽Word Count☾ ; 1.9k

☽Summary☾ ; You and Jin decided to flee from your controlling lives, to live in freedom and start fresh. Even though you got to travel around and explore new things together, old habits never seem to disappear. 

☽AU☾ ; Escort | Mafia 

☽Notes☾ ; Part Two (Soon)

“Sir, the stats for the co-operation with EVR has been increasing, after your plea for the first deal.” A tall young man, with rounded silver glasses and a perfect black suit. Standing by the entrance, for the only biggest office in the building. Platinum and gold, displayed on walls and desk, while the logo of LV taking all the attention on the wall. Holding onto his notepad of various tasks and important information, he waited to be left off to do the rest while Taehyung stood by the windows, taking in the view of the active city.

“Good, make sure they only have this offer or LV won’t be a part of the ‘Diamond project. Oh… and also mention that they won’t be able to get the same quality elsewhere, than here.” Taehyung sounded determent, knowing exactly how the business world works. Being in the CEO position for more than a year, he knew what to say and do, when it came to manipulation. Even though, it was more or less just regular business meetings.

“Is there anything else I can help with, before I continue my tasks, Sir?” The young manager questioned, ready with his red pen to note down his extra tasks. Taehyung didn’t seem faced by it but did acknowledge his hard work from time to time. Knowing what it’s like, to follow around someone for more than twelve hours a day, it felt only right to give the young worker some free time.

“No, not for now. I’ll be out of reach the next few hours, I’m expecting a call from someone.” He replied, rubbing his chin as if it helped on his messy thoughts.

“Did they arrive today from their trip?” The manager questioned in curiosity, knowing the friendship between the previous ‘CEO’. Taehyung could only manage a chuckle, with the greatest boxy smile to add onto his facial expression. “Hah no, they arrived a few days ago. But today, I have a feeling I will hear from him.” He whispered, turning around to face the younger man.

“why is that?” It wasn’t a surprise, that his manager asked these types of questions. In fact, it felt like talking to himself. It was the small conversations that kept Taehyung’s mind on a clear path, to hold onto something that showed what’s outside of the building. Tugging his hands into his pockets, he took a deep breath before another smile ravished his expression.

“Because today, they are officially moving into a house together”

“Be careful now, it’s heavy!” Jin yelled from downstairs with his head peeking in from the entrance, as you stood halfway towards the second floor. Holding tightly onto the biggest vase you could find in the shop, for your beloved plant to stay in. There was nothing holding you back, getting the vase that is just the same size as you. Though, Jin wasn’t fond of the idea getting it and told you that he wouldn’t help moving it, if you got it. But as for now, he’s the only one biting nails if you were going to get hurt in the process of moving it. His pride nagging at him, as he unconsciously checked up on you.

“Stop worrying about me! I’m-an-independent-woman-for-christ-sake” Each words spoken as every step surpassed under your feet, with tiny sweat drops ready to fall, knowing it will sting if it got in your eyes. You didn’t want to admit, that letting this vase fall on the ground was almost worth it but knowing that Jin would never stop pestering, if you did so, you decided to stick with it.

“Seriously Y/N, did you really need that big vase?” He questioned, watching you settle yourself on the double bed in the room, to accomplish the task of moving one vase. His obnoxious smirk getting you, as he leaned against the door frame with folded arms. A decisive eyebrow rises, making it official that he’s ready to fight.

“Seriously Jin, did you really need that big mirror?” You remarked, pointing towards the golden framed mirror by the other side of the room, facing the bed. Knowing that only a few minutes ago, you helped him move it and set it up. It was bigger than Jin, actually it could barely fit into the entrance. His expression faltering, but still kept his teasing smile, he swayed his arms into the air as if he gave up.

“Well, sorry for giving my ‘girlfriend’ the opportunity to see her gorgeous self on an everyday basis, in a 250x210 cm sized mirror” He chuckled, walking over to lay on the bed beside you. Shoulders touching and the same ceiling looking down, while you both took a break together. Being around him for so long, meant that you two were almost like two peas in a pod. Every day, there were always one of you that started to tease each other about something. It was like medicine and sometimes, it felt competitive to know who would back down first. To some people, you both seemed like a new-born couple and according to the papers on the house, you’re basically stated as one. But in reality, you’re nothing more than friends. The landlord only rented the house out to couples and to get less gossip around the new town, you decided to play it off well. Though, it also meant to act like one in public, that sometimes were taken home without knowing. None of you went over the barrier of close friends, because timing was never right and the fear of making everything awkward after what you both have been building the past year. Fishing out your phone, you checked for new messages and thankfully, to not put it down in shame, there was a notification right in front of your eyes.

“Is it him?” Jin questioned, rolling onto his side as he leaned on his elbow to settle himself comfortably, watching you reply in lighting speed.

“Yeah, he’s bored, again” You smiled fondly, remembering the way he would text you when everything became dull. It’s been too long after you left with Jin, but it never stopped you from keeping contact, for security reasons.

“While you’re at it, tell him that you lost his precious snapback on the Maldives.” Jin spoke softly, with a hint of playfulness behind it. Eyeing his expression, you just huffed while pausing to think about if it were really worth it.

“I didn’t exactly lose it on purpose, you know” You sighed, remembering the heat beating the crap out of you and the only thing holding you in the sun, was Yoongi’s precious snapback.

“You could have hold onto it tighter when we went into the cave” Another teasing comment, making you puff your cheeks that you knew he ‘adored’ so much. The way you reacted to his words, was the greatest thing he knew. That’s why, he couldn’t stop teasing you.

“Well, too late to tell me that now Mr. lost-my-swim-shorts-in-the-cliff-dive” You chuckled as you sent your reply, with an added message of the forever lost snapback and seeing his cheeks flush like a cherry blossom. Eyes showing regret and shame, remembering the awful news of his dark blue shorts in the ocean.

“ONE. TIME. LET. ME. LIVE.” Falling into a fit of laughter, he facepalmed further into despair. And so, you loved his reactions to your teasing comments. It was like a match made in heaven, if it wasn’t for the deep secret you held from each other.

“In the Maldives???” Merely shocked, Yoongi couldn’t understand why you had his snapback in the first place, but losing it…on the Maldives? That was a whole another thing.

“Suga, the AKL, SWL, OPM, LUV and BG has been accepting the idea of a trade for MDMO™” A man in his ripped jeans and black tee, he scribbled down the newcomer groups and the trade for the next few weeks, that were going to be worldwide. As a man who was a leader, for the biggest international trading group, or for some people, a mafia group, he was the one to decide what is going to happen, with the consequences incoming.

“MDMO™ is not the easiest to get my hands on, but let’s see if they will give the right price for it to circle around. 200 G/200 Pills, $8000. No less.” Yoongi stated, putting his phone back into his pocket, where it should have been all day but the business going around, were not interesting enough to pay attention to. The younger man nodded to get the right price noted down, not even flinching of the idea. MDMO™ is the most popular sex drug around and it was mainly used by Mafia groups with Hookers, Escorts, Trafficking girls and Masseuses. For good causes, was never the case, which is why it had to be done underground. That’s where UWT (Underground world trader) stands in and knows the right contacts, to make the trade happen without the fuss of jail time. Yoongi hated the idea of owning a mafia group at first but being in the top ten, changed his mind.

“Yoongi. C-1 hasn’t responded their second threat. They have 25 days left, to pay $30.000. If not, the last and third threat will be delivered.” A taller silhouette, dark brown hair and perfect hazel eyes with the right scent of a man. His brows narrowing of the idea, that his job consisted of being a huge threat due to his strength and aura, but that’s what kept him going to see you once in a while.

“Third time’s a charm, Jungkook.” Yoongi muttered while massaging his temples, getting the list of people that hasn’t paid off their loan. It was to no surprise, that Jungkook would come back with either a light blood stain on his clothes. The amount of deep threats with punches was sometimes necessary, making the reminder of a due date clear as ice. He didn’t like it, but it also gave him the power of being in control.

“I hope so. I’d hate to not let his daughter grow up with a father, if he hasn’t already succeded that with his gambling problem.” Jungkook spat, feeling the anger build in his veins that were once calm. He has probably seen more fallen men get into the despair of gambling, sex, violence and drugs, that he didn’t need any of it. He stood by, watching the family fall apart.

“Don’t get attached, Jungkook. That’s not why I let you be a part of UWT” Yoongi replied firmly, putting down the notepad of names that were going to get threats, just for that day. Giving each other a sharp eye, Jungkook sighed in annoyance. Out of all people, Yoongi were there to help Jungkook get an education in sports therapy, specifically of the human body, to know what hurts and what wouldn’t cause the biggest damage of the surface. At first, working for Yoongi, it was nothing more than a gesture of thanks. But after a while, Jungkook grew to like being a part of what’s hidden from the public, especially if he gets to see you too. It was the thrill and treats, he grew to love.

“I know. Did you hear from her yet?” Pursing his lips into a thin line, expecting good news with a bit of eagerness in his vocals. Curious, as always, he asked about you. It didn’t surprise Yoongi, in fact, a lot of things doesn’t surprise him anymore. Giving the youngest a playful smile, while holding up the phone screen to display in front of the delightful hazel eyes. With hint of shock to Jungkook’s expression, he raised a brow reading the message you had sent.

“I have a task for you, again.” Yoongi whispered. Yet, it was clear to Jungkook’s ears and his interest was peaked.

[girlsbtrs]

The Evolution of Women’s Wrestling Through Music

Written by Jennifer Moglia. Graphic by James N Grey.

If it wasn’t already obvious, judging from the fact that I write for a publication called Girls Behind The Rock Show, music is one of the most important things in my life. It has helped me form lasting friendships and relationships, given me some of the best memories and experiences, and has pushed me to find what I truly want to do with my life. However, another one of my interests, one of my favorite things in the world, actually, is something I don’t talk about quite often - professional wrestling.

No, I don’t mean the actual activity of performing professional wrestling (my body would probably snap in half), I mean watching professional wrestling, or as it is often described, “sports entertainment.” The type of professional wrestling made popular by WWE, storytelling through combat sports, is something that I got hooked on instantly.

The reason why I love writing so much is that I love telling stories, whether those stories belong to me, someone I know, or even someone I have no connection with. At the end of the day, once a story is written, it belongs to the world, for them to fall in love with and interpret in their own way.

As a writer, I feel as if I watch wrestling differently from other fans, as pretentious as that may sound. Rather than being focused on the punches and kicks or even the costumes that each performer wears, my mind is constantly zeroed in on the story being told.

Who are these characters? Why are they fighting against each other? What do they have to prove, to themselves, to their opponent, or to the world? 

What will they gain if they win this match? What will they lose if they fall short? How will they move forward, regardless of the result? 

Will this feud wrap up before the Summerslam in August, or by Wrestlemania in April? All of these questions and more swirl around my head when watching Monday Night Raw, NXT, and Friday Night Smackdown every week.

There are a ton of things that a performer can do to answer these questions, from outfit choices, to the way they speak to the audience, to how they celebrate when they win or how they react when they lose. One of my favorite ways that wrestlers’ stories are told is through their theme music.

Wrestlers’ entrance songs are some of the most iconic things about them. Whether someone is a fan of WWE or not, they’re sure to recognize John Cena’s “My Time is Now”, Hulk Hogan’s “Real American”, Triple H’s “The Game”, or CM Punk’s “Cult of Personality.” 

Music has also played an important role in some of WWE’s most iconic feuds. The quintessential video package for Daniel Bryan’s “YES” Movement and feud with Triple H leading up to him finally winning the world championship at Wrestlemania 30 was set to “Monster” by Imagine Dragons.

This is widely considered one of, if not the best, video packages that WWE has ever produced, due to the detailed way it chronicles Bryan’s entire career, from being considered an underdog and “B+ player” to winning the company’s most coveted prize in the main event of their biggest event of the year. The song, with lyrics about a man who feels like an outsider and has become something bigger than himself, elevates the emotional weight and epic feeling of the video.

With all that being said, it’s time to note one crucial detail. Notice how all of those recognizable theme songs and moments were for male performers?

Women’s wrestling has always taken a backseat to men’s wrestling, for way longer than WWE would probably like to admit. Matches with “bra and panties” stipulations, storylines centered around men and romance, an in-ring “live sex celebration” broadcast on TV, a championship belt shaped like a pink butterfly, and matches consistently being cut from shows or clocking in at under 10 minutes, sometimes even under three minutes, sadly were the norm for a very long time.

However, in the 2010s, the women’s wrestling Evolution kicked into high gear, as the women of WWE demanded to be seen as more than just “Divas.” In February 2015, after a three-hour episode of Raw had only one women’s match that lasted just over 30 seconds, fans on Twitter begged the company to #GiveDivasAChance.

The hashtag trended on Twitter and was acknowledged by WWE legends like Mick Foley, before the company’s CEO Vince McMahon tweeted the hashtag with the message “We hear you. Keep watching.” 

The next few years saw the Women’s Wrestling Evolution taking center stage, with three of the four horsewomen of WWE (Sasha Banks, Bayley, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch) debuting on the company’s main roster just a few months later in July 2015 after spending the last few years taking the NXT brand by storm. Over the course of the months that followed, women and their storylines were highlighted more than ever, setting up a red-hot feud for Wrestlemania 32 in April 2016.

What was so special about Wrestlemania 32? For the first time ever, the women would not be fighting for the Divas championship, battling to wear the glittery pink and purple butterfly belt. 

For the first time in history, the woman who won the match would be winning the WWE Women’s Championship, with a belt that looked just like the one that the men fight for. In addition, female performers would no longer be referred to as “Divas” - they would now be called Superstars, just like the men.

The next couple of years saw many more “first-ever” events for women’s wrestling. Between 2016 and 2018, fans would see the first-ever women’s Hell In A Cell match, Money in the Bank match, and Royal Rumble match, stipulations that had been staples for men for decades.

This all culminated in the first-ever all-women’s pay-per-view event, aptly titled Evolution, at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York. The night included matches that fans would look back on fondly for years to come, including wrestlers that had worked incredibly hard for years and undoubtedly deserved to have their special moments.

Women’s wrestling continued to rise in popularity in 2019, with two of the four horsewomen becoming the first-ever WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions (Sasha Banks and Bayley) and the other two (Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch), along with Ronda Rousey, made up the first-ever Wrestlemania main event to only include women.

In the years since then, there have of course been many hardships for the women of WWE, but the fanbase is behind their favorite female Superstars now more than ever. And, of course, just like the men, women’s wrestlers have used their entrance music to help build their characters and put themselves on the radar of the WWE Universe.

The aforementioned four horsewomen are a great example of this. Sasha Banks’ “Sky’s the Limit” has lyrics about reaching for the stars and achieving the dream regardless of a dark past or people who may have doubted you. This theme perfectly fits her character of “the boss”, a gritty underdog from Boston, Massachusetts who ultimately made it to the top.

Bayley’s character is a bit more complex, going from an energetic, happy-go-lucky, child-friendly character to a villain who laughs at the pain of others and betrays her friends. Her theme songs have reflected this, as her first song “Turn It Up” includes lyrics about dancing with everyone around the world while her most recent theme “Deliverance” is instrumental, filled with intimidating choir-like background and wild guitar riffs.

Charlotte Flair has never struggled with living in the shadow of her father, legendary wrestler Ric Flair. Her physicality, confidence, and general dominance made her a force to be reckoned with regardless of any men she was related to.

Her theme, “Recognition”, is a remix of her father’s music, much like how the robes she wears for her entrances are a tribute to the costumes he once wore. She maintains that she loves her family and acknowledges where she came from but is still her own person.

The final horsewoman and possibly the most popular, Becky Lynch’s theme “Celtic Invasion” seemed to doom her from the start, the music poking fun at her Irish background and setting her up to be seen as this archetype forever. However, she was able to turn the tables and become an iconic character in modern media, not just in WWE, and fans sing her music louder than the speakers play it every single night.

While the four horsewomen are often considered the poster children for the WWE Women’s Evolution, there are countless women’s wrestlers who have used their theme songs to build on their characters. Asuka’s “The Future” boasts the line “I am the future”, bringing the character’s larger-than-life, confident personality to life.

The legendary Paige’s “Stars in the Night” reads more like a pop-rock heavy-hitter than a wrestling theme, which matches her studded gear, black hair, and dark makeup perfectly. Even new rising stars like Bianca Belair have capitalized on their entrance music, embodying the line “They see that I’m way better than before, I never needed you at all” from her theme “Watch Me Shine” every time she steps into the ring.

Seeing two of my favorite things in the world in wrestling and music come together like this, especially to empower women, is something that makes my heart so happy. If you don’t already watch wrestling, I hope that this has made you want to give it a try. If you don’t plan on it, at least give some of these incredible women’s theme songs a listen (playlist linked here).

[creativemorningsseattle]

Our Q&A with July speaker, Frits Habermann, who will be talking on the topic of Intention.

🎟 You can get tickets for his upcoming CreativeMornings talk here. 🎟

Frits Habermann is a Landscape Photographer and tech entrepreneur. His passion is combining technology with art and using fancy words like “leveraging synergy” to explain what he’s passionate about. Most at home with a camera in the outback running from grizzly bears or melting his shoes on lava fields, he’s more frequently seen in his hoodie at PicMonkey HQ where he serves as its CEO. He spent 20 years at Adobe, where he co-founded Adobe InDesign and later ran the Core Technologies group. More recently, Frits served as CTO for PopCap Games and CTO/Head of Product at Lynda.com. He holds degrees in both applied mathematics and computer science from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Washington. Find Frits at fritshabermannphotography.com and on LinkedIn.

[CreativeMornings (CM)] How do you define creativity and apply it in your career? [Frits Habbermann (FH)] For me, creativity, in the moments I’m lucky enough to find some, is more of a state than a thing or goal. It is that feeling of “flow” that ignores time and place and what’s going on around me. The result need not necessarily be all that earth-shattering, but the time in flow is the only time I can be somewhat creative. This is independent of what it’s applied to. Music, photography, writing or software development; the best work seems to come when feeling totally immersed, focused and enjoying the process.

(CM) Where do you find your best creative inspiration?

(FH) From nature, mostly water. Besides the greater context of nature that simply clears your head and puts many things into perspective, photographing water always delivers unique results. It is never a picture of what your eye sees, as a long-exposure blurs rushing water into abstract swirls and cotton-candy type effects. Every moment is different and the timing is always nature’s timing, never yours. From that, you learn patience, and usually, there are one or two results that will give you a great feeling of inspiration.

(CM) What’s the one creative advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person?

(FH) Malcolm Gladwell’s theory that 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice” are needed to become world-class in any field. As a kid, I assumed you were either talented or not, and that if your grandmother told you-you played the piano well, well then the next likely step would be Carnegie Hall, no sweat. When that didn’t come so easily, I assumed I must not be all that talented, so I should go do something else. With a bit more life experience under my belt, I can now enjoy the learning process as opposed to the end goal. I can trace the stages of improvement through chunks of hours I’ve applied over the years to creative things I enjoy.

(CM) Who would you like to hear speak at CreativeMornings?

(FH) Jean Gang, the designer of the “Aqua” building in Chicago. To sketch out a building on paper is one thing, but to have the vision to build 80 feet of steel, concrete, and glass that creates the illusion of water rippling along the side of the building is creativity at whole different level.

(CM) What is the one movie or book every creative must see/read?

(FH)“Timeless Way of Building” by Christopher Alexander. It’s a classic book on architecture, but more importantly, creates a pattern language around “spaces that live”. Part design system, part philosophy, but all interesting. It formed the basis for the classic “Pattern Languages of Program Design” book in computer science. Buy it in hardback because the form factor, paper, type, and layout are also of a stark aesthetic that just completes the experience.

(CM) What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

(FH) Dropped down to the edge of a volcanic crater on mountain bikes in the middle of the night to get a shot of the lava lake below. We needed gas masks to avoid the sulphuric acid, goggles to avoid the glass from the steam in the air, and careful steps around the fissures at the edge of the rim, lest they break off and fall into the cauldron below.

[infoburger]

Name: Kano van Schouten ( formerly Imagawa [ still go back for some purposes ] )

Age: 22

Hair Color: Medium Brown

Eye Color: Light Brown

Origin:  Fontaine, Ransei

Raised: Fontaine, Ransei

Current Residence: Unknown

Occupation: Ship captain and trader, infamous pirate [ CEO of a trading and shipping company ] companies in modern verse ]

Partner: Magikarp -> Gyarados  

Family:

Parents ? Jan van Schouten ( father, appr.late fifties [ unknown if alive and  incarcerated or dead ] )  Imagawa, Saigo ( mother, 50 )

Siblings ? Nobuo van Schouten ( younger half-brother, 21 ) ( probably others as all )

Grandparents ? N/A

Aunts and/or Uncles ? N/A

Cousins ? N/A ( probably a lot )

In Laws ?  N/A ( probably a lot )

Nephews and/or Nieces ? N/A ( probably a lot )

Others ? Hamako ( 15 )

Height: 6’3 / 190.5 cm

Birthday: August 17th

Usual Place to Find at: In the office of of his ship or wandering through markets

Important Notes: 

Owns a trading business involving that vary greatly to weaponry to information on research. Explaining his large ship and crew.

Have a large collection of rare items and various types of weaponry

Can be seen with one his crew members often and usually have his Gothita at his side.

Most of his crew are made up of runaways, orphans, debt owners, and outlaws . Also their Pokemon are technically his, but let them keep the claim of their own Pokemon unless he have a motive for something.

Quick Personality Sum:

Prideful and stubborn, always thinks he knows best until proven wrong. Even though he won’t directly admit it either.

Over confident and brash, he don’t seem to care what comes out his mouth or how he acts. His decisions and actions are rash with little to no fear of his consequences.

Have a casual even comical demeanor about himself, but still holds a authoritative and demanding attitude with others. His childlike personality makes it hard to know if he should be taken seriously or not.

Even though his trading business is a mere cover for his criminal, he do know how to behave like a good merchant and how his ‘business’ works. Can be very professional and charismatic at the flip of a switch

Backstory: Born from a trader told be from a foreign land and a maiden he took from the nation, Fontaine. He was raised purely by his mother who was a housekeeper for a wealthy and noble family.

Kano was never one to settle for nothing, after reaching his adolescent years heand small crew of local Pokemon he befriended raided the home as well as others for valuables.Giving his mother new gifts and pets frequently making her smile, however when she found out how he obtained this wealth she rejected him.

Writing a letter to his father so he could learn a productive way of earning money and the right way to treat Pokemon. However living on his father’s ship, Kano learned that his father just used his trader title as a cover up for his piracy activities.

Deciding to send Kano back to Fontaine in his mid teens since the boy was becoming a weakness to his business, giving him a map and boat. However Kano had no interest of going back to his old town, visiting other kingdoms instead.

Looting many areas until he gain a a even more infamous status than his father, keeping up an appearance of a ship captain of traders like his father as well. But, he prides himself as an more honorable man than his father still.

Faceclaim: Date Masamune from Sengoku Basara

Specialize in what types: None

Favorite Type(s): Water and Dark

Hobbies ?: Fishing , studying trade and politics, and spearman-ship

Favorite Food(s): Most seafood dishes, most pickled and salted dishes, most desserts. He just love food in general, so he’s not too picky.

Interest(s) with Pokemon ?: Over his lifetime his treatment of Pokemon vastly different for viewing them as companions to valuable merchandise or investments then finally to individual creatures. He value potential strength in a Pokemon, though he is softy for cutesy Pokemon. He see his underlings’ Pokemon as worthy members ship members and enjoys having time to converse with his own Pokemon and his crew Pokemon [ from praising, teasing, playing, and even sparring with the larger Pokemon ]. 

Know any other muse(s): None

——————————————————————————————————

Modern Verse 

  An well known foreign business tycoon of various of companies, but notably his trading and shipping company inherited from his father’s side. He frequently travels abroad, but since most of his business is in Unova he spends the most time there. In actually he runs an underground crime syndicate and known in the criminal world to run underground auctions from anything to be thought of whether legal or not.

He’s said to be many of bastard children of former crime lord and president of the companies that he nowrun, but as an young and upstanding financial figure people think that the Schouten’s name can be something of good.His was life full of delinquency after being disowned by mother and left for dead by his father after working so hard to find him.

Deciding to be a wanderer like many other teens were doing, but found very profitable joy out of this after the years so he decided to enroll in school and afterwards college before launching an start trading companyon his own. It didn’t take long for him fall into his father’s ways and start corrupting merely year or two after proving success without criminal tactics.

—————————————————————————————————————

( Impish, Loves to eat )

Fished out as a Magikarp when he was a younger while sailing aimlessly at sea. Kano was planning on eating him at first until the fish slapped him repeatedly in the face. Throwing him back in the water in frustration, the Pokemon found the emotionalturmoil amusing following him around. Having to endure the travel made him stronger to the point of eventually evolving.  When Magikarp evolved he decided to wreck the wannabee treasure hunter’s raft as a ( horrible ) joke and way of asking to be join him officially.

Primsy-chi  ( Sassy, Somewhat vain )

While in the nation ofIllusio he wanted to link with some of the new Psychic Pokemon he saw. Thinking the little cutie wouldn’t be picky about him since she was so small and harmless looking. Refusing to be at Kano’s side until he gave up and looked out for anotherPokemon. This made her jealous that the pirate was not trying hard to win over her friendship like before and practically demanded to join him. Usually seen being carried by him and recognized by most Kano’s business partners.

( Jolly, Likes to fight )

Met as a Zweilous near a strange floating rock near the Yaksha nation while visiting the area. Kano was drawn to the fearsome appearance of the dual headed dragon, wanting a strong Pokemon since he only counted on Gyarados and his crew’s Pokemon to defend the ship. Have a energetic and playful personality, like to have friendly bouts with the crew Pokemon and with Kano when practicing his spear man-ship.

—————————————————————————————————————

Relations with Others ( RP Wise or Not )

Family

Jan van Schouten / Baas / Father and former captain

Kano will not mention his father at all, not due to most knowing that’s related to infamous criminal in some way. In actually, Kano just don’t like his father as a person and rejects looking up to himwhen he was younger. Determined if he sees his old man again that he will give him a good beating, if he’s still alive that is.

Imagawa, Saigo / Kaachan / Mother

He have very strained relationship with his mother, buthe still care a lot about her. However, Kano still have not made the effort to go back home and apologize for years. Despite his estranged status with her the man still affectionately calls his mother “kaachan” instead speaking about her more formally. 

Nobuo van Schouten / Nobo / Younger Half Brother and second in command   

Though both met as adults, Kano feels a sense of an kinship loyalty and believes Nobou feels the same. Though slightly older, Kano is the one that runs to the more rational and calm Nobuo for advice; one of the few people he give complete trust to. 

Hamako [ van Schouten ] / Hama / Loyal Brat and younger sister figure  

He found Hama in the Pugilis kingdom as leader of local street orphans. After some fast talking she found her way in Kano’s crew and forced the man to feel obligated in helping her friends find families. They get into quarrels and he’s constantly lectured by the fussy teenager. But, he does view her as a younger sister and respect her bonds with her Fighting Pokemon.

Naemi van Scouten / Little doll / Daughter 

Despite his short adult life so far, Kano have fathered a cute and polite 

—————————————————————————————————————

Mun Notes: Usually I like to place Kano in an mid-late 1500’s time-set, but if someone wants place him in an modern time for convenience I’m fine with that. Just talk to me at first before doing it, so we can plan something out first.

[dannygronerportfolio]

10 Things I’m Most Proud of From 2020

This year didn’t go the way any of us had expected, to say the least. As we turn the corner into a new year, there’s reason to be hopeful for a better year on the horizon. Slowly, we will regain more control over our individual lives, and I’m excited for the possibility,  in the coming months, of going outdoors without a mask on and greeting peers with something other than apprehension and fear.

Over the course of the year, I’ve been privileged to keep my job. The day-to-day work shifted a good deal, though. I’m sharing below some of the work I accomplished along the way that I’m most proud of from the year gone by.

With so much uncertainty abound, I sprang into action to assist job seekers - recent grads to senior-level executives - however I could to encourage them to refocus and reframe their searches. I have spoken to over 100 people directly, staying in touch regularly with dozens of them. I’m please that seven of them to my knowledge have secured good landing spots, and while I didn’t make the introductions for any of them, I know I offered some counsel and support that enabled them to get where they were going. I continue to provide assistance wherever possible.

I told stories from my perspective. I kicked off the year with an essay in Business Insider. In April, I spoke to The Wall Street Journal about the mental health component of quarantine living. This fall, I told Salon about how strange it is to eat lunch at the workplace right now. And last week I was on Marketplace discussing holiday gifts. In between, I talked about my professional journey, my religious life, my vision for the future of my industry, and my chosen neighborhood.

On February 27, when our HR team advised we prepare to be home for an extended period of time, I recognized that this pandemic would impact businesses unlike we’ve seen before. I got early-pandemic mentions of us in the New York Times, NPR, The Atlantic, New York Post, and CNBC. By the Spring, when everyone was working from home, we continued to see coverage in places like Axios, CBS News, San Jose Mercury News, Business Insider, ABC News, and Yahoo Finance. Both TechCrunch and Inc. took notice this Summer as offices reopened. Then, this Fall and into the Winter, the emphasis turned to what Covid-19 will mean for the future of office spaces, and Recode, The Real Deal, Fast Company, the New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal all followed. It’s a still unfolding story as we head into 2021.

In addition to telling the future-of-real-estate story, I spotted several chances to tell more innovative stories about how the pandemic was shifting our regular course of action. Colleagues were quoted about moving back in with their parents in publications like The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times (x2), Protocol, and New York Post (x2). They also spoke candidly with the Times, The Washington Post (x2), Marketplace, Apartment Therapy, and Bisnow about everything from their evolving priorities to their home work setups.

During a May full team hackathon, I saw a project that I suspected would earn us some press: an office algorithm that would replicate the serendipity we all largely associate with offices. Our approach to tackling this new problem with a new-age solution led to coverage in Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC (x2), The Wall Street Journal, Digiday, Protocol, and Built In. This is a prime example, in my opinion, of how PRs can find better angles from being embedded into teams than on the outside looking in on a business.

In conversations with colleagues this past Summer, we realized that you can manage your ecosystem at home and your company can establish guidelines for the environment at work, but the ‘in-between’ spaces present issues. For example, the subway. Nowhere more in an office building is more affected by this shift in thinking than the elevators. So we pitched around that discomfort and uncertainty and secured coverage in The Wall Street Journal, Marketplace, New York Business Journal, Protocol, HRReporter, and Dallas Business Journal.

I was asked this year to help some partners in an advisory role to get them thinking about Growth PR. I found one of them some creative opportunities in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, AdAge, Yahoo Finance, Reader’s Digest, Real Simple, and the San Francisco Chronicle. For the other, I helped get them into CNN, Recode, Curbed, Marketplace, PopSugar, and Delish. This assistance helped me see how far I can extend my view and my reach.

Company culture with WFH has been a hot topic this year, and all companies had the chance to get cited for their hard work to keep everyone active and engaged amid a different outlook. We saw coverage in this regard from Harvard Business Review (x2), Bloomberg, the Huffington Post, Bisnow, and Built In. Before the pandemic hit the U.S., we had had one-off pieces about our company book club and the evolving role of the Chief People Officer.

Outside of this executive sets of spokespeople, we chimed in a fair number of times this year about the way that businesses are changing the way they do things at the granular level. HubSpot, Crunchbase, The Muse, CMS Wire, and Business.com all featured colleagues shedding some light on how SquareFoot is thinking about both sales operations and career development in the modern era of real estate.

And, lastly, I worked closely with our CEO this year on a series of guest posts with original angles. Most prominently, he shared his thoughts this Fall about why CEOs like him need to stop pressuring employees about productivity during a pandemic. We employed the guest-posting strategy to get in front of new audiences in spots like The Next Web, Benefits Pro, Social Media Explorer, Human Resources Director, AllWork, JaxEnter, and CSQ magazine. We also placed guest posts to introduce a new market (LA) for the company and to welcome a new executive to our team.

(Here’s a link to the 2019 list.)

[olgagarmash]

Amedisys Looks to Pull Away from the Home Health Pack with ‘No Brainer’ Contessa Deal – Home Health Care News

Aging-in-place company Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) on Wednesday announced plans to acquire hospital-at-home pioneer Contessa Health for $250 million.

From a nuts-and-bolts perspective, the deal — expected to close later this summer — makes a ton of sense for Amedisys.

Among the strategic benefits, for example, it gives the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based company an unprecedented range of in-home care capabilities, adding acute-level care to its existing mix of home health, hospice and personal care services. In addition to expanding its in-home care continuum, Contessa comes with turn-key partnerships with highly regarded health systems and ample experience operating in the world of risk, something Amedisys has long prioritized. 

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Yet from a broader, more long-term view, the deal was about so much more, Amedisys CEO and Chairman Paul Kusserow told Home Health Care News.

“We’re taking home health to new places,” Kusserow said. “That’s always been our ambition. I know it seems a little arrogant, but I believe this acquisition shows how we’re continuing to find new places to drive care in the home, to drive aging in place. We’re continuing to lead in that effort.”

Today’s home health landscape remains highly fragmented, with the top 10 companies accounting for slightly more than 25% of the national market share. While they’ve all taken different paths to becoming home health giants, their overall business models sometimes look similar, defined by a focus on the three traditional in-home care service lines.

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With Contessa under its roof acting as a unique business segment, Amedisys instantly pulls away from the contemporary home health pack, Kusserow explained.

Additionally, by adding hospital-at-home, SNF-at-home and palliative care programs to its bag of in-home care tricks, Amedisys simultaneously grows its total addressable market from about $44 billion to $73 billion.

“As we dug into this, I saw a really comprehensive, thoughtful business that took risk and cared for higher-acuity patients,” Kusserow said. “And it’s able to expand our market in ways that I don’t think we could get to, nor do I think the rest of the industry could get to, within the next four or five years.”

In many ways, the same could be said for what Amedisys does for the Nashville, Tennessee-based Contessa.

When Contessa launched in 2015, there were plenty of individual hospital-at-home programs, but few up-and-coming companies that specialized in acute care in the home. That’s mostly still true, with Contessa, Medically Home and DispatchHealth often viewed as the de facto market leaders.

But health care entrepreneurs and others have increasingly shifted their focus to the hospital-at-home space as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning the current field may soon become crowded.

Once its deal with Amedisys is finalized, Contessa will be in a class of its own, Travis Messina, the company’s founder and CEO, told HHCN.

“We’ve heard a pretty consistent message from health system executives, that they’re growing wary of having a partner for home health, a different partner for hospital-at-home, a different partner for et cetera, et cetera,” Messina said. “The partnership and company, once the deal is closed, will be able to provide the full continuum of services in the home. I think that continuity is something that’s highly attractive to those executives.”

How it came together

Deals can sometimes come together in a few months. In a sense, Amedisys’ agreement to acquire Contessa came together over several years.

Prior to taking over the CEO role at Amedisys in 2014, Kusserow had held various leadership roles at Alignment Healthcare Inc. (Nasdaq: ALHC) and Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM). His previous experience also included time with the Ziegler HealthVest Fund, San Ysidro Capital Partners, Roaring Mountain and Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE: THC).

At one point, Kusserow was even involved with building Clinically Home, an early adopter of the hospital-at-home program.

“It was always an idea I really loved,” he recalled.

In those pre-Amedisys days, Kusserow and Messina had crossed paths on numerous occasions, with the former taking an interest in the latter’s developing career. When the time came for Kusserow to move on from Clinically Home, he attempted to bring in Messina to help guide the company — but was ultimately rejected.

“It’s actually a funny story,” Kusserow told HHCN. “When Travis first started out, I thought, ‘Wow. Smart guy. Why don’t we give him a chance?’ And he turned me down.”

Clearly, Messina had his own hospital-at-home ambitions. He formed Contessa after serving as chief investment officer of Martin Ventures, growing it from a small startup to a home-based care innovator with seven major health system partnerships and about 140 employees — raising tens of millions of dollars in the process.

While Contessa was doing well before the pandemic, the spotlight on home-based care placed “a lot of increased focus” on its model, Messina said. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) “Acute Hospital Care at Home” waiver accelerated interest as well.

As of June 28, CMS had approved 68 health systems and 142 hospitals in 32 states to participate in the hospital-at-home initiative, publicly available data shows.

With more momentum than ever, Messina and his team began thinking about Contessa’s next chapter.

“We were actually going out and looking to private equity funds to be that partner for growth going into the future,” Messina said. “But after sitting down with the Amedisys team, … it made sense that this would enable hospital-at-home and SNF-at-home, allowing Contessa to succeed at its highest potential. The capabilities they bring from their experience of rendering care in the home — and the quality of the nurses that they bring into the home — is unmatched.”

The $250 million purchase price represents a multiple of 3.9 times 2022 revenue, according to Amedisys. Other tech-enabled health care services companies are trading at about 6 times 2022 revenue.

“It became clear that they were going out for another round of financing or potentially selling,” Kusserow said. “My team came to me and said that … if we’re going to walk the talk, we’ve got to get this company.”

“It was a no-brainer,” he added.

Strategic advantages

In Wednesday’s announcement, leaders from Amedisys and Contessa hammered home the transformational nature of their agreement.

There are, however, more immediate strategic advantages as well.

Amedisys currently delivers home health, hospice and personal care services across 39 states and Washington, D.C. It’s able to do so through its workforce of roughly 21,000 employees, the company’s lifeblood and greatest asset, according to Kusserow.

In recent years, Amedisys has invested heavily in recruiting and retention initiatives, which include the use of predictive analytics to track and prevent turnover. Acquiring Contessa would add to those efforts, as many clinicians seek to sharpen their skills through new care delivery models.

“Nurses are hard to find, particularly higher-level skilled nurses,” Kusserow said. “And they’re hard to keep. When we go into a marketplace, this gives nurses a chance to be at the vanguard of new types of care. It validates home health, too, for a lot of these folks.”

Contessa’s model likewise depends on highly skilled clinicians who are comfortable tackling an array of complex conditions in the home. But to grow beyond its current seven-state footprint, Contessa knew it needed to acquire more health care professionals.

Instead of diverting resources toward hiring, Contessa can now lean on Amedisys’ workforce, Messina noted. Besides fast-tracking growth, having a partner like Amedisys will go a long way toward reassuring physicians, he said.

“One of the most critical components of our model is to ensure that the physicians who are admitting patients to the program are comfortable with the nurses who are at the patient’s bedside,” Messina said. “If you don’t create that trust, there is no way you will drive adoption of the model.”

What’s more, teaming up with Contessa also gives Amedisys a strong foot in the door with health systems like Mount Sinai, Highmark Health and others.

“It brings us into a new audience with a new conversation, but with an established product that they value,” Kusserow said.

On top of all the aforementioned advantages, acquiring Contessa will also fuel admissions growth in the home health and hospice departments while giving Amedisys more firepower to establish risk-sharing arrangements.

“We believe that this is where the world’s moving,” Kusserow said. “And this is where we have to play.”

source https://wealthch.com/amedisys-looks-to-pull-away-from-the-home-health-pack-with-no-brainer-contessa-deal-home-health-care-news/

[seomiamiseo]

Fifteen Years Is a Long Time in SEO

Posted by willcritchlow

I’ve been in an introspective mood lately.

Earlier this year (15 years after starting Distilled in 2005), we spun out a new company called SearchPilot to focus on our SEO A/B testing and meta-CMS technology (previously known as Distilled ODN), and merged the consulting and conferences part of the business with Brainlabs.

I’m now CEO of SearchPilot (which is primarily owned by the shareholders of Distilled), and am also SEO Partner at Brainlabs, so… I’m sorry everyone, but I’m very much staying in the SEO industry.

As such, it feels a bit like the end of a chapter for me rather than the end of the book, but it has still had me looking back over what’s changed and what hasn’t over the last 15 years I’ve been in the industry.

I can’t lay claim to being one of the first generation of SEO experts, but having been building websites since around 1996 and having seen the growth of Google from the beginning, I feel like maybe I’m second generation, and maybe I have some interesting stories to share with those who are newer to the game.

I’ve racked my brain to try and remember what felt significant at the time, and also looked back over the big trends through my time in the industry, to put together what I think makes an interesting reading list that most people working on the web today would do well to know about.

The big eras of search

I joked at the beginning of a presentation I gave in 2018 that the big eras of search oscillated between directives from the search engines and search engines rapidly backing away from those directives when they saw what webmasters actually did:

While that slide was a bit tongue-in-cheek, I do think that there’s something to thinking about the eras like:

Build websites: Do you have a website? Would you like a website? It’s hard to believe now, but in the early days of the web, a lot of folks needed to be persuaded to get their business online at all.

Keywords: Basic information retrieval became adversarial information retrieval as webmasters realized that they could game the system with keyword stuffing, hidden text, and more.

Links: As the scale of the web grew beyond user-curated directories, link-based algorithms for search began to dominate.

Not those links: Link-based algorithms began to give way to adversarial link-based algorithms as webmasters swapped, bought, and manipulated links across the web graph.

Content for the long tail: Alongside this era, the length of the long tail began to be better-understood by both webmasters and by Google themselves — and it was in the interest of both parties to create massive amounts of (often obscure) content and get it indexed for when it was needed.

Not that content: Perhaps predictably (see the trend here?), the average quality of content returned in search results dropped dramatically, and so we see the first machine learning ranking factors in the form of attempts to assess “quality” (alongside relevance and website authority).

Machine learning: Arguably everything from that point onwards has been an adventure into machine learning and artificial intelligence, and has also taken place during the careers of most marketers working in SEO today. So, while I love writing about that stuff, I’ll return to it another day.

History of SEO: crucial moments

Although I’m sure that there are interesting stories to be told about the pre-Google era of SEO, I’m not the right person to tell them (if you have a great resource, please do drop it in the comments), so let’s start early in the Google journey:

Google’s foundational technology

Even if you’re coming into SEO in 2020, in a world of machine-learned ranking factors, I’d still recommend going back and reading the surprisingly accessible early academic work:

The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page [PDF]

Link Analysis in Web Information Retrieval [PDF]

Reasonable surfer (and the updated version)

If you weren’t using the web back then, it’s probably hard to imagine what a step-change improvement Google’s PageRank-based algorithm was over the “state-of-the-art” at the time (and it’s hard to remember, even for those of us that were):

Google’s IPO

In more “things that are hard to remember clearly,” at the time of Google’s IPO in 2004, very few people expected Google to become one of the most profitable companies ever. In the early days, the founders had talked of their disdain for advertising, and had experimented with keyword-based adverts somewhat reluctantly. Because of this attitude, even within the company, most employees didn’t know what a rocket ship they were building.

From this era, I’d recommend reading the founders’ IPO letter (see this great article from Danny Sullivan — who’s ironically now @SearchLiaison at Google):

“Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating.”

“Because we do not charge merchants for inclusion in Froogle [now Google shopping], our users can browse product categories or conduct product searches with confidence that the results we provide are relevant and unbiased.” — S1 Filing

In addition, In the Plex is an enjoyable book published in 2011 by Steven Levy. It tells the story of what then-CEO Eric Schmidt called (around the time of the IPO) “the hiding strategy”:

“Those who knew the secret … were instructed quite firmly to keep their mouths shut about it.”

“What Google was hiding was how it had cracked the code to making money on the Internet.”

Luckily for Google, for users, and even for organic search marketers, it turned out that this wasn’t actually incompatible with their pure ideals from the pre-IPO days because, as Levy recounts, “in repeated tests, searchers were happier with pages with ads than those where they were suppressed”. Phew!

Index everything

In April 2003, Google acquired a company called Applied Semantics and set in motion a series of events that I think might be the most underrated part of Google’s history.

Applied Semantics technology was integrated with their own contextual ad technology to form what became AdSense. Although the revenue from AdSense has always been dwarfed by AdWords (now just “Google Ads”), its importance in the history of SEO is hard to understate.

By democratizing the monetization of content on the web and enabling everyone to get paid for producing obscure content, it funded the creation of absurd amounts of that content.

Most of this content would have never been seen if it weren’t for the existence of a search engine that excelled in its ability to deliver great results for long tail searches, even if those searches were incredibly infrequent or had never been seen before.

In this way, Google’s search engine (and search advertising business) formed a powerful flywheel with its AdSense business, enabling the funding of the content creation it needed to differentiate itself with the largest and most complete index of the web.

As with so many chapters in the story, though, it also created a monster in the form of low quality or even auto-generated content that would ultimately lead to PR crises and massive efforts to fix.

If you’re interested in the index everything era, you can read more of my thoughts about it in slide 47+ of From the Horse’s Mouth.

Web spam

The first forms of spam on the internet were various forms of messages, which hit the mainstream as email spam. During the early 2000s, Google started talking about the problem they’d ultimately term “web spam” (the earliest mention I’ve seen of link spam is in an Amit Singhal presentation from 2005 entitled Challenges in running a Commercial Web Search Engine [PDF]).

I suspect that even people who start in SEO today might’ve heard of Matt Cutts — the first head of webspam — as he’s still referenced often despite not having worked at Google since 2014. I enjoyed this 2015 presentation that talks about his career trajectory at Google.

Search quality era

Over time, as a result of the opposing nature of webmasters trying to make money versus Google (and others) trying to make the best search engine they could, pure web spam wasn’t the only quality problem Google was facing. The cat-and-mouse game of spotting manipulation — particularly of on-page content, external links, and anchor text) — would be a defining feature of the next decade-plus of search.

It was after Singhal’s presentation above that Eric Schmidt (then Google’s CEO) said, “Brands are the solution, not the problem… Brands are how you sort out the cesspool”.

Those who are newer to the industry will likely have experienced some Google updates (such as recent “core updates”) first-hand, and have quite likely heard of a few specific older updates. But “Vince”, which came after “Florida” (the first major confirmed Google update), and rolled out shortly after Schmidt’s pronouncements on brand, was a particularly notable one for favoring big brands. If you haven’t followed all the history, you can read up on key past updates here:

A real reputational threat

As I mentioned above in the AdSense section, there were strong incentives for webmasters to create tons of content, thus targeting the blossoming long tail of search. If you had a strong enough domain, Google would crawl and index immense numbers of pages, and for obscure enough queries, any matching content would potentially rank. This triggered the rapid growth of so-called “content farms” that mined keyword data from anywhere they could, and spun out low-quality keyword-matching content. At the same time, websites were succeeding by allowing large databases of content to get indexed even as very thin pages, or by allowing huge numbers of pages of user-generated content to get indexed.

This was a real reputational threat to Google, and broke out of the search and SEO echo chamber. It had become such a bugbear of communities like Hacker News and StackOverflow, that Matt Cutts submitted a personal update to the Hacker News community when Google launched an update targeted at fixing one specific symptom — namely that scraper websites were routinely outranking the original content they were copying.

Shortly afterwards, Google rolled out the update initially named the “farmer update”. After it launched, we learned it had been made possible because of a breakthrough by an engineer called Panda, hence it was called the “big Panda” update internally at Google, and since then the SEO community has mainly called it the Panda update.

Although we speculated that the internal working of the update was one of the first real uses of machine learning in the core of the organic search algorithm at Google, the features it was modelling were more easily understood as human-centric quality factors, and so we began recommending SEO-targeted changes to our clients based on the results of human quality surveys.

Everything goes mobile-first

I gave a presentation at SearchLove London in 2014 where I talked about the unbelievable growth and scale of mobile and about how late we were to realizing quite how seriously Google was taking this. I highlighted the surprise many felt hearing that Google was designing mobile first:

“Towards the end of last year we launched some pretty big design improvements for search on mobile and tablet devices. Today we’ve carried over several of those changes to the desktop experience.” — Jon Wiley (lead engineer for Google Search speaking on Google+, which means there’s nowhere to link to as a perfect reference for the quote but it’s referenced here as well as in my presentation).

This surprise came despite the fact that, by the time I gave this presentation in 2014, we knew that mobile search had begun to cannibalize desktop search (and we’d seen the first drop in desktop search volumes):

And it came even though people were starting to say that the first year of Google making the majority of its revenue on mobile was less than two years away:

Writing this in 2020, it feels as though we have fully internalized how big a deal mobile is, but it’s interesting to remember that it took a while for it to sink in.

Machine learning becomes the norm

Since the Panda update, machine learning was mentioned more and more in the official communications from Google about algorithm updates, and it was implicated in even more. We know that, historically, there had been resistance from some quarters (including from Singhal) towards using machine learning in the core algorithm due to the way it prevented human engineers from explaining the results. In 2015, Sundar Pichai took over as CEO, moved Singhal aside (though this may have been for other reasons), and installed AI / ML fans in key roles.

It goes full-circle

Back before the Florida update (in fact, until Google rolled out an update they called Fritz in the summer of 2003), search results used to shuffle regularly in a process nicknamed the Google Dance:

Most things have been moving more real-time ever since, but recent “Core Updates” appear to have brought back this kind of dynamic where changes happen on Google’s schedule rather than based on the timelines of website changes. I’ve speculated that this is because “core updates” are really Google retraining a massive deep learning model that is very customized to the shape of the web at the time. Whatever the cause, our experience working with a wide range of clients is consistent with the official line from Google that:

Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted by one might not recover — assuming improvements have been made — until the next broad core update is released.

Tying recent trends and discoveries like this back to ancient history like the Google Dance is just one of the ways in which knowing the history of SEO is “useful”.

If you’re interested in all this

I hope this journey through my memories has been interesting. For those of you who also worked in the industry through these years, what did I miss? What are the really big milestones you remember? Drop them in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter.

If you liked this walk down memory lane, you might also like my presentation From the Horse’s Mouth, where I attempt to use official and unofficial Google statements to unpack what is really going on behind the scenes, and try to give some tips for doing the same yourself:



SearchLove San Diego 2018 | Will Critchlow | From the Horse’s Mouth: What We Can Learn from Google’s Own Words from Distilled

To help us serve you better, please consider taking the 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey, which asks about who you are, what challenges you face, and what you'd like to see more of on the Moz Blog.

Take the Survey

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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[dentalimplant0]

Fifteen Years Is a Long Time in SEO

Posted by willcritchlow

I’ve been in an introspective mood lately.

Earlier this year (15 years after starting Distilled in 2005), we spun out a new company called SearchPilot to focus on our SEO A/B testing and meta-CMS technology (previously known as Distilled ODN), and merged the consulting and conferences part of the business with Brainlabs.

I’m now CEO of SearchPilot (which is primarily owned by the shareholders of Distilled), and am also SEO Partner at Brainlabs, so… I’m sorry everyone, but I’m very much staying in the SEO industry.

As such, it feels a bit like the end of a chapter for me rather than the end of the book, but it has still had me looking back over what’s changed and what hasn’t over the last 15 years I’ve been in the industry.

I can’t lay claim to being one of the first generation of SEO experts, but having been building websites since around 1996 and having seen the growth of Google from the beginning, I feel like maybe I’m second generation, and maybe I have some interesting stories to share with those who are newer to the game.

I’ve racked my brain to try and remember what felt significant at the time, and also looked back over the big trends through my time in the industry, to put together what I think makes an interesting reading list that most people working on the web today would do well to know about.

The big eras of search

I joked at the beginning of a presentation I gave in 2018 that the big eras of search oscillated between directives from the search engines and search engines rapidly backing away from those directives when they saw what webmasters actually did:

While that slide was a bit tongue-in-cheek, I do think that there’s something to thinking about the eras like:

Build websites: Do you have a website? Would you like a website? It’s hard to believe now, but in the early days of the web, a lot of folks needed to be persuaded to get their business online at all.

Keywords: Basic information retrieval became adversarial information retrieval as webmasters realized that they could game the system with keyword stuffing, hidden text, and more.

Links: As the scale of the web grew beyond user-curated directories, link-based algorithms for search began to dominate.

Not those links: Link-based algorithms began to give way to adversarial link-based algorithms as webmasters swapped, bought, and manipulated links across the web graph.

Content for the long tail: Alongside this era, the length of the long tail began to be better-understood by both webmasters and by Google themselves — and it was in the interest of both parties to create massive amounts of (often obscure) content and get it indexed for when it was needed.

Not that content: Perhaps predictably (see the trend here?), the average quality of content returned in search results dropped dramatically, and so we see the first machine learning ranking factors in the form of attempts to assess “quality” (alongside relevance and website authority).

Machine learning: Arguably everything from that point onwards has been an adventure into machine learning and artificial intelligence, and has also taken place during the careers of most marketers working in SEO today. So, while I love writing about that stuff, I’ll return to it another day.

History of SEO: crucial moments

Although I’m sure that there are interesting stories to be told about the pre-Google era of SEO, I’m not the right person to tell them (if you have a great resource, please do drop it in the comments), so let’s start early in the Google journey:

Google’s foundational technology

Even if you’re coming into SEO in 2020, in a world of machine-learned ranking factors, I’d still recommend going back and reading the surprisingly accessible early academic work:

The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page [PDF]

Link Analysis in Web Information Retrieval [PDF]

Reasonable surfer (and the updated version)

If you weren’t using the web back then, it’s probably hard to imagine what a step-change improvement Google’s PageRank-based algorithm was over the “state-of-the-art” at the time (and it’s hard to remember, even for those of us that were):

Google’s IPO

In more “things that are hard to remember clearly,” at the time of Google’s IPO in 2004, very few people expected Google to become one of the most profitable companies ever. In the early days, the founders had talked of their disdain for advertising, and had experimented with keyword-based adverts somewhat reluctantly. Because of this attitude, even within the company, most employees didn’t know what a rocket ship they were building.

From this era, I’d recommend reading the founders’ IPO letter (see this great article from Danny Sullivan — who’s ironically now @SearchLiaison at Google):

“Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating.”

“Because we do not charge merchants for inclusion in Froogle [now Google shopping], our users can browse product categories or conduct product searches with confidence that the results we provide are relevant and unbiased.” — S1 Filing

In addition, In the Plex is an enjoyable book published in 2011 by Steven Levy. It tells the story of what then-CEO Eric Schmidt called (around the time of the IPO) “the hiding strategy”:

“Those who knew the secret … were instructed quite firmly to keep their mouths shut about it.”

“What Google was hiding was how it had cracked the code to making money on the Internet.”

Luckily for Google, for users, and even for organic search marketers, it turned out that this wasn’t actually incompatible with their pure ideals from the pre-IPO days because, as Levy recounts, “in repeated tests, searchers were happier with pages with ads than those where they were suppressed”. Phew!

Index everything

In April 2003, Google acquired a company called Applied Semantics and set in motion a series of events that I think might be the most underrated part of Google’s history.

Applied Semantics technology was integrated with their own contextual ad technology to form what became AdSense. Although the revenue from AdSense has always been dwarfed by AdWords (now just “Google Ads”), its importance in the history of SEO is hard to understate.

By democratizing the monetization of content on the web and enabling everyone to get paid for producing obscure content, it funded the creation of absurd amounts of that content.

Most of this content would have never been seen if it weren’t for the existence of a search engine that excelled in its ability to deliver great results for long tail searches, even if those searches were incredibly infrequent or had never been seen before.

In this way, Google’s search engine (and search advertising business) formed a powerful flywheel with its AdSense business, enabling the funding of the content creation it needed to differentiate itself with the largest and most complete index of the web.

As with so many chapters in the story, though, it also created a monster in the form of low quality or even auto-generated content that would ultimately lead to PR crises and massive efforts to fix.

If you’re interested in the index everything era, you can read more of my thoughts about it in slide 47+ of From the Horse’s Mouth.

Web spam

The first forms of spam on the internet were various forms of messages, which hit the mainstream as email spam. During the early 2000s, Google started talking about the problem they’d ultimately term “web spam” (the earliest mention I’ve seen of link spam is in an Amit Singhal presentation from 2005 entitled Challenges in running a Commercial Web Search Engine [PDF]).

I suspect that even people who start in SEO today might’ve heard of Matt Cutts — the first head of webspam — as he’s still referenced often despite not having worked at Google since 2014. I enjoyed this 2015 presentation that talks about his career trajectory at Google.

Search quality era

Over time, as a result of the opposing nature of webmasters trying to make money versus Google (and others) trying to make the best search engine they could, pure web spam wasn’t the only quality problem Google was facing. The cat-and-mouse game of spotting manipulation — particularly of on-page content, external links, and anchor text) — would be a defining feature of the next decade-plus of search.

It was after Singhal’s presentation above that Eric Schmidt (then Google’s CEO) said, “Brands are the solution, not the problem… Brands are how you sort out the cesspool”.

Those who are newer to the industry will likely have experienced some Google updates (such as recent “core updates”) first-hand, and have quite likely heard of a few specific older updates. But “Vince”, which came after “Florida” (the first major confirmed Google update), and rolled out shortly after Schmidt’s pronouncements on brand, was a particularly notable one for favoring big brands. If you haven’t followed all the history, you can read up on key past updates here:

A real reputational threat

As I mentioned above in the AdSense section, there were strong incentives for webmasters to create tons of content, thus targeting the blossoming long tail of search. If you had a strong enough domain, Google would crawl and index immense numbers of pages, and for obscure enough queries, any matching content would potentially rank. This triggered the rapid growth of so-called “content farms” that mined keyword data from anywhere they could, and spun out low-quality keyword-matching content. At the same time, websites were succeeding by allowing large databases of content to get indexed even as very thin pages, or by allowing huge numbers of pages of user-generated content to get indexed.

This was a real reputational threat to Google, and broke out of the search and SEO echo chamber. It had become such a bugbear of communities like Hacker News and StackOverflow, that Matt Cutts submitted a personal update to the Hacker News community when Google launched an update targeted at fixing one specific symptom — namely that scraper websites were routinely outranking the original content they were copying.

Shortly afterwards, Google rolled out the update initially named the “farmer update”. After it launched, we learned it had been made possible because of a breakthrough by an engineer called Panda, hence it was called the “big Panda” update internally at Google, and since then the SEO community has mainly called it the Panda update.

Although we speculated that the internal working of the update was one of the first real uses of machine learning in the core of the organic search algorithm at Google, the features it was modelling were more easily understood as human-centric quality factors, and so we began recommending SEO-targeted changes to our clients based on the results of human quality surveys.

Everything goes mobile-first

I gave a presentation at SearchLove London in 2014 where I talked about the unbelievable growth and scale of mobile and about how late we were to realizing quite how seriously Google was taking this. I highlighted the surprise many felt hearing that Google was designing mobile first:

“Towards the end of last year we launched some pretty big design improvements for search on mobile and tablet devices. Today we’ve carried over several of those changes to the desktop experience.” — Jon Wiley (lead engineer for Google Search speaking on Google+, which means there’s nowhere to link to as a perfect reference for the quote but it’s referenced here as well as in my presentation).

This surprise came despite the fact that, by the time I gave this presentation in 2014, we knew that mobile search had begun to cannibalize desktop search (and we’d seen the first drop in desktop search volumes):

And it came even though people were starting to say that the first year of Google making the majority of its revenue on mobile was less than two years away:

Writing this in 2020, it feels as though we have fully internalized how big a deal mobile is, but it’s interesting to remember that it took a while for it to sink in.

Machine learning becomes the norm

Since the Panda update, machine learning was mentioned more and more in the official communications from Google about algorithm updates, and it was implicated in even more. We know that, historically, there had been resistance from some quarters (including from Singhal) towards using machine learning in the core algorithm due to the way it prevented human engineers from explaining the results. In 2015, Sundar Pichai took over as CEO, moved Singhal aside (though this may have been for other reasons), and installed AI / ML fans in key roles.

It goes full-circle

Back before the Florida update (in fact, until Google rolled out an update they called Fritz in the summer of 2003), search results used to shuffle regularly in a process nicknamed the Google Dance:

Most things have been moving more real-time ever since, but recent “Core Updates” appear to have brought back this kind of dynamic where changes happen on Google’s schedule rather than based on the timelines of website changes. I’ve speculated that this is because “core updates” are really Google retraining a massive deep learning model that is very customized to the shape of the web at the time. Whatever the cause, our experience working with a wide range of clients is consistent with the official line from Google that:

Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted by one might not recover — assuming improvements have been made — until the next broad core update is released.

Tying recent trends and discoveries like this back to ancient history like the Google Dance is just one of the ways in which knowing the history of SEO is “useful”.

If you’re interested in all this

I hope this journey through my memories has been interesting. For those of you who also worked in the industry through these years, what did I miss? What are the really big milestones you remember? Drop them in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter.

If you liked this walk down memory lane, you might also like my presentation From the Horse’s Mouth, where I attempt to use official and unofficial Google statements to unpack what is really going on behind the scenes, and try to give some tips for doing the same yourself:



SearchLove San Diego 2018 | Will Critchlow | From the Horse’s Mouth: What We Can Learn from Google’s Own Words from Distilled

To help us serve you better, please consider taking the 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey, which asks about who you are, what challenges you face, and what you'd like to see more of on the Moz Blog.

Take the Survey

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

from https://dentistry01.blogspot.com/2020/08/fifteen-years-is-long-time-in-seo.html