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doof-doofblog · 4 years

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"I'm Taking Ben With Me!"

Tuesday 17th November 2020

Hello again everyone! Hope you're all doing okay! Now this the episode that the majority of us have been anxiously waiting for! Is the robbery going to be a success? Or is something going to go horribly wrong and someone gets caught? I'm really looking forward to writing about this episode, something tells me it's going to be gripping and explosive!

The episode begins with Phil, Shirley, Ben, Kat and Kush all arriving at the Insurance building to make a start on their robbery. Phil instructs the group that he wants things to be over as quickly as possible, it makes sense that they shouldn't be there for as long as they specifically have to! He makes it perfectly clear they need to be in and out, end of! Kat informs them that the security guard won't be there until 8am, which really should leave them plenty of time! But then again is it 8am or 8pm? Who knows? I'm sure that will come to light as the episode goes on. They quickly go off in separate directions - Ben and Phil together, Shirley and Kat together and then Kush.

Ooooh, meanwhile back on the Square, Ian enters the Vic after calling the police about the robbery. The look on his face looks like guilt to me - maybe even dismay, jealousy, shock - maybe all of them rolled into one? Max once again calls out to him as he's sat in a booth, as to whether he's got the money to pay him back - Ian ignores him and turns around to see Sharon behind the bar approaching him, asking him where he had been, he ignores her also and makes his way upstairs of the Vic. Max and Linda giggle as they think he's giving everyone the silent treatment because of their actions earlier in the day, sneaking behind the bar and giving out free booze! As they giggle about Ian, Max is looking through Linda's portfolio of her idea of making superhero costumes for autistic children. Sharon watches them as they seem to get cosy. Max is complimenting Linda's work and pushing her to go for her new business plan, even though Linda admits she can't afford it, even if she did want to go ahead with it. Max then asks whether Mick knows, but Linda bows her head and admits that she hasn't told him yet, considering he's been going through a lot lately, she feels perhaps this isn't the right time to be informing him about her new idea. Max looks at her almost with sympathy, but it does look as if he's contemplating something - will he somehow give her the money to start her business? Will he end up helping her set it up? What do you guys think?!

Across the Square, Tina has packed her suitcase after overhearing Iqra and Ash talking about her moving out. She tries to reassure them that their decision is fine and that she completely understands, Iqra appears to be really sympathetic and Ash apologises for her finding out the way she did. When they ask where she's going to stay, Tina jokingly says "The park bench seems free!" - they look at her with shocked expressions but she reassures them that she'll be okay. But in all seriousness, where is she going to go? It's not like she can go back to the Vic, will Gray maybe take her in as he has with Shirley? Could she go and stay with Mick and Linda for a while until she finds her own place? I'd hate to see her be homeless!

At the police station, DI Thompson is playing the recording of Phil and Kat discussing their robbery, whilst Callum is also in the room hearing the discussion. Thompson pushes for Callum to inform him about what he knows, but Callum insists that that is the first time he's heard anything about it, he even insists that Ben wouldn't tell him anything like that! Thompson begins to get frustrated until a fellow officer rushes in telling them that they've had an anonymous tip-off about a robbery and the culprits disguised as cleaners. Thompson knows that that is where Phil and Ben are, he instructs Callum that no matter how he does it, he wants someone arrested! Callum begins to panic and we see him send a message to his boyfriend, warning him to get out of the building! But back at the Insurance company, Ben, Phil and Kush have found the parking lot with the expensive cars, Ben and Phil work separately on different cars whilst Kush stands and watches - he questions how he can help in any way, but they just inform him not to touch anything. Kush watches with a (quite a cute) smile - must be the adrenaline!

Returning to the Vic, Ian is starring into space, almost in a world of his own. Are the events of his actions running through his mind? Does he actually realise he's put his brother and his Dad in danger? Does he feel no shame or dismay?! As he sits alone, Lexi is stood in the doorway and calls him a "Snake!" - which takes Ian completely by surprise. I love little Lexi, she's such a superstar! She informs her Uncle that that is what her Dad calls him. As she continues to insult her Uncle further, Kathy appears and informs she'll be taking Lexi home shortly. As Lexi disappears, Kathy informs her son that she's come deliver his mail, Ian appears thankful to his Mother, she informs him that not everyone is against him, even though it must feel like it right now. She then shows him that one specific later that came was the first payment of the Cafe remortgage is due, suddenly Ian's face drops as his Mum asks him to take care of it, he then sheepishly asks her whether she can pay for it for the month and he'll start to pay from the following month. Kathy instantly looks really disappointed in her son, she questions whether that was his plan from the very beginning, put her into debt and then her be the one to pay it all back. Ian insists that that isn't the case and tries to explain that he needs a few weeks to sort things out - I think that Ian has got himself into something he can't control, he can't pay Max back, he can't pay his Mum back, he can't even pay for the remortgage payments. I think he's on a big downward spiral. Kathy refuses to pay for it and tells her son that it's on his shoulders, but just as she turns to walk away, Ian starts acting like a child and saying that she would do it for Ben - so he is! He's jealous of his brother! Is that it?! - He claims that Ben is the Golden Boy and can do no wrong, but when he drops the insult that she's an unpaid baby-sitter, Kathy hits back! She informs her son that she actually doesn't want paying to look after her granddaughter, because that's what families do!!! That's what Grandparents do! You'd think by now that Ian would understand the concept of "Family" instead of always focusing on money. Kathy states that she would've hoped that Ian would've had a conscience after everything he's done, but it looks like he well and truly hasn't got one!

Back at the parking lot in the Insurance building, Phil and Ben are attempting to jump-start the cars. Ben appears to get his car going pretty quickly as Phil is struggling with the wires of his car. Ben looks over and queries whether his Dad is having problems, but Phil is adamant he's almost got it working. Kush then asks whether he could help, but Phil insists that his only role is to get the gate open when they're ready to leave, but Kush checks they only have 40-odd minutes remaining. Kush makes the valid point that getting the gate open will only take him 5 minutes, Phil then passes Kush the crowbar, instructing him to get the last car working. As he does so, Kush once again gives Phil an excited smile, I do feel it must've been the adrenaline rush of the possibility of doing a successful robbery and the chance of getting a good amount of money at the end of it. Phil laughs and comments that the job they're doing now is much better than selling boob-tubes!

Returning to the Square and at the Prince Albert, Tina walks in with her suitcase to find Kathy drinking on her own. As she joins her, Kathy notices that she has her luggage with her, she informs the poor girl that she can't sleep in the bar again. Tina then comes to the realisation she'll have to bunk up with Shirley again. It's then that Kathy responds to her by telling her that she has family who care about her, Tina can see that Kathy is upset about something and asks what's wrong. Now whether it's the drink that causes her to spill the beans or whether she just needs someone to talk to, Tina pours her another glass of wine and promises not to say a word to anyone, Kathy confides in her colleague about Ian committing fraud by forging her signature and re-mortgaging the Café, much to Tina's shock.

Back at the Vic, as Ian quickly sneaks out into the back in the background, Sharon is at the front and appears to be on the phone to a solicitor, she's informing them that she's knows what is owed to her and what Phil's solicitor is offering can think again about their offer. Ahhh, it's all coming to light now! Max has approached Bobby and is trying to convince him to change the age on his leaflet, and the only reason that Max has done that is so Linda can apply for her business idea. Bobby seems doubtful at first as his thought process is that his sister would want the opportunity to go to someone who was her age, but Max tries to push him to change the age limit, as that way there would be more applications from older ladies. Bobby asks Sharon for her advice, seeing as she and Max are both trustees for Bobby's charity, and she voices her opinion - on what good it'll do for Max? But he insists he's just doing right with a business attitude. Suddenly Linda appears and asks them what she's missed and when she realises that Bobby has agreed to change the age limit on his applicants, Max smiles at her and Linda instantly knows that he's done that for her. She thanks him for helping her and she starts to wonder how she'll make a start on her new business plan, however she needs to send in the application first - what if she's not successful?! She's getting in a bit over her head isn't she? Well Max also?! Or is it written in the stars - she'll apply and she'll get the money to start her new business. Max encourages Linda to call her husband and tell him the good news, however she seems reluctant to do so. As Max approaches the bar to get them another drink, Sharon confronts him head on - she knows what he's up to and warns him to stay away from her, even though Max plays dumb, Sharon can see right through him and warns him that she is her best mate and doesn't want her ruining her marriage to Mick, she doesn't want their marriage ending in divorce - she states that Mick and Linda are meant for each other. Max tries to reassure the blonde vixen that he and Linda are just friends, so she has nothing to worry about. But Sharon gives him one last warning, she'll be watching him from a distance!

Back at the parking lot, Kush successfully manages to break into the car, he seems so proud of himself and so excited, once he knows that he has managed to get into the car, Phil sets things in motion, for them to get into their cars ready to driver off and he instructs Kush to get the gate open. However, when Kush goes over the gate and types in the code, nothing happens. He tries for a second time and once again, nothing happens - has Kat given them the wrong code?! Or is he simply putting in the wrong code?! I don't know whether you guys noticed but the final digit of the code looks like either the number 6 or the letter B (In lower case) - Kush only types in the number 6, something is telling me that he's simply typing it in wrong and it actually is the lower-case B. But I could be wrong, maybe Kat has got the code wrong. Kush looks over to Phil and Ben in a slight realisation of panic that they might not be able to get out. Meanwhile, Kat and Shirley are trying their best to clean the offices, well Kat is however, whereas Shirley is being typical Shirley and is casually sat whilst Kat does all the work. As Kat asks her to make more of an effort, Shirley declines and Kat is quick to announce that she's done good when it's come to the robbery plan. Suddenly, a member of staff comes into the office and finds her and Shirley there.

Ian has found his way into the restaurant and appears to be in such dismay he throws a stash of paperwork all over the floor. As he does so, Suki walks in and see the state he's left the restaurant in, as she approaches him, Ian makes it clear to her that he doesn't want her in the restaurant. However, Suki is quick to make a proposition for him, she informs him about her plans for the Slater household and with him being a member of the council, she thinks he can help get her application get the attention she's wanting. In return she will give him £10,000! Ian is left stunned by her offer and tells her that he's actually not to be bought, but in his desperate need for money, will he take her up on her offer? It may just be the only way to get the money he needs to pay people back with. But of course, that would mean even more trouble for Slater's, once they find out that Ian helped Suki with her plan, he'll only have a few more people out to get him! Something tells me this whole situation isn't going to end well for Ian! What do you guys think?!

Back at the Insurance building, Shirley and Kat are in a blind panic as they're trying to get rid of the gentleman that's walked in on them. Shirley pushes Kat to try and get rid of him. They very subtly and quickly leave the man in the room as he appears to get distracted by sirens approaching the building from outside. Downstairs in the parking lot, Phil is frantic for Kush to get the gate open, Ben quickly notifies Kush that the police are approaching and Kush finally realises that he's been putting the code in wrong, finally he manages to put the code in correctly and franticly, Kat and Shirley dash towards the cars as Phil is shouting for them to get going. Kat pleads to Kush to come with them and leave the one car on it's own, but he's adamant he can do it! As Ben and Shirley drive ahead, the police are gathering outside the building, Kush is frantically trying to get his car to start as Kat begs him to just leave it and go with them. Phil shouts at Kat that they need to move quickly before they get nicked, Kat takes one last look at Kush and simply just says "I'm sorry!" before getting in the car with Phil and leaving him behind.

Kush is absolutely stunned that she's just left him to face the police alone. Callum arrives outside and manages to see Ben leave the scene in his car, only when Phil follows in his car, DI Thompson sees him very clearly and instructs his fellow police officers to go after him. He then instructs Callum to go into the parking lot to see if there is anyone else about. Unfortunately Kush is still struggling to get his car to work, Callum comes face-to-face with Kush and tells him to simply exit the car peacefully as police forces are surrounded everywhere, there is no easy way for him to get out of this now. Kush realises he's backed into a corner, he does everything Callum instructs him to do, only he decides to quickly make a run for it! Callum quickly dashes after him and follows him into a room on the third floor of the building. Kush attempts to hide, Callum comes into the room and spots Kush's reflection, however what he does next is a very interesting thing, he informs his boss that Kush actually got away, much to Kush's relief. When Callum shuts the door, making Kush think he's left the room, Kush attempts to make his escape but is surprised to see Callum still standing there. For a moment, I truly did think Callum was going to let Kush go, but instead he insists on arresting him. Kush begs to let him, but when Callum states he can't simply do that, Kush makes one last threat - if Kush is going to be sent down for this burglary, then he's going to make sure that Ben does to!

Ooooooo what is Callum going to do?! Is he going to let Kush off the hook so he can protect Ben? Will the police catch up with Ben and Phil?! What does this mean for Kat and Kush's relationship?! This has been a brilliant episode to watch, really gripping! I don't think I've seen one as gripping as this for a while! I'm really looking forward to finding out what happens next! What are your thoughts on this episode? What do you think will happen next?! I'd love to hear your thoughts, please feel free to comment or message me, I'll always find the time to reply! Thank you so much for reading! I'll be back again very soon to see what the aftermath of this robbery will be! Love you all xXx

#eastenders #kushkazemi #callumhighway #benmitchell #philmitchell #katslater #shirleycarter #tinacarter #kathybeale #ianbeale #suki panesar #maxbranning #lindacarter #sharonwatts #iqraahmed #ashpanesar #bobbybeale

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goodnightkisseu · 5 years

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Time To Heal - Chapter 5

→ pairing: sehun x reader

→ genre: fluff, angst, struggling musician sehun x rich reader

→ word count: 3,396

→ warnings: none

→ summary: you had your life planned out for you ever since you were a little girl. However, when your friend, Baekhyun, takes you with him to his old hangout, you meet someone, someone you were willing to risk your parents’ criticism to be with. His name was Oh Sehun. But, in the end, what you really should have asked yourself, was if Sehun was ready to face your parents…

→ masterlist // exo masterlist // time to heal masterlist

→ [prologue] [ch.1] [ch.2] [ch.3] [ch.4] [ch.5] [ch.6] [ch.7]

→ updates taglist~: @chanyeolol @meryljill-111192 @sehunscutiepie @hi-cupid

note: I was asked about this story recently, but with the month of october being utter chaos in my work life, I didn’t have time to update. however, I finally managed to find some time for this chapter! Hopefully I can keep posting every Friday for the next few weeks...

Also, please let me know if you would like to be tagged in this story~

- ash <3

Time was supposed to heal all types of pain. Whether it was physical, mental, or emotional, the passage of time should have made it better. Yet, you had to admit, it was a slower process than you wanted. In the months following your breakup, all you could think about was Sehun. When something reminded you of him, your thoughts would be flooded with the way you remembered him reacting to it. On some nights, you would even dream about him. Your mind recalling his intense gaze as he approached you, or the way his voice would always send a chill down your spine. It remembered that smile that turned those eyes into two crescents.

However, every time that Sehun crossed your mind, everything would feel heavy. You were quickly reminded of why he wasn't in your life anymore, of those harsh and venomous words that he so promptly threw at you. You knew that it wasn't healthy to think of him, to be so emotionally attached to someone that didn't feel anything for you, but your heart had a hard time letting him go. Time wasn't healing your pain fast enough.

In a desperate effort to distract yourself, you found refuge in your work. Initially, it had been hard to shift your focus, to ignore the throbbing pain in your heart, but soon, it became easier. You engrossed yourself in the latest fashion trends, did research on what was currently popular as well as what was soon to be popular. You became active in the workplace, taking the initiative on specific projects. With this new mentality, you worked your way up the small company, bringing its vision to light.

Focusing on work meant that something had to give. You sacrificed the time that you used to spend with others to make it happen. You didn't go out like you used to, didn't meet up as often with the people that used to be a big part of your life. The only one that really stuck around was Baekhyun, and it was only because he made sure that he was present. He made himself available, whether it was by stopping by your office or deciding that the two of you needed to have dinner together. Other than Baekhyun, you became isolated, only focused on this world of work that you had built.

And before you knew it, two whole years passed in the blink of an eye.

After helping your current company reach some of their longtime goals, you felt like it was time to move onto something else. When a position to lead a new team at your parents' company opened up, you decided that it was time to switch over. However, your application there came with strict stipulations from you to your parents. They were in no way to interfere with your interview process. Of course, being your parents, they had protested, saying that they could get you in with little hassle. However, when you threatened to apply elsewhere if they didn't comply with your request, they conceded. Your parents were aware of how good you had become at your job, and they weren't willing to lose your expertise because they were too headstrong. In the end, you aced both the interview and the portfolio review.

It was inevitable that your relationship with your parents would change drastically after your breakup. Your parents noticed that their daughter no longer wanted to have a conversation with them. Before, you would speak up if it was necessary, but in the last few years, you were more likely to excuse yourself than to try and make your point. The change was jarring to your parents. What was even harder for them to get used to was that your weekly dinners no longer happened. You had cited work as the main reason for your absence at first, but it was evident to everyone that you no longer felt welcomed at that table. Being in that house made all of those memories come back, and you had a hard time being there without feeling a certain way.

To be fair to your parents, they had tried to apologize, in hopes that things could go back to normal, but any apology they gave fell short. They were unaware of why they needed to apologize, to begin with, and their words were hollow, just said to save face. However, no attempt to reconcile worked, and the three of you limited your interactions to the workplace. It was hard, but it felt like the right thing to do until you could all sort through how you really felt.

Though you had limited interactions with your parents, your communications with Sehun had been nonexistent. The only time you ever heard about Sehun was if Baekhyun brought him up. Every now and then, your friend would give you updates on how your old friends and ex-boyfriend were doing. And honestly, they seemed to be thriving. According to Baekhyun, the band managed to sign a contract with a relatively well-known label a little over a year ago. It wasn't a significant name in the industry. Still, they did reasonable work and gave their artists creative liberty with their work. They didn't become overnight celebrities, but from what Baekhyun had told you, they were slowly working towards their goals. The band had long since left behind the rundown buildings and small club shows. They now played at festivals and small concert halls. It seemed like a good start for the boys, and honestly, you were happy for them. You were glad that Sehun had proved your parents wrong, that his hard work and the hard work of the other boys, got them to where they were. There was always something special when they performed, and you were glad that others were realizing it too.

Sehun's success was not lost on your parents, either. They had heard that the band was signed, and though they still preferred for you to be with someone in their industry, they would lament that it was a shame that you couldn't keep such a hardworking young man by your side. Though you were courteous with your words towards your parents, their own commentary was like a thorn to your side.

At one point last year, with your emotions were in a better state, you had considered getting in contact with Sehun again. You were unsure where the two of you stood, but you at least wanted to congratulate him on all of his success. Yet, every fiber of your being had told you that it wasn't the right time. Every time you thought of speaking with him, you'd be reminded of his attitude that night. You would remember how cold he was towards you, how he acted with no regard towards your own feelings. Your heart would hurt as you thought of those razor-sharp words. No, he had made it clear back then. Sehun didn't need you in his life. You should respect that decision and not cross the line.

"You work too much, you know that, right?" Baekhyun inquired. He had seated himself in one of the many chairs that littered the usually busy office space. The walls were covered in first-pass designs and inspiration for the upcoming fashion line. Currently, everyone was out at lunch, taking a much-needed break from their work. Well, everyone except for you, of course.

"I hate to break it to you, Baek, but some of us don't have the luxury to take a long break after shipping a product. In fashion, you have to be constantly working," you shot back. Baekhyun looked up from his phone and stuck his tongue out at you in protest. This only earned him a light chuckle from you.

On his days off, Baekhyun would often hang around your office. You figured that it was his way of keeping an eye on you to make sure that you were okay. Part of you appreciated that he cared about you that much, but you also knew that his sudden appearance made some people at the office talk. They wondered about your relationship with each other, and though you had told countless people that you were just good friends from college, you knew that about half of them didn't believe it. At least you tried to clear up the rumor. "Why are you even here, silly? Shouldn't you be at one of those hot vacation destinations, partying it up with bikini-clad girls?"

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to party it up on some yacht while my ride or die is stuck in her office working," he pointed out, fingers sliding across his phone screen. "It's gotta be both of us, or it's a no go. Plus, it's no fun without you."

You scoffed, gently placing down your tablet pen as you looked over at your friend. "Baek, I haven't been fun in years," you teased. "Plus, if I remember correctly, years ago, when you were completely drunk out of your mind, you confessed that someone else was your ride or die. It wasn't me."

Baekhyun scrunched up his face, hearing you giggle in the process. "You remember it all wrong," he protested. However, a light sigh left his lips when he realized who you were referring to. "You really haven't spoken with him since, have you. Not even once after that night?"

You shook your head, eyes scanning over the design before you. "There's never been a reason for us to talk after that night. I think that he made it pretty clear where I stand in his life. Plus, he's doing well now. Sehun and the guys have a contract, they're actually making a name for themselves. He doesn't need me messing that up for him. Nor does he require my support or approval for anything..."

Baekhyun had grown quiet, aimlessly hitting his phone screen as he clicked through his mobile game. He had a lot of thoughts on everything that had happened between you and Sehun, but there had never been a good time to really address it. The one thing he did know was that it was weird seeing the two of you apart. Maybe... "Hey, they're playing at a small concert hall that's nearby tonight. We should go!" he suggested.

"Byun Baekhyun, what did I just say to you," you replied flatly, but your friend was already at your side.

"I know what you said. Look, I'm not suggesting this because I think that the two of you seeing each other will lead to something. We don't live in a drama. Just being in each other's presence isn't going to allow you to magically make up in an explosion of repressed feelings or something. What I'm saying is, it's been a while since you've seen them perform, right? Why not go and see them play again, for old time's sake? Chanyeol gave me two tickets to the show a while ago, and they're just sitting around. Come on, let's go support our friends, hm?" he insisted. "Plus, you really need a break. Let's do something fun for once!"

Though you were hesitant, you also couldn't deny that Baekhyun was right. You did work too much, and an evening off would do you wonders. Lately, you had been working, even if your off-hours just to make sure that deadlines were met. Taking a break for the evening could be your chance to recharge. And your friend was correct. You did love to watch the guys perform. Maybe it would be good to see them play again? It's not like they would be able to find you in the crowd. Plus, you weren't obligated to hang out with them after the show. What harm could it cause?

"Alright, I'll go. But, I swear, Byun Baekhyun, if you dare to come up with some crazy plan, I will end you."

A giant smile appeared on his lips. "I would never dream of it," he said, though you were doubtful of his honesty in the matter, you let it slide, for now, returning to your work…

========

The initial plan of seeing the boys play had been exciting. However, now that you were home and getting ready, the reality of where you were going finally set in. You had agreed to go and see the person who had broken your heart. Sure, it was supposed to be about hearing the guys perform again, but you couldn't help but be wary about being in the same place at him. You wondered what he would think if he saw you in the crowd. Surely he had forgotten about you. He would just think that you were another face, right? There was no way he would act in any other way except full-on disinterest. At least, that's what you told yourself as you got into Baekhyun's car.

The drive was a relatively short one, and with much coaxing about how good the show would be, Baekhyun managed to get you out of the car and through the front doors. The concert hall was a good size, a bit bigger than you had expected. Still, by your estimate, it likely held a bit over a thousand, and that was a respectable amount of fans. And not only that, it was already packed when you and Baekhyun arrived. The stage was already crowded, people trying to find the best possible spot to enjoy the show from. Baekhyun took the lead as he usually did and meandered his way through the crowd with you close behind. When he found a suitable spot, he situated you in front of him, making sure that you wouldn't get jostled by others moving around.

The two of you talked while you waited for the show to start, your longtime friend reassuring you that you were going to have a good time and enjoy yourself. You managed to give him a small smile, but he was quick to notice how forced it was. Baekhyun reminded you to not overthink the situation. However, before you could reply, the lights started to dim, and the people around you began to cheer as the chords of the first song rang through the venue.

The moment the roar of the crowd and the guitar riff filled your ears, you had all but forgotten your earlier concerns. You were determined to have a good time, and as if a switch flipped in you, you found yourself jumping along with the people around you, getting lost in the music. Every now and then, there would be a push from the people around you. It was usually the result of fans trying to push forward to try and touch one of the members' hands as it extended into the crowd. Baekhyun made sure that you stayed in front of him so that he could mediate the shoving. All of that aside, the show was proving to be pretty amazing. They were always good at hyping up a crowd, even back when they had very little. But now that they were given the proper time to practice and better equipment, it only helped to amplify that natural charisma.

The show came to an end with a song that you were all too familiar with. You had heard it countless times. It was their encore song for every show they played, and it was one you had heard them practice over and over. You sang along from memory, cheering loudly with the crowd. However, when they came forward for their final bows, and the lights were turned on so that they could properly see the audience, you felt yourself sinking back. You hoped that if you made yourself small enough, the boys would overlook you. However, standing in front of Baekhyun did you no good. You could tell that his friends were scanning the crowd for him, and unfortunately for you, it didn't take Chanyeol long to find him. At first, the tall male threw his old friend a thumbs up, but when his eyes landed on your small form in front of Baekhyun, his eyes widened.

At the look of recognition spread across his features, you sank further back, hoping to obscure yourself behind the people moving forward to get a better look at the band. You were extra careful in moving around when you saw Sehun's eyes scanning the crowd. On his first pass, his gaze went right over you, and you inwardly let out a sigh of relieve. However, on his second scan of the crowd, his eyes locked on Baekhyun immediately, and it didn't take him long to realize your small figure in front of his friend. There was no mistaking that he recognized you. Time didn't slow, but your eyes remained locked with, and it only took the band being rushed off the stage for that gaze to be broken.

As you followed the large crowd of people out of the concert hall, you felt Baekhyun swing his arm over your shoulders. "So, what did you think?" he asked as he led you along with the crowd.

You couldn't help but let out a small sigh. You knew that your friend already knew your answer based on his tone, but he obviously wanted to hear it from your lips. "Baek, they were amazing, just like they always were. Actually, if anything, they've gotten even better. What did you expect me to say?" you retorted, seeing that grin spread across his features. The pair of you moved out of the way of people exiting the venue as Baekhyun tended to some text messages. "It was good to hear them play again after so long, though..."

"I'm sure that they would appreciate hearing that from you," he answered, though, as the words passed his lips, a look of recognition did as well. "Though, I'm guessing you aren't ready to see them again, huh..."

Slowly, you shook your head. "I... I think it might still be too soon..." you confessed, and your friend nodded in understanding. You continued to follow Baekhyun, though you soon realized that you were headed down an unfamiliar hallway. Before you could bring it up to Baekhyun, you came face to face with a security guard. The man seemed to recognize Baekhyun and let the two of you through. What was your friend up to exactly?

"Well, I know that you're not ready to see them yet, but they did want to hear what I thought of the show..." he explained gradually. "But if you don't quite want to see them yet, maybe you could wait for me here? I promise no one will bug you. I'll make it quick, I swear."

A soft sigh left your lips. Of course, you were backstage now. You should have known by the number of ridiculous turns the two of you took. Still, though you felt unsure, you weren't going to stop Baekhyun from seeing his friends. Teasing him, however, was not out of the question. "I swear, if you leave me stranded here and sneak out to go drinking with them, I will beat you up in the morning," you warned, and though Baekhyun smiled, he promised he wouldn't do such a thing. He gave you a quick and reassuring hug before he disappeared behind the door, leaving you on your own.

You busied yourself with your phone, checking messages from work, as well as anything else that interested you. When you heard footsteps approaching, you had assumed it was Baekhyun and spoke up before your eyes even left your screen. "You're back a lot quicker than I had expected, Baek. You know that I was joking, right? You could totally go drinking with the guys if you want," you said with a gentle giggle, though the individual didn't answer.

Instead of giving you an answer, the person called your name instead. And that simple action was the one that finally pulled your eyes upward. That voice wasn't Baekhyun's. No, that tone wasn't even close to your longtime friend's voice. You knew it, though, and as soon as your eyes shot up and came face to face with the individual, you let out a slight gasp. He as the last person you were expecting to see.

"So it was you, in the crowd with Baekhyun…"

"S-Sehun…"

#oh sehun #sehun #exo #exo scenarios #kwritersworldnet #exo fiction #exo fanfic #exo imagines #sehun scenarios #sehun imagines #kpop scenarios #goodnightkisseu series #gnks: time to heal

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thiswreckageivebecome · 5 years

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My Next Great Read - Chapter One.

Word Count: 3428

Pairing: Writer! Sebastian Stan/Fem!Reader

Warnings: Chapter One means exposition city; this one is gonna be a slow burn!

__________________________

When it comes to life change and upheaval, I felt like I can officially call myself a professional. In the past five years, I have lived in six towns in four different states, eight apartments, and worked in three insanely variant career fields. For the past two years, however, I have been in a field I’m finally excited about and working for a great company. The previous two years have been one of slowly stepping into fulfilling some of my dreams. I moved to New York City after dreaming of it since I was in high school. I began taking steps towards a career in publishing by working for an indie publishing house as a paid intern and then stepping into an assistant editing position. I want to have my own work published one day as well, but I love to be able to work with current and upcoming writers as they traveled their own path on the shared journey. The best way to improve my own writing is to read more and more, and the more creative minds I can delve into, the more inspiration it brings me.

Life in New York hasn’t always been easy, in fact, even two years later it still isn’t and there are still quite a few rough days. All of my family is still in the same hometown I was born in. Many of my friends are spread out across the country and therefore, only FaceTime and texting is used to keep up with many of them. I hadn't had much time to visit any of them because work has kept me busy from day one. I get a day, two if I’m lucky, off a week but even then many days I’m reading submitted work, making edits and suggestions, and notes for my boss. My work ethic was what had gotten me the promotion. Therefore, when the promotion came around, the workload didn't increase much, a fact I know was a miracle in itself. However, traveling was involved, so many times I’m out of town two weekends and ten additional weekdays out of each month, recruiting, meeting with prospective clients, while checking out different writing conventions all over the country.

Thanks to my schedule, I don’t have the chance to sit around in my loneliness that often, but it doesn’t mean I don’t ever experience it. Amid my travels, I often see couples, families, or a group of friends waiting for their flights, off on another adventure and I envy them to my very core. Yet every time the green monster hits my bloodstream, the part of me that I wish was bigger, whispers to me:

You're living your dreams, girl! You're getting paid to travel! You're getting paid to read and write stuff that actually interests you!

After that gentle reminder, no matter how many times it occurred, a smile immediately forms on my face and I sit in glee for a few moments, surely looking like an insane person to any strangers who are attentive enough to notice. Regardless, I keep my head up. I enjoy most of my coworkers, while they are few in number, and make it a point to hang out with them when invited, which are a few nights here and there throughout the month.

All of this gave a reason as to why I was hesitant to apply for the opening that appeared unexpectedly with Macmillan Publishers. I love my job, where I work, and the people I get to work with, but Macmillan was big-time and if I’m going to really step into this field for the long-haul, I know that I want, and need, to take another step forward. I love Macmillan for a few reasons and often think of them when I pass their building, my favorite building in all the city, the Flatiron. St. Martin's Press, the NY locale for Macmillan, is well-known and well-sought after by writers and their agents, just another factor that frightens me. Unlike the house I currently work for, authors can’t send in their work, Macmillan does all of its own solicitings. Sure, writers can send in their work but most of the time, from what I’ve heard, it gets dumped in recycling. The search for talent, instead of having it fall into my lap, is something I already do on a weekly basis so that isn’t that scary, but I love getting submissions that I don’t see coming. I feel it opens the door for more creativity.

Despite these, what I consider to be, snags in the job I know that the pay would be better and that is something I desperately need. Living in New York, something I can’t afford to do yet, is no joke expense-wise. I have an hour and a half commute in and out of the city every single day and it makes the days excruciatingly long. With this job, I could more easily afford a place in the city, albeit a minuscule and probably crappy apartment, but it'd save time, something I could always seem to use more of. All of this is what brought me to this exact moment, 8:51 a.m., on this late summer morning to the Flatiron.

I sat on the bench, nerves running rampant. I have always hated job interviews, granted, most people do, but I loathe them with every fiber of my being. Luckily, my interview skills have improved throughout the years and especially in the past couple of weeks as my boss volunteered her time to help me prepare for the interview.

Man, do I really want to leave that place, I thought. They're so good to me. Almost as if in response, I yawned and thought immediately of that commute. I sat up a little straighter, pulled my resumé closer to chest, and put on my bravest smile. While lost in thought, a man had sat two seats down without my noticing.

"Where did you get that confidence?" He asked. I looked over at him after a second too long, finally being pulled from my thoughts.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you. I noticed you all of sudden seemed to have a burst of confidence. I saw your entire posture and look change. I could use some confidence myself," he finished quietly with a small smile.

"Oh, you didn't bother me. I was just lost in my thoughts and didn't even notice you sit down. You caught me off guard is all." He nodded in thought, seeming to search for his next words.

"What brings you here?"

"I have an interview at nine with Mrs. Fischer. What about you?"

"Oh, me too, but my appointment is at 9:30. What's your work about?" I looked at him, confusion apparent on my face so he continued. "Mine is a book of poems. Poems about all types of things and people. There's little organization to it, really," he trailed off, concern crossing his features.

"Oh, I'm here for a job interview. Sorry; I wasn't clear about that."

"Oh, that's awesome! I thought you meant you were presenting your work to her. I thought I was nervous. You're probably even more nervous than me."

"Yes, that whole 'confidence' you spoke of earlier is definitely not real. Fake it 'til you make it, right?"

"That's right!" He grinned, his eyes softening. "It's my life motto," he added.

"Mine too."

"Ms. (y/l/n), Mrs. Fischer will see you now," the floor receptionist alerted me, as she stood and began to lead me to the editor's office.

"Good luck, Ms. (y/l/n)," the stranger called after. I turned, smiled, and waved, mouthing a thank you to him and then turned back to enter the office.

____________________

The interview seemed to go wonderfully. Mrs. Fischer seemed to be a tough cookie and a hard-nosed boss but I could tell it was because she took her job seriously and wanted to be as productive as possible and that was a fact I can appreciate. She got straight to the point, leaving very little room for formalities until she read some work from my portfolio. Some of her stiff exterior seemed to melt away as she read over a few pieces and I hoped it was a good thing.

"Well, Ms. (y/l/n), I've always said that you can't truly do a great job in the editing and publishing profession if you can't create your own solid work. You fit that bill, thankfully. I've yet to meet one candidate who has fit that yet. I've still got quite a few interviews lined up." She stood. "You'll be hearing from my office soon one way or another. Have a great day." I shook her hand and thanked her quickly upon her dismissal.

As I exited the office, I saw the stranger was still sitting there, waiting on his appointment. He looked up and a wide grin spread across his face. "How'd it-"

"Mr. Stan, Mrs. Fischer will see you now," the receptionist cut him off. They didn't play around here, that was for sure.

"Good luck, Mr. Stan," I said his name almost teasingly. "You've got this," I added more seriously. He passed with a smile and a small word of gratitude then got ready to step into the office. I left, a little on a high, hopped on the subway and headed for Brooklyn.

____________________

I arrived in about 30 minutes as Johanna, my boss, had expected and she met me at the door.

"How'd it go? Tell me all about it!" She practically squealed pulling me into her office. We had become close over my time here, both as coworkers and as friends, despite the age difference.

"I actually think it went really well. She liked my work, which still blows my mind."

"I don't know why," she said, sitting down in one of the chairs in the reading corner of her office, motioning me to sit beside her on the other, "I've been trying to tell you how impressive your work is for how long now?"

"I know, I know," I conceded. "I appreciate it; I really do."

"Did she say what she liked?"

"Not really. She wasn't very chatty, straight to the point, really. Granted, there was a guy there to discuss his work that had an appointment at 9:30 so she was working on a tight schedule as it was. I think that's a part of her work persona, though. It reminded me of you when we first met. I quickly learned different, though,” I smiled slyly at her before she cackled.

"Well, you know as well as I do, how hard we women have to work to be taken seriously in this industry."

"Yeah, I do, which is why it didn't really bother me as it normally would elsewhere in another field."

We continued talking as she demanded to hear every little aspect of the interview down to the inflection of our voices. By the end, she was sure the job was as good as mine. I wouldn’t let my hopes jump up from the ground just yet, however. After the chat, I rose and headed to my small office and began working, drowning my mind and thoughts with work that wasn't my own in order to detach until I heard more.

____________________

For the next two weeks, I dove into work like never before. Nerves seemed to grow exponentially after that first week of silence. I figured as quickly as they had moved the day of the interview, I would have heard something before a week had passed. However, that didn't happen, and when it didn't I was sure I hadn't gotten it, despite Johanna's persistent encouragements and pep talks.

On Tuesday, two weeks later, one of two days off that week, I awoke to my phone serenading me with Marissa Jaret Winokur's version of "Good Morning Baltimore." I attempted to keep myself on a decent sleep schedule on my days off so I awoke only an hour later than normal. I headed to a local coffee shop I loved after I got ready for some me time. Me time these days meant I worked on my writing or binged Netflix, but mostly consisted of working on my writing. After a few hours, my music halted and my screen flashed an incoming call from the city.

"Hello, this is (y/n)."

"Good morning, Ms. (y/l/n), this is Mrs. Fischer from St. Martin's Press calling about the assistant editor position you interviewed for a few weeks ago."

My blood seemed to speed up and come to a complete stop simultaneously. My stomach dropped and my whole body seemed to shake as if it was one enormous nerve. Surely if Mrs. Fischer was calling, it was good news, right? Luckily I didn't have to wait long as she continued.

"We'd like to offer you the position. I see you're still working for Akashic, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Well, we'll work with whatever schedule we can get if you still want the job. It'd be helpful if you can start three weeks from now, the Tuesday after the holiday."

"Yes, I'd love the job. I should be able to make that work, but I will check with my supervisor to make sure and I will let you know for sure."

"That's wonderful news, Ms. (y/l/n), I'll let Sarah know to be looking for your call. She will set you up with all orientation information when you call back so please do so as quickly as possible. I'm already beginning a stack of work for you after we end this call."

"Thank you very much, Mrs. Fischer, I will make contact with Sarah later this afternoon. I look forward to working with you."

"You too, have a good day."

"Thank you, you too."

The line went dead and it took everything within me not to jump on top of the table in a full-blown RENT "La Vie Bohéme" moment. I just got one step closer to my dream job and I couldn't quite believe it. I packed up my things quickly and headed home so that I could squeal, jump around, and dance throughout my apartment without the public eye thinking I had gone clinically insane.

After I had calmed down, I called Johanna and let her know. We decided to go out for drinks after she got off of work in celebration and she insisted I stay with her and her family to avoid the commute to work in the morning. It was an extravagant night, most of my coworkers came to celebrate and once we arrived at her condo, her husband congratulated me, and helped get Johanna to bed as I crashed on the couch. The following morning, I awoke to the kids jumping on me in excitement and I thought for a moment I may puke but it passed quickly.

____________________

The next two weeks were bittersweet and man, did they fly by. I had to finish a few projects more quickly than I would have liked but Johanna assured me, after my insistence upon it, that an intern would review it again just to be safe. I was glad, however, to have about a week in between jobs. Typically, I would have insisted to stay for the money, but Ibrahim, knowing how hard I worked for the two years I had been there, insisted to issue my Christmas bonus early so that would hold me over for the two weeks without pay and it would also help me put down something on a new apartment.

I used the week to search the city for a place to live. You looked all over and what was funny was that the best-priced apartments I found ended up only being blocks away from Akashic. I was glad to find this because it meant I could stop in and see my second family anytime I wanted. I put down all the cash requested, dipping into savings just a touch on that Tuesday and I began moving my stuff over, with the help of your coworkers on Friday evening. Luckily, when I moved to NY, I decided to move with very little and had purchased very little since moving, intending to move into the city one day. By Sunday brunch, everything had been moved and we all went out to Colonie to enjoy all the breakfast foods.

____________________

After the holiday, I headed, as requested, to work on that Tuesday morning, glad to have gotten all paperwork and orientation out of the way amid packing the previous week. I received a text to grab coffee on the way into work from Sarah because the intern was out sick. I gladly did since my 30-minute commute via subway was profusely better than the hour and a half I was used to. I stepped off the subway, headed above ground and into the Flatiron and towards Argo Tea, by request of Mrs. Fischer. I still arrived upstairs 10 minutes prior to my reporting time and walked around figuring out who received what beverage and snack before handing the receipt to Sarah for reimbursement on payday. She led the way to my new office, across from Mrs. Fischer and I about fell over, taking in the size of it. I immediately put on my poker face.

"Your work is sitting in this bin. If you have any questions, see me. Mrs. Fischer is in meetings all day today and is not to be bothered for any reason." She paused long enough to see if I had any questions.

"Sounds great. Thank you, Sarah." She nodded.

"I'll let you get to it."

____________________

The following days slipped into weeks and melted into a month. I was busy every single day with no downtime from the moment I entered the building to the moment I left, mostly hours after the assigned time, and it had left me with little to no time to get together with any friends or even take time to work on my own things. However, after a month, my first weekend off came across the schedule and I couldn't have been more thrilled. I worked even later that week to ensure I didn't have to work on a single thing that weekend. I made plans to go out with Johanna and a couple of friends from my previous job. We spent most of Saturday going around the city, taking in the local artists and musicians and stopping for a little beverage, some alcohol-based and some not, throughout the entirety of the day. By nightfall, we settled on attending the Midsummer Night Swing. Entering the venue just in time for the lessons, we laughed and danced, and attempted to follow along with the instructor and those around us. As the evening progressed we sat back and enjoyed people-watching in between conversations about what life had been like and what was coming up on the horizon for each of us. At one point, the group on stage announced there would be an extra dance set because it was the last night of the event for the year. They encouraged everyone to head to the dance floor for the remainder of the night and the final set. We decided to comply. As we danced and laughed, I got into the music more than I should have and accidentally barged into a stranger and grabbed at them to steady myself.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry," I exclaimed loudly towards the figure in an attempt to be heard over the music.

"It's no problem," the figure began, "I have two left feet." He paused. "Hey, don't I know you?" I looked up at him now. It took a moment but it began coming back to me. "You're Ms. (y/l/n), right?" He seemed embarrassed, "I'm sorry, I never got your first name. I feel like I'm interviewing you for something." I laughed at his blushed cheeks.

"No, it's fine, Mr..." I paused, taking a moment to recall his name, "Stan. Right?"

"You've got it..." he trailed off and while I was unsure of why initially, soon enough I realized he was waiting for my first name.

"(Y/n). My name is (y/n)."

"It's great to finally put a first name with a face, (y/n). I'm Sebastian." He grinned down at me. During this exchange, the music had slowed without my noticing. "Can I have this dance?"

#sebastian stan #sebastian stan/reader #sebastian stan fic #sebastian stan fluff #ao3 #wattpad #Fem!reader

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johnboothus · 3 years

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Wine 101: The Points System

This episode of “Wine 101” is sponsored by E & J Gallo Winery. At Gallo, we exist to serve enjoyment in moments that matter. The hallmark of our company has always been an unwavering commitment to making quality wine and spirits. Whether it’s getting Barefoot and having a great time, making every day sparkle with La Marca Prosecco, or continuing our legacy with Louis Martini in Napa, we want to welcome new friends to wine and share in all of life’s moments.

Interested in trying some of the wine brands discussed on “Wine 101”? Follow the link in each episode description to purchase featured wines or browse our full portfolio at TheBarrelRoom.com. Cheers, and all the best.

Click the link below to discover and purchase wine brands discussed on the “Wine 101” podcast series. Get 15% OFF of your purchase of $75 or more when you use the coupon code “wine15″ at checkout. https://www.thebarrelroom.com/discover.html?src=vinepair

In this episode of “Wine 101,” VinePair tastings director Keith Beavers discusses the 100-point wine scoring system, which has long influenced American wine culture. Beavers details the history of the system, and how famed wine critic Robert Parker popularized it in the late 1960s — using the United States’ high school grading system as a model.

Beavers also explains why other publications — including VinePair — have since adopted Parker’s points system, and why these wine scores have continued to influence the market and American palate even after Parker’s retirement.

Tune in to learn more about the hundred-point system.

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Or Check out the Conversation Here

Keith Beavers: My name is Keith Beavers, and sometimes, I just think to myself, “Keith, why can’t you get into Wes Anderson films?”

What’s going on, wine lovers? Welcome to Episode 28 of VinePair’s “Wine 101” podcast. My name is Keith Beavers. It’s Season 2, and how are you? Wow, that rhymed. I don’t know if you guys are familiar with the 100-point wine scoring system, but we have to talk about it.

Wow. Scoring wine. What’s that about? People make wine, and scores are applied to those wines by random people. Then, you go out into the world, and you look at the scores. Now, not all, but some of us buy wine based on scores. That’s crazy, right? The thing is, buying anything with scores today is what we do. When we want to go to a restaurant, we look for at least four and a half stars, right, guys? What are we doing with three and a half? What are we doing with that?

When you’re on Amazon and you’re looking up something you want to buy — especially with something a little more expensive — you’re reading the reviews. You’re hoping that item is at least four and a half stars so we’re used to this whole scoring thing. When we read online, there are a lot of roundups. We have them on VinePair with “the best of this, the best of that.” We rank things. It’s easy, it’s fun. It’s shorthand. You say, “Cool, just help me figure this out so I can go and do this. I’ll get into it more in-depth later, but right now, I just need a score.”

This is how our world works. In the wine world, the literature of wine has been going on since antiquity. Back in the day, all the way up until the 19th century, it was really mostly about agriculture. People writing about wine when they weren’t really scoring wine. They were talking about wines they may have liked. Even Pliny the Elder, in the ancient Roman era, would write about wines that he liked from different parts of Italy. Yet, a lot of the work being done in literature back in the day was more about the vine, the vineyard, maybe even viticulture. Of course, all that was mostly in Europe.

For the United States, though, from colonization all the way through to Prohibition, there was a lot of wine literature being pumped out. It was chaotic, disorganized, and people trying to figure out how to make wine in the United States was an absolute nightmare. That was based on which wines work. It wasn’t until the 1960s when the United States started realizing, “Oh, wine that’s not sweet like we had in Prohibition is actually good. We like dry red wine with a little bit of acidity and structure.”

As we started learning how to drink wine again, a lot of literature would come out to help us enjoy wine. Books on wine etiquette and how to throw wine parties and this misunderstood science of how to understand aromas and flavors. As we saw Napa rise before the Judgment of Paris and before it became its own American viticultural area, there were great things happening in Napa. It’s one of the reasons why the Judgment of Paris happened.

In Napa and Sonoma, there were people there helping the people who lived there enjoy wine. One of the most well known is Robert Finnegan. He was in the story I told last week in the Judgment of Paris. There were people out there helping Americans enjoy wine but it wasn’t until the hundred-point system was applied to wine in the United States that things got crazy.

That is because of one man: Robert M. Parker Jr. If you’re not familiar with that name, this is one of our premier or first celebrity wine critics who became nationally and internationally famous for his writing about wine and this scoring thing with wine. It got to the point where a score from Robert Parker could define the price of your wine. I’m not sure if his story has a humble beginning, but it’s a very typical American Eastern Seaboard story where he was born and raised outside of Baltimore. He became a lawyer in Baltimore. At the age of 20, he tried his first wine, I believe it was at law school. He fell in love with wine, and this started his whole love for wine, as we all do. When you taste wine for the first time, you say “Oh, my gosh.” Then, you start working your way through wine trying to understand it, listening to “Wine 101,” you know how it goes.

As he practiced law, he was able to explore wines. He actually went to Europe at one point and enjoyed Bordeaux and Burgundy wines. This is so fascinating because Robert Parker was around at the right time doing what he was doing. As we’ve talked about in the past few episodes, when it comes to American wine history, this moment in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s was a catalyst moment for us. The timing here is crazy. He was falling more in love with wine, but still practicing law. However, he was getting very frustrated with the lack of independent and reliable criticism about wine. He wanted to read more tasting notes than guides to where to go. There’s a story I read in the mid-’70s when he was at dinner with one of his friends and he was a lawyer friend, I’m not really sure. This friend was fascinated with the fact or Robert Parker’s ability to assess wine and said, “Hey, you should be doing this full-time instead of law.”.

I don’t know if that was the conversation that made it happen, but Robert Parker was thinking about launching his own buyer’s guide. He said, “If people can’t do it, I’m going to do it right.” He decides to launch this newsletter bi-monthly called The Wine Advocate. It was his way of dissecting wines. This guy wrote very copious tasting notes. He went down to some serious detail.

In 1978, the first newsletter went out. What happened here is I guess nobody really knew how hungry Americans were to understand wine. By 1984, The Wine Advocate was doing well enough that he could retire from law and have this be his full-time gig. Now, it was time to really make a name for himself. I don’t know if he planned this or not, but he did an extremely detailed breakdown and description of the 1982 vintage of Bordeaux, to the point where it really got the attention of the French. It prompted him to actually release a Wine Advocate in French, and that blew up.

By 1998, The Wine Advocate had 45,000 subscribers from all over the world, mainly the U.S. and France, but I think it was 30-plus other countries. People were subscribing to this. People wanted to know about wine. At that point, he was the only voice doing it. Now, Robert Parker wasn’t the only one with a newsletter in the United States. There were hundreds of them, I’m sure, and there were some that were probably very influential to their communities, but Robert Parker was on an international level at this point. There was something about his newsletter that was different than everybody else’s.

He was the first to apply scores to wines. This is why it became such a big deal. He designed the hundred-point scoring system that he used for wine off of the United States high school grading system, which started from 50 at the lowest, all the way up to 100. Every American could understand that point system.

He would give points to wines, and mostly it was Bordeaux and then some American wines, but he was really fascinated with Bordeaux. The scores he applied to wines, he did not believe these were the major part of the entries of his newsletter. I’ll paraphrase here: He really wanted people to use the point as a supplement to the tasting notes. This guy wrote, again, very detailed tasting notes about wine. He wanted that to be the feature of his newsletter, not the points. However, this is at a time in America when we were, again, very hungry for wine knowledge.

If we’re hungry for wine knowledge and we’re in a modern era where distribution and importation is now a thing, wine reps selling to retail stores and restaurants, started to rely on these points very heavily because the wines that Robert Parker was writing about were not your everyday wines. These were fine wines, or wines built to age.

One of the reasons why The Wine Advocate was so respected, beyond the tasting notes and the scores, was there were no ads. It was just wine information cover to cover with no distractions. As people noticed how successful the scoring thing could be, they started applying it to their own ventures. For example, Marvin Shanken, who created Wine Spectator, which I think started as a newsletter but quickly became a magazine — he started using a hundred-point system for scoring wines their own way. That is a magazine, so there are advertisements there.

That’s where capitalism started churning out. This idea of scores and wine started to really define what people looked for in a wine. They didn’t look for what was inside the bottle so much as they looked for the score. They assumed that the higher the score, the better the wine, which is true. Yet, there was really no indication as to their personal preference in that score, and that’s the capper. That’s the twist with numerical scores to denote the quality of wine, and that led to some controversy.

For example, Hugh Johnson, who’s a very famous wine writer in the U.K. and wine critic, said, “You’re going to apply a score to a wine that’s going to age, so it’s going to change. Are you going to then apply a score later on? How do you correlate that score that you apply later on with the earlier score? It’s a mess. This doesn’t work.” But Robert Parker didn’t see wine that way, specifically.

There’s a quote on the cover of his newsletter that says, “Wine is no different from any consumer product. There are specific standards of quality that full-time wine professionals recognize.” Obviously, he was approaching wine with this very calculated effort, and someone like Hugh Johnson had more of a sense of where a wine was going and that it’s an active thing. It’s not just a snapshot in time wine.

Also, Robert Parker really loved Bordeaux and also really enjoyed deep, dark, fuller-bodied red wines. He was mostly a red wine critic, and he ended up doing a lot of his little literary work in Bordeaux and in the Rhône. It got to the point that his influence was so great that winemakers in France, Italy, the United States, Spain, and beyond would make wines so that he would actually like them and get big scores so those scores could get them sales. Even though Robert Parker wanted the scores to be a supplement to his very detailed notes, this system was just too easy. It was just too good.

This became the standard. A score on wine defined its price, its popularity, and its reputation. Other publications like The Wine Spectator and eventually Wine Enthusiast applied scores as well. That’s what the game became. It was a score thing.

Today, scores are still very popular. They’re not the standard they once were, but they still have influence. I believe The Wine Advocate morphed into robertparker.com, which is his website. In 2012, he sold that entire website to a Singapore ex-wine merchant for $1.5 million. So he retired, but his idea never did. To this day, scores are still applied to wine, so we gotta talk about that. What does it mean when a score is applied to wine? How do you figure that out?

One of the cool reasons why scoring is not as popular as it once was is because these days we, the American drinking culture, are more interested in the stories behind the wines than we are about applying a calculated score to a wine. And tasting notes are also very important to us, but the language of tasting notes is a whole other thing. We go over that in previous episodes, of course, but there’s something nice about a point. It’s a number. It’s quick and easy to understand. It’s very shorthand. If you trust the person who’s giving the score, you trust the score. It’s also something that transcends all languages. It’s a number — everyone knows 93. Everyone knows what a 94 is, but no matter how calculated a point is supposed to be applied to wine, it’s a very arbitrary thing. How do you trust a score applied to a wine, knowing you’re to spend some money on wine? Every 100-point system is very similar, but every one is actually different from one another. Every system is created independently and designed for that particular publication or entity to get its message across.

At VinePair, we’ve actually created our own hundred-point scoring system with our own levels in tiers and how we think a hundred-point system should be applied to when we review wines. Being the tastings director of VinePair, I’m the one that does all the tasting and all the reviewing. Using that system that we developed helps me get my message across to you guys, based on how VinePair sees a certain wine.

That’s where the 100-point system exists today. It’s similar to a movie critic. When you want to see a movie, I don’t know about you, but I have certain movie or film critics that I like to read before I see a movie because I often agree with what they say. This is similar to the 100-point wine scoring system. You go to a wine shop, and you see a point, that point is given to that wine by somebody. If you’re familiar with that somebody, and you like the way that somebody talks about wine, you’re probably going to go ahead look at that number and choose to buy the bottle of wine based on that person’s wine score. If you see a number from another wine critic that you may not know, you may not get the wine or you may get it anyway, but not take into account the score. That is how it works these days, because wine is so much more than one point, but it’s a really good, quick reference point for you if you know who’s actually giving the point and agree with that person’s taste in wine.

Even though these numbers can seem a little bit arbitrary — and they are arbitrary and subjective because it is one person’s palate or a panel of palates making a decision on wine and a score — what’s really cool is every website has its own hundred-point system with its criteria so you can see why they’ve chosen what they’ve chosen. At VinePair, we have our 100-point system in categories and we have it all explained for you. If you look at a wine on VinePair that I reviewed and given a score to, you can go and look at that link to see why where it is in the scale of why I said what I said.

That’s a little bit of history, application, evolution, and where we are today with this 100-point wine scoring system. I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere for a very long time. Even though today, stories and backgrounds are so much more enjoyable today than just a cold, hard score, that score will always help us in a pinch if we trust the person giving the score.

@VinePairKeith is my Insta. Rate and review this podcast wherever you get your podcast from. It really helps get the word out there. And now for some totally awesome credits.

“Wine 101” was produced, recorded, and edited by yours truly, Keith Beavers, at the VinePair headquarters in New York City. I want to give a big ol’ shout-out to co-founders Adam Teeter and Josh Malin for creating VinePair. And I mean, a big shout-out to Danielle Grinberg, the art director of VinePair, for creating the most awesome logo for this podcast. Also, Darbi Cicci for the theme song. Listen to this. And I want to thank the entire VinePair staff for helping me learn something new every day. See you next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article Wine 101: The Points System appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/wine-101-points-system/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/wine-101-the-points-system

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wineanddinosaur · 3 years

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Wine 101: The Points System

Tune in to learn more about the hundred-point system.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Or Check out the Conversation Here

Keith Beavers: My name is Keith Beavers, and sometimes, I just think to myself, “Keith, why can’t you get into Wes Anderson films?”

@VinePairKeith is my Insta. Rate and review this podcast wherever you get your podcast from. It really helps get the word out there. And now for some totally awesome credits.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article Wine 101: The Points System appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/wine-101-points-system/

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mentalpolaroids · 3 years

Text

CH | 8. a new chance

CH 7

🔸

The rest of the day couldn't have passed more slowly. My brain was constantly reliving the touch of Julio's hand on my back, the creepy smile and looks and just the whole appearing out of nowhere and paying for my meal situation. It was all too weird for my anxious self to deal with. When I stepped out of the company, Noah was already waiting for me in his car and I could see him looking for me from the inside. I waved at him when he caught sight of me and he smiled, relieved.

"Hi, thank you so much for picking me up.", I closed the door after I sat inside the car and leaned in to kiss his cheek.

"Anytime. What happened? You seemed nervous by the way you texted."

I smiled softly. He knew me so well that even through a simple text message he could tell if I was ok or not.

"So, I went to that restaurant, Norma, right? And when I went to pay for my lunch someone appeared, out of nowhere, and offered to pay for me..."

"Who did?", Noah asked confused, as he drove.

"Julio."

Noah glanced quickly in my direction with his mouth opened, looking for the right words to use. When he noticed the concern in my face, he finally spoke.

"Kelly," we stopped at a red light and he turned his full attention to me, "did he do something to you?"

"No. I mean...", I looked at him and I could tell he was getting mad. Not at me (I hoped) but at the whole situation. And Julio. "He... just looked at me weirdly, like, it made me feel uncomfortable and he touched my back in a not so friendly way... I don't know, it was really uncomfortable and awkward in general and I've been thinking about it all day."

"Kelly if this keeps happening you have to tell Camila. I mean, I don't even want this to keep happening and I'm sure you don't either. You have to tell her. And you should tell Kevin too."

The light turned green and Noah turned his attention back to the road.

"I know. And of course I don't want this to keep happening, it's probably not even a big deal and I'm already freaking out."

"If it makes you uncomfortable to the point where you don't feel safe walking home alone, then it is a big deal, love.", his voice softened and he put his hand on my knee.

He had a point. I would have to talk to Camila and explain myself the best I could because I'm sure it would be a lot to take in, I mean, it wasn't just the possibility of her boyfriend cheating on her, it was her boyfriend hitting on her best friend.

We arrived at my house and Noah went in with me to check on Kevin again that day. My brother looked a lot better than he did that morning but it was noticeable his mood was still down so I whispered to Noah that I wouldn't bring up Julio, not until he was "back to normal". The three of us chatted for a bit about what Kevin was watching on TV and, after a tight hug from my best friend, he left and it was just me and my brother. Fortunately, we were able to talk to each other, not entirely like before, but at least he was answering me and sometimes I could see a small smile wanting to appear on his face. Dinner and the rest of night went by peacefully. I didn't mention his drinking nor Julio, I didn't mention anything that would make him go back to the depressed state he had been in lately.

The next morning, Kevin offered to drive me to work.

"It was a request from Noah and save my soul if I try to talk back to him when it comes to you."

"Noah asked you to drive me?", I asked, perplexed, as I opened the car door.

"Sis, he didn't ask, he demanded."

Kevin started the car. My mouth was opened in shock and waiting for my brain to process some words to come out of it.

"Did something happen? I mean, not that Noah being protective over you is new but he sounded worried. And he never "asked" me," he made air quotes with the hand that wasn't on the wheel, "to drive you, especially to work, since it's near."

I didn't want to tell him about Julio yet but I didn't want to lie to him either. It took me a moment to answer him.

"We're not sure what happened, or what's happening actually, but it's probably nothing to be worried about. Besides, I know you have a lot on your mind, even though I still don't know what and why, so, I don't want you to worry about me, ok?"

Kevin remained silent for the rest of the short road to the company. When he parked so I could get out he finally spoke.

"Kelly," I was about to open the door, "I know you have your own problems to deal with and I know I'm not at my best right now but I don't want you to think that I stopped caring about you. You can still count on me for anything."

"Well, you know you can count on me too, right?"

"Of course."

"Then talk to me. I know it's hard, but you'll have to do it someday, and if you know I'm here for you then you shouldn't be afraid to do so."

He looked down in shame and I sighted. I wanted to help him but he wasn't making it any easier. With one last sentence I left the car.

"You said, very well, that I have my own problems to deal with and, Kevin, you're becoming one of them."

I felt kind of guilty for saying that to Kevin but I couldn't hold it inside me for much longer. It has been six days since the incident at the bar, after the concert. I understand that it was a traumatic situation but even Dustin, who took the worst beating, wasn't as miserable as my brother, in fact, he felt grateful for being ok and for having arrested the guys who did it. It was something else that was triggering Kevin and I wanted to know what so I could help him.

I was in the printing room printing some files that my big boss, aka Elisabeth Parker, aka Elisahell Barker, asked me to do when a guy entered the room. I recognized him from the day before, Eric, the one I helped with the HTML of the website he was working on.

"Hey, I was just looking for you.", he said, walking further into the room and heading my way.

"Hi! Really?", my curious smile instantly left my face, "Wait, did I ruin the website? Did it not work?"

Eric laughed and leaned against the file cabinet.

"You didn't ruin it, on the contrary, you saved it, which by the way, thank you again."

I smiled and sighed in relief. The last thing I needed was to be fired for doing something that wasn't even part of my job.

"So, what is it?", I said, as polite as possible.

"Ok, first, I'm curious why you're working as an assistant when you clearly have skills to be working with us in the web designing field"

"Well, that was the idea when I applied for this company but when Elisabeth interviewed me she didn't even mention my curriculum or my internships diplomas. She just went straight up to explaining what I would be doing as an assistant."

As if remembering that day, I laughed and continued "I would have loved to be able to see my face when she said 'assistant'. I really thought I was at the wrong company and that I had applied to the wrong thing but..."

"You had the misfortune of falling into the hands of Elisabeth.", Eric interrupted me. And I laughed, by how accurate that was.

"Exactly."

"So, here's the thing, I think it's really unfair to you to be working so close to, what I suppose. your dream job, and not being able to actually work with it, especially after I've seen with my own eyes what you can do."

I waited a few seconds thinking he would keep going but when he didn't I just got curious to what that conversation was supposed to lead to.

"Are you suggesting something?"

"Yes, I'm suggesting you apply again, this time for a specific department so you don't have to be interviewed by Elisabeth again."

"But if I apply again, wouldn't my application have to go through her?"

"Not exactly, yes she pretty much rules the company but she doesn't own it and she's not the one that chooses the people to work in each department, there's a head director for each one, and those are the ones that decide if you're in or not."

"So you're saying I could have avoided working as an assistant? When I could've just sent my application to one of the head directors?"

"Yes and no. Most of the people that work in each department started as interns or were transferred from other companies. It's very rare for someone to be interviewed directly by a head director, basically because there's never interviews, they just hire people they already know and have seen their work first hand."

"Ok, then, how am I supposed to get an interview with a head director?"

"That's what I'm here for. I want to help you. I have a good relationship with Mr. Robins, the head director of the web design department. If you send him your application, along with a portfolio and your internships diplomas, we can arrange an interview with him."

"What about Elisabeth?"

"She would just have to deal with idea of having another person to work with and having another woman to compete with."

Well, I did not see that one coming.

"What do you mean?"

"Have you ever wondered why there's only, what? Two women working here?Besides you, an assistant, and the ladies from the cafeteria? Elisabeth was the first woman to start working here and make it to the top. Linda and Marilyn were colleagues of her in another company, that's why she gave them spots here, but it's known to everybody that she doesn't want another woman taking her place. Not even her "friends".", he made air quotes.

To say I was shocked was putting it lightly, but at the same time, I could see that being true. I could totally see Elisabeth being a bitch. She didn't bother hiding it. Eric and I stayed in the printing room a few more minutes, him telling me what I needed for the interview and all the steps I should take to make it happen. I was so excited about the possibility of having a second chance in that company and this time not having to deal with a crazy Elisahell. I would do my best and give my all to earn a job there. Like, the job I wanted. I deserved it. Safe to say, that put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. It even made me forget about Kevin.

I chose to have lunch in the company's cafeteria that day. I didn't want another unpleasant encounter with Julio, even though, if that happened, it would just justify my overthinking. And that he was probably a sociopath. I texted Noah to confirm if he would pick me up and he answered with a "always, anything for my girl" which made me melt and feel like screaming like a high school girl. That guy definitely knew how to stimulate my serotonin.

Later that day, I left the company and stopped by the sidewalk waiting for Noah, whose car I was looking for in the forming traffic. I was closing the buttons of my jacket when something caught my eye on the other side of the street. Not something, someone. Julio. My heart started beating faster by the sudden sight of him. He was leaning against the wall and staring at me so attentively that left me with no reaction. My eyes couldn't leave his and my hands, that were still holding my jacket, were shaking. I saw him smirk at me and luckily, Noah's car appeared right in front of me when I saw Julio starting to cross the street.

🔸

CH 9

#cold hands #story #original story #angst #romance #oc #mentalpolaroids #noah centineo

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kulifefall2019 · 4 years

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Being an Art Major at Kutztown

Prologue:

Going to a larger school, the average student will be around art majors. Especially in a school like Kutztown that is known for its art program. (walking across campus, being curious about them, how a student will be living among them, see them in gen eds.)

Kutztown is a large school, and one of the most popular state schools in Pennsylvania. It has many different majors, and some programs its well known for. One of the things Kutztown is famous for its large art program. Whether or not a student is an art major, they’ll see these people all around campus. They share housing buildings, dining halls, and even some general education classes with other students. They’re fairly easy to spot, some of the major things they’re seen with are big portfolio cases, big sheets of paper, drawing on iPads or tablets plugged into a computer, or even just sketching ideas into sketchbooks. To get even more stereotypical, they’re also easy to spot since a lot of them dress differently, or “artsy.” The clothes, unnatural hair colors/styles, artistic makeup make them easy to spot a mile away.

Art majors may seem like a foreign species to non art majors, but a little bit of insight on what the experience of art majors are can make them seem a little more human. Even if a student at Kutztown isn’t an art major, it’s important to know a little bit more about the everyday life of an art major. It’s one of the things Kutztown is best known for. Today we’ll be discussing three acts of an art major at Kutztown with Act I: the cost of being an art major; Act II: Weekends in the Studios; and Act III: Scheduling the Nightmare to really understand the personal lives and struggles of art students.

Act I: The Cost of Being an Art Major

It’s common knowledge that the average college student should prepare to buy expensive textbooks for their courses at the start of their college career. Lately, more and more people buy used books or rent books to cut down the cost of expensive books. At the very least they can sell back their books at the end of the year. With the help of the internet, it’s gotten fairly easy to save money on books. All of this applies to the average Kutztown student. There is however, a group of majors that doesn’t have the luxury of saving money on the required materials for their classes: visual art majors. Visual art majors have to supply almost all of their own supplies for class, including but not limited to sketchbooks, paints, pencils, markers, brushes, printed posters, and the list goes on and on. These supplies are not cheap too, since students have to use something that's more on the professional side.

Every class has a list of supplies that’s needed for the class. Fine arts majors have to buy the physical materials like paints, canvases, papers, etc. from project to project. Communication Design and Applied Digital Arts majors usually have to cover their own printing costs for posters, illustrations, and 3D printing. The 300 credits that is reloaded every semester for black and white printing in the library does not cover color and/or poster printing at all. If students don’t want to have to rely on lab hours to use the school computers and/or would like to work on digital projects at their homes over the breaks throughout the semester, they would have to buy expensive programs like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, ToonBoom, etc. In addition to that, every single art major has to take the same studio classes their freshman year of college. I personally spent well over a couple hundred dollars on supplies over the course of my first year of college alone, and almost every other freshman has a similar experience.

Now that I’m a sophomore in college as an Applied Digital Arts major, most of the money I spend is on printing and digital supplies like programs, a tablet, a hard drive, etc. Right now I’m using a two month trial of photoshop on my own laptop that came with the hard drive I bought at the beginning of the semester, but once that expires there’s no way I’ll be able to afford keeping it, since it’s based on a monthly subscription fee. If I want my own tablet to use on the school computers without having to rely on continuously renting school tablets out, that’s around $200. And that’s just for my digital classes alone. Applied Digital Arts majors still have to take traditional media classes, like life drawing, painting, etc. Those classes will require a lot of money for supplies as well.

To see how a different art major has to spend their money, I interviewed Haley Wawrzynek, a sophomore in Communication Design. CD is a major that focuses on graphic design and illustration as well. I asked her if she had to print all of her digital projects, and her answer was yes, every single one so far. She said she has to print the most for her Typography class, and that each project costs about $5 to print. That doesn’t sound like much, but so far she’s done five projects and the semester isn’t over yet. She also told me that in her current art history class she had to print a large poster for that as well.

I asked her if she has to spend money in a different studio class, and she answered yes and started talking about her intro to illustration class. “Every two or three weeks he emails us a new list of supplies to buy for our next project,” she tells me. I asked her approximately how much each of these shopping trips costs, and she said it costs about $15 to $20 and that she has 7 projects this semester.

To finish the interview, I then asked how she felt about having to spend so much money as a whole, to which she said “I don’t like it. It’s not cool,” and we both laughed. She then said “spending all this money for college and it’s not going towards utility things that I need for my major.” She said that she wished the prepaid credit that goes towards black and white printing could count for art printing, even if it cost more credits. I agree with her on this, because as art majors we don’t take as many classes that require printed essays, reports, etc. so most of the library credits go unused and wasted.

Overall, the general consensus is that art majors spend a lot of money. A lot. For some single courses it seems that it costs even more than buying a textbook for a single course. Not only does being an art major require a lot of hard work, but it requires a lot of supplies, and therefore money.

-Casey Stoneback

Act II: Weekends In the Studios

Most students that are non art majors have 5 classes that are either 50 minutes or an hour and 20 minutes long. They can start class in the late morning and finish by the early afternoon for the most part, giving them a lot of time to do homework, study, and work on projects. This is not the case for visual arts majors. The average visual arts major has at least three 3 hour long studio classes that meet twice a week. That means that these majors spend approximately 18 hours a week in studio classes alone, on top of having general education classes. All together, that’s about 20 hours a week in classes alone.

Most studio classes often require spending hours in the studio/computer labs outside of class time, so that’s even more time taken out of the week spent on studio classes alone. Since studio classes are so long, usually studios are full of classes from 8 in the morning and don’t end until 9 at night, meaning the studios and labs won’t open up until after 9 (other than weekends). If a student has to work on a project during the week that requires a digital program that’s only on the school computers, or need the space of a painting/drawing studio, they have to wait until 9 and will often stay until 12 to 2 in the morning. Sometimes they stay that late even when they have a 3 hour studio class at 8 in the morning the next day.

All of this time spent in studio classes and the time spent on projects outside of class leave very little time for gen ed classes. I know I often fall behind in my gen ed classes because I simply do not have the time and energy to focus on them because I struggle so much to meet due dates for studio projects. In doing so, these studios make many art students suffer in their other classes because they barely manage to finish their projects for their main studios.

The amount of time and effort that is put in by art students is seen just by looking at the lab hour sign up sheets. It’s rare to see someone sign in to the programs for anything shorter than four hours approximately. These are just the experiences of APD majors. With other programs, many students in other programs stick after class to work on the many projects they are required to do. Such as Fine Arts majors, that spend their times in the painting studios to work such as Fine Arts Student, and sophomore, Dorie Penny whom I interviewed to get truly into the mind of an art student.

When I asked her, “What are your main struggles with time management as an art student?” She laughed nervously and responded “Since I’m in four studios so I feel like I don’t have any personal time. I can manage time for studios but it keeps away time for myself.” After she answered that question I then asked her “have you noticed that your time management has affected your mental health?” For a moment she didn’t know how to answer. She later told me it was because she didn’t really know how to answer it because she had so many feelings about the topic. She later responded “Yes, increasingly. My anxiety increased dramatically. That’s kinda a blanket term for it all though. I’ve have several panic attacks lately.”

She later in the evening mentioned that she wanted to input that “professors will tell you it’s just three out of class hours of work, but you end up having around three times the amount, and that’s just my painting class. I have no time.” And these are the experiences of one art student. We may be given the time to finish our projects but that leaves very little time for ourselves. As you can imagine that seriously takes a toll on your mental and even physical health. The studios drain students drastically and that’s not even half of the problem.

-Casey Stoneback & Gwyneth Trafford

Act III: Scheduling the Nightmare

As an Applied Digital Arts major, Life Drawing is a required class to graduate. There are over 200 students enrolled in the APD program in total. With only two classes available, taught by the same individual, that leaves only about 33 slots to enroll in. Not only do the APD students quickly enroll in, some Business major who needs a Gen Ed will also enter. Clearly, there is a problem here. Art students have to fight tooth and nail to enter a required class that should just be available to them in the first place. It took me three advisement meetings to eventually enroll in Life Drawing, which even then was just pure luck that someone dropped out as soon as we were looking at availability.

Overall, the programing and scheduling in the arts needs work. Some specific individual programs within the arts have some more luck, but overall the scheduling typically is very difficult. In Kutztown, many of the arts programs are understaffed. As such, classes required to graduate fill up quickly. Not only are there not enough classes to compensate for all of the enrolled art students, they also allow non-art majors to enroll in these classes.

Now what is the big problem here? What is the thing making all these students have breakdowns when they sign up for classes? Understaffed, and open classes for everyone. Only one person teaching Life Drawing is gonna leave many problems for scheduling. And that’s just my Life Drawing. I wasn’t the only person to struggle either. Many students, up to six, during my animation class also vocalized their struggles with signing up for classes, and those were the ones vocal about it.

Not only does scheduling affect the students, this also hurts the working teachers. Students flock to their teachers to help with their problems, and even their advisors. During my Animation class, 4 students enrolled during that class period and not a single student was able to get a full schedule of their requirements. Some students, such as myself, couldn't even get two. During our Animation class, many of the students tried to figure out their schedules. There were at least five students in that class who had these struggles, including me. We all asked our professor how on earth we could fix this problem, with her looking at with disappointment as she knew she couldn’t help us. I personally saw another student start to cry, and I even started to tear up. Not only does this take away a large amount of time that we could be working on projects, this also takes up the time and stresses out the teachers who help the students struggle. This puts intense pressure on the students, teachers, and advisors to deal with scheduling.

-Gwyneth Trafford

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emilielouizides-csm · 5 years

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Further Research (and new blog update!)

A little while back, Cecilia Mezzi, a journalist and CSM graduate with a background in storytelling studies who, as part of her master’s research, found a way to design the novel of the future by translating the emotional arc of narration from her Facebook profile into music came to give a guest lecture. Over the course of her lecture she covered many topics that were new to me.

Cecilia spoke about futurability which is the actual possibility that something might happen in the future, future forecasting which is also known as predicting what will happen in the future, sentiment analysis which refers to the use of natural language processing to systematically identify and study affective states and subjective information, three fundamental concepts: possibility, potency and power, and diverse knowledge and the capacity it has to open our eyes to the new and undiscovered, encouraging us to seek out new experiences and meet new people. Each topic felt so relevant to my research at the time Cecilia gave the lecture and now, even though the focus of my research has shifted dramatically. Since she spoke I’ve kept the ideas of future forecasting and futurability in mind and I’ve happened to come across a book called “A Brief History of The Future” which I’m planning to begin reading this week. I’m hoping it will inform my research.

After enjoying such an inspiring and stimulating lecture I asked Cecilia if we could meet one on one. I wanted to hear more about her master’s research and tell her about my own. We met the day after I carried out the “I’m a man and...” intervention (see post from July 10th). Cecilia commented on the uniqueness of my idea to have an open conversation with individual men and encourage them to share their thoughts in the form of a lipstick-written declaration on a mirror. I spoke to her about what I learned from doing the intervention and specifically shared how surprised and pleased I was that none of the guys I interviewed made mention of the fact that they were using makeup to express themselves.

Cecilia cited an article written by Martin Robinson, Editor and Founder of The Book of Man. Robinson’s article is titled “Tested on Men: Lab Series BB Tinted Moisturizer” and it tells the story of his struggle to define his own identity of being a man who’s begun to wear makeup to work everyday, even though he’s only applying a tinted moisturizer, a product that most people wouldn’t ever notice. His discomfort and defensiveness still remains, all because of the preconceived notions surrounding makeup. The article begins with Robinson quoting himself, saying, “It’s not make-up” which coincidentally echoes the words of one of my tutors who suggested I use that as a slogan and a method to help straight men warm to the idea of wearing or engaging with makeup. If it’s not makeup then it has the potential to be more.

The way Robinson seemed to make his peace with the idea of wearing makeup everyday was by recording a tutorial-style video of his young child applying the BB cream on his face. A male coworker of his also made a video. The whole thing was just meant to be a bit of fun but it wound up normalizing makeup for men.

youtube

My project is no longer centered on straight men being the only people to engage with makeup but if I encounter any resistance going forward I’ll be sure to share the photos of my lipstick and mirror intervention to showcase makeup being used in an unconventional way and on an unconventional -- yet still recognizable and classic -- canvas. I’ll also show Martin Robinson’s video to demonstrate that if a man does wear makeup on his face it really doesn’t have to be a big deal.

At the end of our meeting Cecilia suggested that I start a separate learning log; a sleeker, more refined version of this log that I can present to potential employers along with my professional portfolio. She told me this was what she did when she was on the course and that it landed her a job at Dazed as a journalist. My website with my makeup work has a blog feature, which I’ve had disabled for a long time, but I’ve just written and published a post to introduce this project. The bulk of my research work will remain in this learning log while my second learning log on my website, emilie-louizides.com, will have catchier titles and a more uniform look that will go with my style and help to paint a clear picture of who I am as a makeup artist and an academic. The new log will also exclude and replace words that are specific to this course that potential employers might not understand (ie: intervention, stakeholders, etc). Please feel free to follow along with my new learning log!

Cecilia commented on how interesting it is that I’m a makeup artist using my craft to help people better understand each other and improve their communication. Makeup brands like MAC have worked to make the world a better place by introducing Viva Glam, a red lipstick that was sold to raise money and awareness for HIV/AIDS. I cite campaigns like these to support and defend my own work in order to prove that makeup can be powerful. I’m excited to become a new force with a new goal in the exciting industry that is beauty by introducing research and action in the form of conversation.

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ourmrmel · 5 years

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Mel Feller a Texas and Utah Real Estate Investor Details the Definitive Guide to Mobile Home park Investing

Mel Feller, MPA, MHR with Offices in Texas and Utah

Mel Feller Seminars, Coaching For Success 360 Inc. /Mel Feller Coaching

See www.melfellersuccessstories.com and www.melfeller.com

Mobile home parks are increasingly becoming a strong real estate investment opportunity. Very few new mobile home parks are being built at this time. In fact, when you do the research you discover that in the U.S. only around 10 parks are currently being built each year. Despite low growth of mobile home parks, there is a huge upside to investing in mobile home parks in today’s economy. Compared to other commercial property investments, they are low maintenance. In reality, investors purchase the entire mobile home park and the residents rent or own their homes. In essence, the investor leases out the land.

Mobile home parks provide affordable housing that is necessary for the number of low-wage earners in the U.S. I just read a report released in May by the Social Security Administration that notes that 38 percent of all wage earners in the U.S. earn less than $20,000 a year. It then goes on to disclose that roughly 8 percent of the U.S. population, or 20 million Americans, presently live in mobile homes. Interestingly enough, when looking at various states, the state of South Carolina has the most with 16 percent of its population living in mobile homes.

Not only are they in demand, they provide fantastic returns. Mobile home parks have the highest cap rate of any real estate niche, roughly 7-12%. On the other hand, only about 20% of mobile home parks in the country are professionally owned and managed, leaving the remainder of the market up for grabs by smaller investors looking to begin their investment portfolio, diversify their portfolio, or even change direction with a new type investment vehicle.

The "IDEAL" Investment

If you have never heard the ideal investment explained, this is how I explain it.

I = Income: Even enough to live on plus profit

D = Depreciation: At least for 27.5 years!

E = Equity Build-Up: Everyday, our residents go to work for a check (so you do not have to) and they in turn give you a check to pay the bills, and amortize the debt. Big debt is not bad or scary as long as you do not have to pay for it.

A = Appreciation: By buying a property with the right things wrong, fixing those things and increasing the cash flow, you can force appreciation instead of waiting around for it to happen!

L = Leverage: By selling your business for what you could get FAST money instead of waiting to get "what it was worth". In other words, you are able to get enough money to move and end up controlling a valuable asset for less than 10% of its value. The fastest method to do this is to turn a Trailer Court into a Mobile Home Community

The universal law of business success is simple: find a need and fill it. That same principle applies as you look for small communities to purchase. The latest statistics say there are approximately 55,000 manufactured home communities nationwide, and 85% of them are under 100 sites! I personally can tell you that there are basically three levels of communities:

Individual Grade >100 Sites Primarily mom and pop type owners and individual investors

Investor Grade 101-199 Sites Primarily well-funded individuals and regional investors

Corporate Grade 200 + Sites Primarily large national companies with multiple property portfolios

Your level of experience and available capital will dictate the level you will or at least should start out with. In other words, If the big bucks are not interested in the smaller properties, isn't that where we should be focusing? I believe that there is a need to fill with specialized knowledge! Whenever, I look at different properties I have found that there were subcategories, no matter the size of the community:

Manufactured Home Communities: Usually newer, city utilities, paved roads, newer homes, large sites, some amenities, good to excellent management

Mobile Home Community / Park: Usually older, not always city utilities, not always paved roads, older homes, smaller sites, no amenities, little to some management

Trailer Courts: Some folks say they are kind of like a grab bag of offerings, hard to define, but you know it when you see it!

Each property has its own unique characteristics, though they all can have the same types of problems. There are abundant opportunities to move a property up the ladder to the next higher level. FILL THAT NEED!

Small local investors own most of the trailer courts and individual grade communities, usually Mom & Pop that have owned it for years and are probably tired of dealing with it. This is most noticeable by large amounts of vacancy, deferred maintenance and an overall "tired look". There is no curb appeal at all, and in fact, it might be downright scary looking! Many of these older owners just might be willing to give a younger investor a chance so that they can take it easy and enjoy their years of hard work. FILL THAT NEED!

It is also a great opportunity to take what you can learn from a good real estate coach to fill vacancies and to fill another local need by providing financing on homes for people that really need it. By updating a community where those older homes are to be found, you can continue to provide those residents affordable housing and us a great return. More important, you are also helping to make the town or city, and certainly the local neighborhood a better place for everyone. Do not ever think your hard work will ever go unnoticed by city officials and residents. Remember that whatever you put out comes back to you tenfold.

In addition to the ideal characteristics noted above, by purchasing a community, you will now have a long-term cash generator. You are also able to control the home sites and could finally start stocking your new "ranch" with some cash-flow houses!

I can promise you that as an investor, the thing that will make the biggest impression on you is the opportunity to force appreciation by buying a "trailer court" with all the right things wrong, and just by cleaning it up, improving the image and raising the cash flow you can turn it into a neat and clean mobile home community.

As with any income property, the primary thing that determines a manufactured home community’s value is its cash flow, or lack thereof. We want to be able to be driving by a potential acquisition and by getting some basic information and doing some quick, easy calculations, determine if you would like to take a closer look.

Without getting too technical just yet, think of an income producing property like a CD for sale down at your friendly bank. For example, let us say we go to the bank and pay $10,000 to "invest" in a CD. The bank is really giving us a deal and will pay us a whopping 5 % if we act fast and lock in the rate for 12 months, so we go ahead and do the deal. Now at the end of the 12 months, the bank pays us $500. How did the bank know what to pay us? They multiplied the amount invested, (10,000) by the interest rate, (5% or .05) and came up with $500.

What if you needed to generate $500 this year and knew the bank would pay 5 %, could you figure out how much you would need to put in the bank to generate the $500? Sure, you could. We just use the inverse of multiplication, division. In this case you would divide the desired income, $500 by the rate of 5% and we'd get $10,000.

If we look at the math involved, we could say the same thing algebraically by remembering our old buddy I R V, Where

I = Income

R = Rate of return

V = Value of the investment

Let's apply an income property to the CD example above. First, we would substitute V for the CD, I for the $500 and R for the 5%. Thus we could say that an income property that produced $500 of I was basically worth $10,000 of V at an R of 5%. Pick some numbers yourself and play around with them. Practice solving for each variable, write it out on a pad of paper as you do it using the formulas above, to help you visualize the relationships between the numbers. Pay attention to what happens to V when you raise R, or lower I. In this example if we needed a 10 % return, the value of the $500 cash flow would drop from $10,000 to $5,000. If we lowered R to 3%, the value of the $500 cash flow raises to $16,667!

Of course there are many things we need to take into consideration besides cash flow when valuing an income property, many of which will help us determine what the R in IRV should be, but for now let's just focus on the basic cash flow equation. Now that we understand IRV, it is time to learn about IRV's friend NOI, which stands for Net Operating Income. This is the "I" we are interesting in determining to plug into IRV. It is the amount of cash flow a property produces before any debt service is paid. As you probably guessed, there is a formula to get to NOI as well:

Gross Income - Vacancy - Expenses = Net Operating Income

Here is an example using a 50-site community:

Sites

Site Rent

Monthly Income

X 12 =

$100

$5,000.00

$60,000

Gross Annual Income

$500.00

$6,000

Less Vacancy @ 10 %

$1,750

$21,000

Less Operating Expenses @ 35 % of Gross Income

$2,750

$33,000

Annual NOI (Net Operating Income)

Let’s take a closer look at each line of this formula.

This is the part that can get tricky when valuing smaller communities. Many times the owner will have added additional revenue sources over the years such as rental mobile homes, mini-storage, laundry, etc. To value the income produced by the community, only use the current (never projected) site rent when determining the gross income. If you must also purchase the other assets, value them separately and add them to the value of the community itself.

Many owners and RE Agents use all income sources when figuring the Gross, which can severely distort the value of the property. Let’s look at a rental mobile home for example. In our area, we can buy a nice used two bedroom 1 bath and get it ready to rent for $8,500 or less. It will rent for $550 per month, giving us a gross of $6,600. For illustration purposes, say that our NOI was $5,000 and that we were looking for a 10% yield from these investments. Using IRV to find out the value suggested by the cash flow, we divide $5,000 by 10% and get $50,000! For an $8,500 mobile home! Can you see how you would be making a BIG mistake if you purchased a community, which included the income from a bunch of rental units? HELLO?

Another area to look out for is such items as late fees, etc. Do not include these in your calculations, those are not constant. You are buying the community for the revenue produced by the sites, so use that income only as your starting point and add in anything else you may have to purchase such as homes, etc. on a case by case basis.

Vacancy

Even if the property is 100% occupied, prudence dictates that we should expect not to receive 100% of the income every year. Depending on the strength of the local market, we should always subtract 3 to 10% of the Gross Possible Annual income to give our numbers a margin of safety. If you are looking at a property that has high vacancy, I suggest adding 3-10% to whatever the actual number is and using that. Say it is 50%, I'd probably use 60% when doing my calculations. This will lower the NOI to give you an accurate picture of what is happening today, and since we are paying for income, if a space is vacant, we are not interested in paying too much for it. This comes into play later as we formulate our offer.

Expenses

This area is very subjective, though it is usually safe when doing your initial rough calculations to figure that a normally operating manufactured home land lease community will have expenses running in the 30-40% range. This can be determined by such things as the types of amenities, landscaping, size and location of community, type of utilities, construction, employees, and many other variables. The only way to accurately tell is to review several years of invoices, bank statements and even tax returns. When in doubt, it is safer to err on the high side.

Net Operating Income

This is what all the fuss is about! Our goal is to purchase the property based on its current NOI. This is where we take a hard look at the income and expenses to see what we can do different than the present owners to raise the NOI. Where is the upside? How can we put something together that will work for both parties?

What is This Thing Called a CAP Rate?

CAP rate stands for Capitalization rate. It is the same as the R in IRV, but said a little bit differently. What is R (return) anyway? It means different things to different investors, but it is a measure of how hard your capital is working for you, and just one of the ways we can use to evaluate alternative investment opportunities. This is where we start to think about risk versus reward.

Normally, we want to be compensated commensurate with the amount of work and effort involved with a project. Is this a property we are going to have to put a lot of time, money and talent into? If so, we should expect a higher rate of return. Maybe it is a trophy property with no problems. Are we willing to accept a lower return in exchange for little or no hassle and low or no risk?

How then does one go about determining a CAP rate? It is instructive to understand how our credit markets work, however that is beyond the scope of this article. In many cases, investors look at their options for putting their money to work and, as I said earlier, they will need a way to compare alternatives. The answer boils down to what we have a choice of putting our capital to work in and how hard we expect it to work. By doing some investigation, we can find out what kinds of rates other investors are expecting for different types and grades of properties. By looking to see what one of those trophy properties is selling for, we can start to see the low range of returns where we might be working. In areas of high desirability, such as the sun belts, some of these properties sell in the range of 7-9 % cap rates. This means a property with an NOI of say $100,000 would fetch $1,111,000 at a 9% cap and $1,428,571 at a 7% cap. Remember the inverse relationship between R & V? Higher Rates of return mean lower values.

Keeping in our niche of smaller communities, you probably won't be looking at the trophy properties out there, so how do we determine a Cap rate for the property we are looking at? My rule of thumb is to start out at 10% and see it the property makes sense at that number. This $100,000 NOI is worth $1,000,000 at 10%. We need to "run the numbers," based on what we expect to see and then play around to see what make sense to us. Even though the cash flow may be the same, a property that requires a lot of work should be worth less than one that needs little or nothing. For example, what if you found a community with the same $100,000 NOI as before, but it was 30% vacant, and required new sewer pipes, new roads and new residents? You look at it and decide that you will not work for anything less than 20% return on your investment. At that point, the $100,000 NOI might be worth $500,000 to you.

Mel Feller a Texas /Utah Personal Development, Business, Real Estate, Realtor Trainer, Branding, Business Funding and Finance Coach. In addition, Mel Feller has served in a variety of executive leadership roles for medium and large organizations, including multiple Fortune 500’s. He is a charismatic leader who has facilitated change and growth in all sized organizations, including non-profit and Board development. Mel Feller has successfully led organizations in the areas business development, marketing, real estate and Realtors, sales, team building, operations, and the like.

Mel Feller is committed to serving. In the Texas / Utah community, he chairs several organizations. Mel Feller volunteers his leadership at two churches in a variety of ways, including serving on council, bible study facilitator, and more.

Mel Feller has been a featured speaker for career professional is groups, business leaders and continuing education sessions, and aspiring business startups.

When he is not coaching, you can find Mel Feller reading, listening to podcasts, exercising, fishing, or with his kids and grandkids exploring the greatness God has gifted us all.

Mel Feller states, “An effective coach is someone who tells you what you may not want to hear, helps you navigate around your blind spots, and helps you identify opportunities…so that you can be who you’ve always known you can be” Mel Feller

Mel Feller’s purpose is to add tremendous value to those business owners/entrepreneurs by helping them reach their potential.

Mel Feller is an effective, charismatic and powerful speaker, corporate advisor, and best-selling author. In 1998, Mel founded Coaching for Success 360 to help professionals worldwide design subtle changes in their presentation, attitude and leadership style that increases their personal and professional effectiveness and subsequently their financial status. This also includes both real estate as an agent and/or investor. See www.melfeller.com and www.melfellersuccessstories.com . Now with offices both in Texas and Utah.

As a business, executive, personal development, and real estate coach, I work with a wide range of professionals and offer a highly personalized approach tailored to each individual in concert with the organizational environment. In a supportive atmosphere, I work to build trust and support the professional in the attainment of goals and measurable outcomes.

Mel Feller offers sessions, both in-person and virtual. We will start with an initial assessment to clearly define your short and long-term goals, everything from communication skills to personal acceptance. We will use these goals as a foundation to create a strategy and build the path for attaining these objectives. Change is typically a major component of reaching goals and sustainable change becomes more likely in a coaching partnership.

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blaubergnj-blog · 6 years

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Details of Retail Space for rent in NJ

The achievement of those stores largely depends upon two points: the solution and the positioning of this shop. The reality is, no matter how good one's merchandise is, revenue will probably be down if there are not any clients trooping to the shop.

Putting one's company in the ideal place is a prime consideration not just for startups but also for established companies searching for a different retail space for rent in NJ. Finding and selecting the most effective retail space for lease here or overseas entails the very same factors.

What's Your Budget?

There are just two things which need to be explained before searching for a retail space to rent: funding for the lease and dimensions of this shop. Paying more than you can afford depending on the shop's earnings, and committing to the wrong-sized area are typical mistakes tenants create when leasing. Using a clear idea on the funding will surely help narrow down choices and prevent leasing an abysmal space.

As a whole, the typical rent-to-sales ratio of little, single proprietorship company is 2.98, with 1.24% applied to retailers of construction materials, although retailers of clothing and accessories allocating 8.93% of the overall sales to lease.

Rent of retail spaces is dependent upon the location of their property to be rented, its place among other retail shops in precisely the exact same place, a status of the area to be leased, duration of the rental, and its accessibility. Regarding accessibility, renting a shop at a brand new mall is less costly than leasing a space within an established mall.

It's crucial to notice that who will shoulder the costs for keeping the building and parking amenities. In case the place is nowhere near the key business hub, just how much extra marketing is demanded? These products add up to the total cost of this retail shop lease.

It could be tricky to project earnings on a brand new company to ascertain how much rent you can cover, but you can always search on similar retail companies in the region to discover how much their rental expenses.

The essential space changes for every kind of retail shop. A fundamental formulation in estimating the magnitude of a revenue floor is: Revenue Volume split it by Earnings per Square Foot. Obviously, this formula might not work for all sorts of retail shop; therefore it's still best to ascertain what gear, display shelves, cabinets, shelves and much more are to be integrated on the sales floor. A too big sales ground can look to be an empty shop, while a small shop might appear cluttered and chaotic. The neighborhood fashion in-store screen can also be a consideration.

It's ideal to have three or more choices for a retail shop to compare and contrast them to find the very best fit. Narrowing the options comes down to 3 factors: location, price, and size. When the budget and approximate dimensions are decided, the place of the retail shop comes next.

· Security and Safety: Pick a safe location to find your enterprise. Clients will slough off from a retail shop if they don't feel secure. It's ideal to study the security and safety of the region from local authorities.

· Traffic and Access: Understanding the target market will assist a business owner select a place that can attract that market. A good deal of foot traffic doesn't necessarily signify a great deal of consumers. The concept is to find a shop where there are loads of possible clients, however, only if these clients are the target industry. A feasibility analysis might prove useful to reply to:

· The Amount of Individuals who drive or walk past the location

· Availability and availability of parking spaces

Be aware that a retail shop located in the mall will probably need less ad compared to one which is located in the independently construction off the industrial place. It's ideal to find an industrial area close to major highways and public transportation for accessibility and visibility.

· Local Zoning: Prior to finalizing the place, a wise business owner must know all of the regional policies, policies, and procedures regarding the area of their retail shop. The neighborhood zoning commission ought to be approached to look for advice on zoning regulations and limitations that might influence the shop's operation. An individual also needs to request the local planning committee regarding potential strategies that could alter the region's traffic e.g. brand new highway building and change of course for local transport.

· Contest and Compatible Businesses: Location the company near competition might appear unwise, but doing this kind of promises targeted client traffic courtesy of this rivalry. This strategy is ideal to get a new retail shop that doesn't yet have a proven client base. Finding a retail area near appropriate industrial institutions also ensures targeted traffic.

Another consideration is that the space of the retail area from the house of the proprietor.

A retail space for rent is something which lots of companies might be searching for to put their institution. The regions that these companies are often searching for are the ones which are most likely to have buildings. If a company should put up their particular structure or building, they then will need to search for an empty lot, which might be hard if the area that they desire, is at the industrial area.

Details

Even though there are a great deal of places to search for a retail space for rent, lots of the companies that want to put their products generally search for places near commercial districts or homes, based on which they have available. This is a clear preference because their company usually is contingent upon the pedestrians that pass it if they're not as well known as they would like to be. On the flip side, if they're a popular manufacturer, they could expect their clients to follow along so long as there isn't a great deal of competition in the region. Even if there's a good deal of rivalry, well known brand names may anticipate their loyal clients, in addition to people that are interested about them come.

This really is the most lucrative company for investors.

Retail space for rent Space Utilization:

Now, industrial areas can also be utilized in place of standard office space, relatively at a less expensive rate. In reality, there are numerous different benefits in taking an office space for rent. Substantial retail space for rent is less costly than commercial office area. These industrial areas may be utilized in various purposes and also the brokers normally develop with many elastic provisions of leasing contract. Industrial area for retail or sale space for rent can be split into a number of types of fundamental property advantage using numerous special collections of features. Goal and demands of investors significantly influence the evaluation of any retail area property. These are typically classified with the style of use.

Space for rent - Pricing:

Whether you're an investor or a purchaser, everybody should find a lively and quicker return on investment for your own enterprise. Being a brand new owner or investor you will need to find out more about the marketplace for the best pricing your house. You also need to think about the positioning of your property whilst upgrading or taking up a rental. Examine the profit margin of your own property house to have a definite quote. Taking into consideration the company aspects while creating a last deal will allow you to invest successfully and get the most out of your company profit.

While considering the benefits, you will observe that the price is more elastic and equally more affordable to renovate. Most of all you may get to include usable surface area not raising your monthly lease.

Important Factors that purchasing retail space for rent:

While taking a retail space for rent or buying in office space for lease, you will need to appear because many spaces and choices as possible by registering for a sheet. Thus you're able to become even greater choices to cultivate your company enhancing the opportunity for getting bigger earnings. So be certain that you manage a supple and flexible leasing contract rather than upping your house lease or valuation in tandem. This could really be the most lucrative marketplace for investment if coped with just a little consciousness and a severe concern.

Since its inception in 1932, The Blau & Berg Company has secured a leading position in the New Jersey and Tri-State commercial real estate market. Headquartered in Short Hills, New Jersey, we are an independent, full-service commercial real estate brokerage firm providing services in the industrial, retail and office spaces, including: site selection, acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, tenant representation, portfolio sales, asset repositioning, and property & construction consulting.

#Retail space for rent in NJ #retail space nj

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metalifecoach · 7 years

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If you do not have Higher Qualifications by 2030 – you will be unemployed.

Education can take us into a future that we cannot grasp, yet!

So what if the possibility exists for you to get higher qualifications that is relevant, and can formulate your personal interests into a career you would love to do? What if you can study without paying the high prices of formal university training, and get bogged down by the limitations of state controlled traditional education. Will you study further? After reading this letter, you will most definitely not make the mistake thousands has made before. Don’t be left behind and find yourself jobless, and with no income to sustain your future.

I heard a great story recently, of a little girl who was attending a drawing lesson. She was six and sitting in the back of the drawing room. The teacher noticed this little girl, lost in her own endeavour, never paid attention. The teacher was fascinated by her vigorous activity, putting innovation, and creativity on paper with colourful display. Looking at her creation, the teacher asked her what she was drawing. And the girl said, “I am drawing a picture of God”. And the teacher said, “But no-body knows what God looks like”. And the girl said, “They will in a minute” ….

Many seek quick gold, we want to be rich fast without effort, and we want to have many things. Yet what is often lacking is the knowledge about gold, the mining process, and establishment of the business needed to translate gold into a sustainable system that would profit all. In the same way the internet, for example, is overloaded with fast-information, the good, the bad and the ugly deceitful, and yet it neither makes anybody streetwise, other than being a cheap magazine for advice that attempt to replace professional expertise. The reliable proof remains in the pudding, and if these free-floating Facebook comments, or blogs from John Bloke really make us wise – why are we not all millionaires yet. The point is that being internet savvy does not make you an educated specialist, and if the internet of things makes you rich, why are the world stuck in poverty. The secret answer, the gift of gold, lies somewhere in this article – keep reading.

Experts that monitor the corporate sector has indicated that big companies tend to scale down on unproductive staff, justified by favouritism towards new technologies, and computerized systems to replace human resources that do not possess higher qualifications. There are many reasons why it is absolutely essential for young and old to complement their work experience with applicable, relevant, and contextual education, or they will find themselves unemployable soon. You will benefit from further studies. Different approaches towards studies can be highlighted, but many choose to ignore alternative, cost-effective, and accelerated solutions, for they afraid to depart from conditioned routines that emphasizes the ideal comfort of a big house and smart cars. But if this is true, then why are so many graduates, especially in South Africa, finding themselves unemployed? The reason being that it is integrative learning that transforms lives, and not just mere knowledge about Reading History, Science, and Maths. In the words of Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. But in context, the acronym, “knowledge is power”, is often miss-used with reference to leaders in influential positions, instead of individual independent thinkers that create their own solutions for life. But, exactly why will a different approach to education, and what type of knowledge power will help you to move ahead in life? Is Education not often spoken about as out-dated, costly, difficult, and take soooo long? You will find solutions to these problems below.

Here are the facts …

With the turn of the decade, we will see the population statistics in Africa alone, double to 2.1 Billion[1]. According to the Economist, 75% of Africa’s population by 2030 will be under the median age of 25 years [2] . To make matters worse, we stand on the brink of a technological and digital revolution that will fundamentally change the way we think in terms of work, and education. In its scale, scope, and complexity, Schwab (World Economic Forum. 2017), claims that the transformation of businesses and the way society operates will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. It simply means that we cannot expect the youth to apply and prosper from the same old principles used for business strategies that led to the disarray of world economics, war, and despair. The facts also indicate that current trends in businesses for especially the next three years is to scale down even further, feeling the pinch of bad politics, and financial pressures to survive. In SA, the unemployed stand currently at 36.4% and in total 56%, age 15-64, are not economically active [3]. So if unemployment are rapidly increasing due to the reduction of job opportunities, hence the urgent need for the current workforce (which 45% are under the age of 25), to acquire greater expertise that will enable them to build a self-sustainable future, for there will not be jobs available in the future.

Recently a Professor told me this story, the reason she never found gold, was because she entertained herself with television soapies, and social media feeds that encourage fear, discrimination and a belief in conspiracies, to such an extent that she believed that a self-earning income is not possible, and not working for a corporate company to take care of your family, being against “God’s” will. It is only when she started studying that she realized how much disadvantage beliefs were self-induced. We came to believe that the ideal portrait of a 9-5 job, nice salary, medical fund, retirement at age 60/65, car and house allowance, and the ultimate dream home to be the in thing. Yet, soon workforce across all race, gender, and age boundaries will need to realize that the future of work means you will have to be self-employed and produce your own income, without these luxuries attached. The day she took responsibility for creating her own employment, she found her passion and purpose in life.

Simply stated – we cannot expect skills development at matric level (NQF 4, or NQF 5 Occupational Certificates through e.g. SETA accredited internships), to provide means to obtain employment, and neither will your portfolio of MOOC’s count much to provide food for the table. Rather, old and young will need to find ways to integrate expertise gained through relevant, up to date, and contextual learning, obtained through a reflective and transformative learning approach, to generate new ways to work and create employment opportunities for the next decade. With 10 to 12 million digitally connected youths entering the job market in Africa every year, the International Monetary Fund estimates that the continent will need to produce an average of 18 million new high productivity jobs every year until 2035. Sadly speaking, with a disempowered and uneducated prior generation, the expertise to make this feasible is desperately in need and if the millenniums do not endeavour to empower themselves, the economy will collapse, and neither will there be an older generation of businesses left, to feed the poor. This is mainly because internship programmes become a cheap employment strategy used by companies without ensuring future employment for the interns, and traditional business incubators only provide infrastructure to profit from those participating. Integrated learning must guide the learner to move beyond studies, into independent living and being, a transformative experience that builds confidence and self-sustainable know-how leaders that influence and empower their communities.

Much can be said about work integrated learning to apply critical thinking, innovation, creative analysis and independent decision making. Yet, employer surveys indicated that, apart from specialist skills and knowledge directly related to career fields, the importance of transferable and cross-cutting proficiencies is imperative for survival and success in the competitive world of work. These competencies (knowledge, skills, and applied abilities) include, among others, Leadership Development, Social Entrepreneurship, Business and Project Management, Networking and Relationship building, Holistic Consciousness and Personal Integrity. The good news is that there is opportunity for all to excel in their academic proficiency through a flexible, accelerated (not time bound), and progressive approach (building new knowledge on top of existing to improve effectiveness and expand experience). According to a new survey done by the Arizona State-Georgetown University [4], we must not make the mistake to equate the need for further studies with traditional university training. The decade ahead for higher education is one of radical change in teaching methods, approach to course materials, and philosophy of education.

Incubation for Higher Learning – A New Way to Empower and Educate.

The word incubation, refer to hatching of birds eggs, nurturing, and cultivating the growth and development until the chicks are ready to leave the nest. The Meta-Life Change-Agent Incubation Initiative, refers to the cultivation of competencies needed to foster entrepreneurial leaders and holistic change makers in society. The Academic Incubation – format as approach to Higher Education (as opposed to a traditional business incubator), is a structured community of learning and think-tank, with the primary task to assist the critical assessment, research exploration of fundamental ideas, and advanced knowledge needed for social and economic development. Focusing on Entrepreneurship and Social Transformation, the Incubation process accelerates the competencies, knowledge, and skills needed for participants to initiate, and manage new ventures that would expand business possibilities and job creation. Moving away from formally established Institutionalized approach to education towards knowledge based communities of learning, as Virtual University and Micro-centre of learning, it can provide digital and globally accessible solutions through online blended learning, while providing local contact support to guide the implementation of studies.

The Meta-Life Institute has initiated this response to the world economic crisis to bridge the gap experienced in human capacity building in scarce skills, or critical knowledge requirements for a sustainable future. As academic mentors, we host blended learning support that facilitates Internationally Accredited Educational Programmes in Leadership Development focusing on Entrepreneurship and Social Transformation, as well as a Social Sciences Programmes focusing on Holistic Spiritual Ministry and Consciousness, or Metaphysical Studies. Built on the relevant foundation of educational incubation programmes, it simply means you can develop the practical know-how of venture creation and business management, or holistic ministry services under the guidance of experts, while earning recognition by our partner Universities.

For citizens of a developing country, access to International studies is limited and can be very expensive. Research from the Erasmus impact study also demonstrated that students who take part in an Academic Incubation programme with International cross-border links, have higher employment rates after five years, faster career progression, greater professional responsibility, earn more than their non-mobile peers and demonstrate a higher rate of entrepreneurialism. The Deloitte, Fifth Global Millennial Survey, agrees that this kind of Coaching and Mentoring needs to be embedded in Entrepreneurial Leadership, and Consciousness Incubation Programmes, to answer the challenges faced in developing societies to secure a sustainable future (Buckley et al 5, 2016: 17). Although, the MLi Academic Mentoring process is not part of the local education system, it opens a path to be accredited with internationally recognized qualifications that reflect the student’s personal career interests in a flexible, accessible, and affordable manner.

The role of a Transformational Coaching and Academic Mentoring approach to Education, encourages collaborative innovation through team work, challenging thinking and perspectives, supports change initiatives, and cultivate the appropriate competencies needed for success. Transformative Learning, according to Mezirow6 (1998: 197), occurs when e.g. business leaders, engages in activities that causes, or allows them to gain understanding of a different worldview than their own, and by integrating the implications of alternative perspectives into their own thoughts, allowing it to transform their lives, and business strategies. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds experience the largest uplift, flowing from collaborative participation under guidance of an incubation mentor. This kind of approach to education aim to promote personal growth, social transformation, and inclusive economic expansion.

If you have read thus far – well done. You are now eligible for the gift of gold at the bottom of the rainbow. Why many never find the gold, reflects on their inability to do critical reflection, unwillingness to read through an article, and then they try be business advisors. And for those who are seriously seeking opportunities to obtain relevant, flexible, and personalized interdisciplinary educational qualifications – this is the key that can open your future. Our intake is limited, quote this reference, “Dual_2017/IN6” to reserve your seat, and receive an additional special dual degree offer. For more information, contact us on [email protected].

References.

[1] Mills, G; Obasanjo, O; Herbst, J; and Davis, D. 2017. Making Africa Work: A Handbook for Economic Success. Cape Town: Tafelberg.

[2] The Economist, 16 April 2016. [Online]. Available at: http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21696792-commodity-boom-may-be-over-and-barriers-doing-business-are-everywhere-africas. (Accessed, 28 June 2017).

[3] Stats SA, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Quarter 1, June 2017.

[4] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/decade-ahead-promises-great-change-higher-education-jeff-selingo

[5] Buckley, P; Viechnicki, P; and Baruahttp, A. 2016. The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey: Winning over the next generation of leaders. A New Understanding of Millennials: Generational Differences Re-examined. Available at: www.deloitte.com/MillennialSurvey. (Accessed, 07 May 2016).

[6] Mezirow, J. 1998. On critical reflection. Adult Learning Quarterly, 48(3), pp.185-198.

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