#this is probably not an ideal time to post these esp with the last addition having a bad vibe

[onlymywishfulthinking]

Harry + Nightingale 

[twelvegrimmyplace]

I'm so glad you had a good time!! if you can be bothered please give all the thoughts and descriptions!

Please you know I’ll take any opportunity to hear myself talk of course I’ll share my post-show thoughts lol

First Blood Orange was a great opener and I was rly happy the crowd was engaged with the set. They did Best To You and I died and went to heaven. The new stuff sounded so good too. If you’d like evidence of how much I enjoyed it you can head to Elin’s insta and spot me living my best life during the set 😂

The pre-show playlist was so weird but funny. C’est La Vie? Hilarious. Hope he does spice girls at one of my next shows.

It was absolutely one of the more electric harry shows I’ve experienced at MSG so far. The energy was just massive when he first came out and never rly quit. The kiwi bounce was truly Bouncin.

It’s such a bizarre, wonderful feeling to be confronted with Harry’s corporeal form and remember he is real bc he’s standing directly in front of you.

Speaking of which, he was great. Sounded great. Obviously. So entertaining. Ever the master of connecting with the entire room. He didn’t do any chatty crowd interaction idk if there were just uninspired signs (probably) or he was too excited about the golf dad cam to focus on anything else lol but starting it off with the tongue burned soup bit was classic harry charm offensive as was his reaction to forgetting the lyrics to MFASR.

The stage is fucking massive and he rly works it so every side gets a lot of face time.

Wonderful music direction once again by Pauli the god and the band was impeccable as ever

I was curious about Daydreaming as an opener bc I thought MFASR worked perfect but it rly set the mood. Also if moving MFASR further into the set allows us to get it with live horns I’d accept him starting with literally anything bc OMG THE BRASS. What a great addition to the tour. As a former saxophonist, i appreciated its addition as well and I hope he leans into the sax on future music. I kinda wanna hear keep driving with 80s sax now lol

Satellite live was transcendent idk what to say about it other than that my neck hurts today from going too hard during satellite 😂 a real standout.

Honestly the entire run of Satellite, Cinema, MFASR, TPWK, WMYB and LNT was out of this world. I’ve never danced so much at a harry show. I was so exhausted by the time we got to WS I I think I mentally and physically checked out for that entire song lol barely noticed it was happening until midway through

The encore was perfect. No notes, wonderful song choices. Basically jumped through half of medicine and kiwi and I was dead by the end of it.

As for my set list thoughts, I would personally make some changes if I were in Harry and Pauli’s shoes.

Hot take: Golden’s gotta go! I love Golden but I’ve never thought its greatness translated well live. He 100% should switch it out for Lights Up. It is still shocking to me he let LU go. Just doesn’t make sense sorry!!!

It’s well established I don’t like Little Freak but I will say I get it’s inclusion in that it’s an obvious sing a long crowd pleaser. The chorus is v beautiful live and it def sounded much better than the NYC ONO recording. It still wouldn’t make my set list but I get the decision. Kinda sad I didn’t experience boyfriends live vocals but I know I’m probs in the minority in that lol

The sequencing in general feels off to me. I wonder if they got rid of Golden, moved Adore you to #2 and Daylight after, and then added Lights Up somewhere in that first third before Matilda if it would flow better.

LOML isn’t ideal as the final pre encore song. Like I get it in that it’s a sing along anthemic song but I’d prefer something with a little more emotional resonance for me in that spot. A bit more energy esp since he picks back up with SOTT. Honestly I think Lights Up could work there too with that great arrangement Pauli had for it last tour and those big ass drums at the end to give a sense of (fake) finality. Oh are my Lights Up stan colors coming through again oops

[seijorhi]

asks :))

what i have learned today is that y’all wanna get fucked by some monsters...

What does nostos mean? What language is it in? 🤔 also I of course loved it, mind blown as usual queen

it’s ancient greek! it means homecoming, the idea of a triumphant return home for the hero after a long journey. i found it through looking at the root of nostalgia. in this fic of course it’s kind of a grim tongue in cheek play on it. the reader’s coming back to the mountains, but she’s running away after a bad breakup, and the welcome she gets is... shall we say less than ideal haha

Just read nostos-

First of all as a person who reads monster shit- hell ya. Mhm. That’s some good shit right there. That was DELICIOUS horror. It actually had me a bit nervous and afraid to read what was gonna happen next 😳

Secondly- omg I wanna know what happened next (at the end) 👀 know what I mean??? 😼

ANYWAY AS ALWAYS you never disappoint and your writing is fantastic (if/when you write horror yandere stuff again I’ll be there- frothing at the mouth. A+++++ work ILY💖)

you want me to write the monster porn, just say it bby ghfjdkshgfjkd but ty

Omfg that fic was so good!

Did the readers mom know about monster kuroo?? Or was she just worried because of the previous murder? And did Kuroo somehow manipulate reader into coming back to the forest or was it just a big coincidence? (👁👄👁 there's no such thing as a coincidence)

Looking forward to your future work <3

ty nonnie!! i didn’t have the right space for it, but after kohsuke was ripped apart and eaten kuroo stayed by the reader’s side until late in the night, only disappearing when he heard the reader’s parents/search party approaching. they found her lying in pools of blood (and scattered half eaten body parts), shaking and unresponsive – they knew no animal could’ve done something like that. so they knew something lurked in those woods, but considering the reader had repressed the memories, her mom couldn’t just come out and say it <33

You are an AMAZING horror writer!!!

The uneasiness I got from the conversations with the mom is just *chefs kiss*

A+++++

ahh thank you!! horror is such a hard genre to write because i’m never sure if the suspense and everything’s gonna hit right haha

I read Nostos before going to sleep last night and at the time I was like “sure hope this doesn’t give me nightmares” and thankfully it didn’t lol. But I think I’m willing to take that chance again because it’s so GOOD and I think I’m just going to have to relive it – @ohno-otome

fhdjgbfhjkdfn i’m glad it didn’t give you nightmares bby!! but i also appreciate that haha, i’m an absolute wimp with scary movies and stuff but i just can’t stop watching them haha

I just wanna say that I was listening to "You're a psychotic villain playlist" on youtube while reading Kuroo's oneshot and I can't explain the emotions I felt, but I'd let Kuroo do things to me asdfghjkl – @itishebihime-samaforyou

ooh nice! sometimes the right playlist makes things doubly as fun haha

OH MY GOD!?!?! Nostos was soooo GOOD?!?!? Like it was so creepy (but in a good way), and scary and suspenseful!! And the ending!?!? Omggg honestly one my fav fics from you!! You did my mans Kuroo justice 🥺💖💕

TYYYYYYY i was genuinely concerned i was gonna scare everybody off haha

Ah! The new fic! Chiefs kiss! Magnificent! Bravo!🧚‍♀️✨🧞‍♀️🦖🦭🌹💫

tysm nonnie!!! <33

i’m pretty sure i’m in the same/similar timezone as you? and i do be staying up late to be one of the first to read your fics (i usually stay up late anyways). so imagine my surprise when i see you post in the afternoon. in conclusion, whether you post to align with your european and american readers’ timezone, my gmt+10 arse will still be one of the first to read your fics. also nostos sjdufigyyjf i have to admit, i recently just found out about monster fucking and nostos scratched the itch😫 i feel bad for kohsuke though

bby i always post at like 2-4 in the morning please get some sleep!! the fics will be there in the morning lmao. i kinda low key forget about my aussie/gmt+10 followers because i think there’s like... 3 of you haha

Honestly if i could give u a dollar everytime i got off to your fics, you'd probably be rich by now

lmao the idea that people find my fics hot enough to get off to still blows my mind lol

your newest kuroo fic was so SO good!! its totally okay if you dont want to answer this so you can keep things ambiguous but is monster kuroo planning on killing the reader after he's...done with them

thank you, bby!! but no, monster kuroo isn’t gonna eat her – he’s had plenty of chances to do that if that’s what he wanted, but he has other plans for the poor reader

RHI, I WANT TO STATE FOR THE RECORD THAT I AM OKAY WITH MORE MONSTER FUCKING IN THE FUTURE. i also want to say im not a monster fucker, but that just feels like a lie at this point. okay, now that that's off my chest, i love it. the mystery, the connections of kuroo to a cat. kuroo's probably gonna go and batter around his prey once they're under his grip like my cat does. hopefully the reader will come out somewhat unscathed, if they are ever allowed to leave 😌 love this, love how different it is, the way kuroo just tries to weasel in. very monster and yandere vibes, very you. have i said i love this yet?? id willingly let him get me drunk on his cock, maybe never leave the peace of the mountains again

‘i want to say that i’m not a monster fucker’ bby the denial will get you nowhere haha. just lean in and embrace it hgfjkdlkfgjnkdl ahh but thank you this is such a sweet ask ILY!!!

Omg omg the monster thing kuroo was in ur latest fic is so familiar to me abdhdmfnjfjf. I remember being told abt a monster with VERY SIMILAR characteristics to it (aka the not being able to go inside a house unless invited and using fire to lure ppl out) AND JFC IT TERRIFIED ME. Esp how when i told ppl around me and they didnt recognize what it was, but it was somehow known to the kid that told me abt it.

(Some ppl thought it was familiar but still didnt know what it was)

Do u know what im talking abt? Hopefully u do

-🥚

GHFJDK so the monster in this is kind of based off the nekomata spirit in japanese folklore - they can appear like people, torment victims by reanimating the corpses of their loved ones, they’ve been blamed for forest fires, so it was just fun to use that as a basis and then go buck wild haha. anyway thanks for the ask bby!

Rest In Peace Kohsuke, you would’ve loved Haikyuu season 5😔✊– @joyvstheworld

poor kohsuke deserved better, i’m just mean to the oc’s i throw into fics haha

Monsterfucking ❤❤❤❤❤❤ a little annoyed you're making me simp for yan Kuroo though (a vibe tho tbh). You're so extremely talented!!!! &

This is probably a stupid question, but how did Kageyama react when he couldn't find y/n? How is life with yan Suga? I imagine probably awful BUT yknow maybe the stockholm syndrome set in fast lmao. Sorry, I'm going on a binge reading your stuff. - @oracleofdin

i will not apologise for making you simp for kuroo he deserves it the man’s a snacc. and as far as your second question, suga’s a very caring, very smothering kinda yandere, so i guess in some ways it’s better than what the reader had with kageyama but... pick your poison haha

That was so good. I’m so shook rn I can’t comprehend anything but how good that was and how good a writer you are

TYSM NONNIE!!! <33

Ok, so, I just read Final Girl and the lil' ticket addition to it and just---

Well, ok I've been playing Dead by Daylight a lot lately? And I'm just picturing Tetsu as the newest killer "The Trickster" and I'm positively RANDY.

Your writing is ALREADY thirst inducing and just as satisfying, but this has SENT ME- If you're not familiar, please...

https://youtu.be/iowkiPobYYQ

Understand my thirst. (I'd also like to clarify, I use a different skin for him that gives him black hair and he looks like Kuroo with an undercut.)

~ @the-casual-hedonist 🌸

i love how feral y’all got for final girl kuroo. like bo and akaashi had his fans, but i put a spiked bat in kuroo’s hands and y’all lost your goddamn minds and i love to see it. fghdjkvhfjdkls thanks for the ask bby

idk why but I love preggo reader as long as I don't pretend it's me 😢✋ I hate babies n pregnancy anywhere else other than horny haikyuu fics

i think that’s a valid thing for a lot of fans. the idea of breeding is sexy, the actual getting pregnant and having a kid thing... not so much. but especially with non-con scenario’s, it’s more about the aspect on control than the actual desire to have kids. but yeah, i feel you

Sorry to bother but uh was just wondering in fracture did Osamu kill his wife or was it actually an “unfortunate event” ? Love your work btw!!

he most certainly did :))

LMFAO RHI i totally get not liking cheating/infidelity fics (towards reader) bc IT HIRTS ME SO BAD I CANNOT HANDLE THOSE.

id be reading fics those fics like: tf you mean my yandere aimt gonna baby me and only want me??🤨🤨🤨⁉️‼️

EXACTLY! listen i get that it’s a fucked up fantasy, but in my fucked up fantasy you damn well better have the decency to be loyal smh

Finders keepers is the most beautiful thing I've read by you: I read it twice like I normally do and here's what I figured out the second time (that's when I analyze it and find the little tidbits of things that are much darker than they appear (: )

To start I LOVE THE DETAILS OF THEM NEVER TEACHING READER ANYTHING- at first I assumed "oh they might see her as a little sister or child or something" but realized thAT WAS THE ISSUE!! they infantilize her and isolate her from everyone but her group. the small details like that are what make the story amazing 😎💅

ahh thank you so much, nonnie!! pls this is making me soft 🥺

I just wanted to stop by and say that I love your writing and I hope you're doing well!!! Drink plenty of water and keep up the amazing work :) but seriously you're one of the best fanfic writers I've seen on tumblr! I read your "Imitation" piece about kuroo and i keep coming back to it, it's so good! I did want to ask if you think it'd be possible for the reader to ever escape with the baby (or at least attempt to). Or if Kenma would "help" at all just to put an end to kuroo's antics lmao

kenma would in no way help the reader, and tbh by that point if kuroo did get her pregnant, she’d be far too emotionally dependant on him to actually even want to leave, but thanks for the ask!

You know who I think would be a perfect Yandere in the JJK world? Choso.

🚨Spoilers Ahead🚨

After being locked in a glass jar for however long he was, and all that happened with his brothers, I feel like he would absolutely never let his darling out of his sight. He would be possessive. Obsessive. And Oh So delusional. Sure he’d be your anything - he truly is a softy - but to what end?🤤

choso would make an excellent yandere, ngl 😌

what au/troupe of your fav character(s) that you have written do you like the most?

(rlly hope this makes sense🙏)

i am always a slut for soulmate au’s :))

[chouhatsumimi]

A Day in the Life of Translation 11: Brochure for Tourism

The past day or two I was working on a brochure for a building that will open soon in Kyoto that features several restaurants/a bakery/massage studio/natural cosmetics store beneath a hotel, all of which are assembled under the concept of being good for both people and nature.

Since the aim is to advertise and promote rather than simply deliver information, it was a lot more creative than the business translation I’ve been doing at work. Of course, that makes it a bit more frustrating because you come across a lot of things that sounds nice in Japanese but silly if you put them very literally into English, like  “Only the things it’s possible to believe, deliciously, fun. Food’s happiness has overflowed ‘market cafeteria’,” or   “Chef-made sauce and seasoning being choosy about the production area and pesticide-free, fine cacao additive-free retort curry etc., to the heart, and to the body, delicious nature’s feast, delivered to your table.” or “[place name] is, local production local consumption, sustainable economic growth rooted in supporting the producing land, through strictly selected raw ingredients being choosy about sustainability, towards making circular shaped society a reality, through product-making that never existed in the past, a new food, beauty experience we are transmitting from Kyoto.”  For these, I came up with “Seeing is believing! Delicious and fun. A market-cafeteria overflowing with joy for food.” and “Let the delicious bounty of nature feed your body and soul when you allow our chef-created specially-sourced organic sauces and seasonings, or our additive-free fine cacao curry retort, to grace your table.“ and  “At [name], we select our products very carefully against the criteria of sustainability, local production for local consumption, and sustainable economic growth rooted in supporting the producing communities. We intend this to contribute to the establishment of a circular economy, and that through an entirely new means of production, we can announce a new mode of gourmet and salon experiences from our location in Kyoto. [sometimes Japanese sentences get so long that to make them work in English, you half to cut them in half and make two sentences] [[looking back now, I think I actually might have left some parts out of that last sentence that should have been in there >o<;]] There’s always a few parts where, if you can’t exactly tell what the original words were supposed to mean, you kind of just smooth it out so the words in the translation seem to fit the original idea, even in the case that the literally meaning differs a little. It can be frustrating, but I really enjoy matching up meanings and parts of speech so that they contain the spirit of the original but in words that sound really nice together! 

(Did I mention this file was in Powerpoint? Powerpoint has actually become one of my favorite mediums for translating because it has such a rich variety of formatting options.) 

Anyway, here is a list of words I looked up that’s probably longer than this kind of tumblr post should really contain. (Under a read more)

ストイック；stoic

古来；こらい；from time immemorial; ancient; time-honoured; time-honored​

根付く；ねづく； to take root; to strike​

素材；そざい；1. ingredient; (raw) material; resource

追求；ついきゅう；pursuit (of a goal, ideal, etc.); search; chase; seeking after​

密着；みっちゃく；1. close adhesion; sticking firmly to; being glued to​

選りすぐり；よりすぐり；special selection; finest pick; top pick

地産地消；ちさんちしょう；local production for local consumption​ (“Local Food”)

根ざす；ねざす；to come from; to have roots in​

持続可能；じぞくかのう；sustainable​

経済成長；けいざいせいちょう；economic growth​

厳選；げんせん；careful selection; careful screening; hand-picking​

循環型；じゅんかんがた；careful selection; careful screening; hand-picking​  (it was actually about the concept of “circular economy”)

従来；じゅうらい；1. up to now; so far​　2. traditional; conventional; usual; existing​

低音；ていおん；low tone; bass; low voice​ As far as I can tell, this segment was about a Low-temperature Vacuum Extractor, so I think it may supposed to have been 低温? This was the one random technical thing thrown into the rest of the mostly everyday language of the document. 

抽出法；ちゅうしゅつほう；sampling (i.e. as a survey method)​

酵素；こうそ；enzyme

石油；せきゆ；oil; petroleum; kerosene​

無添加；むてんか；additive-free​

志向；しこう；intention; aim; preference (for); orientation (towards a goal)​ (not to be confused with 思考, thought, or 施行, enforcing)

伝統；でんとう；tradition; convention​

枠；わく；1. frame; framework​　2. border; box​　3. limit; restriction; quota​

解釈；かいしゃく；explanation; interpretation​

著名；ちょめい；well-known; noted; celebrated​

余す；あます；to save; to leave over; to spare​ 余すことなく；あますことなく；fully; thoroughly​

愉しみ；たのしみ；alternate form of 楽しみ

齎す；もたらす；to bring; to take; to bring about​ (look at that kanji!!)

程よい；ほどよい；1. moderate​　2. proper; just right​

細胞；さいぼう；cell

活性化；かっせいか；activation; stimulation; revitalization; invigoration​

治癒；ちゆ；healing; cure; recovery​

本物；ほんもの；genuine article; real thing; real deal​

天然木；てんねんぼく；1. naturally growing tree; tree that does not grow in a tree plantation​

基調；きちょう；1. basic tone; underlying tone; basic theme; basis; keynote​　2. trend​　3. keynote​  (not to be confused with 貴重, valuable)

内装；ないそう；interior design; interior; upholstery​ (lit. ‘inside attire’)

店名；てんめい；store name​

施術；しじゅつ；medical treatment (esp. surgical)​　See also 手術(しゅじゅつ)

惣菜；そうざい；side dish; daily (household) dish​

配慮；はいりょ；consideration; concern; attention; thoughtfulness; making arrangements; care; trouble​

発信；はっしん；dispatch; despatch; transmission; submission​

育む；はぐくむ；1. to raise; to bring up; to rear​　2. to cultivate; to foster; to nurture​

潮流；ちょうりゅう；1. tide; tidal current　​2. tendency; drift; trend​

独創的；どくそうてき；creative; original​

仮説；かせつ；hypothesis; supposition; fictional​

免疫力；めんえきりょく；immune strength; immunity​

唯一無二；ゆいいつむに；one and only; unique​ (lit. ‘only one no two’)

パティシエ；patissier; pastry chef  (not to be confused with the pastry shop, the patisserie パティスリー) Also, one of the sentences said ここは・・・・ペストリーです。Which would mean “This place is a (such and such) pastry”, so I’m assuming they meant “This place is a (such and such) pastry shop/patisserie”?

進出；しんしゅつ；advance (into a new market or stage of progress); launching (a new career or venture); expanding (into a new market); stepping forward; emerging;    can also apparently be a name, ...Shinde....??  D:

ジャンル；genre  (can be used to describe food in Japanese; English tends to use ‘cuisine’ or simply ‘food’ to describe types of food)

提案；ていあん；proposal; proposition; suggestion​ I thought it meant ‘plan’, so this was a good refresher.

I also had to look up the names of a few chefs (who luckily had their names in romaji on the first few pages I looked at!) and a particular massage’s studio’s technique. 

I think that’s it for now! I really should do more of these. I keep doing work, but not writing anything about it... feel free to ask questions any time!

[midautumnnightdream]

Please ramble more about your les Mis/LOTR crossover concept! Where does each ami find themselves when they wake up, how/where/in what order do they find each other, what do they do upon finding themselves in Arda? I want to know all about this.

Friend! I'm being Very Enabled :D

(uh sorry it took me so long to answer; the last couple of weeks turned out to be A Lot, but the EXTREME WALL OF TEXT of this ramble might at least justify the delay. Consider yourself warned!)

Anyway!

Okay, as I said before, the basis of this concept is Pure Aesthetics, so any "logic" is derived from moving backwards from the result that I wanted. But! There is a sort of method to the madness, which is that the Amis are distributed to Middle-Earth in the same order as they die, spiraling outwards from the central point of somewhere-in-Rohan on the same date they die –so Prouvaire and Bahorel appear closest to each other on the 5th of June 3018 and Feuilly, Joly, Bossuet, Courfeyrac and Combeferre land in a loose circle around them a day later, increasingly further away from each other, but not super far. Grantaire and Enjolras, For Reasons, get propelled a lot further away in separate directions. But more of that later.

So! Bahorel and Prouvaire find each other pretty quickly and establish that something Extremely Weird has happened. Being themselves, they are more excited than confused or upset about the situation and immediately set about exploring this new world. In a way, out of all the Amis they are perhaps the most suited for it: Rohan with vast countryside and mountains and mysterious forests, with the oral culture that honours the poet and glorifies the warrior; the horses, the tapestries, even the shadow of some great evil they do not yet understand but can feel in every unspoken concern – it's something of a Romantic medievalist's dream, isn't it? Sure, they also hear Some Bullshit about the way this country is run and have every intention of doing something about that in the future, but for the time being they are satisfied wandering about the countryside, exchanging songs and stories and exploring that forest they have been warned away from by everyone they meet. (Yes, they totally make friends with the ents, is what I'm saying.) They don't search for the other Amis because they have no reason to assume anyone else died –as far as they know, they're busy living happily in a new Republic. They learn otherwise soon enough, however.

What exactly happens with the next four Amis at first is the part that i'm least clear about – they'd have the same kind of initial confusion about the situation and P&B, but they each know for sure that all their friends should also be dead, and would try to look for them. Probably causing some Unsettling Rumours to spread a bit further than is strictly speaking ideal, but i also want most of them to find each other reasonably quickly, because the group dynamic is more of what i'm into here (esp because Bossuet probably landed somewhere terribly unlucky, poor dude.) Other than that I'm not sure, except that I want Feuilly somewhere with Dunlendings for a little while, because I can just *see* him having Unpopular Dunlending Opinions and getting glowered at by every Rohirrim he stubbornly voices them to.

Anyway, eventually I want that group to come together and... not quite settle, but to have something like a temporary home they can share and come back to, as they figure out what to do next. A place just outside of Edoras, perhaps? The kind of community that is getting increasingly twitchy about the state of affairs in Meduseld, enough to shelter this incredibly weird but friendly and helpful bunch of strangers whom Wormtongue is oh-so-curious about and to help dispel wilder rumours about them ("look they are just foreigners okay? From, um, Lake town. Yeah, Lake town"). Of course, healers are appreciated wherever they go, and so are bards, especially when they have a whole repertoire of songs and stories no one has heard before. Bahorel and Courfeyrac probably know their way around horses, for different reasons, Feuilly also has the kind of skills that would be appreciated and Bossuet, for all his bad luck has the resiliency of a cat who always lands on his feet. And if the lot of them get a bit Sarcastic about monarchy and tend to express the kind of ideas that might get everyone involved into a lot of trouble, well. People are Not happy and they'd welcome anything that goes counter to Orthanc influence in Edoras. Bahorel and Prouvaire still go wandering sometimes, leaving with the herders taking horses to pastures, in effort to find out more about what's going on and how they can help to influence events. But mostly, the Amis stick together.

Things are a bit... tense, once the inital shock passes. There is a lot of unspoken grief between them, for the home and people that are lost to them, for the revolution that could have been, for the future they cannot quite see themselves having in this world, and in a strange way, for each other. The whole situation is just so weird they have no idea how to process it and nothing to measure it against. On top of that, there are people missing in their group: by the time all seven of them come together, it's pretty clear it's just Amis showing up in this world, not everyone who dies, and knowing that the barricade was on a brink of a collapse, it'd make sense for Grantaire and Enjolras to be there too. Still, there is a possibility that they survived, by being taken prisoner or in R's case for being missed because he was asleep – and at this point, no one can quite figure out which option they should be hoping for. Not to mention, Enjolras absence shifts the group dynamic around quite a bit and each of them finds themselves having to pick up some emotional slack – which they do, quite well, but in addition to obvious obligations of coordination and decision-making, there is stuff like Bahorel having to pick fights with Combeferre when he's stressed, so he could argue his heart out without having to hold back, or Courfeyrac and Lesgle taking extra time to attentively listen to Feuilly when he's having Dunlending Opinions. On top of that, they are still trying to find a place in this new world and there is this sense of tense expectation, of coming storm.

Grantaire though. He takes Enjolras's hand, he smiles and when he wakes up, he's in Gondor of all places, all alone and very far from everyone he ever knew. "Now why would you do this, you monster??" you might think. And the answer is, well, symmetry. Aesthetic. Enjolras finds himself alone. So Grantaire must be alone too. On top of that, there is the appeal of our guy Grantaire, just after his big moment of revelation, being put into a situation where he has to live with the full implications of it, without being able to revert back to the expectations as he might if he was surrounded by his friends. Gondor is complicated sort of place. Denethor... is not going to miss a universe-traveler landing in his backyard. Nor would he neither dismiss him out of hand or trust him fully. He knows there is a reason for this, but there is no way to figure out what it could be, no more than he can figure out Grantaire; still reeling with the exhilaration of taking a leap of faith, in some ways a transfigured man, but still with all his foibles. Including talking too much, in references that no one in this world could possibly decipher.

So what happens is, once Faramir catches on to what's happening (because no way is Faramir either going to miss an universe-traveler in his backyard) Denethor pretty much hands R over to him, like "Yeah keep an eye on him and figure out what he's on about, or at least get him to shut up." and whooo boy do i have Thoughts about this character combination. Because Grantaire would be like. Reminded of half of his friends within minutes of meeting this guy (which, ouch) but also.. those sure are some Politics he's got there. Would there be A Debate? Sooner or later, probably! Probably despite Grantaire's better judgement! When on one hand you've got someone who is very convinced of the moral righteousness of his opinions, but is also very open to discussion and very very curious and discerning about what people are not saying, and on the other hand a person who is riddled with guilt over convictions unspoken, who perhaps feels like he owes the arguments to those who are not present to speak them, who's just... not good and not being contrary and shutting up ever. It could get really interesting – not in the sense of anyone getting Converted here, but I feel like both of them would end up with lot to think about (and Grantaire would end up as part of the team going to Ithilien at Important Moment)

And that's the other point – what would Grantaire do here, other than cautiously trying to express A Conviction? Well, mostly he'd try to keep himself afloat. In a moment of irony, in this situation he'd be the only Ami to never doubt that he's not alone in this world: partly it's the context of people around him immediately deciding his presence must serve some kind of Divine Purpose – and well, surely no Divinity would pick him to fulfill some destiny and not the other Amis right? But more than that, it's the fact that he Believes, so utterly, not only in Enjolras but in all of them, to the point of just Knowing they'd never abandon him in such a place. So he waits. And hangs on. And tries his best to fight the darkness on the horizon that seems to physically fog his mind and spirit, because he told Enjolras he's one of them, he's got to at least Try, right?

Onwards to Enjolras then! Okay this is the part that I've thought through the most and (**looks back over the length of the post so far**) Cripes. Umh, I’ll try to keep it concise?

Enjolras ends up at, or very close to Rivendell: this is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it's as good a place as you're ever going to find if you get dropped into a different universe with no idea what happened or how anything works, and also a very good (and very Aesthetic!) place to heal both physically or mentally but on the other hand, it's very far from where everyone else ended up and no rumour reaches him. So he has no idea what to think: he certainly hopes the others are also around somewhere, but for all his soaring faith, this is not something he can control, so he tries his best to find a way forward regardless of what happens.

So he keeps trying to learn everything he can about the world he is in, mostly with the help of a chatty old hobbit who tells him all the histories and helps him figure out the writing systems (look, everyone can just magically speak Westron okay?) And as fantastical as everything seems, and sundry dark lords notwithstanding, there is a lot that is broken about this world which is perhaps not so different from the one he left behind. All the same, it's clear that fighting Sauron must take the first priority.

(This is what he keeps telling himself when he finds out about the Heir of Isildur thing. Please just take a moment to imagine his expression.)

Anyway! The actual plot of the book would catch up soon enough, the Council of Elrond happens and as the Fellowship is being composed, it would become pretty damn clear for anyone with eyes what the Divine Forces were expecting Enjolras to do here. However, that brings me to the other point of curiousity which prompted this AU, and that is Enjolras and the Ring. Because I do feel like in his own painfully pragmatic, bright-burning idealistic way he would be pretty vulnerable to the Ring's influence. Not for a lack of self-awareness, or overconfidence, or for thinking that such means could ever be justified, but from the same impulse that had him shoot Le Cabuc: he's the sin-eater, he'd take that fall to spare the others in full expectation that they'd have to overcome him and render him harmless. And the Ring being what it is, it could use any opportunity to force such a decision, making it seem like the only option available whether that is the case or not. Even so, I'd think Enjolras would be quite self-aware – and also pretty upfront – about his own vulnerabilities and oh, it'd be such an interesting conversation to have between him and Frodo and Gandalf before a decision is made. Also, bonding with the hobbits! and the rest of the fellowship! Gimli would immediately adopt him, idk it's just the Truth. Having people ask him “are you an elf?” multiple times, which he’s so confused about! Hella awkward bonding time with Aragorn! xD

Oh and then The Plot would happen but Geez, this is already horrifyingly long. If you are still reading this and haven’t been bored to tears yet I might tell you about it another time!

[communityaskbuzrushblog-blog]

Best Shopify Apps

Best Shopify Apps

10 Best Shopify Apps belongs to the main opportunities these days for everyone enthusiastic about establishing an e-trade retail outlet the simple way. With increased exposure of “the easy way.”

However, if you want your shop to succeed, you may need more features than the default setup provides. Let us look at 10 of the most useful Shopify programs to get a new user!

You may additionally be curious about:

oPerfect Free Shopify Designs of 2019

oPreferred Shopify Designs for 2019

oWix v . Shopify vs . WooCommerce v . BigCommerce as opposed to Magento compared to Jimdo

1. Laugh: Returns & Fidelity

Once is hard enough - encouraging them to come back time and time again can be even more challenging convincing people to buy. Grin: Rewards & Loyalty lets you add a loyalty program to your Shopify store, in order to encourage repeat purchases.

Critical functions

oCan help you setup various plans for the store, which include devotion areas, reference, and VIP solutions

oChange the way your applications job, which includes how then when people are recognized

oAssimilate your method with some other outer equipment, together with MailChimp, Revitalise, and HubSpot

Price

The free of cost organize enable you to build and run a simple and easy strategy, as you move the cost model includes added changes selections, analytics functionality, and more.

Perfect for

Smile if your store is going to rely on repeat purchases from a loyal customer base: Gains & Commitment is just about the top Shopify programs one can pick up.

2. Connect Website positioning

If you want to attract customers to your Shopify store, you’ll need to ensure they can find it through organic searches. This suggests focusing on your store’s Search Engine Marketing (SEO), which happens to be one thing Connect Web optimization can help with.

Critical qualities

oScans your retailer for web site traffic-constraining SEO troubles

oExhibits complete end results, letting you know just what exactly complications can be found

oAssessmentstitles and headings, meta explanations, article all round performance, written content design, plus more

Costs

The free of charge variation of Plug in Seo optimization permits you to skim your store as often as you would like. There’s an additional quality insurance policy for $20 every month, which helps you improve your shop’s Website positioning, among the other added benefits.

Excellent for

Any Shopify stash can be helped by conscientious appreciation of Search engine optimisation, this also app will aid you to place any issues that need to be handled.

3. Fera Sociable Verification

An important element of managing a thriving shop is persuasive every different customer to create a order. Fera supports you do that by creating feelings of urgency. Your first of the ideal Shopify apps lets you show off real-time pop-ups, which make women and men understand what some other clients are as much as.

Significant benefits

oDisplay notifications for your shop when users order merchandise

oExhibit number of people who included supplements to cart and currently viewing

oDistribute good sociable facts satisfy for brand’s reliability

Prices

This can be a free of charge software.

Good for

And you want to encourage more conversions though urgency and social proof, this app is a simple and handy solution, if you have a modest amount of activity in your store.

4. Twitter Messenger Online marketing

Irrespective of what you’re supplying, excellent support service is crucial. You’ll have the benefit of a method to respond to questions through a far easier channel than mail. Facebook . com Messenger Promoting and advertising does just what its moniker implies - it lets you speak to your Shopify purchasers with all the Facebook or myspace Messenger program.

Crucial elements

oHelps potential customers to commence exist talk with you by way of a simple and easy widget

oMakes this simple to customize the Twitter Messenger notifications you ship

oLots previous chitchat the historical past, assisting you to watch earlier sales with the exact same buyer

oMeans that you can increase user credit accounts with your Facebook or twitter Messenger client catalog

Pricing

This is truly a no cost app.

Good for

This app is useful to anyone looking to add live chat to their Shopify store - particularly if you also want to conduct some Facebook outreach and/or marketing.

5. Oberlo

If you’re looking to start a dropshipping business with Shopify - in other words, to sell other companies’ products - Oberlo is a must-have. This widely used product helps you find the best pieces, add it to your retail outlet, and get started merchandising without delay.

Primary includes

oHelps you to hunt for and import goods from Oberlo and AliExpress Marketplace (then customise them)

oKeeps your stock and prices ranges updated

oAutomatically starts the shipping process once you confirm a customer’s order

oHelps you keep track of your requests

The prices

There’s a zero cost strategy that encourages nearly 50 instructions every month, and a couple of prime projects with additional capacity and features.

Excellent for

Any individual enthusiastic about making a living as a result of dropshipping on Shopify can be helped by Oberlo.

6. Yotpo Reviews, Photos, and Q&A

Most people check out reviews before buying online these days. Yotpo Reviews, Photographs, and Q&A enables you to very easily bring customer reviews into your Shopify store. As such, visitors can feel more confident about making informed purchasing decisions.

Crucial capabilities

oOn auto-pilot get product reviews, goods photographs, important questions, and resolutions on your customers

oExhibit reviews and ratings in an array of regions during your business

oSlight reviews, and answer them frequently openly or secretly

Pricing

The starting point type of Yotpo cost nothing, and it is suitable for many people retail stores. The top quality policies, getting into at $29 per month, feature more features similar to reviews carousels, discount coupons, and upsell remedies.

Most suitable for

Recommendations are very nearly absolutely essential-have to have an online website. Due to this, Yotpo is probably the most beneficial Shopify apps for the buyer.

7. Printful

A Best Shopify Apps stow can sometimes be a excellent spot to market personalized designs. Once customers place their orders you’ll need a way to have those designs printed, however. Printful provides a complete-presented generating provider, turning it into very easy to feature lots of opportunities in the store.

Essential functions

oSelection goods options within your stow, get them screen printed and held, then shipped

oMake potential customers modify your creations, and in addition have them produced on t-posters, embroidery and shirts plus more !

oEstablish solution mockups, so shoppers can observe what every piece may be like

Cost

The application is free. You’ll need a Printful account, as each order will come with a small fee attached.

Best for

Artwork manufacturers in addition to other creatives who do not want to think about generating and delivery products will see this software valuable.

8. Bulk Image Update Graphic Search engine optimizing

Photographs form the building block of a typical reliable e-commerce retailer. Bulk Picture Revise Impression Search engine marketing makes it possible make sure your Shopify products pictures are absolutely improved. The software grips numerous primary image-affiliated jobs, and may include some effective automation options.

Primary qualities

oHelps you tailor-make representation submit leaders and ‘alt text’, for Web optimization functions

oLets you resize artwork to Shopify requirements (and also for social networking use)

oSqueezes your visuals, to conserve space or room while keeping your store managing rapid

Rates

The cost-free strategy means that you can alter 50 pics each month, that could be slightly constraining. Most customers will gain benefit from the $9.99 monthly tier in its place, which permits you to compensate to one thousand edits.

And don’t have the time to optimize each one individually, Bulk Image Edit can save you a lot of effort, if you display product images in your store.

9. Unlimited Alternatives

If you’re looking to let people customize the items they purchase, Infinite Options is well worth a look. This app means that you can provide you with a range of options to your clients, to enable them decide on special qualities, create customization, plus much more.

Main options

oMake it possible for purchasers to personalize products and solutions through uncomplicated decline-lower selections, checkboxes, and similar inputs

oAdd in an unlimited quantity of modification options to each and every one product or service

oOn auto-pilot comprise increased charges for specialized features and services

Prices

Limitless Remedies costs nothing to put in and utilize.

Suitable for

Even while Shopify encompasses some basic products customization choices, Endless Opportunities is just about the ideal Shopify applications for offering personalization (or accessories) to all your items.

10. Pack

The very last of our own most effective Shopify applications, Pack is an easy but most likely highly effective tool. It enables you to compose conversion-friendly Instagram and Facebook postings. That is a friendly and personal touch which will help simply turn new clients into devoted potential customers.

Critical attributes

oEmail made to order ‘thank you’ emails for holding onto clients

oCreate a re-aiming for venture making use of a Facebook Messenger

oCreate a discount code by giving an Text messages to Pack

oUse rapid confirming to track your marketing and advertising campaigns

Charges

You may use Pack with regards to your Shopify keep totally free.

Good for

Package is really a useful tool for thanking clients and designing sales and profits-pleasant social media marketing classified ads. It’s especially simple if you do not presently have a message advertising and marketing treatment put together (that can turn this into capabilities redundant).

Drop by finest

Final result about the top Shopify software

One of the best things about Shopify is that you can customize exactly how your store works - by using a suitable combination of extras. This is precisely just where the very best Shopify applications enter into execute.

Get more info visit BuzRush

Join: - Question & Answer Platform

[oracles]

All of the emojis for the sweet and pure asks

DSJFHFDJKHKFJFFF honestly you’re probably like the only person who cares about what i say on here … thank u .. my savior 💖

(obviously imma put this under a cut .. if it doesn’t work on mobile, i apologize in advance aadhjfdkff since when things are under a cut i tend to write long ass rambling answers)

🐰- do you believe in soul mates?

as an utterly hopeless romantic, i certainly want to. i think because of like … insecurities, self hate and stuff (not to get too deep), it’s a comforting idea to me to like Know that there’s someone out there who doesn’t see me the way i do … but realistically? no. i think you gotta realize that relationships are hard and something you have to work to keep healthy and happy and not as magically problem-solving as soulmate tropes make it out to be. so short answer: realistically no, ideally yes. 

💌- diary or journal?

the one i write in is honestly a mix of both, but i think it’s more of a diary. it’s cathartic to write things out when you don’t wanna talk to someone else about it (or in addition to venting to another person) and for the journal aspect of it, i really like looking back on things i did back in the day. i’ve had a diary/journal hybrid since like 2008-ish? so i love that !

✨- which fictional character (book, show, or movie) do you relate to most?

ooh good question …. there’s a lot! i think i see bits of myself in a lot of characters so there isn’t any One (1) person i relate to the most. shaw from person of interest keeps coming to mind but maybe i’ve just absorbed parts of her, rather than actually being like her so who knows . jessica jones is another one, in some aspects. i think just from those two you can tell the Type of character i not only gravitate towards, but relate to too

💕- are you crushing on someone?

irl? no, i’m not. i have plenty of celebrity crushes though so i can’t even begin to start listing those. honestly most of the celebs i talk about / reblog on here are most likely a crush . to paraphrase an iconic pisces, yeah i’m a love whore and what about it ??? dfjkdhkjff

💋- kissing in the dark or kissing in the rain?

both !!!!! but kissing in the dark may be more ideal so i can hide how flustered i probably would be

🐝- describe your aesthetic in emojis

💌💣🌙🥀🖤  less of an aesthetic and more so just emojis i like, i feel like

🍼- what is your favorite memory?

oof … this is a really hard question. honestly, i don’t know. there’s a lot of memorable things. i feel like it’s mainly just the lil things – moments that i look back on that don’t seem like much but are really warm and comforting to reminiscence about (sorry, this isn’t really an answer)

🌸- what is your favorite flower?

a more recent fav but i’ve been really interested in diphylleia grayi / skeleton flowers lately. part of me doesn’t even know if they’re like real, but i’ve written a lot about them lately (and ofc listened to the jonghyun song about it) so i’ve had a sort of attachment to them lately. aside from that, i don’t really have a favorite? i think they’re all pretty

💖- have you ever been in love?

a lot dkjfhkjff probably more of a crush / infatuation than anything else in actuality, i suppose, though. platonically in love, however? absolutely

🍰- strawberry or vanilla?

vanilla, hands down

🍯- describe your favorite smell

ironically, vanilla is a big favorite smell of mine. i think i have a pretty sensitive sense of smell so there’s a lot of different things. i also like tea / coffee smells? idk, just stuff like that. which is part of why i enjoy baking, i think

🎂- if you had 3 wishes, what would they be?

1) for more wishes … bc im a gremlin

beyond that, i never know what to say for these questions beyond things i obviously want like world peace, ending world hunger, etc etc. like for personal things maybe … like being happy with myself? bc i think my self-image issues hinder me a LOT.

🍪- cookie dough or cookies?

both!!!! i eat the left over cookie dough when i bake but the final product is always really good too. (cookies, if i had to pick one though)

☕- coffee or tea?

tea !!!! don’t really feel like the coffee type of person (aside from enjoying the smell of it)

🍃- would you rather live in a sea with mermaids or a forest with fairies?

a forest with fairies, that sounds absolutely lovely

🍂- what’s your middle name?

it’s my dad’s first name

💫- what is your sun, moon, and rising sign?

gemini sun, pisces moon and leo rising

🌧️- favorite thing to do on rainy days?

stay inside in bed with chai. basically just having a lazy day – reading, watching something, etc etc

🍭- how tall are you?

5′7″, though a part of me likes to hypothesize that if my posture wasn’t absolute SHIT my actual height would be 5′8″ (wishful thinking probably, but my posture is bad though)

💒- which show would you want to live in?

the good place was the first one to come to mind but idk about that … they go through a lot of shit and i for sure would just be in the bad place, without a chance of redemption. to appeal my Babey side ……… can i say winnie the pooh or smth (also, im just blanking out on any decent tv show where the universe isn’t one where i will probably instantly DIE in bc of how inept i am)

🎄- what is your favorite holiday?

i often say christmas for this one actually. not because we really celebrate it or anything, i just like the atmosphere around this time of year usually. mostly bc of childhood memories and how fun it was for me then

🍦- what scented candle is your favorite?

i don’t use any, but probably something vanilla-y so im sure there’s holiday candles that fit my taste

🎶- favorite song right now?

not necessarily a favorite (bc i have a LOT), but im listening to pirate king by ateez right now (thanks winnie)

💘- 3 ways to win your heart?

idk !!!!!!! have a good/similar sense of humor to me, listen to what i have to say (and like ….. don’t make me feel like shit or annoying for bringing up my interests or showing you things i think you’ll like), and uhhhhhh maybe like do cute lil romantic things for me ??? im a sucker for that. esp when people remember lil details about me based off what i’ve just casually said, idk .. it’s bare minimum time i guess. i just can’t fathom anyone Wanting to win my heart in the first place so it’s really easy bc im touch and romance starved

🍩- current mood?

okay ? just kinda here – not really happy but not sad either. neutral. procrastinating

❄️- what is your favorite season?

spring because of my birthday and the weather is decent, i guess. though i’ll also nominate winter

💍- your current relationship status?

what you think? .. DJKHFKF SINGLE of course . when have i ever been anything else

📷- a photo of yourself

absolutely not. though i have posted some before (you can click my name in my description to see this ugly minion mug of mine)

💅🏻- do you like being spoiled?

it’s weird because as a concept, yes i absolutely do but in reality, i will feel guilty and bad if anyone spends money on me at all because i don’t think i’m worth that so in practice, i guess i have to abandon my sugar baby dreams

🕊️- 3 habits you have?

1) keysmashing ? dhfkjffjkf like it’s genuinely so instinctual to me that i have to stop and make myself stop before i type it to locals i know or in emails to my teachers. in a similar realm, is my lowercase aesthetic . if only i could type my essays like this

2) saying and typing ‘like’ a lot. i guess i really AM the valley girl that envi says i sound like ………. tis a sad day. i never really noticed how much i do it till i reread old messages

3) not sitting properly. at school i do it obviously, but at home i most often sit cross legged on chairs or with one leg up or something. gay culture, babey ! the amount of times i’ve been told off for sitting “improperly” or “like a man” .. amazing

and bonus 4) being a dumbass. i just felt the urge to say that. don’t expect me to think or say anything intelligent ever. especially if we’re talking irl because my brain will exit immediately and i won’t be able to put a single coherent sentence together. i sound better online than offline, trust me.

🦄- how do you perceive yourself?

i don’t wanna turn this into oversharing emo o’clock but i’ll summarize it in one word … BAD. gremlin and scum are also fitting words. perhaps i have made points sometimes but that’s just after i go to rent-a-brain-cell ‘ r us . otherwise? complete fool . a clown, if you will . don’t get me started on my looks

🦋- how do you think others perceive you?

this is what i REALLY want to know. i have an irrationally strong desire to just know what people think of me. it’s what gives me a self-identity and a better sense of who i am bc idk !!!!!! is my quietness making me look mean ??? who knows ! just how ugly am i actually ???? someone tell me

🌈- things I find attractive in girls/guys

there’s a lot of things and i’m also feeling lazy to list things. but pretty smiles have always been a huge weakness of mine. and perhaps i have an arm kink ….. like not super muscley arms (i.e: body builder types) but kinda toned/defined ones? NUT . (not a necessity ofc, just a bonus)

🍓- one secret about yourself

well it’s not a secret online, but my sexuality i guess? offline, aside from kendra, no one else knows. beyond that, i wish i had something scandalous i could reveal but im genuinely a boring person

🍒- how do you act when you have a crush?

inside im a mess. usually i just like looking at them and going into my Daydream World (patent pending) to fulfill my romantic desires there. outwardly, i don’t do like anything. idk how obvious i am honestly. i don’t interact with them at all, aside from sneaking glances, bc i am scum !!! and also i lack any confidence whatsoever 

💔- the reason behind your last breakup?

never had one, so this is non-applicable :/

💬- what your last text message says?

to summarize, it was just me in the gc talking about a song i listened to a lot that i saw in my spotify top 100 list thing and about how i recently realized the singer/rapper was malaysian

🎥- what show are you currently binging on?

currently, im not really marathoning anything exactly ? i guess the closest would be blackish, but i haven’t watched that in a hot minute. i’m trying to catch up on it though. 

⛅- what is your morning routine?

usually it’s just get up, brush teeth / wash face, and then change into my clothes for the day and then have breakfast 

💗- who do you miss?

who i used to be ……. :( IM KIDDING . ummm idk, no one really? i guess i miss the people i don’t talk to as much anymore, though it’s really my own fault most of the time since im a horrible communicator 

🥀- last time you cried?

oof i don’t really remember …… like i get emo a lot but i don’t exactly full on cry a lot? one semi-recent time i remember crying was when envi sent us this one song in the gc and it was just really pure and romantic and i got in my feelings about it. funny how my crying works ……. i don’t cry a lot but it can be brought on by the weirdest, most random things

🎁- when is your birthday?

may 29th !!!!!

🔪- scariest/creepiest experience?

not really either (since im not scared of ghosts, though i do kinda believe in them. like i don’t NOT believe in them, but im also not gonna fight someone who doesn’t, y’know?) but long story short – i got smacked in the back of the head (like it felt like a hard slap) once and no one was there/did it. must’ve been the ghost in our apartment. i joke a lot about there being one in our place but i wouldn’t be surprised if there was, with the random stuff that happens sometimes (mostly things just falling). again im no huge believer in ghosts, it’s just whatever to me but getting hit in the back of the head like that was definitely WEIRD. bc it honestly felt like how my little brother hits me but it wasn’t him so …….. hm.

💤- date someone younger, older, or same age as you?

same age or older (not by a lot), probably. being with someone younger makes me feel weird (weirdly, usually with men. like i’ll be more comfortable dating a girl a year younger than me than a guy for example.. for maturity reasons i GUESS). but it depends. if i like someone within a reasonable age range, then i like them. 

🎀- any question you want

you didn’t ask one so n/a (and neither did i in the ask i sent you so rip)

[yespoetry]

An Interview with the Authors of 'DICTIONNAIRE INFERNAL' (And Download It For Free Here)

DICTIONNAIRE INFERNAL is a co-authored with Chris McCreary and Mark Lamoureux and was originally published by Empty Set Press on Halloween 2017. With the close of Empty Set earlier this, we have partnered up with ESP and are offering the chapbook as a free ebook. You can read a poem from the chapbook here, an interview with the authors below, and download the collection here and below.

Did you write this collection to any kind of music?

Mark: This is a hard question to answer, because I listen to music more or less constantly and I listen pretty widely (Bill Corbett once told me I have "big ears").  Looking at the poems in Dictionnaire Infernal I see references to Skinny Puppy, Big Black and the theme song for The Karate Kid Part II by Peter Cetera, but that was probably Chris.  I'm sure I was listening to a lot of other stuff, too, but it's impossible to say what.

Chris: In general, I write while listening to instrumental music. The band Earth is probably my favorite for this. That said, this chapbook does have a sestina, “Abraxas,” that is in part a riff on lyrics from the band Baroness, who we both admire. (After the chapbook was published, I sent a message to the band’s singer asking if he would want a copy, but I never heard anything back from him. This might be for the best - it would be mortifying if he read the poem and didn’t like it.)

Describe your favorite meal.   

Mark: There's the socially responsible answer to this question and the honest one.  

The socially responsible one is good moules frites and a bottle of burgundy.  Red wine with seafood because I’m a madman who lives on the edge.

The honest answer is a cheeseburger that they serve at a dairy restaurant where I grew up called Shady Glen where they fry a specific type of American cheese on the fry table so that it gets sort of brown and curled and bubbly, paired with a vanilla milkshake.  Said restaurant was more or less the inspiration for my chapbook 29 Cheeseburgers.  It’s definitely Americana kitsch where the servers all wear these anachronistic uniforms and these little paper hats. 

Chris: Jenn McCreary makes great vegetarian chili. If I could cap off that meal with coffee and a salted chocolate chip cookie or three, all would be right in the world for a moment.

Choose three books that you've always identified with?  

Chris: I’ve always felt an affinity for Tolkien’s hobbits, who mostly want to avoid trouble and stay at home with a book and a good snack. Maybe The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings count as two of the three books?  I think The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was probably formative for me as well, particularly in terms of its fatalistic dark humor. 

Mark: I’ve definitely always identified with Satan in Paradise Lost--he is actually an ethical person who has no choice but to fractiously rebel against his creator because that’s how he was made.  He feels bad about leading the fallen angels into a conflict they are destined to lose, but he doesn’t know how to do anything else. Like Chris, I was weaned on fantasy and science fiction books--the first book I ever took out of the school library of my own accord was Ursula le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea because I liked the cover.  I felt an affinity to the main character, the wizard Ged, who winds up in a conflict with his own shadow, which he liberated in a ritual he was not supposed to be doing.  The shadow winds up killing his beloved pet otak, which spoke to me at the time because my parents had just gotten divorced and my mother bought me a jet-black rabbit at the state fair that I named Obsidian that was eaten by a coyote about a week later. 

Before I read “serious” books, the first books I read were comic books and I was obsessed with the X-Men, particularly the character Nightcrawler, who was the most freakish of the already freakish team. There is a graphic novel called God Loves, Man Kills in which a televangelist tries to exorcise Nightcrawler, which I found particularly moving.  I have a drawing of Nightcrawler’s signature “BAMF” onomatopoeia that appears when he teleports done by his late creator David Cockrum for me at a comic book convention when I was 12 or so that is one of my prized possessions.

Choose one painting that describes who you are. What is it?  

“The Sphinx & The Milky Way” by Charles Burchfield (Mark)

“Torches Mauve” by Franz Kline (Chris)

What’s a gif or meme that you relate to?

Mark:  I see this as akin to Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog but with more screaming. 

via GIPHY

Chris: This meme is a pretty solid representation of chronic anxiety.

What do you imagine the apocalypse is like? How would you want to die?  

Chris: In middle school, I thought a lot about nuclear war and assumed that we’d all die in a fireball at any moment. (There was a period of several months where I didn’t want to be in a room without a radio or TV playing because I wanted to be able to hear the warning broadcasts as soon as they started.) Now I imagine the apocalypse as slow moving, a game of inches where basic resources like clean water are hoarded by the wealthy. As for how I’d want to die… I hope I’m at peace with friends and loved ones, no matter the circumstances.

Mark: Under the Baron Trump administration, faculty at Trump National Stable Geniuses University College must, in addition to their yearly self-evaluations, submit paperwork detailing how they are employing The Art of the Deal Parts 47-72 in their curriculum to Make America Great Again Again Again in order to justify their annual rations of Trump Sausage and potable water.  I will forget about the deadline and be summarily executed the last semester before I retire at age 108.

If you could only watch three films for the rest of your life, what would they be?  

Chris: The Empire Strikes Back, The Fellowship of The Ring, and Heathers.

Mark: Labyrinth, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  (It was really difficult to just pick three). 

Where do you find inspiration lately?

Chris: The second season of the show Fleabag is one of the best things that I’ve seen in ages. 

Mark:  I have been writing poems to Bill Evans compositions lately, as well as finishing up a project where I “write” poems to episodes of the old Leonard Nimoy paranormal TV docuseries In Search Of.  I have done almost all of the hundreds of episodes, so I will need to find something else pretty soon.  

Where did you write most of your book? 

Chris: The poems in Dictionnaire Infernal are part of five years’ worth of poems that Mark and I have written together. Each April (aka National Poetry Month), we’ve written a poem a day and posted it to a blog. At the point when we were writing this particular series, one of us would choose a picture of a demon and riff on it, then the other person would finish the poem from there. I would often write my half of the poem first thing in the morning before homeroom at the high school where I teach or maybe later in the day while proctoring a study hall. 

Mark:  Likewise, definitely written either at home or at my office at Housatonic Community College. 

What was something surprised you recently?

Chris: This summer, we went to the shore for the first time in a few years. Our kids, who are now 16 years old (they’re fraternal twins), just got up and… went to the beach with a friend, aka without us. It was a jolt to realize that, Oh, right, they’re at an age where we don’t have to watch them in the water the whole time and scold them if they swim out too far. Although of course we ended up doing some of that, too. If I turned this anecdote into a piece of creative nonfiction, I’d begin to work some sort of metaphor here. 

Mark: At the risk of sounding cliché, as Chris mentions, parenting is pretty much a continuous stream of surprises.  To be honest, I was pretty ambivalent about becoming a parent, but ultimately I find it to be the best thing in the world.  Even at 2, my daughter is my best friend and we continue to discover surprising things about the world. I find it really easy to adopt the perspective of a small child and to see the world in that way, which is a nice panacea to the way I usually see the world. 

What do you carry with you at all times?   

Mark: Major depression and my iPod.  Yeah, I still have an iPod. 

Chris: Journal, iPhone, a 20-sided die, and an asthma inhaler.

Tell us a bit about your writing process. What works and what doesn't? What doesn't, but you keep trying it anyway?

 Chris: Left to my own devices, I’m a fairly slow, fussy writer who builds from scraps and takes a long time to shape those fragments into whole poems. I’ve tried to push myself to approach the process differently, often through the use of source texts, but the idea of a larger “project” tends to fall flat each time, and I end up writing more lyric poems with Duran Duran references in them. Collaborating with Mark over the years has freed me from my own obsessiveness - with those poems, I work quickly and don’t look back. Sometimes, though, there is still some Duran Duran.

Mark: I guess I am an ideal counterpoint to Chris because I tend to work quickly and improvisationally.  I identify with Jack Spicer’s adage that writing is dictation--it’s like capturing a mere segment of a steady flow of words.  Most of the “writing” occurs in revision and making things more (or less, depending) lucid and readable to other people, although I don’t necessarily concern myself with this too much.  It helps to have something to focus on, so I do a lot of what might be called ekphrastic writing, though the pieces themselves are rarely that ekphrastic.  Oftentimes I wind up with pieces titled for the source of the inspiration or improvisation that have little or nothing to do with the source content. I liken this to the jazz tradition of improvising upon standards. 

When I try to write something specifically “about” something starting from scratch, it usually fails pretty miserably.  Lately, though, I have been able to write more narrative things stemming from my quotidian life, which is definitely something I’ve had trouble doing in the past. 

 What are some of your daily rituals or routines?  

Chris: I’m trying to get better at establishing healthy routines. I want to meditate more regularly, for instance, but I have a tough time really establishing it as a daily practice. A lot of my established ritual is based around preparation and consumption of coffee, ideally La Colombe’s Corsica blend with Silk soy milk and raw sugar. 

Mark:  Routines are literally impossible for me - despite even my conscious intentions I will subconsciously sabotage anything that smacks of routine to my unconscious brain, which is troublesome when one is caring for a routine-oriented toddler.  I do my best to adhere to her strictly ritualized schedule nevertheless. The only part of my day that is really sacrosanct is reading non-work related stuff, sometimes for even just five minutes due to exhaustion, before I go to sleep. 

What was the hardest part about writing this book?

Chris: The most difficult aspect for me was the self-imposed deadline of finishing a poem every day, but it was also liberating. Mark and I have now completed five Aprils worth of poems - 150 of them! - without missing a day.

Mark: With these and some of the other ekphrastic projects Chris and I have done for NaPoWriMo, it is challenging to write something that isn’t merely a description or a riff on the song or image that we are writing to or about. 

Define happiness for you.  

Chris: Taking an unnecessarily long nap with my cat Frida.

Mark: Hanging out at the beach with my daughter.

Chris McCreary is the author of four books: [neüro / mäntic], undone : a fakebook, Dismembers, and The Effacements. His review of Arrive On Wave, the Collected Poems of Gil Ott, is forthcoming in Tripwire. Mark Lamoureux is is the author of four full-length collections of poems, It’ll Never Be Over for Me, 29 Cheeseburgers + 39 Years, Spectre) and Astrometry Organon. A fifth book, Horologion, is forthcoming from Poet Republik, Ltd. in 2019. Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. They are the author of Sirs & Madams, The Gods Are Dead, Marys of the Sea, Sexting Ghosts, Xenos, No(body), and is the editor of A Shadow Map: Writing by Survivors of Sexual Assault. They received their MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Joanna is the founder of Yes Poetry and the senior managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine. Some of their writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Them, Brooklyn Magazine, BUST, and elsewhere. Joanna also leads workshops at Brooklyn Poets. joannavalente.com / Twitter: @joannasaid / IG: joannacvalente / FB: joannacvalente

[comfortmarvelimagines]

4, 5, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 23, 29, 49, 43, 50, 51, 53, 57, 58, 72, 93. sorry i know it’s a lot but i’m super indecisive

holy shit thank you !!! i kinda want a distraction rn so this is perfect 

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you?

going off what they said to my mum at parent-teacher interviews, i was disobedient (i’d finish my work quickly, go back to reading my book, and then refuse to do any additional work), too loud (i had no idea how to regulate my voice volume), and had no social skills (this actually happened. what was supposed to be a 10 minute conference turned into half an hour of the teacher telling my parents how behind i was, and my dad yelled at me for it when he got home bc ‘how i act reflects on him’. i was 10 years old). 

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups?

i don’t drink soda bc i don’t like the bubbles + sweetness, but when i drink water n occasionally juice i like glass cups. i reuse old candle jars as cups so they’re thick and i like when theyre cooler than plastic 

9. favorite smell in the summer?

fruit !!!! i love mangoes and bananas and nectarines and passionfruit and when im cutting them up in the morning and i smell them OOFT i am a happey. my friend got me a fruit candle so i can smell it whenever i want now ! 

11. what you have for breakfast on an average day?

realistically, nothing. my routine this year is WHACK and its different on different days and apparently, according to my brain, if there’s no time for it on one day then there’s time for it on 0 days. throw in the fact that im still trying to recover from my ED and its a fun mess. that being said, this morning i made myself eat; i had banana, blueberries, strawberries, a blueberry bagel with peanut butter and some coffee (and maybe it was the only thing i ate today besides some veggies for dinner but it was before 10am hence breakfast)

13. lanyard or key ring? 

lanyard. my keys are on a smashCon lanyard from last year, with a bunch of pins bc my pins kept falling off my bag 

16. most comfortable position to sit in?

cross legged (except its more like a lotus pose, im way too hypermobile). idk if its a sensory/autism thing, but i absolutely cannot sit with my legs flat on the floor, and  i dont really like chairs at all. i like my desk chair though bc its kind of like a bucket seat, and i chose it specifically bc its a perfect size for me to cross my legs comfortably and be able to work at my desk 

18. ideal weather?

sunny, but not too sunny. slight warm breeze. not so bright that there’s glare. around 21-25 degrees celsius. 

23. strange habits?

dude. i’m autistic w a bunch of other mental health and just a fucken weird personality. i got strange habits from the second i wake up to the second i go to bed 

29. best way to bond with you?

accept me as i am. understand that there are some things i do differently, especially in regards to communicating. be patient and try to learn how i connect. i promise i’m trying to meet you on your level, but you gotta meet me on mine, or else you’re gonna get the facade i put up so people will tolerate me 

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket?

HOODIE. i love having things on my head, so when im overwhelmed, hoodies are my substitute blanket. i’m also really picky when it comes to materials and i especially dont like anything too stiff, but i did recently buy a denim jacket that’s pretty soft so i’m trying to get used to that

49. what saying or quote do you live by?

i don’t really have one?  

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have?

probably something dumb that my dog’s done. he does dumb shit all the time. for example: yesterday, he was licking things when he thought i wasn’t looking (he doesn’t understand the concept of peripheral vision its p funny). i told him not to lick my brother’s guitar, which is just hanging on the wall bc he doesn’t actually play it, and its covered in dust. leon licked the guitar, and then acted all indignant that he got a mouthful of dust and stood by his waterbowl until i turned on the tap, bc apparently bowl water isn’t good enough for my princess of a dog. this is super off track but basically, my dog is really silly and he makes me laugh and i love him a LOt 

51. current stresses?

uni, the fact that i’m currently exhausted and burnout from my jobs and volunteering and study, the fact that im super isolated socially, i feel like im not good enough for my course and i dont deserve a place in it, and the fact that my mum wants me to go to the dentist but dentists are absolute hell for me and i just. cant deal w that right now  

53. what is the current state of your hands?

really short nails, and callouses on my four left fingers from strings (the short nails are also bc i scratch myself). the fingers on my left hand are stronger than my right, and i have three crooked fingers from when i broke them in separate incidents in HS. i have indents from bite marks on my left hand. my hands are super cold, not just bc its winter but they always seem to run colder than everyone else. they’re also really dry, a combination of winter and the fact that the packaging that my work uses in stock boxes makes them dry ? its really weird + also bad stim 

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome?

hhhhhhhi wouldn’t say i’ve fully ‘overcome’ all of these but 1. making it through high school and living to be an adult- i’d always assumed i’d be dead by 16. i spent most of high school suicidal and without appropriate help. 2. performance anxiety. this sounds dumb, but mastering this has allowed me to pursue the degree i always thought was a pipe dream, an impossibility. i’m in a place now where i’m doing what i want, something i care about, and i actually don’t regret waking up every morning because of it. 3. managing to navigate things like the crowded city, buses, work and classrooms every day. i’m a massively sensory avoidant person. post high school, i literally didn’t physically leave the house from a combination of depression but also not wanting to deal with overstim when it wasn’t strictly necessary. on one hand, i know im pushing myself a bit, esp when i get physically sick from being constantly overstim with no breaks during the week, but i’m also proud of myself for trying to manage these things now instead of doing everything in my power to avoid them 

58. four talents you’re proud of having?

i’m good at looking after my dog, and loving my dog (and he loves me back so a talent worth having. i think im good with most dogs but ESPECIALLY my dog). i’m creative; i’m a musician, i’m a visual artist, i write, i’m constantly coming up with things. my brain is good at finding connections and memorising content just by understanding. i dont really think i have anything else 

72. worst subject?

MATHS. my hs made me take it all the way to year 12 and i absolutely fucken failed it (im not kidding in year 10 my highest mark on a test was 38% and it really didn’t improve from there) 

93. nicknames?

charles, and basically any way you can wrongly pronounce my name (e.g, chorlie)

[thrashermaxey]

20 Fantasy Hockey Thoughts

Every Sunday, we'll share 20 Fantasy Thoughts from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week's "Daily Ramblings".

Writers: Michael Clifford, Ian Gooding, Cam Robinson, and Dobber

  1. Those drafting Max Pacioretty and hoping for a bounce-back have been discouraged with the fact that he has recorded just two points (both goals) over his first 10 games as a Golden Knight. Now that he is sidelined with a day-to-day injury, fantasy owners might be in the unenviable position of deciding whether to cut bait. Obviously, it’s more ideal if you can bench him or place him on IR (if/when he is eligible) should he need some more time to become acclimatized to Vegas.

The fact is, though, that Pacioretty has been mediocre for over a season now. In terms of points per game since the start of the 2017-18 season, Patches isn’t even among the top 150 (minimum 70 games played). Players with a similar points-per-game-played total include Kevin Hayes, Alexander Kerfoot, Kevin Labanc, Alexander Wennberg, and Bryan Rust – all players that were drafted long after Pacioretty in single-season leagues. That’s simply not getting it done, particularly in shallow leagues where a higher-scoring option likely resides on the waiver wire.

Things could get better for Patches in Vegas. He should still be on the first power-play unit once he returns. Paul Stastny will also return from injury at some point. And maybe, just maybe, he even cracks the top line somehow. But when someone in the Forum inquired about dropping Patches for Anders Lee (among other choices he listed), I said I was fine with that. So, if you're in a shallow league, go ahead and make the move if you need to. (oct31)

  2. I think Brock Nelson’s value receives a boost with John Tavares gone. His ice time is up nearly four minutes per game, and he’s consistently playing with better quality linemates, in particular Anders Lee. In fact, I have enough faith in him that I’ve added him in one of my leagues. (nov2)

  3. Mikko Koskinen, who I believe is the only NHL goalie I’ve ever seen with a number in the teens, posted a 40-save shutout on Thursday and his third win of the season in as many games on Saturday. This is yet another situation in which the backup now has better numbers than the starter. Cam Talbot has played at least 65 games over the past two seasons, but of concern to fantasy owners is the fact that his struggles from last season have carried over to this season. In fact, his save percentage has gotten even worse. Talbot shouldn’t lose the starting job outright but if Koskinen is the answer as a solid backup, I wonder if Talbot’s games played total drops to somewhere in the 50s. (nov2)

  4. You may recall that Pontus Aberg was picked up off waivers on October 1 by the Ducks after being a somewhat surprising cut from the Oilers – Edmonton previously acquired him during last season’s deadline because the Predators couldn’t find room for him. Since the waiver claim, all Aberg has done is match his goal total from all of last season (53 games) over the past few days.

If you drafted Aberg as a sleeper, it would have been because of the outside chance that he would receive the prized Connor McDavid golden ticket. Now he’s on Anaheim’s top line with Ryan Getzlaf and Rickard Rakell, which isn’t quite McDavid but it’s much better than what he’s used to. If still available, he’s worth an add in deeper formats. (oct31)

  5. Both Keith Yandle and Evgeni Dadonov have been impressive for the Panthers early on this season. Yandle is up to 12 points in 11 contests. That puts him in a tie for sixth in defenseman scoring. Dadonov, meanwhile, just extended his point streak to eight games and 10 points. The 29-year-old is clicking along to the tune of 13 points in 11 games. He’s seeing all of his ice next to Sasha Barkov and making many people eat crow who figured the addition of Mike Hoffman would diminish his returns. (nov3)

  6. As for Hoffman now has a nine-game point streak with exactly one point in each of those games. He has taken 27 shots over his last four games and leads the Panthers with 42. His fantasy stock may have fallen because of the circumstances surrounding his departure from Ottawa and concern over a reduced role in Florida, but so far he has thrived in Florida with six goals and nine points in eleven games. (nov2)

  7. Sophomore forward Brock Boeser has been hampered early this season by a nagging groin injury which has taken the fizz out of his speed and shot. He may not be 100 percent just yet but he'll get points playing with EP40, and when he is fully healthy, watch out. The young Canuck is up to four goals and 11 points in 13 games. (nov3)

  8. Jason Pominville won’t ever forget his 1000th game, not just for the pregame ceremony but also for what happened on the ice. Pominville scored two goals and added an assist while taking six shots on goal on Saturday. This isn’t just a one-off for Pominville, either. After a slow start that saw him record just one point over his first seven games, Pommer is scorching hot with 13 points (7g-6a) over his last seven games. As long as his linemates are Jack Eichel and Jeff Skinner, he deserves to be added in many formats.

Pominville can be a very streaky scorer, though. Last season, he scored 11 points over his first nine games and ended the season with six points over his last seven games. But during a stretch in January and February, Pominville went 17 games without a point. You will probably need to bench him or drop him outright once the signs of another dry spell appear. (nov4)

  9. The Juuse Saros era in Nashville will just have to wait a little longer, if it happens at all. Pekka Rinne has signed a two-year, $10 million extension to remain with the Predators. This contract could potentially keep Rinne in Nashville for the rest of his career.

Both Rinne and Saros are now locked up until the end of the 2020-21 season, which would make Rinne 38 and Saros 26 by the time both contracts end. So, if you’ve been stashing Saros in the hopes that Rinne would not be re-signed, this is a bit of a blow. Unless he is traded, Saros should continue to be one of the league’s top backups and at least a streaming option every time he starts. (nov4)

  10. Dylan Strome recorded just his first assist and third point of the season on Friday – not exactly the breakout many were hoping for from the 21-year-old Coyote. Granted, he's not getting the even-strength deployment you'd like to see but he is seeing over 50 percent of the team's power play time. The now-or-never period is approaching for the former third overall pick. (nov3)

  11. The Lightning re-signed soon-to-be unrestricted free agent and underdog champion, Yanni Gourde, to a six-year deal worth 5.166 million per season. The 26-year-old is a lesson in dedication. The undrafted forward has produced at every level and earned himself a shot at the big time.

Since being there, he's been a terrific swiss army knife on the Cup-contending squad. Over the past two seasons, he ranks sixth in WAR according to Evolving-Hockey. He produces at a terrific point-per-60 clip, especially at even-strength. His 2.731 ESP/60 last season ranked 22nd in the league.

I love this deal. Gourde can play all three forward positions, he's a great even-strength producer, and he's worked his bag off to get it. (nov3)

  12. In case you picked Ryan Donato as a sleeper and you missed it this past week, he’s been officially demoted to the AHL. Those of you in single-season formats may have already moved on anyway, considering that Donato had just a goal and no assists in 11 games. He’ll come back stronger once he receives more playing time in the AHL, so you’ll still want to retain him in your keeper league. (nov2)

  13. Flames’ Mike Smith may have earned a win on Thursday but it covered up another poor outing. Smith allowed five goals on 26 shots, but if not for a five-goal outburst by the Flames in the third period, fantasy owners who started Smith would have come home completely empty-handed. I think we see some more of David Rittich, at least in the short term. Smith: .871 Sv%. Rittich: .927 Sv%. Move Smith to your bench until he figures it out. This has to be a full-blown goalie controversy in Cowtown. (nov2)

  14. I like the poll questions on the DobberHockey Facebook page and try to answer them whenever I can. One of the more thought-provoking questions was which player is better: Bo Horvat or Dylan Larkin? Although I chose Horvat (my Canucks bias, of course), Larkin’s recent production should grab your attention. With 15 points (6g-9a) in 14 games, he is easily the Red Wings’ leading scorer. Larkin may have to carry the Wings on his back as they continue along their rebuild. (nov2)

  15. Is there anything that can stop Elias Pettersson right now? The kid is up to nine goals and 15 points in just nine games. At this point, if you think he’s a flash in the pan, then you need to watch him and you’ll be convinced otherwise. Let’s just say he’s far surpassed what I usually draft in the 15th round (176th overall) in a single-season fantasy league.

I decided to look up Yahoo’s Trade Market feature to find out what Pettersson is worth on the trade market. Pettersson was traded 1-for-1 for the following players: Jordan Staal, Rasmus Ristolainen, Jonathan Marchessault, Leon Draisaitl, and Aleksander Barkov. The Staal deal seemed like highway robbery, but the other deals seemed fair. Ristolainen can provide help on D in certain multicategory leagues, while the last three are proven commodities that should be able to reach 70 points (barring injury). So, if trading Pettersson, I would aim for about that caliber of player.

With that in mind, I decided to accept the offer that was presented to me last Tuesday: Pettersson for Jack Eichel. As much as I would like to marvel at the super sleeper sitting on my roster all season, I pocketed the closer-to-sure point-per-game production and crossed my fingers that top-50 pick Eichel doesn’t fall victim to the injury bug again. (oct31)

P.S.: If you don’t think I made the right decision on trading Pettersson for Eichel one for one (hello, Cam Robinson), I will mention that this is a non-keeper league with no money involved. So, I only have to live with my decision for the rest of the year and I don’t jeopardize my kids’ college fund in any way. Or, maybe it won’t be that bad of a decision. We’ll see. This kind of thing makes the game more fun and discussion livelier, though. (nov4)

  16. Another two goals for Timo Meier, including the overtime winner, against Philly on Saturday. With 11 goals on the season, Meier is now tied for the league lead with four other players. Meier has recorded points in 10 of his last 11 games and appears to be on the verge of a true breakout. Even though his goal-scoring pace might cool off a little (23.9 SH%), the signs were there. Meier took over 200 shots last season while scoring 21 goals, and he’s been on a solid scoring unit with Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl. (nov4)

  17. Auston Matthews’ injury has to be a little bit concerning for Leafs fans and fantasy owners. This is back-to-back seasons with a serious shoulder injury, to each shoulder, on top of Matthews’s well-known back issues going back to Switzerland. At this point, he’s one of the truly elite players in the game and we all hope that injuries don’t begin to derail what was starting to look like a Hall of Fame career. Let’s hope that these are just a couple bumps in the road rather than a sign of things to come. (oct30)

  18. Vladislav Namestnikov’s fantasy value beefed up in the first quarter last season when he played with Nikita Kucherov in Tampa Bay, and at this point it’s pretty clear that he’s a complementary player. Great to have if he’s complimenting the right player but there is nobody on the Rangers who fits the bill. If he’s traded to Pittsburgh and plays with Evgeni Malkin, then sign me up. But otherwise, I just don’t care about this guy in any league format. (oct29)

  19. Speaking of Malkin, I held onto that guy for a dozen years and he won me a couple of trophies in that particular keeper league. But the last few years he had been killing me with injuries in the final months, so I traded him last summer (2017). Naturally that means he never gets hurt again and is back to his dominant self. (oct29)

The dude is feelin' it. He missed four games last season and hasn't sat out yet in 2018-19. At 32 years of age, his propensity for injury should be ramping up. However, he may be going all Benjamin Button on us and turning his Achilles heel into a strength. If Geno can be a consistently healthy player, his value, even in keeper leagues, is through the roof. Near-generational players – and that's exactly what he is – have a prolonged shelf life. I won't be betting against him replicating a near-100-point-pace for the foreseeable future. (nov3)

  20. I am not, and never have been, a fan of Los Angeles being a landing spot for Ilya Kovalchuk. I had picked him up last January with the expectation that he would sign somewhere and was disappointed at his eventual destination. But, that being said, I am certainly comfortable with him getting to 60 points this season. Even with a slow start I didn’t think anything of it. He’ll have his hot and cold moments and fall above and below that mark, but ultimately I think that’s where his destination lies. Something to keep in mind if he ever gets ahead of that pace by a large amount – if you own him that would be the time to shop him. (oct29)

  Have a good week, folks!!

  from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/20-fantasy-hockey-thoughts/20-fantasy-hockey-thoughts-48/

[clarencenicholsonata]

Digital Marketing Investment: Where to Put your Money to Grow Your Business

I'm part of several SaaS marketing groups on Facebook.

Yes they're still there, and some of them are still amazing places to talk it out with other digital marketers.

My favorite is probably Aaron Krall's "SaaS Growth Hacking" - the most (non-spammy) active community I'm a part of - a community which prompts some of the best marketing conversations I have.

Last week was a great example. Melanie, a new member, asked the group members to answer a poll:

Where would you spend in order to grow your SaaS?

Content Marketing

Email Marketing

Website Optimization (UX and A/B testing)

Improve the Product

FB Ads

Adwords

More than 150 people have voted, and it prompted an interesting conversation between marketers.

Some argued for content marketing, others for Adwords or email.

There is an argument to be made for every one of the 6 marketing strategies to be where you should invest your time and money. There's also an argument to be made against the all.

I, for one, went into that conversation (and this article, actually) firm in my belief that you shouldn't invest in any one thing or else you'll lose down the line.

I've changed that point of view slightly, and I'll talk about what changed and what I recommend now.

This article will dive into the argument for each of these six strategies to be your marketing focus, feature my "must-do" strategies, and give you super valuable insight and opinions from some of the leading digital marketers out there.

Are you wondering where you should invest to grow your business? Let's dive in.

Want to skip down to the bottom to get right to the conclusion? You can do that by clicking here, cheater.

The Argument for Content Marketing

Ryan Smith, content manager for Bench bookkeeping as well as his own consultancy firm, explained the argument for content marketing as well as I possibly can. Here's what he had to say:

“Content is the only form of marketing that actually compounds in value over time. You publish once and continue to earn traffic and authority long after. If I could cheat and pick one more it would be email, to convert readers to customers. Any other form of marketing might drive revenue, sure, but it will also get less sustainable over time. Content is like a savings account: If you keep adding to it, the value will continue to grow.”

- Ryan Smith, from Spelt Content Agency

Aaron Orendorff, content at Shopify Plus, agreed (with a product-based addition):

Product and content marketing, those are the backbones. And once you have those in place (esp with content) you can repurpose and test like crazy across ALL the others.

- Aaron Orendorff, Shopify

To give you a better idea of what they're talking about with "compounding in value," it'd be valuable to see a real-world example of it in action.

Below is a snapshot of the funnel for a few of our pieces of "evergreen content" for some of our oldest (though updated) articles:

Each of those, except for my social media marketing plan article, was written at least a year ago.

Content Marketing "Must-Do's":

Do your research: There's no point in creating a single blog article until you know what your ideal reader/customer is interested in. Check out BuzzSumo to review the most successful posts from your competitors.

Establish your content objective: Is it SEO? If so, you'll need to determine your 20 or so target keywords and phrases, and then determine if they're attainable. Is it brand awareness? If so, you'll need to go back to BuzzSumo and check out the most shared content in your niche, and write something similar. Is it trust and expertise? If so, you'll need to create content which says something original (either research or simply original ideas). To drive trust and expertise, you can also connect your brand with one another brand that prospective customers already trust (webinars are great for this).

Figure out the next step: Once you have a reader on your site, what are you looking for them to do? Subscribe to your blog? If so, you'll need a lead generation strategy. And once they subscribe, what are you driving them towards with your email? If a paid conversion, how are you doing that?

The Argument for Email Marketing

Austin Mullins, one of the community members on Facebook and a freelance copywriter, argued for email marketing. I asked him to explain his reasoning and he was kind enough provide a video:

  Email Marketing "Must-Do's":

Personalize: Consistently shown to increase open rates and click-through rates, personalization is key to email marketing - whether with merge tags or genuine personalization.

Automate: Volume is also an essential requirement for success with email marketing. Build as large an email list as you can (email-gated content is great for this) and then segment by interest (as best you can) and set it all to happen while you sleep with marketing automation.

De-Automate at the Right Time: A key to success with email is to send a bunch of emails (see above) automatically and with merge tags, and then take over with the personal touch at an optimal time. A good marketing automation platform will enable you to send an email to a sales associate when someone replies to an automated email.

For more on email marketing, check out "The Complete Guide to Lead Segmentation" and "The Complete Guide to Gating Your Content."

The Argument for Website Optimization (UX and A/B testing)

The argument for website optimization is simple: What's the point in driving traffic from advertising or content marketing to your website (the place where traffic becomes money) if that website is crap?

What's the point in setting up any strategy which drives traffic if people can't figure out how to convert when they get to your pricing page?

Website Optimization "Must-Do's":

Have someone you don't know and love look: Usertesting.com (and its competitors) offer your business an objective point of view for $50 per test. Give directions to marketers, buyers, or whoever, and watch as they go through your website from beginning to end, giving verbal feedback the entire time. This is an extremely valuable insight, particularly when you and everyone you know are too close to the project to give genuine feedback.

Implement without statistical significance: This is a super controversial statement, but bear with me. Statistically significant A/B tests are, honestly, hard to get even for businesses with traffic. Most startups and SMBs won't have the traffic to implement only those design variations which end up as statistically significant. As a result, go with your gut where necessary (provided you're building tests based on proven best practice). Don't let a lack of statistical significance get in the way of change and growth.

The Argument for Improving the Product

Jeroen Corthout is another representative from the great Facebook group which started this whole thing. He made the argument for an improved product being the most crucial element of business growth:

“Product is more than just UX, UI or even design in general. It's [about] product strategy and vision, building for the future, managing the customer feedback and product-customer relationship, getting the dev team to be in line, building the right architecture, nailing the business logic, setting up the infrastructure correctly, monitoring well, analytics on customer behavior, managing the product team…

If I [absolutely had] to choose one thing, it's the way a product works for the customer to exactly do what he or she needs and expects."

- Jeroen Corthout, Co-Founder of Salesflare

Improving the Product "Must-Do's":

Don't go in blind: Check out where you have deficiencies by signing up for your competitor, speaking to your customers or having an expert go through your platform (again, UserTesting or a similar tool will help with that). The last thing you want to do is dive into improving your product based only on your own objectivity (because you don't have any). Never assume you know what your customer wants. Prove it.

Run I.C.E. on your product improvements: That's "Impact," "Confidence," and "Ease." You need to determine which of your product's deficiencies will have the highest impact on customer satisfaction with the least amount of effort from you and your team. Do the math!

The Argument for Facebook Ads

For some businesses (and some marketing objectives) there is nothing better than a good Facebook Ad.

Not every business has search volume for their business' keywords, or (if they do) their larger competitors are making them prohibitively expensive for small business.

And that's where Facebook Ads come in: they offer affordable, demographic and interest-based targeting. They're visual, colorful, value-oriented, and (most importantly for many early-stage businesses), have a cost structure where you pay only when your objectives are met. Want to increase brand awareness but don't care yet about sales? Pay per 1000 views. Want to increase attendance at your conference and don't even have a product? Pay per event attendee.

Facebook Advertising "Must-Do's":

Create your Facebook Ads around a promotion: The primary thing with Facebook Ads is that nobody's looking for what you're advertising (unlike Adwords), so you need to give a reason for them to care. Run limited-time promotions, contests, or sales, and have that discount/prize be the focus of your ad's messaging.

Use bright colors which attract the eye: Whatever you do, don't create a grey ad with a bit of light blue - you won't stand out against the Facebook color scheme or draw the eye away from your target audience's newsfeed.

Consider retargeting: Facebook's "Website Custom Audience" targeting allows you to target, exclusively, those people who have visited your website. For more on website custom audiences and retargeting on Facebook, check out "Chapter 5: Facebook Ad Targeting (Advanced)" and "52 Facebook Marketing Ideas (Updated Feb. 2017)."

For a complete, free guide to Facebook Ads, check out my Complete Guide to Facebook Ads.

The Argument for Adwords

I can work for 6 months writing content around a keyword we want to rank for, and not even get to the first page. The competition for high-volume search terms (particularly in the marketing space) is fierce.

Alternatively, I could create a Google Ad, and pay only when someone clicks on it.

It's a guaranteed spot at the top of the search results (I'm not going to get into Google display or remarketing ads here, to avoid confusion).

It's also a spot where your business shows exclusively to people who are looking for something your business offers. And, if you follow the "must-do's" below, you'll only be showing when someone is looking to buy.

Google Adwords "Must-Do's":

Do not target low-intent keywords: For instance, your business might sell men's socks. Targeting "buy men's socks" is great, targeting "how do I sew my own men's socks" will result in you paying to show your ad to people with no interest in your product.

Use Adwords extensions: Ad extensions allow you to show your phone number, reviews and more beneath your ad copy. They also add surface area to your ad (which, on mobile, is a huge thing).

Do not target your competitor's brand names: This will just create a bidding war, where they start advertising on your brand name and and you go back and forth to no end.

Do target "[competitor] alternatives: This is a keyword which is only searched by someone looking to not use your competitor. High-intent indeed.

The Argument Against Any One Thing

Initially, this was my argument. I've changed it a bit since starting this whole process, but nonetheless, here's what I wrote on the Facebook post:

Melanie: If you could only pick one?

James: I wouldn't. There's no point in paying towards online advertising unless your site has been optimized for UX. And there's no point generating inbound leads from content unless you have an optimized email marketing strategy. If I was to pay for one only I'd be biting my nose off to spite my face.

Melanie: So then your vote would be Website Optimization and Email marketing, as priority, from what I gather. :)

James: There's equally no point in optimizing my website if I'm unable to drive traffic. And there's no point in creating an awesome email marketing strategy if I have no way to generate subscribers through content.

Not trying to be difficult! I just see way too many digital marketers focusing on one element of the funnel, being frustrated by the results, when it's apparent they haven't spent any time on the others.

What I'm saying is even if you have the best product doing exactly what the customer needs and expects, how are you going to let them know it exists? And if you do let them know it exists (through ads or SEO or whatever), what's the point if your website sucks? And if you're driving tons of qualified traffic to an awesome website with a product they clearly see the value in, you still don't have optimized email onboarding. Even the best products need good onboarding or your churn rate explodes and retention plummets. I guess that's my problem with this question. Marketing isn't about focusing on one thing. If I answer this question with "one thing," I'm screwing my business over.

Melanie: So do you have a team doing everything at once?

James: Yes. We have to.

I was wrong. I mean, I was right, but I was wrong too. I'll explain it in a second.

Thoughts from the Experts

I reached out to a few marketing experts I respect the most, to see if they had thoughts similar to my own or disagreed. It was these conversations which changed my mind about where to put your money to grow.

I’m not sure if they’re always mutually exclusive. For example, if you’re focusing on Google Adwords, you need to build out the entire funnel - ads -> landing page -> sign up. That applies to any ad platform.

Secondly, the opposite argument could be made. By doing too many things, you’re spreading yourself too thin. In broad terms, there are 2 things you can do - increase traffic, or improve conversions. Let’s say my traffic is 100/day and conversion rate is 10%. That means I get 10 customers/day.

Now if I focused only on conversion rate I could double it. Similarly, if I focused on traffic only, I could double that. Either way I’m now getting 20 customers a day.

However, if I try to do both, I might half ass it. Remember that many startups have very limited resources. Some only have the one marketer. So by trying to do a bit of both I may increase traffic by 20% and conversion rate by 20% also. That gives me 14.4 customers a day, vs the 20 I was getting by focusing on one.

Of course, those are arbitrary numbers. The point is the answer is different for each startup. And it boils down to math and resource optimization.

- Sid Bharath, marketing consultant

Jason Quey, VP of Marketing at GetCodeless, put it another way:

1.Where is there the most opportunity for growth? Compare growth opportunities in your company, but also where your competitors are lacking.

2. What's your (team's) skill set? If you don't have the chops to get traffic through a marketing channel, even the best opportunities will quickly turn into a huge loss for your company.

3. I agree with Sid, as well: "By doing too many things, you’re spreading yourself too thin." Additionally, it becomes harder to know what's working and what doesn't if you try multiple things at once. Even though we live in an age where it's easier to track more results, it's still not possible to track everything.

This is what swayed me - the math done by Sid and Jason's agreement. If I focus on everything, I might improve each by 5%. If I focus on one thing, I improve that one thing 10%. The part of the funnel which comes above or below (so long as it's technically viable) still works, and I win.

But it requires you to have a solid baseline, and that's my conclusion here...

Where To Put Your Money

So here's my answer, for those of you who came all the way through this super educational article and for those of you who just clicked on the link in the introduction…

Do it all, to a certain extent. Create a baseline which functions.

Create a website which, while not your dream website made real, works technically. People can see what you do and pay for it.

Create Google Adword campaigns which cover your top keywords. Set reasonable budgets and make sure you don't have any spelling errors.

Create ad-specific landing pages. Not a billion of them, but enough so that the traffic from your ads aren't just sent to a generic homepage.

Create blog content. 10 or 15 articles focused on your primary keywords. This gives you a place to start for social media and in getting your name out there. Create two pieces of gated content and start generating leads/subscribers.

Look into Facebook Ads (particularly retargeting). Set up campaigns with, again, very reasonable budgets. Run them for a while and see if they're even close to profitable with your existing website flow.

Create two email drip campaigns: one to turn your blog leads into customers and another to turn your free trials or new buyers into loyal customers.

This is your baseline.

Now, we can focus on improving one thing at a time. We don't have to do it all:

Set up your digital marketing strategy in one-month sprints - focusing on one element while still maintaining your baseline.

Focus on optimizing one element of the above strategies per month.

Measure carefully throughout, so you can come back at the 6-month mark and reconvene. Which digital marketing strategy worked best for you? Do you think you can replicate the results you saw? Do you see an obvious place you could do something differently or better in your next sprint?

Rinse, repeat, and grow.

Final Thoughts

If this exercise taught me anything, it's that there's always room to learn. I went into that Facebook conversation so sure of myself and my understanding of marketing early-stage businesses online.

Only through conversations with other marketers, though, did I come to see that my understanding was flawed - incomplete.

So that's my takeaway here (alongside a more complete strategy for early-stage business growth): Ask questions of the community. There are hundreds of other digital marketers out there just like you. They want to engage in a conversation - comparing notes, developing better strategies for growth. Reach out to them.

I'm one of them! Have any experience with growing an early-stage business online? Which strategy for growth did you invest in, and did it pan out?

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