#we know they’ll deliver and that they’re a master of their craft

[elnotwoods]

imagine having an author of much beloved works, who turned said works into successful pieces of media, here on tumblr/social media and all people can think of is send their threats against said person worded in a funny way to mask their entitlement…

.. you’ve loved their work for years, so have faith in them - they will deliver! we know they will.. they already have in the past, the fact that there’s a bit of pain and angst along the way as the characters grow in order to end up where we want them to doesn’t entitle you to sending unhinged messages to said author/creator

the fact that said person is kind enough to engage with you isn’t an invitation to do more of it in the future

[passable-talent]

part 2 for the sith reader plleeeaasee????? im loving it

part one here

I’m aware of the memability of the youngling massacre and i know i promised to not make reader/anakin redeemable but,,, im gonna do it anyway. strategically it doesnt make sense to murder the next generation and also reader is constantly trying to make anakin believe they’re doing the right thing. reader doesn’t have the luxury of saying ‘do it or padme dies’. they’ve got to be smarter than palpatine was. 

Good news: you’re a Sith Lord. Palpatine is gone. Anakin’s on your side. Also, he loves you, that’s good. 

Bad news: you now have so much more on your plate. You’ve got to activate the clones to kill the Jedi, give a speech before the Senate, accompany Anakin to Mustafar to get rid of the Separatists, there was just so much to do, and in so little time. 

So, no matter how you wished to stay in his embrace forever, you pulled from Anakin’s arms, brushing back his hair sweetly. 

“Love, we need to start moving against the Jedi,” you said softly, righting his very disheveled robes. “You have to go to the temple. I’ll be there as soon as I can, okay?”

“I can’t kill any Jedi,” he said, breaking your gaze. In response you hugged him tightly, comfortingly. You’d known he would worry about that.

“I know, I know, I’m not asking you to.” His loyalty to you was strong, but you knew it was not yet unbreakable. “The Younglings- they can be saved. I’ll take care of the Jedi, but you need to make sure they’re safe.” He nodded, fixing the last few details of his tousled robes, and kissed you one last time before he left the room.

Which left you alone, with your thoughts, and some very knotted hair. 

It took a moment to clean yourself up as well, but soon enough you could take a seat at Palpatine’s desk, calling up the communications you’d seen under his fingers a thousand times. The Clones’ slave chips would take over their will the moment you gave the order, and you bit your lip for a moment, wishing you could be there in person to see it all. But you had something much more important to do with your time. 

You pulled your hood over your head and opened your communications to all of the Clone Squadron Leaders. 

“Execute Order Sixty Six,” you said, and the words burned on your tongue. 

You didn’t really have time to waste, you see. You had to meet Anakin at the temple, ‘find’ the evidence you’d plant, rush back to the Senate, then make it to Mustafar. You had a very full schedule for the afternoon, and yet- you couldn’t help it. 

You leaned back in the chair, closed your eyes, and opened yourself to the Force. You reached out across the galaxy, feeling into the light, and the dark. Through it, you felt a thousand Jedi dying. And nothing, well, almost nothing, had ever felt so good. 

The Jedi Killer, you’d been, in the Clone Wars. And though the generation of them did not die by your saber, it was your order, your decision, your words, that had brought them down. You weren’t just a killer. You were a crusader. 

Once you’d gotten your breath back, you pulled up a different communication, one wired to a meeting hall on Mustafar, full of people you despised. Nute Gunray, Shu Mai, truly awful people. People who had come to power, and did nothing with it but collect wealth. Disgusting, truly- when one comes to power, they’re meant to wield it, just as you were. But these people only cared about their trade, their capitalism. Pitiful.

“Viceroy,” you said with a dark smile, eyes hidden beneath your cloak. 

“Lord Errar,” Nute acknowledged you with a bit of surprise in his voice, “Where is Lord Sidious?” 

“He has just a bit to take care of in the Senate,” you said with a wicked smile. Nothing made your soul spark like a well-crafted lie. “Once that’s taken care of, I will pay you a visit, to give you your reward for your help. When the night is over, my friends, you’ll be left in peace.” Giving them no time to ask questions, you closed the communication, delivering your last word to an empty office. 

“Pieces.” 

The last thing you needed to do before you left was nice and easy- the press of a button. Hidden away in the far corner of the Chancellor’s desk was a button meant only for emergencies, which is certainly why you used it now, of course. The death of the chancellor was an emergency, wasn’t it?

You called a senate meeting. 

Once that was done, you knew you had only an hour before the senators would be expecting you, so you found your saber and hurried to your speeder. It didn’t take long to get to the Temple, where you had sent Anakin. He had rescued the younglings from their training, in the midst of the battlegrounds that the Temple had become, and gotten them away to their chambers, in the care of droids. He met you in the center of the temple, Jedi and Clones alike scattered around the floor. So caught up in his mission, he hadn’t noticed how long you’d been at the temple, working your way through the files. 

“I told them that I’d come back when it was safe,” he said, “The droids will take care of them.” 

“Good,” you breathed, giving him a quick kiss under the ear. You took his hand, and slowly tugged him toward the communications center of the temple. “I have to show you something.” You pulled up the files you’d been painstakingly preparing for months, crafting them, ensuring they looked as though they were written by Jedi fingers.

On them were plans from the other side of the Clone Wars, supporting the Separatists. They held details about the destruction of the Senate, the assassination of the Chancellor, without even knowing he was a Sith. And of course, your magnum opus, the most perfect thing you could’ve included- the passage that described how the Jedi would allow the Dark Side of the Force, the Sith, to rise in power so that the Jedi could shift the blame for the war to the Sith. This, you knew, would hurt Anakin most of all- that the Jedi had completely ignored their duty to fight the Dark. 

“I just don’t understand,” you said softly, shaking your head, darkness pulsing deep in your chest with a beautiful, well-crafted lie. “I thought- I thought that Sidious was behind the war. But even he was being manipulated by the Jedi, he was going to be gotten rid of so that the Jedi could control the Senate.” Anakin couldn’t look away from the holograms. 

“Anakin, I’m so sorry,” you breathed, lacing your arms around the closest of his, hoping to give him even the slightest comfort, as he accepted that the people who’d raised and trained him were so evil. Apparently.

“There’s some good news, though,” you said, motioning to one of the holograms, “We now know where the Separatist leaders are. You and I- we can go...” you paused, seeming to stumble to find the proper word. “...Remove them.” Finally breaking his eyes away from the holo, he nodded, pulling you just a bit closer. 

You kissed his cheek, giving him a moment to grieve.

“I should inform the Senate,” you said, “They’ve never met me, but I was the Chancellor’s apprentice. They’ll respect me.” His flesh hand came to your face, and you leaned into it, closing your eyes for the briefest of moments to drown in his affection. 

“Be careful,” he told you, and you nodded.

“Can you-” you said, shaking your head briefly, trying to be gentle with him. “Come with me, please. I don’t want you to stay here by yourself.” He nodded, and together you walked to your speeder, taking it to the Senate hall. 

And this- this was to be your masterpiece. 

“Senators-” you began, aligning your shoulders in a way that had you looking powerful enough to command their attention, but nervous enough they wouldn’t suspect you for foul play. “I’m afraid I have some very disturbing news for you.” 

"I was an apprentice to the late Chancellor Palpatine, a gifted and respected leader who guided our republic through the first war in generations. I’m saddened to inform you, though, that this war was not what you’ve been told.” Whispers rippled through the senate’s hall.

“The Jedi, to whom this Senate entrusted the peace of the galaxy, had given power to the Separatists, in order to stir up the war. Earlier this very day, four Jedi masters ambushed myself and the Chancellor in his office...” you trailed away, bringing up emotion to stir their sympathy.

“I only escaped thanks to one young Jedi who still represents what the Jedi Order was meant to. The Chancellor was not so lucky.” You felt it as grief rolled through the room, and fought away a smile. They believed your every word- of course they did.

“On the battlefields, the horror of the Jedi and their plans were realized, and many of them were executed for crimes against the republic, following the Chancellor’s dying wishes. His other...” You shook your head, as though disbelieving what you were about to propose. 

“His other wish on his deathbed was that I carry on his work. That I guide the Republic into a future of peace.” The energy in the room shifted, but not toward the negative. No, they trusted you. They were considering giving your former mentor’s power to you. They just needed a little more. 

“I know you’ve never seen me before, you have no reason to trust me. I implore you, honorable senate, to believe me. I will see it that this Republic is capable of recognizing traitors, as the Jedi had become. I will see to it that the remaining traitorous Jedi are hunted down and executed. I promise to lead this Senate into the future!” 

The cheer went up. 

“I vote to reorganize the Republic, into something stronger, more powerful, more capable of destroying threats to the peace!” 

The energy was beautiful, lifting you to levels of bliss you had never felt before. You were to be the most powerful Sith there had ever been, controlling the Senate, the Republic, the Sith, the Jedi. 

The Republic. Such a name didn’t have quite the ring you wanted. You were to be, what, Chancellor? No, no, that wouldn’t do. 

“Together, we will create the first Galactic Empire- a beacon of hope for the galaxy, the strongest protector of the peace that the galaxy has ever seen!” 

Emperor. Now that was a title you were proud to carry. 

“We have to hurry,” you told Anakin as you strode from the meeting hall, “The Separatists might hear word that we know their location. We’ve got to get to them before they move.” 

They hadn’t- they waited, like the proper pawns they were, for the reward you had promised them. Such a reward came in one of two forms:

Anakin’s saber, or yours. 

You had planned out everything that would happen this day, everywhere you would go, every bit of it. You knew every step, and were never caught off guard. 

Until you discovered Obi-Wan Kenobi waiting outside of your ship.

You had to make a decision fast- how you were going to play this. Obi-Wan was a talented Jedi, and possibly the one person who you’d be incapable of manipulating, thanks to that strong Jedi code. He was also the only person who Anakin might be loyal to, over you. 

So, you let Anakin have his reunion, as though you hadn’t even noticed Obi-Wan. 

You stayed close, but you hadn’t thought to make Anakin realize he’d have to stand opposed to Obi-Wan, so you had to wait for the proper moment to interject yourself. 

“Anakin, are you alright? There’s been so much happening- I was so worried.” You knew Obi-Wan had noticed you, but for all of Obi-Wan’s faults, at least he knew that you were no threat to Anakin. 

“I’m fine,” Anakin told him, and you recognized what he was feeling- he was pushing away his emotions, as the Jedi Order had always told him to. 

“Master Yoda has lost contact with Master Windu- we don’t know what happened. Do you?” 

And there it was. The moment you’d been waiting for.

“Stop,” you groaned, crossing your arms. “You know exactly what Windu was doing. You know exactly where he was today.” You stepped forward, putting yourself almost between Obi-Wan and Anakin. 

“No,” Obi-Wan said, astonished by your presence. He’d known you were there, but something about you now almost reminded him that you were barely an adult, just like Anakin. “No, sith apprentice, I don’t know what happened.” 

“That’s a lie!” you shouted, not yet bringing up your saber. You put your arm in front of Anakin, as though protecting him from Obi-Wan. “You’re done lying to him!”

“Excuse me?”

“Mace Windu along with three other Jedi masters were sent to murder the Chancellor of the Republic so that the Jedi could assume control! Anakin and I found the plans in the Jedi temple ourselves!” Obi-Wan’s expression fell, and he didn’t look away from you.

“What are you talking about?” 

You shared a glance with Anakin, and suddenly, you had an idea. 

“They didn’t even tell you?” You whispered, turning your gaze to the floor as though you were considering. You were, though, honestly- there was no reason why this needed to end with Obi-Wan dead, not if you could reel him in just as cleanly as you did Anakin. And if you failed, then to Anakin it would feel incredibly genuine that Obi-Wan would need to die, ensuring his loyalty either way.

You brought your gaze to Anakin’s, and offered him the slightest pitiful smile.

“Maybe he can be trusted,” you said, offering him the hope that his master was redeemable. Lifting your chin as though gathering your wits, you turned to Obi-Wan, something under your ribcage sparking again with the love of a good plan seeing itself through. 

“I’m sorry to tell you this, Master, but the Jedi had been plotting the death of Chancellor Palpatine, and once he was gone, they were going to assume control of the Senate. Your masters have been behind this war, all along. It’s all very-” You shook your head. “Despicable.” 

“It can’t be true,” Obi-Wan said, his voice stealing air from his lungs, his chest seeming to deflate, and this couldn’t have possibly worked out better. 

“We found the plans, in the Temple,” Anakin said, and Obi-Wan looked at his former Padawan. 

“I assure you, Master,” you said, lowering your head, “I just want the galaxy in peace. I know you aren’t inclined to believe me, I understand...” It occurred to you that if he knew the whole of the story, he might be swayed toward you.

“Anakin and I are a Dyad,” you told him, and Anakin’s entire presence in the Force pulsed with surprise. “I always thought that it meant we were destined to be enemies, but I guess the future is harder to predict than that.” Obi-Wan studied you briefly, looking over your face, trying to find any hint of dishonesty. He underestimated you- you breathed dishonesty, it was in your bloodstream. Why would he be able to see it on you?

“You are a sith, are you not?” Obi-Wan asked, presumably weighing whether or not he could trust you. 

“I was abandoned by my master, because of how I felt for Anakin,” you told him, and none of it was a flat lie. That was your specialty- you were surprisingly honest, if one listened with a close enough ear. You reached out to take Anakin’s hand, an unabashed show of affection that felt quite teenaged. “I just want him to be safe.”

“If I can trust you, (Y/N), which I’m not sure I can,” Obi-Wan said, “I’ll help restore the galaxy in every way I can.” 

-🦌 Roe

part 3

[misc-headcanons]

OC-tober Day 11 (Katakuri’s kids): Craft

@oc-growth-and-development (Warning: Incredibly fluffy content incoming)

Maple's focus on her book--an old tome of her mother's describing the basics of necromancy--was quickly cut short when she heard the patter of footsteps near her and the feeling of a small hand on her arm. She looked over to see her youngest siblings, Vanilla and Fritter standing next to her; Vanilla had tapped her while Fritter took his usual spot behind her while clinging to his blanket.

"Hey Maple," Vanilla said eagerly, "Can you help me and Fritter with something?"

Maple quickly reached for a bookmark and slid it in between her book's open pages. "Depends," she replied, pushing up her glasses. "What do you need help with?"

Vanilla smiled up at her eldest sister, eager to explain. "So," she started, "A bunch of the flowers in the gardens are blooming now, and we wanna make flower crowns. Buuut, after a few days, they'll dry up 'cause the plants will get all brown and die."

"And mine always come undone," Fritter added, "It's hard to tie the flowers and stems together." He held up one of his hands and wiggled his fingers. "'Cause I got tiny fingers."

Vanilla nodded. "But then I thought that you could make them stay green longer with magic--ooh, or you could make them bloom and then close up and bloom again too!" She gave Maple a sheepish smile. "I'd try to do it by myself, but I dunno any spells that do that...And last time I tried making a spell by myself, I got in trouble."

Maple smirked. "Well, that'll happen when you try making a spell to summon some glitter and wind up making it rain sparkles around the castle for a whole day," she said wryly.

Vanilla pouted. "I knoooow," she whined. "I still don't get why Uncle Mont-d'or and everybody else got so upset. Glitter makes things look better, and everyone's clothes and armor and stuff was so sparkly!"

Fritter nodded. "And it makes 'em less scary. Uncle Monty said he was gonna put us in time-out with one of his books, but all I could think was 'Wow, I never saw Uncle Monty look so twinkly before.'"

Maple bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling; as hilarious as it was to remember her furious Uncle doused in a layer of rainbow sparkles, she didn't want to encourage that sort of behavior in her siblings. "Well this time, you'll have supervision when you use magic," she replied, easing her way out of her plush reading chair. "I'll find a spell that keeps flowers fresh, and you can practice it with me. Okay?" Fritter and Vanilla nodded eagerly, and Maple followed them as they trotted out to the royal gardens. 

"Yaaay, thanks!" Vanilla cheered. "And you can pick whatever flowers you want for your crown first, Maple!"

"But save some bluebonnets please, if you're gonna pick those," Fritter added hastily. "I wanna make one with blue and purple flowers, and bluebonnets are my favorite blue flower!"

The three of them arrived at the gardens, and Fritter and Vanilla set out to gather all of the flowers they needed to make the crowns they wanted. Maple pulled out a small dusty tome in her coat's inside pocket and leafed through its pages, looking for any spells she'd written that dealt with plants. "Hmm...Oh, here's one," Maple mused. "I think I wrote this for one of Mama's gifts for Mother's Day last year." Vanilla ran over with armfuls of various flowers in many colors and looked down at Maple's open journal entry. "To ex-tend the life-span of cut plants and flowers," she read aloud. "Okay, so do we just say the spell to the flowers and then they'll live forever?"

Maple set a small leaf in between the pages of her journal to mark her page. "Well, nothing lives forever," she replied. "I mean...you can raise skeletons and bodies with necromancy, but they still need upkeep and stuff so they don't fall apart. And spells to live forever usually have a really big downside like having eternal life but not eternal youth, so eventually you just turn into a little shriveled raisin and can't ever stop getting older…" 

Maple saw the confused and zoned-out look on her sister's face, and blushed at how she had started rambling. "Um. Anyway, the spell just makes the flowers last and stay fresh for a year or so," she said hastily. "We'd just need to use the spell again once a year to keep the flowers from dying. We'll make the flower crowns first, and then once they're put together we'll cast the spell."

Vanilla grinned. "Okay!" She went back into the garden's bushes to collect more flowers, with Maple following behind her to help. Soon the three of them had made a sizeable pile of flowers and stems to work with, and the three of them sat down in a small circle around the flowers. Vanilla sat next to Maple as she made her first flower crown. "What kinda flowers so you want for your crown, Maple?"

Maple reached for a few spiky sky-blue flowers to start making a crown for her twin sister Dochi. "Anything that's purple,' Maple replied, intertwining a series of stems with precision. "You probably know more about flower crown arrangements than I do, so whatever you make will turn out great."

Vanilla set to work on making the best purple flower crown in the world, and the three of them worked while chatting together. "Hey, should we all work together on Papa's? It's gonna have to be really big…"

Fritter nodded. "Do we have any flowers that look like donuts? He'd really like a flower crown like that."

"I don't think so," Vanilla said reluctantly. "But...flower crowns kinda look like donuts, right? So we can pick flowers that maybe look like sprinkles, or ones that are colored like they have sprinkles."

Fritter nodded and eyed his own flower crown, apparently admiring his handiwork. "I made this one just right," he said firmly with a smile. He held it up to show his eldest sister. "Look, Maple. It's not fallin' apart this time!"

Maple, who had put on Vanilla's finished crown for her and cast her spell to make them last, smiled and patted Fritter's head. "Nice job, Fritter." She took out her journal again and followed along with the incantation written on her page, and a small amount of green energy swirled around Fritter's crown before disappearing into the blossoms. Fritter carefully placed the crown on his head and smiled proudly, and then set out to help Vanilla finish a crown meant for their older brother Ube; Maple put the finishing touches on her crown for her sister Dochi, and set it aside.

After about an hour, the three siblings had made a set of crowns for their entire immediate family (as well as a few for their grandmother, and their grandmother's two companions named Zeus and Prometheus). Vanilla scooped up all of the crowns and hung them all on Fritter's arms--he had volunteered to be the "crown carrier" while they delivered them all. Fritter toddled in front of Maple and Vanilla while they looked for their family members in the Whole Cake Chateau. Maple flipped to a blank page in her notebook and scribbled down a list of everyone they'd made a crown for. "Grandma should be easy to find," she said. "She should've just finished having her mid-morning snack, so she'll be in the throne room with Zeus and Prometheus."

The three of them made their way to the throne room, but found that the doors were closed. The guards at the doors looked down on the children. "I'm sorry," one of them said, "But Big Mom's in a meeting with the Sweet Commanders about something important. Do you want us to pass along a message?"

Fritter wiggled his outstretched arms a bit. "Can you give her some of these flower crowns, please?" He moved to display the full set of flowers dangling from his arms. "The biggest one is for her, with all the pink flowers. And then the two rainbow ones next to that are for Zeus and Prometheus. And THESE are for--"

The familiar voice of Big Mom herself came from the other side of the door, and it immediately caused the guards to freeze in place. "Ah, is someone at the door?" 

Vanilla tried to peek through the small crack between the large doors to the throne room. "Hiiii, Gramma! It's 'Nilla and Fritter and Maple!" Her voice was as sweet as ever, even when talking to someone as terrifying and dangerous as Big Mom. "We can come back later if you're busy doing important Yonkou stuff. We made flower crowns!"

Big Mom was quiet for a few seconds, and then chuckled. "Ahhh, how nice," she cooed. "Please, come in! Your mama and papa are here as well!"

The guards reluctantly opened the doors for the three of them, and they stepped inside to see their parents as well as their Aunt Smoothie and Uncle Cracker. It seemed that Big Mom had called a meeting with her three Sweet Commanders, and Katakuri's wife had been allowed to sit in as well. Vanilla skipped inside and ran up to her grandmother's gigantic throne to give Big Mom a hug; she couldn't even measure up to her grandma's knees, but that didn't stop her from wrapping her grandma up in a hug as best as she could. 

Big Mom chuckled and reached down to hold Vanilla in one hand and held her up at eye level to give her a kiss. "Mamamama, this is such a nice surprise," she said sweetly. Vanilla beamed and pointed down at the array of crowns on Fritter's hands and arms. 

"We made yours extra big," Vanilla said, "And pink too, since I know it's your favorite color! And Zeus and Prometheus have rainbow ones!"

Upon hearing their names, Zeus and Prometheus floated down to Fritter in order to eye the presents for them. Fritter, who was always a little nervous around Grandma and her Homies, held out three crowns meant for them and Big Mom herself. "H-here ya go," he said quietly. "We didn't know your favorite colors, so we m-made it with every color…" Zeus, a fluffy animated cloud, smiled and wiggled his head until the crown fit on top of him; Prometheus, a small sun, did the same and the two of them carried the giant pink crown to place on their master's head. 

Maple placed a comforting hand on Fritter's shoulder and led him to a spot between their parents. Their mother Etherea smiled at the two of them and patted their heads. "I was wondering where you three had wandered off to," she mused. "Dochi and Ube are busy sparring outside. Do you want me to send their crowns to them?"

Fritter nodded and handed his mother the two crowns meant for their siblings: a light blue one for Dochi, and one with dark red flowers for Ube. Etherea murmured a small incantation and the two crowns floated out of a nearby window to make their way to Dochi and Ube. Fritter climbed up into his mother's lap to place her crown on top of her head--an elegant combination of purple roses and black petunias. Maple took a seat next to her mother, eager to tell her all about how well her spell had worked once this meeting with Big Mom was finished.

Big Mom set Vanilla down, and the young girl immediately ran to her parents to give them both a hug as well. "We made some for you too! Ooh mama, yours came out super pretty!" She looked over at her Aunt Smoothie and Uncle Cracker with an apologetic frown. "Um, we don't have any for you...but we can make some more if you want one!"

Smoothie shook her head with a bemused look on her face. "Don't worry," she replied. "I wouldn't want my helm to ruin something so precious."

Cracker smirked. "And my sparks would just set 'em on fire," he added, pointing to the firecrackers that adorned the ends of his hairdo. "But thanks for the offer, kiddo."

Fritter held up the final flower crown on his arm and reached up towards his father; even when he was seated, Katakuri was still too tall for him to even attempt to reach. "And this one's for you, Papa," he said. "We all worked on it together. See? It's got flowers that look like they got sprinkles on em, so it's like a donut flower crown!"

Katakuri carefully reached down to pick up the circle of flowers without crushing any of them, and peered at the blossoms all around it; each flower was either white or a light shade of pink, with multicolored speckles all around it. He smiled behind his scarf and set the crown on top of his head before gently patting Fritter's cheek with one finger. "How do I look?"

Cracker had to bite back a laugh at seeing his stoic big brother in a rainbow-speckled flower crown, and Smoothie couldn't help but smile at how cute the whole scene was. Maple gave her father a silent thumbs up with a small half-smile on her face, and her two younger siblings followed suit. "Like a Donut King," Vanilla confirmed. Fritter nodded, and Katakuri let out a small amused "mmm" (he never really laughed unless he was alone with his wife and children--or his Sprinkles, as he sometimes called them). He outstretched his arms for his three children to gather in his lap, and all three of them climbed aboard and settled comfortably with their flower crowns. It wasn't long before they fell asleep during the meeting, and Big Mom subtly had one of her servants take a picture of Katakuri in his own flower crown with Etherea and the three sleeping children all in frame. Cracker and Smoothie both smirked at each other; they'd never imagined they'd see their fearsome big brother look so adorable.

[awastelandheart]

Sebastian’s personality analyzed through his theory-crafted natal chart: The perspective of a professional astrologer.

PART ONE: SUN SIGN.

i apologize in advance to any capricorns i unintentionally read to filth in this post.

          i think out of all the bachelors   &   bachelorettes, Sebastian has the oddest, most abrasive post-marriage dialogue. i’ve heard plenty of people over the years complain about how awkward being married to him is   &   i, myself, tend to not marry him when i play since locking him in pelican town like that when he so clearly wants to leave feels bad. even before marriage as well, he has a lot of almost cringey   &   certainly concerning dialogue. Sebastian’s not a man that’s made for marriage or long term relationships i think, at least not in his early to mid 20s which is how old i believe he is in canon. unlike the rest of the bachelors   &   bachelorettes, his character arc   &   development don’t do much for melding him into someone worth being with. even Shane who is troubled in a much more obvious way than Sebastian has more moments of reflection that convince the player that he’s a good person despite his flaws. Sebastian may seem to be gentle in his internal struggle, it’s easy to believe that, at most, he’s rude   &   depressed, but i think there’s a lot more to unpack here that suggests he’s violent, angry to an awful degree,   &   possibly the worst marriage candidate, if not just the worst townie out of the whole cast.

          to start off with, i believe Sebastian’s sun sign is Capricorn. my reasoning for this is a blend between a post on reddit i found that used a simple algorithm to convert the in game dates to real dates. taking into account the slightly flawed method that gives each date 2-3 days worth of wiggle room,   “ january 17th ”   implies he’s on the Capricorn side of january. to be honest, when i was first thinking about what sun sign i wanted Sebastian to have, i was leaning towards Aquarius since he has several lines about escaping the town   &   wanting his freedom   ( both being very Aquarius-like qualities ),   however i think the case for Capricorn is much easier to make. to start off, i’ll give a run down of the most defining Capricorn characteristics, then i’ll move onto showing in-game examples of how Sebastian demonstrates these traits   ( while leaving room for his other natal positions that i’ll extrapolate on in more posts to come ).

          Capricorn is an earth sign, reveling in stability with a handful of almost toxic traits to display if that stability isn’t achieved. ruled by saturn, or kronos if you wanna get greek, Capricorns are at a constant war with themselves between the general human experience   &   cutting out as much superfluous expression   &   feeling as possible. the story of kronos is very reflective of the Capricorn struggle:   it’s the tale of a man   ( god, but that’s not important )   whose wife is predicted to bear a child who will surpass him   &   take his legacy. kronos, in his anxiety to prevent this change, begins eating each of his wife’s children as they’re born until one day, his wife replaces one of the newborns with a rock so that it will survive kronos’ consumption. of course this leads to the child growing up   &   indeed surpassing kronos just as the prophecy foretold. the lesson to be learned from kronos is one of restriction   &   the inevitability of time.

          between their earthly reliability   &   love of practicality, Capricorns are viewed as the traditional fathers of the zodiac sphere. they guard their values of yesteryear close to their chest. anything too different is cast far away from themselves or, rather, consumed until all traces are disposed of. thankfully not as stubborn as poor Taurus   ( another earth sign ),   Capricorns have a touch of adaptability in all their logic. their modality is cardinal, implying they take charge of situations. they are the leaders next to Cancer, Libra,   &   Aries:   any good leader knows when to give up their morals for the betterment of their charge. to boot, Capricorn is represented by the mythological creature, the sea-goat   ( a creature created by dear old kronos, himself, consisting of the torso of a goat   &   the tail of a fish );   the goat half delivering on that steady earthly nature of an unrelenting climb to the top of a mountain called life, yet the inclusion of the ocean in this aesthetic implying an amount of emotion only water signs can relate to.

          in the typical male-dominated, fatherly way, however, emotional expression does not exist for Capricorns, resulting in this implied depth to lurk well below a Capriorn’s surface. they are deeply independent in a way that leads to intense loneliness. they must do everything for themselves, another thing lovely kronos has taught us here. why look for a different solution to this problem when i so clearly have found one for myself, the ruler of saturn proclaims. a Capricorn’s independence is almost panic charged in this way. they so dearly want to be seen as capable that they will shred their own livelihood as a price. they are masters at self control for it, each having taught themselves the art of stoicism from a young age. Capricorns are at best, friendly in a superficial way. knowing their loneliness is created by their own hands but never knowing how to move passed their own cold   &   distant heart to enact any change necessary to improve their relationships.

          something that is often associated with Capricorns   &   the other earth signs is the act of earning money. while Taurus enjoys earning money to support their lavish, venus-ruled lifestyle   &   Virgo sees money as something to worry over thus resulting in them hoarding it, Capricorns crave for their income to be stable   &   plentiful in order to provide for their loved ones, or for the more lonely Capricorns, to provide for themselves.

          saturn is the first planet to take a substantial amount of time to complete its cycle through all the signs. compared to earth, which takes one year to complete its solar rotation   &   jupiter which takes 12, saturn takes upwards of 30 years. we astrologers take that as symbolical for how Capricorns get significantly better with age, as well as their   “ slow   &   steady wins the race ”   attitude. Capricorn is a sign of wisdom but only at the hand of experience. young Capricorns frequently find themselves discontented with their environment   &   lifestyle, craving a stability that cannot exist without first having established themselves in the world. every seven years it’s said, a Capricorn reaches a new level of understanding   &   maturity, as it is about every seven years that saturn completes 1/4th of its solar cycle.

          Capricorns, like Scorpios, love their privacy. regarded as one of the more shady signs of the zodiac, a Capricorn is the type of person to have everyone believing they know everything there is to know about them while simultaneously only ever revealing surface level knowledge about themselves. Capricorns love having friends   &   spending time with their loved ones, however they lack a sense of trust that would allow them to form deeper connections. while a Capricorn does experience their emotions as thoroughly as the rest of the zodiac, they have an equally intense insecurity about expressing them. a Capricorn lives their life wanting to be depended on or at least wanting to provide for those that do depend on them. emotions are seen as a weakness that cannot be spared.

          with the basic personality of a Capricorn outlined, i’ll now go through some choice quotes that demonstrate these traits   &   then talk about a few parts of his heart events that do the same.

“ if i just disappeared would it really matter ? ” “ i was thinking... people are like stones skipping over the water. Eventually we're going to sink. ” “ what am I going to do today ?   probably nothing.”

          when the player first meets Sebastian, he is overtly depressed   &   never goes out of his way to hide it. there is a solemn dark cloud filled with rain, ready to burst constantly following him   &   it’s difficult to ignore. this seriousness is very characteristic of many signs, Capricorn being one of them as it is ruled by Saturn, an outer planet with a very melancholic tone.

“ hey, don't let me stop you from getting your work done. if you aren't busy i don't mind if you stick around. ”

          this quote demonstrates the productive mindset of a Capricorn. compared to all the other bachelors, Sebastian is the only one to ever really consider the player’s work schedule.

“ i was so close to screaming at mom for throwing away my old comic collection   ...  but something stopped me. hmm   ...   with age comes wisdom. ” “ the older i get, the less i'm drawn to the city. ” “ sometimes i feel so angry  ...  but when you show up i always start to calm down. maybe i'll mellow out with age. ”

          while these quotes are also depicting other personality traits, for now i want to emphasize Sebastian’s constant referencing to the passage of time. time is always on a Capricorn’s mind, even the less self aware ones always feel the effects of its passage harsher than other signs. after dating   &   at points in marriage, which is when these quotes are from, Sebastian begins to view time as something more positive   &   optimistic. he recognizes that he has anger issues, at the very least,   &   hopes they’ll get better as time goes on. it’s quite the feat to make a Capricorn see growing older as something positive instead of something anxiety inducing, so from this alone we can really tell that Sebastian is absolutely in love with the player, without a doubt.

“ i couldn't sleep last night so I went for a night ride on the motorcycle. i need to stay independent, even though we're married. that's just how i am. i still love you, though. ” “ hey   ...   want some coffee ?   i needed some   ...   woke up early from a nightmare   &   i just couldn't fall back asleep. ” “ hey. i couldn't sleep last night so i took a walk to the caves. ” “ i'm going to take a walk today. i need some time to myself. i'll see you in the evening. ”

          Capricorns tend to be almost predisposed to sleep issues due to their immense amount of anxiety that comes with the disconnect between productivity   &   incapability, or craving emotional connection   &   viewing emotions as unnecessary. Capricorns are also fiercely independent, so independent that it’s no surprise Sebastian’s the kind of person to sneak out of bed   &   go off alone when feeling anxious instead of waking his partner up for comfort.

“ i don't want to get soft now that i'm a married guy. maybe i should start eating more hot pepper   &   working out ?   just an idea   ... ”

          while i’d also be willing to chalk this expression up to Sebastian being anxious about not passing as masc, i’m also willing to attribute this to a Capricorn being afraid of time passing   &   “ missing out ”   on life. growing soft can be a fear of a sign so dedicated to seeming tough   &   dependable.

“ i don't really feel like doing work today. maybe i'll see what's on tv. ” “ i did some work on the laptop today. ” “ i'm debating whether i should work or just read comics all day. ” “ you know, i should be doing something productive right now. i just lose focus too fast   ...   maybe i should drink more coffee ? ”

          Sebastian references his work so frequently, in typical Capricorn fashion because the urge to justify one’s pleasures by mentioning the fact that they’re also being productive is something ever-present. they are a very guilty breed;   on top of their other burdens, they feel especially bad for moments of relaxation or times when they should be doing something, but cannot bring themselves to.

“ you’re probably making a lot of money on your farm, huh ?   i guess i should get a job soon   … ” “ we should raise more slimes. in big quantities they can be really profitable. ” “ i did some work on the laptop today. i was actually brainstorming some ideas for a game i want to make. with your farming income, i can afford to do what i want with my life. it’s pretty amazing. thank you. ” “ hey. look at me. never forget that i love you   ...   you’re everything to me. now go make us some money. ” “ are we doing okay on money ?   i don’t want to have to sell my laptop   ... ” “ *sigh*   ...    if gas wasn’t so expensive i’d ride my motorcycle to the city today. so what do you do when you aren’t working ? ”

          Sebastian talks SO much about money   &   to me, it’s really hard to imagine concernedape didn’t intentionally make him a Capricorn with this much dialogue about income when no other bachelor or bachelorette has any mention of the topic   ( except for harvey who mentions he’s afraid he’s not bringing in enough money from the lack of people in town ).   the biggest one that jumps out at me to really signal a significant change in his personality after marriage is when he mentions having the freedom that comes with a steady income, a freedom that now allows him to do what he really wants which is, apparently, to make a video game. another one that jumps out at me here is his immediate association with feeling like he should get a job after assuming the player is making a lot of money. since income is such an important subject for Capricorns, it’s easy to imagine Sebastian feels inferior in comparison to the player since he’s   “ just ”   a freelancer.

“ i often felt unappreciated at home   ...   but here i feel like i really belong. ”

          this quote kind of hits Capricorn’s need to be appreciated   &   useful directly on the head   &   is a good transition for me to talk about the fact that Sebastian never progressed very far in his career while living at home with his family because he felt unappreciated. compared to how he almost immediately has a dialogue line after marriage where he tells the player he’s been inspired to make a video game, it’s easy to see the almost instant maturity Sebastian obtained just from moving out;   something he had assumed was in the far off future, implied by his heart scenes.

now let’s break down Sebastian’s heart events.

          his first heart even opens with him busy working, already a very Capricorn setting honestly, as i’ve said a few times now since Capricorns are prone to productivity. Robin enters after a moment   &   informs Sebastian that Abigail is looking for him, to which Sebastian responds to ask if his mother had informed Abigail that he’s working. Robin says that while she had, Abigail still intends on visiting Sebastian at some point today. Sebastian’s next piece of dialogue is very important.

“ *sigh* no one takes my job seriously. ”

          this is an incredibly Capricorn thing to say, both because Capricorns always feel the need to be taken seriously   &   also due to their signature insecurity about income.

          the scene continues so that the player can ask Sebastian what his career goals are. he explicitly says:   “ well, i’m trying to save up so i can move out of here. probably to the city or something, ”   which by itself is obviously very Capricorn, both nailing their need for income, their constant validation that they deserve what they want,   &   their desire for independence, however his dialogue continues for another textbox that contains the most Capricorn lines i’ve ever heard.

“ you know, if i went to college i’d probably be making six figures right now … ”   

          Sebastian is so very   &   obviously obsessed with money, it’s crazy to think he’s any other sign but Capricorn. this portion of the heart scene ends with him saying, 

“ but i just don’t want to be a part of that corporate rat race, you know ? ”   

          this dialogue i’m willing to attribute to another one of his signs at a later date in another post, but in my experience, i’ve known several Capricorn suns that feel the same:   that while they strive for a stable income, they hate participating in capitalistic culture.

          this first heart scene ends with Sebastian dismissing the player, saying he   “ has to get this module finished by tomorrow, ”   indicating he has a very set schedule when it comes to his work. organization being yet another characteristic trait of Capricorn.

          Sebastian’s second heart scene opens with the player catching him working on his bike. after a moment of introspection, Sebastian starts talking, again, about how when he saves enough money, he’s going to get out of the valley, just him   &   his bike. this scene doesn’t have anything specifically Capricorn about it   &   i plan on revisiting it when i talk about his other placements.

          likewise, Sebastian’s third   &   fourth heart scenes don’t have anything outrageously Capricorn in them   --   in fact neither scene tells us very much about Sebastian in particular aside from pointing out that he likes tabletop games   ( which obviously isn’t exclusively Capricorn by any means, but i’ve known so, so many Capricorn suns that have been hardcore into dnd over the years   ...  )   &   has social anxiety. i’ll most likely dip into his fourth heart scene a little more when i talk about his other placements, though.

          Sebastian’s fifth   (   &   final before marriage )   heart scene is, of course, important,   &   probably the most memorable for anyone who’s played Sebastian’s route, but it honestly doesn’t tell us much about his core personality. what it does tell us is how he acts   &   feels when he’s in love, so i’ll definitely come back to this scene when i talk about his venus position.

          &   that’s on his heart scenes !

          so, in summary, i believe Sebastian has a Capricorn sun because he shares many qualities with how astrologers perceive the position. of course this is all just my personal interpretation, but i hope this was an interesting read   &   shed some light on the kind of person Sebastian is !

[kkintle]

The Art of the Good Life by Rolf Dobelli; Quotes

Is it better to actively seek happiness or to avoid unhappiness?

Living a good life has a lot to do with interpreting facts in a constructive way.

That money can’t buy happiness is a truism, and I’d certainly advise you not to get worked into a lather over incremental differences in price. If a beer’s two dollars more expensive than usual or two dollars cheaper, it elicits no emotional response in me whatsoever. I save my energy rather than my money. After all, the value of my stock portfolio fluctuates every minute by significantly more than two dollars, and if the Dow Jones falls by a thousandth of a percent, that doesn’t faze me either. Try it for yourself. Come up with a similar number, a modest sum to which you’re completely indifferent—money you consider not so much money as white noise. You don’t lose anything by adopting that attitude, and certainly not your inner poise.

The most common misunderstanding I encounter is that the good life is a stable state or condition. Wrong. The good life is only achieved through constant readjustment.

As the American general—and later president—Dwight Eisenhower said, “Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.” It’s not about having a fixed plan, it’s about repeated re-planning—an ongoing process.

The truth is that you begin with one set-up and then constantly adjust it. The more complicated the world becomes, the less important your starting point is. So don’t invest all your resources into the perfect set-up—at work or in your personal life. Instead, practice the art of correction by revising the things that aren’t quite working—swiftly and without feeling guilty.

First: constantly having to make new decisions situation by situation saps your willpower. Decision fatigue is the technical term for this. A brain exhausted by decision-making will plump for the most convenient option, which more often than not is also the worst one. This is why pledges make so much sense. Once you’ve pledged something, you don’t then have to weigh up the pros and cons each and every time you’re faced with a decision. It’s already been made for you, saving you mental energy.

The second reason inflexibility is so valuable has to do with reputation. By being consistent on certain topics, you signal where you stand and establish the areas where there’s no room for negotiation. You communicate self-mastery, making yourself less vulnerable to attack.

So say good-bye to the cult of flexibility. Flexibility makes you unhappy and tired, and it distracts you from your goals. Chain yourself to your pledges. Uncompromisingly. It’s easier to stick to your pledges 100 percent of the time rather than 99 percent.

Very few people simply accept reality and analyze their own flight recorders. This requires precisely two things: a) radical acceptance and b) black box thinking. First one, then the other.

“Nothing is more fatiguing nor, in the long run, more exasperating than the daily effort to believe things which daily become more incredible. To be done with this effort is an indispensable condition of sure and lasting happiness,” wrote mathematician and Nobel Prize winner Bertrand Russell.

Accepting reality is easy when you like what you see, but you’ve got to accept it even when you don’t—especially when you don’t. 

By themselves, radical acceptance and black box thinking are not enough. You’ve got to rectify your mistakes. Get future-proofing. As Warren Buffett’s business partner Charlie Munger has observed, “If you won’t attack a problem while it’s solvable and wait until it’s unfixable, you can argue that you’re so damn foolish that you deserve the problem.” Don’t wait for the consequences to unfold. “If you don’t deal with reality, then reality will deal with you,” warns author Alex Haley.

A basic rule of the good life is as follows: if it doesn’t genuinely contribute something, you can do without it. And that is doubly true for technology. Next time, try switching on your brain instead of reaching for the nearest gadget.

“There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no bold old pilots.”

Pros win points; amateurs lose points. This means that if you’re playing against an amateur, your best option is to focus on not making any mistakes. Play conservatively, and keep the ball in play as long as possible. Unless your opponent is deliberately playing equally conservatively, he or she will make more mistakes than you do. In amateur tennis, matches aren’t won—they’re lost.

disease, disabilities, divorce. However, countless studies have shown that the impact of these factors dissipates more quickly than we imagine.

It’s not what you add that enriches your life—it’s what you omit.

Because our emotions are so unreliable, a good rule of thumb is to take them less seriously—especially the negative ones. The Greek philosophers called this ability to block things out ataraxia, a term meaning serenity, peace of mind, equanimity, composure or imperturbability. A master of ataraxia will maintain his or her poise despite the buffets of fate. One level higher is apatheia, the total eradication of feeling (also attempted by the ancient Greeks). Both—ataraxia and apatheia—are ideals virtually impossible to attain, but don’t worry: I’m not asking you to try. I do, however, believe we need to cultivate a new relationship with our inner voices, one distanced, skeptical and playful.

So take other people’s feelings very seriously, but not your own. Let them flit through you—they’ll come and go anyway, just as they please.

People are respected because they deliver on their promises, not because they let us eavesdrop on their inner monologs.

Two thousand years ago, the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote: “All those who summon you to themselves, turn you away from your own self.” So give the five-second no a trial run. It’s one of the best rules of thumb for a good life.

It’s called the focusing illusion. “Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it,” as Daniel Kahneman explains. The more narrowly we focus on a particular aspect of our lives, the greater its apparent influence. 

Take the longest possible view of your life. Realize that the things that seemed so important in the moment have shrunk to the size of dots—dots that barely affect the overall picture. A good life is only attainable if you take the occasional peek through a wide-angle lens.

By focusing on trivialities, you’re wasting your good life.

As you can see, if it’s the good life you’re after then it’s advisable to show restraint about what you buy. That said, there is a class of “goods” whose enjoyment is not diminished by the focusing illusion: experiences.

Material progress was not reflected in increased life satisfaction. This revelation has been termed the Easterlin paradox: once basic needs have been met, incremental financial gain contributes nothing to happiness.

Money is relative. Not just in comparison to others, but in comparison to your past.

Buffett’s life motto: “Know your circle of competence, and stick within it. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.” Charlie Munger adds: “Each of you will have to figure out where your talent lies. And you’ll have to use your advantages. But if you try to succeed in what you’re worst at, you’re going to have a very lousy career. I can almost guarantee it.”

“Expect anything worthwhile to take a really long time”

What matters is that you’re far above average in at least one area—ideally, the best in the world. Once that’s sorted, you’ll have a solid basis for a good life. A single outstanding skill trumps a thousand mediocre ones. Every hour invested into your circle of competence is worth a thousand spent elsewhere.

“You don’t have to be brilliant,” as Charlie Munger says, “only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long, long time.”

“One of the symptoms of approaching nervous break-down is the belief that one’s work is terribly important,” wrote Bertrand Russell. This is precisely the danger of a calling: that you take yourself and your work too seriously. If, like John Kennedy Toole, you pin everything on the fulfilment of your supposed vocation, you cannot live a good life. If Toole had viewed his writing not as his only possible calling but simply as a craft for which he happened to have a special knack, he would probably not have ended up as he did. You can pursue a craft with love, of course, and even with a touch of obsession, but your focus should always be on the activity, the work, the input—not on the success, the result, the output.

So, what to do? Don’t listen to your inner voice. A calling is nothing but a job you’d like to have. In the Romantic sense it doesn’t exist; there is only talent and preference. Build on the skills you actually have, not on some putative sense of vocation. Luckily, the skills we’ve mastered are often the things we enjoy doing. One important aside: other people have also got to value your talents. You’ve got to put food on the table somehow. As the English philosopher John Gray put it: “Few people are as unhappy as those with a talent no one cares about.”

So liberate yourself. Here’s three reasons why you should. First, you’ll be spared the emotional roller coaster. In the long run, you can’t manage your reputation perfectly anyway. Warren Buffett cites Gianni Agnelli, the former boss of Fiat: “When you get old, you have the reputation you deserve.” You can fool other people for a while, but not a lifetime. Second, concentrating on prestige and reputation distorts our perception of what makes us truly happy. And third, it stresses us out. It’s detrimental to the good life.

That’s why one of my golden rules for leading a good life is as follows: “Avoid situations in which you have to change other people.”

Without memory, the experience is perceived as entirely valueless. This is surprising, and it makes no sense. Surely it’s better to experience something wonderful than not—regardless of whether you remember it. After all, in the moment you’ll be having a fabulous time! And once we’re dead, you and I will forget everything anyway—because there’ll no longer be any “you” or any “I.” If death is going to erase your memories, how important is it to schlep them with you until your very final moment?

So don’t be surprised when somebody else judges you “incorrectly.” You do the same yourself. A realistic self-image can only be gleaned from someone who’s known you well for years and who’s not afraid to be honest—your partner or an old friend. Even better, keep a diary and dip back into it every now and again. You’ll be amazed at the things you used to write. Part of the good life is seeing yourself as realistically as possible—contradictions, shortcomings, dark sides and all. If you see yourself realistically, you’ve got a much better chance of becoming who you want to be.

I’m sure you recognize the sentiment: “When I’m on my deathbed, looking back on my life…” A magnificently lofty idea, but rather nonsensical in practice. For a start, almost no one is that lucid when they’re on their deathbed. The three main doors into the afterlife are heart attack, stroke and cancer. In the first two cases, you won’t have time for philosophical reflection. In most cases of cancer, you’ll be so stuffed to the gunnels with painkillers that you won’t be able to think straight. Nor do those afflicted with dementia or Alzheimer’s achieve any new insights on their deathbeds. And even if you do have the time and wherewithal in your final moments to reminisce, your memories won’t (as we saw in the previous three chapters) correspond fully to reality. Your remembering self produces systematic errors. It tells tall tales.

“If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”

Not getting bogged down in self-pity is a golden rule of mental health. Accept the fact that life isn’t perfect—yours or anyone else’s. As the Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Things will get thrown at you and things will hit you. Life’s no soft affair.” What point is there in “being unhappy, just because once you were unhappy”? If you can do something to mitigate the current problems in your life, then do it. If you can’t, then put up with the situation. Complaining is a waste of time, and self-pity is doubly counterproductive: first, you’re doing nothing to overcome your unhappiness; and two, you’re adding to your original unhappiness the further misery of being self-destructive. Or, to quote Charlie Munger’s “iron prescription”: “Whenever you think that some situation or some person is ruining your life, it is actually you who are ruining your life… Feeling like a victim is a perfectly disastrous way to go through life.”

Plato and Aristotle both believed that people should be as temperate, courageous, just and prudent as possible.

The circle of dignity draws together your individual pledges and protects them from three forms of attack: a) better arguments; b) mortal danger; and c) deals with the Devil.

Is it worth the price? That’s the wrong question. By definition, things that are invaluable have no price. “If an individual has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live,” said Martin Luther King. Certainly not to live the good life.

If you don’t make it clear on the outside what you believe deep down, you gradually turn into a puppet. Other people exploit you for their own purposes, and sooner or later, you give up. You don’t fight any more. You don’t hold up to stresses. Your willpower atrophies. If you break on the outside, at some point you’ll break on the inside too.

Your circle of dignity, the protective wall that surrounds your pledges, can only be tested under fire. You might lay claim to high ideals, noble principles and distinctive preferences, but it’s not until you come to defend them that you will “cry with happiness,” to paraphrase Stockdale. 

Say you’re in a meeting and somebody starts going for you, really getting vitriolic. Ask them to repeat what they’ve said word for word. You’ll soon see that, most of the time, your attacker will fold.

For most people, the circle of dignity is not a matter of life and death but a battle to maintain the upper hand. Make it as hard as possible for your assailants. Keep the reins in your hand as long as possible when it comes to the things you hold sacred. If you have to give up, then do so in a way that makes your opponent pay the highest practicable price for your capitulation. There’s tremendous power in this commitment. It’s one of the keys to a good life.

One: fetch a notebook and title it My Big Book of Worries. Set aside a fixed time to dedicate to your anxieties. In practical terms, this means reserving ten minutes a day to jot down everything that’s worrying you—no matter how justified, idiotic or vague. Once you’ve done so, the rest of the day will be relatively worry-free. Your brain knows its concerns have been recorded and not simply ignored. Do this every day, turning to a fresh page each time. You’ll realize, incidentally, that it’s always the same dozen or so worries tormenting you. At the weekend, read through the week’s notes and follow the advice of Bertrand Russell: “When you find yourself inclined to brood on anything, no matter what, the best plan always is to think about it even more than you naturally would, until at last its morbid fascination is worn off.” In practical terms, this means imagining the worst possible consequences and forcing yourself to think beyond them. You’ll discover that most concerns are overblown. The rest are genuine dangers, and those must be confronted. Two: take out insurance. Insurance policies are a marvelous invention. They’re among the most elegant worry-killers. Their true value is not the monetary pay-out when there’s a problem but the reduced anxiety beforehand. Three: focused work is the best therapy against brooding. Focused, fulfilling work is better than meditation. It’s a better distraction than anything else. If you use these three strategies, you’ll have a real chance of living a carefree life—a good life. Then perhaps even in your younger years or, at least, in middle age, you’ll be able to chuckle over Mark Twain’s late-in-life insight: “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.”

The Greek and Roman philosophers known as the Stoics recommended the following trick to sweep away worry: determine what you can influence and what you can’t. Address the former. Don’t let the latter prey on your mind.

Not always feeling like you need to have an opinion calms the mind and makes you more relaxed—an ingredient vital to a good life.

First: accept the existence of fate. In Boethius’s day, people liked to personify fate as Fortuna, a goddess who turned the Wheel of Fortune, in which highs and lows were endlessly rotated. Those who played along, hoping to catch the wheel as it rose, had to accept that eventually they would come down once more. So don’t be too concerned about whether you’re ascending or descending. It could all be turned on its head.

Second: everything you own, value and love is ephemeral—your health, your partner, your children, your friends, your house, your money, your homeland, your reputation, your status. Don’t set your heart on those things. Relax, be glad if fate grants them to you, but always be aware that they are fleeting, fragile and temporary. The best attitude to have is that all of them are on loan to you, and may be taken away at any time. By death, if nothing else.

Third: if you, like Boethius, have lost many things or even everything, remember that the positive has outweighed the negative in your life (or you wouldn’t be complaining) and that all sweet things are tinged with bitterness. Whining is misplaced.

Four: what can’t be taken from you are your thoughts, your mental tools, the way you interpret bad luck, loss and setbacks. You can call this space your mental fortress—a piece of freedom that can never be assailed.

Stop comparing yourself to other people and you’ll enjoy an envy-free existence. Steer well clear of all comparisons. That’s the golden rule.

So wisdom isn’t identical with the accumulation of knowledge. Wisdom is a practical ability. It’s a measure of the skill with which we navigate life. Once you’ve come to realize that virtually all difficulties are easier to avoid than to solve, the following simple definition will be self-evident: “Wisdom is prevention.”

The fact is, life is hard. Problems rain down on all sides. Fate opens pitfalls beneath your feet and throws up barriers to block your path. You can’t change that. But if you know where danger lurks, you can ward it off. You can evade all sorts of obstacles. Einstein put it this way: “A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.” 

Wisdom is prevention. It’s invisible, so you can’t show it off—but preening isn’t conducive to a good life anyway. You know that already.

if you want to help reduce suffering on the planet, donate money. Just money. Not time. Money. Don’t travel to conflict zones unless you’re an emergency doctor, bomb-disposal expert or diplomat. Many people fall for the volunteer’s folly—they believe there’s a point to voluntary work. In reality, it’s a waste. Your time is more meaningfully invested in your circle of competence, because it’s there that you’ll generate the most value per day. If you’re installing water pumps in the Sahara, you’re doing work that local well-diggers could carry out for a fraction of the cost. Plus, you’re taking work away from them. Let’s say you could dig one well per day as a volunteer. If you spent that day working at your office and used the money you earned to pay local well-diggers, by the end of the day you’d have a hundred new wells. Sure, volunteering makes you feel good, but it shouldn’t be about that. And that warm Good Samaritan glow is based on a fallacy. The first-rate specialists on site (Médecins Sans Frontières, the Red Cross, UNICEF, etc.) will put your donations to more effective use than you could yourself. So work hard and put your money in the hands of professionals.

you’re not responsible for the state of the world. It sounds harsh and unsympathetic, but it’s the truth. Nobel Prize winner in physics Richard Feynman was told much the same thing by John von Neumann, the brilliant mathematician and “father of computing”: “[John] von Neumann gave me an interesting idea: that you don’t have to be responsible for the world that you’re in. So I have developed a very powerful sense of social irresponsibility as a result of von Neumann’s advice. It’s made me a very happy man ever since.” What Feynman means by “social irresponsibility” is this: don’t feel bad for concentrating on your work instead of building hospitals in Africa. There’s no reason to feel guilty that you happen to be better off than a bombing victim in Aleppo—your situations could easily be reversed. Lead an upright, productive life, and don’t be a monster. Follow that advice and you’ll already be contributing to a better world. The upshot? Find a strategy to help you cope with global atrocities. It doesn’t have to be one I’ve suggested here, but it is important to have a plan. Otherwise getting through life will be tough. You’ll be constantly torn between the things that still have to be done, you’ll feel guilty—and ultimately you’ll accomplish nothing with that burden.

Four: be aware that focus cannot be divided. It’s not like time and money. The attention you’re giving your Facebook stream on your mobile phone is attention you’re taking away from the person sitting opposite. Five: act from a position of strength, not weakness. When people bring things to your attention unasked, you’re automatically in a position of weakness. Why should an advertiser, a journalist or a Facebook friend decide where you direct your focus? That Porsche advert, article about the latest Trump tweet or video clip of hilariously adorable puppies is probably not something that’s going to make you happy or move you forwards. Even without an Instagram account, the philosopher Epictetus came to a similar conclusion two thousand years ago: ‘If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on his way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in handing over your own mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens to verbally attack you?’

What does focus have to do with happiness? Everything. “Your happiness is determined by how you allocate your attention,” wrote Paul Dolan. The same life events (positive or negative) can influence your happiness strongly, weakly or not at all—depending on how much attention you give them. Essentially, you always live where your focus is directed, no matter where the atoms of your body are located. Each moment comes only once. If you deliberately focus your attention, you’ll get more out of life. Be critical, strict and careful when it comes to your intake of information—no less critical, strict and careful than you are with your food or medication.

Avoid ideologies and dogmas at all cost—especially if you’re sympathetic to them. Ideologies are guaranteed to be wrong. They narrow your worldview and prompt you to make appalling decisions.

When you meet someone showing signs of a dogmatic infection, ask them this question: “Tell me what specific facts you’d need in order to give up your worldview.” If they don’t have an answer, keep that person at arm’s length. You should ask yourself the same question, for that matter, if you suspect you’ve strayed too far into dogma territory.

imagine you’re on a TV talk show with five other guests, all of whom hold the opposite conviction from yours. Only when you can argue their views at least as eloquently as your own will you truly have earned your opinion.

think independently, don’t be too faithful to the party line, and above all give dogmas a wide berth. The quicker you understand that you don’t understand the world, the better you’ll understand the world.

In several studies, Dan Gilbert, Timothy Wilson and their research colleagues have shown that mental subtraction increases happiness significantly more markedly than simply focusing on the positives. The Stoics figured this out two thousand years ago: instead of thinking about all the things you don’t yet have, consider how much you’d miss the things you do have if you didn’t have them any longer.

Speculation is more agreeable than realization. As long as you’re still weighing up your options, the risk of failure is nil; once you take action, however, that risk is always greater than zero. This is why reflection and commentary are so popular. If you’re simply thinking something over, you’ll never bump up against reality, which means you can never fail. Act, however, and suddenly failure is back on the cards—but you’ll gain new experiences. “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted,” as the saying goes.

the next time you’re about to make an important decision, mull it over carefully—but only to the point of maximum deliberation. You’ll be surprised how quickly you reach it. Once you’re there, flick off your torch and switch on your floodlight. It’s as useful in the workplace as it is in the home, whether you’re investing in your career or in your love life.

No matter how extraordinary your accomplishments might be, the truth is that they would have happened without you. Your personal impact on the world is minute. It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are—as a businessperson, an academic, a CEO, a general or a president; in the great scheme of things you’re insignificant, unnecessary and interchangeable. The only place where you can really make a difference is in your own life. Focus on your own surroundings. You’ll soon see that getting to grips with that is ambitious enough. Why take it upon yourself to change the world? Spare yourself the disappointment.

Not believing too much in your own self-importance is one of the most valuable strategies for a good life.

The upshot? There is no just plan for the world. Part of the good life is to radically accept that. Focus on your garden—on your own everyday life—and you’ll find enough weeds to keep you busy. The things that happen to you across the course of your life, especially the more serious blows of fate, have little to do with whether you’re a good or a bad person. So accept unhappiness and misfortune with stoicism and calm. Treat incredible success and strokes of luck exactly the same.

“There’s an infinite number of winners,” Kevin Kelly has said, “as long as you’re not trying to win somebody else’s race.”

The upshot? Try to escape the arms race dynamic. It’s difficult to recognize, because each individual step seems reasonable when considered on its own. So retreat every so often from the field of battle and observe it from above. Don’t fall victim to the madness. An arms race is a succession of Pyrrhic victories, and your best bet is to steer clear. You’ll only find the good life where people aren’t fighting over it.

As Warren Buffett says, “It’s better to be approximately right than precisely wrong.”

Constantly distinguish between “I have to have it,” “I want to have it” and “I expect it.” The first phrase represents a necessity, the second a desire (a preference, a goal) and the third an expectation.

Seeing desires as musts will only make you a grumpy, unpleasant person to be around. And no matter how intelligent you are, it will make you act like an idiot. The sooner you can erase supposed necessities from your repertoire, the better.

A life without goals is a wasted life. Yet we mustn’t be shackled to them. Be aware that not all your desires will be satisfied, because so much lies beyond your control.

The Greek philosophers had a wonderful expression for the things we want: preferred indifferents (indifferent here in the sense of insignificant). So I might have a preference (e.g., I’d prefer a Porsche to a VW Golf), but ultimately it’s insignificant to my happiness.

Bearing Sturgeon’s law in mind will improve your life. It’s an excellent mental tool because it “allows” you to pass over most of what you see, hear or read without feeling guilty. The world is full of empty words, but you don’t need to listen. That said, don’t try to cleanse the world of nonsense. You won’t succeed. The world can stay irrational longer than you can stay sane. So concentrate on being selective, on the few valuable things, and leave everything else aside.

Recognize bullshit for what it is. Oh, and one other rule, which in my experience has proved well founded: if you’re not sure whether something is bullshit, it’s bullshit.

One: self-importance requires energy. If you think overly highly of yourself, you have to operate a transmitter and a radar simultaneously. On the one hand, you’re broadcasting your self-image out into the world; on the other, you’re permanently registering how your environment responds. Save yourself the effort. Switch off your transmitter and your radar, and focus on your work. In concrete terms, this means don’t be vain, don’t name-drop, and don’t brag about your amazing successes.

the more self-important you are, the more speedily you’ll fall for the self-serving bias. You’ll start doing things not to achieve a specific goal but to make yourself look good. You often see the self-serving bias among investors. They buy stocks in glamorous hotels or sexy tech companies—not because they’re solid investments but because they want to enhance their own image. On top of this, people who think highly of themselves tend to systematically overestimate their knowledge and abilities (this is termed overconfidence), leading to grave errors in decision-making.

If you stress your own importance, you do so at the expense of other people’s, because otherwise it would devalue your relative position. Once you’re successful, if not before, other people who are equally full of themselves will shit on you. Not a good life.

As you can see, your ego is more antagonist than friend.

Stay modest. You’ll improve your life by several orders of magnitude. Self-esteem is so easy that anyone can do it; modesty, on the other hand, may be tough, but at least it’s more compatible with reality. And it calms your emotional wave pool. Self-importance has developed into a malady of civilization. We’ve got our teeth into our egos like a dog into an old shoe. Let the shoe go. It has no nutritional value, and it’ll soon taste rotten.

definitions of success are products of their time.

Once you’ve attained ataraxia—tranquility of the soul—you’ll be able to maintain your equanimity despite the slings and arrows of fate. To put it another way, to be successful is to be imperturbable, regardless of whether you’re flying high or crash landing. How can we achieve inner success? By focusing exclusively on the things we can influence and resolutely blocking out everything else. Input, not output. Our input we can control; our output we can’t, because chance keeps sticking its oar in.

“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

Whichever way you look at it, the truth is that people desire external gain because it nets them internal gain. The question that suggests itself is obvious: why take the long way round? Just take the direct route.

“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.” (Munger, Charlie: Wesco Annual Report 1989.)

authors Minkyung Koo, Sara B. Algoe, Timothy D. Wilson and Daniel T. Gilbert write: “Having a wonderful spouse, watching one’s team win the World Series, or getting an article accepted in a top journal are all positive events, and reflecting on them may well bring a smile; but that smile is likely to be slighter and more fleeting with each passing day, because as wonderful as these events may be, they quickly become familiar—and they become more familiar each time one reflects on them. Indeed, research shows that thinking about an event increases the extent to which it seems familiar and explainable.” 

“Charlie realizes that it is difficult to find something that is really good. So, if you say ‘No’ ninety percent of the time, you’re not missing much in the world.” (Otis Booth on Charlie Munger, In: Munger, Charlie: Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Donning, 2008, p. 99).

“You’ll do better if you have passion for something in which you have aptitude. If Warren had gone into ballet, no one would have heard of him.”

They were all things that were simply a matter of deciding whether you were going to be that kind of person or not… Always hang around people better than you and you’ll float up a little bit. Hang around with the other kind and you start sliding down the pole.” (Warren Buffett quoted in: Lowe, Janet: Warren Buffett Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World’s Greatest Investor, John Wiley & Sons, 2007, p. 36).

“If you want to guarantee yourself a life of misery, marry somebody with the idea of changing them.”

Buffett: “We don’t try to change people. It doesn’t work well… We accept people the way they are.”

If social change is your mission, you’ll end up tangling with thousands of people and institutions who are doing everything they can to uphold the status quo. Ideally, you want to keep your mission narrowly focused. You can’t rebel against all aspects of the dominant order. Society is stronger than you are. You can only achieve personal victories in clearly defined moral niches.

“‘Don’t worry, be happy’ bromides are of no use; notice that people who are told to ‘relax’ rarely do.”

Mark Twain: “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.”

Howard Marks: “I tell my father’s story of the gambler who lost regularly. One day he heard about a race with only one horse in it, so he bet the rent money. Halfway around the track, the horse jumped over the fence and ran away. Invariably things can get worse than people expect. Maybe ‘worst-case’ means ‘the worst we’ve seen in the past.’ But that doesn’t mean things can’t be worse in the future.”

“Then at dinner, Bill Gates Sr. posed the question to the table: What factor did people feel was the most important in getting to where they’d gotten in life? And I said, ‘Focus.’ And Bill said the same thing. It is unclear how many people at the table understood ‘focus’ as Buffett lived that word. This kind of innate focus couldn’t be emulated. It meant the intensity that is the price of excellence. It meant the discipline and passionate perfectionism that made Thomas Edison the quintessential American inventor, Walt Disney the king of family entertainment, and James Brown the Godfather of Soul. It meant single-minded obsession with an ideal.”

“Our happiness is sometimes not very salient, and we need to do what we can to make it more so. Imagine playing a piano and not being able to hear what it sounds like. Many activities in life are like playing a piano that you do not hear…” (Dolan, Paul: Happiness by Design, Penguin, 2015, E-Book Location 1781.)

Should you find yourself in a chronically-leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” (Greenwald, Bruce C. N.; Kahn, Judd; Sonkin, Paul D.; van Biema,

As you age, change your modus operandi: become highly selective. There’s a lovely anecdote from Marshall Weinberg about going to lunch with Warren Buffett that’s worth repeating here. “He had an exceptional ham-and-cheese sandwich. A few days later, we were going out again. He said, ‘Let’s go back to that restaurant.’ I said, ‘But we were just there.’ He said, ‘Precisely. Why take a risk with another place? We know exactly what we’re going to get.’ That is what Warren looks for in stocks, too. He only invests in companies where the odds are great that they will not disappoint.”

Even the notorious U curve of life satisfaction is connected to false expectations. Young people are happy because they believe things can only ever improve—higher income, more power, greater opportunity. In middle age, between forty and fifty-five, they reach a low point. They’re forced to accept that the high-flying aspirations of their youth cannot be realized. On top of that they have children, a career, income pressures—all unexpected dampers on happiness. In old age, people are reasonably happy once more, because they’ve exceeded those unrealistically low expectations.

John Wooden: “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

from Epictetus, the Stoic: “A life that flows gently and easily.”

“Why, my dear friend, do you do it all? If I had all your millions, I’d spend my time doing nothing but reading, thinking and writing.” It wasn’t until I was on the way home that I realized, oddly startled, that that’s exactly what I do. So that would be a definition of the good life: somebody hands you a few million, and you don’t change anything at all.

[attackofthezee]

Stucky. 46. Blind Date 69. Flirting Under Fire

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL COMBINATION. 

Be warned, what is about to follow is definitely just me rambling about what I would do and not necessarily an ACTUAL ficlet because I could probably get at least 5k out of this idea if I sat down to actually write it. 

Okay, SO, I WOULD PROBABLY go for a version of Steve and Bucky that I SOMEHOW haven’t done before, which is the version where Steve is still Captain America and Bucky is still The Winter Soldier but they weren’t friends and Bucky after HYDRA went down(/maybe breaking his programming before that and helping take down HYDRA???) is also a super hero. 

(UNDER A CUT BECAUSE MY RAMBLING GOT TOO LONG)

So when Steve gives his whole “it’s kinda hard to find someone with shared life experience” bit it pings something in Natasha’s brain and a few years later, when she’s working with/friends with this asshole who HAS A VERY SIMILAR STORY TO HER DEAR FRIEND ROGERS (plus, like, some brainwashing, but hey, Natasha’s dealt with brainwashing before and she’s just fiiiiine) she crafts a MASTERFUL PLAN. 

Actually her brain more goes “!!!!!!” and she proceeds to set them up on a blind date, but y’know, she’s gonna tell the whole world it was a masterful plan that took a lot of time and cunning and the full use of her skill set. 

Instead it goes like this: 

“You’re going on a date,” She tells Steve over their semi-weekly pizza and beer. The pizza guy has stopped trying to crane his neck around to check for more people in the apartment when he delivers their order. He seems to have finally accepted that yes, six pizzas, five orders of hot wings, three things of cheesy bread, and two italian sub sandwiches are in fact only for two people. Natasha’s almost a little disappointed by the acceptance. 

“No, I’m not,” Steve says, folding up a slice of pizza and eating it in a freakishly short amount of time. Natasha’s half convinced he’s unhinging his jaw like a snake and swallowing it whole when she’s not paying attention. 

Steve ends up going on the date. 

WHAT FOLLOWS WOULD BE MORE OR LESS A RUN THROUGH OF BAD/GOOD DATE MOMENTS. 

STARTING WITH DATE NUMBER ONE: Steve and Bucky hit it off. There’s a whole “Where you from?” “Brooklyn.” “Oh wow, me too.” moment and Steve’s looking great in his size smedium shirt and Bucky’s all gorgeous in a nice sweater and his hair in a bun because I AM PREDICTABLE AT BEST. Steve is SMITTEN. Bucky is ALSO SMITTEN. They are GOING TO SHARE DESSERT. ONE PLATE, TWO SPOONS!!! WHAT A SUCCESS, NATASHA WILL BE SO PROUD. 

Except no, some rogue group of bad guys goes and ATTACKS THE PLACE THEY’RE HAVING DINNER AT and it’s like, welp gotta save this nice ass restaurant full of people, no sharing dessert now. 

They tag team getting the civilians out of of the restaurant and then take on the really shitty bad guys while Steve has a couple moments of “Wow!!!! We work good together!!!” and also “WOW!! Where did he get that gun and just why am I so attracted to him while he’s using it?!?!?!” 

“Hey, you wanna come back to my place for coffee?” Steve asks while he’s in the process punching a bad guy in the face and then throwing a dinner plate at another bad guy’s face. Oh god, he’s going to have to write such a big check for the damages. 

“Are you seriously asking me that while we’re in the middle of a fight?” Bucky asks, with a lot more skepticism than Steve thinks is really warranted. 

“What can I say, I’ve got my priorities straight.” Steve says, grinning when Bucky snorts and hits a guy upside the head with his metal arm. Which okay, add that to the list of things Steve is into. 

Bucky does not go back to Steve’s place for coffee, but mostly because their various higher ups send them demands for REPORTS!!! NOW!!! as soon as the fight is over. 

DATE NUMBER TWO: They go to a movie and flirt via mutual complaining over the cost of everything. Mutual weird flirting leads to one of them doing the ridiculous yawn and stretch and acting like they’re smooth, and then they’re just about to get to the part where they do a lot less movie watching when the “AVENGERSSSSS ASSEMBLEEEEEEE” that Tony so helpfully added to Steve’s phone rings out at an unholy decibel from Steve’s pocket. 

Bucky’s phone lights up and buzzes insistently at exactly the same time. 

So they both get to go save the world. It’s probably AIM, because I love using AIM as just really tragically terrible villains. Like just, the WORST at their jobs of being villains. But it could also be some sort of horrifying mutant creatures attacking like, idk, Jersey. Or, most likely, if I were to ever actually write this instead of rambling about my idea for it, it would be AIM created horrifying mutant creatures attacking Jersey.

The flirting starts again, this time while covered in substantially more suspicious goo. 

“So, about that coffee.” Steve says, using a goo monster as a projectile when he loses his shield. “My place is still conveniently open, and it also very conveniently has coffee.” 

“Rogers, I’ve told you, I’m more of a third date kind of girl.” Bucky says, picking up Steve’s shield from where it’s embedded into one of the bigger slime things and using it to whack an AIM agent in the back of their ridiculous yellow head. 

“So about that third date.” 

AND I’M NOT ENTIRELY SURE WHERE IT WOULD GO FROM HERE TBH, except that there would probably be a couple more dates that get interrupted with the need to save someone and/or the world. Steve and Bucky flirting gets progressively worse through each one. Avengers are either annoyed or entertained or both. 

All of them, whether annoyed or entertained, are placing bets on things like when they will declare themselves official, when they will move into together, when they’ll get married, and when they’ll adopt two at risk youths and a stray cat. 

Eventually Bucky actually makes it to Steve’s for coffee and because I’m a sap it would PROBABLY end up with them ACTUALLY drinking coffee and then falling asleep together all cuddled up on Steve’s couch. It’d be very soft, very lovely, and probably also include me attempting to include a parting quip but WHO KNOWS. 

Natasha walks off into the sunset, patting herself on the back for a job well done. 

[diwanautocare]

The Ultimate Guide To Alloy Wheels

While choosing a vehicle, the wheels aren't ordinarily viewed as the main element. Notwithstanding, if unsatisfactory wheels are picked, this can antagonistically affect your vehicle experience. They might possibly not be suitable for how you utilize the vehicle or might take away from its appearance.

 1. Key Differences Between Diamond Cut and Powder Coated Alloy wheel shop in Thane. 

2. 3 Steps to Alloy Wheel Refurbishment. 

3. How Best to Prevent Wheel Damage and Tips for Refurbishment. 

4. When to Repair My Diamond Cut Alloy Wheel?

5. The most effective method to Spot The First Signs of Alloy Wheel Damage.  

6. Your Guide to Powder Coating Wheels.

7. Where to Refurbish Your Alloy Wheels.

8. Precious stone Cut Alloy Wheels - Your Complete Guide. 

  You ought to know about the various sorts of wheels accessible, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. There may furthermore be a few benefits or drawbacks that don't influence you.

A few wheels, for example, compound wheels, take into consideration a customized appearance. This makes your vehicle unmistakable as well as totally change its look making them ideal if style top your standards list while picking or keeping up with your vehicle.

In case having the option to drive with trust in the colder time of year climate is significant, then, at that point you can choose wheels that will give you this. Or then again in case you are hoping to diminish your carbon impression, you can track down the most productive alternative.

Beneath, we give the responses to all that you'll have to know in the wheel dynamic interaction:

 WHAT IS AN ALLOY WHEEL? 

A car alloy wheel dealers in Thane is just what the name proposes: a wheel joined of numerous metals, most generally aluminum or magnesium. The last has prompted them at times being marked 'mag wheels'. While steel meets the standards for being an 'combination' (it's a blend of iron and carbon), 'composite wheels' by and large envelops those created from non-ferrous metals.

Compound wheels are a famous decision to a limited extent because of their satisfying style. The assembling system takes into account inventive and specially crafts during painting and powder covering, so you can choose a style that supplements your vehicle.

They're very light, which adds to diminishing fuel utilization and supporting the vehicle's presentation through improved slowing down, speeding up, guiding and dealing with. Amalgam wheels are additionally an appealing choice as a result of their life span; they're impervious to consumption and residue. This implies there is less shot at expecting to fix them. You can decrease the probability of this by taking on tips to forestall harm.

 WHAT ARE STEEL WHEELS?

Fabricated absolutely from steel, this kind of wheel is extremely amazing. You would have your work removed attempting to break them, however it is feasible to mark or curve steel wheels. This can be settled utilizing a sledge to return it to its unique shape, which means they can be the simpler to fix choice.

Steel wheels are very low in cost at tyre shop in Thane, yet they are weighty. Albeit this is ideal for winter when driving in blanketed or frosty conditions, this additional weight makes vehicles less eco-friendly. Likewise, this can cause issues with taking care of and speed increase, and crumble the suspension also.

Many decide on amalgam wheels over those produced using steel for tasteful reasons. Steel wheels aren't as appealing in examination, and there's less decision as far as plan as well. While there are a couple of various completion alternatives, composite wheels have all the more a determination – including painting and powder covering.

 WHAT OTHER TYPES OF WHEELS EXIST?

Steel wheels are an extremely famous decision, and composite wheels' principle contest. Another choice is wheels made simply from aluminum. These are created through one or the other projecting or producing. The two cycles guarantee there is less breaking, with fashioned aluminum wheels additionally suffering outrageous pressing factor.

You could also choose chrome wheels made by taking an aluminum haggle layers of chrome to it. With a sparkly and striking appearance, this sort of wheel is additionally extremely strong in a wide range of climate conditions. They have different advantages as well, such as being less inclined to rust than combination wheels.

Nonetheless, chrome wheels do request more support. You'll need to guarantee any trash is taken out, and their shimmering look should be preserved by means of standard cleaning. On top of this, the chrome layers settle on them a heavier decision.

 WHAT ARE DIAMOND CUT WHEELS? 

BMW precious stone cut wheel

This sort of wheel resembles the conventional combination wheel, however with a high-sparkle finish. This is delivered utilizing a machine to make a cut in the metal this produces a further edge, making a unimaginably weak furrowed impact that takes into account the sparkle. Their outwardly engaging appearance implies they're frequently picked to update the vibe of a vehicle.

On top of the various advantages of car batteries in ghodbunder thane themselves, jewel cut combinations take into consideration a profoundly customized look. You can choose from the wide scope of shadings on offer these incorporate a striking gunmetal dark and vivacious orange.

As compound wheels are tough, the prerequisite to fix or revamp them will be limited. At the point when it is essential however, it's ideal to counsel the subject matter experts. Likewise with fitting the tires, it takes a certified master to do the fundamental assignments and proposition aftercare counsel, in any case, there is the danger of wheel harm.

 WHAT SIZE OF WHEELS TO GET?

Precious stone cut amalgam wheel

With regards to the size of your vehicle's wheels, is greater truly better?

Eventually, the ideal wheel size relies upon what you're searching for as far as style and execution.

The benefit of greater wheels is that they genuinely look like it. At the point when you head into huge wheel measurements like the 17, 18, 19-inch an area, they become incredibly discernable. Given their monumental size and height, these wheel sizes will in general offer an altogether further developed ride when becoming corners, rolling over problematic landscape or flying down a motorway. You can likewise choose explicit wheel measures that will help you when driving in every climate condition, assisting you with feeling certain about the vehicle consistently.

A portion of the other key benefits of utilizing greater wheels incorporate better slowing down with expanded hold on both dry and wet streets and more prominent foothold, which brings about a more agreeable drive on a wide range of various surfaces.

While picking fittingly estimated wheels for your vehicle, you'll need to think about components like sidewall stature, as neglecting to do as such could prompt hardened directing and issues with speeding up and slowing down over the long haul.

In addition, in case you're buying apollo tyres dealers in thane, you'll likewise require new tires to commend them.

Before you choose which wheel size to go for, it's consistently worth conversing with a vehicle wheel proficient. Not exclusively can an expert group offer master counsel, however they'll have the option to figure out which size to go for guaranteeing you get the look and feel that is required while keeping up with superior levels.

 WHAT ARE CUSTOM WHEELS? 

 Custom Blue Wheel

Custom wheels will be wheels that are planned explicitly for the client with size, tallness, weight and appearance all fabricated as per their prerequisites, guaranteeing that they get wanted outcomes.

Regularly, individuals will look for custom wheels to infuse another rent of life into their vehicle just as a little personalisation. Chrome, steel and jewel cut amalgam wheels are the absolute most famous decisions. Customisation permits you to add a fashion awareness that can't be imitated with unique wheels giving the vehicle a special vibe. 

Custom wheels can be joined into your vehicle simply to further develop appearance, or they can be molded with a particular goal in mind to assist with further developing driving execution by and large. In case you're attempting to choose which edges to pick, counsel a specialist who can break down your vehicle and figure out what kind of wheels you ought to be fitting to expand footing and turning while working on the outside.

 WHAT ARE THE WHEEL COVERS?

Wheel being eliminated from BMW

Wheels are presented to different components more often than not, which definitely prompts residue and trash discovering their direction inside and causing issues. Downpour, snow and even daylight can make harm wheels in the long haul, and wheel covers are expected to shut out these hurtful variables to keep them healthy.

Slipping over the actual wheel, wheel covers monitor holes where water can enter and secure against consumption and rust. In case you're stopped in the daylight, the warmth can likewise make certain pieces of the wheel grow, which actuate controlling issues yet wheel covers carry on like an umbrella by keeping the focal functions of the wheel in the shade.

On the off chance that you have moved up to greater, better wheels, wheel covers are a powerful manner by which to secure your venture, guaranteeing top execution throughout a more drawn out timeframe.

  WHAT ARE THE WHEEL RIMS? 

Powerful, extreme and appealing wheel edges can represent the moment of truth a vehicle. That is the reason it's urgent to invest a lot of energy figuring out which edges may be best for you.

On the off chance that you've as of late added new edges to your vehicle, or bought a fresh out of the box new vehicle directly off the creation line, make certain to take your wheel edges for regular evaluation to keep up with elite.

Buying a recycled vehicle will definitely imply that the wheel edges have experienced a level of harm because of mileage, so it's consistently worth getting a specialist to investigate and make any important final details to forestall further scraped spots. 

Probably the most widely recognized issues with wheel edges are scratches and scratches which can influence your vehicle's appearance as well as can

[ajoraverse]

Another thing I’m gonna have to ditch because of recent reveals. Circa 2278-ish BCE, Stratigraphy-related in that it predates everything else in the series. Gross liberties were taken with an online Akkadian dictionary to pick out a childhood name for Enheduanna, because the name by which she is known in history is a title. There are a number of reasons why this ended up not working, not the least of which is that I didn’t do the math so well. The file hadn’t been modified since July 2016.

On this plus side, I’d been a proponent for morally grey-Rose since Day 1 and it shows a lot here.

(I just, yknow, hadn’t taken the RQ=PD theory that seriously and didn’t expect the final order and wow this is even darker in retrospect.)

The Moon’s Bride

Garnet didn't know when Rose Quartz's infatuation with humans began. It had to have been before Garnet herself came into being, for Rose was typically the first of the Crystal Gems to walk among the humans and the most willing to sit with them and listen to their concerns. It was through Rose's appeals to the humans that they rose up towards the end of the rebellion and fought for their planet. They had come from everywhere, thanks to the spacing of their warp pads. In battle, Arctic marine hunters fought alongside dark-skinned pastorialists from the great savannahs and pale nomads with sun-bronzed warriors. One warrior made a name for himself, and his valor became legend. Upon his death, Rose journeyed to his lands in a valley between two rivers to return his remains. There she had discovered a civilization largely unchanged by the war, and she sought out its kings and priests to learn what she could from them. When the dust settled and Pearl and Garnet were all that was left of her forces, Rose brought them to meet with her latest obsession.

It hadn't taken long for Garnet to notice something was off. Often during the rebellion, Pearl acted alone and needed no escort. In the early days, Pearl had often been her escort until she was coordinated enough to fight. Here, in this land so far removed from the warp network that they ended up delivering a pad to ease their travels, Pearl was often by Rose's side. When she wasn't, she was sequestered among clay tablets marked with writing that looked like chicken scratches and was never far from a human watching her. On one occasion, Pearl had gotten up to seek out Rose herself, only to be distracted by a slip of a girl into demonstrating some sword moves until Rose came back for her. This tipped Garnet off to the idea that something was wrong, and she began wandering the frescoed halls of King Sargon's palace.

As she watched and wandered, ever careful to keep from being discovered herself, Garnet learned two things: that the human priests and the king they empowered were deifying the Crystal Gems for political reasons, and Rose was deliberately hiding the fact that the humans kept slaves from Pearl. When Pearl wasn't in the area, slim and simply-dressed slaves waited on those in power or cleaned when they thought no one was watching. There was an almost eerie resemblance to the pearls that Sapphire remembered when she visited with other dignitaries in Blue Diamond's court. Like pearls, they did not speak unless asked explicitly to do so. They stood and held things for their masters, though they had no gem in which to store those things. The most beautiful of them were dressed in fine woolen shifts and filled their masters' cups, and some were even bejewelled bed slaves flaunted as evidence of that lord or priest's wealth. From what little Garnet could learn, the slaves were taken from conquered cities. Now that she knew what to look for, she realized that it was the practice of all such civilizations. And, in the distant past that preceded her, Sapphire would have accepted this as the natural order of things and commended humans on the traits they shared with gems. In the present, after a thousand years fighting by Pearl's side, Garnet was horrified and frozen in the dark corner she found herself in. She wasn't sure if it was out of concern for Pearl, or out of shock that Rose would go so far to hide all this from Pearl and convince the humans to play along.

This gave Garnet pause. There were so many paths she could take, and none of them ended well. She adored both of them and they were her closest friends. They had been there for her nearly since her birth, and she had fused with both of them throughout the rebellion. Sardonyx and Red Beryl were both very dear to her, and both born of the love she had for her friends. Yet Garnet valued honesty in relationships above all, and the way Rose was deliberately shielding Pearl from human slavery felt uncomfortably like betrayal.

Rose Quartz was easy to love and loved easily, but only a fool would underestimate the hard, calculating mind she kept hidden under a soft projection. Pearl was fragile in so many ways, but she used that to her advantage in battle and Garnet admired her for the resilience of her spirit. Perhaps Pearl was harder to love because of her resistance to being seen as soft, but her emotions affected her more deeply. In the end, after some internal deliberation, Garnet knew that Rose would be much less affected by confrontation.

After collecting herself and retracing her steps through the maze-like palace that smelled strongly of incense, Garnet found Rose with an untouched cup of beer being regaled with stories by the king who would be emperor. These he carefully crafted to minimize the truth of his brutality, and he often exaggerated the exotic nature of whatever opponent he was talking about. Garnet paused and frowned as a bevy of potential futures filled her mind's eye. In most of them, his future empire would fall to what his people would call the curse of Agade: the city's collapse under its own weight and inability to feed its people would be attributed to Sargon's heirs driving away the gods. In some, his empire would expand and absorb the region bordered at all but a few stretches of land by seas and all the problems that would cause his city's fall would expand to the entire region. The curse of Agade being contained to Agade was preferable.

Given the many years of familiarity among the core group of Crystal Gems, Garnet didn't need to say a thing to catch Rose's attention. She merely had to linger at the corner of her eye, and Rose would excuse herself from whatever company she kept. A few hundred years wasn't enough to break the habit, and Rose smiled at the king and got up from the floor cushions to meet with Garnet.

Now that she had Rose, Garnet didn't quite know how to proceed. So, as was her wont, she cut to the chase. "Pearl."

Any pretense Rose might have made towards ignorance fell away with the smile. She gave that nearly-imperceptible nod and motioned that Garnet should follow. It did not escape Garnet's notice that she was being led further from the women's quarters where Pearl was ensconced. They were silent as they walked, and it wasn't until they were in a courtyard that Rose seemed comfortable enough to answer that unspoken question. "I don't want her to hate them. They're so young and they'll make mistakes--"

"The more time we spend here, the more likely she is to discover that you've been hiding this from her." Garnet seldom lost her patience with Rose, but she could feel the heat of indignation rising within her. Try as she might, she couldn't keep it completely out of her voice. "How do you think she's going to take it when she does? You need to tell her!"

It was as if there was a shift in Rose. She straightened and her eyes narrowed as the corners of her lips turned downwards. In that moment she ceased being Rose, lover of all living things, and became Rose Quartz, Pink Diamond's former right hand and leader of the rebellion. She did not look right in the bright, sunny courtyard. "I'm doing this for her."

Garnet tilted her head ever so slightly at the change. Had they never fused and had they been strangers, she might have been terrified of the change that came over Rose. The fact that Garnet looked as unimpressed as she felt, however, might have deflated Rose a little bit. "Explain."

"When gems first emerge from our Kindergartens, we're programmed with the skillsets that will serve us. Some of that is innate, some of that is ingrained into us as part of the training process. Pearls are only programmed with what skills their owners want them to have."

Much of this Garnet knew, for Sapphire's education as a member of Blue Diamond's court was just comprehensive enough to refine her clairvoyance. While she suspected where Rose was going with this, she remained silent and allowed her to continue.

"Pearl doesn't have those advantages. Everything we take for granted, she has to learn on her own like humans do." Rose's expression softened with fondness, and Garnet found it hard not to smile in response. "What's amazing is that she wants to learn, even if it isn't easy. This has been the best opportunity for her yet, and I want her to take advantage of it for as long as she can. She even likes the princess!"

Garnet couldn't suppress the smile for long. Rose's love and admiration for Pearl, and perhaps that influenced Garnet's feelings towards her, too. And... It was rare for Pearl to fully connect with another being, and her connecting with a human long enough to form a friendship was practically unheard of. Garnet wished it could be cultivated. "Still, she is going to find out. We need to leave before she does."

"I know, I..." The quartz soldier was gone, and Rose was back to being the friend she knew. She looked more uncertain as she spoke, and a little more worn out than Garnet expected. "I've been trying to get Sargon to see reason, but it won't be at Pearl's expense. Can we wait until Innuni comes of age? The ceremony is only a couple of months away, and then she'll be sent away to the temples."

"I don't like lying to her like this, but for now I'll go with it. She can't return until all this is dealt with."

"Thank you, Garnet."

"I mean it. This has to be the only secret we keep from her.”

"It will be. I promise."

Somewhere in the back of Garnet's mind was a thought that was very nearly traitorous for all it implied. But it congealed into a single word that resonated through her head for hours afterwards: Liar.

---

[I think I need to point out too that none of this hiding stuff from Pearl is supposed to be romantic. It was meant to be read as screwed up when I wrote it, but now it’s worse because PD has so much more power than a quartz would.]

[paperrater567]

paper writer

About me

Writers Wanted Online

Writers Wanted Online Every single document is absolutely checked to avoid any kind of plagiarism. Interested writers will start bidding on your order. View their profiles, check purchasers' feedback and choose one skilled whom you deem good for handling your task. We can boast the bottom prices on the market among first-class services. We know the way to make an impressive task low-cost, so that you now not need to waste all your savings on a high school or faculty task. are all the time an excellent answer when you don’t have an opportunity to finish a highschool or college task by yourself. It is the most effective solution for college students, who lack energy, work part time or don’t know the subject well enough. I'm happy to work here as a result of they know what a good customer support is but additionally recognize their writers a lot. As a full-time blogger and a full-time pupil I has very little time earlier than my paper deadline. With slightly help from my chosen author I managed to submit a really good paper on time. Take a chance and get superb tutorial essays written by essentially the most qualified research paper typer free. If you need your textual content accomplished by the most effective-certified essay typers in your area, you might be certainly in the right place. Our analysis paper helpers give your essay the eye it deserves so don’t hesitate to position an order proper now, additionally you possibly can ask them to “write my thesis for me”. When you submit work that you completed up to now, they are each unable to gauge your present expertise and unaware that you haven’t completed the assignment. Our company delivers solely non-plagiarized tutorial papers of top of the range. Gathering genuine information for an educational paper usually requires a major quantity of effort and time from the students. While the companies are fairly helpful, students can't always depend on them for assist. Thus, it's higher to find out about a couple of helpful online instruments which they'll use as per their convenience. As we've mentioned before, the outsourced author’s involvement could also be as minimal as placing the ending touches to make the essay comply with the format necessities. Secondly, we now have mentioned the principle elements which may pressure the scholar to seek writing assist from outdoors. In such conditions, looking for writing assistance is either most popular or downright unavoidable. This mechanically validates such an enterprise concerning ethics. Remember, we additionally offer free revisions if your paper wants some improvement. Our clients also get to communicate immediately with their writers, making it easy to ask for updates and drafts. Founded in 1887, The Writer instructs, informs, and conjures up writers, providing sensible coverage of the craft of writing and of the publishing trade. Cheap laptops and tablets pushed these writers into extinction. But the battery-operated typewriter with digital show and comfy keyboard boasts a huge and devoted following, and lots record on eBay at around $30 . Freewrite, a Kickstarter success, upgrades the concept with a mechanical keyboard, digital paper display and cloud backup. When you proofread and do a guide spelling examine on work that you’ve written, you’re more likely to overlook mistakes. This is even more probably if you’re pressed for time or trying to complete a number of totally different assignments directly. As students, all of us have carried out our justifiable share of educational writing. And despite the fact that a lot of us did not like the duty, we didn't have much choice but to prepare an task whenever instructed. Is time running out and you might be but to make vital progress? We have specialists who have mastered the art of dissertation writing, and will be sure that your commencement prospects remain on monitor. Our company has strong status of constantly delivering quality papers on time, irrespective of the project urgency. There are tricks to help reduce this, such as studying your work aloud to identify poor grammar or reading every sentence backward to search out spelling errors. When time is of the essence, although, these solutions aren’t probably the most convenient or useful options. That’s why many students search the assistance of on-line tools that can run a grammar and plagiarism verify on their work. Academic self-plagiarism happens when a scholar submits the identical paper or elements of a paper for multiple task. When your instructors are grading your papers, they’re assessing your analysis and writing skills within the present.

[essayonsister327]

paper writers

About me

True Essay Typer At Essay Writing Service Uk

True Essay Typer At Essay Writing Service Uk We’ve included the essay assignments, posted as pdf recordsdata beneath, to offer you some context for responding to the draft. Don’t use it for granted which a talented skilled would commit their time to jot down perfect records out there for you. It hooks viewers with a catchy opening line, presents a short introduction to your matter, and incorporates a sturdy, centered thesis to permit viewers know what your paper is about. It also tells viewers that you are crafting about Michael Keaton’s portrayal of Batman, and you’re evaluating Keaton on three specific requirements. It’s stable enough to stand on its very own and stable enough to take care of your paper with one another. In Task 2, take a look at takers write an essay in response to a degree of view, argument or drawback. Task 2 - you may be requested to put in writing an essay in response to some extent of view, argument or drawback. Task type and format In Writing Task 2, test takers are given a subject to write down about an academic or semi-formal/neutral fashion. Answers must be a discursive consideration of the related points. Here’s what your finished essay introduction looks like. Even though Christopher Nolan’s Batman has been critically acclaimed, the purpose remains that the most thriving Batman ever built was Tim Burton’s variation starring Michael Keaton . Task type and format In Writing Task 2, take a look at takers write a semi-formal/impartial discursive essay of no less than 250 phrases in the reply guide offered. The style of writing that take a look at takers use depends who they are requested to write to (i.e. the viewers) and how well they're imagined to know them. Test takers don't need to incorporate any addresses at the head of their letters. It is very easy to rent us by way of our web site. Simply inform us what you want; the question you’re answering. When you want the paper by, the length of the paper in words or pages and the academic degree you are learning at. And we’ll do the rest, delivering you a high quality paper that’s able to go. Although we point out here college papers, we can additionally assist with high school papers, master’s diploma papers and doctoral papers too. American Stationery offers an expansive assortment of all your stationery needs, whether or not you want to use stationery for invitations, thanks playing cards, notes, or letters. Whether you need one thing formal, informal, refined, fun, colourful, or elegant, American Stationery has just the proper private stationery for you. Choose from our broad number of paper merchandise that may be customized to accommodate any writing scenario you could come across. They selected not to pay somebody to put in writing their paper, both out of ethical considerations or fear of punishment, and are at a drawback to someone who simply paid for his or her paper. When it involves inserting an order, we perceive that our prospects cannot bear in mind all the details, or that they could obtain more information at a later date. We can not offer you services we aren’t 100% sure of. We know that our services will please you - in reality, we are prepared to wager our cash on it. You will get a whole refund if you won’t like the paper - and we’re certain this won’t occur. Will positively selected him back for my other assignments in the future. Unfortunately, we're not hiring writers now due to off-season. As such, they'll flip the paper in themselves, promote it to different college students, submit it on-line or do nearly anything they need with it. Second, other students within the class did the work and are incomes a grade based mostly on their efforts. As such, we also have a form so that you can fill during which you'll find on our website. If you might be not sure about any part of the form, please contact our customer assist, and they will explain to you what to do. If you have to give us additional data after you placed your order, then our buyer assist group might be there to assist. Please contact them and allow them to know what changed so our writers can respond accordingly. A sure kind of unhealthy writing has always sold higher than any sort of good writing, and there's no pure meritocracy. No assignment you take is beneath your station or unworthy of your finest effort. When you dash something off for cash, you are stealing. At the same time, attempt to not waste too much--should you're requested to provide somebody advice, perhaps you can flip that recommendation right into a column. If you are not failing frequently, almost every time you try to write, you might be doing one thing incorrect.

[howtohero]

#081 List of Handy Excuses (C)

It’s time for another installment of our highly popular list of handy excuses to use when you want to get out of doing something so you can go be a superhero (or like take a nap I guess, these excuses can be whipped out at any time, that’s how good they are) sorted in alphabetical order by job. (I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for this forever, the last one of these was over 40 posts ago. Many of you didn’t even exist 40 posts ago!)

A B D E

Cable Guy

I have to go now, I have an appointment to fix someone’s cable (bonus points if you actually did have an appointment that you’re ditching to fight crime. The more real appointments you miss the more legitimate of a cable guy you are anyway {git-r-done!}).

Caddie

Oh sorry sir looks like you were a little off the mark, I’ll go find your ball for you (and then disappear to go fight crime).

Cage Dancer

I saw on the news that a flash-mob had broken out in a zoo and that’s just relevant enough to me for me to get down there.

Cage Fighter

I saw on the news that a superhero fight had broken out in a zoo and that’s just relevant enough to me for me to get down there.

Cameraman

I’m going to try to get some video footage of those superheroes for my news agency.

I’m going to try to get some video footage of those superheroes, not for my news agency, but to sell online.

Camp Counselor

All right kids, tonight’s exciting night activity is a game called “everybody closes their eyes until you stop hearing the sounds of a giant space crab being beaten up.”

Campaign Manager

I need to go find out who those superheroes and villains are voting for. If any of those heroes are voting for my guy or if any of those space slugs are voting for the other guy it could make for a killer ad.

Candlemaker

I’m going to go begin an apprenticeship at the Safed Candle Factory so that I can truly become a master at my craft.

Honestly man, maybe you should give up the superhero business. It’s beginning to affect your candlemaking work. You’re overworked, overtired and overextending yourself. You can’t keep burning the candle at both ends.

Cantor

Allow me to dazzle these supervillains with the power of song!

Carnie

Beazye eazi’m leazeaveazing

Carpenter

I have to go star in an all carpenter version of Aladdin with musical numbers that include “Magic Carpent Ride” and “Joist Like Me”

Cartoonist

If I don’t provide my legions of fans four panels of comicy goodness they’ll riot

I Ii II I_

I just heard somebody refer to a cartoonist as somebody who makes animated cartoon and I must go correct them!

Cashier

Hey that masked bad guy just walked out of this store without paying for any of the snacks he wanted for his evil road trip, if I don’t stop him that money is going to come out of my paycheck and since he took three (3) bags of chips that’s the whole thing plus!

Catcher

I’m going to go stand behind the bad guy and call out plays for the superheroes.

I saw that there was a superhero wearing a domino-mask so I’m going to go and lend him my catcher’s mask because even that would do a better job of concealing his identity.

Catfisherman

I was catfishing this guy and it turned out that he wasn’t a regular guy but really he was a supervillain trying to catfish me and also he’s robbing a bank now so I’m going to go beat him up.

Cellist

I have to go hit the gym to build the muscle mass I need to actually lift my instrument of choice.

Remember FAO Schwarz? The toy store? With the giant piano on the floor? Yeah so I’ve been thinking a lot about that piano and… Do you think my cello would be like an in-scale violin with that piano? And I know they closed down a few years ago but that piano has to be somewhere right? Yeah so I’m going to go on an epic quest to go find it so I can see what my cello looks like next to it. (And then instead you go smack around a vampire or whatever with your cello, like a hero.)

CEO

I’m off to fly my golden helicopter to the golf course on the island that I own, nobody call me.

Honestly, CEOs mostly fight crime at night when they aren’t expected to be anywhere else so they don’t really need any excuses.

CFO

Just get fired for embezzling, then you can do whatever you want with your time.

Chairman

Just got a whole new shipment of chairs in. They’re gonna need some quality sitting in I mustn’t be disturbed for several hours. (I don’t know what chairmen do.)

Chauffeur

I have to go contemplate why “chauffer” is pronounced with an “sh” sound, if you need me I’ll be in my chateau.

I have to go sit in a car while my employer enjoys a very long, very lavish meal in a fancy restaurant. But don’t worry about me, I’ve got a bag of chips.

Cheerleader

I’m going to go spur on my favorite superheroes with the power of cheer!

Chef

I have to go contemplate why- oh, we did this one already.

Man I bet those superheroes are going to be super hungry after they fight off that inter-dimensional octoman. I’d better whip them up something that will take me a very long time to cook.

Chemist

I’m bored of this singles mixer so I’m going to go back to my lab and have a mixer of my own. (That’s when a chemist goes and mixes random chemicals together to see what’ll happen. Fun fact: several superhero origins involve this kind of mixer.)

Chess Master

If you were any good at your job you’d have set things into motion months ago to ensure that you could leave all your gatherings to fight crime. You don’t need our help.

Clarinetist

I’ve gotta go kick a sea-sponge’s ass.

Cleaner

Boy those super-folk are making quite the mess if I get down there now maybe someone’ll pay me to clean it.

Clerk

No no no, those super-people are engaging in fisticuffs in a public square without having first filled out forms 42G with the supplementary forms 2AB and 32H to account for the missile-launching mecha and the time-displaced stegosaurus.

Clockmaker

Time for justice (again you’re allowed to reveal that you’re a superhero if you can get a good pun out of it!)

Coach

This ragtag group of superheroes needs someone to whip them into shape! (Bonus points if you then actually act as a superhero mentor to that ragtag group of heroes.)

If you’re at an event with any referees you can just go yell at one of them until you get ejected, then you’re free to do whatever you want for the rest of the night.

Coal Miner

Well, I’m off to go deliver one tenth of all the coal I’ve mined this year to Santa so that he can then redistribute them to naughty children, as all coal miners do every year.

Codebreaker

All you need to is leave a coded message wherever you were supposed to be and by the time your non-codebreaker friends and family members manage to break it you’ll probably already be back (or have died saving the world from Fieron the Sentient Forest Fire).

Colorist (Comic Books)

Did you know that old-timey comic books were printed in black and white? This is an absolute travesty and I am going to single handedly go back and color every single one of them. This will require me to be unavailable for several long extended periods of time.

Colorist (Hair)

I just had this great idea to dye my hair a whole bunch of different colors. This way my own head can act as my resume and people can see how skilled I am at coloring hair. This will probably take a while, nobody need me.

Composer

Ah I wrote some music that would literally be perfect for this battle, I’ve gotta get down there and play it for them.

Comptroller

Just assign one of the many accountants that work under you the responsibility of accounting for your absence.

Computer Scientist

Just hack into whatever database or security system you need to make people think you never even left.  

Construction Worker

Not one of those superheroes are wearing a yellow hardhat and that’s just an accident waiting to happen. I must go down there and hand some out.

I need to go catcall some people.

Conductor

This super-battle is filled with senseless chaos, clearly they need someone like me to step in and bring order to it.

Cook

Do we even need to do this? We have chef listed above. (You insolent buffoon there is a world of difference between a cook and a chef!)

Man I bet those superheroes are going to be super hungry after they fight off that inter-dimensional octoman. I’d better whip them up something that will take me a very long time to cook. Longer than it would take a chef to cook as I have less experience and education in culinary matters.

Copyrighter

I have to go protect some patents (and the city!)

Copywriter

I have to go write some copy (and the city!)

Councilman

Just stand up in the middle of a council meeting and shout “this meeting is adjourned!” ten bucks says nobody fights you on that. [If we are wrong we will not send you ten bucks, or any bucks for that matter.]

Count

Has there ever been a superheroic count? I don’t think so. All the ones I know of are supervillains or blood-sucking vampires… or math-loving vampires.

Crane Operator

I have to go make sure there are some unattended cranes near that superhero fight so some scrappy kids can take control of one and knock out or distract the evil monster at a decisive moment in the battle.

Oh my gosh Karen I swear to god if you make one more joke about me operating a marsh-dwelling, long-necked bird, I am going to leave! (And then just wait for Karen to make another joke, trust me, it’ll happen, she just can’t help herself.)

Cross-Country Skier

For today’s cross-country ski I have decided to cross-country ski where no man, woman or child has cross-country skied before. In fact, if my ski-calculations are correct, no species of animal has ever cross-country skied across this country before. Yes, you guessed it, my destination for today’s cross-country ski is Antarctica, this will take me a very long time. Don’t wait up. (Of course we in the super-community know that Antarctica is one of the top-five destinations for Yeti cross-country skiers but the common-folk don’t know that so shhh.)

Cryptozoologist

Somebody finally got a good picture of El Chupacabra! I have to go and interview them! For science! (The jig is up Chupacabra, we’re coming for you!)

Curator

I have to get down to this super-battle and pick out the best pieces of rubble and dismembered robot parts to showcase in this new exhibit on superheroes/cool rocks/robot parts (you get to choose) that I am curating.

Customer Service Representative

Hey I think that superhero was in here buying a grappling hook the other day. I’m going to go see if he’s happy with his purchase. (Obviously he won’t be because grappling hooks are garbage.)

Cymbal Player

I’ve got to get to marching band practice. Without the loud, yet melodic, cacophony that my instrument produces how will my band earn the attention and envy of marching bands everywhere.

Captain Patriot lost his giant star-spangled discus! If I quickly paint my cymbals do you think he’d like to use them instead?

Tune in next time when we tackle all of the “d” occupations. As always if you know of a job that isn’t represented here by all means contact us! (Or leave a comment, or just, y’know engage with this blog somehow, please, so I know you’re out there.) And don’t hit be all like “Hey! you forgot counselor!” That’s just a fancy term for lawyer so you all have to wait like three years for us to get to “L”. In the meantime just use generic excuses like “I don’t feel comfortable with you asking me all these questions about where I’m always going. I am an adult, I should be allowed to come and go as I please,” or “I am going to take a nap.” 

[classificationanddivision67-blog]

essay writer

About me

The Most Affordable And Cheap Essay Writing Service

The Most Affordable And Cheap Essay Writing Service With her experience of 5 years, she can simply and professionally write reports on all computer science and engineering programs. You can take her assist for Masters and PhD level technical stories as properly. I am very happy with the nursing essay I ordered. The trainer believed this conduct represented a critical breach of educational ethics. The scholar had submitted an essay written by someone else as his personal. He hadn't given any credit score to the essay's true writer, whose name he didn't know. And he was prepared to simply accept credit score for both the essay and the course, even though he had not carried out the required work. You’re good with numbers and that’s why you chose this instructional path, but all of a sudden your trainer wants you to write an essay associated to a mathematical subject? The author may be presently busy with different orders, but if they're available, they'll offer their bid on your job. If the writer is at present unable to take your order, you may select another one at any time. Discuss the main points of your project and rest whereas your chosen author works on your order. I need to thank my author and the shopper assist team for being so professional and accommodating. The instructor severely admonished the student and gave him an F for the assignment. Once you place your order on-line, you aren't needed to turn out to be worried about the information you shared with us. Your info is totally secure and secure with us because of our privateness policy. Remember not to fear out of your essays, Buy College Paper on-line, get professional’s help and you might be all set to go for an ideal essay. Customer satisfaction is our greatest precedence, and therefore we try our best to serve you with the best companies. You will get a combo of quality and affordability. Do you sleep late because of your faculty essays and nonetheless get no results? We may help you out in crafting your essays which means just say goodbye to sleepless nights. Despite several completely different necessities, it was delivered in top quality and on time as properly. Our excessive-high quality tutorial papers will help you glide by way of your academic journey. Because we are very careful about writer selection, and consequently, we will state with out exception that we provide the most effective custom writing in the enterprise. Students are hiring completely different companies to see which of them enable them to realize one of the best outcomes. If you’re curious to learn how this business works, you’ll be stunned with its effectiveness. This might help you meet deadlines without stress because you’ll have sufficient time to read the essay carefully and care for revisions, if needed. The writing fashion modifications from project to project. That consists of your sentence construction, syntax, and overall voice. Also, yow will discover more accurate and sensible critiques on reliable review web sites like Yelp.com and Business.com. Once you obtain the essay, you have to learn it rigorously to examine for errors. The writer must be an expert in numerous writing kinds and match the project requirements properly. The originality of an essay implies that the author can use several sources and paraphrase them appropriately to avoid plagiarism. Reliable corporations do minor revisions for free and cost an inexpensive extra charge for main ones. It would be perfect if the corporate accepted to deliver giant tasks in multiple half. Plagiarized texts are simply detected by specialized software. You won’t get good grades except you ship distinctive content material.

[wesleybates]

How to Get Clients for Your Digital Marketing Agency in 2020

Sometimes the work we do best for others is the work we do worst for ourselves.

The world is full of doctors who make terrible choices for their own health and housekeepers with messy homes. It’s also full of marketing agencies who deliver great results for clients but struggle to drum up the business of their own.

The quest to get clients is a constant one that agencies often put on the back burner. If you want long-term success, though, now is to time to invest in yourself.

Start with these top ways to get more agency clients.

1. Treat Yourself Like Your Own Client

How do digital marketing agencies get clients? They become their own client.

You already have a process that works for your other clients. Starting today, take the time out of your schedule to do the same for your own business.

Go through every step as you would with your other clients. Develop your brand guide, collect data, create a data-driven marketing plan, and follow through with each step.

Don’t forget to use all the advice and strategies you give to your clients, too. Use storytelling practices to build a trusting bond with your audience.

Above all, don’t sacrifice quality. If business owners see that your own marketing is done half-heartedly, they’ll assume that you would do the same for them.

2. Get Out from Behind the Desk

Digital marketing is the first thing that comes to most people’s minds in our technological era. You can’t ignore the digital world, but sometimes you need to step out into the “real world” too.

Start building a presence at local events where you’ll find business owners and other decision-makers. That should include networking events, business expos, trade shows, you name it.

The goal is to make yourself a known part of the local business community. Get to know your fellow business owners and potential clients.

As you build your rolodex, start referring people to the businesses you know when the opportunity arises. Not only will the grateful business owners be more likely to become clients, but they’re also likely to return the favor and refer others to you.

The right conference can be a game-changer for your business. If you are keen to learn how in details, here Vanessa Van Edwards, Behavioral Investigator, explains more:

3. Take Advantage of Online Directories

Your website is far from the only place to build your web presence. One of the most overlooked strategies is to get onto as many online directories as you can.

There are a few routes to take. Of course, you want to be on the general, widespread directories like Google and Yelp to start.

Next, focus on industry-specific online directories like marketing agency directories. These are especially helpful because everyone in the audience is a qualified buyer, looking for the specific service you provide.

Finally, get your business onto local directories too. For people who want to patronize businesses in their area, these sites are often their go-to guides.

Of course, not all directories are created equal. Some offer a bland listing and nothing more. Instead, look for directories with more advantages to invest in, like advertising opportunities and events.

4. Prioritize Your Portfolio

You can tell prospective clients all day about how great you are at your job, but they won’t know until they see it themselves. If you want to know how to get digital marketing clients, your portfolio is the proof they need to see.

Your online portfolio needs to have a few key qualities. First, it needs to show variety. Clients want to know if you can capture their voice, so by displaying a broad range of brands you’ve already mastered, you’ll show your ability to take on any voice necessary.

Second, you want your portfolio to reflect the work you want to pull in. If you want more clients in the healthcare industry, for example, prioritize your work for past healthcare clients on your portfolio. This shows the right companies that you have expertise in their area. It’s also important to focus on a digital marketing niche for it.

5. Blog About Marketing

You probably already tell your clients about content marketing and how important it is to establish themselves as experts in their area. The same is true for marketing agencies.

Many businesses go through a similar process. At first, they try to do their own marketing to save money. They go through a whirlwind of Googling to try to teach themselves the craft.

They may try a campaign or two. Before long, though, they see that it isn’t as easy as they thought. That’s when they call in an agency.

And who better to call than the agencies whose marketing blogs were so helpful when they were trying the DIY path?

On top of this, your blog gives you credibility to help you get SEO clients. With blogging as one of the most effective measures for SEO, clients want to see that you’re taking your own advice.

As much as a blog on your own site can help, don’t forget to write guest blogs for other websites too. Think sites that business owners and executives frequent, like Business Insider and Forbes.

6. Get Interactive

Social media is a cornerstone of so many digital marketing strategies, but most brands fall short on the “social” aspect. They spend plenty of time posting their own content, but little time-sharing, commenting, and otherwise engaging online.

Start by identifying some of the companies you’d love to work with. Follow them on social media and engage with their posts from time to time. One or two comments per week go a long way.

This gets your name in front of that business, especially if it’s a small business where an owner or manager does their own social media. After they’re familiar with your name, you can make a cold call that suddenly isn’t so cold.

7. Build a Following with Your Email Newsletters

Local businesses are always on the hunt for ways to improve their companies and build their revenues. Why not become the knowledgeable resource they turn to for help?

While your blog can serve that need, it’s even better to land in your audience’s inbox by putting out a consistent, valuable, trusted email newsletter.

Start creating weekly email newsletters that are full of marketing tips, new insights, and more. Invest in a campaign to get more subscribers using strategies like a social media blitz and adding a clear “subscribe” button to your website.

For those who subscribe to your newsletter, you’re that marketing genius who lands in their inboxes every week and genuinely wants them to succeed. When they want to hire a professional, you’ll be the first one that comes to mind.

As important as it is to gain subscribers, though, don’t resort to any spammy methods or signing up people without their consent. If you start getting labeled as spam by a few recipients, you’ll have a harder time getting into other subscribers’ inboxes instead of their spam folders.

8. Get Into the Continuing Education Game

Marketing is one of those fields that is always evolving. For business owners and administrators, staying on the cutting edge can make or break their businesses.

Many businesses are willing to invest in mini-courses and seminars about marketing trends and practices. Why shouldn’t you be the one to provide them?

Selling these seminars helps you in two ways. First, it gives you a whole new revenue stream.

Second, it instantly positions you as an industry expert. They recognize that if you know a subject well enough to teach it, you know it well enough to do a fantastic job with the work itself.

If you don’t want to organize your own seminars and courses, you can get into the conference circuit instead. Seek out business conferences in your area and pitch to become a speaker.

This can take time and you may need to pitch for several conferences before you are chosen. The more you have under your belt, though, the more credibility you’ll have and the easier it will be to get future speaking engagements.

Those speaking engagements can skyrocket your business. You get exposure as well as a reputation for being a leading expert. The audience sees you as especially credible if a conference selects you as a worthy speaker.

Finding the Most Effective Ways to Get Clients

As a marketing agency, it can be difficult to find the right balance between working on your clients’ businesses and your own. Too many agencies put themselves on the back burner. Then one day they lose a critical client and have little hope of pulling in a new one because they haven’t marketed themselves in months.

The tips above can help you get clients no matter how small or large your agency is. The key is a varied marketing strategy that combines your staple of digital marketing with old-fashioned methods as well. Don’t forget to be transparent about your pricing too.

You can start right away by joining the  Web Designing Denver, CO   and seeing everything we have to offer.

[kohenari]

I’m a massive Star Wars fan.

I spent countless hours with my action figures and invented all sorts of storylines for Luke, Leia, Han, and Vader as they flew around in my hands or almost drowned in the quicksand of my Dagoba playset.

I own three different copies of the original trilogy on VHS and one on Blu-Ray. I saw the Special Edition re-releases on opening night and even drove a couple of hours to a special THX theater for them. I saw each of the prequels at midnight screenings and bought the DVDs as soon as they were released. I’ve watched every episode of Clone Wars and Rebels. I’ve read all the Expanded Universe novels and all the new Cannon novels. For all its repetitiveness, I was excited by The Force Awakens. And despite the stupidity and uselessness of the Saw Gerrera plotline, I thought Rogue One was a good idea that was mostly well-executed.

And so it’s with the heaviest of hearts that I declare this new movie isn’t for me. It’s almost certainly for someone else, not me.

My feelings about the prequels provide an interesting insight into why The Last Jedi doesn’t work for me. Even as I mostly didn’t like those movies, I didn’t like them in a way that still left me feeling exhilarated. Although George Lucas did something shockingly clunky and maybe unforgiveable with Episodes I-III, he also explained a lot. He got a solid dose of criticism for it, richly deserved, but he gave us backstory. It might not have been the backstory we wanted and it might have been delivered inelegantly, but it was backstory. We got to see the Republic in its last days; we got to see the Clone Wars; and we got to see Palpatine’s rise to power and Anakin’s fall.

The reason the prequels still managed to work for me is the reason The Last Jedi doesn’t work. It’s because I grew up with the original trilogy and basically waited my whole life for more of Luke Skywalker’s story. I care deeply about this galaxy, and about its heroes and villains. I want to know not only what happens but also why. And The Last Jedi doesn’t give the audience any of that.

Rian Johnson has made a fine movie. It looks great and there are some fantastically crafted battle sequences. I think there’s probably a new generation of fans who will like and care about Star Wars because of this new trilogy, but I have to believe they’ll do so because of the set up in The Force Awakens and not because of anything that happens in The Last Jedi. The reason for that assessment--and the reason it’s so disappointing to an old fan like me--is that The Last Jedi ultimately isn’t really about anything and it doesn’t deepen the plot of the Skywalker family saga in any meaningful way.

When The Force Awakens ended with Rey handing Luke his old lightsaber, I was exhilirated all over again. I knew I’d have to wait a couple of years, but I’d finally get to know what happened to Luke after Return of the Jedi. I assumed that the audience would get a satisfying farewell to Luke in the same way that Han Solo was treated with care and love in The Force Awakens. But The Last Jedi doesn’t do that. Luke is a curmudgeon now; he’s almost constantly brooding and despondent, maybe even angry, and he doesn’t seem to revere or even really respect the Force or the Jedi order anymore. And all of this out-of-character behavior is explained by a decision--to murder his young nephew because he has been corrupted by Snoke--that is exactly the opposite of the way Luke Skywalker--who risked everything to find the small scrap of good that remained in his father--behaved the last time we saw him.

It makes sense that Luke feels a deep shame at failing his apprentice and then an even deeper shame at thinking about killing him. And that would explain why he’s gone into hiding; I can see it as a motivating factor behind a couple of Obi-Wan’s decisions in A New Hope too. But Obi-Wan likes Luke and wants to help him become a Jedi; Luke is generally either indifferent or angry when it comes to Rey. Obi-Wan seems to have learned something from his failure but even when Yoda explains the importance of failure to him, Luke still doesn’t act like he can teach Rey anything. Instead, he mysteriously shows up to save the day and then equally mysteriously vanishes without teaching anyone anything. It’s a last chapter the character doesn’t deserve.

And, of course, Luke’s problem with Ben speaks to a broader issue with the film--and with the new trilogy as a whole. Luke says that, too late, he finally recognizes the extent of the darkness within his nephew. And we know that Ben was influenced or turned to the Dark Side by Snoke. So this gives us a real opportunity to learn more about the force-wielding Supreme Leader of the powerful First Order. Where did he come from? How did he corrupt Ben Solo right under Luke Skywalker’s nose? How did he come to rule over the First Order? And, come to think of it, where did the First Order even come from? And what’s up with the so-called Knights of Ren we first glimpsed in The Force Awakens?

And, of course, The Last Jedi answers exactly none of these questions. Snoke has no backstory and no continuing story either. He seemed to be incredibly powerful as a Dark Side Force user--he’s got Dark Side lightning and he rips thoughts from people’s minds--and then, in an instant, he was absolutely effortlessly dispatched by a much weaker opponent. Meanwhile, the Knights are Ren remain totally nonexistent. And the First Order has no backstory and its central characters are useless wastes of space, with Captain Phasma being perhaps the biggest overhyped nonentity in the history of the franchise. A long-dead Jedi master is far more integral to this movie than she is and Disney paid someone to write an entire novel to give her a backstory. None of this makes any sense, in terms of storytelling.

And that’s the shame of it all. The Force Awakens set up some big questions for this trilogy: Who are Rey’s parents? How did the First Order and the Resistance come to be? Who’s Snoke? What happened between Ben and Luke? Two of those questions are resolved by The Last Jedi, but in ways that just aren’t satisfying. And the other two big questions are left floating, like Leia, in the cold vacuum of space. Maybe, also like her, they’ll improbably be resurrected. But I can’t imagine how J.J. Abrams would accomplish this without an inelegant number of flashbacks or ridiculous exposition so I’m basically assuming we’re not going to get answers. Maybe it eventually gets filled in by the novels, as they started to do with Chuck Wendig’s trilogy, but if that’s the case then most people won’t know anything about those details.

And that points to my ultimate feeling about all of this: maybe most people don’t care. Maybe it doesn’t matter who everybody is or what motivates them or where they came from. It matters to me and that’s why the prequels still offer me something and why I read all the books. I want to know all about how the Force works and I want the characters I love (new and old) to have rich and interesting histories. When the original trilogy finished up in the early 1980s, no one really knew the backstory of Darth Vader and the Emperor. And I presume most people were fine with that. I don’t know if there were fan theories about Luke and Leia’s mother for a couple of decades, but I was certainly interested to know what happened when the prequels were released. So maybe Rey’s parentage doesn’t ultimately matter or maybe we’ll find out more at some point or maybe what we found out is all there is to know and maybe we’re all overdoing it with the hype surrounding the unanswered questions at the heart of this new trilogy. Maybe having all the answers isn’t necessary. But it’s something I want because I’ve been totally immersed in this universe since I was 7 years old and I’m an adult now. I’m willing to bet that my 7 year old son will love these movies and will play with the toys and won’t be bothered by any of the issues that bother me.

Whch is why I’m convinced that they’re not making Star Wars for me anymore. These movies are for a new generation of fan now. Maybe some day those fans will demand that someone fill in all the details for them and maybe it’ll happen. But I’m no longer assuming I’ll ever learn anything more about the universe that I love from these films, at least until they stop making them about the Skywalker family and turn their attention to something entirely new.

[scissortec]

Top Shears for Barbers

  There’s no question, you know your cuts. Not the butchering porterhouse kind, the haircut type. You cruise through a crew cut, blast a buzz cut and never confuse an undercut. You’re possibly even a dab hand with the pompadour and its younger brother quiff. But do you really know your barber shears? The type of steel, the handle design and blade all matter. Owning a fine set of barber shears will put you a cut above the rest.

What to Look For in Barbers Shears

When it comes to barber shears, not all shears are created equal. Just like haircuts really. You may have even experienced a poor quality shears and vowed you’d never put up with inferior shears again. Here’s what to look out for when you’re buying online.

Blade Edge

The most important part of the design of a good pair of barbering scissors is the blade edge. You want your barbering scissor to have a bevel edge, or a semi convex, as this will handle the blades opening and closing thousands of times every cut. It will keep your scissors sharper for longer, and ensure you won’t be disappointed by a scissor that dulls after the first month of use in a busy barbershop.

Quality of Material

There are many good quality steel shears but you guessed it, not all steel is created equal. Shears made from Japanese or German steel are considered the world’s finest quality. Scissor Tech prides itself on never stocking any scissors or shears below 440C steel or an HRC/Rockwell hardness of 57. We look for 440C, ATS314, VG10, Damascus steel with high levels of cobalt to increase hardness and durability, depending on the application. We’ve found some of Japan’s best steel is produced by Aichi and Hitachi.

Of course, they’re also corrosion resistant but they’re also more durable to being damaged, lighter, and offer smoother cutting.

Ergonomically Designed Shears

There is no such thing as the perfect ergonomic pair of shears. We all have different shape and size hands so what fits like a glove for one barber will be too small for another. Also, every barber has their own cutting technique and method of holding their shears. The size of the finger and thumb rings impact on the comfort of the scissors too. Scissor Tech provides a free set of various sized inserts so you can choose the perfect fit.

Sharp Shears

Investing in good quality shears means they will stay sharp for longer. And your clients won’t walk out with split ends either. Sharp shears have also been linked to reduced wrist pain and strain compared to using a blunt pair. So the longer they start sharp the less chance of you suffering an injury. Having your shears serviced regularly will not only keep them sharp but also extend their life. A busy salon may organise a local sharpener to visit and revive an old dull pair of scissors no one wanted to use. By adding a hard bevel, or serration an old pair left in the drawer can be transformed into a great blunt cutter. And a pair of shears you thought were nearing their end, can have their life extended saving you time and money.

Tension

You might have your tense or loose days but your shears shouldn’t. You need barber shears that have just the right amount of tension so the closing action is effortless. Using shears with the right tension can reduce the chance of fatigue. It’s important to learn how to tension your shears correctly. Read our guide on How to Tension and Care for your Scissors.

Blade Sizes

Sure, you can have your favourite pair of shears, but you need multiple pairs to do the job. Shorter blades are best for precision cuts while longer blades are good for tackling a serious ponytail. While a longer blade takes some getting used to, long blade shears can save you valuable time with each haircut you do.

What’s the Best Shears for Barbers?

A busy barber shop needs premium quality shears that are durable to damage and reliable to cut, chip and snip away all day. Suave and sexy looking shears don’t hurt either.

The Shears We Love

YASAKA 7 INCH BARBERING

Made from hard Cobalt Japanese steel, they will last the distance. They have a semi offset handle position with a clam shaped convex edge that’s perfect for slicing. 

The ergonomics of the scissors ensures you can spend many hours a day cutting and slicing. They offer a comfortable grip with your finger and thumb in a naturally comfortable position. The polished finish will match the quality of your haircuts.

7 INCH MATSUI VG10 MASTER BARBER ERGO MATTE BLACK LIMITED EDITION

If you prefer the dark side, these matte black shears might be your style. They’re also made from high quality cobalt-infused Japanese steel for superior hardness. Finished with a semi convex edge for that extra bit of grip that never goes astray. A super sharp edge gives you a neat finish every time. The offset handle is ergonomically-designed keeping your thumb in a natural position. 

Comes with a case, razor, spare blades, shear oil, cleaning cloth, tension adjuster, and spare finger inserts.

2020 MATSUI PRECISION MATTE BLACK CUTTING SHEAR

Another meticulous Matsui matte black pair of shears with just a hint of rose gold on the trim. These limited edition shears could be just what you’re after. 

Made from Premium Hitachi 440C Japanese Steel with a premium titanium coating, the shears will look good despite any harsh treatment. Plastic inserts make sure the shears are the perfect fit for your fingers. The edge is well suited for blunt cutting and scissor over comb cutting. 

Comes with a Scissor Tech case to protect your scissors, razor, spare blades, scissors oil, microfiber cleaning cloth, tension adjuster and spare finger inserts. 

 JOEWELL CRAFT 01 SERIES

Looking for a versatile pair of shears? These could be the ones. The bamboo leaf blade shape means they’re perfect for everything from wet cutting to texture and slide cutting. Made from a high grade Japanese steel, they are lightweight with a low profile tension screw. The offset handle shears will feel as comfy as a pair of slippers, but way more stylish. 

JOEWELL JKX

Treat ‘em mean and keep them keen. If you’re hard on your tools, you might be in the market for a pair of shears with superior durability. These Joewell shears offer an impressive 2.5 times longer life than your average shears. 

But their toughness doesn’t mean they compromise on cutting quality. They deliver power, sharpness, and smooth cutting action. The cobalt base alloy and hard titanium coating make them ideal for barbers with metal allergies.

The sword blade and convex blade provide a superior cutting operation and the offset handle and removable finger rest make them comfortable for long hours of use. 

What’s the Best Thinning Shears for Barbers?

YASAKA 7.0 INCH DELUX BARBER SET

A combo of barbering shears and thinning shears means you’re set to tackle any head of hair. The set includes the Yasaka 7.0 Inch Barbering Shears already mentioned plus a 6.0 inch top of the range thinning shears. Made from extra hard steel, the thinning shears are resistant to corrosion and will stay looking this good for many years.   

MATTE BLACK MATSUI MASTER BARBER SHEAR & TEXTURIZER COMBO

If it’s texturizing shears you’re after, try these on for size. The combo set includes Matsui Matte Black Master Barber Shear & 6 Inch 14 Tooth Texturizer shears.

Choose between the 5.5″, 6″, 6.5″ or 7″ Matte Black Shear Set. Comes with cleaning cloth, oil pen, tension key, warranty/care guide card & extra complimentary finger loops.

SOZU ESSENTIAL ORIENTAL BARBERING SCISSOR 

If you’re on a budget but don’t want to compromise on quality, the Sozu is an excellent choice. They aren’t all plain Jane, there’s a delicate little detail on the handle. Available in 7″, they’re perfect for someone with a larger hand. 

Where to Buy the Best Shears for Barbers

A good pair of shears is easy to take for granted, which is exactly why we believe they deserve some respect. Protect them with your life and they’ll last you a lifetime.  

Show your craft some love and buy yourself some new barber shears or drop us a line with any queries.

The post Top Shears for Barbers appeared first on Blog | Scissor Tech.

[clarencenicholsonata]

Guest Posting: The Ultimate Guide for Marketing Writers

Blogging is the heart of any content marketing strategy. Producing your own original content showcases your voice, your knowledge builds trust among your readers and positions you as more than a service provider: it gives your company a personality and your writers as experts.

Once you’ve mastered blogging, guest posting is the next natural step and will do wonders for building your site’s authority and your relationship with other outlets.

But like any other skill, it takes practice and a honed approach to secure the best guest posts.

Here, we’ve put together a master guide to guest posting. It includes:

Why to devote time to guest posting

How to craft the perfect pitch

What to avoid in your pitches

Guest post etiquette

via GIPHY

Reasons to guest post

With packed to-do lists and more than can be done in a day for any marketing team as is, it can be difficult to mentally justify creating content for someone else’s site.

And make no mistake, guest posting undoubtedly takes extra effort. For especially high ranking blogs, finding a topic they’ll accept means combing through their archives, proposing a list of topics and then writing a piece that fits their guidelines.

You might be wondering if guest posting is worth it as part of your marketing strategy.

Short answer: yes.

Securing guest posts on other high quality sites that are in your industry can help raise your profile and boost your website’s rankings. It:

Showcases your expertise

Grows your social media following

Exposes your work/product/services to a new audience

Increases your website’s domain authority through backlinks (especially with websites with a higher DA)

Strengthens your network with other outlets

Moreover, it carries all the benefits that blogging for your business does.

If you’re new to guest posting, as an independent freelancer or as a content writer, we’ve put together a guide for guest posting.

Good Cold Pitches

Before you can write your stellar guest post, the first step is getting it accepted. And that means getting in with the editors.

If you don’t have a personal connection, you’ll need to go the route of the cold pitch. If that sounds terrifying to you, don’t worry! Most guest posts go through cold-pitching.

A good cold pitch:

Shows You Know the Blog

You can make great time sending out the same generic email to everybody, but an editor will be able to tell if you have.

Marketing blogs each have specific niches, voices, specializations and personalities.

The editors reading your blogs are likely the same ones who spend hours poring over the subject lines, SEO and images you see on the websites you’re aiming to get your words on. They’ll be able to tell if you’ve seen their work.

While you don’t have to go as far as naming your top 3 favorite posts and listing why, you should at least demonstrate that you’re familiar with the topics each site prefers to talk about, or their target audience.

Shows Your Expertise

With droves of writers sending generic emails, editors want to know they’re assigning pieces to writers who know their topic.

State if you work for a company that works in the same industry; if you have relevant articles that you’ve written previously to show you can handle a similar assignment, send them along; if you have an original point you want to make, state it and back it up (preferably in a few sentences.)

States What You Can Offer

Can your company offer original research? Can you get on-the-ground insight that their writers might have difficulty accessing? Do you have a bunch of great ideas that are exactly what their target audience is interested in?

Let them know!

If you’re stuck for ideas on how to frame your knowledge in a catchy blog post, here’s an infographic on 12 brilliant ideas for blog posts.

Gets to the Point

This may seem like a lot but the final secret of a great cold pitch is saying all this...in as little time as possible.

To show you know their blog, you don’t need to do an in-depth literary critique: personalize your email (if possible) and offer blog topics that are fresh, relevant and that they haven’t covered.

To show your expertise, you don’t need to attach your resume: a few links or stating your experience in the industry may be social proof enough.

A cold pitch we loved:

Not-So-Great Cold Pitches

Just as there are great cold pitches, there are also terrible ones.

Are Generic (Or Wrongly Addressed)

Greetings matter!

If you’re sending a pitch to a person, double check you’ve spelled their name right. First names are often permissible in the blogosphere, but don’t use nicknames. (E.g. if their name is ‘Daniel’, don’t use ‘Dan’.)

If you have to send a pitch to a generic address, “Hi Company Name” is okay at a push, but if you’re going to go with a generic greeting, ensure the rest of your email demonstrates you’re familiar with the specific blog.

Make Editors Doubt Your Authenticity

Generic statements about being an avid reader of the blog (without ever mentioning a person’s name, or the blog itself), are a bright red flag for editors.

If you don't have previously published clips, don't claim to. It's much better to say you're trying to build up your portfolio and send a sample article or offer to write a draft for their consideration than to bluff that you've written before. (Remember: a quick google will tell any curious editor everything they need to know.)

Make Editors Doubt Your Ability to Deliver

For a very busy editor, even small mistakes can be your pitch's direct ticket to the 'deleted items' folder.

If your pitch is riddled with typos or grammar mistakes, your editor is going to assume your piece will be too.

If the email is addressed to someone from a different company, they'll delete it before they hit the second line.

Proofread, proofread, proofread.

Guest Post Etiquette

via GIPHY

Like any good guest, there’s good manners. Editors don’t only remembers the quality of your writing, they remember how much they liked working with you.

If you want to make a really stellar impression, here’s a few pointers on the less editorial elements of guest posting.

Wait -- minimum -- a week to follow up (but expect it to take much more time than that at major marketing blogs). It’s frustrating when you’re ramped up and excited to see a byline come out,, but the timeline for blogs can be short or very long.

Editorial calendars are subject to a number of factors, and often outside of the editor’s control: don’t harangue editors to get your post up or to get you a sooner date. We’ve waited for up to 6 months to have a blog published.

Edits are a part of the game. If you’ve sent in a post you think is perfect, it might be hard to see a published version appear with entirely new sentences or words in it, but that’s to be expected!

Each marketing blog has their own preferences and their own distinct reasons for their style choices, and it’s very rare that the draft that’s sent in will be the final version that appears on site.

If it’s overly promotional, expect it to be axed. Most places will have guidelines stating how many promotional links they’ll allow you, but if they don’t, be careful not to make your piece too promotional.

The emphasis on guest posting is on the word ‘guest’, and like any guest, your focus should be on being considerate. Provide value for the site’s readers, fit into their guidelines, and don’t name-drop. Use links to your site sparingly or only when they serve to really prove a point.

The blog should promote your piece, but it helps if you promote it too for maximum leverage. If you want to be a repeat writer for a blog, help funnel views to their site by sharing on your social channels.

Keyboards at the ready

Grab our downloadable sheet on places to the top marketing blogs that accept guest posts and their guidelines, as well as cold pitch templates to help you get started!

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230801 https://ift.tt/2DMlfQg via IFTTT