#were selling it for 35 dollars or something.. a win for me i think.

[porciaenjoyer]

[id: text saying "The die was cast. After a long vacillation that had allowed the Soviets to continue the construction of missile sites and the delivery of new missiles and nuclear warheads to the island, Kennedy had decided to act. He had no clue how his declaration would be met in the Kremlin. All that now remained was to wait." /end id]

ALEA IACTA EST??

[wintaer-bear]

goldilocks and the three bears of truth

jimin’s in love with you, but like... not that in love with you. or conversely, men that have all the audacity but none of the emotional intelligence!

“No, no, no. Please don’t do that,” Taehyung hushes as he brings his more than big enough hands to your cheeks. You raise your gaze to meet his and his heart hits the floor. He knew you were upset, that much was obvious, what with you throwing the entire contents of the buffet table at him and ruining his Versace tux. He knew you were upset - that was fair. But never did it dawn on him that you were going to cry! It wasn’t fair that you were so pretty when he was trying to break up with you. “Please don’t cry.”

His words mean nothing... all men do is lie and you cry anyway, unmatched foundation leaving tear tracks down your face.

“Why couldn’t you just leave me alone?” You’ve never put on make up before, let alone own a bottle of Fenty, but you were too shy to ask the MUA at Sephora if they had some more opened samples in the back because like hell were you going to pay $35 for the entire bottle. You were desperate that much was true, what with Taehyung springing on prom at the last minute because turns out he was grounded but not like grounded grounded, but you were too smart to be both broke and desperate. You just picked the sample shade one lighter and hoped no one would notice. How were you supposed to know to blend all the way down to the neck? And what was it the mean girls said? Something about flashback?

"Why did you ask me to prom if you didn’t actually want me to come with you? Better yet, why did you ask me to be your girlfriend? You’re mean Taehyung! Just like the rest of your piss for brain friends. Mean!” You’re tearing off your own gas station corsage and slinging it at him. You wish it made you feel better, but it doesn’t. You just wanted him to hurt like you were hurting.

You should have known better. Should have seen it coming. Taehyung was everything your dad told you stay away from. He was head of the art club and missed homeroom too often, but he never got in trouble for it because, we’ll he could smile he way through anything. Your guarded heart included. He literally, got along with everyone, was nice to everyone. You just happened to sit next to him one day.

“__,” he says weakly, picking up the half torn flowers from the pavement. “I... It’s not like that. I didn’t ask -” 

The boy in the shiny sequin dress jacket stops himself because while he knew he was a class A jerk, he wasn’t going to kick someone while they were down. Taehyung wasn’t about to dig himself a deeper grave with the sheriff’s daughter by telling you that he didn’t actually ask you to prom... he had just briefly mentioned that his parents hadn’t grounded for selling the entire contents of their wine cellar when they found out all the proceeds were going towards the  Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 

“Save it,” you say sniffling and grabbing the what’s left of the corsage from his hands and ripping what feels like your entire heart into pieces, what’s left of it anyway. “I don’t care. Jimin was right. You are a Gemini.”

“I don’t know what that means” he says with vehemence, “but I’ve never been to the gym in my entire life and Jimin’s an asshole so -” 

"He's my best friend." You deadpan and cross you arms around your chest. He could break your heart but you wouldn't give him the power to break your carefully forged friendship with Jimin.

"And obviously in love with you so take everything he says about with me a grain a salt."

“Yeah, and you’re a Black Moon Lilith in Gemini and that alone trumps all your good traits. You’re basically 90% fickle with a dash of cunning, but I didn’t know cunning was just the elongated word of cunt.” You emphasize the last words, mostly because you’re hurt, but also because you’re angry and you’re not sure when you’ll get another chance to tell Kim Taehyung off again. “I mean... do you even like me? You  haven’t even done as much as hold my hand since you’ve asked me out.”

“I just asked you out on Monday!”

“Oh come on, Taehyung,” you drag, angry and finding all the hurtful words in your vocabulary. “It’s not like you’re shy! I’ve seen your tongue down so many girls throats you’d think its the cure to lung cancer.” 

“That’s different,” he winces. “And not fair.”

“Not fair?” You repeat, suddenly realizing this was all going in circles. You’ve liked Taehyung for the better of...like, forever. He was so perfect. Almost. He gets the endings of movies wrong and forgets his car keys too often, but Taehyung had a nice smile and ate all his veggies, was a little weird when it came to public speaking but who isn’t? Taehyung was every girl’s dream and... and avoided you like the plague up until you grew tits your senior year because no one wants to bone the sheriff’s daughter. 

No, you were never invited to keg parties or homecomings. Not even your own best gal pals like to hang out with you in broad day light. You had to learn the status quo on your own so shave an eagle and call it bald, you about had a conniption when Taehyung sat down next to you in AP Bio. 

“I like your hair clips,” he said causally. At this point, you weren't even sure he knew you existed. He sits and sports that grin you’ve been familiar with since grade school. The “I’m not in trouble you are” look. “They match your scrunchie.”

And by the end of the period you wonder how it escalated so quickly. Taehyung turned from being your lab mate to your soulmate in less than 90 minutes and you weren’t even mad about it. He was comfortable, he was warm and it was so easy to smile in front of him.

“Not fair?” You say again. “Mules are doomed to be both the genesis and the doom of their hybrid lineage because they're born sterile. That's unfair. No Taehyung this," you point back and forth between the three feet of air between you two "isn't unfair. This is the result of you doing what you do best and acting on a whim instead of examining if there’s going to be repercussions or if you'll hurt someone along the way. I was fine on my own! I had a plan and if you weren't going to be part of it, the least you could of done was to stay out of my way." You run out of air and you hate it because it gives him exactly one second to come back with a counter argument.

"I didn't mean to hurt you."

And you believe him. Because Taehyung wouldn't be dumb enough to ask you to prom on purpose or mean enough to invite you just to overhear him talking about breaking up with you because "you were just too much."

"No one ever means to hurt anyone, Taehyung. Doesn't make the hurt any less," you breathe. You want to hurt him too. Why does he get to walk away unscathed? "Or the perpetrator any less guilty. You're a bad guy Taehyung,” you bite you lower lip to refrain from crying, but it comes out in sobs anyway. “And I hope someone breaks your heart."

You break away and immediately feel the lost of warmth. You didn't realize how close he was to you until he wasn't.

"You okay?" Jimin asks as you slam his passenger door shut. You don’t know how he knew to come get you. You had expected him to be on the other side of town doing God knows what at this hour, but somehow Jimin always knew. 

He leaves the car in park and turns to you when you don't immediately respond.

"I’m fine," you say, going to turn on the radio. He immediately switches it off. 

"Like just bombed your math test but your 6.0 GPA is still salvageable fine or ___ circa second grade with a blister on her hand doing the monkey bars fine?"

"For the the last time I beat you fair and square but I see you’re still eating my dust a decade later with that tone Park."

"Also for the last time. I let you win because you cried when the blister popped on bar three. I practically carried you on my back the rest of the way."

"Did not."

"I still have the scar on forehead where you stepped on me." He pulls back his hair and shoves said forehead in your face. 

"The floor was lava." You shrug.

“Yeah, so is Kim Taehyung, but we’re not ready to talk about that are we?”

It wasn’t a secret that Jimin wasn’t fond of Taehyung. They just ran with different crowds. Always have. Where as Taehyung was president of the art club and volunteering at parks and recreations, Jimin was deciding whether or not to smoke the last ounce of weed he had in his back pocket or to sell it for profit so he could buy a an extra dessert for lunch tomorrow.

“Just as ready as you are to talk about the court summoning I found in hidden in your glove compartment.” 

Jimin sends you a look and if you didn’t know him for the last decade, you’d miss the sliver of shock written on his otherwise impenetrable and cocky face. Jimin gives a low whistle. 

“You could have just said no, but I see I don’t need to worry. 2021 Bitchy ___ is here to put up the walls and save the day. No need for niceties then,” he pins you with a look as he turns the ignition and does that thing boys do where they reverse the car all passively aggressively and hot. “I fucking told you so. I told you Taehyung was out for one thing and one thing only. He’s nothing but a player and -”

“I do not put up walls!” You interrupt and it catches Jimin off guard, he was ready for his Taehyung hating dissertation, to be the best friend you needed and to talk shit about your ex. Jimin was already in the drive thru line to order one of everything off the dollar menu. He was not, however, prepared for whatever the hell this was. 

You’re crying, uncontrollably so, and rubbing your eyes with your palms in his seat. It’s ruining your make up but Jimin has never seen you any more beautiful. He’s never seen you so vulnerable as you hiccup to keep the sadness from escaping your very breath.

“And I’m not bitchy. I’m not sorry I don’t have mommy issues and feel the need to please everyone in her absence. I’m especially not sorry that I’m way too smart to get conned into losing my virginity because I think I’m in love. I’m not. But why can’t I be? Hmm?” And Jimin thinks it’s question for him before you continue.

“Why can’t Taehyung come to me if he’s got a problem with me? If he thought I was,” you air quote, “too much,” end air quote, “then why hang out with me?” You turn you back against the window so you can face Jimin head on, and Jimin wonders why the line is so backed up tonight of all nights. “Why even talk to me in the first place? What? Was I not what he was expecting? Am I too opinionated? Too loud? Too... god, I don’t know? Myself?”

"What?” Jimin says flabbergasted, and takes his yes off the car halted in from of him to make sure he’s hearing this right. Jimin can’t say you were the type run on emotions, but you have also never had a chance to react to such... turbulence. You’ve always been so reserved and in control, a defense mechanism he’s sure you’ve developed over time as the black sheep of the town. He knew you were dumb but he didn’t know you were dumb enough to think it was your fault that Kim Taehyung didn’t like you. 

“Tell me the truth Jimin,” you deadpan. “Am I...,” and you struggle to get out the last part without crying. “Too much?”

“Yes,” he thinks. Completely, utterly, and without a doubt, you were too much. 

You were too good for Taehyung. And too kind. And too pretty. In the winters, you were too warm and your cookies were too soft, your shampoo smelled too clean. You were too good at Catan... and you were...god... too perfect.

Jimin didn’t mean to fall in love with you. Just like he didn’t mean to kiss you the way he is now. Desperately and fervently, like it’s his first time kissing to put someone’s clothes on instead of off. But he doesn’t know how else to stop your thoughts from wandering. He doesn’t know how else to bring you back to the light where you belong. He didn’t want to see you cry. Jimin didn’t like it when you were hurt. But he especially didn’t like that you thought any less of yourself because of a boy.

Jimin takes it upon himself when you don’t immediately pull away and he wishes he would have just taken you home because now his plans were ruined.

There was a plan. Jimin had a plan. 

You were going to go away to college and he was going to get a trade job. You’d come back to visit your dad for the holidays and Jimin would by default pick you up from the airport. He was a patient man. He had it all planned out. The two of you would skip the petty fights that came with individuals growing together and out pacing one another. It was easier that way. The two of you would just meet each other at the end. Jimin wasn’t willing to risk losing you in finding himself in these next few years.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Jimin didn’t want to rush it. He didn’t want to spook you with how much he wanted this, wanted you. Jimin knew. Whether it be ten years from now or several heartbreaks later, Jimin knew he’d accept you any way you came to him. But never in a 100 years he think you’d come like this. Broken and inconsolable in tears. 

“I -” he starts to lie. “I’m high.” 

“Men,” you scoff. “Men have all the audacity but none of the emotional intelligence. Jimin, your court summon is for a urine analysis so you really expect me to believe you’d shoot up and get high right before they’re about to break that beeper on your ankle? Even I know you’re not that desperate for a fix.”

He wishes you were right. You were the hardest drug he’s had and he’s wished he just stay clean because it physically hurt him to see how intangible you are right now. Even in your elaborate scheme to get another man to fall in love with you tonight, Jimin couldn’t help but want you more. You were exactly who you needed to be and he wanted nothing more than to protect that.

“I’ll ask you one more time,” you say with patience you’ve all but scraped up off the floor. “Jimin, do. you. like. me? Like, like like me?”

It wouldn’t be lie if he said no. He doesn’t just like you. Jimin is dumbfoundedly in love with you. He’s so deep in your pussy-sand without actually being in your pants that he wouldn’t know his left from his right.

Jimin debates with himself whether it’s worth the physical distance that awaits him if he denies you or if it’s worth the psychological and emotional damage that will come in confirming your suspicion. You were too good for him, that much was evident, but how was he going to make you believe that?

“___, I-”

“Welcome to McDonald’s, may I take your order?”

“Yeah, I’d like a large order of FACTS please,” you spit out. 

“Sure, a order or fries. What else can I do for you?”

“Maybe a double quarter pounder with a side of truth?”

“I’m sorry, did you say juice?”

You don’t mean to take it out on the employee behind the window. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time when then you realize it’s HER workplace and perhaps you’re making it awkward but you were so hurt, and so confused, and you needed someone to take it out on and Jimin wasn’t helping, what with wallowing in his silence.

“$6.78 at the window.”

Jimin doesn’t know how to fix it. The entire drive back to your house and he can’t come up with the right words to say. He fucked up and he’s so so so scared to lose you. 

[fromwinnipeg2everywhere]

Winnipeg is Good: Support Local Businesses!

My husband and I love to dine out and all of our favourite places are small, locally owned restaurants. I also enjoy posting pictures of food on Instagram, and though it may seem a tacky habit in the eyes of some people, for me it is my way of showing appreciation and support for the restaurant. Whenever I post something, I am hoping that it encourages other people to try that place or make them aware that it even exists in the first place!

The local restaurant industry is one of the hardest hit during the Covid-19 pandemic. Restaurants, with their razor-thin margins, depend on customers to stay afloat, and with everyone stuck at home, the sad reality is that there is a lot of laid-off restaurant staff, and local restaurant owners are having to find creative ways to keep their doors open. Instead of closing their doors, some restaurants have pivoted to delivery/pickup only services, some are selling pre-prepared meals to heat at home, and some like King’s Head Pub and Bodegoes have re-opened as a grocery-delivery service. My husband and I are making an effort to support the local restaurants by still ordering delivery/pickup with the hope that whatever little support we can give help them make it to other side of these crazy times. How else can you support restaurants during the pandemic? Follow them on Instagram, buy gift cards, order directly from them and do pickup if you can (food delivery services such as Skip and Doordash pretty much eats what little profit restaurants make in commissions), and tip generously!

Even before the pandemic, we made a conscious effort to support locally owned businesses and restaurants. Of course, not everything (or everyone) local is good (ahem, Nygard and Fun Mountain) so do your research, but I can say with certainty that everything good is local! There are many reasons to support local businesses. Many of our local businesses pay living wages. What does that mean? It means, yes, you will have to pay a little bit more for your coffee or your donut or your book, but that also means you are supporting a business that ensure their staff are paid fairly. Many of our local businesses and restaurants focus on sustainability – for example, they use environmentally friendly containers and they support local growers, farmers and suppliers (which means the ingredients and raw materials don’t have to travel far!). Supporting local means more of your dollars stay within the community – to the owners, the suppliers, the staff – local people who are very passionate about their craft and their business, and their profits are then reinvested to our community. Aside from the economic reasons, our local businesses are also very active in giving back to the community, for example, the first week when all the restaurants were forced to close their dining rooms to customers, many of them came together to donate their extra inventory to Chef Ben Kramer who then cooked all the food donations for local soup kitchens. Last, but not the least, these local businesses are what makes Winnipeg unique. Think of the last time you travelled somewhere? Where did you go to eat? Somewhere local, that you can only find in that place, I hope! Well, why wouldn’t you do the same at home?

So how do you know which businesses and restaurants to support? A lot of them have social media presence, so follow them on Instagram. They usually have stories that gives you a glimpse on how they run their business, for example, I saw a story where the owners visited a farm and showed us how it practiced ethical farming practices. I mean, I wish we could all be vegan or vegetarian, but the reality is the majority will not be, but that does not mean we have to support inhumane, factory farming methods. Instagram stories and posts will also have specials that you won’t normally find on the menu, so it’s a great way to try new things! I know that it is sometimes hard not to let the prices dictate where we decide to buy something, but if you can, think of the reasons why something is a little bit more expensive (fair wages, economies of scale – small businesses can’t compete with Bezos! -- quality of ingredients, keeping local dollars local) and make your decisions on value, not cost.

I have put together a list of our favourite local businesses and restaurants with the hope that it encourages you to support them. Not sure which ones are open now, but check out their Instagram pages for latest info.

Restaurants and their specialities (in no particular order)

1.     Merchant Kitchen – Asian Fusion. This is our go-to. You can’t go wrong with the Thai Fried Rice and Korean Fried Chicken.

2.     Yujiro/Saburo – ramen, premium sushi, donburi bowls

3.     Gaijin Izakayya - reasonably priced, good sushi

4.     Blufish – premium sushi

5.     Sushi Cushi – reasonably priced, good sushi

6.     Cho Ichi Ramen – I like their noodles, closest to Ichiran (Japanese ramen place) that I’ve tried

7.     Dwarf No Cachette – Japanese food that is not sushi – okonomiyaki, takoyaki, donburi bowls, Japanese curry

8.     Sabai Thai – Thai food

9.     Pho Hoang – Vietnamese food

10.  Kum Koon – lunch dimsum service is the best!

11.  Maque – Asian fusion, for a super fancy anniversary dinner (or for a regular Tuesday night dinner, whatever!)

12.  Myrna’s – Filipino breakfast, cash only!

13.  Kyu – ramen, rice bowls, heroshima sandwiches

14.  Mitzi’s – chicken fingers

15.  Passero – Italian. Another fancy anniversary dinner place. Make sure you make a reservation!

16.  Harth – Italian. The prosciutto di parma plate!

17.  Kevin’s Bistro – If you are a fancy mac & cheese fan

18.  Red Ember – Our favourite pizza place in Winnipeg

19.  Pizzeria Gusto/Gusto North – A close second

20.  Burrito del Rio – Hands down THE best burritos/tacos in town

21.  Hermano’s – South American Food

22.  La Fiesta – Salvadoran food.

23.  The Good Fight Taco – Good taco

24.  King and Bann – Fancy sandwiches. Best BLT.

25.  Clementine – Brunch. They don’t accept reservations so go early and/or prepare to line up

26.  Miss Browns – Brunch. The menu on William is more extensive compared to Hargrave Street Market.

27.  Pineridge Hollow – come for brunch, stay for the petting zoo!

28.  Forth Cafe – cocktails, coffee, light lunch – avocado toast is delish!

29.  Langside Grocery – breakeven scotch bottles every Sunday! Check insta for more details!

30.  Amsterdam Tea Room – cocktails, snacks

31.  Thom Bargen – coffee and pastries

32.  Fools and Horses – coffee, breakfast sandwiches, banana brulee french toast (Broadway location only), the Forks and Hargrave Street Market locations only sells coffee and pastries

33.  Deer & Almond – small plates, fancy dinner place

34.  Little Goat – mussel specials!

35.  One Great City – beer and yummy food

36.  Yellow Dog Tavern – beer and cheap eats!

37.  Nonsuch – beer and THE best burger in town

38.  Yard Burger – second best burger in town

39.  Punjab Sweet House – best samosas in town, and they’re like $8 for a dozen giant size samosas – best value in town!

40.  Famena’s  - best roti and stand up routine by the owners

41.  Tehran Cafe – Iranian food

42.  Jenna Rae Cakes – macarons and cupcakes

43.  Chaeban Ice Cream – best ice cream (also available at Sobey’s)

44.  Oh Doughnuts – go early, they sell out! Or order online the night before for a discount.

45.  Camille Bakery – closest to Dominique Ansel cronuts I’ve tasted

46.  The Common – Food hall

47.  Hargrave Street Market – Food hall

Other non-restaurant businesses

1.     Morden’s Chocolates – Russian mints!!!

2.     Fromagerie Bothwell – award winning cheese made in Manitoba!

3.     Banville and Jones – for all your wine needs

4.     DeLuca’s Wine – more wine!

5.     Torque Brewing – beer!

6.     Stone Angel Brewing – more beer!

7.     Little Brown Jug – and more beer!

8.     Kite and Kaboodle – Toys

9.     Toad Hall – Toys

10.  McNally Robinsons – books!

11.  Browluxe – eye brow pencil and cruelty free

12.  Coal and Canary – candles

13.  DeLuca’s – Grocery

14.  Piazza di Nardi – Grocery and bakery

15.  Hilary Druxman – jewelry

16.  EMK Clothing – clothing

17.  U.n.luggage – luggage store

18.  D’arcy’s ARC – pet shelter and pet supplies store

19.  Winnipeg Pet Rescue Shelter – pet shelter and pet supplies store

20.  Lavilash – eyelashes

21.  Brows by G – eyebrows

22. We Heart Winnipeg - hoodies!!

[yasbxxgie]

South Holland syrup maker poised to pick up market share from Aunt Jemima

Michele Hoskins felt a seismic shift for her company on a Tuesday morning in mid-June when Quaker Oats announced it was retiring the Aunt Jemima brand due to concerns about racial stereotypes.

“My life changed,” Hoskins said. “Our company changed. It brought awareness to us.”

Her South Holland-based company, Michele Foods, has been selling syrup and other products since 1984. Still, she has a tiny fraction of a market dominated by Aunt Jemima.

Hoskins saw her company’s profile suddenly elevated.

“The next day my tech guy called and said, ‘Your website has crashed,’” Hoskins said.

People were discovering her company on social media. After 35 years of hard work, she was an overnight sensation.

The Aunt Jemima brand dates back to 1889, according to Quaker Oats.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought that anything would happen that would make her do anything that would affect my company,” Hoskins said.

After building her business for 35 years, the south suburban entrepreneur is poised to expand her company’s operations.

“I should be in every major retail chain in the country. I should be able to supply customers who want my product,” she said.

Hoskins expects other competitors also will try to seize the chance to increase their share of the syrup market.

“I’m not going to take Aunt Jemima’s place. No one ever can, because she’s a different brand from a different era,” she said. “But if you’re looking for a minority company that sells in that category, I’m that. I think we should have the same opportunity as everyone else because we persevered.”

Hoskins said she launched her company in 1984 while she was going through a divorce and moving back into her parents’ home with her three young girls.

“I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life,” she said.

She decided to make syrup based on a secret recipe developed by her great-great-great-grandmother, America Washington.

“She was a slave who worked as a cook on a plantation,” Hoskins said. “The family she worked for did not like molasses. So she came up with this concoction of honey, churned butter and cream. It was delicious.”

Hoskins had her idea, but no clue how to start a business.

“I didn’t know anything about the food industry or product development,” she said.

She cooked up a batch on the stove and took it to local restaurants, whose owners told Hoskins the syrup separated and had to be reheated.

“I think at that point most people would have gotten discouraged,” Hoskins said.

She applied lessons she learned from teaching world religions at a private school.

“You can do anything if you put your mind to it,” she said. “I still believe that.”

Hoskins found someone to make her syrup so she could focus on marketing and distribution.

“I had a company at 35th and Kedzie that made the product for me and they would deliver it in 55-gallon drums in the alley,” she said.

She and her daughters would fill bottles and place handmade labels on them in her parents’ basement.

“I would take it around to neighborhood stores,” Hoskins said.

Even though independent South Side retailers agreed to stock her product, no customers initially bought it.

“It wasn’t moving,” she said. “I would go in myself and buy it to create this illusion of movement.”

To expand her reach, she visited the corporate offices of Jewel Foods in Melrose Park. She asked to talk with a buyer.

“They had never seen anybody walk in like that,” she said. “I was the first minority supplier for Jewel stores.”

She expanded her line to three syrup flavors: butter pecan, maple crème and honey crème. She worked to get her products placed in Kroger, Publix, Safeway and other grocery stores across the country. Companies were eager to do business with her, she said.

“I realized who I am made a difference, because diversity was hot,” she said.

By 1990, after she had been featured on local TV news, she was contacted by Walmart, which was looking to increase its diversity, she said. Then she was contacted by Harpo Studios.

“Oprah was looking for women who had made their first million (dollars),” Hoskins said.

She appeared three different times on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” she said. The first appearance led to her getting called back for a second.

[Most read] Column: If Stephen Hawking is right about Earth’s end, keep an eye on the deer »

“(Oprah) asked me something and I said you create your own destiny,” Hoskins said. “That’s profound, right?”

Her business continued to grow. She supplied syrup to Denny’s restaurants, then Popeyes chicken. While networking at a conference, she received another call from Harper Studios. They had learned a viewer in Texas had planned to take her own life but was stopped by something she heard on the television.

“She heard, ‘create your own destiny,’ and stopped,” Hoskins said. The woman started her own business and wanted to thank the woman who inspired her. The two appeared together.

“That was a tearful show,” Hoskins said.

She was featured in newspapers and business magazines and developed a reputation as a savvy entrepreneur. During an interview in her South Holland office, she pointed out a magazine cover about her doing business with General Foods.

“I called up the head of General Foods and said I had done research on Bisquick,” she said. “Seventy percent of people who buy Bisquick use it to make pancakes, and you only have 2% market share in the African American community. “I didn’t have a pancake and General Foods didn’t have a syrup. I said, ‘I can get you some share in the African American community by my face.‘”

They partnered and offered a coupon where shoppers received discounts when they bought Bisquick and a Michele’s Foods syrup together, she said.

She reached out to Kellogg’s. The maker of Eggo frozen waffles and other breakfast products had no syrup brand of its own.

“They wanted a share because Aunt Jemima had 77% of the syrup market,” she said. “I helped them develop Eggo syrup. I did that because when they did that, it brought light to the syrup category.”

Aunt Jemima’s market dominance left little room for competition.

“The syrup category is a very unsaturated market,” she said. “There are certain products in retail where you don’t add to them, there’s no room for them, there’s no market share. It’s just a closed category.”

Aunt Jemima continues to dominate market share, with Mrs. Butterworth’s, Log Cabin and Hungry Jack distant competitors, according to 2019 market data published by Statista. Aunt Jemima sells about $500 million worth of syrup annually, Hoskins said.

“Aunt Jemima owned that category by her image and by the perception that she was African American,” Hoskins said. “A lot of us grew up on that not understanding anything about advertising.”

Brands like Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben perpetuated stereotypes about Blacks, she said.

“People would walk past me to get to her,” Hoskins said. “For years I didn’t have my face on there.”

Hoskins said she introduced an illustrated image of herself to her syrup bottles about 18 months ago. She had resisted for more than 30 years because of something a grocery store buyer said to her when she was starting her business 35 years ago.

“I went out to one of these suburbs and told the manager that was my product,” she said. “He called (the regional grocery chain) and said, ‘I don’t want Black products out here. I don’t want anything that’s going to draw the African American community into my store.’”

Hoskins said she expanded her reach by masking her identity.

“I became a general-market product,” she said. “My product was sold in Colorado and Utah. No one knew this was an African American product.”

Hoskins has shared her expertise about business with others. She has mentored 225 people over the past 20 years, she said.

“Some of them have great products,” she said. “One girl was on ‘Shark Tank.’ I have a guy in Virginia that’s doing about $20 million (of business) a year with the government.”

At this stage in her life, Hoskins could look back on an award-winning, successful career, but she is not one to rest on laurels.

“We still did not have the consumer awareness that we wanted,” she said. “Right now we’re in about 6,000 stores.”

Michele Foods remains relatively small, with just four employees and modest annual sales, Hoskins said. Her product is made by a subcontractor near Cincinnati, she said. Profits and sales have never been her primary motivation, she said.

“I’m in it to create a legacy,” Hoskins said. “I feel that at some point we as a people have to understand how to build, create and pass on wealth.”

Most minority-owned companies sell out or fade away, she said. Hoskins wants to eventually pass her company along to her daughter Keisha, who runs social media and other projects for the business.

“If my great-great-great-grandmother could pass down this recipe, I surely could pass it along to her,” Hoskins said. “That becomes our legacy. It’s my legacy in a bottle. Whatever wealth is built into that, we break that curse.”

+Black Enterprise [h/t]

[woodedcove]

Your Side, My Side, and the Truth: the Manipulation of Media

When I was a kid my Dad would often tell me that there were three sides to a story: your side, my side, and the truth. It was good to remember that no matter how I perceived a certain event, I was seeing it through the filter of my faults, shortcomings, or even desires for good. But the very same event experienced by another individual with their own set of faults, shortcomings, or desires for good may perceive that event in a completely different way. So then which one of us is right? Which one of us knows the truth? Do you begin to see how making judgments on our perceptions could be a dangerous thing to do?

The question then becomes how do we know what is true? Or how can we know if someone is telling us the truth?

Two things need to happen before one can proceed. First: we need to be honest with ourselves about what motivates our desires to know the truth. President Ezra Taft Benson, a modern prophet of God, said “Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right.” Can we honestly say that what motivates our desire is to know what is right? Or is there some part of us that only wants the facts to align in a way that we are proven right? It is a significant difference. Pride only wants to be proven right But when we are humble we will only want to know what is right even if we will be proven wrong. We must have and cultivate within ourselves the honest, humble desire to know the truth. We must love the truth more than ourselves, more than our need to fit in, be right, look good, or to get anything that the world can offer.

Second: we need to be willing not only to pray, asking Heavenly Father to reveal the truth to us, but we need to be willing to receive His truth and act upon it no matter what our prior opinion might have been. This prayer can be for any matter about which we need to know the truth. Jesus Christ is "the way, the truth, and the light" (John 14:6). Therefore, all truth may be found through Him.

Once we can honestly say that we desire to know the truth, we can then apply the words of our Savior to the test for truth.

“Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit.

“Oh generation of vipers, how can ye being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

“A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” (Matt 12:33-35)

What lies in the heart but one’s motivation? How do we begin to understand a person’s motivations but by his actions and words? A person can say things that may be pleasing for us to hear to gain popularity, fame, or even monetary gain. But their actions and words (especially when that person is caught off guard), will always reveal what is truly in their hearts.

Now a word about the media.

Having worked in the entertainment industry and having taught students about the creation of stories for any form of media, I feel I must disclose a troubling truth. The good storyteller is manipulating their audience. They will tell you something sad or heroic or something lovable to entice you into pulling for the hero. They want you to believe in him. They want you to want him to win at the end of the story. The good storyteller will use everything in his or her power to paint a picture for you that will make you see their hero the way they want you to see him. Does he come from a slum? Does he have abusive parents? Is he kind to animals? Or is he just so dang cool that you wish you could have an ounce of his coolness? All of these things can be used to play on our sympathies and to help us empathize with the character.

While this manipulation can be harmless in cases where the main character is truly someone to be admired, this same technique can also be used to cause us to sympathize and admire characters that really aren’t worthy of sympathy or admiration. We see the extenuating circumstances and feel that it’s okay for the character to do what they did even if what they were doing was breaking the law, hurting other people, causing anger or hatred, or giving the enemy of our souls a chance to work within us. While some storytellers simply want to tell a good story with a fairly innocuous theme like “follow your dreams", there are also many who enjoy getting us to root for something wrong. And there are many more who don’t care what we’re watching or rooting for. They have only one motivation: money.

We may think, “well sure, that’s entertainment”, and we would be right. But the problem is it doesn’t end with just movies, games, television shows or video clips on YouTube. News programs, news nets, and newspapers are driven by the very same motivation. They figure out what their readers or viewers want to read or watch and they pander to their audience. As their viewership or readers increase, so does the amount of money they can charge their sponsors. And the more sponsors see that certain programs have the viewers they’re trying to sell to, the more they are willing to pay higher prices for the opportunity to have their commercial shown to that audience. What this means is that those who are involved with reporting the news are just like those that are involved in entertainment and it all comes down to the almighty dollar.

Let’s go one step further. The people who work in news entertainment know that words are very powerful and can stir our most negative emotions into a bubbling, frothing, or even explosive rage. So let's say one person brushed their shoulder against another person. We don’t know why. We just know it happened. If the reporter says the first person tapped the second person with his shoulder it sounds boring and no one wants to read a boring story. But if the reporter says that the first person slammed their shoulder into the second person, well now people are going to want to know what happened. In using the right choice of words, the reporter grabs the interest of the reader or viewer. Now let's take two reporters reporting the same shoulder tap. One reporter is sympathetic to the first person so he writes the second person as the villain. Meanwhile, a second reporter who is sympathetic to the second person paints the first person as the true villain. Now we have two news sources reporting the same boring event and pitting their two audiences against each other. this can not only increase their audience but by heightening the anger of their audiences they could incite one audience to take action against another and thereby create more news to report.

Understand, I’m not saying that reporters are lying. They’re doing something far worse: they’re reporting half-truths or exaggerations. We want to believe that the news we watch wouldn’t do this. That we can trust them. The news the other guy watches might be untrustworthy but the people we watch or read are telling us the absolute truth. But think, if the purpose of the newspaper, news net, or news program is to make money (which it is), is it always in their best interest to report the absolute truth?

Here is one thing we can know. If what is being reported is stirring us up to anger, to feel hate or resentment, or to act out against another individual, no matter what their race or creed or political leaning, if it makes the Spirit flee and takes us further from Christ, then what we’re feeling is not from God and therefore whatever we’re watching or reading is something we should turn off or throw out. But if what we are watching or reading makes us feel justified in the anger we have felt towards a person or group or makes us feel like we have been proven right, that may not be from the right source either. Again, the test is: can I feel close to Christ and still feel justified in my anger or my enjoyment over someone whom I deem to be proven wrong? If not, then these feelings have come from the wrong source and I need to stop watching, or stop reading and repent.

What we need to remember is that there is one out there whose only desire is to destroy our peace, our happiness, and, if we let him, our souls. He is the one that wants to pit us against each other. While he may have enlisted some on this Earth to work for him, I am willing to bet that many don’t even know they are in his service. So then, why do they deserve our wrath? “Oh be wise, what can I say more?” (Jacob 6:12) This is sad advice that I feel I must write, but please, don’t trust the media, and don’t grow angry with any group of people that the media is using to make news or the adversary is using to stir up anger. But let us search for the truth individually and be at peace with and love our neighbor. If we can do this in humility, then it won’t matter who is right or wrong because the truth will always prevail in the end.

[bountyofbeads]

The ‘follow-up appointment’

https://wapo.st/2z4uWXR

The ‘follow-up appointment’

'For many people in medical debt, it leads to a courtroom' (THIS SHOULDN'T BE HAPPENING IN AMERICA)

By Eli Saslow | Published August 17 at 5:41 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted August 18, 2019 9:18 AM ET |

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. — The people being sued arrived at the courthouse carrying their hospital bills, and they followed signs upstairs to a small courtroom labeled “Debt and Collections.” A 68-year-old wheeled her portable oxygen tank toward the first row. A nurse’s aide came in wearing scrubs after working a night shift. A teenager with an injured leg stood near the back wall and leaned against crutches.

By 9 a.m., more than two-dozen people were crowded into the room for what has become the busiest legal docket in rural Butler County.

“Lots of medical cases again today,” the judge said, and then he called court into session for another weekly fight between a hospital and its patients, which neither side appears to be winning.

So far this year, Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center has filed more than 1,100 lawsuits for unpaid bills in a rural corner of Southeast Missouri, where emergency medical care has become a standoff between hospitals and patients who are both going broke. Unpaid medical bills are the leading cause of personal debt and bankruptcy in the United States according to credit reports, and what’s happening in rural areas such as Butler County is a main reason why. Patients who visit rural emergency rooms in record numbers are defaulting on their bills at higher rates than ever before. Meanwhile, many of the nation’s 2,000 rural hospitals have begun to buckle under bad debt, with more than 100 closing in the past decade and hundreds more on the brink of insolvency as they fight to squeeze whatever money they’re owed from patients who don’t have it.

The result each week in Poplar Bluff, a town of 17,000, has become so routine that some people here derisively refer to it as the “follow-up appointment” — 19 lawsuits for unpaid hospital bills scheduled on this particular Wednesday, 34 more the following week, 22 the week after that. Case after case, a hospital that helps sustain its rural community is now also collecting payments that are bankrupting hundreds of its residents.

“Think of me as the referee,” the judge explained, as he called the first case. “It’s my job to be fair. I’m not going to be chugging for either side.”

On one side of the courtroom was a young lawyer representing the hospital, and he carried 19 case files that totaled more than $55,000 in money owed to Poplar Bluff Regional. Three nearby hospitals in Southeast Missouri had already closed for financial reasons in the past few years, leaving Poplar Bluff Regional as the last full-service hospital to care for five rural counties, treating more than 50,000 patients each year. It never turned away patients who needed emergency care, regardless of their ability to pay, and some people without insurance were offered free or discounted treatment. In the past few years, the hospitals’ total cost of uncompensated care had risen from about $60 million to $84 million. Its ownership company Community Health Systems, a struggling conglomerate of more than 100 rural and suburban hospitals, had begun selling off facilities as its stock price tanked from $50 per share in 2015 to less than $3 as the lawyer approached the judge to discuss the first case.

“We’re seeking fair payment for services we’ve provided. Nothing else,” he said.

Behind him in the courtroom were some of Poplar Bluff Regional’s patients — a population that was on average sicker, older, poorer and underinsured compared with the rest of the United States. More than 35 percent of people in Butler County have unpaid medical debt on their credit report, about double the national rate. Most of the 19 people on the morning docket had been treated in the emergency room and then failed to pay their bill for more than 60 days before receiving a summons to court. Many of them had insurance but still owed their co-pay or deductibles, which have tripled on average in the past decade across the United States. One patient owed more than $12,000 after being treated for a heart attack. Another was being sued for $286. If the hospital won a judgment, it had the right to garnish money from a patient’s paycheck or bank account or it could put a lien against a house.

“I’m hoping to negotiate a payment plan, but I can only afford $20 a month,” one patient told the court.

“I’m late for work, so if there’s someplace I can sign, I guess I’ll just sign,” said another patient, who owed more than $3,000 after spending six hours in the emergency room for chest pain.

“How am I supposed to pay $4,000 to see a doctor if I’m barely making $2,000 a month?” asked another.

One by one the patients came up to plead their cases until the judge called Gail Dudley, 31, who was sitting with her mother in the third row. She had gone to the emergency room at Poplar Bluff Regional in 2017 after passing out because of complications from Type 1 diabetes. The hospital had given her medication to stabilize her blood sugar, kept her overnight for observation, and then sent her home with a bill for $8,342, of which she was still responsible for about $3,000 after insurance. She’d tried to appease the hospital’s billing department by sending in an occasional check for $50, but with accumulating interest and penalty fees, the balance on her account had remained essentially the same for two years.

“I’m grateful for what they did for me, and I know I owe it, but I don’t have that kind of money,” she said.

The judge gestured in the direction of the hospital’s attorney and then looked at Dudley. “Would you like a chance to talk to this gentleman for a moment and see if you two can work something out?”

“Okay,” she said. “We might as well try.”

Matthew McCormick, 27, led Dudley into the hallway to begin the same negotiation he’d been having with dozens of hospital patients each week. On Thursdays he was listed as a hospital attorney for the court docket in Doniphan, population 1,997. Mondays it was Kirksville, Tuesdays were Bloomfield, and Wednesdays often brought him here, to a 95-year-old courthouse in Butler County, where he’d represented Poplar Bluff Regional on more than 450 billing cases so far in 2019.

“We’d like to find a way to work with you on this,” he told Dudley as they sat down together in the courtroom lobby. He reached out to shake her hand. He smiled and offered his business card. For the past year, he’d been working on behalf of the hospital as the newest attorney for a law firm called Faber and Brand, which promised to “use the judicial system to recover money owed.” McCormick’s cases hardly ever went to trial. More than 90 percent of the people being sued weren’t represented by an attorney and at least half failed to show up in court, resulting in default judgments in the hospital’s favor. The rest of the patients McCormick met came into court with little to offer in their own defense except for apologies and stories of poverty, poor health, unemployment and bad luck.

“I’m real sorry about this,” Dudley said. “If I’d been thinking straight, I would never have let them take me to the emergency room. I know I can’t afford that. I wish I could pay you all of it right now.”

“Let’s make this as easy as we can,” he told her. “Is there something you can pay? A little each month?”

“I don’t have anything extra,” she said, thinking about the paycheck she earned for a full-time job as a clerk at Goodwill, which totaled $736 every two weeks. After paying for rent and utilities on a subsidized three-bedroom apartment, groceries, and child care for her 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter, she sometimes ran out of money by the end of the month.

“How about $15 out of every paycheck?” she offered, even though she doubted she could afford it. When McCormick didn’t immediately respond, she revised her offer. “Thirty? How’s that?”

“Let’s say thirty,” McCormick said.

He had more patients waiting to negotiate, so he thanked Dudley and led her back into the courtroom to sign her judgment. It said she had agreed to a total claim of $3,021, plus $115 in court costs and 9 percent annual interest. She would send the hospital $60 each month until the balance was paid in full, and if she failed to make a payment the hospital could pursue garnishment of her wages.

“I’m glad you worked something out,” the judge said as he signed off on the agreement.

The court clerk handed Dudley a copy of the judgment, and once she was back outside the courtroom she took out her phone to run the math. If everything went right, and she somehow managed to save and pay $60 each month, she’d be sending checks to Poplar Bluff Regional for the next 5½ years.

In order to make 66 monthly payments, she had to somehow come up with the first, but her bank account was almost empty and payday was still a week away. Dudley left the courthouse, got into the car with her mother, then changed into a polo shirt for work. They drove away from the cobblestone streets of downtown and headed toward Goodwill.

“Could’ve been worse,” said her mother, Norma Garcia, 48. “Sixty isn’t so terrible.”

“It is if you don’t have it,” Dudley said. “Who do you know that’s sitting on an extra sixty each month?”

They drove past a dollar store, a payday lender and a fast-food restaurant advertising “full-time career opportunities” starting at $7.80 an hour.

“Maybe you can borrow it?” Garcia suggested.

“I don’t do credit cards or lenders,” Dudley said. “That’d just be another debt I couldn’t pay.”

“I meant from somebody.”

“Who?” Dudley asked. “Everyone we know is paying the hospital already.”

Their family had lived for three generations in Poplar Bluff’s predominantly black neighborhood just north of downtown, where according to credit records more than half of adults had debt in collections for unpaid auto loans, credit cards or medical bills. Dudley’s aunt had been sued twice by Poplar Bluff Regional and was forfeiting 15 percent of her paycheck to a court-ordered hospital garnishment. Her cousin was being sued for $1,200. Her sister owed $280.

But none of them had cycled through the emergency room as often as Dudley during the past several years. Her two pregnancies had complicated her diabetes, and she’d tried to save money by skimping on insulin. Instead of paying $50 every few months for a preventive medication, she had collapsed at work and been rushed to the emergency room, where she was sent home with thousands of dollars in now-unpaid bills. Poplar Bluff Regional was an ambitious rural hospital — a $173 million facility with a cancer center, a cardiac center, dozens of specialists and state-of-the-art surgical suites — and Dudley believed she was alive because of it. But during the past five years, the average amount that rural patients owed for hospital visits nationwide had doubled, and Dudley was earning $11 an hour at Goodwill as new hospital bills kept arriving in her mailbox.

She owed a $100 co-pay from another hospital visit in November 2018 that had already been sent to collections.

She owed $485 from another trip to the ER in April.

She owed $159 for lab tests, $85 for a doctor’s visit and now $60 for her first court-mandated payment, which was due at the end of the month.

“I’m trying to make peace with the fact that this debt could sit on me forever,” she said.

“Maybe I can help,” Garcia offered, even though she was on disability and avoiding her own billing notices from the hospital, seeking $365 in unpaid deductibles.

“It’s my bill to pay,” Dudley said. She’d been saving a little money for back-to-school supplies, and she said it was enough for her first month’s payment. “I’ll handle it,” she said. “There’s no other choice.”

There was one person in town who did believe patients had another choice, and over the past several years Daniel Moore had begun encouraging his clients to make it.

“Don’t pay one cent,” the lawyer had advised dozens of clients. “I don’t care how much the hospital says you owe. Fight them over it.”

Moore had been working for almost five decades as a self-described “old hillbilly lawyer” out of a converted house downtown. He specialized in criminal defense, with more than 400 cases pending all over the state, and he liked to align himself with the underdog. He’d been unable to afford a doctor himself while growing up on a farm with no running water, so when clients began coming to his office with bills from Poplar Bluff Regional that they could neither pay nor understand, he had agreed to take a look.

What Moore found in some of those itemized receipts didn’t make sense to him either: $75 for a surgical mask; $11.10 for each cleaning wipe; $23.62 for two standard ibuprofen pills; $592 for a strep throat culture; $838 for a pregnancy test. He searched through court records and discovered that the hospital was collecting hundreds of monthly garnishments from hourly employees at places like Quickstop, Earl’s Diner, Wendy’s, Instant Pawn and Alan’s Muffler.

He decided to represent several hospital patients free, and went to court against the hospital for a jury trial for the first time late in 2015. Moore’s client was a Poplar Bluff police officer with decent insurance, an Army veteran who went to the emergency room one afternoon because of chronic stomach problems. He’d been given a battery of tests in the ER, then treated with three IV medications before being discharged after three hours with a bill for $6,373. His insurance had paid some, but the hospital was suing him for co-pays totaling about $1,650, plus interest.

“The facts show that he came to the hospital and received treatment that alleviated his symptoms,” the hospital’s lawyer at the time told the jury. “He received three separate bills. He just didn’t pay the balance.”

“These charges are outrageous,” Moore told the jury. “He doesn’t owe the hospital anything.”

A billing manager from the hospital took the stand and said Poplar Bluff’s prices were in line with other hospitals in rural Missouri. She mentioned the high cost of providing care at rural hospitals, which must pay higher salaries in order to recruit doctors, nurses and specialists while also suffering more from federal cuts to Medicaid and Medicare compared with urban hospitals.

Moore began to question her about each charge on his client’s itemized receipt. Why, he asked, did it cost $800 to spend approximately 40 seconds with a doctor? Why was the hospital charging $211 for an oxygen sensor that was on sale for $16 at Walmart? Then Moore asked about three identical charges on the bill labeled “IV Push,” which each cost $365.

“An IV push, if I understand it, that’s the act of sticking the needle in that little port and then squeezing it,” Moore said. “Is that right?”

“Yes,” the billing manager said.

“So that takes maybe five seconds, right?”

“Yes.”

“So you, the hospital, think that act alone, not counting the drugs inside the IV, which cost thousands of dollars more — that act alone is worth $365.38?”

“Yes,” she said again.

“It makes me so mad,” Moore told the jury, in his closing argument. “If you’re content to let the hospital just crush people, then go on and give them their measly $1,650. But what you can do today is say, ‘Hey, we’re tired of this.’ How many times are we going to let working people take the shaft?”

“In reality, this is a simple bill,” the hospital’s lawyer countered. “All we’re asking for is his co-pay and his deductible. The hospital provided treatment. He still owes.”

The jury deliberated for less than an hour and then found in favor of Moore’s client, wiping away his hospital debts. But whatever sense of victory Moore felt was mitigated over the next months as Poplar Bluff Regional’s lawsuits continued to spread across the civil courts of Southeast Missouri, and he agreed to take on more free cases. “The hospital circuit,” Moore called it, which meant Mondays in Caruthersville, Tuesdays in West Plains and Wednesdays in Poplar Bluff.

On Thursdays it was Doniphan, a town of fewer than 2,000 people, where Poplar Bluff Regional had filed more than 300 lawsuits during the past several years. Moore drove past horse farms and timber plants, parking near an abandoned hospital. Ripley County Memorial had closed six months earlier, and there were locks on the doors and a sign taped above the ambulance bay.

“For Nearest Emergency Services, go 29 miles to Poplar Bluff Regional,” it said, and now several of those Poplar Bluff patients had been summoned right back to downtown Doniphan, to a red brick courthouse at the center of the town square.

They crowded next to each other on a wooden bench in the lobby, waving their hospital bills as fans against the late July heat while they waited for the courtroom to open and then entered one by one: a husband and wife who went for cancer treatments at Poplar Bluff Regional each week but couldn’t afford the co-pays. A community college student who owed more than $7,000 for treatment of a chronic heart condition. And then the judge, who had presided over hundreds of hospital cases during his career and also recused himself from one case a few years earlier, when the patient being sued was his wife.

“How are we all doing today?” he asked, as he looked down at a docket with 14 more cases between a hospital ownership company that couldn’t afford to keep losing money and patients who couldn’t afford to pay. Both sides were drowning in debt, fighting to stay above water, and pulling each other back down.

“It’s another full docket,” the judge said. “We might as well get started.”

Eli Saslow is a reporter at The

Washington Post. He won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his year-long series about food stamps in America. He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing in 2013, 2016 and 2017

[path-of-my-childhood]

Taylor Swift is the artist of the decade

By: Courteney Larocca for Insider Date: December 16th 2019

Not only has Swift been putting out No. 1 hit after No. 1 hit this decade, but her music has latched onto its listeners in deeply intimate ways. The singer has also been actively using her platform as a successful artist to shed light on injustices within the music industry to ensure a younger generation of musicians can thrive in an environment that cares about their work, as opposed to commodifies it.

Taylor Swift knows that if you're the smartest person in the room, then you're in the wrong room. Oddly enough, Swift usually is the smartest person in any room.

While the casual observer may see Swift as nothing more than a pop star, she's one of the few people who has actively been making her industry - and the lives of her fans - better in irreversible and notable ways throughout the decade.

Swift was barely 20 years old when she became the youngest artist to ever win album of the year at the Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010, for her sophomore album, "Fearless." While the album came out in late 2008, it set Swift up to become an international phenomenon over the course of the 2010s; it even landed at No. 98 on this decade's overall Billboard Hot 200 list.

Her early success made sense - audiences love a wunderkind, plus there was something so incredibly relatable about a teenager telling her crush, "you belong with me."

But for me, and other fans of Swift, it was more than that. She was someone we could see ourselves in as we navigated our own lives and romances. And with the release of "Speak Now," in late 2010, Swift proved she wasn't capable of just reinventing optimistic love stories, she had a complete grasp on heartbreak and pain, too.

Swift demonstrated her songwriting prowess early on, and her music only continued to get stronger all the way through her 2019 album, 'Lover'

"Speak Now" is an entirely self-written album that charted on the Billboard Hot 200 for 137 weeks, which was not only a huge middle finger to critics who claimed Swift didn't write her own music, but also proof she was one of the most promising songwriters of her generation.

Arming herself with lyrics like "I feel you forget me like I used to feel you breathe," and "The lingering question kept me up / Two a.m., who do you love?" Swift created a bulletproof foundation for a career built around her uncanny ability to pinpoint crucial moments of intimacy and turn them into universal anthems of heartbreak, love, and loss that became soundtracks to real fans' lives.

Obviously, the stellar music never stopped coming. With 2012 came "Red," an album that's aged so gracefully that it's landed on numerous best albums of the 2010s lists.

Swift dropped her pop masterpiece, "1989," in 2014 - an album that boasts her biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit to date, "Shake It Off," which stayed on the chart for 50 consecutive weeks. "1989" also earned Swift another album of the year win at the Grammys, making her the first woman to ever be honored with that award twice.

Swift continued her career growth with "Reputation" in 2017, which helped her break The Rolling Stones' record for highest-grossing US tour in history by earning a whopping $266.1 million. Then, capping off the decade came 2019's "Lover," an album that showcased all of Swift's immense musical talents, but stands out in her catalog as the first album that she outright owns - a triumph that goes far beyond the music itself.

It's important to note, though, that there is no singular album that can easily be delegated as the "fan favorite," largely because each album is so special within Swift's discography. If you picked seven different fans off the street, they could very easily all have a different answer to the question, "What is your favorite Taylor Swift album?"

Even critics can't fully answer that question. While "Red" is known for being critically beloved (and is my own personal favorite), Billboard had six of its writers argue for one of her first six studio albums as being her best. Also, when I ranked Swift's best and worst songs for Insider earlier this year, songs from every single one of her albums made the "best" list.

One of the reasons Swift's fans constantly latched onto her music this decade - leading to her chart-topping dominance - was because her lyrics always felt so personal, yet relatable at the same time.

Take "All Too Well," for instance. It was a deep cut tucked cleverly away at track No. 5 on "Red." It was never released as a single, but this mighty pop-rock ballad became the sort of musical zenith most artists only dream about writing.

Hearing Swift weave in intimate details about listening to her ill-fated lover's mother tell stories about his childhood or leaving her scarf at his sister's house might seem too specific to reach a larger audience outside of her piano room, but it's exactly that candor that makes Swift's best songs feel so ubiquitous.

Swift's relatability proved crucial in 2017 when it came to her impacts on societal shifts outside of the music industry

Two months before the New York Times exposé of Harvey Weinstein was published, Swift stood up in a Denver courthouse against an ex-radio DJ who groped her at a 2013 meet-and-greet and then had the gall to sue her for damages after he was fired from his job.

The phrases from her testimony, "I'm critical of your client sticking his hand under my skirt and grabbing my a--," and "I'm not going to let you or your client make me feel in any way that this is my fault," will forever be ingrained in Swift's fans' minds alongside the lyrics she wrote in her high school diaries.

After she won her symbolic $1, which she sought out for "anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault," The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, or RAINN, told ABC that its national hotline saw a 35% increase in calls over the weekend following her testimony.

"Seeing someone that they respect, that they identify with [state they've been assaulted], has a big impact," RAINN's president Scott Berkowitz told ABC News at the time.

It's easy to look at a statistic and not think about the people behind it, but I can say that for myself, Swift played a pivotal role in how I viewed my own sexual assault.

Even before her fearless testimony, I turned to her 2010 ballad, "Dear John," for validation that I wasn't the only woman who ever counted her footsteps, praying the floor won't fall through again while dating a man with a "sick need to take love away." I later found solace in "Clean," the atmospheric "1989" closer that promises its listener that they'll one day be able to finally breathe after a roller-coaster relationship.

There's no doubt in my mind that I'm not the only one who saw their own pain reflected in Swift's lyrics, allowing them to grieve. After all, she wouldn't have become the artist with the highest-ever amount of American Music Awards, which is a fully fan-voted show, if her music was just OK.

Swift has also made strides at bettering the music industry for her fellow artists as well as herself

I won't rehash the recent legal woes brought on by Scott Borchetta selling Swift's former label Big Machine Records - and thus, all of Swift's catalog up through 2017's "Reputation" - to Scooter Braun (because who needs Big Machine anyway?). I will say that Swift fighting to own her art, and by proximity her fight for all artists to own their art, is just one example of the work she's done this decade to protect artists' rights.

You may remember that she got endlessly dragged for taking her music off Spotify or writing a letter to Apple condemning its policy of not paying artists during a three-month free trial period of Apple Music. But underneath all of the misogynistic, "she's only out for money" criticisms spat at her, you'll find she did those things to bring light to issues within her industry that hurt up-and-coming artists who don't have the millions of dollars that Swift has. Within less than 24 hours, Swift received a direct response to her open letter to Apple, saying the company had decided to reverse its decision.

When Swift chose to leave Big Machine behind in 2018, she didn't just leave for the sake of leaving. She instead negotiated a deal with Universal Music Group that not only granted her the rights to everything she would create under the label but also included a clause in her contract stipulating that "any sale of [UMG's] Spotify shares result in a distribution of money to their artists, non-recoupable."

She also said the label had agreed to this "at what they believe will be much better terms than paid out previously by other major labels."

That means that with her contract, Swift made sure other favorite artists of this decade, like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, and Kanye West, will benefit from the revenue their art brings in. The same goes for lesser-known and newer artists signed to the label.  

Even other artists have given credit to Swift for the way she changed the way we consume pop music

It's hard to imagine today's pop stars like Ariana Grande would be able to name-check their former lovers in songs like "Thank U, Next," and have them be the successful hits we know today if Swift hadn't previously crafted breakup songs like 2010's "Dear John" and 2014's "Style" that made it clear who the tracks were about - John Mayer and Harry Styles - right there in the titles.

Halsey, another artist who rose to prominence this decade, has even lionized Swift as one of her songwriting heroes, notably for her smart bridges.

"The bridge [of a song] is a fortune cookie. It pulls the whole thing together, it's the punchline, it's one of the most important parts of a song. Ask Taylor Swift, she writes the best ones in history," Halsey said in a November 2019 interview with Capital FM.

Anyone who's listened to "Out of the Woods," "Don't Blame Me," or "Lover" knows this to be true.

Swift deserves to be the artist of the decade because her music validated women while she simultaneously fought for a younger generation to make new music in a better environment

It took 13 years for Swift to come out with a track contemplating the misogynist double standards she's had to face as a woman in the music industry, and it's easy to agree with her sentiment: If Swift were a man, then she would, no doubt, be "The Man."

But while she maybe would have faced fewer obstacles and overtly sexist criticisms throughout her career if she were a man, she may not have touched as many women's lives with her music.

Being someone who has idolized Swift since I was 11 years old, I can say that the reason she matters is because not only does she produce beautifully-worded tracks that resonate with fans on extremely personal levels, but she also wants to make the world a better, fairer place - one music contract, open letter, and song lyric at a time.

And that's something that should never be shaken off.

[deathby-discozombies]

A little more about ME

1. If you could buy any type of food what would you buy?

-right at the moment I would have to say cheese fries and wings from the hood store where I used to live.

2. What color is your tooth brush?

-magenta

3. If you could be any animal what would it be and why?

-a kangaroo, they have strong ass legs and I have a few people I would like to kick the shit out of

4. What is one of the things you would put on your “bucket” list?

-travel to Greece

5. Who is your favorite super hero and why?

-I'm more of a villian fan tbh. My favorite is Heath Ledger as the Joker

6. Who do you admire the most?

-my mom

7. What is your favorite summer activity?

-swimming

8. If a movie was made of your life what genre would it be, who would play you?

-I feel like they would ruin my life story and try to make it a lifetime movie or some shit. And some skinny bitch would be horrible at capturing my essence and thickness lol

9. If you could be any flavor of ice cream what ice cream flavor would you be and why?

-brownie batter, because I'm chocolate and chunky

10. Who is your favorite cartoon character and why?

-Tina Belcher, she's awkward and misunderstood. She just wants to be loved for who she is

11. If you could go any where in the world where would you go and why?

-Greece, because it is breathtakingly beautiful

12. What is your dream job?

-author of a best selling book series

13. Are you a morning or a night person?

-nightowl #vamplife

14. What is your favorite hobby?

-crafting or watching horror movies

15. What is one thing that annoys you the most?

-people who judge other people because they don't agree with their life choices

16. What is the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?

-olives and nutella when I was pregnant with my youngest daughter

17. What is your favorite thing about someone in your family?

-they are unapologetically themselves no matter what

18. What is one of your weird quirks?

-I'm awkward?

19. Describe your self in 3 words.

-GIVES. NO. FUCKS

20. If you could trade lives with anyone for a day who would it be and why?

-my youngest daughter, because she is still so young and oblivious to how fucked up the world is. And I'm tired of being an adult

21. If you could talk in your sleep what would you say?

-I do talk in my sleep and I say random shit. I wake myself up sometimes

22. What is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?

-kiss my baby girl

23. What is your favorite movie quote?

-You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

Annnnnndddd: ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER! DO YOU SPEAK IT?!

24. What is your favorite joke?

-how do you make a tissue dance? You put a little boogie in it.

25. What would you do on Mars for fun?

-Fuck martians, get money

26. If you could get yourself anything, what would you get?

-the will to live 😂😂😂 nah but seriously, a billion dollars

27. Where is the worst place you could get stuck?

-anywhere with my ex

28. What would you do with your “15 minutes” of fame?

-be too afraid to say anything

29. Where would you go if you where invisible?

-a bank vault

30. What is your favorite flavor of “Berty Bots every flavored beans”.

-watermelon

31. What is the one thing you own you wish you didn’t?

-a cell phone

32. Describe the perfect kiss in 3 words.

-Passionate. Long. French.

33. What is your biggest addiction?

-it was weed. Now, I guess it's my phone

34. Do you have a song that reminds you of a relationship if so what song?

-3005 by Childish Gambino

35. How many books have you read so far this year?

-zero and that makes me really sad

36. When I dance, I look like…?

-like a hot mess

37. Who have you met that you wish you hadn’t?

-any dude I've ever fucked

38. If you were famous what would you be famous for?

-writing

39. What is the worst job you could have?

-call center. I hated all the call center jobs I've had

40. What is your favorite T.V. channel?

-I don't really have a favorite channel

41. What is the thing your most afraid of?

-losing my mom or my kids

42. If you could paint anything what would you paint?

-a galaxy far away

43. What celebrity annoys you the most?

-any of the Kardashian's

44. What is the most interesting thing you have in your purse/wallet?

-my keychains

45. What is the meanest thing you’ve ever said to someone?

-I don't care what happens to you anymore, you're someone else's problem now.

46. If you could get a yacht what would you call it?

-Rocket Juiceboxx

47. What is your life long dream?

-for me and my family to never ever have to struggle financially again

48. If you could talk to the President what would you talk about?

-I'd only want to talk to Obama, Trump can kiss my natural black ass

49. Have you ever tried to do something you know you would be really bad at, what was it?

-riding a bike. Which I cannot do btw

50. On a scale of 1 to 10 how “cool” are you?

-10, duh

51. What is the best advantage to being really tall?

-I wouldn't know

52. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?

-it depends on what I'm getting ready for

53. What is the one thing you have always wanted to do?

-runaway and start over where no one knows me

54. What TV sitcom family would you be a member of?

-Black-ish but only because I would be the one who would need to put Dre in his place.

55. What store do you shop at the most?

-Kroger lol

56. What new technology will transform the future?

-none of it, technology will be the future's downfall

57. What supply in your house is running low?

-patience

58. If you could be any nationality what would it be?

-uhhhhh..... Egyptian???

59. What is the most delightful word you can think of?

-fuck 🤷

60. What is your least favorite beverage?

-beer 😷😷

61. What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?

-if they have a nice beard

62. If you were stranded on a tropical island what 2 things would you want with you?

-fresh water and a fucking boat!

63. What is the first thing you notice about someone when you first meet?

-their vibe

64. If you where running for office what would your campaign slogan be?

-I know some of these words!

65. What was your favorite book growing up?

-The Napping House

66. What city in America should not be included on a map, why?

-Roanoke, Va. Because it's a piece of shit

67. What compliment does people give you the most?

-I have a beautiful smile

68. What word would you add to the dictionary if you could, what would it mean?

-shizzle dizzle fizzengarr it's a cool way to say "shit"

69. What product would you refuse to promote?

-Iphones

70. What is your favorite pet’s name?

-Zero, RIP Old man 😭

71. Use one word to describe your computer ability?

-proficient

72. If your plane was about to crash, who would you want sitting next to you?

-nobody, I wouldn't want someone I know to die with me

73. Which of the presidents was your favorite?

Obama

74. How long of a consecutive time have you spent in a car?

-5 hours

75. What is your favorite Halloween costume?

-when me and my oldest went as zombie nerds. It was our own "revenge of the nerds"

76. How can you tell if some one is a nerd?

-wtf kind of question is that?

77. If you could teach any grade or subject what would it be?

-kindergarten art

78. What fashion trend do you just not get?

-cowboy boots and dresses/skirts/shorts. Or fucking Crocks

79. If you where a wicked tyrant what country would you rule?

-France

80. What is the lowest grade you have ever been given what class was it for?

-like a 35 and it was probably chemistry or algebra

81. If you could choose your nickname what would it be?

-Rain

82. What is your best feature?

-my smile (when it's real)

83. If you could swim in any liquid what would it be and why?

-and not get hurt or die? Lava maybe? I think that'd be cool

84. What is the song you hear most often?

-Baby shark, Carl Poppa, Ew by Jimmy Fallon and Will.i.am, and Perm by Bruno Mars

85. What have you done that you are most proud of?

-divorced my ex. I got out of an emotionally abusive relationship and I'm raising my two daughters by myself

86. How many keys do you have on your key ring?

-4?

87. What is your favorite song?

-Peace sign/Index Down by Gym Class Heroes and Busta Rhymes

88. How old where you when you had the worst hair cut ever what style was it?

-I don't get hair cuts

89. What advice did you get that was the most rewarding?

-know your worth

90. If you could change one thing about your looks what would it be?

-grow 3 more inches

91. What is your least favorite type of music?

-country

92. If you where a super hero what would your powers be?

-shape shifting, mind reading, compulsion, and super strength

93. What fortune would you want to get from a fortune cookie?

-Your soul mate will find you within the month

94. What is one food you wouldn’t want to give up?

-burgers

95. If you won a million dollars what would you buy?

-a big house

96. If you had access to a time machine where and when would you go?

-whenever and wherever Woodstock was

97. If you could add a person to Mount Rushmore who would it be, why?

-Barack Obama

98. If you could win any award what would it be, why?

-I'm not sure to be honest

99. If you could teleport where would you go, why?

-to the bathroom because I need to pee right now but I don't want to move

100. What was your favorite cartoon growing up?

-Rugrats

[zorovevo]

best options trading platform for beginners Tennessee Luckily, it's been well documented that more often than not, solid annual portfolio performance is often caused by having a strong exit plan.

Overview

best options trading platform for beginners Tennessee You have the same 3 trading strategy choices.

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best options trading platform for beginners Tennessee This means, they have a strategy to get into a trade, make adjustments, and exit positions based on SPECIFIC events.

(For the record, I don't usually trade biotech's because of all these wild card factors)Putting it all TogetherRelative sizing is one of the toughest things to get right as an investor or trader. If you invest for a long enough time. you're bound to get it wrong on some positions. The key is trying to get a deeper understanding of the risk associated with the position, what option factors influence (time, volatility, stock price movement) it and how. For me, I like to play the number's game and let the probabilities work out. by sizing my positions with the max risk already set in place. However, I understand that some of you have a little bit more risk tolerance than me. so I wanted to show you what else to consider when taking on more risk by sizing up. Obviously experience is the best teacher.

Are there any event or headline risks?Like an earnings announcement, conference call, analyst day, economic data release, Federal Reserve or other central bank meetings in the coming future, legal verdicts coming out, possible M&A or a reaction to earnings etc. In this example, the UVXY ETF is associated with fear in the marketplace. The event or headline risk would be macroeconomic as well as geopolitical. Are there any key technical levels?Some questions to ask yourself: Is a key moving average that is broken, support or resistance levels violated, a spike below or above the VWAP or whatever technical indicator you're looking at. Now, I know some option investors who don't use price charts or technical analysis; some are very successful. However, even if you don't.

Critical Practices:

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$3 - $0. 57= $2. 43 x 20 = $48. 60 x the multiplier of 100 shares = $4,860However, the option investor is only willing to risk $1,000 on the position on a $50,000 portfolio. They will buy back the spread for a loss if it gets close to $1. 05. On 7/31/14, the UVXY exploded. moving up more than 16% and closed at $31. 70.

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you're bound to get it wrong on some positions.

xlt options trading course Tennessee You did pay a premium of $500, so the total net gain in this options trading example would be $1500.

those options that I bought back ended up closing deep ITM. Again, near-term options have the potential from being deep OTM to deep ITM very quickly (and vice-versa). Position sizing is critical for near term options. it doesn't matter if you're buying or selling premium. In many cases, if I do buy premium on an option expiring in a short time frame. I'll make it a binary trade. Basically the premium spent on the position is what I'm willing to lose.

trading options video Tennessee Using the same contract as above, our anticipation of the market is completely different.

Again, near-term options have the potential from being deep OTM to deep ITM very quickly (and vice-versa).

options trading course dallas Tennessee thinking that they will always have a chance to get out of position before it reaches max loss.

you might not have enough capital to adjust the position if it starts moving south. I just wanted to mention my approach and what has worked for me. however, I understand that some investors like to use more leverage on their trades. For that reason, I'll explain to you what else you need to take into consideration if you trade bigger than what you're willing to lose. So where did our option investor go wrong?First, they were trading options that were expiring in a little bit over a week. By selling 20 call spreads right off the bat, they didn't give themselves a whole lot of margin for error. These short call spreads were still OTM, meaning the time decay and option volatility would really get sucked out of the option premium. if UVXY prices declined or even traded flat for a couple of days. By fully sizing up, you leave yourself no margin for error. In fact, if they still believed in the trade they would of have probably wanted to sell more call spreads at those strike prices or even further out for higher premiums. However, they were forced to get defensive because they were sized up incorrectly. (Note: The following Monday, UVXY traded at $31. 50. down 9%. the value of the call spread was $0. 47. On Tuesday, it rebounded to $35. 93. the value of the call spread was back to around $1. 00.

options trading alerts Tennessee For example, if I were to put on this trade and was risking $1,000 on the trade.

Bet THAT wrong and you are in a world of trouble.

best website for options trading picks Tennessee I find that it's quite suspect to receive trading advice from someone that doesn't trade themselves.

It was even an issue for me when I started trading. I would have a few stocks on my watchlist that I wanted to get into, but knew it wasn't the right time. And then when I'm not looking the stock takes off. On a few occasions, I have actually chased stocks that eventually turned against me. These types of situations hurt in 2 ways: 1) dents your ego and 2) dents your portfolio balance. If you have the same issues, don't fret. Luckily, it's been well documented that more often than not, solid annual portfolio performance is often caused by having a strong exit plan. 8. Document and Learn From Your Previous TradesEvery trade is a learning experience. Don't focus solely on losing trades, but also look at your winners. There is always something you can learn. For losing trades, look into why the trade lost or possible ways you could have prevented it from happening. Analyze your entry, the adjustments you made, the exit, and the overall market behavior. For winning trades, look into why the trade won and possible ways you could have even profited more. Analyze your entry, the adjustments you made, the exit, and the overall market behavior. If you notice, it's the same analysis for both types of trades.

Unique Ideas:

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[theliterateape]

Four Words That Will Change Your Life (and the Internet)

by Don Hall

"If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain."

Churchill did not say this. Attributed to him but completely inconsistent with his own political journey (Conservative at 15 and Liberal at 35) the quote joins a rather long list of quotes he was supposed to have said, but didn't.

To quote the Mandalorian, "This is the way."

As is often the case, who said it is less relevant that what was said. I mean, somebody said it even if they just made it up to falsely attribute to Churchill, right? That somebody had a point and the point is that people change their ideologies with experience. That is true no matter if it were Churchill or the batshit crazy cat lady on the street corner with the tinfoil hat and the shoes made of stuffed animals.

Experience forces perspective. If one is open to that perspective change, this new information allows the ideology to shift one way or the other.

A friend recently told me he thought I had gained a modicum of wisdom in my advancing age. He then stopped and corrected himself "Maybe it's not wisdom but age plus exhaustion. You aren't wiser so much as you are too tired to be the dumbass of your youth." There is some truth to the assessment. I am too tired to fight the same meaningless fights as I was so thirsty for in my younger days. Some of them are no longer relevant; most are just dull in repetition. 

I find myself get ginned up about some thing in the news or online. I start to write about the bigotry of Critical Race Theory or the pernicious grip Trump has on the bizarre amalgam of GOP legislators. I get bored or tired or filled with a sense of futility so I write about something I watched on Netflix or pop out 3,000 words in my draft of the book on working at the casino. The angry piece gets sidelined and I move on to something else.

I've always been a fairly angry guy but anger (usually a response to some other less proactive emotional state like fear or despair) takes a fuck-ton of energy and with age goes the energy. 

Oh, boo-fucking-hoo! When the life expectancy of the human body used to be around thirty years, you made it to fifty-five without too many dents in your fender and now you're bitching about needing more naps?

Not complaining. Just acknowledging the inevitable loss of steam to fuel the pissed-off. The other noticeable difference is that I can see clearly how my mind has been changed on so many things since I was young, dumb, and fulla cum. 

At a time of such stridency and polarization (and let's be honest here, it's almost always been like this—we just have social media to stick it in our faces at nearly every waking hour and we're all fucking addicted to our devices like truck drivers and five-dollar whores) being able to both change your mind but also admit it and move on is quite the sign of either wisdom or age+exhaustion.

Back when I was a giant fatass, if you asked me about hitting the gym, my reaction would be the derision of a true believer in delusional fitness. I was strong(ish) but horribly out of shape and strolling leisurely down the path of late-stage diabetes and heart failure at the ripe age of forty-five.

Out of nothing but vanity, I started working out regularly. I lost eighty pounds (the equivalent of four and a half bowling balls strapped to my frame) and found a sense of Zen that my otherwise lazy rage-boner could drill.

Today, while not one of those wheat-grass drinking, Instagram humping fitness cultists, I think that a bit of exercise could do everyone some good. My mantra is simple: any exercise is better than no exercise. If all you can manage is a single pathetic push-up, do it. One push-up is better than no push-ups.

In terms of a massive change of mind, this single shift is significant in that it has been life-changing. Despite my smoking (years sucking on cigarettes and now more years on pipes) and my waning tolerance for too much alcohol (a coupla beers and a shot pretty much does me in these days) I'd wager I've added at least a few years toward the finish line. 

The change Churchill decidedly did not make note of (but note was made, that can be certain) is a sign of evolution. Not growing gills or something bizarrely nineties as all that but a personal evolving from a stupid twenty year old to a slightly less stupid fifty-five year old. In the grand scheme of things, less stupid may be a low bar to clear but it's at least a goal.

In the 1990's, as with all twenty-two year olds, I thought I had it all under control. I knew the world, saw its hypocrisies, and fully believed I was as put together and confident as a frat boy with a roofie and a Scooby Doo van. I easily dismissed anyone over the age of thirty as a sell-out, anyone past forty as societally obsolete, and couldn't believe that anyone past fifty wasn't walking around asking people who shit their pants.

And, like twenty-two year olds of every decade in every generation, I was a self righteous cunt about it.

In terms of evolving, in experience changing my mind about fundamentals, it took some trudging through certain trenches and seeing the world from multiple angles to shift perspective.

“Do what you love. The money will follow.”

Bullshit. As a younger man I loved this mythological smegma on my chest but it simply isn’t true. The more correct version is “Do what you love because you will lie on your deathbed one day and if you spent your one life doing what you despise so you could buy shit, you’re a fucking moron.”

This epiphany came to me after years of experience because that's how these things go. 

The ability to change one's mind does not come from other people telling you what to do. Sure, instructions are helpful but being told what to believe is almost always a non-starter. This has been true for all time as far as I can tell. 

Two things are at play in today’s marketplace of ideas: the ability to change one’s mind and the desire to demand fealty to competing sets of beliefs. Most people have the skill to take in new information, reflect upon it, and shift perspective. Few are willing to shift perspective taking orders from others.

In the grand scheme of things, less stupid may be a low bar to clear but it's at least a goal.

When Vegas was in the early stages of COVID shutdown, I genuinely believed it was overblown and Chicken Little hysteria. “It’s just like the flu!” I recall saying to guests on the casino floor. I made jokes about licking machines and drinking Purell. Then the information started rolling out as scientists began to truly understand the gravity of the situation.

I changed my mind. I began to take it seriously. I did the reading and paid attention. 

“You said it was just like the flu a week ago!”

“I did. I was wrong.”

Those three words cannot be forced. They cannot be scolded into existence. They cannot be demanded. “What if you’re wrong?” is far less powerful than “What if I’m wrong?”

That’s really the essence of the thing. If more of us asked ourselves that question perhaps the marvel of digital communication would be less populated by wannabe neighborhood watch types vomiting out their putrid opinions on how everyone else is wrong. Maybe—just maybe—we could relax a bit and reflect on our own perspective shifts and engage in society with more grace than an angry, underserved nun with a hard-on for punishing those around her.

When I was in my twenties, I was terrified of homosexuality, I voted for Ronald Reagan, I drank until I blacked out and got into bar fights, I treated sex like it was a prize to win through manipulation. No one shamed me for these ideas. At some point, with experience and at least an ounce or two of self-reflective ability, I asked myself if I was wrong. I was wrong so I changed my mind and thus my behavior.

The goal is to become a better human before your clogged heart shuts down or a bus casually caves in your rib cage. The goal is not to focus on the guy in the Walmart parking lot screaming about the government making him wear a surgical mask to buy cheap macaroni and powdered cheese or the woman pushing the white fragility book on you. The goal is to become better at this life before it ceases to be.

To become better, ask yourself “What if I’m wrong?”

[roleplay-salt]

““Please consider investing in a disabled person’s quest for independence.” You know. Everything about you is pathetic. You are a manipulator and a fucking liar. You want to start a “small jewelry-making business” in order to be “independent” from the your friends and family? Because your “disability” prevents you from holding down a normal, minimum-wage job like everyone else? Your “disability” is nerve pain in your wrists, but it only ever seems to be a fucking issue for you when you want attention, or when you want to distract people from how horrible you are as a person, or when you want people to feel ingratiated to you, as if they now owe you after you went through the physically agonizing process of writing responses to their threads. After all, how gross are they if they don’t truly appreciate the nightmare you live in, unable to do much in your life because your arms are so fragile (according to you)? If your arms give you so much grief (you would think that they must be broken, or that you don’t even fucking have arms, with how often and dramatically you tell anyone and everyone about how disabled you are), then why are you trying to get people to fund a jewelry-making business for you? Something that requires skill, strength, and precision in your hands? You’re one self-important bitch to think you deserve to have your own fucking business (that involves a HOBBY you enjoy, wow. How many of us can say we have that? And that we DIDN’T need to take money from people who could have spent it on themselves?), completely independent from the rules and expectations of employment, when the rest of us don’t have that luxury - when the rest of us, too, have our own fucking problems to contend with, yet we will still recognize that if we want to get shit done in life, we have to toughen up and just do it. I remember the times when you would tell the group how hungry you were, but there was no food that you could eat that wouldn’t upset your stomach. You would tell us how anxious and panicky you were because your husband wasn’t making enough money in order to pay the bills, and you were frightened that your lights would get shut off, and so people would give you the money you needed. Of course, then I started learning about all of the shit you were buying. It’s normal to have your friends commission artwork and stuff for you from time to time. What isn’t normal is that somewhere along the line, you convinced them that you needed unnecessary, expensive things, including: 1) $200 for a customized plush doll of your muse. 2) $3,500+ Mac Unicorn computer because your other computer was “old” and getting “too slow”, though that doesn’t explain why you HAD to have the most expensive computer that Apple had on the market at the time. 3) $250+ on an SD actionfigure of your muse. 4) An expenses-paid trip to the fandom’s convention (TWICE if I remember it right). 5) Materials for your Lolita costuming hobby and the fashion events you went to with them. 6) Dragon software so that you could refrain from using your poor, delicate hands, but then you told me that you refused to use it because it was “too difficult” to adapt to (and a friend told me that if you were in legit pain, you would have treated the software like a godsend and dedicated your time to it so that it became easier to use, which is what it’s designed to do.) And then let’s not forget the things that you told me you were considering buying. Just the fact alone that you were considering selling off some of your ball-jointed dolls in order to either purchase a $1,000 actionfigure of your muse or a $500 actionfigure of your muse still disgusts me. Why not fucking sell your ball-jointed dolls to pay the bills you claim you don’t have the money for? Or for the fucking medical bills and medication and therapy sessions you made a GoFundMe page for when your insurance dropped you? I don’t trust you with this “business” dream of yours. If you managed to get your foot in the door and start selling your products, I know that the money you bring in won’t go to your fucking bills, or to help your family and friends as they had helped you. It’s going to go into buying shit you don’t need, and if anyone calls you out on it, you’re ultimately going to tell them that it’s “your” money, and you’ll spend it how you want. Evidence for this distrust is from the fact that I’m STILL hearing that you’re spending money on shit you don’t need. A $250 fundraising goal and you’re out spending hundreds of dollars on fashion items, including a $90 pair of shoes??? You need to grow the fuck up. You’re 35+ years old (by the way, stop lying about your age, too, you fucking creep, telling people you’re only 25), you’ve been unemployed for years and claim to be “poor”, yet you always have money to buy the stupid shit you want when it should be spent on the shit you need, and you’re nowhere fucking as disabled as you claim to be. Everyone I know has PTSD, too, and four people have unexplained nerve pain just as bad as yours, yet they all somehow manage to hold down day-to-day jobs and/or college classes, and none have ever made a donation post asking for financial help, even when they’re just as in dire need of it. You want to be fucking financially independent? Then why don’t you start it off by NOT doing the same fucking thing you’ve always been doing, begging for money from strangers and playing up your “disabilities” to win your way into their wallets. Instead, why don’t you stop buying shit you don’t need, sell the shit you don’t need, and start working on an allowance by working around the house for the people you live off of? While you’re at it, get rid of this idea that the world owes you something all because you were dealt a shitty hand early in your life. All of us have had shitty lives, but you don’t see us asking people to build our future for us.”

[allenmendezsr]

Best Storage Auctions Program - Earn More With A Storage Leader

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Best Storage Auctions Program - Earn More With A Storage Leader

 Buy Now

    ATTENTION: If You ever wondered about “Storage Auctions” and are looking to make great money in this struggling economy we may have the solution for you in the most important letter you’ll read all day. . .

Storage Auctions revealed in this new tell-all about tactic winning auction tips and you’ll get them all here – & win every time . . . Even if You Never Went to an Auction Before

Date: From: Lorenzo Lee

I f you are headed out the door to your boring job or off to the unemployment line… STOP – if for just a moment, and read what I have to tell you about storage auctions and how they transform lives all over the country.

You are going to fit into a category of the following people: retirees, those about to retire, unemployed, employed but bored, underpaid or looking for something where you can work from the comfort of your own home. Why wouldn’t you want to manage your home, be able play with your kids and not worry about how much gong out to eat costs for the family?

If you’ve just lost your job and you were standing in an unemployment line wondering how you are going to take care of your family; you’re stumped, clueless and at your wits end… What can you do in this economy? Even if you can find a job, you’ll be lucky if it pays half what you were making.

It wasn’t that long ago that I was in those same dire straits. Dodging calls from bill collectors and even hiding my car around the block so it wouldn’t get repossessed. But Mom always told me, “When one door closes, another opens.”

I never understood what she meant, until now. You see, even in this bad economy with millions and millions of people out of work or stuck in jobs they can’t stand and don’t pay enough to live on, there are still opportunities being created every day. Big Opportunities. REALLY BIG OPPORTUNITIES!

It was just a little while ago that one of those Big Opportunities came knocking at my door. And now it’s knocking on yours. What I am about to show you is not MLM or some get rich quick scheme. You will have to work at it, but with simple instruction and our Secret Weapons you’ll be able to get your slice of the money pie. Best of all you will once again have a reliable, stable income month in and month out.

I know you are thinking you will need a special skill or a specialized degree. All I have is a high school diploma, but you don’t even need that! And you won’t have to borrow a bunch of money to get started either!

This business is based on a very simple formula that has made millions of people rich for thousands of years.

It’s a very simple concept; you’ve probably even heard it before. It’s just four little words…

BUY LOW, SELL HIGH!

STOP! This is not some bs stock market or investment scheme. They require far more risk than I would be comfortable with, especially in this economy. They also require very specialized skills and knowledge. Not to mention a LOT of money to get started. Nope, this is different. Completely different.

Imagine a business where:

You don’t need CREDIT!

You don’t need a lot of money up front to get started.

You don’t need a college degree, special certifications or specialized knowledge.

You don’t have to take a lot of risks.

You don’t need an office, any employees or special equipment.

As the economy gets worse, your prospects get better!

You can start with less than a hundred bucks.

You don’t need a college degree, just a tiny bit of instruction and our Secret Weapons.

You set your own schedule and sell your merchandise from your own kitchen table or out of your garage.

You can do this ANYWHERE, because there are 30,000+ storage facilities all over the United States and Canada (We will even give you access to this list!)

You can be young, old, retired, in-between work, guys or girls and make good money, lots of it! ANYONE CAN DO THIS!

Imagine going to a storage auction, winning the auction with $50 and finding $2500 worth of merchandise for you to sell. You don’t have to just imagine it, you can do it! With our easy training course and Secret Weapons you’ll know exactly when, where and how to turn a unit into a great income as often as you want! This happens every day across all 50 states and Canada. In fact, it is not unusual for a self storage auction unit to be won with a single dollar, but inside the unit are things you could sell for several thousand dollars.

What kinds of items can you find in a Self Storage Auction?

Frankly, just about anything! For Example:

Cars (vintage cars, 4x4s, sports cars, motorcycles and RVs too!)

Boats (fishing boats, jet skis, watercraft of all kinds)

Tools (professional and typical homeowners stuff)

Specialized Business Equipment (from gyms, salons, restaurants, construction, etc.)

Collectibles (Toys, Books, Coins, Cards, Antiques)

Hollywood Memorabilia … items found in storage auctions:

Nicholas Cage’s Stolen $1Million Comic book

Madonna’s personal photos and signed work

Paris Hilton’s personal journals, videos and photos . . . more Hollywood treasures are found everyday!

Could you imagine stumbling onto the motherload of all Hollywood memorabilia or even one prop once used in a movie? What could you do with that kind of money?

With all of the possible valuables available at a self storage unit auction, it’s possible to replace a full time income from only a few hours work each week!

But don’t take my word for it. There are popular TV shows on major networks devoted to Self Storage Auctions. Keep in mind these shows are entertaining but they also show what can happen to someone who knows what they are doing in the storage auction business.

Inside the Best Self Storage Auction Course you will learn:

How to spot a great self storage unit auction quickly. (pg 28)

Doing these few things wrong can can land you in court! (pg 112)

How to bid on a unit and make others back off! (pg 65)

A simple, legal tool to save $$$$ on your taxes (pg 46)

What you MUST know BY LAW… BEFORE you bid! (pg 104)

The difference between a bad locker and an early Christmas (pg 84)

How to go to a storage auction fully prepared, unlike the other bidders. (pg 76)

How to avoid getting stuck with a unit full of junk you can’t sell or worse, have to pay big bucks to dispose! (pg 44)

How to reduce competition and lower your winning bid! (pg 127)

How to sell your items quick & get CASH in your hand right after the auction! (pg 81)

Why am I willing to share these secrets with you?

First, since I was a little boy I was taught “what goes around, comes around” and “if you help others, someone will be there to help you” and of course “Do unto others…” It’s kind of ingrained in me to share.

Second, I know what it feels like to be one step away from living in my minivan. Collections, bankruptcy, eating PB&J (without any PB… or J!). I’ve heard my family telling me, “You’ve got to get a job!” “You need to make some money!”, or my favorite, “You need to make more money”… only there weren’t any jobs for 50 year olds without a college degree, even if you did have 25 years experience in construction.

But then this opportunity came along for me as it is for you now. You don’t need a lot of money to make money. You can start this with less than $100. And truth be told, you really don’t have to work all that hard either.

Let’s imagine that you’ve completed the course and located an auction. You’ve got $150 in cash, you’re a little nervous, but that’s ok because it means you’re ready to go since you know that you’ve completed the course and you know exactly what you want to do as soon as you step foot on the lot.

The Auctioneer comes out of the office and leads you and 4 others to unit G167. Sure, the others are there for the same reason as you, but they haven’t been through the course, they don’t have the knowledge you gained from the handouts… but you have. You’re here because you know which auctions to go to and which ones aren’t worth the trouble.

As the Auctioneer opens the door to the unit you notice the others getting excited, one lady is even bouncing up and down clapping her hands as everyone begins to see the unit is stuffed to the brim with computer monitors and other electronic gear. You allow yourself a wry smile, you learned on page 35 of the course that many times storage units are used as “dumps” for broken, worthless electronic equipment to avoid paying the high disposal fees… fees that the “winner” of this units auction may have to pay. In the time it takes you to finish this thought the currently happy lady has “won” the auction for $250.

Secret: If you can get the other bidders to spend all their money on crappy units, you can walk away with a fantastic unit for little to no money as they run out of funds.

As the Auctioneer opens the door to the next unit you notice the others pointing at the boxes, card tables and mattresses piled up with garbage bags. Unlike the last unit they seem to grumble a bit, but you see a sliver of wood you know to be a china cabinet peeking out from behind the mattresses. Lots of fine woodwork in what little you can see. It might even be an antique…

You get startled a bit as the Auctioneer breaks the silence with “The bidding opens at $25.” No one moves, and the auctioneer calls out again, only this time he lowers the opening bid for fear of not selling the unit today. “Lets get the bids going, who’ll give me $10?” he cries…

…after a short moment you give a wave of your hand at the Auctioneer. He’s a good Auctioneer and soon you’re bidding against a “happy lady”. You know from the course that doing this one thing will make her back down… She does, and before you know it you hear “$50 going once, $50 going twice, Sold to bidder #67.” $50… to bidder #67… holy crap that’s you!

Your heart is racing but you manage to keep it together long enough to pay the Auctioneer and lock your unit. Finally the auction is over and you go back to the unit you purchased.

That china cabinet might be worth $200, maybe more. But first you’re going to have to go through everything else to get a better look at it. It’s mostly old clothes and the usual “kitchen items” but one of the boxes is quite heavy and has some collectable memorabilia from an old TV show and another some baseball cards from the 1970’s. You’re feeling pretty good, it looks like you might be able to at least double your cash from just what you’ve found so far!

Finally you can move those mattresses…

You find yourself having to lean against the side of the unit for fear of falling down.

The China Cabinet is gorgeous. Worth at least $700 and based on the glass style it does look antique so it could be a lot more. But that’s not why you’re having trouble standing. You see, it’s full to the brim, with Depression Glass. You’ve seen a single piece of Depression Glass sell for $25 and there must be 50 or 60 pieces in this China Cabinet!

Luckily for you, our BSA Auction checklist has you totally prepared for this…

Following the few simple rules of the course, and the “members only” checklist, your grin got even bigger as your favorite antique dealer handed you $500 before he took the China Cabinet away. All packed up, you hurry home with everything you’ve found. After an evening of research (using some of our special tips and bonus material on valuation) you’ve learned that the cards and TV show stuff are worth an easy $400…

But the reason your wife is whistling as she is preparing for a night on the town, the first time in months… is because the antique dealer also handed you $1400 for all that Depression Glass!

This is not just a fantasy. Finds like this happen almost every day all over the USA. It’s happened to me, it can happen to you. All that is left for you to decide is will it be a fantasy for you or will you take the necessary action to make it your reality?

I know that times are tough right now. Spending anything is a major decision. But I am going to eliminate all of the risk for you.

Are you serious about earning great cash for your family with Self Storage Auctions?

Then take a look at what we’ve created for you. This is the Masters Degree program at the Self Storage Auctions University. You’ll learn the secrets and insider tips to show you how to avoid the expensive mistakes and take the straight and narrow way to big profits.

One of the best things about this course is that you don’t have to go to a class somewhere or wait for a package in the mail. Everything is 100% downloadable and you can get started learning your self storage auction lessons the easy way, right away. You’re about to become a private member in an exclusive club in this ground floor opportunity…

This course will show you:

Bid Secrets, how to keep from spending too much.

Which units are the most likely to make you money.

Which units to avoid and which ones to “drop”

All of the legal ins and outs of self storage auctions

What you must have with you at every auction.

How and Where to sell your finds for top dollar.

  …and a whole lot more!

But that’s not all… we have more to give you – Keep Reading!

You remember above I kept mentioning our “Secret Weapon”? As part of our easy course you will receive membership access to our database of self storage businesses all across America. More than 32,000 storage facilities, each with hundreds of units and each one an opportunity for you to make great money once you’ve completed the course. PLUS other great bonuses… and we mean a lot of freebies – keep reading below to discover all the goodies we are combining with this course:

BSA Storage Lien Law Book – All US States – 322 Pages

Storage Lien Law Book – All US States! – don’t go to another auction in your state or any other state without reading the state lien laws as they pertain to storage auctions. There are some things you must know before you bid on a locker or may have found in a locker – be prepared and get all the details in this huge compilation of US state lien laws.

At 322 pages this is a ton of information and we value this book at $27 – but if you order today its yours FREE!

Get the facts about any state storage auction info as just one of several fantastic bonus gifts. It’s also an instant download! No waiting for snail-mail!

BSA Vehicle Storage Lien Laws – 196 Pages

BSA Vehicle Storage Lien Laws! – did you spot an automobile, motorcycle or ATV in a storage unit and think you were just going to have it towed home? Think again, this book delves into the state rules for vehicles left abandoned in storage units. Know the facts before you lose your cash!

Our valuation on this whopping 196 page compiled vehicle lien law book is $19 – but, ordering the course today – you get this FREE!

Get this fantastic bonus gift as an instant download.

BSA Coin Finder – How To Spot Expensive Coins Quick – 67 Pages

BSA Coin Finder – How To Spot Expensive Coins Quick! – You won’t want to discard a coin that could be valuable while organizing your storage unit. Learn these facts on how to spot coins on the fly.

How many times have you walked past a coin on the street and didn’t give it a second glance? Often with storage units people leave precious metals behind to keep in safe storage… you’ll be spotting winners in no time!

If you had to buy this online we think you would need to pay $14 – but, today this book is our free gift to you, but you must order today!

Get this fantastic bonus gift as an instant download.

BSA How To Spot Antiques For Beginners – 235 Pages

BSA How To Spot Antiques For Beginners! – You’ll be super impressed with your skills at picking the expensive antique items from amongst the junk in everyday storage units. With a bit of reading and a few simple tips and tricks you’ll be spotting the real antiques from the re-manufactured stuff in no time.

Comes complete with how to spot woods, precious metals and special markings.

We think it should sell for more because we know how much key information it holds, but we modestly value this gift to you at $19 – but, ordering today its yours FREE!

Get this fantastic bonus gift as an instant download too!

We Saved Some of the Nicest Bonus Gifts for Last… and we are the only ones to give them to our members – FREE!

Membership To Our Storage Auction Community

Membership To The BSA Storage Auction Group! – You’ll be in good company with storage auction enthusiasts, newbies and pros just like yourself. Share ideas, pick each others brains, trade your finds on the forum – all at no additional cost.

PLUS: We will be giving you access to our 32,000+ record database of just about every storage facility in the United States and Canada! Don’t think there is a storage facility in even the smallest town? You bet there is! And would they have a storage auction, all it takes is a quick phone call!

Unlimited Free Search By Home Computer or Mobile Phone!

If you plan to attend auctions in a few states or maybe you are on a sightseeing trip and just want to check out how auctions are run in another state – check your private database of storage facilities to see who you may be close to

So, to recap, BSA Membership Includes:

Access to the database of 32k+ Storage Facilities in our private members only area

Access to the private members only forum – Buy – Trade – Sell – Communicate with other members!

Access to all the forms and books plus freebies and giveaways for members only

Your own website complete with your very own shopping cart – stop paying eBay fees and sell from your own site… oops – we weren’t supposed to tell you about this unless you really weren’t sure about the course… but if you want to see the Storage Auction Demo Site – CLICK HERE FOR DEMO SITE

      … and much, much more!

This lifetime membership sells for $97 – but if you order today – your membership is all-inclusive and FREE!

PLUS – just to make certain you know you got your moneys worth, and we are serious to see you succeed, we are giving you even more bonus swag to make you even more successful – – – our trademark Auction Worksheets!

As a member you’ll have access to these forms 24/7 – so even at 5am when you are preparing your auction, print off a few copies, enjoy your coffee and go to the auction later that day armed with everything you need to win big:

BSA Storage Auction Checklist bonus

BSA Storage Auction Checklist – don’t go to another auction without this awesome tool! You’ll be able to head out the door in the morning on your way to a local auction and be confident knowing you have everything you need with you for a productive and cash filled day.

BSA Storage Auction Expense Report bonus

BSA Storage Auction Expense Report – keep track of your money on each and every auction. Not only does it help you to be prepared but you’ll get to know how much each day will cost and tally up everything at the end of the year for instant tax savings. Your accountant will love you for it!

BSA Storage Inventory Worksheet bonus

BSA Storage Inventory Worksheet – know what came out of every unit and how much you made on each piece. This is an invaluable tool should something arise out of the sale of this unit you’ll be able to immediately determine where an item went. Oftentimes you will come across personal paperwork, knowing what you did with that paperwork will certainly help if the need to find it arises.

WE HAMMERED DOWN THE PRICE TO ONLY $37 TO SAVE YOU EVEN MORE MONEY!

    DOWNLOAD THIS OPPORTUNITY NOW, EVEN IF ITS 2AM

I promised to eliminate any risk for you, so this course comes with my personal 60 day 100% no questions asked guarantee. If you are not satisfied for any reason just ask for your money back within the next 60 days.

Get “The Best Storage Auction Course” and all the free bonus books and Worksheets for one ultra low price … OR; do you enjoy the feeling of “not earning your potential”… AND/OR; to be made to FEEL GUILTY for not making enough money to provide for your family?

  YES,   I want and need to instantly download “The Best Storage Auction Course” to better my life and provide for my family!

Yes! I want to ease my mind and provide for my family

Yes! I want to know how the best storage bidders operate!

Yes! I want and DESERVE to be happy!

NO! I NEVER want my family to go to bed hungry or see my children cry!

Yes! I have to know if my intuition is correct and be able to get quality storage lockers

NO! I DO NOT WANT MY CURRENT CRAPPY JOB!!

Yes! I want

instant access

to your manual and the bonus material!

Yes! I want

“The Best Storage Auction Course” and all the freebies right NOW!

Click Here To Get This Instant Download

Find Out How To Get Started in This Lucrative Business… right now!

Get Your Career Started . . . you deserve MORE!

You are also backed by my personal 60 day Guarantee. If for any

reason you decide the course and bonus books are not for you simply return them for a full refund. No Questions Asked.

So you have absolutely nothing to lose by buying now and reading everything I have to say – this is a life changing manual for your peace of mind and new life and you have absolutely everything to gain!

If you are at all concerned with being financially stable in this crazy economic recession and the “fear of living paycheck to paycheck“.

Again, I urge you to download this manual right now! Not only will you save yourself $$$ but you’ll also have the peace of mind you fully deserve. We completely guarantee it!

Stop dreading the outlook of another bad paycheck… and go with your intuition and gut instinct

At Only $37 and a Full Guarantee How Could You Go Wrong?

You *could* try self storage auctions “on your own” or with some cheap ebooks thrown together from publicly available information. But just one mistake could cost you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars out of your pocket. Money you can’t afford right now –

Remember this is not a get rich quick or “easy” money scheme. It does require work on your part. It’s not rocket science, especially once you’ve completed our training. Don’t forget about our Secret Weapon… you will have access to our regularly updated database of Self Storage businesses in all 50 states with full up to date contact information for each one.

There is nothing else to buy. Once you’ve purchased the Self Storage Auction course you’ll have instant access to the course as well as all of the bonuses and our Secret weapon… forever!

If you are a quick study it is quite possible to order the course Friday evening, win your first Auction Saturday morning and have it all sold on ebay come Sunday afternoon! Even if it takes you a little longer to finish the course, as long as you follow the plan you will make money!

You have nothing to lose; I have taken the risk for you with my personal 100% guarantee. The sooner you get the course, the sooner you can get started making money!

Do you want a reliable income that you can count on?

Do you want a business you can start without spending a lot of money?

Do you want a business you can start without a lot of education?

Then the Self Storage auction course is just what the doctor ordered, a reliable income with a small investment and only a little education.

Once you’ve completed the course you are going to be excited. You will know that you KNOW how to do what you need to do to make a lot of money. YOU will have a PLAN that you can get started with quickly and making the money you need to support your family.

Ok you’ve read this far but still haven’t committed to buying the course. So I’m going to toss you one final bonus, this bonus only goes to those that click on the BUY button below.

We want you to be successful in this business and we know that with a bit of a push we can help you achieve your goals, so we would like to give you this fully functioning website as an additional bonus gift for you. It has all the necessary features of a shopping cart with pay functions – so all you need to do is load it with goodies from your storage auctions and sell it like crazy!

If you can use Microsoft Word then you can write in your own blog! There are functions to make something BOLD, Italicize, Underline, choose from a multitude of colors for your fonts, include your images and even videos in your posts. Anything is possible and we empower you with the tools to make it happen.

BONUS: Free Website with Shopping Cart!

CLICK HERE TO SEE DEMO SITE

    So How Much Does This Information Cost?

Well, first I’d like you to consider what

you could possibly lose

… your freedom, family, possessions and anything else you hold near and dear to your heart. What do you think happens to your belongings if you cant afford to pay for them? Or what about your mortgage – who is going to pay your mortgage?

The value of what you are about to access is literally priceless as it concerns your very livelihood and in this strange topsy-turvy economy – you must know that doing the same old thing just won’t work…

Get Best Storage Auctions Right Now – It’s An Instant Download!

Now then, on to your new career!

P.S.There is no time like the present to get a new career started in the right direction and really where you believe you need to be – I should know – I was in your shoes only a few short years ago.

P.P.S. Your future depends on what you DO TODAY, in this moment. Not what you put off till tomorrow.

P.P.P.S. Don’t forget, when you are sitting at home wondering how to cover next months light bill… you’ll have two types of thoughts racing through your head:

The way it was

The way it could have been… what’s it going to be for you?

Click Here To Put An End To Worrying about Job Security!

The charge will be from the secure servers of “ClickBank/Keynetics” so you know its a safe product. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by knowing how to control your financial future – its time for you to step up and take charge. Plus, we will never email you about anything. You will not go on any list, this we promise! If you wish to contact us and ask for help please do so.

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EARNINGS DISCLAIMER: Every effort has been made to accurately represent this product and its potential. Earning potential is entirely dependant upon the person using the information included to this site, the ideas and techniques. There is no guarantee that you will earn any money using the techniques, ideas or paperwork provided. Examples on this site are not to be interpreted as a promise or guarantee of earnings.Simply put, every person is different and you get out of something what you put into it. More information here: Disclaimer

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7 Psychological Effects That Rule Your Whole Life

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/7-psychological-effects-that-rule-your-whole-life/

7 Psychological Effects That Rule Your Whole Life

Were you aware you might promote a $20 invoice for ten instances its price or then a character you are physically drawn to will not be as sensible and humorous as you believe these things are referred to as cognitive biases and they rule your whole lifestyles with out you even figuring out it listed here are one of the most most outstanding ones beginning with number 7 phenomenon of Max bazerman how rough would it’s to take 20 bucks from an mba student in fact professor max bazerman proves it’s handy peasy in 2010 he first conducted an scan at his type the place he geared up a simple auction he would supply a $20 invoice to the pupil who can pay essentially the most for it the bidding began at $1 the only principles of the public sale the place that bids would best go up by using $1 no less no extra and that the 2d-excellent bidder would pay the entire sum of their bid to the professor so shall we say the quality bid used to be $18 then the 2d-great can be 17 dollars the one who paid $18 would receive the public sale bill and win 2 bucks well the one who bid 17 would simply pay the cash and acquire nothing easy right good at first the public sale went as planned however the stakes rose pretty rapid and quickly the bids reached the nominal value of $20 a pause ensued after which someone bid 21 students started laughing at that however quite the bidding did not stop the auction was turned truly to farce at this factor endured until the students in the end had enough the $20 invoice was offered for 200 $four the overall sum the professor gained totaled $387 as bazerman explained after the tip of the auction it was once the traditional snapshot for any business man or woman he conducted the equal scan with CEOs of important corporations and nonetheless managed to sell the 20 bucks above their face price it all boils all the way down to the truth that no person needs to be the 2nd bidder and lose cash without winning whatever again so the auction continues unless anybody sees the fallacy and decides to discontinue the race many times as you will find it occurs much too late quantity six decoy effect shall we say you’re at an electronics store determining a new SD card for your digicam you see two choices before you one has the potential of 64gb and fees $15 and the other has a storage space of 128gb however fees $30 there is an equal threat of you deciding on either of them some will select greater ability whilst others will go for lessen price which one would you decide upon by the way let me know down in the comments ok and now a third option seems this SD card has the ability of ninety six GB which is greater than the first but minimize than the 2nd but its fee is greater than both it can be $35 this option is known as a decoy and its function is to make the pricier 2nd SD card more favorable within the eyes of consumers indeed while you seem at all three options you without a doubt do not forget handiest the primary two for the reason that the 1/3 one is worse than both of them nonetheless you now look on the 128gb card from an extra perspective it is cheaper than the 96 GB one and as extra cupboard space making it better in all respects the sixty four GB card though is best less expensive than the ninety six GB one but its ability is decrease it can be variety of obvious that you would choose the excellent one proper good advertising and marketing expert obtained you there the only motive why there may be this 0.33 option in the marketplace is to create this decoy to make you buy a more costly product insidious number 5 halo influence adequate talk about cash let’s switch to other concerns ever inspiration how in movies and cartoons excellent characters are often depicted as lovely and appealing to the eye at the same time evil baddies mainly have some repugnant facets like crooked tooth warts or whatever like that this is how our person choice of good and bad character is shaved you can also not become aware of this but when you see an appealing character you tend to magnify their good qualities of persona and that is the gist of the halo outcomes however there’s more to it than that it’s now not only about the bodily features however the overall affect a character makes if she or he is great and charming we usually lengthen these characteristics so everything there is to that individual and our mind attracts them also as sensible funny and witty hmm now that i do know this i will mostly believe my judgment of men and women slightly less oh good quantity four framing influence suppose you’re provided with the alternative of two scientific therapies for some disorder let’s not go into particulars right here the package deal insert for the primary one says it has 80% effectiveness against the sickness at the same time the second one is described as having 20% chance of failure for those who look closely at each of them you’ll be able to conveniently see that they are most likely similar like the equal event however according to data the sizeable majority of individuals would prefer the first treatment over the 2d that is what the framing effect is ready we are likely to select an alternative that is described in a constructive manner even supposing the one other choice is surely the identical individuals will doubtless put out of your mind it in view that it’s been given a terrible description remember the 20% hazard of failure that’s it and the effect clearly applies to something politicians and advertising and marketing experts alike use it so much in their campaigns so pay awareness to the deeper sense no longer the words that body it quantity three phantasm of manage this cognitive bias is on the whole person who describes human nature at high-quality so inform me first when is there a larger danger of entering a avenue accident when you’re using a vehicle or when anybody else is on the wheel and you’re just a passenger hold forth within the feedback i will let you know what the statisticians say about it in a minute in the meantime hear this professor Ellen Langer performed a number of studies to study the perceived control over a crisis considered one of them worried a lottery her subjects had been both given tickets at random or obtained to decide upon their own none of them knew the successful combinations in order that they could not almost certainly comprehend which tickets would have a greater hazard of payoff still the individuals were allowed to trade their tickets to take a look at and win more cash consequently professor Langer saw that humans who chose their possess tickets have been extra reluctant to phase with them also the tickets with familiar symbols were less normally traded than ones bearing specific unfamiliar indicators on high of that despite the fact that the chances were higher subjects with tickets they’d chosen themselves were much less more likely to trade them this suggests that despite the fact that the drawback is utterly random folks tend to believe their choice by hook or by crook influences the outcome we prefer to be in control of the whole lot do not we well I promise to let you know the information for the automobile accident so right here it is the mammoth majority of drivers think that the chances of them getting into one are a lot curb if they’re driving than if they’re using as passengers such self assurance that used to be it authentic for you to give me a like if that was once number two dr.Fox outcomes do not get stressed by the title it is not after any healthcare professional in fact rather the reverse the scan that gave this effect its name was once carried out in 1970 when two speakers gave lectures to an audience of proficient psychiatrists and psychologists the topic was chosen notably in order that not one of the trainees knew some thing about it for the scan to be valid the trap was that some of the lecturers was once a real scientist while the opposite was once an actor Michael Fox below the alias of dr. Myron L Fox an Albert Einstein school of medication graduate when each the precise scientist and the actor gave the lecture in a boring method the students gave higher suggestions to the true lecturer and perform higher on the scan but when they have been both requested to gift the fabric in a more animated manner joking and fascinating the viewers dr.Fox was once rated as extremely because the genuine professor additionally the lecture was once intentionally stuffed with double-speak contradictory statements and downright nonsense but regardless of all that the student spoke very incredibly of dr. Fox’s professionalism and that’s what’s so disturbing about the whole outcome the positive perspective and liveliness of the actor thoroughly fooled a entire audience of particularly trained experts if you happen to ever heard motivational speakers and bought stimulated through their recommendations good possibilities are you’ve got additionally skilled the dr.Foxx result Congrats quantity one spotlight result when you’ve ever felt self-conscious leaving your condo in exceptional socks annoying that all people would laugh and point fingers at you you will have emerge as a sufferer of the spotlight outcomes it is a psychological bias that clearly makes you consider too much of yourself you are the core of your own world that’s for certain nobody lives your existence for you and that’s why you notice every little element in yourself and you naturally tend to suppose that each person else can even see that strange new mole on your forearm or that your nails are not correctly manicured but let’s be sincere how probably do you discover such tiny matters in others my bet is almost under no circumstances that’s considering the fact that every person’s too concerned with themselves to pay a lot awareness to different individuals however don’t get all upset about this it is a greatly fashioned influence just are trying not to believe too much of your own significance in the lifetime of whole strangers so which of those effects have you ever skilled in your own let me recognize down within the feedback in case you learn some thing new at present then supply this video a like and share it with a buddy but hello don’t go anywhere just but we now have over two thousand cool videos so that you can verify out all you need to do is select the left or proper video click on on it and experience keep on the intense side of existence you

[pogueman]

How a one-of-a-kind business has kept 5,000 kitchens out of landfills

Ordinarily, you’d probably have no interest in my kitchen renovation project. It’s a common story: The kitchen is nearly 20 years old and starting to fall apart, we’re readying the house for an eventual sale, blah blah blah.

What makes it fascinating was how we got rid of it.

Most people throw their old kitchens into dumpsters, which takes all of it to the landfill: cabinets, countertops, appliances. Sometimes your contractor may take pieces off your hands; sometimes you can get Habitat for Humanity to take pieces of it. But mostly, it’s landfill.

But we stumbled onto a much better approach, in the form of a company called Renovation Angel. There’s only one company like it in the country, and its business model is astonishingly airtight:

They send a crew to dismantle, wrap, and haul away your old kitchen, piece by piece, for free. You’re saved the cost of the demolition ($5,000 or so), dumpster rental, and disposal fees. Then they then give you a huge tax deduction. Winner: You.

They set up your kitchen’s components to a 43,000-foot showroom in New Jersey, where they then resell your entire kitchen! Other people who are renovating their kitchens get luxury stuff for a fraction of its usual price—maybe 10% or 20% of its original cost. Winner: The next owner of your kitchen.

The showroom holds about 50 kitchens at a time.

Over 12 years, this operation has saved 5,000 kitchens from the landfill. Winner: The planet.

The company employs 35 people. Winner: Renovation Angel’s employees.

The best part: After expenses, Renovation co-founder Steve Feldman donates the rest of the company’s income to charity—$2.2 million so far. Winners: At-risk children, recovering addicts, job trainees.

This is, in other words, a win-win-win-win-win scenario.

But does it work?

I love that that this idea has something for both hard-nosed conservatives (“I’ll take that $25,000 tax deduction, thank you”) and bleeding-heart liberals (“Save the environment and help the less fortunate? Sign me up!”) But I’ll just say it: All of this sounded too good to be true.

So I emailed the company. They sent a guy out to look over the kitchen, measure, take photos, and assess its resale value. The economics of this company work out, Feldman says, only if he resells upscale kitchens; at the moment, Renovation Angel accepts only about half of the candidate kitchens.

Our kitchen made the cut. So on the appointed day, a crew of four men—insured, background-checked—spent about four nonstop hours taking the old kitchen apart. (Incredibly, this was their second kitchen of the day.)

The Renovation Angel crew doesn’t demolish the old kitchen; they recycle it.

The term for this process is demolition, but no destruction was involved. Instead, they carefully unscrewed every piece, wrapped it for protection, and loaded it into a moving truck parked outside. It was amazing to watch, especially in time-lapse (see my video above)

Off it goes to New Jersey!

To get the tax deduction, I had to hire an appraiser; but that was my only expense. (I guess that means that somebody else wins from all of this.)

A week later, I visited the Renovation Angel showroom to interview Feldman—and there, among all the other kitchens stacked up for sale, were all the pieces of my own beloved kitchen, ready to move on to a new home. I even saw a New Jersey couple checking it out.

That’s the part I didn’t get. How can someone buy a kitchen from a totally different house? What are the odds that it will fit their kitchen space?

“Everybody has this question,” Feldman says. “The answer is, kitchens are modular. So if you had a 20 by 15-foot space, somebody else might have a 12 by 20 space. They use a few less cabinets. They rearrange them differently. They get different granite. But at the end of the day, they’re saving themselves tens of thousands of dollars.”

Founder Steve Feldman shows off a kitchen ready for a new life.

Steve’s story

Confusingly, at least to me, Renovation Angel is the name of the demolition side of the company; the part that resells the kitchens is called Green Demolition. It’s the Green Demolition site that lists kitchens for resale.

Feldman, the creator of both halves, has quite a life story. He was an alcohol and drug addict from his teen years right through his career as a radio executive, working for “Imus in the Morning.” He credits a drug-rehab program for saving his life when he was 30. “I’m a recovered addict for 29 years,” he says now.

About 12 years ago, he saw a 10,000-square-foot house in Greenwich, Connecticut, being demolished—and watched all the fine marble, custom cabinetry, and expensive appliances get tossed into a dumpster.

“And I see a sign in the driveway, and it says, ‘Demolition in progress.’ And I think, what’s this? So I drive up to the mansion, and it’s gone. Just a pile of rubble. And I have this ‘Aha!’ moment: Maybe I can earn money by selling kitchens and beautiful fixtures out of mansions.”

When the local Greenwich newspaper wrote an article about this idea, Feldman got 36 phone calls from hedge fund managers, architects, builders, and designers—and the company was on its way.

Today, the company recycles about 500 kitchens a year, and has started to reclaim furniture and fixtures from other rooms of the house. Renovation Angel crews can rescue kitchens from anywhere in the country; eventually, Feldman hopes to open showrooms in California and Florida.

His backstory, by the way, accounts for Feldman’s decision to turn over the company’s profits to charity. “I got my life given back to me [by one of these social programs], and I’m motivated for the rest of my life to give back.”

Storied kitchens

It’s fun to walk through the enormous Renovation Angel showroom, because Feldman is bursting with the stories behind these kitchens.

“We went into one of the biggest mansions in North Las Vegas,” he says. “The kitchen had only been used 25 times. It was a $400,000 kitchen, but it was forest green. It wasn’t the color that most people want. The kitchen designer told me that kitchen would have been thrown out if we hadn’t reclaimed it.” In the end, Feldman says, “a woman in Johnson City, Tennessee bought it for $62,000, because her house had recently burned down.”

When Feldman says it’s a kitchen store, he means it.

At one point, he says, he acquired a kitchen worth $630,000, although it included 15 rooms’ worth of millwork (doors and trim). “A guy ordered it in LA, his Ponzi scheme got bankrupted, and it all sat in a warehouse. I found a dentist to buy the whole lot for $125,000. It was a good deal for everybody.”

Feldman says he also gets kitchens from manufacturers and designers where parts were mis-ordered. “One designer ordered the wrong color on a kitchen—a $127,000 kitchen. The homeowner said, ‘This is the wrong color—order me the right color!’ So she brought this kitchen here, and we sold it.”

One of a kind

“All right, let me play the role of a viewer,” I finally asked Feldman. “It’s like, oh, OK, so people like Pogue get a huge tax write-off and free removal of the old kitchen. The landfill wins. Charities win. Future buyers win. It sounds a little too good to be true. Somebody here is losing.”

“Well, the risk is on our organization,” Feldman replied. “It’s a ton of labor. We do a lot of overtime. And it’s a lot of complicated logistics to coordinate, from the removal to the transportation to the unpacking to the selling to the delivering. That’s why the kitchen industry never had a recycle or trade-in component: because it’s difficult, and it’s space-consuming, time-consuming risk. They want to focus on selling new. So the opportunity is left for us.”

I just couldn’t see who doesn’t come out ahead in Renovation Angel’s system. Feldman insists that the answer is, nobody. “Nobody loses,” he says. “Nobody! You know why? Because it would otherwise go to a landfill. The loser is when you put your kitchen in the dumpster.”

  More from David Pogue:

Is through-the-air charging a hoax?

Electrify your existing bike in 2 minutes with these ingenious wheels

Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone: The next step is implantables 

The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update

Now I get it: Bitcoin

David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app

The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers

David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s poguester@yahoo.com. You can read all his articles here, or you can sign up to get his columns by email. 

[zorovevo]

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[junker-town]

Why Chip Kelly failed in the NFL and what it means for UCLA

The differences between college and pro football aren’t as big as you’ve been led to believe, but they were big enough.

Chip Kelly’s return to the college ranks is exciting — the sport is better when better coaches are involved. But there are a lot of questions regarding what a Kelly offense looks like after his time in the pros and how his philosophy has shifted in the six years since he left Eugene. From my 2018 UCLA preview:

He went 46-7 as Head Duck, and now he’s at a school with a much higher recruiting ceiling. It appears he is integrating some of the basic concepts — “It’s a lot of read option, dish-and-dunk kind of stuff” — and he’s breaking in some of the sports science techniques (GPS devices and whatnot) that he’s become known for.

I’m curious about the philosophical changes Kelly’s offense seemed to undergo in the NFL, just how much his new college offense will look like his old one, and most of all, whether he can do what no UCLA coach since Terry Donahue has done: win consistently.

Kelly’s NFL tenure started out like a house afire.

His 2013 Eagles ranked third in offensive DVOA and improved from 4-12 to 10-6. They pushed tempo as far as you can in the NFL (they averaged one snap every 23.9 seconds in 2013, then one every 22.2 in 2014, both tops in the league). They scored 30-plus points eight times, and they lost in the playoffs only via last-second field goal.

Photo by Rich Schultz /Getty Images

LeSean McCoy and Nick Foles were key components in a devastating 2013 Philadelphia offense.

Even into his second year, as the magic began to fade (they ranked 13th in offensive DVOA), the Eagles went 10-6.

By 2015, the magic was gone. Philadelphia fell to 26th in offensive DVOA and 7-9 overall, and Kelly was fired. He took over a horrid roster in San Francisco in 2016, went 2-14, and became a TV commentator for 2017.

As Kelly was preparing for his lone year in San Francisco, Smart Football’s Chris B. Brown penned the definitive take on Kelly’s devolution. The gist:

Defenses grew more sophisticated in handling tempo.

NFL officials don’t let you go as quickly as Kelly wanted.

Having the QB run is terrifying for a pro team that’s invested millions of dollars in the position. An injury could wreck your season even more than it could in college.

Without that run threat and with immobile QBs like Mark Sanchez and Sam Bradford, Kelly’s play-calling was predictable.

And perhaps his preferred philosophy (which included the elements of what you might call an optimal college football offense) wasn’t as suited in a pro environment that features more adaptable coaching and fewer talent advantages. As the Washington Post’s Mark Maske noted, Kelly was given far too much control of personnel decisions in Philadelphia. GM Kelly perhaps screwed head coach Kelly out of success.

Still, I would add one more thing to the list of factors against him in Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Close your eyes and picture Kelly’s Oregon offense.

Maybe you’re flashing back to that Statue of Liberty against Michigan. But more likely, it’s some dam-bursting, 70-yard explosion. Kelly’s Ducks wore you out with tempo and then sliced you vertically.

If there’s a singular difference between college and pro football, it’s that big plays are a lot harder to come by in the NFL. A lot harder.

Football is a “game of inches.” We hear that on broadcasts, from coaches, and out of our own mouths. We understand how tight the margins are in this sport.

But as games and seasons pass, the gray area disappears. The narrative says you either won, or you lost. You succeeded, or you failed.

Want to see how blurry the lines are between success and failure in football, though?

Below is a chart that features two pieces of data:

The distribution of gains for Kelly’s unstoppable Oregon offenses.

The distribution of gains for Kelly’s failed NFL offenses.

The data is presented cumulatively, so that by the time you get to the far right, you’re accounting for 100 percent of plays. As you can see, there was very little difference here between Kelly’s college and pro offenses.

Broken out into yardage ranges, that data looks like this:

There are but meager differences.

Kelly’s NFL teams suffered more zero-yard plays — completion rates were 62 percent at each level, but Kelly did call more passes at the NFL level, which meant more incompletions — but also suffered fewer negative plays: 9 percent vs. 11 percent.

For any offense, a large percentage of your plays gain between one and six yards. At both levels, Kelly’s offenses did this about 35 percent of the time.

Twenty-two percent of his Oregon plays gained between seven and 14 yards, while 20 percent did in the NFL.

One in 27 plays (3.7 percent) gained 30-plus yards for the Ducks. Only one in 38 did (2.6 percent) in the NFL.

That last one doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but considering differences in tempo (his Oregon offenses averaged 75.2 plays per game, and his NFL offenses averaged 66.9), that’s 2.8 explosions per game versus 1.7, one more easy score per game.

A lack of explosive big plays might’ve made all the difference.

We know there is less scoring in NFL games, but we don’t necessarily think about why.

College offenses are about as efficient as pro offenses, on a down-by-down basis. The average success rate for college offenses from 2009-17 was 42.1 percent, and in the pros, it’s 41.2 percent.

As much as anything, it’s the explosive plays that define the difference between college and pro.

A coach once told me that when watching Kelly’s Philadelphia offenses, one or two 19-yarders per game would make him think, “That would have gone to the house at Oregon.”

In college since 2009, 2.7 percent of plays gained at least 30 yards. In the NFL, it was 2.4 percent.

Combined with differences in tempo (college games averaged 72.7 plays per game to NFL’s 63.1), that means two big gashes per game to the NFL’s 1.5. That, plus slight differences in efficiency and turnovers (1.55 per game in college to 1.49 in the pros), accounts for most of the difference in scoring (26.4 points per game vs. 22.5).

These margins are tiny. But they add up.

Think of it this way: the college-vs.-NFL difference of 0.9 percentage points of success rate over 66.9 plays per game means 0.6 fewer successful plays per game. The average successful play gains about 12 yards in both college and pro, so losing about half a successful play means gaining about seven yards fewer per game.

Meanwhile, removing half of a single big play per game could subtract those seven yards plus another 25 or more yards from a box score. Missing 30 yards from a single play could drop your per-play average over the course of a game by about 0.5 yards.

For an offense like Kelly’s, so defined by big plays at Oregon, you can see how costly this difference could be. Removing a single huge gain can change a game much more than taking away a couple chain-movers, for obvious reasons.

Granted, things worked brilliantly for a while.

His first year in Philly produced a higher big-play rate than at Oregon — 9.8 percent of plays gained at least 20 yards compared to 7.7 percent at UO.

But that shrank quickly, to 6.8 percent in 2014, 6.1 in 2015, and 4.7 in 2016.

According to data in the Football Outsiders Almanac, the extremes in Kelly’s philosophy were evident each year, even with the 49ers:

Kelly’s NFL offenses ranked first in percentage of snaps out of the shotgun/pistol every year: 86 percent in 2013-14, 94 percent in 2015, and 99 percent with SF in 2016.

They lined up in a single-back formation at least 92 percent of the time each year — the most in the NFL from 2013-15 and second most in 2016.

They did attempt balance on first downs, but they ran more on second-and-long than anyone (at least 41 percent of the time each year, ranking no lower than third), almost always ran in power situations (ranking second or higher three of four times), and attempted as much play-action as anyone (fourth or higher three of four times).

Combined with tempo, this all sounds like what Kelly wanted to do at Oregon.

The genius of his run-heavy system at Oregon was that you could create big plays without big risk. The Ducks’ tempo made defenses scatterbrained, and backs like Jeremiah Johnson, LaMichael James, Kenjon Barner, and De’Anthony Thomas — guys speedy enough to combine for six yards per carry in the pros — made them pay. And when they overcompensated, quarterbacks Marcus Mariota, Darron Thomas, and Jeremiah Masoli would keep the ball.

Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

De’Anthony Thomas was a lightning bolt in Eugene.

In the NFL, his run game was always at least above average in explosiveness, but “explosive” means something different there, particularly on the ground. Big NFL plays almost all come through the air.

You eventually have to be able to throw, so after Kelly’s initial NFL surge, his philosophy became less and less of a fit.

He’s now back in his college comfort zone, though.

Through recruiting, you can build more permanent talent and speed advantages here, and you can run the ball with great effect, especially if you are less afraid of getting your QB hit.

If Kelly’s got anything in his first year at UCLA, it’s options at QB.

Former Michigan starter/statue Wilton Speight is available, in case NFL experience scared Kelly away from running the QB as much. Kelly certainly tried to sell Speight on his NFL offense.

Kelly pitched Speight on a system like the one the coach ran in the NFL, where he turned to pocket-passers such as Nick Foles, Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez. Foles was named to the 2013 Pro Bowl while leading the league in yards per pass attempt and passer rating. Sanchez, the former USC star, personally vouched for Kelly’s offense as the two quarterbacks trained together.

Still, your opponent’s math changes if it has to account for a mobile quarterback. At Oregon, Kelly had guys who could throw (especially Mariota) and punish defenses for over-pursuing against a hand-off.

One would assume a tie would go to a more mobile guy like freshman Dorian Thompson-Robinson or a split-the-difference QB in Devon Modster, who can run but also completed 65 percent of his passes filling in for Josh Rosen. Betting odds favor Modster.

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

Devon Modster might be the bridge Kelly is looking for between NFL-style passer and college-style dual-threat.

As Brown wrote, Kelly’s NFL legacy will end up more like a Hal Mumme than a Bill Walsh.

The NFL’s Kelly was an innovator who paved the way for others to innovate and succeed more than he did.

As the new coach of the San Francisco 49ers, the man who was at one time football’s leading innovator seeks redemption in the heart of Silicon Valley, America’s current cradle of disruptive innovation, a fitting landing spot given that it appears Kelly is seemingly hurtling toward being the next victim of the “Innovator’s Curse.” [...]

The second idea behind the Innovator’s Curse is that, having once innovated, it’s increasingly difficult for the innovator to continue innovating. To use Silicon Valley examples, there are countless IBMs, Xeroxes, and Yahoos: one-time disruptors whose cultures and ideas ossified and who eventually became the disrupted.

The NFL indeed evolved toward Kelly’s vision. Teams are lining up in the shotgun more and using more one-back, three-receiver sets. The Super Bowl, won by the Eagles, was full of college offense. Plus, research suggests play-action is the way to go if you’re looking for easy yards. And Kelly made defenses improve at adjusting to tempo.

There are worse legacies. And at only 54 years old, Kelly’s got a time to add another chapter in Westwood.