#yes I bought the digital copy just for this interview

[nextstopwonderland]

“Bryan has found that I definitely respond well to negative motivational tactics.” - Wheeler Yuta for Pro Wrestling Illustrated

[after-lauhgter]

Hey dude, I really like your music taste so do all the music questions that you didn't already answer 🌚

OK DUDE HERE THEY COME (except 1,6 & 14) ... ok lets do number 1 again  What's a song you've been listening to a lot lately? as the world caves in by Matt Maltese, if I get high by nothing but thieves, and literally anything off waterparks’ new live album, that thing makes me feel so ALIVE bc like LIVE MUSIC  Is there an album you recently discovered and are obsessed with it now? well waterparks live in the uk obviously but if the last 6 months count as recently, then the new abnormal by the strokes. its... absolutely breathtaking. I don't have words. 0 words. except these dudes know what the fuck they’re doing. and then I found the devil and god are raging inside me by brand new and jeeesus. literally Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ was my most played song in 2020 AS IT SHOULD BE bc its EVERYTHING this album is THE SHIT. every song is just *chef kiss* like there's limousine (omg limousine) and you won't know and not the sun and AHH listen to these albums omg  Put your playlist on shuffle and show the first 10 songs. No cheating. i assume “your playlist” means all my saved songs so Topography by Civilian (pls go listen its SO great) Na Na Na by mcr yees issa classic  Du schreibst Geschichte by Madsen omg geeerman  just saying by EDEN (pretty pretty pretty) Westerland von den Ärzten another classic  letdown by nothing,nowhere. sad but the good kind of sad  The Man by the killers making fun of toxic masculinity gives me LIFE  Graffiti by CHVRCHES YES  and death stranding by CHVRCHES too YES SO GOOD simmer by Hayley Williams, a queen  How do you tend to discover new music? If you do at all of course I do enjoy what Spotify suggests, like my weekly mix brought a lot of bops in the past, although sometimes it just sucks lets be real. I also like the artist- or album-radio, when I wanna find something similar to an album but not the album.  and another thing I lovvve is when artists I like recommend music, for example, have you seen dallon weekes instagram stories? THE TASTE? bc yes, someone who writes music like that MUST have a superior taste in music and he fucking does. 

What app do you mostly use to listen to music? Spotify :) Is there an artist that you feel ashamed of listening too? I can't think of anyone so probably not  What is your favorite album cover art? omg. I have to go with more than one. so there's where the mind wants to go/where you let it go by I the mighty, one of my favorite albums of all time, and I'm going to say it how it is, I LIKE THE COLORS. the blue-ish imagine with the red omg. look at it pls.  Also fandom by waterparks looks SO COOL. again the COLORS  and I love the art for Isola by Kent.  I recently discovered you wouldn't believe what privilege costs by civilian and I think that cover is pretty cool too.  well and then there's petals for armor by Hayley Williams, the cover art is so fucking powerful Jesus I get goosebumps just thinking about it. in case you don't know about it, long story short: there's been a lot of shit going on in Hayleys life in the past. relatable imo. then they made after laughter and its been like u know what fuck it we’ll just laugh and dance through the pain. together. and I LOVED the vibe omg it gave me so much. but for Hayley it kinda postponed REALLY dealing with shit. she came home from touring with AL and she also got divorced during the AL era and everything's shit and out of all that came petals for armor. and in it she reclaims femininity, being alone, being powerful, being a women, everything. and ah yeah we were talking about the cover art, the cover is her, having a line of squares on her face, three of these squares are tattooed on her fingers though bc its where her ex husbands initials used to be that she got covered up. WHAT A MOVE. THE POWER.  (if anyone is interested in hearing Hayley talking about/explaining all this, I really recommend watching her interview with zane Lowe. its SO GOOD basically free therapy) How much did your parents influence your music taste? a. lot. my dad listened to a lot of “dad rock” you may call it, I guess a lot of dads listened to stuff similar to this. Deep Purple, the police, simple minds, Green Day, Billy Talent, the scorpions and things like that. what influenced me the most tho was the beatsteaks (german band, very good), die Ärzte (german band, very good) and LAST BUT NOT LEAST the fricking blues brothers. my favorite movie (not the 2000 remake, go watch that in hell where it belongs), a great, charismatic band, unbelievable live performances. very big WOW from me.  Do you own any vinyl? don't get me started omg. I DO. I wish I could take a photo but my records are at my parents house so ill just name my favorites.  -after laughter and brand new eyes by paramore -violent things by the brobecks and their song boring on 7inch (this is very rare ok) -razzzzmatazzz by idkhow in gold :) -may death never stop you by mcr (my first one, I bought it first and then bought a record player for it, that's how it started lol) -omg the black parade is dead by mcr, this was never available on vinyl until record store day 2019 (?) and I hunted that bitch like idek what it was insane but I found a super cute small record store and the owner didn't have copies of it bc NOBODY DID but he fucking CALLED THE LABEL even though it was way too late and he asked if they'd send him a copy and THEY DID I FUCKING OWE THIS MAN  -and omg Isola by Kent (in Swedish tho bc the English version was never pressed on vinyl) this was intense. I searched for like 2 weeks and then, on google results page 8 or something, I found what could've been the only copy on the damn internet and it was very expensive but its MINE NOW -my signed vertigo vinyl by EDEN, its clear and on side D it doesn't have music but a little message engraved it the vinyl IT IS CUTe -Placebos MTV unplugged! I am so I love with this album. SO. in love. and one day, when I was in Berlin to see palaye royale, back when we had concerts, I walked by a random record store and they have like 4 records left bc they were closing or idk and the only one displayed in the window was this one. tell me about FATE  Do you own any cds? not many. sometimes when im at the store and I see ones I know or like, I just buy them and put them in me moms car bc I want her to listen to them. or when I find a cd by a smaller artist I enjoy, I buy it just to push the nachfrage. HI i am HERE and I WANT this music  Is vinyl really better than listening on a digital device? im not gonna be that middle aged white male audiophile that hates on our generation for using Spotify. bc its great. I think its just different. I mean im sorry I don't carry my record player on the bus with me, pls forgive me for using my phone? having immediate access to most of the music that is out there? wow. what a concept. I love the internet. YES TECHNOLOGY. but. vinyls are... different. I feel likes its a different kind of listening. I feel like youre rly LISTENING. and that way isn't better, or right, and im not saying it works like this for everyone. but when I put a record on, my only activity at that moment is listening to music, I sit down and I listen. to the entire album. so skips and no pauses, bc that's how it works. and I think that sometimes, that can do a lot for you. if you let it.  and besides that, physically owning a record makes me happy on a level nothing else really does. fuck I love music so much and when I fall in love with it, I fall hard. and then owning a copy of it, something I can touch, something that is MINE, putting it in my little shelf, looking at it every few days and just being in love? fantastic feeling.  What is a genre of music that you tend to go to for comfort? sad shit. I feel like I can get great comfort from the sad shit. or maybe just slow shit. and songs that mean a lot to me and have been around me for some time, they have this other level of comfort. like for Emma, forever ago by bon iver for example. I have a playlist, maybe I'll reblog this again and link it ;) Do you tend to like poppy upbeat songs, or more intricate and interesting songs? both. sometimes I wanna have complicated stuff and analyze the shit out of lyrics and instrumentation, sometimes I just wanna v i b e If you have a favorite band or artist, tell us about how you got into them I liked paramore before but when they posted the video of them performing last hope at reading? it was over. when Hayley sang the bridge it was over. now im a die hard fan and I never looked back Is there a song that came out this year that you like? maybe after reading all this shit you expected a list but somehow I can't. where do u even start. but the answer is definitely yes.  THANK YOU FOR REQUESTING I COULD GO ON FOR DAYS 

[gstdaisuki]

A Talk with Nathan McCree

(this is a followup to my video on Nathan’s work, which you should watch(!), and a mirror of the Patreon post)

Nathan McCree is well-known for his work on Tomb Raider. If you go digging, you’ll find he’s been interviewed about the series several times. However, he’s done quite a lot more. I’d like to fill in some of the gaps. Below are snippets from my chat with Nathan about music on the Megadrive, what it’s like to work within limitations, and music in the future. 

---

GST: Skeleton Krew's music is an oddity on the Megadrive. there's nothing else quite like it. I saw you mention that the soundscape was inspired by the graphics, which makes sense --they compliment each other beautifully. I want to ask what other influences you had in mind, if any. How much of the soundtrack was just created by just pushing strange sounds out of your tools? 

NM: It's very difficult to say exactly where inspiration comes from. Mostly I am inspired by the kit I am using and the sounds they make, so in this case it was the sounds I was creating on the Yamaha chip inside the Megadrive. But musically at the time I was listening to a lot of psychedelic electronic bands like Ozric Tentacles, The Orb and lots of dance/trance/house music of the era.  

GST: Now that you mention Ozric Tentacles, the arp sequences in Clockdrops have a similar feel to some of the tracks in Skeleton Krew. It's kind of striking, though I think the direction you went in is actually better realized because you seem to work so well within the FM on the Megadrive. (Hopefully the musical comparison isn't too offensive!) 

NM: No I'm not offended by the comparison at all. I did learn a lot about synth patterns and textures from Ozric Tentacles, but again, without copying, I took what I learned and went in my own direction with it. It's important to always have a picture or an emotion of the project you are working on as this helps construct the music in a way which fits the mood of the product and as a result should gel the visuals and the animations together. The music in effect, acts as a kind of glue for the project which holds it all together.

GST: On the opposite end of the oddity spectrum, Astérix and the Power of the Gods for the Megadrive features nothing but classical songs. I'm curious if this was a decision from the game designers, or an exercise for you, or something else. 

NM: It was a decision made by the game designer and programmer, Stefan Walker. Stef asked me if it were possible to convert 15 or so of the most famous classical pieces in history that were out of copyright protection (older than 90 years). Of course I said yes, and we set about listening and searching for pieces which fit that criteria and which would be suitable for the game. The conversion process from a full-orchestra down to a 6 note-polyphonic FM synthesizer was a challenge but a very enjoyable one, and the result earned the accolade "Best Megadrive Music Ever". I was rather chuffed with that.

GST: The soundtrack for BLAM! Machine Head is listed as released in 1995, which is before the game came out. Was this a promotional thing?

NM: Yes it was a promotional release of 300 vinyls. We sent a load to UK Clubs to try and get some club play time to promote the game. We succeeded a little but game soundtracks weren't really the thing back then so it gained little traction.

GST: That’s pretty amazing! That was late 1995, right on the precipice of game music leaking into the mainstream. (For reference, "Sega Tunes" came out in August 1996, "Club Saturn" in 1996, and Tommy Tallarico released his arrangement albums in mid-94 and mid-96) Did you get any feedback / reviews from the clubs?

NM: Yes we did. A few were kind enough to give us some feedback. One club I remember said about Nano-Seed, "a floor-filler!". That was good.

GST: Relatedly, what is your experience with club music? Some of the tracks on BLAM! sound perfect for the era. I wouldn't expect them to be written by someone who was previously unfamiliar with club music. Do you remember any particular songs or artists that you drew inspiration from?

NM: I was clubbing a lot in the 90s. I was going to Hot To Trot in Mansfield once a month, Renaissance in Derby in between and a few other local dance venues in Derby. In the end I was clubbing every weekend. Apart from the psychedelic bands I mentioned earlier I can't really pin-point a particular dance music artist. I was listening to so much and none of it was being repeated. I was constantly listening to new tracks. It was a very inspirational time musically and on top of all this I was writing my own dance music in my spare time outside of working at Core Design. So yeah, there was a whole lot of influence that went into the BLAM! Machinehead soundtrack. Having said that, with my writing, I always try to write something which I haven't heard before so I hope there is something unique and new about the music in BLAM! Machinehead.

GST: About Swagman: This seems like the most involved orchestral soundtrack that you had created since Soulstar. I'd like to compare the two a bit. How closely were you working with the rest of the team at this time? Swagman isn't a rail shooter so you can't match the soundtrack with the action in the levels... How much better was your gear at this point? I'd say "it doesn't sound like you struggled with your gear this time" but you actually disguised that struggle quite well in Soulstar, haha. 

NM: As you say, Swagman wasn't a rail-shooter, so scripting the music to fit the game wasn't possible. Instead I used the location of each level as my main source of inspiration, and created atmospheres to fit those - The Nursery, In the Garden, Down the Well, The Crypt for example. I had some new kit by the time I started writing Swagman. Mainly the addition of the Roland JV1080 which I had expanded with the Orchestral Boards 1 & 2 and the World Expansion Board. I also had a Roland JV90 which is the keyboard version of the JV1080. That too was expanded. So I had plenty of voice-polyphony at that point and lots of very useful orchestral patches to play with. So you're right, it was less of a struggle with Swagman, but both projects were still very enjoyable to create. With Soulstar, I ended up using quite a few saw-tooth, synth-lead patches to create the brass ensembles. They actually sounded pretty good once they were buried in amongst the rest of the orchestral sounds!

GST: Battle Engine Aquila marks a soundtrack where you were freelance AND in the distant future of 2003. How much of your gear did you leave behind when you left Core Design to go freelance? And how much of it was digital instruments on your computer at this point? I ask the latter because, to my ears, this game sounds about as good as you can get without hiring a real orchestra. 

NM: So obviously leaving Core Design meant saying goodbye to all the kit I had built up over the 6 years that I worked there, but of course I needed something to work with as a freelancer. So I spent a large chunk of my Tomb Raider money on a new studio for myself. Apart from the obvious stuff like a mixing desk, studio monitors and a PC, the decision needed to be made as to what instruments/synths I should buy. I had been really impressed with the Roland JV1080 so I bought one of those (and expanded it as before) and the synth geek in me also decided to by one of Roland's latest creations, the JP8000 - a fully record-able and controllable raw synth machine! With this machine it was possible to record the movement of every pot and fader straight to Cubase. A very useful tool for dance music, and to this day I still haven't used it to it's full potential. I also bought an Akai S9000 sampler which I used mainly for drums, so once again my orchestral setup was synth-based, rather than sample-based. So I started out freelance with this kit in 1998. When I got the opportunity to work on Battle Engine Aquila I decided I needed a bigger orchestra so I bought another Roland JV1080 (expanded again) and an E-MU Virtuoso 2000 orchestral synth which I quickly binned when the main controller knob became faulty and I wasn't impressed with the architecture of the signal path. I continued to use the Akai S9000 sampler for a few more years for electronic music but as soon as computers became fast enough for sample based editing inside the sequencing software, it too became a dust collector on my studio shelf along with other outboard gear which were replaced by VST instruments and Plugins. To this day I still use the 2 Roland JV1080s and my Roland JP8000, and that's about it. I'm not one of these musicians who needs to hide behind a million synths or new pieces of kit every month to convince people I can write music. I'm one of these guys who can make music from anything. A fork, knife, bottle, my kid's mini toy guitar, or glockenspiel. If it makes a note, I can use it, which I frequently have in my compositions over the years. I remember when I was working on a prehistoric game called BC, I used a metal electric fire which I scraped with a nail and hit some bricks with drum sticks to create the percussion sounds for the music. I don't need to buy new kit to be creative.

GST: I'm curious about what the limits are when it comes to crafting something unique. If you go too "far out," you'll have a unique song, but it might not resemble "music". Where's the balance between copying the songs you heard in the club and becoming autechre? Same question for non-electronic music: It's possible to get unique compositions if you go to the edge of music theory, but that can also become inaccessible. (You did seem to use odd time for the end theme of Waterlollies (11/8 by my count) though, which is always a fun technique.) 

NM: Finding something new isn't about moving further and further away from music, it's about persevering with textures, ensembles, sounds, patterns and harmony until you find or create something which you haven't heard before. You have to wade through a load of stuff you have already heard until you find new waters. Sometimes that can take hours, sometimes days. You have to keep going. Adding stuff, deleting stuff. Thinking outside the box. Sometimes forgetting what you have been taught. Turning things upside down, back to front. It also helps to enter altered states of the mind when creating. This can be done in a variety of ways. Working late into the night until you are close to falling asleep for example, puts your brain into an almost dream state which helps create new things which you wouldn't normally think of during the day. This is why many creatives, and not just musicians, do their best work in the early hours of the morning. Other things can help too, drinking alcohol, but this has a negative impact on your hearing, and then of course there's marijuana which I think most musicians that have ever lived swear by! Personally for me, it's about perseverance, working at the detail and striving for perfection. Music doesn't have to be complicated or removed from tonality and harmony to be different. There are billions of combinations, it's just about looking for the new ones.

GST: One more question about the early days: Does any of the original software or source code for your Megadrive music still exist? 

NM: There's a possibility that I have a copy of the programme somewhere on my hard drives but it needs a special custom built PCI card installed in your PC to work and that, I do not have anymore. You see in those days, getting access to certain elements of the games console just wasn't possible like it is today. Now you install some dev tools plugin and you have direct access to every feature of the console. Back in the early 90s we had to dismantle the machine with a screwdriver, rip out the circuit boards, making notes of the chip serial numbers and manufacturers, then calling the company and asking them for a full specification of the pin numbers and what each one did. After that, we would order the chips we wanted (or rip them out of the games console itself) and design our own circuit board which included the chips we wanted and have it all re-mounted onto a custom built PCI card which we would then install into a PC. After that, it was all about programming. We followed a similar process for the Megadrive sound chip. It was a Yamaha YM2612. So we ordered a couple of these directly from Yamaha and once we had the full spec it was pretty simple to work out how to wire it up on a circuit board. All we needed to do was to add left and right phono sockets to the output pins on the chip and send the 5v power supply to it and there you go, Megadrive synth on a PC! Of course there are the other pins (24 in total) which needed connecting up to the data bus, memory access pins, read/write request lines, interrupt request line, ground pins etc. but once we'd figured all this out it was simple enough to create a circuit diagram for the board. Once we had that we sent off the design and the 2 x Yamaha chips to a circuit board manufacturing plant in the UK. A week later our 2 x Megadrive synth PCI boards arrived. We plugged one into my PC and the other into Sean (programmer)'s PC, and we got to work coding up the sequencer. Sean took care of the machine-code level programming of the synth engine and I programmed the high-level language user interface. We had the whole sequencer up and running in 4 months. So I may have the source code and sequencer files but I don't have the hardware on which it runs. Of course I could have another circuit board made but it would take some time to get all that together again.

GST: What happened to Console Sounds / Industrial Ambiance? I can’t find it anywhere. 

NM: I took the album off-line. It was available as a library album for a while but the critiques viewed it as if it was an album release and began slating it for sounding like off-the-shelf music - which is exactly what it was. It was never an album release. It was just a bunch of tunes that had not been used for anything, and I was just trying to earn some money. But when the critiques got hold of it and slated it, I took it down.

GST: That's understandable, but unfortunate. Have you considered bringing the album (or any of the songs) back on a service like Bandcamp or Soundcloud? 

NM: Yes I do have ideas and avenues for a lot of my music. The first thing I want to do is to officially release all my game soundtracks. After that I'll see what's left and if there's any mileage releasing any of it. 

GST: Actually, how much of your music can you release on Bandcamp? I know that the rights can get tied up...

NM: Well after the Kickstarter campaign, I am now officially a record company and publisher so I can release any of my music whenever I like. I don't need a platform like Bandcamp or Soundcloud (where often the composer/performer ends up surrendering their rights for little compensation). I don't need to do that now. I can release my music myself and retain 100% of the rights, which is a better way to go. It's been a hell of a lot of work to get to the company to this point, but the infrastructure is there now, so I'm going to continue with that.

GST: Oh, that's exciting! Do you have any idea when we can expect to see some old soundtracks released? I'm also very interested in the dance music you wrote outside of Core Design. That would be a fun throwback thing. 

NM: I want to start rolling my old game soundtracks out over the next few years. I have earmarked about 10 albums which I think are worthy of release. They all require some work in terms of remastering and re-recording. Some would benefit from a live orchestral recording like Soulstar, Heimdall II, Swagman and Battle Engine Aquila to name a few, but those kinds of production are very expensive so we'll have to see how funding goes for that kind of thing. In the meantime though, I will be releasing new synthetic recordings of these soundtracks - all made using the original equipment which I wrote them on, so they will sound the same, only better! Yeah there's probably an album or two of dance type tracks kicking around which could be released. Other songs too which are still unfinished so i'll need to do a bit of work to finish those up into some releasable form. So plenty of work to keep me busy for the next 5 or so years I'd say.

GST: Where can we find news about these remastered albums? Where's a good place to find you? Is there anything else you'd like to plug? 

NM: The best places to keep informed as to what I'm doing career wise is on my official FB page: https://www.facebook.com/nathanmccreeofficial/ and also my Twitter page: https://twitter.com/nrpmccree  As far as plugs go, please just support my concerts. They cost a huge amount of money and time to organize and I can only keep doing them if we get a good attendance. It's really important, not just for The Tomb Raider Suite, but for games music in general, and if you do like the Tomb Raider Suite album which is free to play on Spotify, please consider buying a copy. This is how us musicians make a living and it really does help us to keep going and writing more stuff which hopefully you will enjoy. A big shout out to all the fans who have supported me so far and who continue to do so - you guys rock!

[ask-de-writer]

LOST TIME (part 1 of 3) A fantasy of Flocking Bay.

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to Flocking Bay

LOST TIME

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

5556 words

© 2020 by Glen Ten-Eyck

written 2003

All rights reserved.

Reproduction  in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the  express written consent of the author or proper copyright holder.

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Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users  of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights. They may reblog the story. They may use the characters or original characters in  my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical   compositions. I will allow those who do commission art works to charge   for their images.

All sorts of Fan Activity, fiction, art, cosplay, music or anything else is ACTIVELY encouraged!

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It stands out even in the dark ... It shouldn’t. It’s just a house. A damned old house. Not even that old really, not for New England. It’s a two story salt-box style with an observation deck under a cupola at the peak. It is probably just the setting. Rusty old iron fence, gnarled elderly trees, unkempt lawn not quite out of control, windows that the neighborhood kids haven’t broken. It should be a witch’s house but it isn’t. It is mine. I just closed on it yesterday.

The kids are going to have a field day this time. I don’t like the daylight... been on night shift as far back as I can remember. That’s a longish way back. But I’m not a witch, nor vampire. Nothing exotic that I know of. I’m just one of those people (you probably know one or two) who don’t show their age. If you envy me, think again. YOU try to explain to a traffic cop why your ID has you pegged for seventy+ and you don’t look over twenty. I carry a copy of my fingerprint record from the military, because they can check that.

Funny part of it is, I really don’t have the slightest idea how old I am. Traumatic amnesia the doctors called it, during the war. The head wound was minor, they said.

That is a matter of opinion. It robbed me of my past, my name, my identity, my loves and hates but left my skills intact. I was an empty shell. I am still trying to find my past.

The name that I use comes from more or less modern myth. Vandervekken. The Flying Dutchman. Wandering Dutchman would be more accurate. He sails the seas off the Cape of Good Hope until Judgment Day. He can’t find his home either. I bought the house because it is the first place that I have seen in over fifty years where I want to stay. You explain it.

The rusty gate opened silently, thanks to the bit of oil that I put on the hinges. Going up the uneven walk, between the looming trees is an experience. The door lock is old-fashioned but still works smoothly. Covered furniture could have made ghosts to haunt the place, if I were superstitious or given to being easily frightened.

As I said, I like the night. I even enjoy things with a bit of a spooky atmosphere. I also like antiques and handcrafted things which is why, if I ever find out who did it, I will cheerfully throttle whatever philistine covered the finely inlaid hardwood parquetry floors with battleship gray paint.

Stripping and refinishing those floors was on my priority job list. Actually, I shouldn’t beef too much. Pointing out the problem got me a price reduction of nearly $2000 on an already underpriced house with all of its furniture as part of the deal. Estates can be wonderful when you are on a tight budget. Too bad that someone else had to die to create my good fortune.

As I pulled the dust covers from the furniture, I saw that my good fortune was been complete. It was all sturdy, hand-carved hardwood with Chinese silk brocade upholstery. The furniture alone was worth what I had paid for the house and contents. The tops of even the smallest hall tables were inlaid with rich veneers, ivory and mother of pearl. You couldn’t buy furniture like this any more. Besides the cost, the ivory in the inlays is no longer legal to obtain. I could get as much from the sale of just one or two pieces as I could from a year of writing if I could bring myself to part with any of this treasure. It just feels like the house would not be complete without it.

Whoever it was that had died and left this for me to have has whatever blessings it is in my power to bestow. The only wonder is that this place stayed on the market long enough for me to find it. Usually, deals like this get snapped up by the real-estate brokers before people like me ever see them.

When I got to the kitchen, I received another little jolt. I knew that it was fairly up to date, but some thoughtful soul had stocked the fridge and set out a bit of a snack for me. Just cookies and a glass for the milk, which was staying cold in the cooler. Thoughtful. I wondered who did it.

While munching on the cookies, I opened a few windows to air the place out a bit. Going out to my car, I saw that the flags of the walk needed leveling because of the weeds that grew up between them. I drove around to the alley behind the place, opened the garage and parked Lilitu, my classic pre-war Packard touring car. She looked right at home in there. Few, even of modern garages were big enough for her. I ferried my few personal goods up to the house. On my last trip, I saw a couple of wide-eyed kids looking over the back fence.

“Told ya, told ya so!” one of them chanted. “There’s somebody sneakin’ inta the ol’ Vekin place!”

“I wouldn’t call it sneaking, to move into your own place,” I answered as civilly as I could manage. “I just bought it. Why do you call it the Vekin place?”

“If ya ain’t sneakin’, why ya goin’ in the back way? An’ after dark, too?” she shot back. I could now see that they were a girl and a boy. She was obviously in charge.

“I like nights. I’m a writer, so I can keep any hours I like. Why is it the Vekin place?” I asked again.

“Dun’no - Crazy guy named Vekin used to live there,” she contradicted herself.

“Lot of folks tried to buy the place since then,” the boy piped in.

“But nobody ever stays,” the girl finished for him firmly.

“So, this is the neighborhood’s haunted house?” I inquired jovially.

“No,” was as far as the boy got.

“Its down the street, on t’other side,” she cut in.

“I looked at that one,” I said thoughtfully. “The old Victorian. Somebody’s broken out all the windows. Not like here. If the Vekin house is so bad, why hasn’t some kid chucked rocks at it?”

“‘Cause we’re not THAT crazy!” exclaimed The boy, getting out a whole thought. The girl gave him a push, and they ran off into the night.

I got up about noon, after the most restful night’s sleep that I’d had since the War. After my breakfast and a quiet tour of the place from attic to basement, I went out. My goal was the local newspaper. THE FLOCKING BAY VOICE was sprawled across the plate glass window in Old English style letters of gold leaf and black. Smaller letters proclaimed Est. 1841. I pushed open the door. My nose was assaulted by the multiple odors of printer’s ink, paper and grease. The VOICE occupied one large room. An elderly web press crouched at the back of the space, behind several rolls of newsprint. Cubicles made offices in the middle of the room. An old oak counter that had once seen duty as a bar had several signs suspended over it on thin chains. They read ‘submissions’, ‘advertisements’, ‘subscriptions’, ‘billing’.

There was a bell on the counter. Some wag had put a sign on it, “Please ring bell, it won’t help but it will give you something to do.” I gave myself something to do, energetically, a few times.

A trim little blond lady answered the bell’s summons. She wore a green eyeshade and a pin on her sweater announced, ‘Lois Martin - cook, bottle washer & EDITOR in CHIEF.’ “What can I do for you, today?” she asked.

“I came to see what I can find out about the Vekin place,” I answered, trying not to stare at her.

“Just a moment, I’ll get the file out of the morgue. I was going to get it anyway. Somebody went and bought the place again.”

“Wait a minute,” I protested. “Someone buys a house and that makes news in Flocking Bay? This town must be even quieter than it looks.”

“Oh,” she retorted, “it can get downright interesting around here when the old Vekin place sells. You’ll see.” She disappeared among the cubicles and I heard her feet clattering down a flight of stairs. I heard a file drawer creak and slide, then slam shut. It wasn’t long before she reappeared, a rather fat file clutched in her hand.

“If you’d like, we can have lunch over at Mike’s Soda Shop,” she proposed. “He makes decent submarine sandwiches and real ice-cream sodas.”

“Well ... ” I pretended to hesitate, “I haven’t been invited out by a beautiful blond in a long time, so, yes.”

“I hope that I haven’t just made a fool of myself,” she remarked, laying aside the eyeshade. “You are Mr. Vandervekken aren’t you? The man who just bought the place?”

“Too true,” I said.

“Then I’ll make it an interview and deduct it from my taxes,” she smiled.

“You make enough to pay taxes?” I asked, looking back as we crossed the street.

“I have hidden assets. The paper is a tax shelter.” She opened the door of Mike’s and ushered me in.

As I was seating her, I just couldn’t help blurting out, “Your assets seem to be pretty obvious.”

She grinned, “Go ahead and stare. I don’t mind. If I did, I wouldn’t wear a snug sweater and put my pin just here.” She pointed, then added, “Looking at it will keep you off your guard while I ask my questions.”

“OK, Ms. Martin, but let me look at the file first. You can order for me. You know the food here,” I said, reaching for the file.

“Lois,” she replied, “call me Lois, everyone else does.” Then she hollered to the man behind the counter, “Oh, Mike! Two butterscotch sodas and a big turkey sub! Divide it in half!”

“How did you know that I liked butterscotch?” I asked. “It’s not that common a preference these days.”

“I just had a hunch, that’s all. You looked like another butterscotch type person.”

I was leafing through the file on the rather beat-up table while we waited. I couldn’t resist snorting with amusement at the name of the house’s builder. Capt. Von Der Vekin. The house had been built in 1894 by the Capt. and his elusive son, Charles. Nobody had ever seen Charles until he came into town, on April 1st, 1900, to report his father’s demise and burial on the property. He ordered a headstone hewn of the local limestone. Charles had returned from WW I with honors and lived quietly, claiming to be a writer, though nobody ever saw any of his work in print. When asked, all that he would say was ‘Pseudonyms are great for privacy’. He was not so lucky when he volunteered to assist the French resistance in 1939. He never came home.

Next==>

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to Flocking Bay

[gemmayim]

Interview with Colin, a librarian in Walthamstow library in 1980s

I had an In-depth interview with Colin, who worked in library in Walthamstow for 5 years in 1980s to better know more about libraries and books in the past. 

Question: It has been a long time since you worked in library, is there anything that you still remember and feel important to you?

I still remember clearly the reason why I quit my job in library. In 1985, the library in Walthamstow started to introduce computers to replace the card index system for borrowing and returning books and the trend started in most libraries in London since 1980s.. I needed to help with making the barcodes and the admin for that back then and I could feel that my job was going to be replaced by the computers. What I don’t like most about computerisation is that it took away the connection between the public and the staff. It was an important way for people, especially elderlies who live by themselves to meet people.

Question: How would you run a library?

I think libraries nowadays have become souless because there is a lack of interaction between users and the staff. If users need to interact with staff when they borrow/ return books, it creates a community. I used to make friends with the users and staffs in the library. People would say hello to me on the streets in Walthamstow because they knew me from library. I really enjoyed interacting with the children there.

Question: Who are the regular users of the library?

Elderly women, who are around 60-80s, visited the library more often. They normally borrow romance book like Mills Boon, which is some kind of slashy, tame romance stories. Jacky Collins is another popular choice among the elderly women. Some of the elderly women would ask his friend in the library Linda to find erotic romance fiction for them. I guess if the users can find books on the computer system, it would be more private when they want to find books that are more personal.

Question: Was there any event in the library that you really liked or disliked back then?

We didn't usually have events in the library. Sometimes there were talks given by some author, like Michael Rosen. I remember we had a Children's Book week to encourage kids to read more book, and I wore a clown costume and promoted the event with a girl who was wearing a teddy bear costume. That was the only book week for children in the 5 years that I worked there. They did have book weeks for other groups but it didn’t happen that often.

Question: How was the reading culture in 1980s?

Reading culture was much stronger back then. When I was young, I regarded the libraries as churches because of the silence and the atmosphere there. Staff would tell you off if you spoke loudly in the library. And I think the attitude changes over time.

Question: What’s the difference between the reading culture in the past and nowadays?

I think, in the past, we only had radios, magazines, one channel on TV and maybe records to listen to music and no other kinds of entertainment in the media. Nowadays, we have computers and the internet that offer different kinds of entertainment to us and I think that definitely affects the use of libraries, less people go to the library nowadays.

Question: Was it common that people stole books from the library?

I don’t know how common it was but they used to have agents knocking on people’s doors if they haven’t returned the books to the library after a certain time. They probably called reprocessing officers, who worked for the council for collecting rent or other kinds of duty. After the book were overdue for weeks, the library would send the user a warning letter/ reminder and if it was overdue for months, the reprocessing officer would then go knock on their door to collect the fee and the book. I remember there was a time that a reprocessing officer went to the user’s house and found that the room was full of books that were borrowed/ stolen from the library.

Question: What do you think about books in general?

I love the feeling of a paperback and I treat books with reverence. Even I own the book, I treat it as if it is not mine and with utmost respect and very carefully.

I think books exercise a lot of power and transport someone to have a variety of feelings. It conjure different feelings and emotions and it is magical how words take readers to different parts of the world at different times, having different experiences. Books set light to our imagination and there is no limit to the way you think and feel.

Question: How do you get your book?

I normally buy books in bargained bookshops, or charity shops like Oxfarm

Question: How will you treat your book after reading it?

My sportsbooks accumulate at home and find it difficult to give books away to someone who are actually interested in it. And I am reluctant to give away my books because I am quite attached to my sport books. I do give them away to my friends, but only occasionally

Question: Is there any story behind a book that you really like?

In 1960, I was about 9, Arsenal bought a player George Eastham and I was very excited because I thought George Eastham would greatly improve the team a lot. Then Geroge wrote a biography about himself and I managed to get a copy through a supporter club, which is a signed copy written “Best wishes, George Eastham” (see the photo)

Question: Do you think the signature gives more meaning to the book?

Yes, I think so.

Question: What do you think about books in a digital world?

I feel sad that books are taken over by the internet, but the internet can make it much easier for people to find information and from an environmental perspective, the internet is better because it takes much more energy to print and produce a book than posting it on the internet.

Takeaway and Afterthoughts:

I was very intrigued to hear Colin’s story of working in the library in Walthamstow, especially his perceptive of library being soulless after computerisation. Despite his personal resistance to computerisation of the library system, he is actually open to the changes of the society and agreed with the advantages Brough by technological advancement. Yet, if library is actually becoming soulless due to the lack of human interaction, if we need to repurpose and rejuvenate library in our society, what more should we do to make it more accessible with a “soul”? How can we bridge the distance between individuals when they come to library? And how can we attract people to go to library again?

Out of curiosity, I searched on Google to see if there is any existing project that try to bring library alive again and found that a library in Ireland, dlr LexIcon, actually become a local attraction and important community centre since they renovated and reopen in 2017. 

Shared by a librarian and event programmer from dlr LexIcon in an interview, 

“Regarding challenges or opportunities for the future, I would list the following; the changing concept of the library model, upskilling of staff and the public to embrace the evolving culture of libraries, technological developments and digitalisation, a recovering economy, employment support and adapting and supporting changing demographics in the area i.e. older people, immigrants, young families etc.”

“Our current ambition is to connect and empower people, inspire ideas and support community potential”

“We couldn’t do what we do without all the teamwork and passion. Bring in writers, musicians, storytellers, digital curators in-house as they bring new life and energetic perspectives. We are always trying out our spaces in different ways and it is amazing how many people will come and look at an exhibition that has been on display for a while if you just move it to a slightly different location.”

Source: https://princh.com/how-can-a-new-library-connect-and-inspire-communities-dlr-libraries/

From the look of it, no radical or outrageously innovative changes made in the library, but as Colin mentioned in the interview, they strive to promote the connection and empowerment in the community. If connection and empowerment are the key ingredients to rejuvenate a community and is there a “smarter” way to do it? Also, does human interaction have to be happened in library? if library is just being renovated into a community centre, and physical books are not the main characters anymore, why do we still keep it as a book library? What is actually the right question to ask if changes has to be made?  These questions reminded me of the tool library project Lara mentioned in the lecture and the discussion in our first group meeting, Of course! More than books! But Tools and resource! 

In that case, back to the main topic about books and library, do library really need physical books anymore?

[fanhackers]

[Guest Post] Dawson’s, Dresden, and Copyright

[This month's guest post is courtesy of Ruth Flaherty, PhD Candidate in Intellectual Property and Economics, UEA Law School. You can find Ruth on Twitter at @RuthFlahertyUEA.] As many of you fellow fan scholars may be aware, the acceptances for the highlight of our calendar (Fan Studies Conference) have recently been sent out. This year’s conference is in Cardiff, and I am very excited to say I have been invited to present on my research. It made me wonder, how did I get to this stage? Given that we are going to the land of Torchwood and Dr Who, I decided to call up my very own TARDIS to travel through the seminal moments of my academic and fandom career. Cue ‘wibbly wobbly’ time travel sequence. The screen clears on the first set - a teenage girl’s bedroom in a suburb of London, styled in the late-90’s fashion of deep pile carpet and BSB posters on the wall. The girl (me) is excitedly watching Dawson’s Creek, a new TV show, on the new TV her parents bought her for her fifteenth birthday. I started watching DC (not to be confused with the other, comic book DC) in 1998 and fast developed opinions about the Joey/Dawson/Pacey love triangle. After quickly exhausting the possibilities of discussion amongst my high school friends, I found Dawson’s Desktop online, on my Windows 95 Gateway (remember them?) home computer and dial-up internet. Yes I’m showing my age! Dawson’s Desktop was an early fan engagement website set up in 1998. It amazed me that I could interact with the characters, read their diaries, and even post my ideas to other fans, giving me access to a limitless discussion group across the world. This was my first real experience of the interaction between fandom and commercial interests, and it just seemed right that I should be able to share my teenage hormone-and-angst filled fanfic stories and ideas with other fans. These stories varied in length and skill, but all had the same outcome - Joey ended up with Pacey (I leave it to your imagination how thrilled I was when *spoiler alert* they ended up together in the finale!). Over the course of those five years, in my real life I went from high school to college, and when Dawson’s finally went off the air I went off to university to study law. At that point, I thought my link with fandom was, like the posters on my bedroom wall, something I outgrew. However - life had other plans. Let’s jump back into my TARDIS. Cue more wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff and a fade into a small local pub in London in 2003. This was my second career defining moment - I met my very own Pacey Witter (reader - I married him!). As a dyslexic, he uses fanfiction in a completely different way to me. He uses it to improve his literacy skills - and to this day writes fanfiction based around the Dresden Files (by Jim Butcher). His passion reignited mine, and I took his self-published fanfic into my PhD interview to study copyright law, economics and fandom at the University of East Anglia in 2016. This has given me so many amazing academic opportunities to fully develop my passion for research in this area and leads to the the final defining moment I wish to mention, and that truly inspired me. To experience it, come with me for a penultimate jump in my TARDIS. The scene opens on the auditorium at the University of Huddersfield in June last year for the absolute highlight of my academic career. I was extremely fortunate to hear many passionate and friendly people speak during that weekend, but the best moment was the keynote speech on fandom and activism given by Louisa Stein. Those that were there will remember the electric atmosphere, and the silence (and tears!) in the room at the end of her speech. My new academic aim is one day to present my research in such a powerful and inspiring way! As we step back into the TARDIS for a final time to return to the present day, I bid you adieu with a final chat about my research. I am in the second year of a PhD working on my thesis ‘How ‘Fair’ is Self-Published Fanfiction?’. My research looks at self-published fanfic online and through licensed schemes such as Kindle Worlds, using large-scale qualitative analysis to investigate how these works interact with the underlying works. Do they harm the sales of the underlying work in any meaningful way? What about the market for authorised adaptations, which is becoming more important in a post-MCU era? This comparative project assesses whether the current intellectual property laws (namely copyright, trademarks and passing off) in the UK, EU and US create market failure, and if so, what changes could be recommended - for example whether a new fair dealing copyright exception under S30A Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 should be drafted to cover fanfiction. In my thesis I compare the more developed approach of the US with that of the UK and EU to see whether current intellectual property laws in these locations succeed in their stated aims to promote creativity, or whether they misunderstand creativity in the current world of online fandom and creativity. Inspiration is obviously not strictly internal, arising in a vacuum. It relies on other external expressions to build upon. While copyright allows for some reuse, it may be drawn too narrowly in relation to certain types of work like fanfic that may actually benefit the work that it is based on. This is interesting, topical research as there is very little case history on the subject in the UK and EU, and copyright law in these areas seems to presume fanfic is harmful and thus is an infringing copy or adaptation. However, in today’s age of user generated content much of the expansion of works such as fanfic on the internet rely on copyright exceptions such as fair dealing (UK/EU) and fair use (US). This is an exciting field of study and is currently being debated in the European Parliament as part of the new Proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.

[realtorfox43]

How Much Does Boot Camp For Mac Costyellowmedi

How Much Is Bootcamp For Mac

How Much Does Bootcamp For Mac Cost

Boot Camp Control Panel User Guide

After you use Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows on your Intel-based Mac, you can set the default operating system to either macOS or Windows. The default operating system is the one you want to use when you turn on or restart your Mac.

Set the default operating system

Boot Camp is designed to allow Mac users to set up a partition to run Windows, providing access to PC-only apps and content. Apple's Boot Camp update for macOS 10.14.5 comes about a month after. Download this app from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 10 Team (Surface Hub), HoloLens. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for Boot Camp on Mac Guide.

In Windows on your Mac, click in the right side of the taskbar, click the Boot Camp icon , then choose Boot Camp Control Panel.

If a User Account Control dialog appears, click Yes.

Select the startup disk that has the default operating system you want to use.

If you want to start up using the default operating system now, click Restart. Otherwise, click OK.

Dvd burning software free for mac os xfasrsun. Finder is the default file manager of the Mac OS that also works as a free DVD burner for Mac. Using Finder, you simply need to insert the disc into the SuperDrive and select Open Finder from the pop-up screen. Next, open the disc window and drag the files that you want to burn. Click Burn button to start burning the added files. DVD Cloner for Mac. One of the best DVD burner software, DVD Cloner for Mac makes it easy to copy DVD with quality. The software is capable of copying protection systems and accessing all the region codes. It gives freedom to copy DVDs no matter what encryptions it has, to various destinations such as ISO image file, blank DVD disc and more. 10 Practical free DVD burning software for Mac 1. Wondershare UniConverter for Mac - The Best DVD Burning Software for Mac (macOS Catalina Included) Wondershare UniConverter is a versatile and all-in-one video solution tool, which not only burning 1,000+ video formats to DVD/Blu-ray disc but also provides you a list of video-related functions. With this Mac DVD burner, you can create your playable DVD with attractive free DVD menu templates and edit videos quickly before burning. Burn is the most well-known free DVD creator for Mac that allows you to burn both CD and DVD on Mac. As a piece of completely free DVD burning software, Burn has a lot to offer. It gets ease of use and simplicity of user interface into perfect combination. It's able to burn all types of files you throw at it like data, audio, video and more. IDVD is one of the most widely applied free DVD burning software for Mac. It allows you to burn QuickTime Movies, MP3 music, and digital photos to a DVD. The free software is integrated with iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto or any other Apple product. IDVD indeed makes DVD burning fairly straightforward and saves you lots of time.

You can’t change your startup volume to an external drive while you’re using Windows.

To learn how to change the default operating system using macOS, see Get started with Boot Camp.

Restart in macOS

In Windows on your Mac, do one of the following:

Restart using Startup Manager: Restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Option key. When the Startup Manager window appears, release the Option key, select your macOS startup disk, then press Return.

If you’re using a Mac notebook computer with an external keyboard, make sure you press and hold the Option key on the built-in keyboard.

Restart using Boot Camp Control Panel: Click in the right side of the taskbar, click the Boot Camp icon , then choose Restart in macOS.

This also sets the default operating system to macOS.

For more information about restarting in macOS, see the Apple Support article Restart your Mac in macOS or Windows.

See alsoGet started with Boot Camp Control Panel on MacTroubleshoot Boot Camp Control Panel problems on MacApple Support article: How to select a different startup disk

Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I receive compensation if you purchase through this link, and I fully appreciate your support.

Are mom crushes a thing?

If so, I have a major mom crush on Jordan Page, supermom behind FunCheaporFree.com.

I first discovered Jordan through that crazy coupon show (which side note: my hubby and I were screened to be on, but we were not weird enough. I guess that’s a good thing, especially since they were asking if we did anything illegal to save money – yikes!).

I then watched Jordan on the Millennial Mom Youtube Channel then watched her on her own channel, and bought her two courses, Budget Boot Camp and Productivity Boot Camp. Because of her, I block schedule, have an easy-to-transport container of kids’ hair stuff, and also have Beddy’s zipable bedding.

The list of how Jordan has transformed my life as a productive mama is quite long actually. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when I was able to become an affiliate for her programs. That’s your disclaimer. I’m an affiliate, but there is no pressure to buy through my link. I love the lady and truly think she can change your life like she has changed mine.

What Is Productivity Boot Camp

Jordan launched Productivity Boot Camp in 2018 after getting so many questions about her productivity goddess-like qualities. She balances six kids, a super successful business, church life, home life, and more and still looks fabulous. So what exactly is her secret?

Productivity Boot Camp is a place where Jordan breaks down all of her tips and tricks into a six-week course. There are 28 videos and three bonus interview videos. The videos average about 15 minutes long, with a few being over 40 minutes. I tackled the longer videos in chunks or while doing laundry.

This program is great for moms of all kind – working moms, stay at home moms, work at home moms. The course is marketed towards anyone, though (which I have issues with, but more on that later on).

The Amazing – Pros of PBC

1. High Energy and Motivating

Every one of Jordan’s videos is high energy and motivating. If you love Jordan’s teaching style, then you will love going on this journey with her. After watching the first video, I was excited to start getting my schedule under control.

How Much Is Bootcamp For Mac

2. Easy to Follow Format

I love how she breaks down each course by week. The first two weeks require a little more viewing time and homework, but they are truly worth it. Trying to implement the block schedule into your life is also hard at first, but once you get the hang of it, it is addicting to get more things done each day.

3. It Works

I have read a lot of productivity books, probably more than the average person. This course gave new strategies and some that I have heard before, but the difference is that I was better prepared to use Jordan’s strategies. Most productivity books are written by men who have wives that take care of all the things, so it is hard to take their advice. Jordan is just like us and shows us how to get things done.

The Meh – Cons of PBS

1. The Planner

Update – June 26th, 2020: Jordan listened and rolled out her very own Productivity Planners that can be purchased separately. They make up for the planners that come with the course. I will give a full review and walkthrough of this soon.

I love Jordan’s spreadsheet for the block scheduling, but personally, I found the productivity planner to be disappointing. I was really hoping for something I could use every day to keep me on top of all the things.

Instead, most of the pages are cute, glorified notetaking paper. I would have liked to see more planning pages to go with systems and routines that can make your days run smoother.

2. The Free Youtube Videos

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I was also a little annoyed when there were similar videos posted on Youtube that discussed some key points in the course. The course still offers so much more value than those free videos, but it does cheapen the experience for the paid user.

3. Not Enough Specific Info

This might be too selfish to ask, but I do wish there was just more in Productivity Boot Camp. There is already so much content – probably three hours’ worth of advice. I guess I wish there was more direct info for working moms, since she tries to keep the course general to all – even singletons in college.

She does so much work and success building while raising her family, and I just wish she spoke more on the specifics of that instead of trying to make the content fit anyone. Here’s to hoping she adds more modules!

My Results – Spoiler Alert – I Wrote Two Books with a Newborn

Update – June 26, 2020: I still use and love Jordan’s Productivity Bootcamp even two years later! I have written a few more books and faithfully maintained client work all while homeschooling two girls and surviving toddlerhood with my third. It’s not always pretty or perfect, but I do feel productive most days!

I started going though the course the first time when I was pregnant with my third baby girl. I was able to start implementing Jordan’s strategies right away. It is the funniest thing. After a week, I was so on top of my schedule that I didn’t know what to do with myself by the time the afternoon blocks came.

The system had helped me stay on top of my cleaning, get ahead of my freelance work, and finish homeschool lessons for the day before noon. The nesting phase hormones definitely helped.

Now that baby is here, I feel like I need to go through all of the courses again to get back on a productive schedule. I have been implementing Jordan’s advice half-heartedly since the baby arrived (mostly because baby’s schedules change like 20 times before year one- ha). Even without being 100% back on the system, my life is still functioning at a productive level.

I am still able to have a clean house 70% of the time, stay on top of freelance work, homeschool, and devote hours into blog writing and book writing. I even wrote two children’s books since baby girl was born. What?!

So, Is It Worth the Price Tag?

Short answer – yes! Long answer to follow:

I have taken a lot of courses online – mostly for business growth rather than personal growth like this one. However, all of the courses do not hold a candle to Productivity Boot Camp in regards to quality. The videos and set up of the course are superior. Usually courses are either a bunch of text or dolled up slideshow presentations. Optical character recognition download for mac os.

Every one of Jordan’s 31 videos (this counts the bonus videos) in this course are of her talking directly to you and are edited professionally. This might not seem like a big deal to those use to her high-quality Youtube videos, but it is a rarity in the course world.

When I evaluate if something is worth the price tag, I measure it in future value. You see, $149, and even the sale price of the course is a lot of money to spend on something digital especially when so much of the digital content we consume is free.

However, when I feel like I am drowning in chaos and can’t get anything done, I am guilty of spending money on temporary bandages. I think a house cleaner, food service/fast food, or laundry service is my solution to getting back on track.

While those things aren’t bad, they don’t fix the root of the problem – my dysfunctional system.

I felt like this course was like having a personal coach guide me through each step of areas in my life that needed a change up. The course is more valuable than having a cleaning lady or getting those meal boxes delivered. Why? Because it sticks around.

How Much Does Bootcamp For Mac Cost

I can’t even tell you how many times I have hired a cleaning lady for $150 only to have the house look like a tornado in three days. Now that is depressing! When I am dedicated to Jordan’s strategies, I don’t feel the need for a cleaning lady or meal delivery service because I am no longer living in a state of chaos and meal planning and cleaning no longer seem like unbearable weights.

What’s Your Time Worth?

My time is worth anywhere from $50-100 an hour, so if I am able to save five hours a week or have five free hours a week to take on a $100-per-hour client, then the cost is worth it. That is exactly what I was able to do.

What do you think your time is worth? Even if you think your time is only worth minimum wage (your time is so much more valuable than that!), your initial investment will pay off quickly. If you followed Jordan’s tips to the letter and saved yourself two hours per week, at $12/hour, you would have made back the course in less than nine weeks. I believe you will save even more time than that each week, and you will have extra time to pursue hobbies or your side business. Win-win!

Not only will you save time but you will start to carve the life you want to live. None of us want to run around crazily thinking about dinner prep and kids and 5 million other things all the time. This course will help you manage your time better and relieve the pressure of trying to do everything at once.

Productivity Boot Camp Promo Codes and Savings

You have a full access to the course for a year, and then after the year you can renew for a minimal price. Go through it slow or fast or watch it over and over again like I do. Our lives are constantly changing, so it is nice to be reminded of areas we need to tighten when the crazy begins to slip back into our schedules.

Use promo code EARLYBF to get Productivity Boot Camp for $105 until November 10th OR Bundle Productivity Boot Camp with Budget Boot Camp for $186.90 – that’s $93.45 per program!!!

I do recommend both the Productivity and Budget Boot Camp (transparent review coming soon), and if you buy them together you can save over $150. If you buy them before the cut off date, you don’t have to worry about speeding through both courses.

There is a payment plan of three payments for those who wish to purchase the course but do not have the full cost upfront. While convenient, this payment plan will cost you more overall.

What If I Hate the Course? Productivity Boot Camp Return Policy

You can get your money back! Isn’t that exciting! You can either transform your life or you can have your money back. Jordan is very transparent and makes the return process easy. I can’t even tell you how many pointless courses and digital items I have paid for and couldn’t return. It stinks.

Bryce petty. My advice is to read the return policy to make sure you know all of the details, try out the course with a ready heart, and within a few lessons you will know if this is the right course for you or if you need to start the refund process.

[michellialeeids]

Week 5

Research Data Synthesis 

Questions

Quan-Lin shim 30 yrs / Designer at Catch / Zoom for day to day basis / collaboration / talking w/ clients / Business set up / company account / board room app / tv connection / part of zoom is interesting connects everyone / automatically share screen, zoom picks up / 

Two days WFH / I have set up / during week days / desk / large screen / laptop on side / duo screen / 

Macbook Pro 13 inch / Keyboard extension / 

Yes, lockdown last year / google hangouts / limiting / skype / 

Positive / Audio was super clear / upgrade / hear multiple people

Interface was confusing / 1 week / more around learning how to schedule meetings + google calendar 

Grid layout / filters & background / -> fun / engaging / 

Waiting Room (feature positive)/ Downside : notification counter not great / not noticeable / space bar mute /  Platform all in once place / for softwares

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Joseph Jeong / 19yrs / Student at Techtorium

Mornings : School - Attend classes physically or online / Get back home - get ready for work / Go to Work until late at night / shower / eat if have to / play games 

Desktop computer / Laptop (Asus Tough Gaming)

Yeah, through online articles/youtube videos in regards security breach 

Yeah, around Feb 2021 

My main purpose is to attend classes 

Discord / Microsoft Teams 

It was okay, quality (zoom classes / video camera and feedback / compared to skype - video feedback is bad when there are many people in one session) is pretty fair / very organizational use but not private use

When hosting a video calls on zooms - break out zooms - make people go in them and personal talks is pretty welldone / can create our own channels for whatever projects 

Neutral

No 

Function - satisfies purpose 

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Ryan Campbell / Designer Lead at Catch Design / 36 

Work FH / 2 days a week / tuesdays and fridays / work in the office rest of those days / at home work from small desk / at work : better situations / work off screen at both places / fuzzy internet at home / office: zoom calls in board rooms/ meeting rooms  

Macbook Pro / Android Huawei P20 :uses zoom on both devices

Yes, I use zoom at work / make decision between Micro Team and Zoom/ Zoom won/ Director made decision/ I got to know about Zoom at Catch Design : May 2020 

Lockdown Zoom with friends quiz night - social purpose / 

Main purposes : internal meetings / external client / some use team which is awkward / social purposes to catch up / corporate updates done via zoom 

The 40 minute time limit is really annoying (bad experience pissed me off)

Average - middle of the road - nothing amazing - found it hard to start a meeting / not intuitive / scheduling a new meeting & new meeting is confusing / sharing links is confusing (text forms ) / should really be one piece of text not a novel or words / copy and paste is confusing because there are 

Closing a zoom call (leave a meeting - and then quick leave (do you really want to leave?) / makes it awkward when in front of other (pause ) : worst user experience u cld possibly create - two step leaving journey = awkward pause / less possible to accidentally close the meeting . Security(should be chooseable) / Waiting room is auto ticked (WHY?) / Creating video conference call / casual meet ups 50%(majority) / client meetings 50% - so don’t want hardcore security like waiting rooms 

Basic functionality works for video  / video background filters / (beautifier mode) / video filters is great (only thing i like about zoom) / does its job

A lot of frustration / punishing!!! /  very painful / double close is painful / positive 

Single click close / intuitive point of view / just does video conferencing = a lot of annoyances / Zoom works well with external parties / Teams can only be within Teams / Audio is an issue : trying to connect bluetooth headphones is difficult (if could be done well solving issues for bluetooth connected devices - easy connect and disconnect ) shareability - sharing a zoom link it hard = feels like 30 different time zones / 3 different hyper links / not all of them are meeting links / easy to share screen / 

Social events : really hard to have everyone to have everyone visible on screen / layout is restricted / more than 8 ppl - can only see 5 at a time / on mobile is worse - need to change layout / connectivity / chats algd / doesn’t stand out that much / google meets : microsoft teams / facebook calling 1:1 communication / 

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Quentin, Front-End Wed developer - 41 / Catch Design / Father of two 

Sitting behind laptop most of the time / office / at home trying to take care of kids not coming in to home office 

Macbook Pro 

Yes, got to know about Zoom day I started with Catch, 1st April 2020 

Yes, it was a Wellington/ Auckland Catch Design conference meeting / first time using - was very simple/ was using google hangout before Zoom/ initial layout was different / hangout’s interface was different / nice and simple 

Virtual backgrounds / had worked for a company in UK - thought about masking my background 

Apprehensive / First day of work kind of nerves 

I never know when people add comments / chats - doesn;t know until someone says something about it / 

I bought shares in Zoom / it peaked / but it dropped so lost a bit of money / 

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Lie-An / 34/ IOS Developer 

Train Commute / Office 8:30 / 3-4 hrs / go back home / watch netflix series / go back to bed around 9 / not that tiring 

Macbook Pro / iphone 12 pro

& 5. Yes, previous employment started using Zoom for experimentation / as back up for google hang out / at Catch Design mostly used a lot / use it for online conferences 

March / April Last year (lockdown)

Meetings / conferences 

It was very quick, but interface isn;t that appealing. Has improved npw, the view itself is PC/ easy to start meetings / easy to invite / can be attached to google calendar

The speed of the software / interface: not that much : using Zoom - more focused on functionality 

Got used to it, understood how app works / frustration with iPad because it is hard to start meetings with the iPad Zoom 

The amount of time setting for the meeting / in hang out you can set a meeting for an hour/ for zoom there is a maximum limit if not pro user / background filters / notification reminder / (great!!) 

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Sam / 28 / Tech LEad / Architecting application / Developing Application 

Half of the week in office by team / half of the week work from home 

Macbook Pro 13 inch 

Yes, Forced to use it for work. 

Yes, Just Before lockdown, iPad /

Meetings - team aligned on project guidelines / social zoom calls over lock down - team cohesive, gather requirements / find out and gather information / show product etc. 

First impression : wasn’t a big fan at start, before installed - big security breach (no good first impression), as I got used to using it, good video streaming expereince - interface : didn’t find it user-friendly (clunky), I would prefer Google Meet (sharing links / less extra step) 

Video streaming itself is very good / good quality / core feature is great 

Frustration / installation amongst people 

To get used to zoom - couple weeks - 

Google Meets - runs in the browser - click the link - straight into the feature. (extra step / user journey)

Used zoom for presentation / after research / professional development / kinda education / knowledge sharing with the team / collaborative environment / pretty easy / screen share - 

iPad Zoom interface  / trying to join from ipad (look into it) 

Remote Control Panel for Zoom (connected TV). Consistency amongst interfaces with different devices. 

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Interview 1: Grace Chey,  21, Product Design Student

1. I am a 20 year old full time student in my last year of studying industrial product design. 

2. I am either at home studying by myself or is at school (going to lectures, workshops and labs) surrounded by school peers. 

3. iPad, Macbook

4/ 5. Yes, I was first introduced to zoom by my school (University of Canterbury) last year for online learning during lockdown

6. For lectures and meetings for group projects

7. At first I found it very complicated as it was a new software for me and I found the downloading and logging in process was very long

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Interview 2: Saem, 35, Work and Income CSR, Studylink Officer 

1. Work and Income customer service representative/ StudyLink Officer

2. Call centre office environment  or working from home office 

3. iPhone, P.C.

4. Yes, during NZ’s nationwide lockdown - through online media and family 

5. Yes, for a job interview 

6. Work purposes 

7. Easy to use, simple intuitive interface

8. Zoom meeting calls - being able to easily have group zoom meetings

9. Being able to easily see who is in the meeting from a small device like a smartphone 

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Interview 3: Ashley Jeong, 23, UX Intermediate Designer at Flight Digital

1. I’m a UXUI designer at a marketing agency. Have been working at the agency for 2 and a half years. I am 23 years old.

2. Physical environment at work is very spacious and well equipped with everything I need. Workwise, I have client meetings and workshops in our meeting rooms or at my desk doing work on the computer.

3. I use a 27inch imac as my primary screen and a smaller secondary LG screen at work. 13inch macbook at home.

4. Yes I know Zoom. I came to know Zoom when I visited Korea last year when covid first hit and church had to be done on Zoom.

5. Yes, beginning of Feb 2020.

6. Only use it for church. Have used it once for work because the client insisted we use Zoom. Usually use google hangouts at work.

7. Kinda confusing at first. Mostly because video meetings weren’t the norm before covid.

8. Fast access to the zoom room once I had the room code and password.

9. The thumbs up or hand wave emoji is nice to use when everyone is on mute.

10. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Zoom. It used to be way faster but it’s very slow these days and laggy compared with google meet. I find the interface for google meets is easier and straight forward.

11. Nope. Currently doing masters and if we have class online we use gomeeting.

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Interview 4: Becky Jeong, 21, English Literature & Media Student

1. I am a 21 year old university student with a part time job. Studying a Bachelor of Arts degree, in my last year.

2. I go to my part time job every day, a Japanese restaurant on Upper Queen Street. I also attend my university classes. I go to the City Fitness gym in Albany a few times a week, and also attend church meetings or services. 

3. My Macbook air 

4. Yes I do. When we went into our first lockdown, we had to use it for uni classes and church.

5. Yes I have used it before. My first experience was when we had to have online classes for university.

6. We don’t use it for uni anymore, but we still use it at church for our daily 9pm prayer meetings.

7. It felt very unfamiliar because I hadn’t used some kind of video calling service in such a long time, especially in large groups.

8. Screen share was super helpful. I also like gallery view where we can see everyone rather than just the speaker.

9. At times I felt more connected to people because we could meet more frequently on Zoom more than we would meet in real life.

10. I don’t know about similar software. I only ever used video calling on my phone for brief calls and Zoom is already much more advanced than that.

11. Yes, we used it at uni. The features that were really useful were obviously the screen sharing so that we could see what the lecturer was referring to as they were talking, as well as the breakout rooms. We were in a class of 200, and then used the breakout room feature to split into groups of 4 or 5 to have discussions before coming back together. These features made online classes a lot easier and manageable. The chat feature was also useful because if a student had a question, we did not have to turn on our mic in the middle of class, but instead just ask on the chat.

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Interview 5: Sarah Lee, 20, Engineering Student

1. Student, 20 years 

3. Laptop

4. Through others 

5. Mid 2020

6. Attending online conference and meetings

7. awkward and uncomfortable lol

9. group meetings across the country and having new encounters from different cities

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Updated interview questions (student + lecturer) 

1. Tell me about yourself, your occupation and your age

2. What is your study/work environment like?

3. What device do you mostly use on a daily basis for educational purposes?

4. Do you know what Zoom is? Have you used Zoom before? If so, how did you come to know about Zoom? When was your first Zoom experience?

5. Have you encountered using Zoom the 2020 lockdown? Could you please tell us about your experience? 

6. What is your main purpose of using Zoom?

7. What was your first impression of using Zoom?

8. What was the feature you were most satisfied with during your experience?

9. What are some memorable feelings / situations you have experienced while using Zoom?

10. Would you bring a feature from any software into Zoom? What would it be and why?

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Harper

1. Harper, born in 1997. Currently studying at AUT

2. Study desk set up at home, university library because its newly designed and fancy

3. Laptop (macbook pro), imac in level 4 WE

4. Yes, I have used it before. During the lockdown my tutor introduced Zoom to us for virtual classes since we couldn’t come in physically. 

5. Nothing really special but being able to switch between gallery/speak view, chat, break out rooms is good. At first I felt comfortable because personally physical meetings are uncomfortable. But when I had to present my work on Zoom, I was stressed because sometimes the audio didn't work. 

7. Very simple and straightforward. I learned to use all of it in 1 class

8. Reactions and emojis. Also the pop out screen that minimises when you are in a different window, 

10. In blackboard there is a whiteboard feature where everyone can write something down. 

Describe Zoom in 1 word - ‘futuristic’. 

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1. Soumya, studying interaction design, 33 years old

2. Have own study space/desk at home

3. Laptop and phone: macbook pro and iphone

4. Yes I have. Started using it first last year due to uni through covid lockdown march 2020. 

5. My online experience was ok for the first time. It was engaging because of the break out rooms. It felt like in class where the lecturer jumped from each table. Peer to peer communication was good. It was quite awkward at times because only 2-3 people turned their cameras on, so very little social interaction. 

6. I use it for collab projects with my uni partner

7. Simple, functions are easy, but it would be better if it straight away shared the screen if you clicked on the button (right now there are too many steps) 

8. I was quite happy because I could finish and continue with my papers, way better than blackboard because you can't see who is speaking and all of the members. Zoom you can see everyone in the meeting

9. Share screen, reaction emojis are good as it lets people engage just like they are in a classroom

10. The break out rooms were great as I was able to have the 1:1 discussions and have engagement with the lecturer just as in real life. It was nice to have the time to catch up with classmates before class started.

11. For the chat, it would be nice to follow the facebook messenger system where there are separate chat boxes for different people. The current zoom chat system is confusing and can accidentally send to wrong people. 

1 word to describe: Reliable

For next week 

You should have completed your research 

You should have synthesized your findings into theme, then insights 

You should have several draft HMW statements to review. You will have some data! 

Be thinking about how you can present your research visually for your formative poster.

[ramzaes]

My current thoughts on Ace Attorney’s Future

So by now you are most likely aware of the recent Ace Attorney news Capcom put out, and also some stuff that’s been leaked, ill give a brief rundown before going into my thoughts in case you missed it(excuse the poor grammar , I didn’t have that much time to spell check lol)

-Capcom has announced that Ace Attorney games will be moving to the switch and that they will be releasing one between April 2018-April 2019

-Leaks from Kotaku UK: First half of next year will have two Switch releases of compilations, one for AA123, other AA456. And a third brand new game feat. Phoenix Wright will release before April  2019 worldwide launch for Switch and smartphones

(ALSO take this with a grain of salt like all leaks, im just more trusting with this once since I don’t Kotaku would try and fake AA news since it is a niche series and there isn’t that much to gain from it, and the person leaking has been correct with that huge Mario Rabbids leak)

Now this news came outta nowhere but here are my brief (not really lol )thoughts on them

-Ace Attorney Games no more on 3ds

This was always in the cards, given franchises like Pokemon, moving away from it and the Switch’s mobility. It was very good of them to announce that they still plan on releasing new games for Ace Attorney and that the series isn’t over in my opinion . 

I personally thought that if AA7 came out on the 3ds it would be the last one in the franchise, like no more AA afterwards(I expand on this below). 

But this Switch news made me reconsider that theory, as now I believe Capcom is going to keep on pumping them out because the profits they make on it must be pretty decent in their eyes., like the cost of making them must not be as expensive as we would believe.  So expect some “brand new” plotlines that will be expanded upon in AA8 etc

-Compilations

Very smart move given the next news on AA7. AA6 led to a big issue, in that, you probably wouldn’t enjoy the game as much if you never played the first 5. If they just released AA7 on the Switch straight away, they would be assuming every switch owner has played the other 6 AA games, so this would at least bring everyone up to speed. 

Given some stuff I go into further below, I would be thinking, Capcom would be looking into the sales of these very closely in regards to DGS and AAi2…

-what about AJ on 3ds

Apollo Justice is still coming to the 3ds at the end of the month, and now im thinking, what is the point? The above leak is actually incredibly damaging to sales for this as most people can just wait for the compilation on the Switch to then play it. 

There are ofc people who don’t have a switch (like me) and some who want to play AJ on the 3ds but I feel like this leak has made a few people reconsider their purchase of AJ (which is gunna do so much damage to Capcom’s sales forecast for that game…. :/ ). 

Like you know how quiet the AA twitter is usually, they might have announced the compilations early next year after people already bought it (and maybe that might have angered a few more people to rebuy it again lol)

-Featuring Phoenix Wright

Now ill try and keep this spoiler free but the “feat. Feenie” leaves a big question, where is Apollo? Does that mean all 5 cases are playing as Phoenix? Dlc cases with Apollo? Or are they going to release an Apollo game later (because in an interview for SoJ, they were toying with the idea of SoJ being two separate full games like Pokemon Red and Blue, where one only with Phoenix, and the other only with Apollo). So maybe a game featuring just Apollo in 2019? 

Now im not sure what the reaction to that is on this site, but I know a lot of people on Twitter have been rolling their eyes that the whole game is once again only Phoenix, when they feel his story is done. Me personally, I don’t really mind, as I view AA456 Phoenix as a different character to AA123, so im happy there’s at least an AA7 game coming, regardless of who you play as. 

Earlier I mentioned how I thought AA7 would be the final AA game ever if it was on the 3ds, and with that I was thinking it would be the biggest fanservice game ever (like Gumshoe, Kay, Franziska coming back, and other past characters returning in the biggest best(est) sendoff ever, like maybe even a dlc case where you play as Edgeworth with Kay helping and gumshoe, Franziska all there, and like the crime scenes being old places but with new twists, and just finalising every plotpoint ever (Iris and Kay where are you??). 

But since it ISNT the final game, I think it will be kind of like Dual Destinies, instead of answering questions, they will pose new ones, and introduce even more new characters to the already bloated cast which im not too happy about. Prepare for a new colourful Maya clone that has a new gameplay ability to turn the tide in court! (I still love Athena mmmmmk?),  Also, wanna bet that one dialogue we want between Phoenix, Trucy and Apollo about a certain relationship wont be revealed til postgame AGAIN? :P

-Worldwide launch

This is probably the ABSOLUTE BEST NEWS to come out of all of this. No longer will we need to wait through the months, wondering if we bought enough copies to make them consider localizing. Now we can play them game at the same time as Japan! Although with this series, I never had a big issue with spoilers unlike Danganronpa, like people weren’t going out of their way to spoil SoJ like they did with V3. But its stil great news that we know that AA7 will be coming west!

-Digital

-The switch has a big digital only library, -games are not tied to your console anymore, -they are tied to your account, so if you Switch dies, -you wont lose the games purchase. SO yes I do think all 3 of the Switch games will be digital only, this is clearly the route Capcom wants for us westerners and I don’t think anything short of a miracle in sales will change that :(

-Smartphones

Now this is an issue for me personally. Hearing AA7 being on the switch made me so happy, as it opens up the endless possibilities to the gameplay. 

SoJ had so many improvements to character model movements and what they did with the 3ds hardware. So thinking a Switch only AA7 game would be amazing in terms of what they could do with the models, UI, gameplay etc.

 Deep down I always wished Capcom would try and be like Spike Chunsoft and add extra gameplay to their visual novel hybrids, like danganronpa. As in, its honestly absurd at how much extra content is in v3 considering they are both just murder mystery VNs, and they is clearly no reason for them to add so much extra content. Like AA has never even had post game content at all, so maybe on the switch they can try some things like danganronpa, like an AU mode, or some silly board game thing, just stuff that doesn’t harm the main story, but is nice for diehard fans to keep opening up the game. 

HOWEVER since its apparently on mobile I don’t think any of that will happen. Yes Im happy people who like mobile gaming can play it, and yes not everyone can afford consoles, and yes phones are like mini computers these days in terms of power. But from Capcom’s point of view, if they want to sell it to as many people as possible, they need to consider a lot of people will still have old phones, so trying anything amazing in gameplay features might not work on an old phone, leading to loss of sales in the mobile side. And we all know how much Capcom likes money. So personally im disappointed but not that much, this is just a deep feeling ive always wanted from AA, just more in game content and extra things to do. And seeing how SoJ improved SO MUCH on the DD models, I just wanted them to go even beyond that. But hey maybe now at least they can do 3d models for investigating and pretend its an investigation game , RIP Kay’s return :’)

-localizedgs and aai2

And ofc the usual, LOCALIZE DGS AND AAI2. Considering all the news, and given how poorly Marvel vs Capcom Infinite sold(it’s actually shocking at how bad it sold, maybe because no Phoenix in it? :P ), and how long it took for RE7 to reach its sales goal(1.5years), I don’t think DGS will ever be localized, at least not for a few more years. The cost of licensing to Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Estate is clearly too much for Capcom to release an even more niche game than AA(the average person will see it doesn’t have Feenie and wont buy it). 

HOWEVER given their love of compilations and ports recently, there is STILL a chance they will port a DGS1&2 game to the switch, maybe around 2020. This being after they see the sales to the first 2 compilations. So don’t buy Battlefront 2 and support bad lootbox behaviour, save that money to buy AA on the switch ;) And regarding AAi2, look im probably the biggest fan who wants a new AAI3 more than AA7 (I even made a video about it lol), but considering AA7 will be made by the AAi team, that aint happening. Now all hope would be lost, if not for the simple fact that, in 2017, just recently, AAi had an encore stage play performance in Japan . Meaning even though this play ran last year, they had enough demand to do it again this year. So Capcom clearly has some plans with Miles and crew, and hopefully if the compilations sell well, they will make a Switch port of AAi and AAi2, and hopefully Kay will live once more! :P

-Takumi

And finally to the man himself, Shu Takumi(creator of AA if you didn’t know). After spending time making DGS 1 and 2,  and with how poor their sales were, I don’t think there will be a DGS3. And I don’t think he will come back for AA7 (if it was the final game like my earlier theory, I was hoping he would come back for some fanservice lol, like he would bring his charm back and work it on the new characters which might have been fun). This is disappointing as his writing with the characters is on another level compared to the new games . 

E.g play SoJ and the professor Layton crossover game, back to back, and notice how different the dialogue is with Phoenix and Maya. Takumi (who wrote the Layton game) clearly understands his characters so well, and you can feel Maya and Phoenix’s personality just flow seamlessly with each other, like the professor game honestly felt like a case from the trilogy even though I played it waaaay later.  He has stated he is done with the main line AA games(iirc), and how he would hate making more cases than needed (like him not wanting to make the fifth case in AA1 when Capcom first localized it, since the GBA game had only 4 cases and Capcom wanted him to make one more case to sell again). So I don’t think he will make AA7 or DGS3, which means HOPEFULLY he is free to make what he wants, and we can get another amazing separate game like Ghost Trick ANYWAY that’s been my rambleeeeeeeeeeee

TL;DR Ace Attorney isn’t dead, Capcom loves the franchise but not as much as you want, please buy the compilation ports, even if you have the games, money speaks to this company that runs our favourite game franchise :/

And final silly point: I don’t have a Nintendo Switch, Zelda BOTW, Mario Odyssey, Splatoon2, FE Warriors didn’t convince me to buy a Switch. I will now be buying a Switch for AA7, THIS SERIES WILL BE THE END OF MEEEEEEEEEEE

[booklust]

If the rumors are true that print is dying, then we’re in a zombie apocalypse. Booklr and the self-designated online community of book lovers, as well as publishing professionals and the more dismal-minded of authors, have been predicting the death of print culture for years. Yet it persists, with physical books still outselling e-books by a hugely significant margin. Zine fairs, DIY publishing, and small publishers creating beautiful physical copies are popping up everywhere in my feeds and in the culture, and I’m excited about it. If anything, the intensification of the digital realm has increased the demand--and need--for print publications. They complement each other in ways that no one (or at least, of other non-tech-native generations....no shade dad) could have predicted.

It’s appropriate that the first interview in the series is with the Road Virus, a horror-genre-and-queer-focused mobile bookstore currently traveling the United States. I came across the Road Virus in the digital realm, where we followed each others’ writing. We hit it off right away, because we both have telephone anxiety and have a passion for the non-hierarchical, accessible future of literary culture. Sade and I had a conversation on G-Chat about what it’s like to run a mobile bookstore, Stephen King, accessibility in book culture, how libraries can save lives, and the future of lit. Check it out below:

So first off--thanks so much for your time/agreeing to this interview! I'm super stoked about the Road Virus and everything it's about. Absolutely, and again––thanks so much for doing this interview project in the first place. I definitely feel like now, more than ever, the world needs a good strong focus on things with a literary bent. The best part is that we're the ones writing, in realtime, the history of our own culture. 

Give me your elevator pitch for the Road Virus--except the elevator is broken, so you have more time than you thought.

The Road Virus is a time-tested dream come true. Born out of displeasure with the stasis of ordinary living, my best friend Em and I decided that we wanted to open a bookstore. Books and literature have been in our bloodstreams since before anything else really mattered, so we decided to make that a tangible reality.

Unfortunately, since things in life are so uncertain, opening a brick-and-mortar store just didn't seem feasible. So, we decided on the next best thing––we bought a bus and converted it into a half-RV home, half-mobile bookstore. Lucking out with an ex bookmobile, we decided to focus on fringe genres such as horror, sci-fi, subversive graphic novels and comics, erotica, fantasy, and so on––both due to our limited space and our own inherent interests.

We plan to visit even the most remote parts of the US––and someday beyond––with the concept in mind that a lot of places don't have access to the kind of wares we're totting.

Now, I imagine the elevator creaking, hitching––giving us a fleeting hope––and then plummeting down the shaft. We're probably fine. ------------------------------   keep reading below  -------------------------------

How did you and Em meet to form this dynamic duo of traveling booksellers?

We met by the grace of a mutual friend. A night out drinking in one of the darkest and dingiest bars in the world led to a weirdly cohesive and whirlwind friendship. After discovering our shared love and obsession with books and bookstores, we came around to discussing the idea of opening and running our own. We ended up taking a pretty much spur-of-the-moment trip to Tokyo; something about that trip set reality in motion and things ended up happening so fast that I still look back on it and wonder if it wasn't all just a dream.

Is the name the Road Virus inspired by the Stephen King short story?

It certainly is. With our main focus being on horror and all things related, we felt like we needed a name which not only reflected the contents of our shelves, but also our goal.

In the story, the Road Virus is a car owned by an interdimensional killer; it travels across the US, leaving a swath of death and destruction in its wake. Less on the murder-y side for us, we see it as a way of spreading knowledge––which, of course, can be one of the deadliest and most destructive tools of all. The story, which first appeared in the anthology 999––edited by Al Sarrantonio, this book has been one of my most prized possessions since childhood––has always stood out to me; when we were kicking around ideas for names, The Road Virus was one of the first I jotted down. It came back, and it stuck. 

Also, when I saw that your name was the Road Virus, I couldn't help but connect the resilience of the killer painting in the story with what you both are doing for print literature---in a positive, not at all murderous way--that bookstores are closing down, and people proclaim that print lit is dying, but the Road Virus is an active example of print literature's resilience against all odds. With that in mind---what would you say to people who claim that print lit is dying? and what pushed you to start the Road Virus at this moment in time?

I really enjoy the emphasis we're both putting on this totally not being a murder thing at all, whatsoever.

To those who say that print lit is dying, that books are obsolete, that the internet is the only way to acquire new information and fiction, I say: barring the physical process of a body shutting down and decomposing, something can only truly die if you allow it to.  As long as there is at least one person publishing a book or zine and one person reading it, the concepts and idealism and spirit of print lit will survive and thrive.

Yes! It's so important to me that you connect physical, print lit with physical bodies. The power of print literature is that it creates physical community in a way that digital can't do alone. And physically showing up for something you care about can, and will, keep it alive.

Absolutely. Something that people need to remember now more than ever is that we have the ability to influence anything and everything. There is always a light in the dark, and we always have the choice to make something of ourselves and our surroundings. We are not powerless. For people like us, books have always been an escape, but they're also so much more: calling cards, symbols of power, beacons of hope tying groups together and ripping old systems apart.

Literacy is an extremely important thing to both of us––Em, as you said, is a former librarian, and I myself basically learned all I know from books. Libraries and bookstores were like second homes to us as kids––and sometimes, more so a first home to me personally. I dropped out of school at a very early age and attribute the majority of my ability to comprehend the world around me to the free, open-access presence of libraries. I come from a non-academic background, and Em comes from one of thorough education-oriented leanings; this combination suits us to a t.

The idea that they're dying out and being defunded saddens us greatly, and we feel the need to bring back those concepts to the forefront.

Mutually, we wanted this to be a bookselling venture so that we can sustain ourselves through the trade itself; however, we definitely felt the need to interweave the free and open-source aspect of libraries. We're still working out the avenues of providing reading lessons, and have quite a few ideas in mind for things like free movie nights and author readings.   What's being on the road like? Where have you been, and do you have any weird stories/interesting encounters?

Living in San Francisco, we've been very fortunate to have some amazing haunts. I think we owe a lot of our inspiration for The Road Virus to our favorite daily stop, Aardvark Books on the historic Church St.

Actually, we've been drydocked, so to speak. Our goodly vessel has been parked at a friend's about an hour northeast of SF for over a month now; we've been living on the bus full time while we've been renovating and preparing for permanent life on the road. We also unfortunately ran into some issues with the electrical system, which is being taken care of this week.

Regardless, we're both pretty nomadic people, and we can't wait to officially take off. I can say that driving the bus back to the buildsite was a hell of a trip.

Before we got her, Jolene––our name for the bus––lived a quiet life in Kansas City, MO. We flew in and were planning on driving her back in 2-3 days. This, as it turned out, was absolutely impossible. It ended up taking a week, and was rife with complications; we broke down numerous times, ended up sleeping in the uninsulated bus in -20 degree weather, and had endless scares on the road. Driving through the midwest was like traveling through a different world. I don't think I've been stared at that much in my entire life, except maybe in Tokyo (I'm covered in tattoos, piercings, etc.).  

The drive back over the CA state line was like something out of a dream––more a nightmare, maybe. We drove into one of the worst rainstorms I think I've ever seen, to the point where cars were sliding all over the road, trucks were going 20mph on the highway, and vehicles our size were actually barred from driving any farther at a certain point, so we were all lined up on the side of the highway for hours. This was on about 36 hours of no sleep. As far as fun stories on the road, in my experience they are many and not-so-far in between; we'll have plenty to share once we really get going, I'm sure. Driving through the snow-covered Rockies in a 32' bus when neither of us had driven anything larger than a UHAUL truck was certainly one for the books. 

Lastly, in a quick semi-tweet-length: How do envision the future of literature?

Futurelit, the Tweetening: Though ink may run, pages may yellow, & screens may flicker–the world of lit will forever reinvent itself, thriving in the face of adversity. xxxxxxxxx Follow the Road Virus everywhere:

(Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat) @roadvirusbus Communicables: http://theroadvirus.com/blog 

Reading Is Infectious (book subscription service) (http://shop.theroadvirus.com). A book in the genre of your choice delivered to your door every month.

[jacobhinkley]

Bitcoin [BTC] has niche investors, Apple and Twitter CEOs invest!

During an interview with CNBC, Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak calls Bitcoin [BTC] ‘pure’. In addition to this, Steve also mentions that he is not a Bitcoin [BTC] investor but only bought Bitcoin [BTC] to experiment.

Steve Wozniak talks about how much he is intrigued with Bitcoin and mathematics. He also mentioned that he currently owns one Bitcoin and two Ether. He also constantly emphasizes on how similar Bitcoin is to the internet and expects Bitcoin to bring across the revolution internet has brought across.

The Apple Co-Founder talks about his strong belief in mathematics, purity, and science as defining the world. According to him, Bitcoin is mathematically defined as a circle and there’s a way that it’s distributed. He considers Bitcoin [BTC] pure as there’s no person or company running it despite which it continues to grow and survive and this to him is ‘something that is natural… and more important than human conventions.’

He also says that the main reason he sold his $700 BTC was due to the overwhelming price fluctuations in the market. He says:

“I never invested in Bitcoin, I was actually a little worried. Once, all of a sudden the price went up and I had a lot of money in Bitcoin, I said, wait a minute, I only bought to experiment.”

When asked whether Bitcoin will continue to dominate the market with the rise of other platforms like Ethereum and Ripple, he replied:

“We’ve seen a hundred sort of Bitcoin copies, some are faster, some are centralised control, some have other advantages, only Bitcoin is pure digital gold… I totally buy into that…How the math on Bitcoin that it was so correct that it still works.”

He also talks about Bitcoin [BTC]’s price in the future and says that because of Bitcoin’s regulated quantity, the value is down to the demand and supply, and Bitcoin saw a hike to $20000 for a period because ‘more and more people want it.’ He adds:

“So if the demand increases and becomes more and more popular for more things and people start using it, there is no supply; it’s limited. In terms of dollar, yes bitcoin will go up and up in time… things might be sloppy at first and things that change that much in life take a long time to change, they tend to go slowly. We had a crash in the internet age and I see that going on with a lot of blockchain things including Bitcoin itself right now.”

Steve further says that it’s going to take about 10-15 years for Blockchain to become the next widespread technology. He compares blockchain to the internet and says that just the way internet had promised to provide so many services online like bank reservations and airplane reservations, it faced a big crash as all the companies had competed. He continues:

“And here it is, in 2018 all of our life, everything we do with these third-party apps to this day, oh my gosh, this saved me, such a wonderful world. It was the world we talked about than but it just doesn’t happen instantly because people will have to have their mind set changed, culture and tradition and status quo and the way things are doesn’t change that rapidly/ instantly when it’s that huge.”

The post Bitcoin [BTC] has niche investors, Apple and Twitter CEOs invest! appeared first on AMBCrypto.

Bitcoin [BTC] has niche investors, Apple and Twitter CEOs invest! published first on https://medium.com/@smartoptions

[ncmagroup]

by Karen Talavera

Have you ever been blown off right from the start? Ever been “ghosted” just after meeting someone—be it a potential business contact, friend or dating partner—you really liked and thought you were hitting it off with?

Whether you’ve experienced it first-hand or just heard the horror stories, ghosting totally sucks.

If you can relate, then you get why welcome campaigns aren’t just vital but critical to email success. Not only do they set the tone for the entire future of your subscriber relationships, but they also ensure those subscriber connections become relationships. They pave the way for good deliverability (inbox vs. junk folder placement), and they create familiarity, appreciation, engagement and (most importantly) trust.

Failing to send a welcome message after email sign-up or address capture is the digital equivalent of ghosting your subscribers. And we know what happens to ghosters—they get blocked, ignored, forgotten or downright hated on.

Ok, so you’re sending a welcome email, but is it a kick-ass welcome campaign or a vanilla, one-size-fits-all message that sounds like it could’ve been cranked out by an AI-driven robot with zero human intervention? (Or maybe it’s so bad, the AI-driven robot version would be an improvement?)

It’s not enough to merely send a welcome email—although that’s better than not sending one at all—you need a strategic, personal message with zazz. Your welcome campaign should have specific goals, you should know what they are, and it should be crafted intentionally to accomplish them.

Plus, cutting-edge marketers know the welcome email is just the tip of the relationship-building iceberg since they’re connecting it with an entire onboarding series to follow.

Still not convinced? Research shows a warm email welcome is more than just polite common sense, it’s a money-maker.

MarketingSherpa reports the average open rate for welcome emails is a whopping 50% (that’s the average), making them 86% more effective than your usual broadcast messages.

As if that’s not enough, according to Internet Retailer, merchants that send a welcome series see 13% more revenue than those sending a single message. Any way you cut it, welcome emails put engagement and money in the bank.

But, going beyond basic isn’t for wimps. Let’s make sure you’re doing it right with a breakdown of 4 essential ingredients for marketing success.

Essential Ingredients

1. Welcome, Introduce & Establish Identity

You got it—the whole point of a welcome email is to actually make a new subscriber feel welcome, so write your subject lines, headlines and copy that way! Show gratitude and appreciation like you would if you were meeting in person.

Think about how you’d welcome someone into your home or a special event: you’d invite them in, make sure they’re in the right place, and introduce yourself so they know exactly who you are and how to recognize you again.

Food gift merchant Fairytale Brownies’ welcome campaign scores! I’m feeling the warm, gooey brownie love right from the subject line with my “gift inside.”

The fact that I’m greeted as a “Fairytale Friend” and am receiving “much love” from co-founders (and real-life kindergarten friends—yeah, for real) David and Eileen, plus get to actually see what they look like, only adds to the yummy goodness. (Now, if I only had a glass of red wine to go with those brownies, but I digress…)

Getting serious for a sec, let’s not overlook the importance of establishing an inbox identity.

With ISPs cracking down on spam and monitoring inbox owner engagement like never before, today’s email welcome campaigns need to clearly establish brand and sender identity to ensure successful deliverability.

Your visible “From” name, as well as your email sending address and domain, should be recognizable entities to subscribers, even if it means having to explain things a bit (such as a parent company domain that’s different from a retail store brand name).

You don’t want new subscribers blocking or blacklisting you right from the get-go because they can’t connect the dots between what they signed up for and how you show up in the inbox.

2. Confirm Actions, Manage Expectations

What did you promise when you asked for an email address? Was it required as part of a mobile app download or purchase? Contest or sweepstakes entry? For access to gated content? Or were you just popping up a lightbox doling out the usual (but nonetheless appreciated) 10% discount or free shipping on the first purchase?

There’s a myriad of ways to end up on an email list and many—like entering a contest, registering for an event, downloading content, or creating an account—have nothing to do with intentionally signing up for email to get deals or perks.

Whatever you promised, make sure you’re telling subscribers that’s how and why they came to be on your list, that they’ve successfully completed the action, and what’s in store for them next.

Here’s what I received after joining British Airways’ frequent flyer program “Executive Club” (which sounds soooo much more elite than it is—oh those British!) after having purchased an international flight on Iberia, their partner airline. The animated hero shot is a catchy touch and not often seen in welcome emails—nice!

More to the point, the message clearly does its job by letting me know my membership number (if any of you international road warriors would like to apply it to your next BA flight, feel free), points status, and other useful information like program benefits and how to get their mobile app.

3. Orient and Guide

In the spirit of travel, your welcome email is a key inflection point at the start of a very important journey—the customer journey. Whether people ended up on your email list because they bought or they have yet to, your goal is the same: get them to transact.

As on any journey, people want to know the landscape. They’d like to know where they’re going and how to get there, so give them a map, as well as step-by-step directions. Don’t just leave them wandering in the wilderness.

This welcome email from eBags not only includes a hefty bounceback offer (a 25% discount on repeat purchase—that’s pretty motivating even though I dropped $400 on my first purchase) but also attractively enumerates what I need to know and do next, one step at a time.

A stellar touch I’m calling out is the inclusion of content marketing in point #4—which links to juicy-good information like travel guides, packing lists, and interviews with their “eBags Ambassadors,” real people embodying different customer personas.

This was no small investment to create, and as a frequent traveler myself, I both appreciate the effort and resonate strongly with it. I’m already feeling a real connection to this brand!

Remember—forging relationships is a core objective of your welcome campaigns, so evoking positive emotions will go a long way toward creating attachment and loyalty.

4. Prioritize Key Next Steps

eBags’ numbered CTAs in the previous example aptly illustrate this point, but what if walking new subscribers down the garden path isn’t as important as getting them to take a specific required action—like setting up a profile or account—before anything can happen that generates value for either of you?

Or, what if you have a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) like growing social media followers or gathering feedback that depends on subscribers taking a specific action, like following your Instagram or completing a poll?

Here’s a real-life example involving a two-part email confirm/welcome to illustrate my point. I recently made a purchase in a Columbia Sportswear retail store. The cashier asked me if I wanted to join the rewards program, and I said yes. She asked for my email address, I verbally gave it, and then received this message.

Clearly, Columbia was forcing account creation for rewards program members—I wouldn’t be able to join and earn without completing setup. But the process was short and simple and the temporary password provided, so I did it. With the account setup done, a second more typical welcome email followed.

The moral of the story? If you need a new subscriber to do something before a relationship can be established at all, hand-hold them through the process and plan for additional emails to support it.

If that’s not enough to chew on, here’s a heap of welcome email inspiration from our friends at Really Good Emails.

Now that you’ve considered what’s possible, how will you evolve your welcome email campaigns this year?

  Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

Unboxing the Welcome Email: 4 Essential Ingredients for Success by Karen Talavera Have you ever been blown off right from the start? Ever been “ghosted” just after meeting someone—be it a potential business contact, friend or dating partner—you really liked and thought you were hitting it off with?

[freelance-arc]

How Ricky Gutierrez, Tony Robbins, Dan Lok and Youtube transformed (destroyed) my world view.

Basically, copy writing is the WHOLE point of this blog.

Sure, Freelancers Kill is the title, and busting out of that 9-5 rut is the inspiration, but learning to write effective copy is why I am writing this, and why you’re here reading it. 

I always looked for ways to make more money. ALWAYS. Training, courses, small business,  self study, climbing the career ladder... I tried all of these. In my career in music stores, then in Hospitality, then recently, in my Engineering career (I’m a Plant Fitter for those who are interested).

EVERY. TIME. I found the way blocked by colleagues resisting change, company politics, a lack of attention from senior management (Seriously, the amount of bad managers in workplaces is shocking, god knows how much they’re costing the economy!)

It all got me thinking, “There really has to be more than this”. Running around every day for someone else.. Hell, they didn’t notice what I did do, only ever the things I DIDN’T. Sounds familiar right?

I was having a conversation one night with my friend, telling him the plans I had for selling cheap items from Alibaba through a Facebook page, and seeing which were the most popular. He’d been doing his own research, luckily, as it opened a whole new door for me!

Thing is see, when people are run down, tired, trying to keep up with the rent and bills, you don’t have a whole bunch of time to seek out new opportunities. Possibly, like I did, you stay in the same mental tram lines, trying out new versions of effectively the same idea, and never really thinking new thoughts...

ANYWAY, he put me on to a couple of guys on Youtube talking about FBA stuff (Fulfilled BY Amazon), and another guy, Ricky Gutierrez. Now, Ricky REALLY resonated with me.

Ricky is a day trader based in Arizona, and immediately I was grabbed by Day Trading. 

YOU’RE TELLING ME I NEED A LAPTOP, WI-FI, AND A FEW HUNDRED BUCKS AND I CAN MAKE MONEY? WHERE DO I SIGN UP??

Literally.

I immersed myself in Ricky’s stuff as much as I could. Cypress Hill on the morning drive to work was gone, I bought a Bluetooth speaker for the car and just listened to his Youtube channel as I drove... EMA, SMA, VWAP, ETF, DGAZ, UGAZ, TSLA.

ALL the acronyms were flying into my ears! But what do they mean?? (I will actually be covering a bunch of that stuff in future posts).

A lot of the stuff that struck me, not just about the astronomic gains to be made, was the stuff about mindset. Traders mindset, positivity, the psychology of it. It reminded me of a book I had bought, Money, Master the Game, by Tony Robbins. I was intrigued, I’d trained for a good job, I was doing the right things, why wasn’t I living the life I wanted? Was my thinking “wrong”?

I knew Tony did motivational stuff, but that was it, so I put him into the ‘tube to see what he was about.

THAT was a real turning point. Tony’s stuff just blew my mind. it made me see in the plain light of day that my dreams were never going to come true on the path I was on, and that in his own words, “MASSIVE ACTION” was needed. 

We’re told from very young to get a good job, work hard, climb the career ladder, seek stability. I always assumed that with these things the happiness would come. I’d work hard, get the promotion, the pay rise, the house, the car.

BUT THAT’S NOT HOW IT IS.

Tony made me see I had to change my entire outlook, especially cos no one ever got rich working for someone else!

If you want the lifestyle, the financial freedom, the independence, the ability to do the things that fulfil you every day, then you too have to take MASSIVE ACTION.

So I delved further. Tony had so successfully cranked up my pain points, even from an audio track on Youtube that my world view was entirely skewed. I started to look into trading and investments seriously, learning what the indicators meant, how to use them, how trading in the UK is different to trading in the US (The PDT rule DOESN’T count if you’re a UK trader incidentally). I listened to Tony, looked into NLP (Neuro-Lingustic Programming), kept looking to improve my mindset and find the key to (what genuinely feels like) my escape.

On it went, research and study in my spare time, lunch breaks at work, then one day there’s this guy, Dan Lok, pops up in my channel feed. He tells you how using his program, you can make A LOT of money. So I’m listening. He had released an interview with another author, Diane Mulcahy. Diane had written a book entitled The Gig Economy, and the two of them were talking about how the gig economy is the workforce of the future, and how freelancers have an increasing share of the workload.

It was truly eye opening. Many of the things I knew to be true clicked. Employers don’t want full time staff, the gig economy isn’t just about Uber drivers getting stitched up in London. The gig economy represents a real chance to embrace the change of traditional working roles, particularly with the prevalence of digital disciplines and remote working.

Freelance. Remote. Working.

That’s the key. The ability to make my own money from wherever I am in the world. No more sitting in rush hour traffic to be a work at 8am, no more having to be there when there’s nothing to do to make sure the hours are met, just, no more of any of the pain points I’m getting tired of dealing with.

By this point, I had realised I had to be my own boss, whether as a trader, author, financial expert, coder, whatever I was going to do, I had to do it for myself. I enrolled in an online marketing course, for two reasons; the inability to sell  correctly was a key reason that my former business wasn’t as profitable as it could have been, but also digital marketing is something I can do from anywhere. Home, an office, Starbucks, the beach!

I was focused on the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) side of things, but once again Dan Lok shook things up. He said (to surmise), IF YOU WANT TO LEARN A HIGH INCOME SKILL, MAKE IT COPYWRITING.

BOOM. That was it. Learn how to talk to your audience. Make it compelling. Sell them your product.

So here we are, practising copywriting.  

So in the process of this journey, I have uncovered a whole bunch of stuff that can allow you, yes YOU, to take control of your own future, and your financial freedom, and literally live your dreams.

Sure enough, there will be other pain points, where do I work from? Can I get WI-FI by the pool? How do I deal with THAT client? Do I want Colombian or Kenyan coffee whilst the laptop boots up? They remain to be seen. BUT, nicer problems to have huh? 

If you have feedback, please do feed it back, thanks.

Have a nice day.

[godlessgeekblog]

A New Source For Bloggers Everywhere

For yrs I have place a great deal of material on to The Social Media Hat that has to do with additional than just Social Media. I blogged about email advertising and marketing and research motor promoting. I wrote about company know-how and pop-ups. I wrote about advertising and marketing and even small business playing cards. And I wrote a great deal about Blogging.

Over 100 posts in simple fact.

I considered that, despite the identify, I owed it to you to generate about a lot more than just social media. Because you see, social media with no meaningful content material is usualy just fluff, and you cannot expand your organization placing out fluff.

So I published short article soon after posting built to enable folks begin blogs and increase blogs and use website material to produce targeted visitors, qualified prospects and income. And in lots of respects, it labored!

I bought asked to educate at the College of Missouri St. Louis and discuss at conferences. I appeared on Fb Life and on podcasts, and have developed a status as a Running a blog authority.

But in spite of all of that, I recognized anything else was happening.

Articles or blog posts that I would create about running a blog, no matter how very good, would go to The Social Media Hat to die.

I am critical.

5,000 word pillar posts that ought to rank on the initial website page of Google for phrases like, “How To Get started A Web site” would be inexplicably relegated to page 4 or 5.

Even with acquiring a site that was actually about Material Marketing in general, as considerably as search engines had been worried, The Social Media Hat is about Social Media and practically nothing else issues.

This is a thing that I’d suspected because mid-2017, but came into stark clarity throughout the summertime of 2018 when I started out hunting at the targeted visitors for just my website material that had to do with running a blog.

It was pathetic.

Whilst my in general internet site gets additional than 60,000 pageviews a thirty day period, my Running a blog material – bear in mind, much more than 100 posts – was getting much less than 100 pageviews a month.

I was faced with some exciting decisions.

I know that when I publish social media content in this article – notably about Fb and Instagram – it performs exceedingly very well. My guideline on Facebook Mentions rocketed to the #1 spot in Google and continues to get additional and far more natural and organic targeted visitors every day. Which is not some thing I want to disrupt.

On the other hand, I love instructing people today how to be excellent bloggers. I can speak for hrs and several hours on that subject matter (and in simple fact, I’ll be providing the two a presentation and a 3-hour workshop at this year’s Midwest Electronic Marketing Conference right here in St. Louis).

So it happened to me… what if I built a new, next web site, and migrated all of my running a blog articles to that internet site? Would it perform? Would that web-site and the content material there execute far better? Would there be a unfavorable influence on The Social Media Hat?

Sound nuts?

Why yes, you lunatic, it is insane. But I did it ayways.

I invested some time in late 2018 creating the new internet site. I arrived up with a title – Blogging Brute – and an all round fashion that I enjoy. I must also position out that I created the internet site making use of WordPress on a Bluehost account, which was totally new to me. For many years my internet site has been built working with Drupal on a focused server, but that is just not required any more. WordPress can do everything I want to do and more. 

I developed new internet pages and set up my blogging planner products (I have a planner for startup bloggers that takes them as a result of the techniques required just before basically setting up a web site, and a blogging planner that all bloggers can use to strategy our their yr to be a good results). I experimented with using a plugin that marketed getting in a position to migrate content from a Drupal web-site to a WordPress site, but that didn’t get the job done, unfortunately. Unfortunately it only works if the installations are on the exact exact same server which isn’t really possible for me thanks to the age of The Social Media Hat. So I migrated just about every put up manually. Just one. Article. At. A. Time. Tiresome perform!

I do the job complete-time for Agorapulse so this took months of late evenings and extensive weekends, copying and pasting and fixing backlinks and facts. Thankfully most posts only took a several minutes to do. Following every put up experienced been recreated in just Blogging Brute, I opened the .htaccess file for The Social Media Hat on my server and added a line to forever redirect the previous URL to the new URL. I also utilized the Social Warfare plugin to pull some of the social media share counts from the aged URL and implement them to the new URL, which was awesome.

A person of the most enjoyable aspects of this aspect of the course of action for me was selecting on Showcased Visuals. My new web site has room for a lovely graphic throughout the top of just about every site post, and I required those photos to replicate me. My journey, and the locations I have been blessed to go to as a result of getting a blogger. So I took the time to pull dozens of images from Apple Photos, rename them, and upload them in bulk. As you sift through the migrated posts, you may now be addressed to imagery from France, Hawaii, San Diego, and all around here in St. Louis.

I like The Social Media Hat and will keep on to publish here, but Running a blog Brute is my new digital “dwelling.” I have even modified some of my social handles like Pinterest and Instagram to replicate that. I am now “The Running a blog Brute” everywhere. (One more risky decision… we’ll see if it pays off.)

By mid-December, 2018, all of my running a blog content (as effectively as a couple content articles on email marketing, landing pages, and search engine marketing and advertising) had been entirely migrated and BloggingBrute.com was in entire swing.

I altered-up how I was scheduling and queuing material within just Agorapulse. WordPress was capable to give me a customized CSV down load of all the web site posts that gave me not just titles, but excerpts way too, making for a considerably much better Bulk Upload. Soon adequate, my Twitter, LinkedIn, Fb and even Google+ profiles had been sharing the reborn evergreen content.

So what transpired?

My blogging content material went from 250 mixed pageviews from July – September, 2018, to More than 8 THOUSAND pageviews the earlier 45 days. With the exception of the past Sunday of the yr, the weblog is now obtaining 400-500 views a day.

That blows my head.

Now, admitedly, that is not all natural and organic. In addition to the refreshed shares, I’ve because posted some model new content (like, “19 Bloggers To Observe In 2019”), and I have also launched a contest that I want to speak to you about.

To rejoice the launch and early accomplishment of Running a blog Brute, I am supplying away a $100 Amazon Reward Card to a single lucky winner! You can enter the contest here and get started producing entries for your self. (Contest finishes Monday, Jan. 7th!)

So that’s just one of the important jobs I have been doing work on a short while ago, in addition to making the private mastermind team 360 Internet marketing Squad. (Which you can be a part of for just $5, try to remember, and discover from Jenn Herman, Stephanie Liu, Amanda Robinson and myself.) This quarter I will be rebuilding The Social Media Hat on a new WordPress system so there could not be fairly as a lot new written content released in this article, simply because I know the migration course of action is likely to be just as prolonged and tiresome (longer, in fact, since you can find above 300 content articles to migrate.) I am going to also be having 360’s podcast up and jogging which is a new, pleasurable expertise for me.

If you have concerns about any of this, leave a remark beneath! Quite a few folks had questioned what I was up to, and extra importantly, why. And they assumed other individuals would be intrigued in what was going on driving the scenes with this transition.

I hope you get pleasure from Running a blog Brute as a great deal as I do! Not only will you obtain an astounding collection of content on running a blog, you are going to obtain that all of the information and facts and resources have been structured and structured significantly much better, giving you easy access to content, assets, planners and guides. If you or a person you know wants to start off blogging or make improvements to their blogging, this site is for you.

P.S. Wondering why “Blogging Brute” was the chosen identify? That’s the nickname Jeff Sieh gave me. One particular working day, years back, we have been performing his normal Manly Pinterest Tips display with a couple of other men. During a single certain episode I’d been using notes when we were talking and interviewing anyone, and inside of a limited even though right after the broadcast finished, I experienced a weblog post released and promoted. Because then, I’ve generally been accused of blogging no subject what else is likely on at the second, but I wouldn’t know nearly anything about that…

from trackrgadget https://socialsignals24.com/a-new-source-for-bloggers-everywhere/ https://socialsignals24.com/a-new-source-for-bloggers-everywhere/