#( I feel pretty motivated today and I’m apply for jobs in my area )

[fweasleyswhore]

Kinkmas Day 5:

Pegging, Praise, and Aftercare Be Good For Me - George Weasley 

a/n: there is so much more i want to do with this dynamic UGH

tags: @fredshmeasley @pandaxnienke (SORRY I FORGOT!)

pairing: dom!reader / fem!reader x sub!george

word count: 1.4k

warnings: 18+ themes, pegging, handjob, oral and fingering (male receiving) 

“Georgie?” My voice echoed through the empty house. Kicking off my shoes I investigated the downstairs, coming up empty. I figured he would be home, the shop was closed today but maybe he ran to the store. 

That's when I heard it, a whimper. Was he crying? Throwing my bag down I quickly bounded up the stairs. Peeking through our bedroom door the sight I saw was not one I was expecting. 

George was sat against the headboard, his head thrown back, eyes closed, brows furrowed, chest heaving and dripping with sweat as he worked tirelessly pumping his hard cock. When he neared the head he thumbed the top, a sweet whine escaped his lips, his muscles flexing. 

Slowly pushing through the door I padded over to him. He didn’t stop as I got closer, unaware of my presence. "Do you want any help baby?”

I obviously shocked him. His hand stopped, his eyes popped open so fast I thought they might fall out. When he saw me his eyes softened, shock left his beautiful features and was replaced by something else. Longing. 

I cocked my eyebrow, waiting for a response. He didn’t reply, only snaked his hand back down and started stroking himself slowly. Moans left his mouth as he bucked needily into his palm, his tip was already leaking precum, a sight to behold. 

“I’ve been hard all day, need you.” He whined pumping faster. 

“Well I’m here now baby, let me help.” Quickly I stripped off my work clothes, kicking them off until I was in nothing but my panties. George let out a groan as I lifted my bra off of my chest, revealing my breasts to him. His hand reached out, grabbing the soft flesh and pinching my nipple lightly that made my breath speed up. 

“Lay back for me,” I ordered. He did as I said, adjusting so his legs were spread as he laid down, his hand still lazily stroking his cock. “Stop that,” I swatted his hand away emitting another whimper from him. “I’m here to make you feel good baby, let me do my job.” He nodded fervently, but as I went to get on top of him he stopped me by placing his hands on my shoulder. 

Looking up at him I noted the tinge on his cheeks, the way his eyes averted meeting mine. “Everything ok sunshine?” 

“Yeah, I just,” He hung his head letting out a quick breath. “I want you to fuck me.” I smiled to myself, holding back a giggle that threatened to escape my lips at his flushed state. 

“You want me to fuck you?” I trailed my hand up and down his thigh while asking, basking in the shivers that tore through him. 

He swallowed heavily. “Please, Merlin, fuck me.” He whimpered. Knowing what he wanted I leaned down, leaving a sloppy opened mouth kiss on his inner thigh. Rattling around in the bedside drawer I grabbed the strap-on we kept in there. Wiggling my hips into it I admired how it bounced as I tightened the straps. Grabbing the lube I tossed it onto the bed, crawling over his legs I situated myself between his thighs. 

“So pretty,” I whispered, nearing his tip. Kitten licking the tip and blowing air onto it, smiling as he bucked into nothing. Tightly wrapping my hand around the base I began taking him into my mouth. Relaxing my throat I let his tip travel deeper inside of me until my nose pressed against my hand holding his base. He let out a low groan, something that motivated me. I began bobbing my head up and down, lewd noises spew into the room and echoed off the walls. I didn’t stop until I was in dire need of a breath, pulling off with a pop a trail of spit connected his cock and my mouth. I looked into his eyes and how they widened at the sight. A grin spread across my face as I leaned back down, swirling around the tip, licking delicately at his slit. 

I pulled off again and released my hold on his base, he groaned slightly as I began to pump him, pushing my face farther down to press kisses to his thighs. I trailed my fingers over his perineum, a feather-light touch that made him shiver. I applied more pressure there, sucking a hickey into the soft pale flesh of his thigh. 

“F-Fuck!” He exclaimed, bucking into my hand. I tutted, releasing some of the pressure. 

“Don’t cum baby not yet,” I whispered. He whined but I watched him nod obediently. As a reward I decided to speed up the process, letting go of him to situate myself between his thighs. I guided his legs up, spreading them and pushing them to the side so I had access. 

Rubbing his ass lightly with one hand I lubed up my other hand, using it to spread lube to his taught hole. 

“Ready?”

“Fuck please.” He answered breathily. On any other occasion I would have prolonged it, punished him even for his choice of words but seeing his blissed out face, eyebrows slightly furrowed, mouth agape it made my reserve subside. 

Listening to his pleas I gingerly pushed one finger in, slowly moving it in and out to work him open. His moans and whines were encouragement to continue so I added another finger, curving them and scissoring them a little to really open him up. The sight I got in response was beautiful, he arched his back and threw his head against the pillows. A long strung out moan left his lips that refused to close. 

“More, I need more please.” he whispered breathily. I nodded, pulling my hand out and lubed up the strap. Lining it up with his entrance I basked in the way he ground his hips against it, searching for more. 

“Pull your legs up baby.” I instructed, immediately he pulled his legs up to his chest, holding his knees there. Smiling gratefully I pushed in slowly. 

He let out a low moan as I did, arching his back. Wiggling my hands in between his thighs I grasped his cock which earned another whine. I slowly began to pump him as I bottomed out, thumbing the top as my hips were pressed flush against his. 

“Move, please move.” He whimpered. I rocked into him slowly, starting to pick up pace both in my hips and my hand. I groped his ass with my free hand, sliding it up to massage his balls and down to roughly grab at his ass. The feeling I knew was appreciated by the way he moaned at the contact. 

Soon enough I was rocking into him extremely fast, my hand pumping him with intent, thumbing the tip with each passing stoke. 

“M’gonna cum.” He whimpered. “Please, please, please, let me cum.” He begged. I studied his face, watching it contort with pleasure and how his eyes glossed over as he pushed away his impending orgasm. 

“Cum, let go baby.” Burying the strap inside of him while thumbing his tip and leaving a sharp slap on his ass he went over the edge. Spasming while leaving whitee spurts over his chest and stomach, he let out a long moan, hands fisting the sheets and tears spilling over his cheeks. 

I worked him through his orgasm as he let out a few broken ‘thank you’s. 

Pulling out I got up quickly to shimmy off the strap and grab a cloth to clean him up. As I approached the bed I watched his heavy breathing, his cum covered chest heaving, legs shaking lightly, eyes screwed shut. 

“Hey.” I planted a kiss on his forehead. He snapped his eyes open, taking a moment to focus. He watched me as I leaned down and started wiping up his stomach, leaving kisses in the clean areas. I locked my eyes on his as I licked a stripe up his chest cleaning off his remaining cum. 

He let out a low moan at the sight and I giggled. 

“You were such a good boy for me.” I whispered climbing on top of him. He smiled and I nuzzled my head into his neck, peppering kisses on the flesh. He returned the favor by pressing a chaste kiss to my temple. 

“Was I?” 

“Mhm, yes you were. How long were you like that, hard and needy?” 

“Since I woke up.” He replied airily. His hands began to rest on my back, rubbing up and down, trailing his fingers in meaningless patterns. 

“Oh baby,” I picked my head up. “We need to make up for lost time.”

His eyes widened, a small blush adorning his cheeks. “T-Today?” 

“No better time than the present.” 

#george weasley #george weasley smut #george weasley fic #george weasley imagine #george weasley fluff #fred and george #george weasley fanfiction #george weasley x reader smut #george wesley x reader #Weasleys Wizard Wheezes #weasley twins #hp characters #hp fanfic #harry potter fanfiction #Harry Potter Characters

[bubbleteakoala]

Around November a kid in my class got the chickenpox. This caused our class to be quarantined for a little more than 2 weeks, which sucked even more because it started on the day before our over-night field trip. And it was pretty chaotic since we’re seniors. I didn’t see the need to post this before since not many of us on here lives in China, but now that most people are going through the same thing I decided to post some of the tips I have on staying at home and staying productive. Enjoy~

1. Set an alarm and wake up on time

I cannot tell you how many times some of my classmates missed homeroom (for us it’s mandatory cause they take attendance and it affects whether you graduate or not). Setting an alarm makes you wake up on time and prevents you from oversleeping. I admit there were times where I forgot to set my alarm, hit stop and contined to sleep, or literally slept through it. It happens. But you can’t let it keep happening. This messes up your whole day and might causes you to procrastinate even more because ‘everything is ruined anyways’ (though this may have smt to do with my mental health..). So remember to set an alarm to get started on your day on time!

2. Have a schedule and (try your best to) stick to it

Routine helps. When you literally have nothing to do, having a scheduled saves you from boredom and also from wasting your time thinking about what you have to or should do today. It doesn’t have to be packed, just a simple list of chores and activities would do. This also refrains you from delaying schoolwork for ‘tomorrow’.

3. Exercise!!

Yes. Staying at home and not moving much will not make you feel good. Especially to those who live in dorms or apartments. So move around, exercise a bit. You could do yoga, stretch a bit, or just freestyle jump around to music. Anything to get you moving, do it. It’ll help you from feeling cramped, stop you from gaining weight, and also make you feel better. Why? Because exercise=endorphins=happy people (and happy people don’t kill their husbands) . Doing some chores would work too! So get up and start moving!

4. Open the windows

For all those who grew up with your mothers opening the windows, you get it. You need to ‘change the air’. Right now you’re not getting any fresh air. And you can’t just go out to take a walk, right? Open your windows for half an hour in the morning, and you’ll feel a difference.

5. Have something to look forward to each day

This one is kinda related to the second point. I strongly recommend you to have something new to look forward to everyday. It could be eating a slice of the cake you decided to bake, an episode of your favorite tv show, or trying to achieve your goal of touching the ceiling idk. Having something to look forward to motivates you to get up everyday and keeps you from having your days mashed up together till you don’t remember whether you ate the bananas on Tuesday or Wednesday. Personally, I look forward to what I’m having for breakfast, that way I have another incentive to get up early and enjoy it before the rest of my family wakes up. So create a list of things you like to do (or would like to try), go over it right before bed, and choose one for the next day.

6. Change your clothes

Staying in your pajamas is really really tempting. However, your brain associates your pajamas with sleeping. So staying in it the whole day will make it question whether you should sleep or do something productive. This could also mess up your sleeping schedule. So lay out an outfit before you go to bed, and change into it when you start working.

7. Shower, please. And do your chores.

I don’t mean to sound like your mother, but just because you didn’t go outside, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to shower. If you are staying in your pajamas the whole day and for a few days now, go shower and get a change of clothes. And chores? Yes you still need to do them. It is your job to keep the area you live in clean and tidy. Plus, cleaning it would get rid of germs. Take care of yourself, please.

8. Journal

Last one, stay with me kids. This was a habit I developed during the chickenpox quarantine. Although it was solely for my mental health, it helped a lot to just sit there and write about my thoughts, feelings, and what happened during the day. For those of you who are alone and have no human interaction, this might help you when you feel like ranting. Just sit down at the end of the day, and pour your heart out. If you don’t feel safe having a physical book lying around containing all these intimate and vulnerable parts of you, download a journaling app. Some have locks, and worse case you can just delete it to never see it again.

9. Human interaction

Wait no, this one’s the last one sorry! Contact your parents or friends once in a while. For those of you who often see them physically yet don’t have a habit of holding conversations with them online, call them. It helps with the loneliness that creeps In sometimes. Catch up with them, make sure they’re ok.

10. Lotion

YOUR HANDS ARE GOING TO GET DRY FROM ALL THAT WASHING SO PLEASE REMEMBER TO APPLY LOTION OR ANYTHING THAT WOULD HELP

So far these are all that I can remember, I’ll reblog this if I have more. Thanks for reading! I hope it helped~

#studyblr #langblr #study #studying #study tips #language #languages #coronavirus #covid 19 #covidー19 #productivity #being productive #health #journal #mental health #language learning #quarantine

[tipsycad147]

Lilac in Magic and Medicine

Spring tends to be a favorite time of year for a lot of people. You walk out the front door and the birds are chirping, the weather is nice and there are flowers everywhere! As a Garden/Green Witch, I love plants and finding out ways to use them. One of my favorite plants, even though they are only around for a short amount of time, are the Lilacs. We have several Lilacs on our property that were planted by my great grandparents that still bloom every year. Lilacs are edible, have some medicinal uses and of course, contain magical properties as well. Keep reading to learn more!

Lilacs in the Garden

Lilacs, or Syringa Vulgaris, are a short term blooming shrub. It’s most commonly found in Planting Zones 3-9 here in the U.S. Most lilacs only bloom for about 2-3 weeks; but early and late blooming varieties can be staggered to increase your bloom time to a total of 6 weeks. Lilacs are available in 5 colors ranging from white, to magenta, to the traditional lilac purple.

Lilacs grow on old wood, so pruning after the spring is vital. A hardy specimen, lilacs can be transplanted by cuttings very easily to add more to your garden. Our lilacs draw bees, birds and butterflies with it’s tantalizing scent so we always try to keep them blooming.

Did you know Lilacs are actually part of the olive family? Native to the Balkan Peninsula in Southeastern Europe; people emigrating from Europe brought the shrub with them to grow and preserve a piece of home. Western pioneers brought lilacs with them during the 1800’s. Now you can find lilacs that grow nearly wild in abandoned lots or parks. Lilacs prefer full sun and a slightly alkaline soil to grow and bloom. The wood is a sturdy type that can be hollowed out to make a variety of tools.

These shrubs are a beautiful plant and even though they have a very short season; their vibrant green grey leaves(which are heart shaped) and the clusters of fragrant flowers make it worth having. But a commonly asked question every Spring is; “What can I do with my lilacs in that short amount of time?” Turns out there are a couple of medical, edible and magical uses for lilacs. I’m going to touch on the edible and medical real quick. Then give you some ideas of how to use lilacs in your magic as well!

Lilacs as Food and Medicine.

One thing I’ve started to learn as a witch, herbalist and homesteader is that there’s a use for practically every plant! We harvest at least a dozen or more plants from our yard every Spring and Summer; not counting what we add to the gardens, harvest from the forest or buy online!

Starting out, I was surprised how many other uses most flowers can have, besides just being pretty to look at. Given the short bloom time for Lilacs, I never really thought about using them until this year. But it turns out that 2 weeks is plenty of time to gather and dry flowers for all sorts of projects!

Lilacs in the Apothecary Cabinet

Lilacs are astringent, aromatic and a bit bitter. While most of the medicinal uses stem(see what I did there, ha) from the leaves and fruit, the flowers still have their own uses. Ingesting raw flowers leaves a dry feeling on the tongue but are bursting with flavor.

The most common use of Lilacs is as an astringent. Many common weeds and plants are astringent, including but not limited to: sunflowers, black walnut, black raspberry and stag-horn sumac. Many people are already familiar with the commercially produced astringent known as witch hazel.

Lilac flowers can infused with witch hazel or a carrier oil. That can then be used for acne, fine lines and wrinkles and other anti-aging properties

Using lilacs as an aromatic is completely different. An aromatic works by causing irritation to the place where it is applied. (Think about how sensitive the GI tract is.) Which in turn brings more blood flow and thus promotes faster healing! Gastric issues such as excessive flatulence or constipation are normally remedied very quickly by eating just a few small flowers.

Infuse lilacs in your favourite carrier oils to make salves, soaps and lotions. Lilacs are good for sunburn relief or soothing scratches, light burns and itches. As well as the previously mentioned astringent properties.

Other Uses for Lilacs

As beautiful and lovely as lilacs are, the fragrance is a fleeting memory once spring is over. Unfortunately, there’s no way to preserve the fragrance in an essential oil. Like many florals, it would take a lot of flowers and would be very expensive. There are some ways to preserve the flavor and aroma through absolutes, enfleurage and infused oils. The Experimental Homesteader has a great tutorial and more info about making your own lilac essences.Find that Here

Most commonly, lilacs are used for garnishes and flavoring for foods and drink. From sugared flowers on cake to lilac ice-cream and lemonade; there’s a number of sweet treats you can make with these cute purple flowers.

Some of my Favourite Uses for Lilac include:

Tea

Lemonade

Infused Honey

Wine

Jelly

Ice cream

Syrup

There’s a ton of tutorials for each of these on Pinterest!

If you would like to try the lilac jelly recipe its super easy! Head over to our Forsythia Jelly Recipe but switch out the flowers for lilacs instead!( Find that here)

Lilac honey is super easy, just add the flowers to honey and let sit for 2-6 weeks.

Make a simple lilac syrup by simmering the flowers in a sugar water mix on the stove. Use that syrup to flavor your lemonade or top your favorite dessert(or pancakes!) Plus it’s a gorgeous light purple color so it makes for a great gift.

Lilacs in Magic: Green Witchcraft

Using Lilacs in magic has a slew of myths and stories behind it; as well as a few ways to use it in your own personal spells.

What’s in a Name?

Lilacs have a few names depending on the area and connections. In Arabic, “Lilak” means purple. In Greece, Lebanon and Cyrus, lilacs are referred to as “paschalia” due to the fact that they bloom around Easter. (Or as they call it “Pascha”.)

Actually, the scientific name for Lilacs(syringas vulgaris) is thought to be derived from the Greek word “Syrinx” which means pipes. This is due to the wood’s hollow nature. Which brings me to the next section of Lilacs in magic: the Greek origin story.

The Legend of Syrinx

According to Greek Legend, Syrinx was a dryad (also known as tree nymph) who was a follower of Artemis, goddess of nature and chastity. Pan, as god of the forest and ruled by an bestial nature and lust, sought after her beauty. As a follower of Artemis, Syrinx was sworn to chastity and denied him. He chased her to the nearby river where Syrinx sought help from her cousins, the naiads, or river nymphs. With their help, she transformed into a Lilac bush, also commonly called a pipe tree or reed tree. Pan, frustrated that Syrinx had slipped from his grasp; cut 7 branches from the gorgeous lilac tree and tied them together into what we know as pan pipes today.

The Pipes, combined with Pan’s mournful music over his lost pursuit, holds merit in the language of flowers.These purple petaled flowers symbolize lust, love, and the fleetingness of life in general.

Lilacs Magical Properties

Blooming Lilacs show up for a short period during the Spring, typically between Beltane and Litha. (May-June). Much like honeysuckle, dandelions and forsythia, lilac contains spring energy and helps to jump start your life. Use it to give yourself a motivational boost, a mental or physical spring cleaning. Or use as an energy charge for your job or a new business venture.

Lilacs are commonly used for spells involving: exorcisms, banishing negative energy, love and lust spells. As well as protection spells and spells symbolizing the balance between life and death.

Lilac for Protection

Plant lilacs around your property to protect those inside its boundaries. Planting lilacs by your front door keeps negative energy from entering your home.

Bringing cuttings into your home is supposed to help banish negative energy and spirits. Except for some superstitions in certain parts of the UK. It was felt that white lilacs were too close to death and were very unlucky.(Unless it was a 5 petaled white flower which were considered extra lucky.) Lilacs were commonly placed inside coffins to cover the smell of death, much like gladiolas and other “funeral flowers”.

Hanging lilac branches over a newborn’s crib was said to encourage them in growth of knowledge and wisdom.(Especially in Russia)

Lilacs for Love and Beauty

When used in love and lust spells, lilacs are best for short fleeting summer romances or flings. Adding lilac oil to your wrists and behind the ears helps to draw love your way. You can also use lilacs for a spell to bring the fun and light back into a relationship.

To combine the medicinal uses mentioned earlier as well as the magical uses; Lilacs infused in witch hazel for a facial toner can be used to promote beauty, glamour and attracting love.

Celebrate Beltane by making a flower crown for yourself or your love.

Lilac Wood and Flowers

Wrap and dry lilac bundles to make your own incense smoke bundles. Combine with rose, lavender and sage for a love incense. Find out more info on wrapping and drying at Proflowers.

Use the wood from the Lilac to make wands, staves or runes. Lilac wands are good for banishing evil or negativity, raising psychic energy and vibrations, and attracting love.

Lilac Trivia

Lilacs are part of the Olive family. The Oleaceae or Olive family also includes olives(obviously), jasmine, forsythias and ash trees.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson enjoyed the scent of Lilacs and planted them in their Gardens.

Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet were inspired by the colors and appearance of lilacs. They included the flowers in several paintings such as “Lilac Bush” (1889 Van Gogh), “Lilacs, Grey Weather”(1872 Monet) and “Lilacs in Sun”(1872 Monet).

In the Victorian Era, widows wore lilac blossoms on their lapel. This served as a reminder of their love and the shortness of life.

Lilac is considered the traditional flower for the 8th Anniversary. This means it is a suitable gift as well.

The Celtics regarded the lilac as “magical” due to their incredibly intoxicating fragrance.

In the United States, the lilac is the official state flower of New Hampshire. It represents the ‘hardy’ nature of its people

Lilac Magic Correspondences

Latin Name: Syringa Vulgaris Other Names: Pipe Tree, Reed Tree, Common Lilac Element: Water Planets: Venus Gender: Feminine Deities: Artemis, Pan, Gaea, Hades, Persephone, Hera* and Hestia* (*white flowers only) Powers: Expansion, Growth, Protection, Life and Death, Spirit World, Love, Psychic Ability Use for: Love spells, Protection Spells, Exorcisms, Aromatherapy, Beauty Magic, Body care(magical or not) Crafts/Recipes: Toner, Tea, Honey, Ice cream, Syrup, Wands, Runes, Staves, Garden/Home Boundary, Incense, Dessert Garnish

Are you in love with Lilac yet?

Even though Lilac only visits for a short amount of time; it leaves us impatient for it to come around again. Even if you missed this year’s harvest, save this info for next year so you can fill your home with yummy flowers and magic next spring. Feel free to save this info for your Book of Shadows or Grimoire pages. Also, make sure you visit our other Magical and Medicinal Plant Pages.

Will you add Lilac to your magic workings?

If you want the smell of lilacs even after the season is done; we offer a Lilac goat’s milk soap in the Store that smells exactly like this luscious plant! Made with nourishing oils and skin safe fragrance oils; its safe for sensitive skin and makes for a great Mother’s Day, Best Friend or Self Care Gift.

If you are new here make sure to check out all of our other blog posts over on the Blog Page. And don’t forget to follow us on Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram for farm photos, trivia, shop updates and more!

By  Ariana

https://greenmanmeadows.com/using-lilac-for-magic-and-medicine/

[annacwrites]

weekly wrap-up || 2.28.2021

Well, here’s an update: writing is hard. 

Per Scrivener, I’m 8,536 words into my rewrite of my NaNo 2020 project, which is a complete rewrite. I overhauled the entire outline and started from scratch on the writing, because my NaNo draft really was an exercise in figuring out what story it was that I was actually telling. 

I wanted to have the rewrite mostly done by the end of February, and, well, it’s the end of February, and I am roughly 10% into this draft. This is not how I intended for this month to go, but... oh well. Such is writing life. 

I’ve been having general problems with executive function recently, in ways that are vastly different from how it usually presents itself—I’ve always had trouble applying myself to things that I don’t really care about or find interesting (fortunately I’ve pretty much always cared a lot about school, and I find most things that I can learn quite fascinating), but in recent months I’ve been finding it difficult to apply myself to anything, writing included. 

I got through NaNo somehow, but my creative discipline has largely done a runner. Some of it is definitely due to the general state of the world—I’ve always been a homebody, so not going out isn’t a huge deal, but I do miss my friends who are actually here a lot and it’s starting to wear on me a bit, because those friendships weren’t built on not seeing each other at all like my relationships with my online friends are—but a lot of it is also just general dissatisfaction with my life as it currently stands. I don’t particularly care for what I’m doing as a job, I’m not motivated to try to be highly successful at it, and for the most part I feel like I’m just going through the motions, which is impacting everything else in my life too.

I set myself a bunch of goals for this year—take the GRE, buy a nylon-string guitar, play more piano, apply to doctoral programs, relearn calculus, take my horse off-property at least once, post on YouTube at least twice a month, the aforementioned finishing of one writing project per quarter, amongst others—and I don’t know how successful I’m going to be at them, but... we’re trying. 8,536 words is trying. It took me until 9:00 tonight to really get into writing, despite telling myself that I was going to spend all day writing today.

I think I might have found the switch, though. I’m so dissatisfied with life in general at the moment, as I said, but I just keep trying to remind myself that I can’t change it if I don’t do these things that could result in me being able to live the life that I want, and that helps. I’ve had success writing before. It’s been a long time, but I was a much worse writer back then, so if I could do it then, I can definitely do it now, right? 

It also helps that I finally got things sorted out with my horse so that we can actually ride consistently (long story, I’ll be explaining that one on the horse blog this week probably and will drop the link here at some point), and getting 4-5 rides a week and feeling progress there and actually starting to get some lessons scheduled with my trainer again helps motivate me in other areas of my life (and I have to go see him, because I can’t just leave him alone for weeks at a time, so it’s a very effective forced motivator). I only hope that the feeling holds.

I’ve finished chapters one and two of this story (which looks to be about twenty chapters, but I’m not entirely sure of the chapter count of the third act yet—the story is currently plotted to be twenty chapters total, but I may add in anywhere from one to three more chapters at the end depending on what the story tells me that it needs), and my goals for this week are to finish chapters three and four. 

If I can do more than that, great, but that’s my aim. I know I’m riding tomorrow after work and I’m also probably going to head out to the barn on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, so I don’t want to be too ambitious (especially since I have other goals that I need to chip away at this week), but ~8,000 words in a week is definitely doable (since I’ve written nearly 13,000 in a single day before). I really want to try to get this whole thing wrapped up by the end of the month, which is maybe a bit ridiculous especially since I also need to plot out my April Camp NaNo project this month, but... I’ve done more absurd things (see: a 110,000 word Camp NaNo challenge in April of 2012).

I’ll probably be reblogging more things between now and then, and very well might drop some shorter updates during the week, but otherwise, I’ll be back with another weekly wrap-up next weekend, which will hopefully be more about the words written and less about me being a General Mess™. Happy writing, friends.

(Or you can always follow me on Twitter, where I do a lot more consistent screaming about writing and also other stuff. Your move, folks.)

#writing update #am writing #writing #writing is hard #anna's weekly wrap up

[honeyydutchesss]

Week 1 So Far

Yoga -

Initial

Yoga is going great! The first day, simple poses were so painful for me. Even laying down on my back, i felt so fragile LOL bc my lower back on the back inner hip area was just VERY painful and uncomfortable for me. And breathing correctly from my diaphram was also pretty challenging.

Now

7 days later, those poses are not painful anymore for me. I don’t feel like a fragile doll when I lay down anymore! No more pain in that area. My breathing improved, but I still have more work to do with that. Today I found myself growing bored of this particular video already, but i’m going to stick with it. (I might explore more of her vids or other kemetic yoga accounts, we’ll see)

Notes

I did notice that doing the exercise when I was on my period, after I completed the exercise that morning, i felt really good and calm and serene. I definitely noticed the effects of that specific yoga vid (self love / feminine/ womb) a lot more while on my period.

Jobs

So far jobs are going great. I’m on track and have applied to 8 places so far. I am hopeful for what’s to come bc i know everything will work out in my favor.

Reading

I am LOVING the current book i’m reading rn bc it offers me a different way of seeing things (perspective) but it also offers me a different way to BELIEVING and thats what i love most about it. I feel SO pumped and charged and motivated and wanting to take action after each reading. I almost want to save the reading for when I start my personal projects to light that fire EVEN MORE, but i’m going to stick to my word and finish it out this month so it can be the foundation moving i to the new year. And plus, I know I can always reread as many times as I want to. Definitely one of the BEST purchases I’ve made.

Resin

So i’ve decided that I will be doing resin. I haven’t done any further research this month and I know I need to. I’m working on finishing out my classes and then I feel like i’ll be able to take it on full-fledged. I also know I need to take things one at a time. I am managing things ok right now so far (i’d like to wake up and go to sleep earlier, crank out more job apps, and read more consistently each day) so I will probably focus on resin after i’ve got that down and completed all my final projects (hopefully as soon as possible)

[rilakoya]

No Place Like Home

A Perspective! and Reality!AU

Word Count: 2.2K

Warnings: Raw honesty and social justice themes

A/N: Personal experiences ahead. I call it an AU because sometimes we’re so into escapism that reality feels like the fantasy. 

6:20 pm

“OMG, social media is so dead today!”

It’s Tuesday after the protests have begun, and my roommate is bitching and demanding his privilege. I like to believe that he means well, but he’s also a diva, and complaints are his forte.

“Well, it’s Blackout Tuesday-” I begin, but he cuts me off, eager to make his point, true to form.

“No, look, I get it. Really I do. But all I keep seeing is a black screen. I keep my phone on dark mode for a reason. I don’t want to have to keep downloading games because I need something to occupy my time today.”

Need. That’s definitely a feeling I’m familiar with. I need a sense of false security in order to leave my house and interact with others in a way that meets social expectations. I need a keen sense of self and social awareness and nimble cultural reflexes in order to ensure that I’m not perceived as angry or bitter in my responses to the way the world treats me. So what if I actually am, in fact, angry. Society has taught me that it deems my anger irrelevant, unworthy of notice, and I have been conditioned to recognize that showing it doesn’t get me what I want or need. Which makes me think again about my roommate’s commentary. He needs social media to be more lively, despite the fact that entire people groups are protesting unjust and inhumane treatment. And I need hope that my brothers won’t occupy body bags simply because they exist today.

I guess each person has their own struggles.

I’m a fiction writer. And at the risk of sounding boastful, I’m pretty good at it. But that’s just because good fiction requires a healthy dose of imagination, and I’m a master.

I have to be.

Every day since I was a little girl, I wake up and imagine that the fair rules of engagement apply to me. I imagine that I may expect the same level of courtesy and respect as my fairer-skinned counterparts.

In school, when my teachers would unspokenly expect me to work twice as hard to receive the same level of acceptance, I imagined that they did the same with all the children. When my scores indicated that I was a highly gifted student, multiple grade levels above my peers, but was frequently accused of cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty because my superiors were unable or unwilling to accept that a little black girl could have possibly produced such results, I imagined a world where education systems were tailored to students and where teachers and administrators saw the value in children rather than just their preconceived notions about them because of the color of their skin.

When people granted me interviews because of the “normal” name on my resume and the professionally “white” sound of my voice, only to thank me after minimal interviews and promise to call once they saw me, I imagined that they recognized that my professional experience and qualifications were worth more than the wage that their budget permitted, instead of acknowledging that they often chose to hire someone who was less qualified but whiter than me, and when they paid said person more, I imagined that I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed doing that type of job anyway or working at that company anyway. Even though it was the same at many companies.

When people tell me that I am “pretty for a Black girl,” or “too pretty to ‘just’ be Black,” as though being Black isn’t already the most blessed form in creation, I imagine that what they’re really saying is, “you’re so fucking gorgeous that I don’t even know how to compliment you properly, so please forgive me while I babble like a moron and potentially insult you. I’m so awestruck that I just can’t help myself.”

I wrote my first smut during one of many unjust police stops, when the only purpose of the detainment was to harass me and remind me who was in control. I imagined that it was really a sexy roleplay and that I liked it. And when the trauma and anxiety of constantly wondering if I’m about to be stopped once again for Driving While Black threaten to be too much, I imagine that I’m really just in my house, writing it all down for a story. Even though the stories carry too much shame for me to comfortably share. I imagine that’s all just part of the process.

When I interact with the world, and no matter what, am told that I’m either “too much” or “not enough,” sometimes both at the same time, I imagine that what they’re really saying is that because I originate from the beginnings of creation, because I have both the secrets of the Earth and royalty in my blood, I don’t fit the mold, and they don’t know how to process my greatness. And this enables me to smile when I feel like shattering into a million pieces, when I’m reminded of how I don’t meet the social standard, how I don’t fit in.

Most of all, every day I imagine what it would be like to feel like I truly have a place on this vast Earth that I can safely call home. Home is where we are safe, where we are welcomed, where we belong.

I was born in Germany, but I don’t belong there.

I’ve lived in Mexico and Guatemala, but it’s not safe for me there.

Some of my ancestors were from Africa, but it’s a large continent, made up of many countries, all foreign to me because of cultural eradication, so I could visit, but really I don’t belong there.

My forebears were brought to the Americas as slaves, worked like dogs, and treated as less than animals, and although early settlers were considered “Americans” relatively quickly, after four centuries, I still don’t belong here.

I’m not even 40, but I was born during the Cold War, in a country that has successfully recovered from antisemitism, but not from antiblack sentiment.

Both of my parents were born before the Civil Rights Act was passed, in the middle of the Civils Rights Movement.

My grandparents were born near the end of the Great Depression and lived under Jim Crow law. My grandparents. The ones who told me stories while holding me on their knees, the ones who spent their lives sweating and striving for me to have better.

My grandma’s grandma was a slave. My dad remembers an aunt (a great-aunt) coming to his school in elementary to talk about the fact that she had been born a slave.

I think that people forget that it wasn’t that long ago, forget that the tyranny and oppression has gone on for so long.

They forget that Europeans have been enslaving Africans since the 15th century. For those who hated school, that means the 1400s. Slaves were brought to the Americas as early as 1503. The only reason we didn’t reach the country we now call the U.S. until the early 1600s was because it took England that long to decide to colonize the area.

They forget that in my great-great-grandparents’ time, in my great-grandparents’ time, in my grandparents’ time, at the time my parents were born, I could have been beaten, raped, falsely accused, cheated, ignored, taken advantage of, or killed just for the color of my skin.

They forget that, 401 years later, 155 years after the Civil War, 157 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, 152 years after the 14th Amendment, 57 years after MLK marched, 56 years after the Civil Rights Act was passed, nothing has changed.

They forget that it is our American right to speak out, to decry our oppression.

The First Amendment says that we have the right to freedom of speech and press, that we have the right to peaceably assemble and ask the government for a solution to our complaints of unfair treatment. But we are silenced, gassed when we protest peacefully, and our cries for justice have been ignored for generations.

The Second Amendment says that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Yet time after time, legally armed, law-abiding Blacks are arrested or shot just for being a person of color in possession of a gun, while white gun owners can brandish their weapons freely without fear of being shot or unjustly detained.

The Fourth Amendment says that citizens may not be subject to unreasonable search and seizure. It’s where the concept of a search warrant comes from. Yet Blacks and other people of color have been subject to racial profiling and racially motivated searches, frisking, and seizure of property for as long as we have been citizens of this country.

The Sixth Amendment says that citizens have the right to a public and speedy trial, by an impartial jury, to know what we’re being accused of, to be confronted by the witnesses against us, and to have the opportunity to gain witnesses in our favor, and to have the right to an attorney in our defense. This is one of the biggest jokes. People of color remain in cells for weeks and months before trial, and are often coerced into plea bargains for crimes they didn’t commit in the first place, just so they can get out of jail sooner rather than run the risk of being remaining in jail for months, only to face a courtroom that is predisposed against you because of stereotypes and shady police records, with a public defender that is overworked at best and disinterested or corrupt at worst, resulting in extremely long sentencing with little to no account for the time the individual has already been incarcerated, seemingly as a penalty for refusing to take the fall and essentially “wasting people’s time”.

The Eighth Amendment says that “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” I could laugh if it weren’t such a blatant lie. Bail is disproportionately higher for people of color than for whites, as are the fines, and while cruel and unusual punishments may be subjective, I would argue that legalized slavery for a criminal population that is disproportionately comprised of Blacks and people of color AND murder by law enforcement before even reaching a judge BOTH qualify as cruel and unusual, particularly since it’s extremely notable how many white people, even accused or convicted of especially heinous crimes do not meet this fate, while a Black person could do so for merely moving wrong during a traffic stop.

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime. However, the only thing this changed for Blacks was the beginnings of racially motivated mass incarceration, starting from 1865 until the present.

The Fourteenth Amendment says that anyone born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen of the USA.  It also says that “no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

There are 20 other Amendments as of 2020, but this Amendment alone is the root of the problem. Black Americans are just that- Americans, and yet, we are DENIED equal protection under the law. We are DEPRIVED OF LIFE, LIBERTY AND PROPERTY, without due process of law.

But people seem to forget that Blacks are American citizens, too. And so, they seek to preserve their peace and forget to care.

So, as I turn up my headphones to tune out my roommate’s irritatingly ironic assertions of oppression, I turn my attention to the places where I have a voice, to remind people that this movement is more than just a lofty idea or the overreaction of a group of people that’s too sensitive or hung up on the past. I remind them that the problem is that the actions and attitudes, the injustices and imbalanced systems are still happening NOW, in the present, mid-2020. That’s why we can’t stay silent. Why no one can. I use my influence to remind the world what those who came before me died to obtain:

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the [blatant racist or the white supremacist] but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., excerpted out of order from sections of a letter from Birmingham Jail, Alabama, 16 April 1963

I remind those who care to listen that I exist in this world, hated and unwelcome. My very existence is one of danger and risk, especially if I choose to be myself. For me, there is no place like home.

I remind the world that I can’t breathe, and that for me that’s not just a catchphrase; it’s not just a concept to use for merit mongering or fitting in. It’s the fear that chokes me, the anxiety that suffocates my hopes and dreams. For me, it’s a reality.

#THIS IS NOT A FANFIC #rilakoya rambles #Blackout Tuesday #BLM

[hollymoorexx]

For my first blog, i would like to speak about my interests and things that i enjoy doing. My favorite kinds of art are animation and watercolor pencils drawings which are linked with cartoons. I love TV and film art which are surrounded with my favorite TV shows such as The vampire diaries, The 100, American Horror Story, Outer Banks and Friends etc. I also love Disney films since I was really young, my favorite Disney films are Princess and the frog and Tangled. I am a massive huge fan of Harry potter and know all the films back to back. For my age, I love old school films and music. I love Grease, Breakfast club, Clueless, Pretty Woman, Notting Hill and many more. This applies to my music taste to, I love Queen, Madonna, Whitney Huston, Fleet wood Mac and so many more.

Another thing that I am really interested in is Interior Design, I love keeping my room tidy and finding different ways of designing my room to express my interests. One of my walls in my bedroom is covered in movie posters, album covers, my favorite quotes, TV programs and films. I love my room and feel so comfy and cosy. This links to my love for interior design, i love designing things and helping other people find there style for there room.

Another thing that i am absolutely obsessed with is Christmas. I absolutely love being cosy and cold at Christmas time. The festive feels with winter and being with your family, is my favorite time of year. I love decorating the whole house ready for Christmas. I also have a little job at Billy Bates Fun Fair, which runs throughout Christmas, which is really fun. I love Christmas music and films, my favorite Christmas film is Nativity 1.   

Also, I have got into reading a little bit more and i really enjoy it. At the minute I am reading the After Series by Anna Todd, I have watched the first film and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would like to widen my imagination a little bit more though and carry on reading different books. I love films, books and tv shows I feel like it is my comfort zone to explore different stories.

I love going on pintrest and making different boards and pins, of my favorite films, collage walls for my bedroom, TV shows which i have got invested in, different actors and genres of music. I feel like this is a massive way of trying to express your self and I also find it really fun to do and a relaxation method. It also makes me feel more motivated when I have a clean area to do work with when I’m at home.

Image 1-

 In our lesson today, we needed to look at images in depth. The first image, is of a man in a painting with a pair of glasses in front only showing one lens. The man in the image seems to be identified as Vicent Van Gogh- a famous artist, giving us the idea that this photo has been taken in an art gallery. Deeper into this, knowing that the sentence at the bottom of the photo is in french could imply that this is taken in the famous Louvre museum in a France. The sentence translates into ‘see more clearly for less’ showing that this could be for a advertisement for glasses, where the sellers are trying to show the good prices of the glasses. The colours in this picture, are very light and have the same colours of blues and greens throughout the photo with hints of brown. I think that this photo would have a very different effect if the colours where changed, the colour scheme is very happy and has very little darkness. I think that the focal point in this photo is definitely the mans face, only because of the lense focusing on it and making it more realistic then the rest of the photo. The part of the photo which is focused by the glasses looks like a real life photo of a man, unlike the other half which looks like a painting . This implies how good these glasses really are; which is the message that the advertisers are trying to get across, to sell to customers.

Image 2-

This next image shows an ice cream, which has a normal cone but the ice cream has been replaced by an oversized stomach. The colours in this photo are quite plain, however the main three parts of the image have completely different colours. I think that there is a massive reasoning for the colours as, they have used quite nice happy colours when the subject it is based on is quite serious. This could be because they do not want to offend anyone. The focal point in this image is straight away the ‘ice cream’ which is actually an oversized stomach. It’s the first thing that you see when you look at the image and it makes you think what it actually is. This advertisement also is french which is implied by the symbol at the bottom with the colours of the French flag and the sentence in french which is translated into ‘obesity starts at a young age’. This implies that this advert it directed to children, which also can be implied by the ice cream as it is a very child-like food.

Image 3-

This image shows a man with a car painted on his face, getting punched by another man with a car painted on his hand to create the image of two cars colliding and crashing into one another. It is stated clearly underneath ‘Stop the violence, don’t drink and drive’ implying that this is an advertisement about awareness of drinking whilst driving. The colours on this image are a lot darker than the other, showing that this is a serious problem happening all around the world. The only colours which stand out from the dark background is the two cars which are red and green. I think a reason why the cars are a different colour are to show that this can happen to anyone because these are quite popular car colours. The focal point in my opinion is the mans face, you can tell that he is in pain which shows how bad it could be. Another thing I picked up on in this photo is the text. The words in this image are different sizes and colours, the words ‘Stop the violence’ are in white and ‘don’t drink and drive’ I found this unusual as it would be the other way around because red is a colour I associate with the world violence.

Image 4-

The next image seems to be based on an advertisement to do we saving trees, the advert is clearly raising awareness. The colour scheme for this advert is quite bright, the colour green is definitely the main focus. Green is a colour that I would normally associate with nature, therefore this links really well with the purpose of the advert. I definitely think that if the colour was different then it wouldn’t link as well. The focal point of this image appear to be the leaf with the city shaped in the middle. It shows huge amounts of smoke coming out of these factories showing the huge effect on the trees. To conclude, I think that this advert is all about saving the trees.

Image 5-

The next image, is my favourite out of the 7. The image shows two political leaders Donald trump and Kim Jong Un screaming into a boys ears, however he cant hear any of it due to have headphones in. The headphones are labelled ‘noise canceling’ showing that they block all the sound out. I did some further information into this advert to learn that it was for a campaign called ‘block out the chaos’. In my opinion this obviously means blocking out all the bad things gong in the world. The two things in this image that signify this the most is the rocket and the red button. I feel like the both show ideas of war and heavy violence. This is also shown by the colour red being used throughout the image, as the colour red could signify the feeling of anger. In this image I don’t really feel that the colours would change much because it is spreads it point across really well, however the colour red does tie in really well with the subject. I don’t think that there is a focal point ethier in this image as there is so much going on, however there definitely is a running theme of violence. Another thing i have noticed is the only white space is the headphones blocking out the sound, the colour white represents purity and peace.

Image 6-

This image clearly shows a elephant which is crumbling as if it is made out of stone. The colours in the image are very dark and there isn’t any bright colours, this therefore implies that this is a serious advert. In the corner is the logo for WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature) showing us that it is an advert about awareness for animals. The main focal point in the image is clearly the elephant, as it is clear and the message of the elephant becoming hurt of extinct is clear. In the corner there is a quote saying ‘desertfircation destroys 5,000 species every year’. Desertfircation meaning the process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation, or in appropriate agriculture. This implies that where these elephants are living isn’t safe and they are struggling to survive.

Image 7-

Image 7 shows a cup with a car printed on the lid where the straw is coming out of the gas pipe on the back of the car. It displays a clear piece of text stating ‘Pollution is closer than you think, friends on the earth’. I think that this text implies how brainwashed the world is. I think that the world every day uses more cars, buses, taxis, trains, planes and this obviously causes more pollution but people aren’t aware of this. There for this advert raises a lot of awareness. The colour scheme is quite plain and bland, however I think this suits the advert well as sometimes colours can be distracting from the real message making more people focus on the text.

[megamanxfanfics]

What the Hell is going on w/ Ep. 5?????

Hey World,

I just wanted to pop in and say what’s been going on, as it’s been a whole Season in between episodes.

So...  I guarantee you, I was working on it.  Pretty diligently at first.  I don’t know how many sessions, but I did X6 playthroughs while pausing and writing out the stage directions and reactions, etc. etc.  Some of this was humdrum and boring and then ideas popped out at me where I took some risks and really opened up the creativity.   Whenever I do that, I always think it’s shit at first.  But then upon a second or third look I get a different feel and decide whether it’s okay or not.

So, I promise you that it wasn’t really a Motivation thing.  Not X6 wise, anyway. The episode is roughly 7/8ths finished.  That’s for sure.  The file for Ep. 5 was last modified on July 26th, so what the Hell happened?

What stopped me was Life, itself.

...We all know that in April, my Mother passed away.  Right when I was in the midst of Writing Ep. 2.  Somehow I plowed through that. Then, in May and June life became about working out, eating right, exercising and going on dates actually, believe it or not!  I was writing Ep. 3 and even 4, during that time.  I was making some decent progress.

But then...  Dating wise, things fell apart.

And this is where I need to spare the details, because this is a MMX Blog and not a Relationship blog.  However, you could basically say that for the month of June I was enjoying myself with someone.  Then, when that didn’t work, in July I quickly moved on to someone else and then That didn’t work out either.  Like, at all.  And a combination of the two events just shut me down in August.

I just got hit so hard with the timing of everything.  I thought I was ready to date, but I really wasn’t.  And for the first time in my life I was straight up couch-ridden depressed.  Like, actually not wanting to do anything.  No video games, no shows, no music... not eating... Not working out...  and Certainly not writing MMX6.

So... I had to pull myself out of it. And how did I manage that, you might ask??

Well... for the entire months of August and September (and even now), I’ve spent a LOT of time working on myself.  For everyone, this is different.

But for me, I found a great comfort in writing out everything that has happened. And I’m talking about really digging deep and diving into all of my life choices for the past 5 years of my last relationship.

My Diary Entries weren’t just about the relationship, but also Life before Covid.  It was very nostalgic, therapeutic and cathartic once I got to the hard stuff and really analyzed what the Hell happened here and there.  (This Project was part of those entries as well.)

My favorite writer, Brian Michael Bendis says, “A Writer writes every day.”  And no matter how true that is for you, I definitely found that to become my own form of therapy.  Getting over myself, as it were.

And within days and weeks, I was enjoying this new project of Self-Reflection while listening to new music on Spotify.  Having the company of just 1 friend to do puzzles with and stuff, and eventually play video games again.  The shows came back.  Soon I was living my life and this project was becoming it’s own chore.  Even the exercising and eating right came back, although not in full force as it was before.

I also can’t forget that as of August and September, our Federal Help situation drastically changed.  So I had to get over the rut of seriously looking for new jobs again.  At this point, it still sucks, but I’m used to it now.

My life is applying for jobs and then treating myself to either my Self Reflection Project or any other hobbies that I’m feeling that day.

Video Game wise, I enjoyed finishing the MMZ saga and finally delving into MMZX.  What I can say there is that I loved MMZ3, which is a pretty popular opinion.  MMZ4′s story was too different for me to care.  They did a serious disservice by eliminating the Guardians in 3.  But either way, I surprisingly Loved ZX.  I thought by then, I wouldn’t care.  But I actually thought Vent was awesome.  I really appreciated their nostalgic throwbacks to X1 with Giro (clearly being a Zero, boss figure) and Area D-3 being the frickin Central Highway stage!!!  That lightened my heart and made me so happy, even though the game is so different. And those transformations into the Guardian Model Letters, (beyond X & Z) was just really well done.  It was the next phase in the evolution.  Despite the Metroidvania open-map being confusing as Hell.  I enjoyed the attempt a lot.

[Save-assist states also really enhanced this experience for me.] 

MMZX Advent however...  The only positive thing I have for that one is that, I actually LOVED that you were Model A the whole time.  I always kind of wanted an Axl game, and in a way, this was it.  But... that game is very flawed, and transforming into all of the psuedoroids on Top of gaining all the Model Letters (including ZX) was a bit much.  Meeting Aile as Model ZX, in my play through as Grey was probably the only nice throwback to the canon of that game. It’s sad to know that when you play it on hard there’s a cliff-hanger that could’ve lead to the Legends series.  But as someone who was never into the Legends series, I’m fine getting the Normal/Medium ending where Grey & Aile save the day and now they just want to live and travel around. I also liked any open-ended chemistry they had.  (Would they have been an item in a future game?  It doesn’t matter anymore.)

Lore rants, aside, playing through the ZX series brought me back to X6 a lot, because it made me wish I could play through the game in the same way that I’ve been writing this Anime Fic.  That you could just press a button and freely transform into your Falcon Armor or new armors that you acquire.

So what brought me back was a long-term plan in a way.  That friend who did the puzzles with me, as I mentioned expressed a Serious interest in reading my Long-Fic.  So I told her the best jumping on-point to get into Season VI stuff, which is actually starting at Xtreme2.  And I was so excited that she’d be reading it, that I relived it myself too.  [I even made some important edits to Duff McWhalen along the way.]

From there, as I’d go through my routine of job-hunting and soul searching, I’d also treat myself to reads of Xtreme 2, which turned into new routines of reading Season IV and V first, then applying to jobs, then going about my Self-Reflection Project.  Video Games wise, I also just decided to go through the whole MMX Legacy Collection.  So very quickly I went through X1 and X2.  X3 took a whole night.  X4 was a pretty quick Afternoon.  X5 was a decent day and X6 took a while (to play through in the way that I envision this fic.)

And then in the past week, you could say I’ve finally caught up, in more ways than one. Self-reflecting wise, I’ve actually caught up to April 2020, right at the worst moment of the year.  And it was good for me to go through that. Video Game wise, X6′s playthrough only spoke to me for the 1st Arc, mostly but it gave me a little more of an idea on how I’m tackling certain bits of the 2nd Arc.  The 3rd Arc is still a God damn mystery as is the exact ending, but I’ll figure it out.  Ideas are slowly forming.

And lastly Season VI wise, I quickly reread up to Ep. 4 and just opened up the file to Ep. 5 today!

I made new edits, came up with an Episode Title like I thought I would and at the stopping point, of course I was let down, but I was left with some new ideas on where to go from there.

Now I find myself actually wanting to rediscover what can happen next.

I have things to do today, and obligations weighing on me such as job-searches and stuff.  But now that my Self-Reflection thing is quickly catching up to the current day, I’m looking forward to alternating my writing days with X6 again.

Music is coming back to me, and funnily enough, someone swiped on me in September!!  So I started dating again, lol.  I’m not half as invested as I was in the Summer.  I know what I want more, this time around and yeah...

Other than the whole Job thing, life is good for the most part.

...I’m looking forward to getting the next episode out soon.

And finishing the 1st Arc by the end of the year.  That seems like a reasonable enough goal.

Until then, folks.

#Season VI #Writing Diaries #What the Hell is going on with Episode 5????? #Life #Covid-19 #Unemployment #Dating #Depression #Job Hunting #Soul-Searching #Self-Reflection #Moving Forward #Gaming #Reading #Writing Again

[nikkisnonsense-blog1]

To Myself... Three Months Ago

Dear Nikki,

Hey girl, I come to you not bearing the greatest of news. These next few months are going to be some of the hardest of your life so far. I really hate to be the one to tell you this but I feel like we’re close enough that we can be honest with each other. Well I’m not gonna waste anymore time because there’s a lot I need to get you up to speed on. Let’s make this a list of 8 things for organization sake.

      1. The musical you’ve been directing for the past few months will not be happening

You and your friend/ music director, Joe have been wearing out the phrase “I can’t believe the show is happening!” for the past few months. Sadly, that’s not the case. Sure, sometimes you wanted to rip your hair out due to frustration or cried in your car because you didn’t think you were doing a good enough job. But underneath it all, I know you had put more work into this show than you have for anything else in your life. You knew the possibility of the show being canceled was there but it was only something that you joked about in rehearsal with your cast. It could never become a reality. The day you find out, you won’t cry much. Which is weird. If anything you don’t feel much at all. The next day your cast will do an amazing concert style performance of the show instead which people will rave to you about and it genuinely makes you feel good for a moment. But it isn’t until after that’s over that it actually begins to set in. When everyone else starts to move on You’ll stare at the box of props that sits in your kitchen for months and feel a weird form of uneasiness. You were told by everyone that any frustration you feel would be worth it when the curtain opens. But what do you do when the curtain never opens? You’re forced to sit with the disappointment and sadness of an unfinished project. You think about all of the fun things you would have gotten to do with your cast and crew and how proud of yourself you would have been after the shows. That’s when you cry.

      2. The second half of your last college semester will be taken away

Besides the Musical, you will also be missing out on plenty of other events at school.  Your spring concert, trip to NYC, your roommate’s senior art show, your girlfriend’s comedy show, any theatre in the area, drunken nights with your friends, and most importantly, Graduation. Ah yes, the very thing that your entire life has been waiting on. At least that’s how it feels. You remember when you were little and traveled to upstate New York and Boston for your cousins’ graduations and how big of a deal they were. Or watching your parents tear up at your sister’s graduation. Not having been the best student in school, you were shocked you even made it this far. A day that was going to be a monumental experience for you and so many others has just been pushed to a further date. Like a dentist appointment. That day hurts the most. When I tell my parents how upset I am, they assure me “You’ll still have a graduation!” but you know it won’t be the same. You get mad at the world because of it and feel like stomping your feet on the ground and yelling “It’s not fair!” like a child. But you know that wouldn’t do any good.

       3. You’re going to gain weight

As someone who has had body images their whole life, I know this sounds like an absolute nightmare. And it kind of is. It’s kind of inevitable wen you can’t leave your house anymore, you rely on Door Dash a little too much, The gym is closed, and you really have no motivation to do anything. Stretch marks will appear in new places, shirts that once fit perfectly will be snug, and certain clothes you used to feels sexy in, just make you feel like a fool. It’s so important to remind yourself that your body is changing because your lifestyle is changing. It’s going to drive you wild for a while but I promise you it is not the end of the world. Also your girlfriend assures you she still finds you beautiful in any state. 

       4.  You move back in with your parents

You’re fortunate enough to have the last 2 months in your apartment to quarantine with your roommates and your girlfriend which is like a weird stretch of time where there are no rules and you feel like a Sim without a task. Then before you know it, your lease is up and your parents come up and help move you out of your apartment. Now I know you’re thinking that sounds like a nightmare but living with Mom and Dad is not as awful as you imagined. They treat you like an adult, give you your space, and dad only makes you watch one video he finds online a day as opposed to his usual 5. Theres also a bulk size container of cheese sticks from Costco so you decide this place isn’t too bad. Moving home is surprisingly the best you’ve felt all year. Your mental health is getting better which is a god sent considering how miserable you’ve been. So there is a silver lining

     5. Finding work is IMPOSSIBLE

You’ll find yourself comparing yourself to when your sister finished college and found work and an apartment almost immediately. Even though she’s in a different field and graduated 3 years ago when the world was a much different place, you still compare yourself. Indeed and Ziprecruiter become your best friends but they clearly don’t like you back very much because your responses are limited. The closest you get to a job is an insurance agency that would offer you $65,000- $85,000 a year. Maybe it’s just the Jew in you, but those numbers got you very excited, so you apply. They decide they’re interested in you and schedule you for a virtual interview. You’ve also read the job description 100 times and still have no god damn idea what you would be doing. During the Interview, the man asks you if you have any doubts and you say “maybe a few due to my lack of experience” but in your head you’re thinking “What the fuck am I doing. I have a degree in Theatre and I’m trying to get a job selling insurance. Would this job even make me the tiniest bit happy besides the paycheck?” The man tells you that he would like to offer you the job to which you graciously say thank you.  As soon as you hang up the zoom call, you immediately burst into tears. Frustrated and sad that the only job you have gotten close to is one you don’t even want. The jobs you do want, in the arts and media, are not hiring right now and if they are it’s for people with 5+ years of experience. You’ve applied to over 50 jobs at this point and the only ones that have gotten back to you sound dreadful. You learn that no paycheck is worth a lifetime of sadness. You email the man back saying thank you, but you cannot accept the job.

    6. The world is full of awful people

This may seem like an exaggeration at first especially because I- uh I mean you, are generally a pretty optimistic person. You may have severe depression, but you still usually see the glass half full. But even the blindest of optimists can’t deny the world looks pretty shit right now. Besides the pandemic, Black people are being murdered left and right by police for no reason. Something that certainly isn’t a new phenomenon but has now been amplified to new heights and has brought out the rage in people. You do what you can to help in these times. Protesting, donating, sharing online, signing petitions but it never feels like enough. You will continue to raise your voice about Black Lives Mattering and hope for change. Acknowledging your white privilege and trying to listen to the voices of others. As much as you personally try to help out, you end up seeing the ugly that comes out as well. Especially in your 92.9% white small town. 

    7. Pride will be different this year

The yearly celebration of going to Pride in Philadelphia with rainbow shadow on your eyes, glitter in your hair, and a water bottle full of vodka and gatorade have now been replace with anger and a yearning for justice. The LGBT community would be nothing without Black activists backing it. The Stonewall Riots were led by a Black Trans Woman. So you do your part to amplify black voices as a part of pride. Because right now is not the time to take shots and dance to Whitney Houston.

    8. You’re not the only one feeling this way

Even though life is a bit of a shit show right now, it’s so important to remind yourself that you are not the only one experiencing these things. None of your friends know what the hell they’re doing either.  Everyone is just scared shitless of the state of the world and is trying their best. Please take some of the pressure off yourself. You are only a person and it’s unrealistic to put these standards on yourself. The world today is a completely different world than it was 3 months ago. As for the months to come, I have absolutely no idea what to expect. You’d have to ask 6 months from now Nikki but I haven’t met her yet. The world will not be the same as it was before but I promise you, there is a new normal somewhere beyond the horizon. 

Take care of yourself,

Present Day Nikki

Ps. You are going to adopt a baby tortoise named Harley and he will be the light of your life. He will make life just a bit more bearable.

Pss. 

Here are links to help the Black Lives Matter movement

#blog #lgbt #college grad #college #personal #nikkis nonsense

[lifewithlala]

How to write a great resume that makes you stand out

The ultimate guide on finding an internship, part 1

This is a 6 part series that shares what I’ve learned in the way of finding my own internship placement. Today, we’ll be looking exactly what you have to write to make yourself stand out from other applicants.

1. Make your resume relevant to your employer. If you want to stand out, this is the secret. You want to show your future employer that you are the candidate it needs to fulfil its needs and wishes. Every company has a different goal and mission so they will ask different things from you. However, This is the number 1 mistake I’ve seen my classmates make. They only write 1 general resume and send it to a bunch of companies. BITCH 👏 STOP 👏 RIGHT 👏 THERE 👏 No two companies are the same, they each deal with different problems and have a different approach and business model. So it is damn right stupid to send the same thing to all of them. If you do that, you’re just digging your own grave. Save yourself. Love yourself. Don’t go through all those rejection letters when you could have pretty damn well avoided them. I’m sorry if I come as blunt but PLEASE listen!!! Take your time and research profoundly the companies you would like to work for. Read their website, stalk them on all social media and specifically LinkedIn. Try to get a hold of their culture and values. This is so important, I will devote the second part solely to this. So follow me if you don’t want to miss it.

2. Learn about the market. Doing research first can give you a headstart, even if you don’t have relevant experience. When I say learn about the market, I mean studying the area of expertise you want to focus and learn as much as you can. In my case, I study entrepreneurship and retail management, a very broad subject. However, I knew I wanted to focus on digital marketing so what I did was research what exactly falls under it, what employers are looking for, what software they use, what branch of it interested me the most, if there’s demand for it (very important!) and expected salary.

Tip: the more demand, better the pay. So try going into a niche.

3. Try getting some experience beforehand. If you can find a part-time job that is related to what you wanna do, then take it! As a student, you can’t really expect to be paid a lot, but what counts is the experience you are getting because this show you really are interested in learning about the trade. Personally, I started this blog almost a year ago. I also took some courses on Google Academy and surprisingly it gave me some opportunities and I got a gig as a social media assistant for some restaurants. When I went to the interview, the manager was really surprised by the fact I willingly took some courses to learn to work with Google Analytics and absolutely loved the fact I blog. So it doesn’t have to be something grand, as long as it shows you are motivated and willing to learn.

4. Write only the relevant information and a catch. Every resume follows basically kind of the same structure. You have your contact info, work experience, educational background and skills. You’ve done your research on what the company wants and needs so please don’t write everything you’ve ever done and experience on the resume. Even if you feel tempted to, do not do it. Write only what is truly relevant that you think can also benefit the company. As students, chances are that we don’t have relevant work experience. If this is the case, highlight your skills and coursework that you have done at your university. If you have worked on projects that are linked to other organizations besides your university and it is relevant for where you’re applying, write it down. And you should consider writing a summary statement. A summary statement is a sort of pitch and is a perfect method of summarizing why you are a good candidate for the position and what you have to offer for the company. You can find more information about writing one here.

To wrap it up, if you really want to stand out, you have to make it personalize your resume for each organization you are sending it to. Which is why you have to do your research on the job market beforehand so you know exactly what companies are looking for and if it is a right fit for you. Don’t be afraid and start getting some experience too. Whether it is by applying for a part-time job, following some courses or your own projects that are also related to what you want to do. And lastly, write the relevant information. Don’t write everything you’ve ever done as it can make your resume rather long and incoherent. Try making it short and to the point instead so they can quickly asses if you are a good fit. Don’t forget to write a statement summary to pitch yourself up.

In the second part, I’ll be talking about what I looked for in companies, how I determined if I could be a good fit for it, build criteria and help you see what companies are looking for candidates.

#studyblr #college #student #internship #write resume #resume #internship resume

[ichigopanhpff]

BNHA Fic: Blink! Ch. 21

Read Ch. 20 | Masterlist

SPOILER ALERT: This dives into the Redemption Arc and the spar where Midoriya finds something new about his quirk.

With the commotion calmed down three days later, classes resumed as is for the heroes in training. Ren popped by the Support Department after class to pick up her bangles. It took Hatsumei a lot longer to figure out the schematics since it’s not one of her creations. She had to do a lot of research and tweaking based on the upgrades Ren wanted. Loosely grasping her now crimson red with chrome gray striped bangles, her hands shook with excitement in wanting to try them out.

And tonight was a solo training session with Bakugou. He was already in his winter gym uniform and looked irritated upon entering Void.

“Something the matter, Bakkun?”

“Stupid Deku and his–” He immediately stopped and held his tongue, realizing he almost let slip of their secret.

“His…?”

“Idiot asked me to spar and decided last minute he wasn’t up for it,” he covered up. She gave him a suspicious hum of her voice and didn’t press him on it. Adjusting the bangles on her wrist, Ren flexed her hands and stretched them out.

“You got your weapon back?” Bakugou asked while stretching his legs.

“Two point oh beta, baby,” she boasted and flashed the new accessories at him with a toothy grin. “Made some adjustments from the original, but I won’t use all of them tonight.”

“What, you think I’m not good enough for you to use it?” the spiky ash blond boy spoke with a tone of offense.

“Now, now,” she soothed. “You never reveal all your cards in poker, right?”

“I’ve never played,” he flatly answered and crossed his arms.

Ren tapped her bangles together and it formed her usual T-batons. Testing the weight of it, she threw one at Bakugou and caught it successfully. His eyes then widened a bit after feeling it in his hands.

“This has gotta be, what, 11-12 kilograms?” he estimated. “You fight with this?”

“I asked Hatsume to up the weight capacity on it from 4.5 kg so I can hit harder aerial attacks, but not lag my speed when I use my quirk.”

“So you can use gravity and fall momentum to up the damage for you,” he figured out. “Surprisingly clever, even for someone like you.”

“Was that an insulting compliment coming from the great Lord Explosion Murder?” Ren taunted, holding her hand up to her ear. Sero and Kaminari mentioned in passing about their hero names.

“Shut up, dumb ass.” He smirked and threw one of the batons back at her, to which she caught effortlessly. “We gonna do this?”

“Tonight’ll be good practice for you to fight against weapons.”

Ren twirled her baton a few times to get the feel for it and got into position. She put the ends together to form the staff.

Bakugou readied himself by popping off a few explosions in his palm. His opponent launched herself at him as he barely managed to get his guard up on time; his right arm trembling from the impact of her staff. Shaking it off, he knew he had to get a leg up on her in the offensive before she strikes again. Not letting him get the advantage, she lunged at him and the two were locked in close quarter combat, exchanging blows.

As long as they’ve started this sparring deal, the ash blond spiky boy noticed she’s begun to take more of the initiative to get the first hit thanks to his and half-and-half’s constant drilling. Her old hit-and-run style annoyed him to no end only because he couldn’t get a clean hit on her. But when he did, oh boy, did he feel good about it. Not only did she have good reflexes and awareness, she had a foresight advantage over him based on her maneuverability.

In short, Bakugou couldn’t helped but be impressed by Ren.

She was strong.

And a tough opponent to take down.

With Ren coming at him again with another attack, he timed his Stun Grenade in hopes of throwing her rhythm off, only to see her vault above him in an instant with the help of her staff. Smirking from above, she used the smoke from his attack as camouflage and suddenly felt his legs swept from below him with something solid upon the gray veil dissipating. Falling straight on his back with a thud, the R.A. shifted her knee to his chest with one end of her staff pointed at his face. She looked down at him with a triumphant smirk.

“You really know how to make a girl sweat,” she panted out and got off of him.

Bakugou, not wanting to let this chance go to waste, grabbed her by the ankle and dragged her down on the floor. Knocking the wind out of her from her stomach, he managed to pin her down both her wrists with his knee putting moderate pressure on the small of her back in one swift move. Her staff rolled away from reach.

He leaned in dangerously close to her from behind, catching a whiff of the faint green apple shampoo mixed in with perspiration. Dark crimson eyes stared deeply at her side profile.

He softly spoke into the shell of her ear, “If you’re gonna get me down like that, at least finish the job.”

Releasing her from his grip, he got off and reached his hand down for her to grab. Accepting the gesture, Bakugou pulled Ren up with a bit too much strength and ended up having her directly onto his body for cushioning. She could practically feel every developed muscle on his chest. They were definitely much more chiseled than Todoroki’s.

“If you’re gonna cop a feel, at least treat me to some food first,” he teased, prompting her to quickly get off of him with a look that made her press her lips thinly into a line and lightly blushed. Deciding to distract herself from his commentary, she walked off to pick up her weapon to revert them back.

Ren glanced over at her sweaty sparring partner curiously. Feeling her eyes on him, he looked at her in confusion.

“What?”

“Can you… make explosions anywhere else on your body?” 

“My quirk can only be activated in the palms of my hands.” He looked down at his left land. “Which is why I have storage items with my hero costume when I need that extra firepower.”

“Oh. I was thinking if you were able to ignite the other sweat glands in your body, your X-Catapult attack would be so much more overwhelming,” Ren thought aloud, remembering when he tried out the new move on her during one of their spars. “Maybe Support can build you an item, like a jet pack to up your mobility?”

“You’re yammerin’ on like target-eyed tech geek,” he noted with a cocked eyebrow.

“Well,” she shoved her hands into her pockets. “I did originally apply to U.A. for Support and General Studies.”

“Huh?” Bakugou’s ears perked up like he was hard of hearing. This person, who he acknowledged as strong wasn’t gunning for the hero course from the start? “You’re joking, right?”

“I was in a different mindset at the time,” she lightly chuckled with an embarrassed expression and scratched her nose bridge. “I thought my quirk would be applied more practically there. But Aizawa-sensei and a few of the examiners got me in the hero’s course through their recommendations based on my exam performance.”

“Because you tried beating up three pro-heroes when were a bratty kid?”

Ren let out a hearty laugh at the memory and lightly shrugged.

“Maybe they saw potential. Who knows?”

Rotating her right shoulder to get rid of a knot, she tapped her bangles again and they formed into T-batons again. She turned her head with a curl of her lips, as if she was planning something devilish.

“Go again?”

“We’re just getting started.”

After another hour of sparring, the two exited the Void and ended up back in Ren’s room. Feeling the cool air hit the sweat of their skin, visible goosebumps could be seen forming on her arm.

“Head downstairs first.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

“Unless you wanna go together and have the whole class see us all sweaty from doing god knows what,” Ren joked. “I’m sure your buddies will get a kick outta makin’ fun of–”

“Shaddap!” He growled out in frustration and threw her door open with his cheeks tinted pink.

Changing and washing her face, she headed downstairs to see 1-A mingling with 1-B in the common area. She could see Todoroki talking with Midoriya about something in the dining area and Bakugou was already helping himself to dinner.

Ren mingled with the groups without effort, with the exception of Monoma trying to goad her with his insults, to which she immediately shut down with Dark Ren’s threat of “being quite proud to be around strong first years” and wondered if he wanted to see a one-on-one Plus Ultra session with her fists.

Snow greeted the U.A. campus for the first time for winter. Several students of 1-A were super excited to play in it while others preferred to hang in the warmth of the common area. Today was also the last day of the provisional classes for Bakugou and Todoroki. Ren left motivational post-it notes on their respective dorm doors in the morning before heading down for breakfast. With some free time on her hands, she played sous chef to Sato with a cake, smiling to herself. While the pastry was baking off in the oven, she killed some time by working on her knitting.

“Oh, a new one?” Kirishima perked up with excitement. “What are you making this time?”

“A simple scarf...” she replied while keeping up with what stitch she led with in the current row for the moss stitch. “But this pattern’s pretty tricky. I have to remember what stitch I lead off to alternate.”

“I never expected senpai to be so domestic given her temper,” Mineta commented aloud after coming back in from the snow, only to have his footsteps stop midway from a thick aluminum needle sticking up in his path.

“Wanna try that again, Mineta-kun?” she calmly spoke with dark intentions. “Or shall I string your balls outside to a tree and see how quickly hypothermia sets in for you.”

About another hour passed by before the two newly licensed heroes returned, with All-Might behind them. A shout of congratulations were directed at the two, with Bakugou being his usual self-boasting punk. Ren peeked her head up and ran up to the suited teacher. The two exchanged hugs and engaged in conversation about Melissa and David, briefly touching base on what was going on with them currently.

Staying a little longer than he intended to, All-Might said good night to the students and she rejoined them. The cake Sato and Ren baked cooled down just enough for them to decorate it to celebrate the two failures in finally passing the provisional exam.

As everyone ate, the two mentioned fighting a group villains en route back to dorms, much to no surprise to everyone. Kaminari jokingly remarked Bakugou’s presence attracts trouble, to which the latter threatened to blow his ass to Mars. With the cake ingested and everyone relaxed, the resident alien emerged with a soft black bag in her hands.

“Now that everyone is here!” Ashido loudly announced. “It’s time to pick your Secret Santa!”

“And we decided the budget for the present should not exceed 5,000 yen!” Iida dictated. “Please keep in mind of what you buy is appropriate for students! And you must keep the name to yourself.”

“Okay, now line up and grab your name!” the pink girl gleefully hopped around as 1-A grabbed a piece of paper out of the bag. When it was Ren’s turn, Ashido leaned into her ear and said, “Senpai, there’s something I wanna talk to you about after this.”

She turned up with a curious gaze while Ashido’s had one of ulterior motives. She got her paper and walked away to open it.

It was… not a name she was expecting. Such is the nature of the Secret Santa.

With the names drawn and the celebration finished, Ren headed to Ashido’s room as requested. She happily greeted her senior and invited her in. It was a very surprising shade of shocking pink and animal print.

To her surprise, Jiro, Hagakure, Yaoyorozu and Asui were already there and settled in.

“I call this meeting to start!” Ashido announced happily.

“Where’s Ochaco-chan?” Ren asked.

“Well that’s the thing...” Yao-momo started. “It’s kind of about her.”

“Did something happen?” she asked with a tone of concern and sat on the floor with the group.

“We wanna set her up with Midoriya-kun!” Hagakure revealed.

“And we know he has a thing for her too,” Ashido added. “With the way he blushes when she talks to him.”

“I think… he does that with any girl he talks to,” Ren casually remarked. “He’s a bashful boy.”

“Not with Ochaco-chan,” Asui pointed out. “He always seems… different with her. I genuinely think he respects and likes her, ribbit.”

Ren let out an uncomfortable groan and moved her mouth to one side out of concern, commenting, “I usually let stuff like this happen naturally. Dunno how I feel about setting them up...”

“If we let them take it at their pace, it’ll never happen,” Ashido reasoned with an exasperated tone and rolled her eyes. “We’re just here to... push it along, is all.”

“Fair point. What do you intend to do?”

“All you need to do is get mistletoe,” the pink girl responded with a devious grin. “We’ll take care of the rest.”

“’Take care’ how, exactly?” their resident advisor asked out of absolute interest.

“Our plan is to set up a bunch of games for everyone to play and pair them up ‘coincidentally’,” Jiro proposed.

“That… sounds like a terrible plan. Even shojo manga have better tropes than this.”

“Well, what do you have in mind?!” Ashido blurted out from annoyance. “You talk like you know how to go about this.”

“Ren-senpai is the only one out of all of us who’s had romantic experience,” Yaoyorozu reasoned.

“I dunno how true that statement is, but you can’t make it so obvious you’re trying to set them up. They’ll catch on quickly,” Ren indicated. “You have to let some chaos in there and get their feelings riled up so they realize their own for one another.”

“Damn, that’s a really good point,” Ashido remarked with admiration and cupped her chin. “What do you propose?”

“You let me take care of that,” the pink-haired girl briskly replied with a playful smirk. “I have a bit of a reputation of causing pandemonium.”

“As expected of Ren-Ren,” Jiro happily blurted out. “Can we get any ideas?”

“It’s up to me to know and for you to find out,” she teased paired with a smirk and winked at the earphone jack girl.

“Ohh, I never thought Ren-senpai could be so devilish!” Ashido declared with excitement.

–

With the holidays and the end of the semester around the corner, the teachers were cramming in harder lectures and plus ultra level quirk training. In their mindset, time was not on their side, considering they have zero intel as to what the League of Villains were planning. At the same time, they are still kids and should enjoy whatever peace they can enjoy. Things like that was always a delicate balancing act in U.A.

Catching wind of Todoroki and Bakugou’s heroic efforts 30 minutes after getting their provisional licenses, TV casters came by the Alliance Dorm to interview the two boys. It was basically them being their usual selves: shouting and stoic. The class couldn’t help but look on helplessly at this disaster, considering this was the third do-over. The newscast also interviewed Ren with her recent take down of the quirk boosted villain when she was in Musutafu with the bi-colored haired boy. The pink haired girl calmly answered their questions with enough detail they couldn’t follow up with anything.

In the end, they cut Bakugou completely out by the time it aired, to which the hot-headed blond ground his teeth in anger. Given the disaster of the interview, U.A. decided to turn it into a teachable moment; Mount Lady was invited in as a guest lecturer in teaching the young heroes the fine art of dealing with the media.

With a rare free day between everything, Ren managed to run out to buy decorations for the party with Ashido, Iida and Yaoyorozu. As much as Ashido wanted to buy up all the mistletoe at the party supply shop, Ren managed to convince her one was enough to draw away suspicion and stay within budget. Returning back to the dorms, the resident advisor ran an English tutoring session with 1-A; Present Mic had been increasing the difficulty of his lessons and the students are struggling with grammar and certain usage of phrases.

After study group was over, it was time for her extra sparring sessions; tonight was with Kirishima. The roaring red head was happy to join in to take a break from hitting the books. Tonight’s training consisted of him hardening different parts of his body as he’s being attacked to increase his reflexes and timing in activating his quirk. Ren struck the redhead in several part of his body with her staff and increased the speed as time went on to test him. As time went on, Kirishima couldn’t keep up with her speed and got beaten down.

“You’re activating it based on anticipation rather than instinct,” Ren huffed out and wiped some sweat off her forehead with her arm. “Hardening at this point should feel natural.”

“I know! It’s just… !” He growled out with frustration and slammed his fist on the ground with a dull thud. “My brain knows where you’re moving, but my body reacts too late!”

“In the words of Bruce Lee: ‘Don’t think, feel,’” she advised. “Try reading my movements and predict it from there.”

Repeating her actions from before, the spiky redheaded boy put his full concentration into each of his maneuvers, trying to sense a pattern from Ren. As she sped up, he managed to keep up with her longer than he did the first time around.

“Good!” She encouraged as she increased the frequency and strength of her attacks. “You’re keeping up!”

Gradually, her attacks got quicker and harder, testing his proficiency in changing his limbs to the Unbreakable form. As he got impatient in getting beat down, Kirishima attempted to use Red Counter on Ren, only to have her back away the moment he tried to strike.

“Excellent...” She smirked and withdrew her weapon. “I’ll make you a sturdy shield just yet.”

Her sparring partner panted heavily and squatted down to recover his energy with sweat rolling down his gleaming muscular body. His body heat exuded out in the form of steam.

“Man...” he gasped between breaths. “I never realized how much stamina this takes outta me just hardening certain parts to just guard. If this was a real fight, I would’ve been done for already.”

“Not with me, you won’t,” she firmly stated with a hand on her hip. “We’re just getting started. This is your first step in surpassing Crimson Riot, Kiri-kun.”

His inspired red eyes looked up to meet hers as an overwhelming flood of pride bloomed in his chest.

“Osu!” he shouted with oozing adrenaline.

Reverting her staff back to her bangles, she rolled her shoulders and cricked her neck while she walked to the far end of the room to continue their sparring.

“Kiri-kun, can I...try something on you?” she asked quickly.

“Y-Yeah! Of course!” the boy perked up and got up off of the floor.

Ren turned around and tapped her accessories together twice and formed something different this time.

“You can’t tell anyone about this, okay?” she stated in a serious tone. “It’s a prototype right now.”

#bnha fanfiction #mha fanfiction #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha bakugou #mha bakugou #bnha bakugo katsuki #mha bakugo katsuki #bnha kirishima #mha kirishima #bnha kirishima eijirou #mha kirishima eijirou #bnha ashido mina #mha ashido #bnha oc #mha oc

[visualcommune]

Londs Reuter  0:24   No, but if that changes, I'll let you know. Thank you. Ari Wil  0:28   Okay. Um, so could you give me a description of your work? Yeah. Londs Reuter  0:36   I So, I guess, great question. I oversee sort of like three different programmatic domains at the Whitney and tour in my title and one isn't. So I work in community partnerships, which are mostly local neighborhood organizations. We want to be stakeholders at the Whitney Museum and influence interesting policy and programming and we want their buy in and we want to do right by them. So I'm, I'm part of that relationship and I have been in like, building those relationships and sustaining them. And so that's the community aspect of the work. I work in accessibility, which is really my background. Where I advise on exhibition design and planning. I also help run three different tours, like monthly tours of the museum for different disability communities. And then the third component that's like, not really in my title, but it sort of baked in is that I work a lot on senior programming and senior partner ships, which often take place off site at different senior centers, or community centers. And some of them take place here at the museum where they come and visit. And we also have a twice yearly sort of free day for seniors to come to the museum and get docent led tours. So that's the senior programming aspect of it. So yeah, three different domains. The work on the day to day looks a lot like calling and emailing and running around Ari Wil  2:32   OK. Yeah. Londs Reuter  2:34   But in support of those goals. Ari Wil  2:35   okay, and would you say that the overall goal, which is, is to ease the problematic, problematic nature of art? Londs Reuter  2:46   Hmm. I guess I'd want clarification on what the problematic nature of art is to you. Ari Wil  2:54   Okay. Okay. Well, here's the quote from you. I'm so sorry. I didn't Me, me me means to bring it out like that. Okay, I'm so sorry. You go artists a problem and then what you're addressing is how do we eat is problematic nature. So I was just wondering if Yeah, is that something that is that a concept you would apply to your work?Or like to those different areas? Where does that concept? Londs Reuter  3:19   Yeah. Ari Wil  3:23   I guess I guess I'm so sorry. I'm not trying to call you out for that. Londs Reuter  3:27   It's like communing with a former self and I'm like, Who are you? I don't believe in ideas of like universal access, or like this idea that anything is completely accessible to everyone. Which means that there are always problems for someone in anyone's access that like my access can actually mean your inability to access something at times. It doesn't always have to be in direct conflict, but they aren't always sort of mutually instinctual. So I guess the problems are ongoing and it means that like, the inherent nature of access work is to be constantly responding and changing and like offering options. So like you there is no perfectly accessible art because there is no perfectly accessible anything. Which I'm I think some people disagree about that. Most disabled folks don't disagree. Yeah. In my experience. Yeah. Which means artists problem like everything else. Ari Wil  4:54   Yeah. Londs Reuter  4:55   Yeah, I just happened to work in art museums. So I'm like, very to to that particular struggle. Ari Wil  5:02   Can you talk about your experience as an art administrator? Just your background and access for too? Londs Reuter  5:09   Yeah. So funny, I never think of myself as an art administrator, but I, that's how I make a living. I think of myself as like an artist, and a person who supports access to art, which is an administrative goal, anyway. So the question again, yeah, I'm sorry. Ari Wil  5:45   Oh,yeah. So your experience as an artist and maybe our admin, yes, worker. Londs Reuter  5:53   There's so many ways I could answer that. So I'll give you some, like, tell me what you need or what You're looking for I have been working in accessibility projects, I'd say for the last six years or so. And it was like, a moment of redirection for me. I've been working in education and I've been working in an education style that actually, in reflecting on it feels directly opposed to a lot of my current values around access. And I just hadn't done the amount of work that I've done now to see things in the way that I see them now. So my work in access, I largely sort of like, legitimize my entry into the field by citing a lot of my work as a quote, special education instructor, which is what I did previously. Though I, I wouldn't count that high among the skills that actually lend themselves to the work that I do. I think I'm a dancer by training, I think dance prepares people to like, go into literally any situation and assess the feeling and like, understand what conditions need to be created in order to like, generate situations. Ari Wil  7:36   So dancing is like the vibe check? Londs Reuter  7:38   Yeah, I mean, for me, like, dancing only happens when we're in the space, figuring it out together. And like access also only happens when we're in the space figuring it out together. It's like not a checklist. It's not a thing that I can like. Just like shoot you the email and make sure you have the right dimensions on the pedestal or, you know, it like actually needs to happen. Through interaction and actions. So, for me I like really feel like I'm calling upon my dance practices in order to do my accessibility work more than like the things I actually legitimize to my job interviews and things like that. Those certainly like, my intimate relationships with students with autistic students has like, just like, absolutely shifted my worldview, and actually is the thing that like, made me feel that I had to leave that type of training and schooling that I had been doing with students was like, an act of love to those students. But it doesn't necessarily feel like the thing that's prepared me, I will say, and it was very clear to me starting out in this work, that there was information that I wanted and didn't have access to It is by I started a graduate program in disability studies. So I've been part time in graduate school for quite a few years. So that's the other way that I've been sort of prepping myself to do this work is sort of theoretical. Ari Wil  9:18   During the panel, you kind of briefly talked about the growth process of being a teacher with autistic students and then turning into your work now. What were the strengths and weaknesses of that and unlearning process to your work today? Londs Reuter  9:42   Yeah, this it was a messy time. I was also like 25. And it was -- I'm getting this wrong because I'm I'm 30 now --  but it was also a time in your life, when people have often been doing a thing thinking it's the thing and then you have a shift. So it doesn't feel like it's particular just to that circumstance but also to that time in life. But a lot of the shifts for me were philosophical. I I had sort of made peace with the fact that my art practice wasn't going to be lucrative. And I knew that before I even moved to New York, which is what I did right after college, I moved here from Maine. Okay, that was the last stop before here..But  I so I was, I was like seeking work to offset the cost of Living and making art. And I realized pretty quickly that actually, in the span of a week, I might be spending more time at that day job than I would be doing my art practices and that therefore I needed a day job that spoke to my values and beliefs. But I just couldn't do certain service oriented jobs that like left new, more depleted by the end of the day. And if I was going to be complicit in capitalist structures, I wanted to at least give something of myself out into the world. And it felt like the world needed. So that was sort of like my move into doing teaching. And then from teaching, I tried to shift into museum education. And in that museum education shift, I was having all these conversations around accessibility. I will say working in museums, it was partially just that I didn't backgrounds by could legitimize working in these spaces. But I was very interested in just doing accessibility work. And that happens in a lot of institutions. So I was looking at educational institutions like universities, as well as places like museums and cultural places. So I wasn't necessarily seeking out being an art space, it was more that I had things on my resume that let me move into an art space. But for me, the ambition was really working and accessibility. Ari Wil  12:36   Okay. And then what motivates you to work and accessibility? Londs Reuter  12:41   Yeah. I mean, access work is fascinating. I will like it just as a person who like needs a certain level of like intellectual friction, but like I need things I can chew on. Ari Wil  13:09   Yeah, complex ideals. Londs Reuter  13:10   Yeah. And access is like never ending and so profoundly intersectional  sometimes in really hard ways.  I would say like very especially when it comes to talking about race and when it comes to talking about capitalism that like, it is like a growth process that is, like just becoming, but a never arriving process for me that like really keeps me engaged and interested. I mean, I think I grew up with a disabled sibling and experienced a lot of ableism early in my life, where I was afforded opportunities that I was like directly witnessing as like a four year old that my brother wasn't getting as a seven year old. So there's also like,  it also really matches the way that I have long been engaging with the world of like seeing things and not understanding that other people don't see them. But also wanting to be an accomplice to like bringing other people into the work Ari Wil  14:38   an accomplice! I read an article on that, like three days ago. Access you also, in the panel talk about access as "love and hospitality. Justce". Yeah. Is there anything else you want to say about that? I want to cite that Londs Reuter  14:56   okay. So that's not an original thought or idea. And it's also like there are lots of things that are sort of out in the ether that like maybe one disabled activist like sort of coins, but like has generally been understood before, perhaps not articulated in quite that way. But Mia Mingus is a Disability Justice activist and a sort of, I think she works a lot in healing justice as well. And she's based in the Bay Area and is sort of the person that coined "access is love" has a term I want to say also that Alice Wong did it, she has a podcast. I think Alice is a she her called Disability Visibility, and I feel like that activist is also related to access as love movement and an idea. It's like on shirts, they have it on mugs now. There's like really moving that forward. Ari Wil  16:02   Noted, Yeah. What are you most proud of in your work on diversity and accessibility. Londs Reuter  16:10   Hm proud...feels very hard. I think in part pride feels like it centers myself and I actually feel like a lot of the work that I do tries to like knock me off center. Interested that I'm not. Yeah, but but also it's important. So I'm going to try to hear the question and I, I'm also working on seeing myself in the work that I do. Which I think is a lifelong project. Ari Wil  16:48   Yeah. So talking about this growth process in your professional life, because I'm 20. Londs Reuter  16:56   growing won't stop. If you're doing it right. In my opinion. So hopefully you're still changing your mind when you're my age. I can I say things I'm proud of, you know, I'm really proud to have disabled friends. That's one thing I'll say that I know people that work in accessibility that do it in service of people. But that those people like don't come to their home, or like they don't get beers together. And I'm, I'm proud that this work for me it's different boundaries of my life. So that's one thought I'm having. Ari Wil  17:49   Another quote that's kind of like accesses love nothing about us. Without us. Yeah, I just feel like that's nice that you let that into your life. Londs Reuter  17:57   Oh, yeah. I'll say that too. thing about us without us is sort of like the was the rallying cry of the disability rights movement, which was like largely in the 90s and early 2000s. That sort of like first wave and disability movement. And I say like, second wave that we're in right now is Disability Justice. Okay, cool. You're nodding. Ari Wil  18:17   No, I'm here. Londs Reuter  18:18   Yeah, I just want to offer that. You know, another thing I'm proud of is that I am reasonably beginner level proficiency in American Sign Language. And that, thank you. At the Brooklyn Museum, there was a deaf school across the street. And I always, for years wanted to build a relationship between the school and the museum. And and the way I started to build a relationship was by learning ASL. And I would go to the school and I would take lessons with other parents and caregivers and lots of grandparents of like deaf kids at the school that like, they were learning how to communicate with their kids. And I was able to audit those classes in the museum paid for that, which I'm also very proud of. And so that when I started sign language tours at that Museum, I was able to welcome every person and introduce myself and like, not just like, hire someone else to do all of it. Yeah. But actually take the risk of like, speaking someone else's language with them. And that, and I've continued to learn sign language and it's also just like the most brilliant genius language that I quite obsessed with its practicality. Ari Wil  19:56   So you recommend picking it up? Londs Reuter  19:58   Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you're Like into languages is like, I find the language to be like, so straightforward and charming. And there are so few signs that I've learned that don't make sense. Okay. Okay, like I learned a new sign and I'm like, Ari Wil  20:19   yeah, no Chinese is not like that at all. I was in China for a semester, and I came away with nothing. I mean, wow. Londs Reuter  20:35   Mandarin? Ari Wil  20:36   Yeah. Mandarin what's the greatest obstacle to your work? Londs Reuter  20:40   Whoo. Okay, many, well, greatest? Stigma. I would say. I mean, I think that's very hard about institutional work is I would say inheritance is that like, there's turnover. There are different ways that like people leave different legacies and you inherit them. Yeah. And you inherit people's baggage. And it might not even be the person who had your role before, but it's just like who used to be the person that communicated with the person in your role? You know, like there's that, in an institutional sense that I'd say inheritance is really hard. But I wouldn't count that as the hardest. I would still say that stigma is like we're so far from being in a place where that doesn't negatively like it detrimentally affects almost every aspect of accessibility work. Both like in the work and I say, me too, you know, like, that's not a thing I've totally eradicated from myself. Yeah. So Ari Wil  21:52   What would you say is the Whitney's target audience? Londs Reuter  21:58   I don't know that. I know Enough to answer that. Okay. target audience? I have been quite surprised since working here at how many sort of like tourists from other countries are coming to this museum that like I get an elevator and I hear English like every third time. Ari Wil  22:21   And then the elevator Brooklyn Museum? Londs Reuter  22:23   Yeah, that was like locals, lots of school kids. That was like a big project there. And some tourists but not to the same ratio, as I experience here, but I don't know if that's a target for the museum necessarily. I think. And I'm in a very particular vantage point in the museum where I'm actually really thinking about New Yorkers. I'm really thinking about like, meatpacking district I'm thinking about like, like, who lives in like pen south and Westbeth and just like this. So these are all like New York City Housing Authority sites. So like, they're my audience in a way. And they're my target, but I don't think they see themselves that way. You know, so. Okay, yeah. Ari Wil  23:22   So you would say your audience is the local community? Londs Reuter  23:28   I guess I work with accessing community programs. So like, I want to make sure that like disabled people are part of the general public and that includes like staff and visitors and artists and all of it. And I also want to make sure that people that live down the block from the museum know that this is a museum that they can come to. Okay, whether they grew up with this museum down the street, Or they've lived here for eight years. And this has really transformed the neighborhood. Ari Wil  24:07   Do you feel like there's one particular vantage point or view missing? More than another? Londs Reuter  24:16   missing? An interesting question. I woul want to think about that. There isn't anything like immediately springing to mind. Ari Wil  24:34   okay to say no, I wouldn't be surprised if you saw another email from me later. Just with like a follow up question thing. Londs Reuter  24:40   Cool. Ari Wil  24:41   So anything that I say mull it over..we also have like 10 minutes, okay. Yeah. But I want to talk a little bit about how you think we can manage implicit bias. Londs Reuter  24:55   Okay, let's go there. Ari Wil  24:56   Yeah. And keeping people accountable for it. Londs Reuter  25:02   Yeah. Yeah. Ari Wil  25:04   Do have you felt implicit bias in your work? Have you ever catch yourself? Is this something that takes your thinking to the competition strategic planning? And then even you said like, you want to get disabled artist and you want to make them a part of the internal how do you do that without pigeonholing people and hiring someone? Just Just because you know, yeah. Londs Reuter  25:31   I mean, I don't, I don't hire people. I will say that, like, I don't work in HR. I'm not a curator who selects the artists. I think I can be an accomplice to those hiring processes or like considering different artists but and I also think if I change the ways that people are seeing and viewing the world, and seeing themselves as like in implicit embedded in ... Ari Wil  26:04   white supremacy? Londs Reuter  26:05   Yeah, I mean, like and and you know? Ari Wil  26:08   Yeah, just supremacy. Londs Reuter  26:09   Yeah. That like that can be in service of opening the door a little wider. Yeah. So I see my work in that way, but it is sort of like more conceptual and in a sense, though, I don't think it's really at a remove. So let's say that I mean, yeah, implicit bias is sort of embedded in everything that I do. I think I do a lot of work. A lot of work on myself. I think I've had multiple situations where I've been held accountable for words, thoughts, decisions that didn't actually align with the truth of the situation. And those are hard situations. They've gone best for me when they weren't public, but when they were like personal and and gave me time and further harm wasn't actually the goal from the person letting me in on the harm i'd caused. Those have been the most effective For me. So those are certainly processes that I've been through on multiple occasions. None here yet. It's only been three months. And I think to like, I work in a spot that's like quite vulnerable for an institution, you know, I'm like the one that's actually that's trying to do a lot of work. That from an institutional perspective just keeps us from getting complaints from a local community from disabled folks coming through the door, you know, like, I'm, I'm at the crossroads of that I'm not interested in keeping us from getting complaints. Like I'm interested in people having experiences with art and like going to a cultural institution, because they want to go on this day. But it's a spot that can take a lot of heat. Especially thinking about community relationships for museum that moved here in 2015. And there's only one meatpacking district. Yeah, business at all in the neighborhood anymore. And it's next door and we're looking to see if we can maybe expand there. So like, I am complicit in some actually that should not go on the record about that building next door. Okay, sorry. Okay. That's noted. Thank you. But I think I share it to highlight the fact that like, I'm working in a mechanism that's so much bigger than me that has like, histories that some things I agree with, and some things I don't and ongoing choices that some of them I agree with, and some that I dont. Ari Wil  29:48   Still an institution, you know. Londs Reuter  29:51   And that's like, embedded in the patronage model, which like, means that like we're getting money from really wealthy donors. To the wealthy in the United States often means certain practices. And like is embedded in certain histories over others. And so I'm, I think not only is like my implicit bias at play, but I also know that like me as an individual can only do so much to redirect these resources. Yes. Ari Wil  30:29   You're still working with in it. Londs Reuter  30:30   I'm working with in it. Yeah. Yeah. Which is, I think, really complicated. Ari Wil  30:36   Thank you for being honest about that. I think that whole thing was always kind of hard to talk about. What resources do you need to do your work? Londs Reuter  30:51   Great questions. Ari Wil  30:53   Thank you. Londs Reuter  30:58   Friends. I would say friends and community is like a very important component of this. I think if I were like, isolated and out of touch with real people making real choices, my work would be at a disconnect. So that feels actually like the first and most important thing. I think access, as we currently conceive it, is can be quite expensive. So I won't. So I don't want to forget that like financial resources make a lot of this work possible. Though, I think there's a lot of ingenuity possible for thinking about access in ways that aren't super expensive. Ari Wil  31:53   Is that why you say friends was like your primary resource, because from everyone else, and not everyone else will make that general statemtent, But I keep hearing budget as the biggest one. Hmm. So you saying friends was nice, but do you think that runs does then kind of shifted where like money is a nice resource to have. But if you have friends, it's more like you can make other dreams happen? Londs Reuter  32:19   Yeah, isn't that interesting? Yeah, everyone's so much market administrator than me. I mean, it matters getting it in the budget, especially for thinking institutionally. And it matters getting it in everyone's budget, not just in your like access budget here, but because in an institution, there are lots of glitches. But I guess for me, it's like if I have friends that are alerting me to things and showing me new ways to like to practice access then like Often, I'm learning about things that don't cost money, like just adding image descriptions, to, you know, it's going to take three more minutes of my day, but like, that's not, I mean, that's three minutes of money. It's okay. I mean, but like, friends don't necessarily pay the ASL interpreter, you know? So they're like, I see. I would hold them both in like high regard. I guess I just I never want to take people out of the equation. So like putting budgets as the most important thing feels like. But what about people? For me. So that's where I'm at? Ari Wil  33:45   Yeah. It is 1145 now, okay. Do you think that maybe I can send you the questions or we can do some kind of follow up or something. What do you think? Londs Reuter  33:57   Uh, yeah, I mean, I just have to be somewhere at noon and I want to check my computer before I get there, Ari Wil  34:03   but I wouldn't really rather you do that because like the way like these questions are kind of, you know, add some girth to them. Londs Reuter  34:10   Okay. Cool. Ari Wil  34:11   I wouldn't even mind you like doing a voicemail If you would prefer that, you know, like I can send you them and then just talk or literally anything. Okay, I'm very down. Londs Reuter  34:21   That would be nice. A voice note. Ari Wil  34:22   okay. We can email about it. And so yeah, thank you. Yes. Anything else? Any other questions you have for me? or anything else want to say for the record? Londs Reuter  34:34   I'd love you to check with me. For anything shard publicly. Ari Wil  34:42   Yeah. Londs Reuter  34:43   it's just to say that you offered at the start, but I'm new here and I would just want the chance to make sure that I'm not misrepresenting. Ari Wil  34:55   Yes. Londs Reuter  34:59   But that's the only I'm really, I'm really thinking. Ari Wil  35:04   yeah, I can definitely do that. Cool. Londs Reuter  35:05   All right. Thank you for this project for you. Ari Wil  35:07   Thank you.

[goodnightmoonvale]

For Job-Hunters Out There

Lemme tell you a thing.

Today, I got pulled into my great-great-grandboss’s office and told, “we have the perfect position for you. We’re starting this new team and we want you to be on it, here’s what we’re planning to do, if you want this position it’s yours, no questions.” 

“Sounds interesting,” I said. They sent me the job description they had written for it. As I was reading it, I laughed, because if this was a job description that I’d seen online, I never would have applied for it because it seems like I don’t have nearly the experience or skills they’re looking for. Observe this (mostly redacted) job description with my commentary on how I would personally rate my skills in these areas:

Required Skills

2-3 years of experience in [these specific types of digital marketing] - I have 6 total years of digital marketing experience, but only 1 year of experience in only one of these specific types, so like . . . 80%?

Understanding of [things] and how they are measured - 100%

Experience with [other things] - sort of. Maybe like 30%?

Very experienced with analytics tools like Excel, Google Sheets, and Tableau - 90%

Familiarity with [systems], including different types of [things] & how they’re used - somewhere between 25-40%

Experience in analyzing and writing about new [thing] technologies - lol, 0%

Understanding of [thing] - lol, also 0%

Extremely organized, meticulous, ambitious and hardworking. - lol have you met me? 40% on a good day. I’m a human disaster at being organized or meticulous

Self-motivated - sometimes. Depends on the thing. maybe 55%?

Results-and detail-oriented - detail oriented is a joke. 40% tops

Excellent communication skills - written and verbal. - 100%

Able to work with minimal supervision while maintaining focus and productivity. - once again, depends on the thing. Guess I’ll say 50%?

Able to quickly adapt to new situations. - ergh, if I have to. 70%

Preferred Skills

Experience in SQL, Google App Script, or Javascript - have dabbled, am not particularly good. 35%

Experience with [some things] and [some other things] - 0%

Experience or familiarity with working with [onboarding] tools - 0%

Expert in [some software] - never even heard of this. 0%

So if you didn’t notice, that’s a solid 100% on two (2) of the required skills, with a good 0% on another two (2) of the required skills as well as 3 out of 4 preferred skills. This is a job I would barely be comfortable even thinking about applying for if I saw it on a job posting website. I might apply for it for shits and giggles, as a long shot, because you never know, right?

Let me reiterate. This is a job that my great-great-grandboss literally told me I would be perfect for, based on projects I’ve done for him and for my grandboss and great-grandboss. This is well-considered. They want me to take it. And yet, I would probably be very close to passing on it if I were looking at it on a job posting website, because I don’t feel qualified for it.

Let this be your confidence lesson. Job descriptions are a) poorly written and b) do not need to be taken as gospel truth. They will teach you half (or more!) of the stuff listed as required skills once you are on the job.

So go forth, my pretties, and apply!

#job searching #careers #adulting #applying for jobs #life skills #long post #life on the moon #autobiographical raps

[lightningenergy]

@lightningenergy and @codyscommandpost proudly present:

Operation Cloudburst, a Pokémon Fan-Fiction

Disclaimer: Pokémon is copyright its original owners. The authors only own the plot and original characters. Any representation of real persons, dead or alive, is purely coincidental unless it makes a damn good reference.

Shout-outs to my “little sister” @princessofhoenn for beta-reading this chapter! :)

Chapter 9 - “A Jewel in the Rough! The Gorgeous Oasis, Phenac City!”

Having applied a Revive and Hyper Potion to Wartortle, May withdrew it back into the safety of its Poké Ball. She should’ve put more thought into combatting that Tyranitar: she had surrendered herself into rage and her Pokémon suffered for it. Deep down May knew that Wartortle wouldn’t hold the loss against her — that just wasn’t its personality — but the burden of guilt was certainly going to gnaw away at her for days to come.

Her legs groaning their disapproval as she stood up, May brushed off as much dirt as she could. The cut on her forehead was still throbbing (she would have to get it bandaged), but other than that she wasn’t physically injured as terribly as she was emotionally. At least, she thought, it would be easier to conceal the latter than the former, which was a minute comfort.

Manya probably wouldn’t be pleased with me hiding that, May realized. The other girl offered a much-appreciated emotional outlet, of course… who, then, would comfort the comforter when it all became too much?

These thoughts drifted with the wind as May walked. Each step forward was an exhausting effort, yet she could not perceive the solid ground beneath her feet. Her brain automatically guided her towards the smoldering wreckage of the Snagem Hideout, and her body trudged along without complaint. The already bleak desert scenery blurred from view, becoming even more nondescript.

May subconsciously glanced up at the pillar of smoke wafting from the explosion sight. It had thinned somewhat, though its sooty color remained a blight against the mid-morning sky. Bits of rubble were gradually appearing along the landscape: shards of glass, metal beams twisted out of shape, singed and blackened chairs… May’s stomach shrunk at the thought of finding any disembodied limbs on the ground.

The debris thickened as May approached the hideout’s entrance, a synthetic maw that looked as though it had been hewn from the very canyon walls. Scorch marks stretched from the lone doorway from which the smoke was drifting, and the air burned with the bitter stench of explosives.

Manya was standing a few feet away from the doorway, directing her Solrock as it manipulated a girder with Psychic. The Meteorite Pokémon’s eyes shone a bright blue and the girder was lowered to the ground, which coughed up a fresh cloud of dust as the steel beam landed with a loud clunk.

Manya gave Solrock a gentle pat as it lowered down towards her level. “Good job, Solrock. You just let me know if you’re feeling overworked, okay?”

Solrock tilted forward in a nodding motion before turning back to clear the way. Manya’s dirt-stained face broke into a weary smile as May advancing towards her. “The shrimp and sleuth are inside,” she reported. “We found a few survivors, but they scampered off before we could do anything else.”

May nodded, her throat drying at the mention of “survivors”. There were some casualties after all… she unconsciously rubbed her eyes and felt her shoulders drop. People have died because of me. The thought sliced through her brain, shattering her confidence. I might as well have triggered the bomb…

Manya seemed to know what May was thinking, for she said, “Don’t go beating yourself over this. I know it’s frustrating but if you ask me I know this isn’t your fault. I think Abyss woulda blown this place up regardless if you were here or not.”

“I could have prevented this,” May mumbled, finding it easier to concentrate on her boots rather than Manya’s face. “I could’ve saved them…”

“How would you have known?” Manya asked, her voice firm yet unaggressive, hands on her hips. “You’re not a fortune teller, May… this was out of your control.”

May nodded again, though privately she reflected on their previous musings on approaching Snagem themselves and cursed herself for not taking charge yesterday. She was jolted out of this rumination by Manya placing a hand onto her shoulder, and suddenly found herself looking into her friend’s lilac eyes.

“Listen to me,” Manya said, her brow narrowed to the most minimal degree. “This. Was. Not. Your. Fault. You, me, Looker… even the brat… we’re human. We’re not omnipotent. Shit happens, y’know?”

May gazed into Manya’s eyes, simultaneously awed and ashamed of the faith Manya was displaying. She knew that Manya was right: they were only fifteen, and perhaps they would’ve been caught off-guard even if they were fifty. But the fact remained that people — even if they were bad guys — had lost their lives today.

May sighed and dropped her head onto Manya’s shoulder. She had been awake for not even three hours now but already wished to drift back into the dark void of sleep. I can’t let this get to me, she found herself thinking as Manya softly caressed her hair. I must keep going… I’ll make Abyss pay for this. I will stop them… even if I burn to cinders.

The holographic map caused her eyes to water but May refused to look away. She wanted to engrave the locales of Orre into every fold and crevice of her brain, an idea that sprouted from the desire to be worried over one less concern. Looker stood with her, having explained that he had been briefed on the geography for his mission. He had begun by pointing out where she had already been: Gateon Port on the western shore and jumping east before settling at their current location on the edge of Eclo Canyon.

“What’s this?” A city resting at the southern edge caught May’s attention. The icon on the Snag Machine’s map suggested the image of a secluded island or a wading pool, though she couldn’t imagine water existing in a remote area.

Looker followed her gaze. “That is Phenac City. It was, I believe, one of the first settlements in Orre: the city’s founder managed to draw water from underground.”

“Hm,” said May. The mention of water caused her mind to drift away into daydreams of lowering herself into a deep, wide pool. After enduring the searing heat, being able to swim in cooled water had become a far-off fantasy. The notion of running for Phenac City was incredibly tempting: it did lie directly south of the Libra, after all… but once she thought about it, beelining for Phenac just to refresh herself was an awfully greedy motive.

Manya and Smidge entered the Libra, both sweaty and sporting dark circles under their eyes. Smidge plopped straight down onto the ground, while Manya staggered over to drape an arm around May’s shoulder.

“We searched as best we could,” she reported, her voice sounding much more active than she looked. “But we couldn’t find anyone else… it looked like Abyss’ bomb was rather powerful, everything was either burned, melted, or outright broken. Ooh,” she said, catching sight of the map. “Are we going to Phenac?”

“If there’s good reason to,” May replied. She secretly hoped there was, if only to experience indoor plumbing again and get herself into a shower. “What do you know about it?”

“Well, it’s pretty lively, and rightly so with all the water they’ve got,” Manya explained. “And very low crime rates, too, especially lately…”

Smidge exhaled a noise of dissent through his nose but Manya pretended not to have heard as she continued. “Got themselves a Gym or something, too.”

“I am of the opinion that we should not be attempting to earn Badges,” said Looker plainly. “Instead, my thought is that Phenac’s lack of villainy should provide an opportunity to rejoin civilization and gather information.”

“If they’ll let us clean up, I’m all for it,” May said, deciding that she couldn’t hide her motivation anymore. She tapped the Snag Machine’s screen and the map flickered away. “Manya, if you’re up for taking us there —”

Manya was already preparing Miss Birdie for the trip. “It’ll be a tight fit, but you should all be able to ride aboard easily enough.” She flashed a sinister grin over at Smidge. “Feel free to toss the shrimp overboard to stretch your legs.”

“I’ll stretch that big mouth o’ yours, blondie, if you keep draggin’ me.”

“Be glad it’s only verbally for now.”

“Knock it off, guys,” May cut in flatly. As awkward as the thought was, she couldn’t help but reflect on how much Manya and Smidge’s taunting reminded her of Ash and Misty. She spent most of the trip south wondering if anything ever happened between her two friends, and if not, how she could assist them along the way.

The sound of rushing water greeted them after Manya shut off her motorbike’s engine. Tan walls curved around the city, however, perhaps to shield travelers from the sunlight reflecting off the water as they approached. True to Manya’s description, several people were making their way either to or from Phenac through the wide archways carved through the walls. May inhaled and could practically taste the water on the roof of her mouth. The sensation was surprising, though gratefully received.

Lush fronds of palm trees swayed in the moisture-carrying breeze, and May couldn’t help but imagine that the temperature had dropped several degrees once they had entered Phenac’s boundaries. A large fountain churned water about in the main plaza, in front of which stood a tall man in a suit conversing with a smaller man with a bow tie.

“… really think this could work,” the suited man was saying, his voice growing clearer as May and her group walked by. “I’m fully prepared to fund as much as necessary.”

“That’s very generous, Your Honor,” the second man answered. His reedy voice nonetheless reflected the gratitude he was experiencing. “I’ll draw up plans immediately…”

May focused on the city boundary again. She had only just noticed the water flowing atop the wall like an aqueduct. She was wondering what practical use that had when the tall man’s voice shattered her imagination.

“Welcome to Phenac!” he said, looking around at them. His neatly-trimmed beard shifted as he smiled and pushed up his horn-rimmed glasses slightly. He extended out a hand. “I’m Mayor Trest.”

They each gripped his hand in turn, and May found herself wondering about the genuineness of the warmth in Trest’s eyes. Fate would be a cruel bitch indeed if he turned out to be evil all along. Her sight flickered over to the second man, who adjusted his bowtie before staring around at them all.

“Oh, pardon me,” Trest had noticed May’s line of sight and gestured over to his companion. “This brilliant young man is Caecus. He’s brought up a wonderful proposal… would you like to explain?”

Caecus nodded and cleared his throat. His thin, light hair fluttered about in the dry breeze that swept by. “Phenac’s experienced tremendous success thanks to its waterway system. I believe it is imperative that other areas in Orre should construct the same.”

“Bringing water to a desert? Whoda thought? Ouch!” Smidge’s sarcastic comment was reprimanded by Manya putting him into a chokehold.

“That sounds wonderful,” Manya told Caecus, ignoring Smidge’s efforts to pry himself free from her grip. “I hope it works out!”

“I have an inquiry,” added Looker. “My current understanding is such that dropping large quantities of water in an arid environment introduces catastrophic results.”

May, Manya, and Smidge all stared at Looker in minor disbelief, though Caecus beamed. “Indeed!” he said, delighted. “Desert soil can’t absorb all that moisture at once, you see; disastrous flooding occurs. Instead, we shall be taking the cautious route and gradually introduce water. In this way, we can minimize the negative effects.”

Looker nodded satisfactorily. “His Honor has selected the appropriate man for the occupation.”

“They sound alike, don’t they?” May whispered to Manya, who smiled.

“Phanec’s the first city in Orre to implement Caecus’ blueprint.” Trest interjected, clapping a hand on the scientist’s shoulder. “The hope is for other areas to follow suit once they realize how successful this shall become.”

“Fair warning, Your Honor,” Caecus said with the barest hint of a smile. “This is still rather experimental… I’d rather not have my funding revoked should something happen…”

“Come now, my good man,” Trest grinned broadly and thumped Caecus on the back. “You can’t walk through life without stumbling a few times!”

May ruminated on that remark. Perhaps, despite even all her concern and anxiety, she had been attacking this issue too hastily. Yes, she was exercising caution (much to Smidge’s displeasure), but what if that hesitation was born from desiring perfection? Had she really been expecting everything to resolve without a problem lurking behind every corner? A scene of Max throwing a tantrum over a school assignment flashed in her mind’s eye, and May was forced to admit that she inherited something from her father after all.

“On that note,” continued Trest, and May looked up to see him gazing around at them. “It looks like you’ve been stumbling around quite a bit.”

May found herself agreeing. After all the traveling, Manya, Smidge, and Looker were all covered with dust and sand. She knew she couldn’t be much better: her gloves were no longer pristinely white, and her stockings bore rips and tears. While Manya did bandage the cut on her forehead, they had forgotten to clean off the blood around the wound.

“My dearest apologizes, Your Honor,” stammered Looker as he frantically began to brush off his coat. “We have not established plumbing at our, ah, main location…”

“That just won’t do.” Trest shook his head before smiling. “Well, I was already going to invite Caecus over for lunch, but I’d like the extend the invitation to you as well! As well as use of my shower, as needed.”

“If this guy turns out to be evil I’m gonna hate myself,” May muttered to Manya before speaking to Trest. “That would be wonderful, thank you.”

Trest smiled around them all and gestured towards a house on the city’s upper level. Caecus led the way, with May’s group following and Trest at their heels. The sun beat down upon them, evaporating the cool water into the air into a pleasant sort of humidity. Caecus held open the door and they filed in. An air conditioner was running somewhere in the house: the chill was discomforting but preferable to the heat outside.

Smidge plopped down on a couch, edging away from Looker as the agent took the spot next to him. Caecus sat in an armchair, shifting uncomfortably as though the sudden company had unnerved him. Manya and May sat on the floor: the former upright supported by her arms, the latter lying flat on her stomach. Even the scratchy carpet felt cold and relaxing.

“Bless my wife, she made extras.” chortled Trent as he reentered the living room. “I’m glad to see you’ve all made yourselves comfortable. Miss May, is it?”

May turned over onto her back, staring at him. Her heart jumped: as far as she was aware, no one had brought up her name within Trest’s vicinity. Had she been right and led them into a trap?

Trest noticed her confusion and clarified, “I keep in touch with Lily and Professor Krane. Phenac was conquered a few years ago by some hooligans, so I thought it best to keep the brightest and noblest minds in Orre at my side.”

May nodded weakly and reversed onto her stomach again, which was now squirming. Sweat trickled down her arms and she wondered if that was from the heat or the sudden dose of panic and shock.

“Anyways,” Trest continued. “My wife suggested that I allow you to clean up, which I’m sure you’d like. Our bathroom’s upstairs on the left.”

May nodded again. A shower would certainly revitalize her, but laziness had come to the fore. Any motivation was entirely drained, and she felt perfectly content to just close her eyes and drift away into bliss. Yet a meal loomed, and May was never one to avoid food… Screw it, she thought. Food first, shower and coma later.

Trest’s wife’s area of cooking expertise turned out to be comfort food. The dining room table was laden with thick, hearty dishes. Powerful yet soothing aromas wafted throughout the house, quickly luring May into a chair.

She spent all of dinner eating rather than talking, piling her plate with triple servings of mashed potatoes, bread rolls, and a very filling macaroni-and-cheese casserole. The others’ conversations drifted over her head, and she resolutely ignored Smidge’s snide comments about her eating habits.

Looker offered to assist with the dishes, so May trudged upstairs to the guest room. There wasn’t a part of her body that didn’t feel weighed down: her stomach with food, her brain with worry, and her eyes with exhaustion. She dropped her bag and shoes to the floor before collapsing onto the only bed in the room, everything instantly melting away into blissful sleep.

Her eyes snapped open hours later. The small alarm clock on the nightstand flashed the time: a little after three in the morning. Something shuffled next to her, and May looked to see Manya curled up under the blankets, her chest rising and falling with each breath. Quietly and gently, May slid off the mattress.

The house was utterly silent and colored inky-gray. Taking care not to step on any creaky floorboards, May snuck downstairs and sat herself in front of the video phone in the living room. She picked up the receiver and began to dial, hoping that Hoenn and Orre didn’t share time zones.

Her call was answered on the third ring, and the screen burst to life, revealing May’s mother Caroline on the other end. “Well, hello, May! This is a surprise!”

May would probably never admit it, but the sight of her mother’s smiling face brought forth a surge of relief. “Hey, mom. Hope I didn’t catch you a bad time.”

“Oh, not at all!” Caroline assured her. “I was just having my coffee when I heard the phone ring.”

May nodded, eyes flickering to the sunlight drifting through the window behind Caroline. “That’s good. It’s early morning here, and I didn’t know…” her voice trailed off and she had to shake herself clear. “Anyways, I thought I’d say hello.”

“That’s very sweet, dear,” smiled Caroline before sipping her coffee. “Norman told me you had another big adventure waiting. I told him that you’re practically a grown woman by now and this shouldn’t be a surprise!”

May smiled and nodded, making a mental note to never disclose this excursion to her mother. “Yeah, something just came up, that’s all. It’s not like I was running away from you guys or anything.”

Caroline was staring back at her with a curious expression on her face. “May, dear,” she said, her voice thick with motherly concern. “Are you doing alright?”

“I —”

Her mother’s question had caught her off-guard. She thought she concealed her mood well enough, but just enough had slipped through the cracks for Caroline to notice. May turned away from the monitor, as loud of an admission of guilt as her speaking aloud.

“I’m just hitting a few road blocks,” May continued. Ones that continually try to murder me, she added mentally. “So I’ve been a little discouraged…”

If Caroline believed this answer unsatisfactory, she didn’t say so. Instead she set down her mug and gripped the receiver with both hands. “May, I’m going to tell you something your grandfather once told me: if you’re running into enemies, you’re headed in the right direction.”

May stared at her mother’s face and said nothing.

“I know that everyone — especially Trainers — can find themselves in difficult situations. But you’re my daughter, and I know that you aren’t someone to let that stop you. I mean, when you started your journey five years ago you only wanted to travel, and now you’re a celebrated Coordinator!”

May rubbed the tears out of her eyes, trying to play it off as a yawn. “Thanks, mom. I know you’d root for me.”

“Forever and always,” Caroline beamed. “Don’t let anyone stop you, honey. You’ve got the passion and drive to bowl over anyone who stands in your way!”

May nodded again, but with sincerity behind the gesture. Caroline’s words had improved her spirit somewhat, and her chest burned with determination to return to Petalburg in one piece. “You know it, mom. I’m gonna get back to sleep…”

“Rest up, dear. A rested woman’s a beautiful woman!”

May waved as the screen turned off before hanging up the receiver. A remarkable sense of calm washed over her as she ascended the stairs. She had to hand it to her mother: she knew just the right things to say without knowing all the details (not that May would’ve told her).

May climbed back into bed without disturbing Manya. After settling into a comfortable position, she closed her eyes and allowed the gentle rhythm of her friend’s breathing to lull her back to sleep.

Trest’s wife whipped up another generously large meal for breakfast. Once again May neglected conversation, directing her attention towards numerous helpings of pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausages, toast, and juice. A ceiling fan whirled overhead, cooling the six people around the table from Orre’s harsh morning sunlight.

Trest’s eyes were lowered upon the daily newspaper while his wife nudged him every so often as a reminder to eat the food sitting on his plate. Manya, sitting beside May, drizzled syrup on her fifteen-high pancake stack. Looker and Smidge, meanwhile, dissolved into an argument over the boy not drinking a glass of milk.

“I ain’t drinkin’ nothing that came from a cow!” Smidge growled, eyes blazing with dislike.

“Miltank milk is highly nutritious!” Looker countered. He picked up the glass bottle from the table and held it in front of Smidge’s face. “With a luxurious, creamy taste that leaves you satisfied –”

“Shove off, ya old fart! It’s gross and nothin’ will get me ta drink it!”

May shook her head as she took another bite of toast. She possessed little intention to intervene and was in fact rather grateful for Looker attempting to order Smidge around.

“Any more, dear?” Trest’s wife inquired as May drained her glass.

“No, thank you,” she replied with a thin smile. “But it was all delicious.” She stacked up her empty dishes and set them in the sink. “I, er… hope I didn’t eat too much.”

“With how little my husband tends to eat, I welcome the change.” Trest’s wife simpered, nudging Trest playfully with her elbow.

May went upstairs, slipped on her boots and bag, and stepped out of the house. Ignoring the bombardment of eighty-degree heat, she began making her way towards the center of town. Hardly anyone else was out, aside from a jogger being chased by his Castform. Though given this heat I’m not surprised.

She continued walking until she reached a plain, rounded building. It caught her eye yesterday but there hadn’t been an opportunity to visit until now. Nothing about the building stood out aside from carvings above the entrance that read “Prestige Precept Center”. How curious that a region without a Pokémon League would have something very much resembling a Gym…

May gazed at the writing for a while until a voice spoke, causing her to jump.

“I was curious as to where you had disappeared.” Looker frowned concernedly down at her, arms folded.

“I’m not running off, if that’s what you mean,” May replied evenly.

Looker shook his head. “From what your magical companion was revealed to me, you have accomplished a great of deal of things. Dashing away would not cohere to that.”

“I just said I’m not.” May spun on her heel before Looker could answer, stepped up to the PreGym door, and pulled it open.

Cold air rushed onto her face as she looked around. The building was a single room, with a battlefield taking up most of the space in the center. A chalkboard, a table, and some chairs stood to the left; on the right sat a large half-circle control panel. Other than herself and Looker (following her inside), May noticed that no one seemed to be around.

A mechanical grinding noise caught her attention: turning towards the source May spotted an elevator against the back wall. The doors slid open and a young man stepped out. His sharp face and just-unkept-enough fuchsia hair made him resemble a hypothetical older brother of May’s Contest rival, Drew.

“Hello there!” he called as he started walking across the room. “Welcome to my Pre Gym!”

“This is a Gym…?” May found herself asking aloud.

“Pre Gym,” the young man pressed with a smile. “Not that Orre has any actual Gyms… oh, excuse me! Where are my manners? I’m Justy, and I run this place. Are you interested in a battle…?”

The uncomfortable memory of her last battle jumped past May’s eyes. “Er… maybe,” she answered, hoping her stomach’s aching wasn’t discernable in her voice. “I was just curious about this place…”

Justy’s smile remained undeterred. “You’re not imposing or anything! You took the effort to poke your head in, so why not? After all, battling is a good way to learn about one another!”

His insistent enthusiasm was a disconcerting similarity to Ash and Brendan. May rubbed her forehead in attempt to dispel the twinge of pain that had surfaced. Part of her did want to accept the challenge, to vent her frustrations; the other half looked to withdraw and shut herself away.

“I request your pardon,” said Looker after sparing a glance at May. “But I am thinking that your challenge shall have to be postponed —”

“I accept.” May interjected.

Justy beamed and motioned for May to follow him up to the arena. Looker stared at her with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, which only fueled her irritation.

“I don’t need you speaking for me,” she grunted, and stomped onto the battlefield without waiting for a response. She was old enough to do as she pleased, thank you very much, frustrations and anxiety be damned. What did Looker know, anyways? He didn’t seem to use — or own, for that matter — any Pokémon himself…

“We prefer Double Battles here in Orre,” Justy told May from across the battlefield. “Is that alright with you?”

May almost shrugged but decided it was politer to nod. Justy returned the gesture and revealed his Pokémon first: a spiny Sandslash and a prickly Cacnea. After brief deliberation, May sent out Blaziken and Venusaur. It might have appeared like overkill, but she wasn’t going to lose another match if she could help it.

Blaziken rushed towards Sandslash, which fired off an array of star-shaped projectiles in response. Blaziken swerved away into Cacnea, countering the Cactus Pokémon’s attempted Needle Arm with Fire Punch. The dodged Swift attack flew towards Venusaur: a powerful stream of Razor Leaf nullified the attack. May expected the Grass move to hit Sandslash, but it had burrowed under the arena.

Cacnea tumbled along the ground from Blaziken’s punch before righting itself. It took aim at its attacker, launching small seeds from its arm. May recognized the Leech Seed and had Blaziken leap away. Unfortunately, Sandslash chose that moment to spring out and collide into Blaziken, its spines digging into the Blaze Pokémon’s back. Venusaur quickly ensnared its partner with vines, yanking it away to safety.

“You’ve got some good Pokémon there!” complimented Justy. “Looks like we can’t let our guard down!”

May allowed herself a small smile. She might not accept praise towards herself now, but commendation towards her Pokémon was certainly welcome. Emerging victorious from this battle (as non-threatening as it was) would do wonders for her self-esteem. Though something about Justy’s Pokémon choices made her suspicious: she had a nagging feeling that they shared some sort of attribute that would be troublesome.

She was, to her displeasure, correct. Sandslash whipped up a sandstorm, obstructing itself and Cacnea from view. May swore under her breath: Tyranitar had given her enough trouble with this strategy. It certainly wasn’t much easier now, given both Sandslash and Cacnea had an Ability called Sand Veil, increasing their evasiveness during a sandstorm.

For a moment May berated herself for not having Skitty on hand. A Blizzard attack might have the power to disperse the swirling sand… not that Skitty would have any better luck against Tyranitar as Wartortle did. If Justy’s Pokémon attacked up-close, she could play the advantage of her Pokémon’s superior power by retaliating at the right moment.

Unless Justy played it cautiously and kept his distance, which he seemed to be doing. Blaziken and Venusaur backed into each other, wary of when and where their opponents would appear. Venusaur’s petals fluttered in the sand, and an idea came to her. She wouldn’t pull it off just yet: she’d save it for the climax.

Sandslash erupted from the ground underneath Blaziken, knocking it back. Sandslash raised its claws, which glinted in the Pre Gym’s florescent lighting. Blaziken recovered quickly to interrupt the Crush Claw with Flamethrower, utilizing Venusaur’s bulk to brace against the attack’s thrust. The Seed Pokémon, meanwhile, battered away Cacnea’s Pin Missile with a flurry of vine tethers.

May’s temper suddenly flared without explanation. The battle was only a few minutes in, yet the urge to demolish her opponent consumed her. Some part of her brain told her that a demonstration of overwhelming power would prove herself: not only to Justy but to Looker and Smidge as well. She had entered two Grand Festivals after all, so her skills and ability weren’t to be mocked.

Patience, May told herself. Patience… I know my plan will work… Perhaps overconfidence had gotten the better of her yesterday. Being self-assured was fine, but a swollen head prevented clear thinking. With that in mind, she thought hard and added some contingencies to her plan, just in case.

Sandslash and Cacnea retreated into the billowing sand again. Justy’s vigilance was admirable, she thought, motioning for Blaziken to crouch behind Venusaur. He may have summoned the sandstorm, but she could take advantage of it, too. “Go for it, Venusaur.”

Venusaur lazily swayed to and fro, a sweet, mellow scent emanating from its massive flower. Visible as a thin, pink mist, the aroma merged with the sandstorm and drifted throughout the arena. Infatuated with the intoxicating odor, Sandslash and Cacnea re-emerged from their cover.

Quick as a flash, Venusaur ensnared them both with Vine Whip. The opposing Pokémon barely struggled: the Sweet Scent commanded all of their attention. At May’s signal, Blaziken leapt up, its leg alight in flames. Venusaur held their foes close together, allowing Blaziken to descend and clobber both with twin Blaze Kicks. Cacnea succumbed instantly, so Venusaur released it unceremoniously onto the floor. Sandslash still had a bit of HP left, though that was rectified with Venusaur tossing it against the closest wall.

“Holy cow!” said Justy amidst nervous laughter. The sandstorm dissolved into nothingness, the battle having ended. “You’re a clever one!”

May suppressed a smile. “I apologize,” she said, unconsciously rubbing her upper arm. “I think we were too aggressive there.”

“It’s alright.” Justy recalled his Pokémon. “I had a lot of fun, and I’d be ashamed if you were holding back on me!”

His cheerfulness remained marginally unnerving. “Thanks,” she mumbled. She returned Blaziken and Venusaur to their Poké Balls before stepping out of the arena, taking care not to meet Justy’s beaming expression. Looker was still frowning at her, which she ignored. Her current mood aside, the battle helped lift her confidence as predicted. Practice made perfect, as people said… the prospect of losing against Abyss again wasn’t appealing, but she shouldn’t be so hard on herself… everyone loses battles sometimes…

May finally looked towards Justy. “Thanks for the battle. Sorry if I seem distant, I’ve had a lot going on…”

Justy didn’t have a chance to respond: the Pre Gym doors slammed open without warning. Everyone whipped around as Manya came running in.

“Here you are!” she gasped. Her eyes were wide, and her hand shook as she steadied herself against May’s shoulder. “Geez, couldn’t have… left a note…”

“What’s going on?” May asked sharply. Something about Manya’s tone got her heart pounding furiously, and she braced herself as best she could for what was coming.

“Trest… the Mayor just got a phone call…” Manya told her. She must’ve ran all the way over here: aside from her voice breaking, her face was flushed and covered in sweat. “Lily… the HQ Lab…”

“What?” urged May. “What happened?”

Manya took a deep breath and raised her head. Amethyst stared into sapphire, and everything froze as Manya continued: “Abyss. They… they’re attacking the HQ Lab.”

To be continued...

#pokemon #may #fanfiction #operation cloudburst #codyscommandpost

[heidiroizen]

More rare than a Unicorn – gender parity at a venture-backed, deep-tech startup. Here’s how they did it.

One of my most memorable board meetings this year was with Memphis Meats. I literally had to stop the board meeting over one slide, as I had never seen a slide like this in my 20 years as a VC.  

And no, it wasn’t about product development or regulatory strategy or burn rate. It was about the company’s newest hires -- five highly accomplished people, all of whom with advanced degrees and significant past achievements in their careers.

And all five were women.

I stopped the CEO, Uma Valeti, right at that moment, to tell him I had never seen a slide like that.  And that in turn surprised him, which probably explains in part why Memphis Meats is such a leader when it comes to diversity.

Memphis Meats is a trailblazing company whose mission is to grow real meat from the cells of high quality livestock in a clean, controlled environment. The result is the meat that consumers already know and love, with significant collateral benefits to the planet, to animals and to human health. I’m proud to say they have applied that same trailblazing attitude to growing their team as well.

At Memphis Meats today, 53% of the team are women, and 40% of the company’s leadership positions are held by women. Beyond gender, the team represents 11 nations and 5 continents (Australians, please apply!) and about two-thirds of the team are omnivores, while one-third are vegetarians or vegans. I’ve met most of the team, and I heard all sorts of educational backgrounds: B.S., M.S., M.D., M.B.A., Ph.D. (lots of those). I met parents, brothers, sisters, immigrants, activists, friends, researchers and operators, and I heard 34 different, mission-aligned reasons for joining the company.

Anybody who is paying attention knows that companies and workplaces around the country are grappling with how to build and maintain diverse and inclusive workforces. Silicon Valley is certainly no different – gender imbalance is a well documented problem in tech.  Once I saw that slide, I knew I had to dig deeper into what Memphis Meats was doing right. So, I sat down with Megan Pittman, the Director of People Operations at Memphis Meats, to learn more. Here’s what she had to say.

HR: Before we talk about diversity and inclusion at Memphis Meats, we should probably start by defining what we mean when we say those words. What do they mean to you?

MP: We believe that having a diverse and inclusive team happens when you build a culture that’s genuine, welcoming and protected. We don’t have a document that outlines “D&I Policies” here. We didn’t start by looking at our team and saying “wow, there’s a problem here that we need to fix.” We started by committing to build an inclusive company made up of extraordinary individuals. We committed to putting people first, before anything else. We also made the decision to build a People Ops function early, when we only had about 10 employees, so that we could really follow through on these commitments.

HR: I see a lot of companies hire their first HR person when they have 50 or 100 staff. 10 is early! What were some of the changes you were able to make by getting started early?

MP: We’ve curated a high touch and authentic hiring process. After we closed our Series A last summer, we got started on a hiring plan to grow from 10 to about 40 people, and we wanted to do it in about a year. We began recruiting and interviewing immediately!

Pretty quickly, we realized that our interview process wasn’t working very well. We were spending a lot of time with candidates who had amazing resumes, but we weren’t developing unanimous conviction around who to hire. We weren’t being blown away. So we stopped interviewing for a bit and started debugging. We realized that our interviews were too formulaic, and too focused on checking boxes on the job description. We were talking to people who had already accomplished amazing things – in industry or academia, or both – and we weren’t letting them tell that story. So we couldn’t assess their accomplishments, their ambitions and their ability to innovate. We could only assess their resume, and maybe their small talk skills.

We decided to rebuild the process to let the candidates shine. Now, we ask all prospective hires to start their interview day by giving a ~30 minute talk to our team, typically focused on their greatest accomplishments or a topic that they know extremely well. The talks are a great way to see a candidate at his or her best. They provide great context for the 1-on-1 interviews later in the day. And our team learns something new every time a candidate comes in. There have been some pretty amazing light bulb moments and inspiring conversations that have originated because of these talks. Our team loves them – they’re always a hot ticket in our office!

HR: How do the talks connect back to diversity and inclusion?

MP: The talks let us have a really relevant, organic conversation and put the candidate’s resume to the side for a moment. After the talk, we can ask the candidate how they could have done that better, or faster, or cheaper. We can hone in on moments where they did something creative, and learn about their thought process or problem solving strategies. We can hone in on roadblocks, and understand how they motivate themselves through the most difficult moments.

We’ve seen plenty of data showing that companies that hire based on resumes and checkboxes end up with homogenous workforces. Don’t get me wrong – great resumes and hard skills are requirements at Memphis Meats, but they’re the price of admission and not the focus of our hiring process. When we go beyond the resume, and let the candidate shine, and expand the hiring criteria to include self-awareness and creativity and tenacity, we see a very diverse group of people rise to the top. And they happen to be the exact people that we need.

Now that we’ve been doing this for a while, we’re also getting better at writing job descriptions. Our hiring managers now ask “what do we need our next person to bring that our team doesn’t already have?” There is a quote by Walter Lippman, an American writer, that speaks to the importance of this. He says, “When all think alike, then no one is thinking.” Our team is sold on the value of new perspectives, and we’re now thinking about it before we even start to meet candidates. It’s a virtuous cycle.

HR: What happens after the hiring process? Great, you’ve found the person – now what?

MP: We’ve put a number of tools in place to ensure that we can close great candidates and get them into their new role here. For example, mobility platforms have enabled us to not be limited to hiring scientists, engineer or operators in the immediate Bay Area. We are able to comfortably source individuals from top companies or labs – whereverthey are. Switzerland? No problem. Canada? Great! Minnesota? Easy. We offer professionally managed relocations so that we can pull talent from a much bigger pool.

We have partnered with a top immigration attorney so that we can support any qualified individual in obtaining employment eligibility. We have worked with hires on multiple visa applications but one sticks out. We interviewed an incredible scientist who is a French citizen. She is so smart, so hard-working, and so talented. For a few reasons, we realized we would only be able to hire her on an O-1 visa, which is reserved for individuals with “extraordinary ability.” The bar is high, and nobody is a sure thing to get this type of visa. We spent months working on the application, and demonstrating her accomplishments as thoroughly and accurately as possible. After more months of waiting, we literally received her visa approval hours before her previous employment eligibility expired. The entire Memphis Meats team celebrated. The room started cheering, we high-fived, we picked up a cake, I probably cried. She has since been named on our most recent patent filing and has contributed in so many measurable and immeasurable ways to our team. She was absolutely the right person to hire and we did everything we could to make it happen.

We diligently pay fair to market wages and make offers that are not based on salary history. We have never requested salary history from our new hires. We prefer to base all offers on the market, our fundraising stage, precedent in the company and level of experience. Period. We take every offer very seriously and will continue to make that commitment to every one of our team members.

We constantly solicit feedback on our processes and look at data. We track the source of our hires: are we relying too much on one company or one local university lab? We track the candidate experience: are candidates feeling respected by us, our process and our timelines? We track our internal rates of diversity. All of this works to discourage complacency in our processes, and ensure that we are constantly aiming to be better.

We took a different approach to benefits compared to many other venture backed companies. We don’t invest our money into dry cleaning and massages and abundant free meals. Instead, we’ve invested in a generous paid family leave policy, and great health care, and a floating holiday policy that allows for religious or cultural differences. People need to be able to live their lives how they choose with a job that supports that without question. We ask a lot of team members so it’s our responsibility to support them in their lifestyle choices.  

HR: Many companies start with the best intentions, and compromise those as they grow. How do you imagine Memphis Meats staying the course?

MP: We’ve really made inclusiveness part of our identity. This goes way beyond a D&I policy, which can be easily forgotten or lost in a handbook.

We talk a lot about our “big tent,” which is really a cornerstone of our company. We’re making meat in a better way. You might think we’re out to “disrupt” an incumbent industry or to make consumers feel guilty about what they’re eating today, but the opposite is true. We recognize and respect the role that meat plays in our cultures and traditions. Many members of our team eat meat, and we celebrate that. Many members of our team do not eat meat, and we celebrate that. There’s just no place here for moral judgment.

Over time, that philosophy expanded to cover the companies and organizations we work with, the investors we raised money from, and the language we use. We happily work with large meat companies like Tyson and Cargill. We happily work with mission-driven organizations that work for animal welfare or environmental stewardship. We happily talk to consumers of all stripes. We’ve built a coalition that we never would have expected. We’ve found that everyone we talk to unites behind our goal of feeding a growing and hungry planet. Our internal culture and our people processes are consistent with the idea of the “big tent,” so I don’t think they’re going anywhere.

[clickairadio]

CAIR 24: Evergreen Your Business With 7 Tips !!

Your business is running, you are making sales, but you'd like to Evergreen your business. What are some tips for Evergreening your business? Is there anything you can do to reduce the time and effort to Evergreen your business?

Hi Everybody, this is Grant, welcome to another episode of ClickAI Radio. All right, so today we are talking about evergreen? And particularly, how can we fast track key characteristics of our business to evergreen them? Now, the question might be what is evergreen? Well, the purpose of an evergreen business is to make a long term difference for your customers, right? It's a we want to be able to establish enough value over time, so that we can get that into as many customers as possible. Now finding the recipe is you know, to evergreen, especially when you're an early startup phases. And that's a challenge. Right that that certainly takes a lot of time. I actually think that the phrase evergreen is a bit of a misnomer in the sense that sometimes we think well, it's long term, right? The evergreen is long term. But perhaps it's not the length of time that you know that the solution is relevant, but rather the business's ability to adapt. I'll give you an example, an obvious one that we're all familiar with. Amazon started with books, right? And went to well, in all Heck, what aren't they touching today, right. So they evergreen books long enough to open other avenues. And then they pivoted. And so what we're talking about is the ability to deliver sustainable value to customers long enough to let us pivot and continue to serve them. Now that's evergreen. And it's not just the original solution, right? But it's the ability to sustain value, and then pivot to deliver new value. Now, today's easy to use AI, it actually fits squarely in the middle of this using business insights to find the sustainable value. And then recognizing when to pivot either to add more value, or to change out of the value that you're currently delivering. That is core to the use of AI today in our businesses.

Hey, I was looking at a article recently, this was from entrepreneur.com. They said that, you know, there's four kinds of online businesses. This is what they're describing. Here's the four categories, ecommerce. And so that includes groups, right like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, SAS. So that's like Google Drive, and Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office 365. We all know those. There's a content style online business. So this is, you know, the New York Times or nerd wallet or wire cutter. And then the fourth kind is digital service. So that's better self betterhelp, gingo, things like that. So ecommerce, SAS content and digital service. So when we think about an online business, and we think about, alright, what would I do to create an evergreen kind of business, knowing that I got to sustain value long enough to provide enough value so that I have the flexibility and ability to pivot to add more value to our customers? All right, this article stated, this is interesting that evergreen niches never go out of style, right? So this ecommerce, SAS content and digital service those four areas, from from the argument is never goes out of style. Here's some examples.

There's the ecommerce example of Life Fitness, they manufacture extra exercise equipment, Heck, even in the world of COVID. That is, of course, become a massively booming industry. There's others such as you know, the here's a SAS example. The company example is lose it. That's a subscription weight loss program. And then there's content style, a business PC gamer, right, where they review all the latest games. And then let me give you one here. This is a digital service like lynda.com. Now that one's actually a little old, because that's an online education group that actually was bought by LinkedIn who then was bought by Microsoft. But the point is, and I agree with him, you know, those kinds of niches, ecommerce, SAS content, and digital service, those are four kinds of online businesses. And if you want to build an evergreen style business online, you would look into those four categories. That's kind of interesting. So I transition to was thinking more about, alright, what does it mean to evergreen? Let's say that we choose something within one of those areas. And it doesn't have to be an online business. But let's say that it is, what would be some additional techniques that we could do to actually evergreen the business? What are some of the characteristics of it, I looked into something from a CEO has an excuse me, his name is Dave Horton. He's a CEO of tugboat Institute don't know if you've ever looked into any of that stuff. Fascinating, brilliant guy, right? He's, he's got this.

In fact, he made this interesting statement, right, I was reviewing some of this stuff. He said, wealth is a byproduct of an evergreen company. He goes on further to say that evergreen businesses are led by purpose driven leaders highlight that, I think that's critical to in fact, in order to sustain something like a business over a long period of time, hence, evergreen, and hence deliver value over time. There's got to be a purpose. In fact, I think if you ask Russell Brunson, he would go further to say it's not only purpose, he needs to give your people some identity, right, that something that they can connect to and relate with as well. Anyway, back to Mr. Dave Horton, all right. evergreening a business, right. It's it's led by purpose driven leaders. They've got grit, and resourcefulness, you know, to provide the ability to scale. Alright, that makes a lot of sense. Now, one of the things that I noticed that Mr. Horton pointed out, which I think is pretty cool. There's seven characteristics of the Evergreen business, right? So these are the things about the business that give it the best chance of evergreening. All right, now, Mr. Horton does a lot in terms of venture capital. I'm not, I'm not here to say if that's good or bad. I've been involved in startup companies where we had venture capital and others where we didn't. So it just kind of depends. Now, let me read these off. These are actually pretty cool. All right, because he says, look, you know, often entrepreneurs feel under resource, right. And so they often end up needing some sort of venture capital work. But I think the the work that Brunson and those guys do is awesome in terms of helping you not to have to rely on that at all times.

All right, let me get to the seven. Here's the seven characteristics of a company. So let's say you've got your company, what what do I need to have in terms of these qualities within my company? To help me evergreen number one purpose? Alright, so I already hinted at that one, right? Being passionately driven by some compelling vision and mission, right? What's your Why? What's your cause? Right? Number two, perseverance, having the ambition and resilience to overcome obstacles, and keep pursuing that mission into the future.

Number three, people first, boy, this one gets a lot of lip service. But now a lot of companies don't actually make it that way. People First engaging a workforce of talented associates who excel as a team and are motivated by the mission and the culture. In fact, there is one startup company I worked with in Silicon Valley. I joined real early in the days of it, there's just a handful of it. And they said, You know what, yeah, the resumes interesting, were more after aptitude. They would hire aptitude. And then they'd say, we can we can tell you, you know, train you on the job, that your ability to be creative, etc, etc, they had this set of characteristics that were that were crucial to them. I loved it. Ultimately, we grew that thing to a very large organization, we sold it to IBM. So I think they were on the right model their people first they were awesome at it.

Alright, here's another one profit, okay, this is number four profit. The key point here is don't mistake profit as the purpose of the business, but recognize that it's essential for survival and independence. And it's the most accurate measure of customer value delivered. All right. I agree with that. But I love how it's, they say it's not the purpose of the business. The purpose of the business is to deliver the value into the customer.

All right, number five, private. This is an interesting one because it talks mostly about your ability to create a network of other companies that are around you, that support you, and that ultimately help you to deliver what it is you're taking to the market.

Number six, paced growth. This is a critical one. I've seen organizations that growth Too fast, and then their internal operations and business processes can't scale to support it. So it's actually getting the right pace of growth. Obviously, there's the other problem, which is not enough growth. But this is all about having the discipline to focus on the long term strategy, right, where you're balancing, short term and long term performance.

All right, and then the seventh one, very interesting. It's around pragmatic innovation. So this is all about having continuous improvement processes built around taking a very calculated risk approach to innovation. Now, my experience has been that AI applies to several of these, I'll call out two of them. The two I'll call out is paced growth, and pragmatic innovation. In my work with AI, some, some groups I've seen will go apply AI. And if the model says, hey, it's 90% probability, then they'll just run to it and go do it. But they won't take into consideration the impact to their business processes, so needs to be applied intelligently. The others around pragmatic innovation, here's the key thing about AI, when you're going to use it to help build and grow your business and to evergreen it, you actually want to take reeds from the AI on a continuing basis.

You don't want to overdo it, like, you know, looking at the cake in the oven too often kind of thing. But hey, you know, every couple months, you're going to be watching, all right, what has changed, has it affected our model, etc. and take those insights early. In fact, you'd rather know those insights early rather than later. So AI plays a role in evergreening our business. Alright, a couple things I wanted to point out here. Many evergreen companies, you know, they'll bootstrap or they'll sell fund and never require institutional capital. But what I've noticed is that those that practice these principles, these seven principles that I talked about these characteristics, and use AI on a continuing basis over time, you'd never you the bad practice is you go run the AI once and then forget it. And that's a recipe for failure, right? That's not that's not the right way. Because just as Amazon is no longer just all about bucks, right? You would no longer do that with your AI, don't just run it runs. And then and then leave it as is because your business and the world and the context around it will need to change just as Amazon's changed, and so forth. So always make sure you're keeping it up to date and fresh. So these seven characteristics around evergreen in your business are foundational to actually growing to a point where you can take your hand off of the wheel a bit, but still stay in touch with AI that's reminding you on a continual basis. All right, pivot here, make this adjustment there. All right, everybody. That's it. Thanks for joining. And until next time, fast track those seven characteristics with AI to evergreen your business.

Thank you for joining Grant on ClickAI Radio. Don't forget to subscribe and leave feedback. And remember to download your FREE eBook visit ClickAIRadio.com now.

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