#do you know what bodily organs I’d sell.

[monards]

Guys I will be so sick to my stomach and throw up my heart if hoyo gives Rhinedottir visible scars. Or genuine injuries that actually impact her

#do you know what bodily organs I’d sell. #SO MANY. #yet again pushing prosthetic arm rhinedottir #cough cough cough #Rhine with shaky hands speak to me….. #shaky hand Rhine speak to me plead…… #rhine hcs

[heyktula]

Closer, Chapter Two: Aware - Bonus Features

(I'm sorry about the chapter titles, lolsob. They are, in fact, "Risk", "Aware", "Consensual", and "Kink", plus a surprise title for the fifth chapter.)

((Okay, fine, I'm not nearly as sorry as I should be.))

Chapter two of Closer, the first installment in Somewhere in Canada (the Terror kink AU)... is now up! What is wordcount! (Apparently shit to me, since this chapter is three times the length of chapter one!)

Same deal as last week--technical notes first, story notes after, line notes to finish it all up. (Although I still blame Edward, a number of this week's line notes are Jopson's fault, and he's a lying liar on a number of occasions, the terrible sweetheart.)

Alright, here we go.

Technical Considerations:

Chapter Length: So, this story was intended to be much shorter than it is. Initially, the fic was a one-off. After all, it's only taking place over a weekend, how long can it be? (lolsob--sixty k, as it turns out, and that's with a significant number of hard cuts. I cringe for the future Fitzier, because the winter conference is longer than the summer one.)

Initially, I'd followed the same chapter structure I used in one of my earlier fics--one day = one chapter. Obviously, that worked fine for Friday, but didn't work for Saturday or Sunday, both of which I've split into two chapters. I still feel like the chapter length is a bit obnoxious--I prefer a 7k chapter, and chapter two is 15k, but it's the best place to make the cut, I think. I considered a cut after Edward's talk got derailed by Hickey--but that would have left Edward in a really ugly headspace for a week while everybody waited for the next chapter, and I didn't want to let him chill there knowing that Jopson is gonna make him feel better, like, immediately.

Hard Cuts: One thing I really like about the source material for The Terror is that it uses hard cuts liberally, and something about that feels like it frees me up to do the same in my own work? So I cut the things that don't matter to the story, even when they're things that I care about. (That rope suspension scene with Sophia and Gore and Dundy was real good, but Edward did not give one single shit about it, and thus, it is not on the page.  Similarly, we didn't get dragged through any of the other panels, etc, that were happening throughout the day, and the one panel we actually did attend, Edward is giving by rote, without thinking about anything he's saying, because Jopson! is! there! oh! god!)

Story Considerations:

Goodsir: Like, of course Goodsir moved to Canada. I don't think it was for Silna, necessarily--and she would have been super unimpressed with that if it had been--but it wouldn't have been not for Silna either. I just think he really loved it here on his first visit, and that was it for him--he came home, he missed Canada, he went back, and he stayed. I'm sure he's in the process of getting his citizenship, and in the meantime, he's going out for hikes and taking pictures of elk and going ice-fishing and organizing kink conventions and generally just having a wonderful time living his best life, and I love that for him.

(And if he's on the receiving end of Silna's strap in increasingly regular frequency, I love that for him too.)

The Tozer-Little Experience: So, outside of the joplittle, which was my primary reason for writing the fic--I also have, like, the world's biggest soft spot for Solomon Tozer. And the dynamic that I ended up developing for Tozer and Little in this fic is a hell of a lot of fun, because it's deeply intimate, and steeped in years and years of shared experiences, but it's platonic at the same point--or, at least, what constitutes as platonic for them, which is more intimate and open than you would see for a lot of male friendships. (I'm putting a pin in the discussion of feelings as feelings relate to their friendship, but we'll come back to it in a few more chapters.) If you asked either of them to describe an ideal partner for the other person, they could both do it, and they've got all kinds of stories about each other, which Tozer shares easily and at length, and Edward keeps his goddamn mouth shut about.

That easy camaraderie between them is, I think, why the takedown panel goes so wrong so quickly.  Tozer has no reason to suspect anything is different than it has been any other time, and Edward isn't admitting how much he's obsessing over Jopson, so he's also just stubbornly pretending things are fine. I don't think that Tozer had any intention of letting Edward win, no matter how good Edward thinks his chances are, because it's Tozer's panel, and goddamn it, if Sol's going to all the effort to give a talk, he's gonna try to get his dick sucked as part of the aftermath, am I right, lads?

(Conferences that I've been to are hyper-careful about bodily fluids, and for good reason--so if blood is a possibility, everything should be tarped off and proper protective gear should be used, and Edward visibly bleeding all over everything would have been a Very Bad Look. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.)

((Also, just as a side-note, can we talk about Tozer's quick transitions between "shit, fuck, Little--", "and that is a takedown!", and "do not bleed in here, don't fuck this up for me, I don't know what the fuck your dumb ass was doing"? Because I love that Tozer's first reaction is "holy FUCK are you OKAY" and then he immediately takes control of the room to finish his talk, and then leans in to threaten Nedward. As though the threat is gonna take away the part where your first reaction was being horrified that you clocked him in the face, Sol.))

The Jopson-Little Meet Cute: Okay, fine, I guess it's not really a meet cute when one of you is bleeding into a sink, and the other one of you snuck into a takedown panel late in the hopes of seeing your crush and gets the bonus experience of watching your crush totally get hit in the face. But, whatever. They'll work with it.

One of the things I love about this scene is that the balance of power is exactly the opposite of where it would normally be--Jopson is the one controlling the scene here, through service, and Edward is the one that's following Jopson's lead. Jopson is, in canon, a caretaker, primarily, and I set this scene up so that he would shine, and I think he does that effectively here. Edward is the kind of guy that gets easily rattled when things don't go the way he expects them to, and it's indicative of their compatibility that he unwinds so easily for Jopson.

Also, I appreciate the hell out of Jopson gently bullying the topic of conversation around to giving talks, so that he could just slide his own talk under the door to gauge Edward's reaction. After all, if one is a trans man, and one's crush is a transphobe, better to find out before this goes any further. Between us, Jopson was reasonably sure things would be fine--after all, as Blanky notes later, he's had his face in Edward's blog*, and I'm pretty sure Edward went through his blog a while back and edited all his posts for gender- and trans-inclusive language, and left a footnote indicating he'd done so--but it was important for Jopson to make sure everything was on the table, and Edward's meandering discussion of the requirements for giving presentations was as good an in as any.

*Jopson clearly didn't know who Edward was by name on Saturday morning, but knows by Saturday afternoon. There's any number of ways he might have found out Edward's name, but I suspect he talked to someone** who had attended the power play panel he was on with Tozer earlier that day.

**I have a candidate in mind for this, but we'll get back to it later.

The Rough Physical Play Panel: Well, when that went wrong, it went real wrong, huh?

I think one of the things I'm enjoying so much about writing a modern Terror AU is that it lets me explore Hickey in more detail, because canon!Hickey just makes me so goddamn furious (the motherfucking BOOTS, he took James' BOOTS, and then EVERYTHING ELSE, and I CAN'T) that I can't even delve into him right now without wanting to throw things. But I can dig into him here, because I have the protection of this, you know, not being canon.

One of the things I really love about Hickey is that I think, one hundred percent, that he's exactly the kind of person that pays attention to the things you're interested in, and that makes it easy to start a friendship with him. I can guarantee that he knows every single item Tozer has ever stocked in his booth, and how well each of those items sells. I also know for sure that he's read every single post on Edward's blog, and can talk intelligently about any of them. However, Hickey is also exactly the kind of "friend" that will use that information against you at the drop of a hat if it benefits him in any way--and I can guarantee that the temptation was irresistible for Hickey here, because not only is it an excuse to deliberately trigger Edward's anxiety in front of a room full of people right immediately before those people leave the room, thus guaranteeing it's the last thing on their minds--but it's an opportunity to do so in front of the guy that Edward has been interested in all weekend. From Hickey's perspective, it's for Edward's own good--any idiot can see that Jopson is way out of Edward's league, and the sooner Edward stops making an ass of himself, the better it'll be for everyone involved. (I would also argue that  if any of their friend group "deserve" to have more status in the community, Hickey feels that's him, so any attempt by Edward to "rise above" by, say, associating with someone linked to Crozier, is going to be viciously stamped out.)

The miscalculation here, of course, is that Hickey has misread Jopson just the same as everyone else has misread Jopson. We'll come back to why this mistake is important next week, I think.

(It's unfortunate we didn't get the good version of the panel, with the demo, because it's very good--Edward picks a random audience member, demonstrates the consent negotiation in front of everyone, and then walks through an entire gamut of activities, the intensity of which varies depending on how the person he's chosen is enjoying it. This is the way that I had my first exposure to this type of play, and watching the talk was a goddamn delight--and there's nothing that makes someone look competent more than them just improvising an entire talk on the spot.)

Dungeon Setup: So, again, because Canada, every dungeon I've ever been in has separated the drinking section from the fun section for safety reasons. Usually they're in separate rooms, though I've been in a couple dungeons where the drinking section runs along one wall of the fun section. Because this is my fic, and I'll improve it if I want, I went full bore on this and created that second-floor lounge that's open to the dungeon below, so you can stand up there and drink and watch the dungeon from above (or you can sit up there and drink with Hickey, but yuck).

The showcase performance thing isn't something I've seen at a kink conference before--I borrowed that from burlesque conventions I've been to because I needed it for the upcoming Fitzier fic. I kinda wish Edward had paid attention, I feel like that was a really good rope suspension scene. But, he was standing too close to Jopson, and thus, nothing else mattered.

Also, is it really a dungeon if it doesn't heavily rely on Enigma's music? I don't think I've been in a dungeon once without hearing Return to Innocence or Sadeness, and at this point, if I hear either of those pieces outside of the context of a dungeon, I get really nostalgic for dungeons.

(I guess while we're talking about setup, I'll also confirm that pretty much everybody* is staying on-site here--the hotel has a bunch of space set aside for the kink conference, and as long as people booked their rooms quickly, their hotel rooms are also in the same venue, so there's no need for transport, or going outside, or anything like that. Poor Nedward can have his meltdown about collars without needing to call a cab once.)

*I know a certain repressed somebody who has opted not to stay at a hotel full of perverts, but, uh. I mean, it's a Choice, but maybe sit with yourself a second, John.

Line Notes:

“Dude,” Tozer says, swinging his duffel bag off his shoulder and booting it under the table. “I had the most repressed guy in my talk this morning, it was fucking brilliant.”

Hi, Irving.

Edward can’t quite tell what Jopson is talking about, they’re too far apart for him to be able to eavesdrop. He wishes he was over there, though. Listening.

They're talking about you, Edward. Jopson knows who you are by this point, and he is three hundred percent telling Blanky about your blog right now.

He hasn’t paid attention to the specifics, because it’s not his talk, and it doesn’t matter.

Except it does matter, Edward, because one of those times the door opened and Jopson came in.

Jopson takes another step forward, his hands down at his sides, palms facing Edward. “I saw what happened,” he says. His voice is gentle, low. Hypnotic.

I appreciate Jopson approaching Edward like Edward is a wild animal that's going to spook at any moment, because Edward is, in fact, a wild animal that's going to spook at any moment.

“One of the better quality sessions I’ve seen this weekend,” Jopson says.

Thomas Jopson, you are a lying liar. It is the first day of the convention, and this is the first instance in which you've left your booth for any significant length of time.

“—you must see there are gaps. I was thinking, maybe, there’s another conference in six months...”

I can guarantee that this is a conversation that has been had with Francis in slowly increasing levels of volume, and I can also guarantee that Francis has been very supportive of Jopson wanting to fix those gaps. I would also side-eye the length of time (none) it took Jopson to pull up his fully-completed notes for a talk that Edward notes later is ready to go, and doesn't need any alterations. (Anyone taking bets on whether or not Goodsir has seen this? Yeah, I wouldn't bet against it either.)

It’s only after Jopson’s left that Edward realizes his black handkerchief is still on the edge of the sink.

Remember that conversation we had last week about the hanky code? Good, because Edward doesn't.

“Don’t wanna have a discussion about feelings if we don’t have to,” Tozer says gruffly.

Translation: if your eyes are wet because I smoked you in the face, then we'll have that conversation, but for fuck's sake please provide me with literally any other explanation--oh, thank fuck, I forgot about your septum piercing, perfect, good, onwards.

(I'd argue that Edward's probably all up in his feelings from Jopson's talk, BUT both of them are talking around everything in this scene, so I guess we'll just let them have that.)

They’re walking down the hall, and literally anyone could walk past Edward right now—fucking James Fitzjames could walk past Edward right now—and there is no way in hell he would notice, because Jopson is right there...

James Fitzjames, "that online guy" and most recognizable kink celebrity, would be So Offended by this, and it would be good for him.

They’re walking side-by-side, Jopson just a fraction behind Edward, and Edward can’t tell if it’s on purpose.

Jopson knows how to sub--it's on purpose, Nedward.

(I should note that this isn't at all a requirement for subbing--but it's part of how Jopson, in particular, submits, and since that's how he wants to interact with Edward, that's how he's behaving now.)

—not a blog post from five years ago that he’d kept up because there’s hardly any information out there and he wanted to make sure that people were aware of the risks and safety concerns, and—

And, I mean, also because you like to do this, Edward. Let's not beat around the bush here, you're not writing entire blog posts about things you have an academic interest in for safety reasons, although it would be totally valid if you did. But you aren't. You wrote an entire post about how to safely fit your fist into someone's ass because you did a lot of research as to how to do it safely and then subsequently did it on multiple occasions.

“It’s right there on the blog post,” Jopson continues, fingers clenched on his notebook. “The exact same blog post you’re citing has the answers to the questions you’re asking, and it’s disingenuous of you to…to purposefully derail his panel and pretend that the answers aren’t right there.”

If Edward was thinking critically about any of this instead of just bluescreening, he'd realize that it's Significant that Jopson knows this without consulting his cellphone, which he hasn't needed to do here, because his hands are still on his notebook, which means that Jopson either a) sought out this post specifically, b) made it multiple years back in Edward's blog archives, or c) both AND remembers it in detail.

But, he's Edward, and he's not thinking about shit right now except possibly how nice it would be if the building just randomly caved in on top of him. Not everybody else. Just him.

Jopson’s posture relaxes slightly as he exhales. “I was wondering about aftercare,” he says. “What you would normally recommend.”

Translation: Reassure me that you know what the fuck to do with me after we've just done everything that you've been talking about, because I AM DOWN TO DO THIS RIGHT NOW.

“Fucking peckerhead,” Tozer says, straightening up and rolling his shoulders, his eyes flashing. “I needed him to do some goddamn work.”

Yeah, well, Hickey’s got no fucking work ethic, so I dunno what the fuck you were thinking, Tozer. Duty owed, indeed.

It’s the guy that was watching Tozer. His eyes are burning with fanaticism. “It’s not too late,” he repeats. “Your crisis is an opportunity to repair yourself.”

Irving, sweetheart, buddy. You are at a fetish convention. Nobody here is interested in repairing themselves, and neither are you or you would not be here.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Jopson says. He’s still behind his booth, which is entirely too far away from Edward. “And Blanky’s due back any minute, so unless you want an interrogation over what you’re planning to do with the collar, you might want to come over to my side and look at books instead, I promise I won’t give you the third degree about anything.”

JOPSON, you are a LIAR. You fully intend to give him the third degree about everything, you just want him physically closer to you while you do it.

He’s not quite close enough to hear the conversation, but he is close enough to watch the way Jopson’s hands move in front of his body as he speaks, realizes after a moment that he’s signing. Realizes a few moments later that the words he’s saying aren’t English—and only then because it’s a different rhythm than Jopson usually speaks in, a little more halting, less fluid.

Francis' crash course in Netsilik went alright, apparently! I'm sure Jopson is disappointed in himself for not being fluent, but Silna will confirm to Francis that Jopson tried hard.

“We’re acquainted,” Jopson says carefully. Then adds, “It’s been a bit since I’ve spoken to her.”

LIAR, Jopson, you were literally in a deep conversation with her YESTERDAY. Edward, of course, does not notice this, even though he observed said conversation. (*cough*himbo*cough*)

Jopson shrugs, the motion a little self-deprecating. “That’s it. I’ll be finished then.” He sets his jaw, looks away. “I imagine we’d need to be more concerned about your availability than mine.”

Bold of you to assume that Edward "anxiety" Little actually checked his Fetlife messages and sorted out any play dates with anybody in advance.

Blanky grins at him. “That’s more like it. If you’ve got a couple minutes to wait, I’ll cut back the extra leather on the straps here for you.”

A number of people who make collars leave extra length on the straps in case it's needed. In this case, Blanky knows it won't be, so it can get trimmed back before Edward even leaves the booth. (Also, the Edward Little energy of Edward dropping a bunch of money on collars for Jopson, and then immediately freaking out and sticking them back in his hotel room?)

As an aside, considering Blanky is #teamjoplittle, I would give so much to see the content of the inevitable groupchats that are happening right now.

Phew. That's it for this week! Chapter three, Consensual, goes up next Friday! See you then! And if you have questions or anything in the meantime, you can always drop me an ask on tumblr or Curious Cat. I know I didn't cover everything, even in this long-ass entry, cuz there's a fuck of a lot of stuff going on in the foreground, much less the background. I honestly don't mind if you ask, it's totally cool. :)

See you next week!

#the terror #the terror fic #my fic #fic: closer #fic breakdown #fic: the terror kink au #joplittle

[starblazerm31]

The Courtiers as Shitty Retail Customers

This HC of mine seems to have gotten lost in the miasma somewhere.  It was an ask I had gotten in response to the Main 6 as Retail Workers HC.

Now...as a note...everything I write here I have seen/happened to me personally. EVERYTHING.  These are not your typical “Karen” stories. 

Content warnings: Bodily fluids (blood, vomit, feces, etc.).  Blatant rudeness.  Flagrant stupidity. THEFT.  Disturbing malevolent behavior.  Unwanted butt pinching.

The Courtiers As Shitty Retail Customers (cont. of Main 6 as Retail Workers)

Valdemar

That customer who leaves unexplained blood spatters ALL OVER the single bathroom.  They didn’t seem injured when they went in...but after they came out, everyone swears they committed a murder in there.  Poor Julian got pegged to clean it up since he’s the one certified in hazardous spills and Muriel was off that day.

The customer who stares at everyone in a really uncomfortable way.  Like...are they planning on slitting someone's throat right here in the store?  Please don’t...the employees really don’t want to have to deal with the inquiry and paperwork.

The customer who will grab a worker and just...occupy them.  Talking.  Oddly.  About anything and yet absolutely nothing.  But still dropping the most uncomfortable TMI.  One time, they grabbed Asra and just HAD to go into explicit detail about how they skin an animal after hunting.  And how much they love Satan.

The customer who will ask a really dangerous request of the worker they swept up just hoping to see them get hurt.  One time, he asked Julian to check on a specific tire which was WAAAAAY up on the top of the huge tire rack.  Chuckled to himself when the tire fell on Julian and almost broke his arm while he was ten feet in the air on a ladder.

Gets really offended when an employee gets too close.  "Come any closer and I'll stab you."  Julian:  "Do it.  Five cameras can see you RIGHT. NOW.

*flashes a knife at Muriel*  Muriel:  "My dick is bigger."

Volta

That customer who grabs food off of the shelf, eats it, then deposits the empty (or half-empty) wrapper/bottle on another shelf in another part of the store.

She once stole some things from the store and got a big head about it.  So she decided to come back the very next night to steal some more.  All the employees were wise to her and watched her very closely.  She stuffed a bunch of items up her shirt and made her way to the door.  Nadia and Muriel were standing there waiting for her.  She panicked and dropped everything out of her shirt in front of everyone (all the employees proceeded to point at her and laugh) and then walked out in a hurry.

When free snacks are offered to customers, she proceeds to stuff her face while spilling the snacks all over the store.  She leaves a trail of chips/popcorn wherever she walks.

Somehow managed to knock down an entire shelf of gallon jugs of water.  The water jugs all exploded on the floor.  It looked like a Noah's Ark situation.

Walked by Muriel and proceeded to suddenly vomit onto the floor.

Will unfold and an entire shelf of shirts (about an hour's worth of work) just to be a bitch.

Tried to steal a "Try Me" stick of deodorant that literally hundreds of people had touched.  Saw that she was being watched by Muriel, so she proceeded to look Muriel right in the eye and apply the deodorant.  Muriel:  "...I hope she gets sick."

*grabs Nadia*  "I think that worker is spying on me!" *points to Julian*  "He keeps following me around!"  Julian is stocking shelves, not even paying attention to her.  "And his body odor is really offensive!"  *Nadia looks to her dubiously*  "I'm sorry about that.  Here, let me fix it."  *walks over to Julian, explains the situation, and then gets on the radio*  "Watch the customer in accessories, they are behaving strangely."  Thirty minutes later, Volta is being escorted out by police for theft.  Julian:  "Body odor!  *huffs* Enjoy the lockup BO you're gonna have tomorrow, bitch."

Vlastomil

Brings in Wiggler.  "He's my emotional support worm!"

Wiggler pees on the floor.  Is asked to take his pet out of the store.  Proceeds to scream about how the store targets the mentally ill.  (Muriel has to go to the back to rage in private with Asra)

Asks about products, and then proceeds to criticize the store for even carrying such  "ridiculous" items.

Brings a fuckload of coupons, and expects them to be applied to clearance items.  Finds out that coupons cannot be honored for clearance items, and leaves two whole shopping carts of random items for the staff to reshelf.

"I can't see myself spending $3 on THAT."

To Asra:  "I'm going to need your employee discount."  Asra:  "So...I can move in with you tonight?"  Vlastomil:  "What?"  Asra:  "Well, if I give you my discount, I will be promptly fired.  I have a snake to take care of.  If I lose my job, I lose my apartment and my ability to feed myself and my snake.  Since YOU would be responsible for my getting fired, I'd expect YOU to take care of me and my snake afterward.  So...I can move in with you tonight?"  Vlastomil:  "...nevermind."

"The handsome manager said I could get this item with a 10% discount because it's not the brand I'm wanting."  Julian:  "Lucio isn't here today."  Vlastomil:  "He said it the other day."  Julian:  "He has to actually be here and tell me that himself, sorry.  He'll be here tomorrow, try again then."

Went into the bathroom.  A few minutes later, came out and grabbed Muriel and said that the bathroom needed to be cleaned.  Muriel looked inside and was APPALLED by the sight of feces smeared EVERYWHERE.  The floor, all of the stall doors, the trash can, the sinks, the toilets.  Vlastomil:  "Yeah, I had an accident."  Muriel did not hide his disgust and went to get the cleaning cart.  Threatened to quit that night.  Muriel:  "This is the kind of stuff DOCTORS AND NURSES deal with!  They get paid at least $20 an hour!  I make MINIMUM FUCKING WAGE!!!"

Vulgora

The customer that snaps at every single employee that speaks to them.

"No one likes (sports team)!  Why the hell do you even carry merch for this shitty team?!" (because there are more fans of that sports team than of the team that THEY like in that particular area)

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S A PENALTY FOR LETTING MY LAYAWAY EXPIRE?!  I WANT MY FULL REFUND!!!"

"RETURN THIS ITEM!"  Portia: "We don't carry this item."  Vulgora:  "YES YOU DO, I BOUGHT IT HERE!!"  Portia:  "I'm sorry, but this item is exclusive to (different store)."  Vulgora:  "YOU'RE AN IDIOT!  LET ME SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER!"  Nadia proceeds to tell them the EXACT. SAME. THING.  Vulgora:  "YOU'RE ALL MORONS!  I'M CALLING CORPORATE!"

"How do I install a trailer hitch?"  Julian:  "I'm sorry, I don't know."  Vulgora:  "Well they just need to employ a trained monkey here!"  Julian:  "We ARE accepting applications, you know."

"Is this shit real gold?"  Portia:  "Yes, 18k."  Vulgora:  "How much is it?"  Portia:  *looks*  "$250."  Vulgora:  "What gold do you have for $20?"  Portia:  "Nothing."

"I WILL CLIMB OVER THIS DESK AND MESS YOU UP!"  Portia: *points to the camera aimed directly at them*  "Do it.  I'll see you in court."

They lost their place in line because they had to go and look at something.  When the person behind them stepped up to the register and started to get their items rung up, they dashed back in front of the person and grabbed Portia's arm to stop her from ringing up the other person's items.  Drew back in shock and horror when Portia immediately balled up her fist and held it threateningly at them.  Nadia was standing right there next to Portia.  Nadia:  "You need to leave.  Right now."  After they left, Nadia looked to Portia and said: "You wouldn't have gotten in trouble if you'd hit them, you know."  Portia:  "No one grabs me.  No one."

"YOU'RE HIDING ALL OF THE STORE EXCLUSIVE POP FIGURES IN THE BACK SO YOU IDIOTS CAN BUY THEM ALL AND SELL THEM ON EBAY!!"  Julian:  "I'm sorry, but you're incorrect.  That Pop figure is $8, and no one here wants to lose their job over an $8 figure.  Plus...the figure you're wanting isn't at this store anyway."  Vulgora:  "AND WHY NOT?!"  Julian:  "...Because it's sold online only." *shows them the online info that clearly states "online-only"*

Valerius

The customer who expects an employee to follow them around with a basket while they shop.

"Is this organic?"  Julian:  "Yes, sir, it is."  Valerius:  "I don't believe you.  Places like this can't possibly carry organic items."

Left an ENTIRE. PILE. of tried-on clothes in the dressing room when the limit on items was 4.

Opened at least 20 different tubes of lipstick and swiped them on his arm.  Put them all back on the shelf.  Asra could be heard swearing as he had to pull each lipstick off of the shelf and dispose of them since they were no longer sanitary and could not be sold.  "Couldn't he just steal?  It would have been so much easier..."

Comes into the store drunk off his ass and acts belligerent to everyone he sees.  Gets so OFFENDED when asked to leave.

"Are these diamonds real?"  Asra:  "They are lab-grown."  Valerius:  "So they aren't real."  Asra:  "They are lab-grown, so they are synthetic diamonds." Valerius:  "So they aren't real."  Asra:  *sighs* "They wouldn't be sold for just $50 if they were."

Starts fights with other customers because he thinks "They're weird."

The customer who accosts other customers, thinking they work there.  Even though they AREN'T. WEARING. A. UNIFORM.

Stuffs a pile of clothes he decided he doesn't want behind the tampons.

Demands that the single bathroom be unlocked, even though the single bathroom being locked means that it's occupied.

"How do these pants make my package look?"  Julian:  "...I'm not going to look, sir.  But they make your calves look amazing."

Walked by Asra and pinched his ass.  Looked so shocked when Asra whirled around and yelled at him.  Valerius: "Hey, I thought you would like that!"  Asra:  "I CLEARLY DID NOT!  That is called SEXUAL ASSAULT!!!  YOU GO TO JAIL FOR THAT!!!"

#the arcana headcanons #arcana headcanons #the arcana asra #the arcana julian #the arcana nadia #the arcana portia #the arcana muriel #starblazerm31 headcanons #who just pinches a strangers ass

[calunavulgaris]

I’d like to think that anyone who knows me knows that I am 100% pro-choice, but in case it needs to be said: I am unapologetically, completely, irrevocably pro-choice.

There are two main reasons for this, the first being that I have known from a very early age that I never wanted to be pregnant or give birth. The idea is beyond horrifying to me. The second is much less personal. I have never encountered an anti-choice argument that wasn’t laughably easy to dismantle. I’ve been vocally pro-choice for roughly 30 years now (thanks, Mom) and in that time one thing has become painfully evident: anti-choicers have nothing but tenuous, easily debunked “arguments” that are based solely on emotional manipulation, anecdotes, and pseudo-science. They’re also dreadfully unoriginal and repetitive. It gets dull, let me tell you.

But what the hell, just for fun let’s go through some of them here:

“Abortion is MURDER!”

Nope. Murder is a legal term with a clear, concise definition. Abortion does not meet the criteria. Go ahead and look that up, it’s pretty easy to find.

“Abortion KILLS BABIES!”

It’s funny how those who claim to be on the side of science (which is ridiculous on its own) resort to unscientific terms when their goal is to evoke a purely emotional response, isn’t it? “Killing babies” packs more of a manipulative punch than “a medical procedure involving the removal of fetal tissue.” Believe it or not, I sympathize if the termination of a fetus squicks you. I get it. Being that I’m pro-choice, I will always defend your right not to ever undergo the procedure with the same fervour I employ when defending the choice to obtain an abortion. That’s what it means to be pro-choice.

“The fetus is innocent and has a right to life!”

By definition, the fetus can’t be innocent or guilty, it is purely neutral. The “right to life” does not grant anyone the right to use any part of another person’s body for their survival, no matter how “innocent” that person may be. The person carrying the fetus also has the right to life and bodily autonomy, and having sex/being pregnant isn’t something one can be “guilty” of, as neither is a crime. If we want to talk about innocence, let’s start there.

“What about the rights/autonomy of the fetus?”

For starters, the fetus has no autonomy. Its survival is completely dependent on the person whose body it’s inhabiting. That person is fully autonomous and must consent to their body being used and occupied by the fetus.

I know this is repetitive, but it seems to need repeating: There is no human right granted to anyone to use any part of another human’s body, living or dead, for their survival. If you’re in need of an organ transplant, and someone has just died with the organ you need, that doesn’t grant you the right to take what you need from them unless they consented to it before their death. You don’t have the right to take their completely viable organs that they are no longer using if that person did not sign up to be a donor, and it doesn’t matter if you will die as a result. If I’ve been stabbed and am bleeding out, and will die unless given a blood transfusion, no one can be legally compelled to give me their blood to save my life. Not even my own mother. Not even if she was the one who stabbed me in the first place.

If no one has the right to a dead person’s organs or their mother’s blood, what right does a fetus have to another person’s entire body?

“You shouldn’t get to kill a baby just because you’re too lazy to use contraception!”

Please, tell me which form of contraception is 100% effective 100% of the time. Even a minuscule failure rate (based on perfect use) means that unintended conception will occur. I have personally met several people who conceived/were conceived themselves despite multiple forms of contraception being used. It happens. If someone uses two or three methods in tandem, I think they’re making it pretty clear that they do NOT wish to conceive, don’t you? And sure, some do decide to continue with the pregnancy (I think the best reaction I ever heard along these lines was “I need to meet the person who could get past all that!). Again, that’s their choice.

Yes, some people conceive because they neglected to use contraception, for whatever reason. Those reasons are no one’s business but their own. Having unsafe sex is not a crime and isn’t something people need to be punished for. More on that coming up in the next point.

“Abstinence is 100% effective! You made the choice to have sex, deal with the consequences!”

Electing to have an abortion is one way to deal with the consequences. It’s just one that some find immoral, or icky, or selfish. Thankfully, morals are subjective, and it isn’t a crime to be selfish or icky. Even if it were, using forced pregnancy (which the UN defines as a form of torture) as a punishment is unconscionable and inhumane.

Also, what do you suggest for childfree couples? Believe it or not, there are people in long-term, committed, loving, healthy relationships who don’t wish to have children. Should they be condemned to lifelong abstinence because there’s a chance they might conceive? Have fun trying to sell that one.

Consent to sex does not equal consent to pregnancy. Now, imagine that it wasn’t consensual to begin with. (This is where they like to bring up the statistic of abortions as a result of rape, because they live in a world where every instance of sexual assault is reported, and every victim discloses how they came to be pregnant.)

We don’t deny medical care to those who develop lung cancer due to their 20-year pack-a-day habit, or those who drink themselves into liver failure. If a drunk driver causes a collision, we don’t stand by and let them die from their injuries, even if the collision caused the death of others. But somehow, there are those who think a person with a uterus should literally be tortured and have their human rights revoked if a fetus is inhabiting that uterus. That is terrifying.

“What about the father? The fetus is 50% his so he should have a say!”

It may be 50% his genetic material, but it is 100% inhabiting another person’s body, which is why that person gets to make the final call.

Let’s break down what’s being implied here: If a couple conceives and the pregnant person wants to abort, they should obtain permission from their partner in order to do so. If he disagrees, they should respect that and carry the pregnancy to term. That doesn’t seem very 50-50 anymore, does it? I think it’s funny that this argument only seems to work under the assumption that the father would want to continue with the pregnancy. If he felt it would be best to terminate and his partner disagreed, would they still argue that his vote somehow carries more weight? I doubt it.

“You shouldn’t have an abortion just because pregnancy is inconvenient!”

“Inconvenient?!” Dude. A hangnail is inconvenient. Missing a parcel delivery and having to go to the post office is inconvenient. Your cat’s preference for hacking up hairballs on your clean laundry instead of the tile floor is inconvenient. To call pregnancy “inconvenient” is absurd in the extreme. Pregnancy, even under the best conditions, permanently alters a person’s body. I dare you to tell someone who has been through pregnancy and labour that it was merely “inconvenient.” Seriously, look up third-and-fourth degree tears, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, abdominal separation, etc. just for starters, and then tell me it’s just inconvenient.

“Post-abortive women suffer from depression and mental illness!”

Find me an unbiased source to back that up, please. It simply isn’t true, the majority of people who have undergone an abortion report feeling relieved. Also, what kind of an effect do you imagine forcing an unwanted pregnancy and birth on an unwilling person has on their mental health? Hell, wanted pregnancies can take a huge toll on a person’s mental health, but I don’t see anyone using postpartum depression to argue against pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood.

“Doctors don’t know everything! I knew someone whose doctor said their pregnancy was unviable and they should terminate, but they didn’t and now they have a beautiful, perfect child!”

Cool story. I’m glad this person was able to make that choice for themselves and that things turned out okay. I’m still gonna trust the advice of someone who invested their time and money into getting a medical degree over the anecdote of an internet stranger, but that’s me.

“Infertile couples would be so happy to have your baby! Just give it up for adoption!”

I don’t know if you’re aware, but there is no shortage of children in need of families. There is, however, a shortage of people willing to adopt older children, or non-white babies/children, children and babies who are born addicted, HIV+, severely disabled/medically fragile... I could go on.

Getting back to the “Doctors don’t know everything!” point, it may be worth noting that I used to work in a foster home with severely disabled children. It was by far the hardest, most heartbreaking and exhausting job I’ve ever had. I have seen firsthand what these kids go through, how much around-the-clock care they require, how forgotten some of them are by their families, and how they are considered “undesirable” as far as adoption goes. I have seen how they suffer. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it would have been better for any of them if they hadn’t been born, but I fully understand if someone is simply not up to the task of devoting their life to caring for a child who will be completely dependent on them for everything for however long they live, which sadly isn’t long for many of them. I’m glad I did it, but not everyone can, and there is nothing wrong with admitting that.

All of that aside, adoption is only an alternative to parenthood, not pregnancy. No one owes you the use of their uterus to house a fetus you want just because you’re unable to make your own.

This is already longer than I originally intended, but I think I’ve covered the most commonly recycled arguments. The rest mainly boil down to “Abortion goes against my personal theological/philosophical beliefs or moral code!” and all I can say in response to that is that I’m so glad I don’t have to live by anyone’s concept of morality and am allowed my own. It’s pretty great.

I won’t be complacent, however. I have never been more terrified in my life as a uterus-bearing person as I am right now, and I know I’m not alone in that. We cannot allow our rights to be revoked. We cannot afford to lose the ground those before us fought so hard to gain. I will do all I can to keep that from happening.

If the right to our bodies isn’t worth fighting for, I don’t know what is.

#abortion #pro choice

[onceuponawildflower]

Let's talk about feminine care for a moment.

Ever wonder how many used tampons and pads are in the world? With the bleak and desperate push by the world's leading scientists to make real changes to how we're living to avoid a legitimate end of world issue, I got thinking about waste. And that got me thinking about tampons and feminine care.

Did you know there were toxic chemicals, dyes, and scents put into tampons? I mean anyone who has a vagina or has been in close contact with a vagina knows that they're basically the body's sponge, so anything that goes into them should be clean and safe. But mainstream tampon companies don't really see that as a priority, and that's scary. (But also given how this country views women, are we really surprised they're trying to poison us for attempting to manage inevitable bodily functions?)

When I first learned about all of this, I decided to call it quits on tampons. I was never much of a pad person, so I moved over to the cup. For those of you who don't know about this, it's a silicon cup you place in your vagina and with a bit of finagling, pull it into a seal so it will catch all your blood. You change it out just like you'd change a tampon, except you don't throw it away, but rather clean it with unscented soap (think tattoo soap) and reuse pretty much indefinitely. As far as waste is concerned, it's the least wasteful of period care products.

But if you're like me, sometimes trying to put a big pink cup into your body as it's already in a sore state is less than desirable, and can actually make it more painful. I used the cup for about a year because I'd rather have some mild discomfort than poison my body or wear pads which made me feel like I was wearing a diaper.

But just last month, I saw an ad for Cora. Cora is a female run feminine care business that is doing a ton of awesome stuff for women.

Number one: their tampons are 100% organic cotton. Period. No chemicals. Nothing but trusty organic plant-based absorbency.

Number two: for every box of tampons they sell, they give another box to a girl in a developing country so they can continue to go to school, even when they're on their period. If you weren't aware, a lot of the time, girls will stop going to school once they hit puberty because of the shame, stigma, and inconvenience of having their period. In a lot of places, there isn't access to feminine care, so these girls have to stay at home from school, which sets them behind. Cora is working to change that by providing feminine care to these girls so they can keep on going learning and achieving.

Number three: they pay the feminine tax. You know what I'm talking about if you've ever compared the price of male and female... Well, literally anything. Razors, deodorant, shampoo, soap, socks, underwear, etc. I think we're at a rate of 4-7% more for women's products than men's. Which is ludicrous. I won't go too far into this because I could go on and on --- but what I'm getting at is that Cora covers that tax so you don't have to worry about that surcharge.

Number four: they're actually affordable. First, you get a free trial so you can see if you like what you're working with. And then you set up a subscription, and they send out every three months. I bought three months worth tampons for $24. As I'm used to spending about $6-7 on a box of generic tampons at CVS a month, that's pretty much the best price I could ask for for something that's miles better than toxin-laden tampons.

Number five: their packaging. A box of 18 tampons is the size of my palm. You can opt for applicator free tampons, which saves on waste and space. Their high quality tampons shipped to you in a small box, with an even smaller box of neatly organized tampons in minimalist packaging, kind of like a Russian doll for your moon cycle. This made me especially happy.

Number six: they're female founded and run. What's better than women seeing change that needs to happen and stepping up to the plate to make that change? Try me.

Bottom line: I'm sold on Cora. They're doing so much good stuff for females everywhere. It's fantastic. And what's more, it's affordable. That's really important.

If you're interested in trying them out, click on this. That'll take you to the free trial page. They'll send you six tampons for you to give it a go. No obligation necessary. No dodgy sales tactics to sneak attack you with a subscription. They comminicate with you ahead of time about if you'd like to subscribe, so you're totally in charge of that. Cora really seems to be a genuinely good company looking to better women and women's health as a whole.

If that's something you can get down with, try them out. I'm posting this because I want everyone to have happy healthy vaginas, and know that it is possible to have a say about what goes in your body.

Additionally! They do offer pads and sanitary wipes for those who are more attuned to that. I can't speak for them because I haven't used them, but if they're anything like their tampons, I can bet they're super absorbent and affordable too.

Here's to many healthy happy cycles, ladies!

#personal #cora #referral #cora referral #free stuff #take back the power #our bodies our choice #feminine care #moon cycle #tampons #organic tampons

[insanecrystalskies-blog]

Because of the great men at Bathmate I was routed 1 of the NEW BathMate Goliath high heels (a significantly bigger version versus original) therefore I can do an adhere to upwards Bathmate penis pump evaluation of a solution which I covered year that is last, the Bathmate Hercules Pump.

After previewing the Bathmate Hercules Pump (which will be the first one) I was messaged a great deal from my male audience in regard to the experiences of theirs with the item and whatever they considered it;

A great deal of the men that messaged me also stated it effortlessly became a part of their common which they will suggest it to a good friend. I am going to be honest, without the feedback of theirs, I may not have been very prepared to receive the hands of mine on the brand new Goliath.

The additional twenty % was a blend of emails saying it was way too little (so that they did not use it), it did not do the job as fast as they wished and so they stop using it, or maybe they simply did not possess the time or maybe dedication to continue with it to find out if it worked.

Having said that, the same as every other product you'll see on the store shelves, what could fit one individual may not benefit another, and also inside a market flooded with more than a million products, it is to be expected. Indeed, I know I am penisless and thus cannot create a claim based on experience that is personal, though I also do not believe it is a wise idea to discredit others that have had results that are positive.

Bathmate OriginalsMisc Info

Thus, for anybody that's above average in size I'd recommend the Goliath, for individuals that're typical or perhaps below I'd suggest the Hercules. You should remember that simply because one is bigger it does not imply that it works much better. The Goliath operates in the very same fashion as the initial, it's simply made to fit a much larger sized penis.

The Good

Just like the first Bathmate Hercules, I like this system for a number of reasons;

you do not have to buy any additional parts to be successful. What you see is exactly what you receive and it is just about what you should do.

it has a full cash back guarantee.

constructed of sturdy Polycarbonate, skin protected rubber, along with stainless materials, the Bathmate is constructed to last. (it is body safe)

when used regularly, properly, and also on a routine basis, just love working other muscle in the entire body, benefits is noticed. But that is the entire results of its effectiveness; working with it correctly as well as on a regular basis but not going crazy.

Instructions

As for utilizing it right there are actually 3 methods to go; in the water, in the bath or even with air.

After you are calm and feel at ease fill your Bathmate with h20 out of the tub or shower. Tuck the balls of yours from how so they do not get unintentionally be sucked within as well as insert your flaccid penis.

When you are comfortably inside the chamber media the rubber base against the body of yours and give it a couple of good pumps. Carry on doing this until you are feeling a vacuum from within. When you cannot pump any longer stop and relax for fifteen to twenty minutes. After the directed period is up simply press the stress release valve placed on the top for breaking the suction and also you are able to easily clean it. Very easy right?

For use with air:

In case you want to work with the Bathmate with air rather than water, it is the very same steps. Having said that, I've really seen the very best results from somebody that used it during the bath & bath, so that is what I'd suggest.

Cleaning and care As for cleansing, airers4you sells accessories to assist you ensure that it stays clean like a washing sponge and manage for getting down into the item in which you cannot get to and Sterilizing Tablets to simply help disinfect it. When you do not wish to invest the money on all those you are able to always simply wash it with gentle soap and water.

FAQ's

Today you will discover a couple of things that you might experience that I would love to point out just so you are familiar with them and do not think there is something wrong;

in case you see you begin to pick up an erection while you are utilizing it do not care that is natural and also be expected. You're in the end drawing blood into the penis of yours, the same as when you become aroused and obtain an erection.

discomfort doesn't equal gain. In case you see it begins to harm at anytime simply push the stress release valve on the pinnacle which is going to break the vacuum seal and permit you to comfortably and safely eliminate it.

in case you see the vacuum isn't as strong (which often comes about after 5 7 minutes) just provide it with another pump to put out additional water and permit a greater suction.

in case you see that water squirts from the best while you pump do not be alarmed, it is claimed to achieve that.

Bathmate Penis Pump - Results and GoliathExperiences In regard to the real profits a person is able to expect; I gave two Bathmate Hercules pumps to two various friends and also had another friend utilize the Bathmate Goliath.

The next individual, who also used the initial Hercules pump, worn it each day for any directed length of your time (which is fifteen? twenty minutes) and after five weeks stated he recognized he was about an inch longer. He said it was simple enough to use and really conveniently became a part of the morning routine of his.

He stated he liked the way in which it felt as well as used it on a couple of events as being a masturbation device.

Overall experiences: said, the pump will do the job differently for people that are different and in case you really want to see long lasting results you've to deal with it exactly the same manner you'd weight lifting or maybe exercising; in case you visit the gym once you cannot count on to see lasting results or big muscles, you've going everyday, be focused, and also understand what your doing to ensure that you get it done correctly and will obtain the effects you need.

Contrary to what most businesses will have you think, penis pumps are not a single magical solution that is going to fix your problems over night needed dedication, time, and work. Consider that.

Alerts!

As for any safety measures you must take:

in case you're under the age of total development I Don't recommend you make use of the product since your human body is developing and stretching.

this's not a treatment or a cure.

although this's a secure product, you must ensure you follow the instructions thoroughly.

it must be saved and kept away from kids.

check with the doctor of yours before using the item in case you are afflicted by any bodily penile conditions.

Don't use in case you've just recently had surgery in this specific area or in case you suffer some discomfort prior or after initial use.

Ultimate Verdict

I do understand the organization would prefer to promote it to be a size increase product but reading male after male inform me it was wonderful for obtaining erections, ones that are hard at that, exactly why fight it?

[catty-words]

#gurlgroup4eva (if that counts as a pairing) + sunbathing

send me a number + a character or pairing and i’ll write you a ficlet

“Thiswas such a good idea, Paula,” Rebecca says, shaking out her beach towel andthen settling down on the lawn. “I’m not usually one for sunbathing, but thisis free and gives us the opportunity to really talk. So I’m for it.”

“IfI weren’t already going through horrific bodily mutilation for Darryl, I’dtotally offer to sell you one of my organs for getting me out of work for theday,” Heather says, stretching her arms over her head. “My feet have beenkilling me.”

“That’ssweet, but I’ll settle or a couple of discounted lunches,” Paula says.

“Deal.”

“Hmm,okay, what should we talk about?” Rebecca makes a show of thinking it over. “Books…movies…boys,maybe?”

Heatherand Paula groan.

“Bethkissed me last night!”

Allthree of them sit up to stare at Valencia.

“ButchBeth that’s been getting you all that business?” Heather is the first one torecover from the surprise.

Valenciakeeps her eyes on the sky. “Mm-hmm.”

“Solike, what did you do?”

“Didyou spurn her advances and freak out about everyone wanting to have sex withyou?” Rebecca asks. When Paula quirks an eyebrow at her, she adds, “What? That justseems like how she’d react to a girl kissing her.”

“Not…exactly,”Valencia says, her nostrils flaring as she takes a deep breath through hernose. “I mean, it was already pretty late and she lives far away. So she spentthe night.”

“Didyou sleep with her?” Heather asks.

“Ohmy god, no!”

“Thereno reason to get defensive, V,” Heather assures. “I mean, it’s not like there’sanything stopping you.”

“Yeah,it’s not like Beth is in a long-term relationship or something. Cause that’s,like, a huge obstacle that would stop you from seeing her,” Rebecca says.

“Areyou feeling alright?” Paula asks her.

“What?Nothing!”

“I’mnot gay,” Valencia says, reclaiming everyone’s attention. “That’s what’sstopping me.”

“There’smore than just straight and gay, you know that right?” Heather asks.

“Justask Darryl,” Paula adds.

“That’sfine, but I’m straight,” Valenciasays, though she sounds unsure.

“Didyou…?” Paula trails off.

“Howwas it?” Heather finishes for her.

“Howwas what?”

“Thekiss!” the three of them say in unison.

Valenciadoesn’t say anything, but a smile creeps up on her.

“Ooh,”Paula says, leaning over Heather to slap V’s knee playfully. “You liiiiiked it.”

“Youloooooved it,” Rebecca piles on.

“Shutup,” Valencia says, but her smile widens.

“Forwhat it’s worth,” Heather says, and then pauses until Valencia looks at her. “Ithink maybe you’re not so straight after all.”

Valenciablinks a couple times, letting that idea settle in her brain. All she can thinkto say before the group moves onto a new topic is, “Huh.”

#gurlgroup4evah #crazy ex girlfriend #anon #replies #my fic #i'll always take an excuse to write more girl group #micro story exercise #friendly reminder that you're welcome to send more prompts #i just might not get to them

[wildseedculturalgroup]

SIR Rebekkah Holylove : A Funk Lesson in Solitude

At sixteen Luther Vandross founded and served as the official president of a famous diva’s fan club. I can see him now, watching her seasoned shoulder bounce and measuring the funk in the black church two-step she makes across soul music platforms. He’s standing stage left, holding onto the curtain for balance. He’s lip syncing every song, calculating the mastery of her diction and phrasing. He’s studying her like a text; setting the stage for his own practice—one that would place him at microphones behind David Bowie, Chaka Khan, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler and Donna Summer. He was Twenty Feet from Stardom and rising. Luther Vandross, the teenage boy, understood how Patricia Holt-Edwards from Philadelphia, became the legendary kick-your-shoes-off and snatch-your-own-wig when the tension builds between audience, music and voice; Luther Vandross presided over the fan club of Queen Motha Patti Labelle.

Strange things happen when an artist is moved to a new depth by another; we become fanatical about the fantastical beings who place us deeper into the abyss of craft. The management of details of who these artists are and how they come to being becomes a rite of passage. We obsess over the decisions they make to bring an album to fruition and take pride in knowing all things, from the major to the mundane; collaborations, music video direction, hair color, shoe size, inspiration behind the lyrics.  We fancy ourselves experts of our muses. And when it comes to black music, the stakes are higher—people stay questioning our responses to the brilliance of black artists; reading them as tribal reactions, as opposed to a focused study of mastery. But no. I’m from the school of Luther—committed to scholarship, research questions and methodology when pursuing the legends.

 There’s a strong chance that I became the unofficial president of Joi’s fan club twenty-five years ago. For twenty-five years, I’ve paid attention to her musical movement. Today, I feel confident that if asked to build a theoretical framework around the genius of her crunk-funk sound, I’d have my fucking PhD. Dr. DJ Lynnée Denise.

She’s a beast.

Joi occupies space in the lineage of artists who thrive across genre lines. How is that possible? Ask Prince, Ask Aretha, Ask Nina. Ask Stevie. Black people live hyphenated lives, so it’s fair to say our musicians embody and shift the context of what DuBois called “Double Consciousness,” musical cross pollination made available to the Souls of Black Folk. 

The three of us—Joi, DuBois and myself—have something in common: Nashville.

I saw Joi for the first time while I was sitting in the living room with a group of artists I met during my freshmen year at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. She was in a straightjacket hanging on a meat hook in a blue lit walk-in meat refrigerator squirming with hopes of being released. The video was for the song “Sunshine in the Rain,” her first single. I’ve not turned away since.

DuBois graduated from Fisk in 1888, 109 years before me. Joi is the daughter of legendary NFL football player Joe Gilliam. She was a legacy student at the historically black public university Tennessee State on Nashville’s Jefferson Street. The intersections of our lives and the black excellence it carries spans centuries.

The artists in the room knew who she was and dismissed my awe with, “oh that’s Joi.” I was in her hometown. She was their hero. “Joi from down here” they said with regional pride from blunt stained lips, “she been on that different shit for years.” I took that to mean Joi was ahead of her time and an inspiration to the folks who watched her take shape.

I copped her debut album The Pendulum Vibe (1993) and listened to it nonstop for a good year. It filled the void created by LaFace’s TLC and the Sean Puffy girl group hip-hop soul phase. Don’t get me wrong, I fucked with Mary J Blige from day one and still do, but had real questions about the war on originality that was creeping into the black musical lexicon in a Bad Boy kinda way.

The Pendulum Vibe, ironically produced by the mind behind TLC—Dallas Austin, was a game changer, a call to arms for folks looking for sophisticated melodies and enough lyrical depth to drown in. Songs like Fatal Lovesick Journey had me pondering co-dependent relationships while puffing Black & Milds and drinking Alizé. There was well-placed wailing, playful and unapologetic sexual confidence and a genre defying southern rooted sound. Anti-formulaic, the music from this album spoke to my heart and gave me hope that Black America had something to compare to the brilliant UK Soul coming out of London and coming from my speakers. Though raunchier in her approach, Joi was in the Mica Paris and Caron Wheeler category for me. My ears recognized her as a kindred spirit. After the fiftieth listen of the Pendulum Vibe I sat myself down and said with all honesty, "this a bad bitch and the masses ain’t gon’ understand," hence her long-term relationship with the abstract term, the underground.

I'm torn.

Ever since I can remember I’ve been one of those people who rolls my eyes when I hear my favorite song from a new album I'm spending time with being played on the radio. I'm suspicious of what becomes widely accepted; afraid to see the artists I love hand over their authenticity to the police of mediocrity guarding the door of pop music in America. And yeah, everybody gotta eat, but why eating gotta equate to contractual agreements that alter your purpose? Prince’s decision to pen the word slave on his face in the 90s gave us an idea of what can happen when sitting down at the negotiating table with corporations who measure your worth by your marketability to an underdeveloped and musically ahistorical masses. I wanted to keep Joi underground where she was protected from the fuckery—following her own north star to musical freedom.

Her performances embodied all the funkiness my little soul had been waiting for at a time when black radio was pinned under the thumb of payola. She’s cut from the same cloth as Hendrix. Betty Davis. Vanity. One minute she gives you seasoned performer on a FunkJazzKafe stage alongside Too Short; then range and multi-dimensionality on stage with FishBone and De La Soul the next. Embedded in her vocal chords is a deep knowledge of Funkentelechy and Parliamentarian Cosmology, a heavy load of legacy to carry, but she’s bout it and lives inside the mashup.

Between 1996 and 2006, Joi recorded three more studio albums Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome (1997), a highly desired cult classic shelved before release due to the collapse of Universal Records.  It can now be purchased through her website, a gift for fans who were diggin’ through the crates in search of a copy. She produced the next two albums Star Kitty’s Revenge (2002) and Tennessee Slim is the Bomb (2006) independently.

Joi had a major hand in shaping the Atlanta Dungeon Family/Organized Noize sound; she sang background on Goodie Mob’s classic first album Soul Food; she worked closely with many artists, among them George Clinton, Sleepy Brown, Big Krit, 2 Chainz, Queen Latifah, and Tricky from London; she collaborated with Raphael Sadiq’s on his Lucy Pearl project; she joined Outkast on their final tour in 2014; and became a backing vocal for D’Angelo during his Black Messiah Tour in 2015. And still, with curriculum vitaé in hand, Joi found time to help, as she would say, “wipe down,” a few aspiring singers through her artist development business.

Upon moving to Los Angeles, after a twenty-year stint in Atlanta, she sat her ass down in a studio and pulled diamonds from a year of solitude to create a new gem of an album. S.I.R. Rebekkah Holylove. But don’t call it a comeback.

There’s a white-supremacist-mean-spirited-anti-intellectual-creamsicle-looking-fuckboy in the white house. I applaud anyone who can navigate this political shit show and turn away from social media long enough to concentrate on their respective practices. I live for the kind of high art that can offer the world a break from this reality fiction, and for these reasons and more Joi came through.  The journey of the album begins with three words that pushes us to the other side.

“Bitch I’m Free”

S.I.R. Rebekkah Holylove is what happens when anticipation meets expectations. Noteworthy is that this album, too, was produced independently in the spirit of Prince. He was one of the first artists to sell an album exclusively through a website because “Record company people are shady.”

Living liner notes are positioned between each track giving us poetic reflections that contextualize the song that follows or precedes it. Everything we need to move through the world of this album is provided, including a video for “Stare at Me” produced by Bruce Coles (Passerine Productions) and a cinematic vignette directed by Rahsaan Patterson. 

Joi’s is the only voice on the album. Don’t be fooled into thinking that there are three fellow bad bitches in the studio making it happen. It’s just her. She writes all the album’s lyrics, arranges all its vocals, and produces some of the tracks. She uses very little of the vocal compressor, an effect that most contemporary singers rely on, creating distance between authenticity and the voices you think you love.

I had a chance to spend some time with Joi in her studio, a live/work space she calls “The Funky Jewelry Box.” Inspirational posters and album covers drape the walls from Dolly Pardon to Led Zepplin and Natalie Cole to Minnie Ripperton. It’s an incubator for critical artistic thought up in there.

As I settled and began to think about questions that would unlock the door to the mysteries of this project, she was unwrapping a detox products from Dr. Sebi. “It’s a perfect time to fast,” she says, while removing the bubble wrap from a dark brown bottle of bodily goodness. She’s sitting at her recording station in an electric blue velvet cushioned vintage chair, “a rare find from a spot in LA,” she brags “undiscovered by hipsters and still affordable in its dealings.” The chair is perfect for the matriarchal themed nature of this album. Above her is a classic studio microphone that looks committed to its job and familiar with the racy nature of her spirit. There’s an intimacy between the two. We agree to listen to the album. She presses play and guides me through the sonic journey—joint in hand, ears on guard.

 “Ruler,” the album’s opening track sets an important tone. It’s a theme song straight out of The Wiz; a Glinda the Good witch anthem for women who understand the magic they walk with; Not Black Girl Magic, but Black Magic Women and their dominion over the proverbial Oz. Mind the distinction. Produced by Brook D’ Leux, Joi describes the song as a “declaration and celebration of the historical facts, a firm reminder of the greatness of women.” It’s a timely tune given the national dialogue concerning the crumbling of patriarchal-powered privilege. At the same time “Ruler” avoids being reactionary and trendy, there are no hashtags connected to this reckoning. The chorus is a command: “It's a never-ending, pitch black, goddess situation/Pussy power, life giving, matriarchy, salvation.” Period.

Joi takes the lead production credit in the song “Berlin,” and invites us inside the mind of a wanderluster fantasizing about a life alongside the people of Germany. While many artists fixate on cities like Paris and London, Joi paints a different kind of dance with a country rarely explored as a destination for aspiring Black American expatriates. “I’m on my way to Berlin, I hear it’s my kind of town.” She places herself under the light of a Berlin moon drinking a vintage glass of wine, but like a true gypsy spirit never commits to the place. “I want to call it home sometimes.” The song was written while Joi was getting her bearings in California. She uses the lyrics to negotiate a plan of action giving herself two years to make it happen, and when it does, the people of Berlin will know she’s arrived as an ATLien “Givin the Deutschland something they’ve never seen…High Priestess Funk Supreme.” Bopping her head from the blue chair she says “Berlin is one of my landing pads on the planet, it’s still on my mind and manifesting itself. The song is a call out to a future site.”

Joi’s racy songs have a long-standing history. On previous albums “Narcissica Cutie Pie” (Pendulum Vibe), explores sexual fluidity and bright dark fantasies about the spectrum of desire, while songs like “Lick” (Star Kitty’s Revenge) and “Dirty Mind” (Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome) help us hold the power of sex as a powerful tool that embodies Uses of the Erotic.  Sir Rebekah HolyLove builds on Joi’s collection of sex positive cantatas with “The Edge” produced and arranged by Joi with additional editing by Brook D’ Leux. A bass heavy funk monster that promises listeners a key to cities where “We can fuck until the dawn, making love til cherries gone”. I mean, yeah you’re married boo, but this is a acomplicated situation, the song implies. Cheating could become an option if good dick [or fill in the blank] is involved, and not many of us are willing to share that kind of ethical vulnerability on wax. And I don’t mean no disrespect to your official union, she asserts, but “you fuck me right and you’re mine tonight.” We never once forget that Joi is a human being dealing with the most undesirable and the most pleasurably outrageous scenarios that life asks us to consider; infidelity, heartbreak, orgasmic accomplishments. But the appeal is that she’s aware of the costs; “I’m standing on the edge with you/so if I jump will I fall or fly?”

In the song “Kush,” Featuring 2 Chainz and produced by Joi and Organized Noize we get another low bass banger. This time about a woman and her healing smokable herb, and what it means to pass one with a person you know good-and-well you’ll be taking home that night. Smoking as a form of foreplay is under-discussed. High sex deserves a love song and she delivers.

Far from insane to the membrane Cypress Hill or Snoop Dog indo smoke antics, we get reminded of the overlooked relationship that women have with a strain of weed that finds home in our exhale. Both Joi and Rihanna manage to pull off their relationships to weed well. It’s tastefully performative, radically unladylike and part of the pleasure in her solitude.

“Kingless” is a soundtrack for heart work and not surprisingly, the last song. Reflective and heavy with confession, admission and surrender. Produced by Joi, it gives us space to imagine what it might feel like to return home alone with all your matriarchal musings, global adventures and funk fantasies without a mate to share it with.  What does partnership look like for a rooted rock star? How does confidence read to potential companions who may or may not have received the necessary training one might need to be the queen’s match? Nevertheless, the desire (without desperation) to walk through the world with a lover is palpable. “Kingless” is the album’s only song that can be categorized as a ballad, should you feel compelled to pin it down to a style. But I heard it as a place of departure, a new turn on an old road. A shift in the spirit of the project, a bookend to a shelf of emotional intelligence in song. And she asks very simply who can match my royalty? My peer in love? My friend? Her answer; “Not a prince half grown”.

The song “Stare at Me” produced by Joi and Brook D’ Leau enjoyed an early release as a music video, but it strikes an important chord. I hear the song as a public health announcement about the egoist and narcissist nature of social media. She describes the song’s intent as representing “The multi-layeredness of wanting to be seen and of wanting to be left the fuck alone, also wanting to control the way you’re seen.” Social Media has created a kind of “hand-held seduction, hijacking my point of view.” Everybody’s watching she says “and I wish I didn’t care, I want to care less, but I want to be on your mind.” The video and the music do the song justice, there’s a visual narrative reinforcing selfie culture and the unwillingness to think through the nuances of big issues that’s shaping how we all relate. Instead, we get our opinions “hijacked” and find ourselves following the wave of the crowd. Musically, “Stare at Me” is so well constructed. The pauses and spaces, the kick drums and lyrics that dance through the bars.

 S.I.R. Rebekkah Holylove is a tribute to an album culture long forgotten. With the push for iTunes singles and music streaming culture, the intimate relating of album between artist and audience has been compromised. The album also holds its own up against a culture that produces albums at a rate impossible to enjoy, I’ll be listening to S.I.R. Rebekkah Holylove for years to come and “The Pendulum Vibe” brought me here.  Joi says she drew from various experiences to produce this album and she’s continued to work on other major projects (both in television and music), without compromising the integrity of her solo work. In her words “I have one of the most peaceful lives than anyone I know, but I recognize that solitude and peace is something I earned and it was necessary for this particular juncture.” 

Writing this piece felt like that time when Patti Labelle, and a fully established Grammy awarded Luther Vandross, shared a stage one glorious night in 1985. It’s that moment when student, fan, and gatekeeper of the musical masters graduate into a league of their own with a platform to articulate the many ways they’ve been shaped, artists marked by the legends.  And because Joi’s work has been canonized by a global community my work to unpack her work is really a citational practice. S.I.R. Rebekkah Holylove, is on a Black Atlantic continuum—a fantastic voyage will be had.  

#Joi #DJ Lynnée Denise #SirRebekkah Holylove

[starblazerm31]

(inspired by your “main 6 as retail employees” post) the courtiers as shitty retail customers?

8D  GAH!  YES!  *holds up The Hellraiser Box of Retail*  I HAVE SUCH SIGHTS TO SHOW YOU!!!

Now…as a note…everything I write here I have seen/happened to me personally.  EVERYTHING.  These are not your typical “Karen” stories.  Content warnings:  Bodily fluids (blood, vomit, feces, etc.).  Blatant rudeness.  Flagrant stupidity.  THEFT.  Disturbing malevolent behavior.  Sexual assault.

The Courtiers As Shitty Retail Customers (cont. of Main 6 as Retail Workers)

Valdemar

That customer who leaves unexplained blood spatters ALL OVER the single bathroom.  They didn’t seem injured when they went in…but after they came out, everyone swears they committed a murder in there.  Poor Julian got pegged to clean it up since he’s the one certified in hazardous spills and Muriel was off that day.

The customer who stares at everyone in a really uncomfortable way.  Like…are they planning on slitting someone’s throat right here in the store?  Please don’t…the employees really don’t want to have to deal with the inquiry and paperwork.

The customer who will grab a worker and just…occupy them.  Talking.  Oddly.  About anything and yet absolutely nothing.  But still dropping the most uncomfortable TMI.  One time, they grabbed Asra and just HAD to go into explicit detail about how they skin an animal after hunting.  And how much they love Satan. 

The customer who will ask a really dangerous request of the worker they swept up just hoping to see them get hurt.  One time, he asked Julian to check on a specific tire which was WAAAAAY up on the top of the huge tire rack.  Chuckled to himself when the tire fell on Julian and almost broke his arm while he was ten feet in the air on a ladder. 

Gets really offended when an employee gets too close.  "Come any closer and I’ll stab you.“  Julian:  "Do it.  Five cameras can see you RIGHT. NOW.”

*flashes a knife at Muriel*  Muriel:  "My dick is bigger.“

Volta

That customer who grabs food off of the shelf, eats it, then deposits the empty (or half-empty) wrapper/bottle on another shelf in another part of the store.

She once stole some things from the store and got a big head about it.  So she decided to come back the very next night to steal some more.  All the employees were wise to her and watched her very closely.  She stuffed a bunch of items up her shirt and made her way to the door.  Nadia and Muriel were standing there waiting for her.  She panicked and dropped everything out of her shirt in front of everyone (all the employees proceeded to point at her and laugh) and then walked out in a hurry.

When free snacks are offered to customers, she proceeds to stuff her face while spilling the snacks all over the store.  She leaves a trail of chips/popcorn wherever she walks.

Somehow managed to knock down an entire shelf of gallon jugs of water.  The water jugs all exploded on the floor.  It looked like a Noah’s Ark situation.

Walked by Muriel suddenly vomited onto the floor.

Will unfold and an entire shelf of shirts (about an hour’s worth of work) just to be a bitch.

Tried to steal a “Try Me” stick of deodorant that literally hundreds of people had touched.  Saw that she was being watched by Muriel, so she proceeded to look Muriel right in the eye and apply the deodorant.  Muriel:  "…I hope she gets sick.“

*grabs Nadia*  "I think that worker is spying on me!” *points to Julian*  "He keeps following me around!“  Julian is stocking shelves, not even paying attention to her.  "And his body odor is really offensive!”  *Nadia looks to her dubiously*  "I’m sorry about that.  Here, let me fix it.“  *walks over to Julian, explains the situation, and then gets on the radio*  "Watch the customer in accessories, they are behaving strangely.”  Thirty minutes later, Volta is being escorted out by police for theft.  Julian:  "Body odor!  *huffs* Enjoy the lockup BO you’re gonna have tomorrow, bitch.“

Vlastomil

Brings in Wiggler.  "He’s my emotional support worm!”

Wiggler pees on the floor.  Is asked to take his pet out of the store.  Proceeds to scream about how the store targets the mentally ill.  (Muriel has to go to the back to rage in private with Asra)

Asks about products, and then proceeds to criticize the store for even carrying such  "ridiculous” items.

Brings a fuckload of coupons, and expects them to be applied to clearance items.  Finds out that coupons cannot be honored for clearance items, and leaves two whole shopping carts of random items for the staff to reshelve.

“I can’t see myself spending $3 on THAT.”

To Asra:  "I’m going to need your employee discount.“  Asra:  "So…I can move in with you tonight?”  Vlastomil:  "What?“  Asra:  "Well, if I give you my discount, I will be promptly fired.  I have a snake to take care of.  If I lose my job, I lose my apartment and my ability to feed myself and my snake.  Since YOU would be responsible for my getting fired, I’d expect YOU to take care of me and my snake afterward.  So…I can move in with you tonight?”  Vlastomil:  "…nevermind.“

“The handsome manager said I could get this item with a 10% discount because it’s not the brand I’m wanting.”  Julian:  "Lucio isn’t here today.“  Vlastomil:  "He said it the other day.”  Julian:  "He has to actually be here and tell me that himself, sorry.  He’ll be here tomorrow, try again then.“

Went into the bathroom.  A few minutes later, came out and grabbed Muriel and said that the bathroom needed to be cleaned.  Muriel looked inside and was APPALLED by the sight of feces smeared EVERYWHERE.  The floor, all of the stall doors, the trash can, the sinks, the toilets.  Vlastomil:  "Yeah, I had an accident.”  Muriel did not hide his disgust and went to get the cleaning cart.  Threatened to quit that night.  Muriel:  "This is the kind of stuff DOCTORS AND NURSES deal with!  They get paid at least $20 an hour!  I make MINIMUM FUCKING WAGE!!!“

Vulgora

The customer that snaps at every single employee that speaks to them.

“No one likes (sports team)!  Why the hell do you even carry merch for this shitty team?!” (because there are more fans of that sports team than of the team that THEY like in that particular area)

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE’S A PENALTY FOR LETTING MY LAYAWAY EXPIRE?!  I WANT MY FULL REFUND!!!”

“RETURN THIS ITEM!”  Portia: “We don’t carry this item.”  Vulgora:  "YES YOU DO, I BOUGHT IT HERE!!“  Portia:  "I’m sorry, but this item is exclusive to (different store).”  Vulgora:  "YOU’RE AN IDIOT!  LET ME SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER!“  Nadia proceeds to tell them the EXACT. SAME. THING.  Vulgora:  "YOU’RE ALL MORONS!  I’M CALLING CORPORATE!”

“How do I install a trailer hitch?”  Julian:  "I’m sorry, I don’t know.“  Vulgora:  "Well they just need to employ a trained monkey here!”  Julian:  "We ARE accepting applications, you know.“

“Is this shit real gold?”  Portia:  "Yes, 18k.“  Vulgora:  "How much is it?”  Portia:  *looks*  ”$250.“  Vulgora:  "What gold do you have for $20?”  Portia:  "Nothing.“

“I WILL CLIMB OVER THIS DESK AND MESS YOU UP!”  Portia: *points to the camera aimed directly at them*  "Do it.  I’ll see you in court.“

They lost their place in line because they had to go and look at something.  When the person behind them stepped up to the register and started to get their items rung up, they dashed back in front of the person and grabbed Portia’s arm to stop her from ringing up the other person’s items.  Drew back in shock and horror when Portia immediately balled up her fist and held it threateningly at them.  Nadia was standing right there next to Portia.  Nadia:  "You need to leave.  Right now.”  After they left, Nadia looked to Portia and said: “You wouldn’t have gotten in trouble if you’d hit them, you know.”  Portia:  "No one grabs me.  No one.“

"YOU’RE HIDING ALL OF THE STORE EXCLUSIVE POP FIGURES IN THE BACK SO YOU IDIOTS CAN BUY THEM ALL AND SELL THEM ON EBAY!!”  Julian:  "I’m sorry, but you’re incorrect.  That Pop figure is $8, and no one here wants to lose their job over an $8 figure.  Plus…the figure you’re wanting isn’t at this store anyway.“  Vulgora:  "AND WHY NOT?!”  Julian:  "…Because it’s sold online only.“ *shows them the online info that clearly states "online only”*

Valerius

The customer who expects an employee to follow them around with a basket while they shop.

“Is this organic?”  Julian:  "Yes, sir, it is.“  Valerius:  "I don’t believe you.  Places like this can’t possibly carry organic items.”

Left an ENTIRE. PILE. of tried-on clothes in the dressing room when the limit on items was 4.

Opened at least 20 different tubes of lipstick and swiped them on his arm.  Put them all back on the shelf.  Asra could be heard swearing as he had to pull each lipstick off of the shelf and dispose of them since they were no longer sanitary and could not be sold.  "Couldn’t he just steal?  It would have been so much easier…“

Comes into the store drunk off his ass and acts belligerent to everyone he sees.  Gets so OFFENDED when asked to leave.

"Are these diamonds real?”  Asra:  "They are lab-grown.“  Valerius:  "So they aren’t real.”  Asra:  "They are lab-grown, so they are synthetic diamonds.“ Valerius:  "So they aren’t real.”  Asra:  *sighs* “They wouldn’t be sold for just $50 if they were." 

Starts fights with other customers because he thinks "They’re weird.”

The customer who accosts other customers, thinking they work there.  Even though they AREN’T. WEARING. A. UNIFORM.

Stuffs a pile of clothes he decided he doesn’t want behind the tampons.

Demands that the single bathroom be unlocked, even though the single bathroom being locked means that it’s occupied.

“How do these pants make my package look?”  Julian:  "…I’m not going to look, sir.  But they make your calves look amazing.“

Walked by Asra and pinched his ass.  Looked so shocked when Asra whirled around and yelled at him.  Valerius: "Hey, I thought you would like that!”  Asra:  "I CLEARLY DID NOT!  That is called SEXUAL ASSAULT!!!  YOU GO TO JAIL FOR THAT!!!“

#the arcana headcannons #the arcana headcanons #arcana headcanons #starblazerm31 headcanons #tales from the trenches #i wish a bitch would #i may have gone too far with this #i proceeded to use proceeded to a lot #yeah my dick is bigger and I'm female

[nothingman]

AP/Evan Agostin/Jae C. Hong

Sex workers learned Senator Bernie Sanders voted in favor of FOSTA-SESTA, two laws signed by President Trump last week to curb sex trafficking — and then praised Cardi B, a rapper who first attracted attention for being open about her career as a stripper on social media — and now they are upset.

Both bills — the House version known as FOSTA, which stands for Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and its Senate companion, Stop Enabling Sex-Trafficking Act (SESTA) — were met with bipartisan support in Congress. On February 27, the House passed FOSTA with a final vote of 388-25. The Senate followed by passing SESTA by an overwhelming 97-2 margin.

In spite of the bipartisan support, the anti-trafficking legislation has received strong pushback from sex workers, whom advocates of the bill purport to be protecting, for its destabilizing and demoralizing effect.

Most recently, Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders has borne the brunt of that criticism, after he voted in favor of the measure.

Ginger Banks, a 27-year-old sex worker, decided to make a video to alert Sanders to the dangers the anti-trafficking bills are creating for the sex work industry.

Making a video for @SenSanders asking him to think about the dangers SESTA/FOSTA are creating for the sex work industry. If you would like to contribute a message to him record something and send it to [email protected] 💕 — Ginger Banks (@gingerbanks1) April 18, 2018

Banks, who told Salon that she was a "huge" Sanders supporter, and even canvassed for his 2016 presidential campaign, said she was surprised to learn that he voted in favor of FOSTA-SESTA. Speaking over the phone, Banks said she hopes the video will "reach [Sanders] and ask him to possibly add the rights of sex workers to the list of things that he's willing to fight for."

Despite her upset, Banks said the Vermont senator is "someone that I still believe in." She said that she was inspired to create the video after Sanders tweeted Cardi B this week. On Wednesday, Sanders invoked the rapper in a tweet, writing, "Cardi B is right. If we are really going to make America great we need to strengthen Social Security so that seniors are able to retire with the dignity they deserve."

Cardi B is right. If we are really going to make America great we need to strengthen Social Security so that seniors are able to retire with the dignity they deserve. https://t.co/B8cOkoOdLc

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 18, 2018

The Senator's tweet was met with criticism from sex workers, who wondered why he couldn't come to their defense and oppose the draconian legislation.

Sydney Leathers, a 25-year-old adult film actress and Anthony Weiner's former sexting partner, tweeted, "Hey Bernie: Cardi is a former stripper. You voted for SESTA which endangers sex workers. Please don't try to use her for clout. We know how you really feel."

Hey Bernie: Cardi is a former stripper. You voted for SESTA which endangers sex workers. Please don’t try to use her for clout. We know how you really feel. https://t.co/9xRkJ6fCRs

— Sydney Leathers (@sydneyelainexo) April 18, 2018

Leathers point was amplified as other sex workers blasted the senator's interaction with Cardi B.

"I love when Bernie tries to make relevant tie ins with his campaign but forgets he's quoting a former sex worker who would have definitely been harmed by his decision to vote yes on SESTA/FOSTA," a sex worker named Brooke tweeted.

Other women in the sex work also expressed their disapproval.

Why did you vote in favor of #FOSTA #SESTA? This bill will lead to the deaths of consensual sex workers like me. I did everything I could to support you in the primaries and I feel like you have thrown me under the bus. Did you even read the bill? #LetUsSurvive

— ☠ Goddess Lysistrata ☠ (@MissLysiNyc) April 3, 2018

  With FOSTA-SESTA, many sex workers fear for their future and are worried they'll be forced to go back on the street.

The bill, which was introduced by Missouri Republican Rep. Ann Wagner, makes it a federal crime — punishable by up to 10 years in prison — to operate “an interactive computer service” with “the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person.” That means online publishers, like the recently shuttered Backpage.com, would be responsible if third parties are found to be posting ads for sex work — including consensual sex work — on their platforms.

Banks, who has been a sex worker for nine years, condemned the legislation's failure to differentiate between illegal and consensual sex work, calling it dangerous. Banks said it has made her reconsider some of the services she offers out of fear. She plans to address this problem in her video to Bernie Sanders.

"Conflating sex trafficking with consensual adult sex work does so much more harm than good," she explained. "Decriminalizing sex work is what I believe is the answer to protecting not only people who choose to do sex work but those who are forced into it."

Banks says the bills' failure to differentiate between trafficking and consensual work further highlights the stigma surrounding sex work. In addition to calling out Sanders for his support of the legislation, Banks wants her video "to focus on the social acceptance of sex work."

"One of the basis of our argument is bodily autonomy and our right to choose what we want to do with our body," she explained. "And when we want to choose as adults to do legal sex work then we should have that right. Making that illegal is immoral because it tells me what I can't do with my body."

"Sex work is just like like any other work," Banks continued. "Sex work has given me the ability to see clearly what I want to do with my body. And it's given me an extra sense of value. ... I have met some of the most open-minded, strong-willed and independent people in the sex work industry."

The legislation has already begun to chill free speech online.

Survivors Against SESTA has been tracking the dozens of websites that have shut down or updated their services while the law was being written, preemptively self-censoring in preparation of the bills' enactment.

In response to the bills, Assembly Four, the organization that developed Switter  — a website with more than 49,000 members and is considered one of the last online spaces friendly to sex workers — announced that its website, hosted by Cloudflare, had been removed and blocked. As of Thursday afternoon, Switter was back up and running.

You guys, the Cloudflare thing is BAD and worth noting, but https://t.co/C0sbA3EViJ is NOT completely doomed nor down right now. I'd say keep using it. They went back up quickly, I see them being up for the foreseeable future. Cloudflare was a US company, there are others.

— Liara Roux (@LiaraRoux) April 19, 2018

Geezus — @Cloudflare bans Mastadon’s new “Switter” platform for sex workers just as it was getting off the ground https://t.co/UW3f06nGZD

— Elizabeth Nolan Brown (@ENBrown) April 19, 2018

The brief removal of Switter follows Craigslist's axe of its personal ads section, which has been around since 1995. The site's personal ads had garnered a negative reputation for stories of murders, rape, and most recently, fathers trying to sell their children for sex. In 2010, the site shut down the section of its sites that carried sex-related advertising after it faced pressure from state attorneys general and groups fighting sex crimes.

Despite the lasting stigma, Banks is hopeful for change. She pointed to the LGBTQ movement as model sex workers could emulate. "I look back at how the view of homosexuality has changed in this country. And I try to learn a lot from that movement and do as much as I can to help sex work become more socially accepted," she said.

Banks pointed to Sanders' 50-year-history of standing up for civil and minority rights, explaining that to be one reason why many sex workers like her rallied behind the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016.

"A lot of us realize and see the stigma and other areas of society and inequality and because of that we want to help change the world in the most positive way possible," Banks said. "I know a lot of us saw that in Bernie Sanders."

This is not the first time Sanders has come under fire for not doing enough to protect women. Last April, the Senator defended campaigning for Omaha, Neb., mayoral candidate Heath Mello, an anti-abortion rights Democrat, in an interview with NPR.

Mello has co-sponsored several bills in Nebraska's unicameral legislature that would restrict abortion rights, including a 2009 bill that would offer or require women seeking abortions to get an ultrasound.

Though Sanders came under scrutiny for supporting Mello, he pushed back on NPR, saying, "The truth is that in some conservative states there will be candidates that are popular candidates who may not agree with me on every issue. I understand it. That's what politics is about."

"If we are going to protect a woman's right to choose, at the end of the day we're going to need Democratic control over the House and the Senate, and state governments all over this nation," Sanders continued. "And we have got to appreciate where people come from, and do our best to fight for the pro-choice agenda. But I think you just can't exclude people who disagree with us on one issue."

Sen. Sanders did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

via Salon

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Five Stages of Falling In Love With Leonard McCoy

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Why it’s not okay to be okay with punching Nazis: PART 3 – Free Speech

This is the last part I promise XD Then it’s off to fun happy book things :D

3) Free speech, or, “ideas cannot hurt you”

So I’ve already discussed the idea of mob mentality taking over and the idea that what constitutes a "unacceptable” ideology might very well include those ideas we hold as normal today, so normalizing the idea of harming people for having unpopular opinions is dangerous, but what if we could guarantee that only Nazis will be punched, not people mistaken for being Nazis, not people with other ideas. What is we could 100% guarantee that Nazis, and only Nazis, were the ones being punched.

You still shouldn’t hurt people for the ideas, because their ideas are not actually hurting you.

“But Nazism was responsible for not only 11 million people in the Holocaust, but also arguably, all the other fatalities of WWII, at least in the European Theater,” I here you say, and that is true. But to be perfectly fair, one could make the same arguments, with much higher death tolls, about Communism/Marxism. I even think that because of its subtlety and its basis in solving real economic problems, Communism/Marxism is actually more pernicious than the in-your-face Nazism, but you don’t see me jumping up to punch Marxists. Why? Because a single person holding an idea, no matter how dangerous of an idea, is not harming anyone.

I’m of the school of thought, the one currently in vogue in American law, by the by, that one should only harm another person in self-defense/defense of others, and only when the threat is imminent. If a Nazi is about to hurt an actual, real, live person, you bet I would support punching them. I’d do it myself! If I know that he’s planning some sort of violence, I’ll do the smart thing and call the police. And if a Nazi says something like, “I’m glad the Holocaust happened,” I’ll be repulsed and call him on it, but I wouldn’t punch him.

Because as ugly as his words are, as hideous as his ideas are, as much as I hate them and think that they are 100% wrong, they are still just ideas, which are oddly powerful, while at the same time, powerless. This idea, I think, fits in with how we interpret the First Amendment to the US Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Why are those the first few rights we talk about? Surely rights that prevent bodily distress, like being free from cruel and unusual punishment or search and seizure are more important, right? Well, I think it’s because you can’t really have a free society without freedom of the speech and religion. In fact, you can’t have a free person without free speech and religion. “Religion” or beliefs and philosophies are essentially the inner-most thoughts of a person, how they view the metaphysical/spiritual world, and their place in it, while “speech” is how they express those thoughts. To curtail that is not just to try and control a person’s action, but a person’s very being. A person’s beliefs affect every aspect of their life, from how they vote to what they eat to what they consider right and wrong. The government should never be allowed to tell you what you can and cannot think, and cannot prevent you from speaking about those beliefs. Furthermore, no one ought to live in fear of violence for holding a certain view.

And yet, as important as the First Amendment is, I would say it is probably the most hotly contested today, because people say they believe in free speech and religion… but only as far as they agree with those beliefs.

Let’s take religion, and then bring it around to speech. In recent years, there has been massive government, business, and social pressure on various religious groups and individuals to in one way or another violate their beliefs. From trying to force Catholic nurses to aid in abortions to forcing Jehovah’s Witness kids to say to pledge to denying Muslims the right to wear the veil or pray in public, our society, both in America and Europe, has a real interest in policing the lives of religious people. When these infringements upon religious rights happen, rational people rightly point out, respectively, that you wouldn’t force a Muslim to eat pork, wouldn’t force a Christian kid to pray to a pagan god, and wouldn’t deny a Jewish person the right to wear a yarmulka, so you don’t have a right to infringe on this other group’s similar religious beliefs. Generally, we can all agree on that, more or less.

But what about unpopular religions, like Satanism? People often get upset when Satanists perform rituals or construct displays, but the thing is, if we curtail their rights, then we ought to curtail the rights of all religious groups. Now I personally find Satanists rather silly, largely because most of them will admit that they don’t actually worship Satan, but like the ideas he represents, like rejection of authority and organized religion. Why that translates into a three-edgy-five-me Unitarianesque diabolism and not, say, sleeping in on Sunday mornings, is anyone’s guess. But I digress: most Satanists seem to be in it for purely aesthetic purposes, like “Catholics��� who don’t agree with anything the Church teaches, but Love the RitualTM. But let’s say that there are certain real diabolists out there who do worship Satan and do dark rituals to summon his power. M’kay. I actually believe in demonic powers, and do believe such people are putting their own souls at risk, but I can’t stop them from believing that Satan is the bee’s knees. As long as they aren’t hurting people, sacrificing pets, or stealing consecrated Hosts, then they have every right to their practice of religion. Again, if they could actually curse you, yeah, we would have a bone to pick, legally, with such a religion. But we all know they can’t, and they aren’t hurting anyone by constructing goat statues or placing pentagrams next to crèches during Advent. They have as much right to their belief system as any Christian, atheist, Muslim, pagan, etc.

The same is true of speech. Even if the ideas are dangerous—like selling your soul to Satan or thinking your race is superior—so long as the person isn’t acting on those ideas in such a way as to actually harm someone, they have a right to speak freely without fear of violent repercussions. If they start stealing property from churches for their rituals, or destroy Jewish storefronts, or burn crosses on people’s lawns, then you can get the law involved and sue the freaking pants off them or throw them in jail. Again, if they physically attack you or someone near you, you are obviously in your rights to fight back, the same as you would against anyone who is attacking you for any reason. If you know they are plotting to harm a group of people, again, call the cops. In the grand scheme of things, though, punching Nazis because they’re Nazis really isn’t going to solve anything. It’s not gonna make them suddenly not be Nazis anymore. All it does is make you into the sort of person who thinks that it’s okay to assault certain people for their beliefs and the things they say, which… is actually really dangerous, as I hope I’ve shown in Parts 1 and 2 of this post.

Knowing that a Nazi is walking the streets, free and unpunched, probably isn’t going to make you feel very good. It might make you angry, or even scared. But the same could be said of having sex-offenders out on parole. Knowing they live in your neighborhood would make you justifiably angry and scared, but last I checked, it’s still illegal to assault a sex-offender who isn’t committing a crime. That person’s actions scarred someone irreparably, just like how the Nazi’s ideology was responsible for millions of deaths. But at the moment, all they are doing is existing and believing things. What gives you a right to stop them from doing that? What gives you a right to police the thoughts and ideas of others? Nazism is truly a dangerous thing, but other equally-dangerous ideologies have come and gone and come again, and many of those begin with the idea that all speech should be protected, but some should be protected more than others.

I don’t think it’s okay to punch Nazis. And I don’t think it’s okay for people to be okay with punching Nazis. I think it’s giving in to a mentality that can lead to more and more acts of violence against a larger and larger group of other-ed “thems”: Nazis, Trump supports, people who kinda seem to be Nazis or Trump supports, people who we can write off as irrational instead of trying to reason with. I don’t think that this sort of violence-espousing mentality will lead to anything good. But for now it’s just an idea, and I hope in these three little essays that I might have changed someone’s mind.

Part 1: Mob Mentality

Part 2: Unpopular Ideologies

#punch a nazi #punching nazis #unpopular opinion #free speech #freedom of religion

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5 Qualities the Best People in the bandar togel terpercaya Industry Tend to Have

Using the emergence of online casinos, operators of gambling companies are slowly transitioning their physical branches into the Digital Room. On the internet casinos have already been exhibiting a number of benefits for both business owners and target consumers in the gambling industry.

It is more hassle-free and it has the potential to entice and retain clients on a world scale with no breaking a sweat or going through The difficulty of creating more Bodily outlets remaining and suitable. On the other hand, countless strengths demand constantly altering developments, better needs and tougher Competitors.

Additionally, there are nations that prohibit the operation of both virtual and actual-lifestyle gambling organizations. It pays to get relentless within an field as cutthroat and high-threat as gambling-even though this means Performing To place one's model or identify at the best in the rankings of the finest gambling enterprises in the market.

How can this be realized?

Underneath are 5 Awesome Advertising Tactics on the net gambling business owners can hire to aid promote their Digital casinos, draw in a lot more consumers and overall increase the quality and competence in their solutions.

1. Material Marketing and advertising AND Comprehensive Net Progress

Information can be employed to showcase the most recent developments in on line gambling agen togel online terbaik which can efficiently manage players' fascination. By creating a 1-of-a-type and engaging content that highlights both of those the net On line casino's companies and its target audience, grabbing the attention of shoppers is more probable to be successful.

Blogging can be a sort of content advertising that businesses are already making use of to advertise their products and services. Consider offering guidelines and tactics for new and current gamers to help make their gaming knowledge a lot better. To create the written content far more attractive, matching it with well-developed visuals and intriguing facts to retain shoppers. Keep articles appropriate to The purchasers' or gamers' wants and Tastes.

Also, a nicely-created, internet search engine optimized Web page might also aid drive greater visitors to the virtual casino and sooner or later create a additional immediate reference to prospects. Much more readers and players will gradually Increase manufacturer visibility.

Last of all, it's highly recommended to empower a channel the place players can connect with aid Associates. Doing this allows shoppers deliver their suggestions, tips, and complaints. It's way much better for entrepreneurs to exert work in reaching out to their shoppers than to anticipate The shoppers to carry out the primary shift and achieve out for the company.

two. Social media marketing PROMOTIONS

Besides information advertising and marketing, the influence of social websites platforms Also helps bolster brand marketing for on the net casinos. It is a great way to catch the attention of prospective gamers. Folks at present, Specially millennials , are fond of sharing their every day experiences on social websites Irrespective if it is great or poor.

Associating this to Digital casinos, players are likely to share their gaming encounters on their social networking accounts. If a virtual On line casino is ready to supply maximum gaming encounter, then the occasion of the participant sharing that positive knowledge proficiently contributes to boosting the online casino's picture.

In addition to counting on buyer-initiated manufacturer promotions, business owners can Similarly think about using compensated ads. A good illustration of This can be Fb Shell out-For each-Click (PPC) , wherein the small business gets payment for each time a shopper clicks on their Facebook commercials.

Social media is an excellent chance to continue to be relevant to shoppers amid the rising Level of competition from the gambling industry.

three. IMPLEMENT TOURNAMENTS

On line gambling business people can opt to arrange tournaments and seasonal game titles by using a higher prize pool. For added pleasure, Interested gamers will also be necessary to pay out a registration charge which is able to be straight be added on the prize pool.

Tournaments and seasonal online games put both equally the small business proprietor as well as their prospects inside of a acquire-get problem. Not merely will it give major prizes to the players, it may also Strengthen their engagement adequate to make them stick about to continue supporting long term promotions that the online On line casino will offer.

four. REWARD Applications AND FREEBIES

When thinking of the promos that renowned casinos supply to maintain their gamers enjoying, these delivers will often be comprised of absolutely free drinks and snacks, vouchers and tickets or maybe no cost lodging to a particular lodge. Basically, recognized casinos offer you companies that adapt for their prospects' requires.

The mentioned treatment shouldn't be significantly various from shoppers of virtual gambling really should be treated. Reward plans is usually designed to offer on the players. Carefully customized rewards persuade clients to visit virtual casinos again and again again.

Creativeness and holding a eager eye on what buyers need empower Digital casino entrepreneurs to essentially dig deep and formulate benefits that resonate properly with the business audience. Restricting provides to the usual each day login benefits, no cost spins and welcoming or registration rewards simply will not do the trick if business people are aiming for very long-time period balance and accomplishment.

five. E mail AND Cell Internet marketing

Advertising on social media platforms is certainly potent. But counting on social networking on your own will not be ample to spice up the online gambling small business' electronic existence. Promotions, notably while in the digital location, should be bolstered by implementing other online marketing channels to successfully boost the casino or brand.

E mail and cell marketing and advertising are between these channels. Optimizing the website for the Digital On line casino in this kind of way that players can access it employing their cellular products enhances their person expertise and Also provides for the rising visitors to the net gambling web-site. Sending consumers electronic mail notifications to inform them about approaching new attributes and updates, tournaments, and reward programs might help increase purchaser retention along with bring in new gamers to join in.

This is certainly a great way to give comfort to gamers who want to continue playing but are not able to obtain fast entry to a computer. They're able to have immersive gaming practical experience and Participate in their favourite gambling game titles ideal at their fingertips.

Bettering marketing campaigns will not be limited to the strategies shown earlier mentioned. There are still various other methods that could be finished to improve a Digital On line casino's promotions. Even though considering what other methods could operate for that organization, Remember the polices that have to be adopted inside the gambling industry in general. Stay with wise and truthful articles and prevent making claims that can't be held.

A lot more importantly, learn to just accept feed-back and diversify advertising content material. Apart from retaining the small business, the subsequent factor that needs to be prioritized is The purchasers' 101% satisfaction. Believe outdoors the box, be distinctive, and become Inventive. Greater but, Consider as though selling the business enterprise is also Section of the gamble-it's going to take a certain amount of risk and luck combined together.

Was this blog helpful? What methods do you use to spice up your on line gambling enterprise? Allow me to know while in the comments or email me your proposed procedures! I'd like to hear from you!

There are numerous people who find themselves unaware from the On line casino game titles. You will find Web-sites which allow them to Participate in no cost on the web On line casino video games from the place they will learn how to Engage in these online games without betting their money. These websites provide the new person with on the net no deposit On line casino bonuses that may be employed guess during the games. The one that enjoys gambling game titles although not able to hazard the original cash these on line no deposit casino bonuses are the best option to start. Most effective casino gaming Sites will give you the most beneficial no deposit casino bonuses. These online no deposit casino bonuses are just to Perform no cost games they cannot be withdrawn as the real funds. Occasionally it might be withdrawn nonetheless it calls for some qualifications.

These on line no deposit On line casino bonuses are to catch the attention of the new end users so which they can begin taking part in the game and when they are prepared to play serious game titles they're able to wager their genuine dollars. Working with these online no deposit On line casino bonuses only returns you with compact returns and If you prefer the bigger return then you'll need to guess first money. Greatest on the internet casino bonuses can be utilized to in online games and profitable the big amount of money nevertheless it can't be withdrawn devoid of making some investment. Also Be certain that you browse all agreements conditions before registering to any Internet websites. If you are getting issue in being familiar with the procedures of the online On line casino Sites You can even ask them through Dwell chat. Each of the Internet websites gives their user with 24X7 supports. These on the net no deposit On line casino bonuses can also be turned down by The brand new user If your problems are usually not satisfactory.

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Networking | 10 Commandments Of Networking

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As a business proprietor, networking might be one of the keys to your fulfillment. People nevertheless like to do enterprise with human beings, and so your community will translate into your net worth, that is why it’s so critical to comply with the 10 Commandments of Networking.

I became at a seminar this afternoon, and one of the presenters shared this list of the ten commandments of networking with us, and I idea you’ll respect knowing them too.

Here are the ten Commandments Of Networking

1. Partner up with folks that you could believe and who supplement your ability set and strengths.

You’ve heard the pronouncing that you become the average of the five humans you associate most with, so take the time to accomplice with folks that trust in your goals and permit you to gain them. Another exquisite rule of thumb to keep in mind is that if you’re the best person within the room, it’s time to look for a brand new room!

Always be looking for mentorship and association with folks that can help you enhance your recreation and achieve new tiers. If your present-day network is the gossip organization that likes to hang out at the nearby cafe and communicate approximately what the neighbors are doing or rehash the nighttime information, then I’d encourage you to discover a new group. That surroundings will simplest drag you down or hold you stuck to your present-day truth. Find a set rather it really is doing extremely good matters, and working on new projects to be able to inspire and motivate you to do large things as nicely.

2. The strength of vision and wish.

I’m no longer an in particular nonsecular character, but I’ve heard this expression sufficient instances to know that it is from the Bible. Perhaps you have heard it too.

“Where there may be no vision, the humans perish”

Having a vision – which is an exactly defined goal with an in-depth plan for accomplishing it and a deadline for its attainment is what’s going to preserve you on the right track when lifestyles throw you for a loop. We all face challenges at instances, and it is having a clear vision of where we’re going and the wish or perception that we will get there that keeps us shifting forward even through the tough instances.

Without that imaginative and prescient, you will fall lower back into old conduct and routines and you may in no way attract a tribe without a vision. People are searching out leadership, and people with an imaginative and prescient of where they may be going have a tendency to attract fans.

Click here:

3. Use effective communication

Communication is the whole thing. Without it we cannot feature. People who turn out to be master communicators emerge as pinnacle earners as a result, and it does not suggest you want to understand all the jargon and big phrases and might dazzle every person with your mastery of the language.

Quite the alternative clearly. Great communicators are people who communicate in a manner that engages different people in preference to talk over them. Great communicators are EXCELLENT LISTENERS! Effective communicators are hassle solvers and allow the other individual to do the maximum of the speaking while they listen and look for methods to help them.

The announcing goes that you have ears and one mouth, and have to use them in direct share. A powerful communicator will listen more than they speak because they recognize they cannot research whatever new when they’re speaking. They only learn while they may be listening.

4. Learn human beings’ names and use them. People love hearing the sound in their personal names.

How normally have you met someone and forgotten their name the cut-up 2d once they stated it? I recognize I actually have more instances than I care to mention.

Now, at the same time, when changed into the final time someone got here up to you and said hello to you and remembered your call, whilst you did not have a clue who they were. How did you sense? Probably quite embarrassed that they remembered you, but you didn’t recollect them.

Did it additionally make you experience like that character valued your first meeting more than you? I always experience a level of respect from a person when they recall my name, and feature a touch much less recognize for a person who doesn’t. Not that they’re any higher than anyone else, simply that they have validated that they care sufficient about me to consider my name, and that will increase my trust level in them. And all of us realize that people do enterprise with someone that they know, like and consider.

Get proper at gaining knowledge of and remembering people’s names, and watch how much extra business will come to your manner due to you displaying others you care enough to deal with them by using call whenever you see them.

5. Demonstrate kindness

Something as easy as a grin will cross a long way. You’d be amazed how a whole lot you may gain through simply smiling at people. It’s infectious, and if you could cause others to grin, you furthermore might brighten their day. If you could try this for a person having a tough day, no longer simplest do you grow to be memorable, however, they will want to reciprocate which may suggest doing you favors like shopping for you a coffee, giving you free upgrades, granting you the agreement, etc.

Make it your intention to ask yourself how you can make the opposite man or woman’s day better for every interaction you’ve got.

6. Handle war and adversity with grace

It’s inevitable in existence that you are going to stand war and adversity, in particular as you begin reaching higher degrees of success. The key’s to come to be the type of character who can deal with it in a sleek manner rather than let it take you out of the sport.

Always attempt to be the bigger character. As Jim Rohn says:

“Don’t desire it changed into simpler, wish you had been better”

As you grow as someone, the demanding situations you will be able to triumph overturns into larger, however so will your potential to address them. Strive to emerge as the form of individual who can take care of the largest demanding situations with a mindset of “I can manage this too!”

7. Learn how to deal with criticism

Much like conflict and adversity, you’re additionally going to attract complaint the better you climb. If you do not have critics, you are gambling too small.

See criticism for what it’s far. First, consider the supply. Is it coming from a person who’s simply bitter and looking to tear you down, or is it coming from a person who has your first-rate hobby at coronary heart, and looking to come up with positive feedback? If it’s the former, then either forget about it or take Abraham Lincoln’s advice and take into account that “the excellent way to break and the enemy is to make him a pal.”

If it is coming from a person you admire and look as much as, then take that grievance as treasured remarks and search for the lesson within the message.

8. Control the strength of your pride

Having pride in your paintings and accomplishments is healthful, as lengthy because it does not emerge as bravado and selfish. When a person will become to pushed with the aid of satisfaction and ego they repel others, in preference to draw them in. You become a much extra successful networker if you can update your pride with humility.

To be clearly a success in this industry you must give up your delight and your ego, and examine from those around you who have created the form of success you aspire to for your self.

9. Practice each day exercise

You is probably thinking what workout has to do with networking, however, I’d encourage you to have an open mind. First, by exercising, I do not simply suggest bodily workout. Of course, this is vital because without your health, not anything else a lot of subjects.

Daily exercise additionally manner such things as making time regular for yourself. This consists of such things as reading, meditation or prayer, visualization, and affirmations, taking note of audio applications, and getting to know.

All of these things are a crucial part of having every day exercising. For me, this stuff is all part of my energy hour first thing inside the morning. Between five:30 and seven:00 am I do a little exercising (can be as low as skipping rope for a few minutes), I study for 15-30 minutes, I do visualization or mediation paintings and I might also plan my day.

Having a practice of day by day exercise is fundamental to retaining stability on your existence.

10. The significance of placing the proper instance

All the 9 previous commandments of networking culminate in this very last one. Everything else you’re doing to enhance your networking is for the purpose of placing a first-rate example. If you’re building a networking commercial enterprise, then you definitely want to create duplication – and those will do what you do, not what you say!

If your life is absolutely out of stability and you are seeking to inspire others to enroll in your enterprise you’re both selling the dream and living the nightmare (which is lying to human beings) or you’re chasing humans away because they can see that your lifestyles is a large number and they don’t want theirs to be equal.

For the ones folks who’re dad and mom, then this commandment is set becoming the excellent function model for our youngsters to comply with. They honestly are sponges and are looking and gaining knowledge of some distance extra than we understand.

My wish is you may take these 10 commandments of networking and follow them in your very own life.

Become a grasp of even a few of them and your lifestyles will remodel.

Thank you for visiting.

Ann Moses

source http://travelwithannmoses.info/networking/

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India Website Builder Things To Know Before You Buy

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#3 Easy Facts About Indian Website Builders Described

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Best-selling Ayurvedic author Sahara Rose Ketabi has made a life out of modernizing ancient wisdom.

Sahara Rose Ketabi

Sahara Rose Ketabi wants me to stop watching scary movies. We chat about this as we ride the elevator down from her sixth-floor apartment overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades. She never watches horror films. Art plants seeds in our minds that can grow and become real, she tells me: “It changes your subconscious and creates possibilities of atrocities that you would never have thought of on your own. Then it’s in your subconscious, and it keeps leaking in. So then you’re manifesting more of—not that specific thing per se—but scenarios that go along with it.”

I tell her how I’m still trying to unsee 2019’s Midsommar, which is gruesome and harrowing in a way I wish my mind could forget. Ketabi nods, although she has not seen it. Manifesting is one of her super powers, and she’s not about to muck that up for a cheap thrill. Ask her about it, and she’ll tell you detailed accounts of how she’s attracted her life’s greatest successes: a foreword written by one of her heroes, Deepak Chopra, in her very first book, back when she was living in her grandparents’ apartment after college; her husband, whom she dubbed her “God Man” and says she communicated with through meditation before they ever met; and her latest endeavor, Rose Gold Goddesses, a worldwide collective of spiritual women seeking enlightenment and sisterhood.

See also Deepak Chopra on What It Means to Discover Your True Potential

I first met Ketabi in August 2018 when I was interviewing yoga and meditation teacher Rosie Acosta for a cover story that ran in December of that year. Ketabi had just received the first advance copies of her contemporary Ayurvedic cookbook Eat Feel Fresh, and she’d brought a few over to Acosta’s Laurel Canyon home to promote its October release on Acosta’s wellness podcast, Radically Loved. I honestly hadn’t heard of Ketabi, but I should have. By then, her own podcast, Highest Self, had hit No. 1 in the spirituality category, and The Idiot’s Guide to Ayurveda was already a bestseller in the Ayurveda space—thanks in part to the foreword and cover quote she managed to score from Chopra.

A Fated Meeting with Deepak Chopra

How did that happen? In May 2017, Ketabi spontaneously decided to attend a yoga and science conference while she was visiting New York City. She was bored, sitting in the very back of a jam-packed auditorium, plotting her escape. “I’m thinking, Right now, the only thing that could keep me here is if Deepak Chopra walks on stage,” she tells me, leaning back into the corner of her sectional as we eat sashimi in her living room. “And then they’re like, ‘OK, time for a lunch break. Now, a word from our sponsor, Deepak Chopra.’” In that moment, the alternative medicine megastar walked on stage, waved “Hello, everyone,” and casually walked off, signaling a break in the event.

Ketabi was a precocious child, growing up in the Newton suburb of Boston with parents who had both immigrated from Iran—her father to attend MIT, her mother to continue her own education after the 1979 Islamic Revolution resulted in the shuttering of universities. Ketabi recalls an elementary school assignment where she was asked to dress up as her favorite celebrity for a presentation. “She dressed up as Gandhi,” her brother, Amir, recalls from Boston, where he lives. “Literally, white robe.” Their father had showed them the 1983 Academy Award–winning film Gandhi as children. “We talked about violence and peace and meditation and the significance of it all,” says Amir. “It had an impact on both of us, but she really took it a step further.” As a preteen, Ketabi threw herself into learning about spiritual leaders and changemakers such as Mother Teresa and Ida B. Wells, using books as a roadmap for what her own path could look like. Eventually she picked up a book by Chopra. “He’s always been a major figure in my life,” she says. “My parents and I would get into fights, and I’d be like, ‘One day I’m going to be like Deepak Chopra!’”

See also How Deepak Chopra's Law of Pure Potentiality Can Transform Your Body, Mind, and Spirit

So there he was, at the foot of the stage, a thousand people between the two of them—an amorphous mob trying to exit the auditorium like cattle—and Ketabi started bum-rushing the stage. When she reached Chopra, he was mid-conversation. Eventually he turned to her.

Ketabi introduced herself and asked Chopra if she could send him a PDF of her forthcoming book; he agreed and gave her his email address.

“So I’m like, This is the pinnacle of my whole life,” Ketabi says excitedly. “I have Deepak Chopra’s email; now what am I going to do with it?” She meditated for eight hours that day, imagining Chopra writing an endorsement for the book. “I’m thinking, This is exactly what I need to get this book out into more people’s hands. If he writes a quote, more people will read it, and it will benefit more lives.”

Chopra did read her manuscript, and as we now know, he wrote the foreword to The Idiot’s Guide to Ayurveda (and later, Eat Feel Fresh). He also invited Ketabi to be a faculty member on his wellness app Jiyo, which led to the two of them hosting a 31-day Ayurveda transformation challenge together and to Ketabi’s online Intro to Ayurveda course. Today they’re collaborating on an Ayurvedic certification program through Chopra Global. “It’s been a joy to watch Sahara grow and expand in the past few years,” Chopra told me in an email. “She is a true example of embodying her own dharma.”

Ketabi says what’s fueled her entire life is living in alignment with her dharma, which is the theme of her next book, Discover Your Dharma, coming next year. Early on, she decided that her purpose “in this lifetime” was to be of service to humanity. Because of this, she started volunteering with at-risk youth in Boston at 13 (after she’d started practicing yoga a year earlier). When she was 15, through a global justice program at her high school, she went to Costa Rica to work in a prison and care for orphans. That same year, she started her school’s chapter of Amnesty International. “I was very into reading about Howard Zinn and counterculture and how we can create change,” she says. “I was organizing protests all the time and bringing in speakers to talk about the Iraq war, genocide in the Congo, and forced rendition.” At 16, she helped build a preschool in Nicaragua—at 17, a community center in Thailand.

“She marches to her own beat,” says Amir. “As a 13-, 14-year-old girl, she was very aware of her privilege. Being first-generation Iranian, we were exposed to a lot of the truths of the world at an earlier age than most—we were having Israel-Palestine discussions in middle school. And Sahara was just adamant that she needed to go out there and try to make a difference and learn about the world.”

"The constant chattering in my mind diminished, and I could think more clearly"

The Journey to Ayurveda

Ketabi attended George Washington University in 2009 to study international affairs and development, intent on becoming an international human rights lawyer. But as she dove in beyond her coursework, interning at NGOs around DC, she grew depressed, depleted, out of touch with her dharma. Soliciting money via an endless revolving door of fundraisers didn’t feel in line with her greater purpose. “I wanted to help people,” she says. “In DC, everything is so political. I could see I was just losing myself in the politics and I wasn’t using my creativity.”

To make matters worse, Ketabi’s physical health was failing. She transferred to Boston University to be closer to her family and started a blog (the first iteration of Eat Feel Fresh) to share some of the recipes and positive psychology she was studying in her free time to try and combat undiagnosed digestive issues. It was through writing and sharing her journey directly with readers that she tapped back into her higher calling. Armed with a newfound hope, she enrolled to become a certified health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

See also 7 Chakra-balancing Ayurvedic Soup Recipes

At 21 years old, Ketabi was 87 pounds with hypothalamic amenorrhea when, through her coursework, she discovered Ayurveda—the ancient system of medicine based on the idea that health is achieved through balancing bodily systems using diet, herbal treatments, and yogic breathwork. “All my health problems—but also my personality—were explained,” Ketabi says. Suddenly her body started to heal. “The first thing I noticed was that I could sleep at night,” she says. “The constant chattering in my mind diminished, and I could think more clearly. I felt more grounded and peaceful than ever before. And I could finally digest food without curling up on the couch in pain.”

Unsatisfied with the limited resources available to study Ayurveda in the US, Ketabi went to India to attend Ayurveda school outside of Delhi. As a Persian American who is 50 percent Indian, she had always felt a deep connection with India and its culture. For two years, she immersed herself in Ayurvedic philosophy and began thinking about how to update it for contemporaries: For instance, traditional Ayurveda doesn’t allow for the consumption of raw foods—which makes sense when you consider the contaminated soil and lack of refrigeration in Ancient India, she says. However, modern nutrition encourages us to eat fresh raw fruits and vegetables, so she’s reformed certain recipes accordingly.

See also Putting Ayurvedic Theory IRL Terms: What Your Dosha Really Says About You

Channeling the Goddess Archetypes for Connection and Transformation

It was while studying Ayurveda in India that Ketabi began leading goddess retreats (see Find Your Inner Goddess). She had grown up surrounded by imagery of Persian and Indian deities, but it was her yoga practice and her travels to India, she says, that brought her deeper into her study of Hindu and Vedic goddesses. As I write this, Ketabi is preparing for the LA launch party celebrating Rose Gold Goddesses, her online platform for spiritual women to connect, converse, plan meetups, and explore the goddess archetypes from cultures around the world. Members have access to a Monthly Goddess Guide full of yoga practices, rituals, meditations, music, mantras, mudras, and journaling prompts—all related to each month’s chosen goddess. She texts me a little video of herself “getting glammed up” for the event, her face painted in the likeness of the Hindu goddess Kali, destroyer of evil forces.

See also The Yogini's Guide to Starting Your Own Women’s Circle

When I asked her about criticisms regarding cultural appropriation, she was cool and confident and largely unfazed. “Am I allowed to talk about goddesses if I didn’t grow up in a polytheistic religion?” she asks me rhetorically. “Goddesses exist and have always existed in every religion and every culture—it’s a universal archetype that we can all step into.” We have just finished lunch and are getting into it in her living room like old friends might. “We’re human beings,” she says. “But some people are so focused on our differences instead of our similarities.”

I visit Ketabi again at home on a cloudless Friday in September when Rose Gold Goddesses has been live for almost a month. The goddess she has chosen to celebrate this month is Saraswati, goddess of knowledge, music, art, and nature. Ketabi has organized a little gathering of friends at her home for a goddess ceremony, a ritual to honor the divine feminine, creativity, and, of course, Saraswati.

We assemble in her living room, sunshine pouring in from all angles, and Ketabi opens by blessing each of us with a single rose: The flower signifies “beauty, elegance, strength, and wisdom,” she says. But also, “Roses are not to be trifled with. You can’t just get a rose and make it your own. She has thorns, she’ll fight back.” This represents all of us in the circle right now, she tells us, post #MeToo, in Trump’s America. “As women, we want to share our beauty and the full spectrum of who we are, but there’s this dark spot in society that makes us feel like we’re not safe.” And yet we are all here, supporting women in the community and thriving in our personal and professional lives. And why is that? She asks, then answers: “It’s because we’re the rose.”

For more information on goddess archetypes, take Sahara's quiz and check out her oracle deck and guidebook, A Yogic Path.

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