#i’ve found that a few times! there’s decades old issues that someone dug up and reported on through nice clean insta posts and everyone was

[beautifulletdownfics]

‘someday, someday’ :: tumblr edition, #28

London was beautiful at 3am.

Rodger sat in the passenger seat flicking through the emails he missed during the day. BBC Radio 3 played softly as I navigated through the streets back to his house.

"Who'd have thought you'd be a Radio 3 fan," Rodger said distractedly.

"It's calming," I defended.

Rodger was quick to come back, "It's Nina is what it is."

"You're supposed to say how adorable it is that she's got me listening to Mozart in the car."

"Oh," He locked his phone and put a hand on my shoulder as I drove, "It's extremely fucking adorable. Didn't I say she'd be good for you? Look how cultured you seem now."

I laughed but shrugged off his hand, “Shut up, I’ve always been cultured.”

“This is Bach,” He deadpanned, “Not Mozart.”

“Oh, piss off.”

As I turned into their street, Rodger dug through his backpack for his keys and started rattling off scores from a football game while I found a park. By the time we were talking up the front steps to their house, I was well and genuinely freezing my arse off and ready to be with Nina.

I wasn't planning on spending the night here, but it was a few days since I had seen her and I knew Nina's rehearsals were taking a toll, but I wasn't able to get more detail than that. I had two days off, and once the idea to be in her bed tonight formed in my head, it took hold.

Rodger let us in and turned on the hall light, "Cuppa?" He asked.

"No," I shook my head, "Thanks, I'm just gonna go up."

"Righto, see you in the morning."

I ducked into the bathroom on my way up to Nina's room, using some of the toiletries I knew were hers to wash my face. I stripped down to my pants, so there was less chance of waking her up with undressing and then stumbled out and up to her door.

It creaked open loudly, but I held the handle so I could slip it in quietly as I closed the door again. I put my clothes in a pile on the floor at the bottom of the bed and smiled as I then tried to figure out where on earth I was meant to fit in the bed when Nina was comfortably asleep right in the middle.

"Harry?"

I paused and winced where I had barely pulled back the duvet to slip my leg in, “I’m pleased I was your first guess,” I chuckled lowly.

She rolled over onto her side and shuffled back, making room for me. I settled next to her and pushed her hair off her sleepy face.

"I wasn't expecting you," Nina said, quietly letting out a weary sigh, "How was your day?"

"It's 3am," I pressed a kiss to her forehead and shuffled closer to her, "Go back to sleep."

"I wasn't sleeping, not really."

I pulled back to look at her in the dark, only her eyes shone from the light outside, "How're rehearsals going?" "Fine," She yawned, sounding more awake. My eyes momentarily flicked to the necklace she was wearing, it was the one I gave her for Christmas. I pressed my index finger to it briefly.

"Still drama?" I asked, trying not to give her a pass to evade the answer. Nina had a tendency to underplay her own work at the moment, and the idea bothered me.

"Yeah."

"Tell me about it," I prompted.

Nina rolled over onto her back beside me, "You want to hear?"

"Yes," I told her earnestly.

She had been quite evasive about it over the phone for the last two days, but I could hear something was wearing her down. Since recording the song together last week, I felt like Nina had shied away somewhat. Rodger told me after the fact about a pep talk, he needed to give her before working on the song together. I had been scolding myself ever since for being insensitive to what walking into that recording studio would have been like. I just didn't think.

"Orchestras are like ..." While she collected her thoughts, I wound my arm across her tummy, "Where else would you have eighty to a hundred and twenty people all working together with the precision of a tenth of a second? It's high stress and high stakes, and everyone has skin in the game."

"Yesterday you said something about egos ..."

"Egos like you wouldn't believe," She confirmed, speaking quietly to the ceiling, "It's all about your chair. Your chair is your status in the orchestra and beyond. Some people sit in their chairs for decades, and it's always a pissing contest."

“Right.”

“A chair in the strings has come up this week, and somebody in the orchestra stepped into the position. Which seems simple enough, but now they’re trying to dictate who gets their old chair. It’s also final program week where section leads are figuring out if the soloists are right. It feels like everyone’s breathing down each other’s necks and I already know I’m a featured soloist again.”

I interrupt her, “You’re featured again? Isn’t that incredible news? Nina! Congratulations.”

“It’s not public knowledge yet,” she doesn’t accept my praise, “Ryan says I’ve got nothing to worry about, but I don’t want to step on any toes.”

“I’m sure nobody’s—

—I’m new, young and female,” Nina says over me, “Someone will have an issue, even if they only say it under their breath. Orchestras are superstitious as all hell. I don’t want any bad voodoo pointed my way.”

I wound my arm entirely around her and pulled her closer, “Hey,” I pressed a kiss to the side of her mouth, “You’re a treasure, hear me? You can’t change what people think of you, much less alter anything by worrying yourself sick about it. I don’t know anything about orchestras, but I know how corporations run … The people whose job it is to do so will make their decisions, you just worry about how you treat the people around you. None of them has a legitimate reason to dislike you, Nina. The whole orchestra benefits from the best talent being displayed.”

“I know.”

I squeezed my arms tighter around her, “And you know what you’ve got this time you didn’t a few months ago?”

“What.”

“You ... ” I kissed her again, “... Have a boyfriend who adores you who you should definitely offload on more frequently. Tell me this stuff, Neens. I can’t help, but I can listen and distract and encourage.”

She pressed her forehead against my bare chest and took in a deep breath, "Can't we run away back to New York?"

"Any time you want."

She sighed, we both knew that wasn't entirely realistic. Still, I liked that Nina wanted to run away with me, "I just want—hang on," She interrupted herself, "It's the beginning of birthday week!"

"Hmm," I hummed, thinking about the date and how many days were left until my birthday, "I suppose it is."

"Harry!" Nina was out from my arms and pushing me onto my back in a heartbeat, her palms pressing to my shoulders to hold me down, she slipped her leg over my hips and hoisted herself over to straddle me, "Happy birthday week!" She peppered my face with kisses, "Happy happy birthday."

I laughed under her, holding her waist and starting to squirm away from her grabby hands, "Ouch. Careful. Oh," she planted a long kiss on my lips and then held her head up to watch me, "Thank you. That was ... Joyful."

"I"m thrilled you exist," she whispered. "This week is gonna be fun.”

“It is,” I agreed quickly, trailing my fingers up her sides and hooking my thumbs around the straps of her sleep singlet, “May I?”

Nina took my mouth in a languid kiss, her hair fanning out around my face, “Please,” she breathed.

+++

Standing in their kitchen later that morning, Nina was frowning deeply at the saucepan on the hob.

"What did it say to you?" I sided up to her and laced my arm around her middle.

Nina bit her lip, not catching my teasing tone, "They're not staying together properly."

"Spin the water before you drop the egg in," I instructed gently, looking at the mess of egg white from her most recent poaching attempt. "Did you add vinegar?"

Nina pulled back with a sceptical look on her face, "Sorry, you're an egg expert?"

"Eggspert," I corrected, "Yes."

Her eyes narrowed by I caught the twitch of a smile, "Your sister warned me about this."

That surprised me, "My sister?"

Nina raised her eyebrows at me and nudged my thigh with her hip, "Yep. We text now."

"Hang on," I took the wooden spoon off her when she held it out to me and watched her move over to the fridge, "What are you and my sister texting about?"

"She's got me onto Love Island," Nina said, pulling a few items out onto the bench and then starting making us both a coffee, "And she's been helping with some birthday things. You're hard to buy for, we're bonding over it."

"Birthday things, you say ..." I leant down and kissed Nina's cheek as she took back the egg poaching station and gave me a delicious mug of coffee.

"She told me a really delightful story about you as a six-year-old stuffing an Action Man limb up your nose."

"That's a lie!" I spluttered out too quickly.

"You can defend yourself at dinner tonight," Nina smiled brightly as she blew on the surface of her hot drink.

"God, Gem will be loving this," I all but rolled my eyes.

We were playing, but I was looking forward to bringing Nina along for Gemma and I's usual Monday night dinner. I also didn't mind at all that they were texting, I'd never had that happen before. My sister was always deliberately separate from the women I dated. Nina and my sister were fast becoming two peas in a pod, and I couldn't say I minded a bit.

"Do you want to eat here or on the sofa?"

Nina had two plates of eggs on toast served up waiting for my response, "Sofa," I said, picking them both up and following her through to the living room.

Once we were settled, we chatted through eating breakfast, establishing our plans for the rest of the day off we shared. I didn’t care what we did, I was just craving being with her. Which is why well over an hour later, without empty plates still sitting on the coffee table in front of us, I didn’t care that I was watching the telly while Nina scrolled on her phone. Both Rodger and Max had come and gone, and the house was quiet around us.

“I like this house,” I said aloud. “Almost as much as I like my own,” I watched Nina look around their living room blankly, clearly not seeing anything praiseworthy. I dug my toes in under her thigh from my spot at the opposite end of the sofa, “Not the house itself … I just like being here is all I mean.”

“Was gonna suggest you get your eyes tested,” Her hand rested on my calf comfortably, “It’s certainly not as pretty as your place.”

“There’s a lot of love and safety in this house,” I explained, my eyes are drawn to Nina’s phone when it pinged with multiple notifications at once, “What on earth is going on?”

Nina frowned at the screen and started rapidly typing back to a message, “The girls are all on. And I’m talking to Gemma too.”

I crawled over to her and rested my head on her shoulder, “What are you all gas bagging about?” Nina flipped the screen out of my view quickly, but I reached for her hand and brought it back because I recognised the website she was on, “Gucci?”

“Don’t,” She tried to reach the lock button, but my fingers were stopping hers from being able to.

“What are you buying from … Nina.”

“You like Gucci,” Nina spoke quietly, avoiding meeting my eyes, “Don’t ruin it.”

I locked the screen myself and sat up next to her, keeping a hold of her hand, “Nina, don’t spend that kind of money on me, particularly on a brand I work with. I don’t pay for any of their stuff, babe.”

“I want to get you something you’ll love.”

I love you, I wanted to say, alarmed at how easily the thought drifted into my head.

“I don’t need anything,” I took her chin in my hands and made her look at me, noticing the small white line of Nina's scar from her childhood bike accident, “But I’d love it if you got me some classical vinyls … Like of some symphonies you like. Please don’t spend anything ridiculous though.”

“I have a job, Harry. I want to buy you something nice. New York was—

—Okay,” I breathed out, hating the conversation that was coming. Usually, I avoided it. No, usually things didn’t get serious enough to need to have the money conversation. But Nina was sitting in front of me planning to spend more than she could probably afford on my birthday because she felt like she needed to repay me for my more extravagant Christmas gift. “Neens, you can’t think that way. You really can’t. I don’t have normal circumstances when it comes to money … When it comes to almost everything, actually. The point is,” I continued slowly, “I love that up until this point things have been pretty even, you pay for a lot, and it means so much to know that you’re not just sitting back relying on me. But Neens, for big stuff like holidays and extras I’ve got it covered.”

“That’s not fair, Harry.”

I shook my head, “Money isn’t about fair, Nina. Relationships suffer for it every day, and that’s usually about not having enough. It fills me with shame to think the people in my life would worry because I have an excess. I’ve worked hard for it and sacrificed a lot. And you’ll sacrifice a lot being with me … Money can’t be what ruins this. I won’t let it. I don’t want to be scared to spend money on you or on us because when I’m away for months at a time or when our dating becomes public things will be stressful and money is one thing we won’t need to worry about.”

Nina sat for a moment, looking uncomfortable and a little glum. I leaned in a kissed her, she gave me a weak smile after, “You really want vinyls?”

“Yes,” I promised her, understanding that maybe she needed time to sit with everything else I said, “I really do. I’m extremely behind in my classical collection. Actually, that reminds me, I’ve got something for you to listen to.”

She gave me a curious look, “What?”

“Where does Rodger keep his good headphones?”

“I think there’s a pair of his studio ones on the kitchen table …”

“I’ll be right back,” I jumped up off the sofa and rounded the living room, scooting back in a moment later figuring out how to pair them with my phone. “Okay,” I leaned over the back of the couch and slid the cups over Nina’s ears.

“What on earth …”

I slumped back next to her, hooking my arm through Nina’s and pulling up the file Rodger sent me the day before, “I’ve got our song for you to listen to.”

She frowned, “It’s not our song, Harry, it’s yours—

—It’s ours,” I corrected her, “And I love it. Ready to hear it? Rodger finished it yesterday afternoon.”

“Okay,” Nina’s voice shook as she adjusted the earphones on her ears, “You really like it?”

I pressed a kiss to her shoulder, “Yes.”

I hit play before she could protest again, turning my head to the side so I could watch her as it played.

I could tell she was listening carefully throughout, her eyes focusing on different points in the room as I kept up with where int he track she was up to. Only the tiniest amount of residual noise leaked from the headphones, but I got exactly the reaction I was after about halfway through.

The intro to the bridge happened, and Nina’s eyes met mine, welling beautifully as she heard the incredible work Rodger had done since the rough cut she heard on the day. He’d added a choir of voices and the slightest echo effect onto the piano. The strings part Nina wrote we had recorded with a string quartet, and Rodger left in the sound of the piano keys falling back into place, just as Nina had suggested we do.

The song was incredible, and I was already obsessing over how to perform it live; over how to make that point in the setlist a real moment where we all shone up on stage.

“It’s so good, Harry,” Nina sniffed, dabbing under her eyes with the sleeve of her jumper.

“You’re happy with it?”

“Yes!” She cried out, “You idiot, it’s gorgeous! It’s sad but hopeful, and your voice is vulnerable, but the lyrics are sure and steadying … I adore it. The strings are great. Play it again for me.”

+++

Nina and Gemma were laughing so hard I was concerned cider was going to come out of someone's nose.

Ned looked across at me as though I might have an explanation for what was going on. I shrugged at him and took another bite of my sister's take on our grandmother's apple pie. There was no need to let dessert go cold.

"And then they—

—I know!" Gemma cried, nodding her head and wiping at tears in her eyes. "I know, oh my god. It's hilarious."

Nina beamed at my sister, her eyes shining with tears of her own, “I never actually would, but I’d go on the show just to be in those conversations after.”

“Me too!”

“Hold up,” I waved my hand across the table between them, “Are you still talking about Love Island? Because I can promise you, neither of you is ever going on that show.”

“Yes,” Nina squeezed my bicep, “But notice I started with ‘I never actually would’?”

My shoulders sunk, and I took another bite of pie, “Oh. Good.”

“So, what do you still need for Saturday, Harry?” Ned turned the conversation to my birthday party on the weekend, “I’ve got Friday off so I can come over and help set anything up … Or run out and pick things up. Whatever you need.”

“My girlfriends will also be around to help,” Nina added.

“I’ve got meetings,” Gemma said, “And I’m picking up Mum from the train after, but we can come over too.”

I look at them all, grateful to have everyone offering to help. I hadn’t been in the UK for a birthday in several years, and I was looking forward to it. It was going to be low key, I only sent out an invite email to a few dozen people a few days ago. I was planning on just having it at home, which kept things simple and meant I didn’t have to worry about the added element of paparazzi or other people being around.

“How about we go out for dinner on Friday night then?” I suggested, “I’ve hired caterers for Saturday so there’s really not a lot to do that can’t happen on Saturday during the day. Just have to clean the outdoor furniture a bit, although it’ll be cold. I’ll book somewhere for Friday, that’ll be a good start to the weekend.”

“You can’t take us out for dinner on your birthday weekend!” Gemma scoffed.

“Watch me,” I stared her down.

+++

Fresh orange and pink light beamed all around us as Nina, and I made our way hand in hand back along the streets from Hampstead Heath.

It was only just nearing seven am, but I was alive with the sense I’d been awake and could continue being awake, for days. It was a high I only really experience within the throngs of touring life, but starting the day watching the sunrise with Nina, standing with her back pressed tightly to my chest, gave the same sense of life. And I felt drunk on the feeling.

“Look at that picture, that’s a good one,” Nina held my phone up in front of us, tilting the screen when I squinted to see which one she was talking about. Walking lazily, side by side, was a strange kind of perfect.

“My forehead looks funny,” I commented, pulling her out of the path of a puddle when she started flipping through the rest of the photographs we’d just taken together.

“When did you take this?” Nina asked, eyes together as she assessed my personal favourite; Nina standing with her hands in her pockets, eyes closed with her face to the sky, sunrise lighting up the expanse behind and above her. As soon as I had taken it, I knew it would be one I’d keep. I had already made it my phone lock screen, and I planned on changing Nina’s contact picture to it as well.

It was Nina I always wanted to see; beautiful beyond belief, simple in that way that had me catching my breath.

“You were having a moment,” I explained, “I captured it perfectly.”

“I look ...” She trailed off.

“... Completely gorgeous,” I finished with certainty, snatching the phone away from her and shoving it in my pocket. “Now, pay attention to where you're walking please.”

We chatted about what it might be like to live like hermits for the rest of ours lives, and by the end of it Nina decided the life we’d described—early rises, countless books, snuggly nights, no television—sounded a lot like retirement. I smiled at the thought.

When we got back to the house, kicking off muddied boots and jackets damp with the moisture from the air, I flopped myself down on my favourite sofa as Nina said she’d be back after a quick trip to the bathroom.

“Harry,” She sat right next to my waist when she returned. “Are you ... Okay, you’re going back to sleep,” She answered herself, I opened one eye to look up at her. Nina was looking around the room like she was trying to figure out what she was going to do next. I mumbled a laugh and let the eyelid close slowly.

I stuck my arm out to incase her, keeping my eyes shut, “You fit too, c’mon.”

I managed to get her lying next to me for a moment. Still, just as I was adjusting myself against the back of the sofa and pulling her legs closer to mine with an expertly hooked foot, Nina surprised me by wriggling free and instead straddling my hips to sit up and look down at me.

"Why, hello," I opened my eyes and smiled up at her, wanting more than anything to be able to convey how fucking beautiful she looked.

"Hi," She grinned.

“Are you trying to say you don't want me to have a nap right now?”

“I mean, a nap can be on the list,” Nina said, pressing her lips to my neck and digging her hands underneath my shirt, “But maybe you’d like to do something else first.”

“Like what,” I insisted, letting her pull my shirt over my head but pulling her down for a heated kiss.  

Nina sat back on my hips and surprised me by pulling her own shirt straight over her head without any hesitation, “I think you’re clever enough to figure it out.”

+++

“Do you no think if I start doing a bunch of media people will get suspicious? I think I’d prefer not to,” I told the conference call, my concentration momentarily pulled to Nina and her girlfriends assembling a string of garden lights outside. “I really want this EP to drop without a whisper of it beforehand, I don’t want to lose the fun of that.”

“I agree with Harry,” I recognised my manager’s voice.

“Okay,” The rep from marketing relented, “No media until afterwards then.”

“I’ll do interviews until my mouth bleeds once it’s out, promise,” I told them cheekily, hearing a screech from outside and then a choir of laughter. “Is that everything?”

It was, and the call ended soon after. I plugged my phone in to charge on the kitchen bench and peeked out the window again. Nina hadn’t stopped smiling since her friends arrived earlier in the morning. They had been out with Gemma buying lights and decorations for the party tonight. I couldn’t say I gave them free rein, they simply took it.

Gemma was off collecting our mum, so when I walked through to the dining area, I started on sorting through a whole bunch of crap on the table to be put away before the party. The doors to the back garden were open, so I tuned into the conversation going on out there momentarily, with Sam’s reply catching my attention. I was only just out of their view but stayed quiet to see if I could catch the moment.

“Oh shut up, this is the best stage of the relationship, Nina. Just tell us how it is!”

“Quiet,” Nina insisted. “This is his house!”

Sam didn’t listen to her, “You of all people deserve to be having all the sex in the world right now. Are you?”

“I hate you so much right now.”

“Leave her alone,” Isabel said. “She’s bright red. That’s confirmation in itself. Harry adores her, there’s no way that man isn’t good in bed.”

“I’m leaving,” Nina announced, appearing in the doorway a second later.

I spun around and met her eyes, she was bright red and looking flustered. Her mouth fell open when she saw me, and I bit my lip but smiled at her, knowing I had been caught. The girls called out for her and just when I opened my mouth she pointed right at me.

“Not a word from you,” She tried to look menacing, “Not a word.”

I held up both hands and laughed, “I wouldn’t dare … But for the record, I’d appreciate it if you defended my reputation instead of leaving room for doubt by being silent.”

“Harry,” She hissed, looking behind her to make sure her friends weren’t nearby.

“I mean, ‘all the sex in the world’ is a little hard to quantify, but we’re doing okay,” I grinned, watching her blush deepen almost as much as it had in the shower that morning.

Nina narrowed her eyes at me, “I’m going to put the kettle on for tea.”

“I’ll come help.”

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t,” She threw over her shoulder as she left the room.

I laughed loudly but followed after her regardless. She was embarrassed, and it was sweet. As I walked passed her in the kitchen, I gave her bum a light tap and told her she was beautiful. She told me to go away, but her voice was soft and affectionate—her heart not in it. When I returned to her side with a bunch of mugs and the tin of tea under my arm, I put everything down and looped my arm around her middle, depositing my hand in the back pocket of her jeans.

I gave her bottom a squeeze and pressed a kiss to the shell of her ear, guessing the question her girlfriends had asked her, “Tell me how the sex is, Nina.”

She smiled and was about to reply when we both jumped and turned around at the voices behind us.

“Urgh! See? They’re having so much sex,” Georgie cried out with Sam and Isobel close behind.

“Oh my god,” Sam wheezed, pointing at Nina, “Your face. Both of your faces. Gold.”

“You’re all uninvited to tomorrow night,” Nina shouted through a smile, “Tell them,” She nudged my side.

All four women were looking at me, and I was truly at a loss as to what to say, but I found myself laughing along with Nina’s friends, “Thank you very much for having this conversation while my sister isn’t here.”

They all laughed again, but Nina covered her face with her hands and turned back to the kettle. While Nina made the tea, the rest of us moved on to discussing where else they should decorate.

A plan was hatched to add some lights out in the front courtyard.

+++

“They’re never going to stop talking, are they?”

I felt Nina laugh against my chest and the sheets across my chest moved when she snuggled even closer, “No.” “You absolutely wish you were in with them, aren’t you?” I said into the darkness of my bedroom, “You have FOMO, just admit it.”

The sound of her friends chatting down the hall, despite the fact it was the middle of the night, was the only sound going through my house. We went out for dinner once my sister and mum arrived and now, a few bottles of wine at home later, Nina’s friends were very much enjoying themselves instead of sleeping.

“I thought we were all tired,” Nina mumbled through a yawn.

“They’re full of beans.”

She spoke sleepily, and it made me smile, “I love them.”

“Me too.”

I love you as well, I thought.

“Are you excited for your party tomorrow?” Nina asked quietly. My mind lingered on my previous thought.

“I am,” Her hair was damp against my shoulder, and one smooth leg of hers was spotted between mine, “Are you?”

“I’m a little nervous,” Nina admitted. “But it will be good.”

I kissed her cheek and wondered what the best method of reassuring her was, “Should we do sunrise again?”

Her head started nodding against my skin before she spoke, “Mhmm, let’s. You set the alarm, my eyes are already closed.”

“How you do know mine aren’t closed as well,” I chuckled.

“I can hear you blinking.”

“There’s absolutely no way that is true.”

“It is.” “It’s not.”

“You have lovely eyelashes, and I’m a prodigy, I can hear it when you blink.”

“Oh, now you’re a prodigy.”

“When it suits me, yes.”

#1dff #one direction #one direction fanfiction #harry styles #harry styles fanfiction #fic:someday someday #hina

[khhunniewriting]

The Others (2)

[ Mafia/Gang AU ]

Thirteen years later many things have changed.

“Seems Illionaire is making much more money now.” Kylie put down the report she found on Dok2′s desk as she waited for him. In her arms, she held a small bundle of pink and white.

Dok2 dismissed the men who had followed him into the room with a nod. “I wasn’t expecting you here.”

His wife had just given birth a few days ago. It was definitely too early for her to be out and about but Kylie wanted to make a point.

“Don’t make that face Joonkyung.” She knew he was scrutinizing her for bringing a bastard child to the office. Everyone was aware this second child, the daughter in her arms, was not his. “They might not know you also had an affair, but I do.”

Dok2 was aware of his wife having met you.

She told him only a few days after giving birth to their child, a son Kylie named Ji-hoon. Having a son ensured she had produced the heir to her husband’s fortune. There was no need to worry anymore.

Once her son was old enough he would take over for Dok2 ensuring her future.

“Honestly, you should have seen how shocked she was when she found out you were Illionaire’s leader.”

Dok2 made his way around her and sat at his desk ignoring her rant. Perhaps it was hypocritical of him to treat his wife this way when he too cheated on her. The fact remained that she went too far by breeding a child from her affairs and expecting him to welcome it with open arms into his family.

“Do not bother me unless you want to discuss something about Ji-hoon.”

Kylie smirked triumphantly knowing she had gotten under his skin. That was all she desired for now.

After she walked out of his office Joonkyung released a frustrated groan. His life was certainly not going the way he planned; making him question all the decisions he made in his youth.

Most of the questions involving you.

His eyes went to a hole in the wall near the door. He hadn’t bothered to fix it the same way he never bothered to do anything about his feelings for you.

Love was the one luxury he couldn’t afford under his circumstances.

\\

“Go Leo!” Your loud cheering received some stares but you could care less. It was too exciting to see your baby boy out there on the court scoring so many points. He was the power forward for his school’s basketball team and well on his way to becoming the ace player.

Leo turned towards the sound of your voice and smiled knowing you were there to see him. His smile disappeared the moment he turned back to the court and positioned himself under the basket once more.

“Your mom is as loud as always Leo,” one of his teammates commented. “Must be scary when you get bad grades or get into trouble.”

“He never has bad grades,” another tuned into the conversation as a timeout was called by the opposing team. The three teenage boys retired to the benches where their towels and waterbottles awaited them.

“What, so he’s athletic and smart?” The initial starter of the conversation asked. He was on the school team but did not have the same class as Leo to know how he was off the court.

Leo spaced out leaving the two to talk amongst themselves as his only worry became rehydrating. The boy always heard people saying the same things about him.

Leo is so smart.

Leo is so athletic.

Leo is so handsome.

Leo is so responsible.

Leo is so blunt.

Leo is so silent.

Their compliments were appreciated but unnecessary. All he really cared about was making sure his mother continued to smile. The truth was Leo had emotional detachment and abandonment issues.

Neither he nor his mother believed it to be so but the doctors who found his silence unbecoming amounted it to something he had no recollection of. They thought his lack of a father affected his social skills.

The truth was Leo had many friends, he socialized well. He was, however, selective about who he socialized with. It was similar to the way his mother acted.

She may never have told him to be wary of strangers but he was. He saw the way she cautiously put herself between him and a stranger before knowing who and what their intentions were.

“Leo come on.”

He broke out of his thoughts and pushed his dark hair out of his face before returning back to the court where the rest of the team awaited him.

After the game, he quickly and meticulously gathered his stuff before making his way over to you. Many people congratulated him on the win which he only responded to with a curt nod or single word of thanks.

“There’s my MVP,” you wasted no time to hug him. There were a million comments you had on how well he had played.

When he came to you asking permission to enter the team you knew nothing of the sport. But like everything involving your son, you became invested and soon were able to talk to him about strategies and stats.

“I noticed you struggled a bit when you fought for the rebound with that tall kid. Did you get hurt?” You began examining him for any bruising. “Sometimes the ref doesn’t see but-”

“I’m fine,” Leo assured.

A simple two worded response that brought the smile back to your face. One of the best sounds in the word was that of your son’s voice. It brought relief and happiness to your overprotective heart.

“Then let’s go celebrate your win!”

The corners of Leo’s lips curved into a smile seeing how happy you were. The truth was he did have minor aches and pains when he went against that other player.

He was someone he had clashed with before. The center of the rival team who on occasion gave Leo dirty looks. Neither had spoken a word yet there was a silent rivalry between them that no one else had noticed.

\\

For a couple week now you two were being watched from afar.

“Boss that kid and his mother live in a pretty normal neighborhood.”

Jay Park, AOMG’s leader, looked through the compiled information on his desk. His eyes narrowing in on your photograph. It was a recent one that his men had taken of you at your place of employment.

You were a decently private individual with little to no social media presence that had only been in use for the past five years. It was nearly impossible for him to find the information he was looking for.

“I just feel like I’ve seen her before.”

Simon’s brow rose in question, “With Dok2?”

Jay nodded only barely recalling the time more than a decade ago when he spotted you holding onto his rival’s arm as you entered a private parking structure. Back then your long hair obstructed the view of your face but your mannerisms were the same. Most of all, he remembered your eyes as they looked over at him.

At the time he thought you had met his eyes but perhaps it was just a coincidental glance in his general direction.

“Why don’t we just go after his actual son, the one everyone knows about,” Woogie proposed.

“Because he’s the obvious choice.” Jay dropped your photo picking up Leo’s instead. “This kid could be his illegitimate child.”

Simon looked over his boss’ shoulder, “You think he looks like him?”

Everyone began debating and voting on the appearance of the mysterious child. Some were undecided taking into consideration how they had yet to really get a good look of the Illionaire boss. Others straight up denied the possibility for various reasons.

“It doesn’t matter if he looks like him,” Jay interrupted their discussion. “The birth certificate is missing a name. I’m sure it was intended to protect the kid but the family name says it all.”

Gray dug through the file pulling out the copy of Leo’s birth certificate. It was clear as day to them who have been investigating the whole situation. There in black and white was your name and an empty space where Joonkyung’s should be. “The kid’s legal name is Lee Leo, we need to keep looking into this.”

They all agreed to continue following you around, convinced they would eventually get the lead they needed to act.

“Besides, “ Jay pulled them back into the conversation. “He does look like he could be the other kid’s brother.”

“How old is Ji-hoon,” Gray asked.

“Thirteen,” Woodie responded.

“Do you really think he got his side chick pregnant at the same time as his wife?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out.”

\\

Ji-hoon watched in disgust as his mother doted on his younger sister. Not once had she even directed a word at him since she arrived. He kept telling himself this wasn’t jealousy, rather it was envy.

He was envious of his sister having everything he had been wanting. The time and attention of his parents were hard to come by when they were often occupied by business. Now he had to compete against a helpless newborn.

“You’re back,” Kylie commented as her son made his presence known. She watched him give a disinterested glance in their direction as he walked by to get to the stairs. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Do you care or you just upset again because Dad ignored you so you’re going to take it out on me?”

Kylie gaped at her son’s response. This wasn’t the first time he had talked to her in this manner. She had become accustomed to his increasingly hostile attitude. What surprised her was the fact that he knew she had seen him.

“How did you-”

“I called and asked for a ride,” he interrupted.

Ji-hoon was an expert at running away from his bodyguards. They had to maintain a distance so normal people didn’t see them but they were always around. To the untrained eye, they were like shadows, to Ji-hoon they were unwilling participants in his game of hide-and-seek.

The young boy knew his father would drop everything to make sure he was safe so he often repeated the act when he felt like seeing him. Often calling him to pick him up from wherever he decided to chill.

“Ji-hoon you know that’s not safe!”

Kylie’s reprimand stirred her daughter’s sleep. In an instant, she began wailing asking for comfort.

“Look what you did…” she picked her up from the bassinet she had situated in the living area to begin rocking her back to sleep.

“Sure what I did,” Ji-hoon heaved a sigh of annoyance. Once again he was being falsely accused of being his mother’s inconvenience. “I got lectured by Dad already so I’m gonna go to my room.”

“Ji-Hoon…”

“Ji-Hoon!”

Kylie shook her head knowing he wouldn’t come back down no matter how many times she called for him.

“There there, Jia… go back to sleep.”

-end-

A/N: On the mood board Leo is at the bottom-right corner and Ji-hoon at the top-right. BTW I’m basing ages and school grade on the American system, meaning highschool age is 14-18 years and the grades are 9th-12th.

#khh scenarios #dok2 scenarios #illionaire scenarios #khiphop scenarios #khh #dok2 #dok2gonzo #lee joonkyung scenarios #lee joonkyung #illionaire #illionaire ambition #illionaire ambition scenarios #illionaire fics #Khiphop #dok2 x reader #dok2 x you #dok2 x y/n #khh fanfiction #khh fanfic #khh fic #dok2 imagine #dok2 fic #the others

[bevioletskies]

bring it on home to me [1/5]

summary: The fight of everyone’s lives may be over, but for Nebula, Peter, and the rest of the Guardians, the search for the person they love most has just begun.

a/n: MAJOR spoiler warning for Avengers: Endgame, though I am a little vague about the events of what happened. Regardless, please don't let me spoil it for you!

Fic title is, of course, from the song Bring It On Home To Me by Sam Cooke.

word count: 2.6k | ao3 | tag

Peter woke to a cold bed, his teeth chattering and his feet numb, and promptly rolled over to blindly pull his tablet off his bedside table - if one could call it that, given that it was an old crate he’d found in a junkyard on Knowhere - and attempt to remotely adjust the Benatar’s temperature controls. To his utter lack of surprise, it didn’t work. He wasn’t sure Rocket’s recent rewiring of the ship was to blame, but he was sure he was going to say so at the next team meeting, anyway.

He stumbled out of bed, got dressed, considered for a total of thirty seconds as to whether he wanted to shave the slow-growing beard he’d been developing with little success over the last few months or so, and then waved it off, making his way out of his tiny little bunk and into the ship’s communal area. There, sat at the console table, was Nebula, her feet propped up on its surface and her inky black eyes fixated on him like she knew he was coming (she probably did).

“You eat yet?” Peter asked, yawning loudly. She recoiled at the sound.

“No,” she said shortly. “Our rations are lacking. We need to make another stop before we unnecessarily starve ourselves to death.”

Peter grinned. “I like that you said ‘our’. Gives me the warm fuzzies.” Nebula glared, her eyes following him all the way around the room as he tapped into the ship’s operating system on the main holoscreen. She didn’t miss the way his face fell the slightest bit, the way he took a sharp inhale to prepare himself for his next line of questioning. “Find anything yesterday?”

“Nothing. The same as the day before that, and the day before that, and the weeks and months before that,” Nebula said. She turned away, suddenly finding it too hard to look at him, to know that every emotion written on his face was on par with every emotion that stirred in her chest. “We know that. You know that.”

He swallowed, his hand hovering over the screen. Subconsciously, or instinctively, really, he’d taken himself to the criminal records that the Nova Corps had written up on them what felt like decades ago. The picture that stared back at him looked familiar but not quite close enough, the detailed write-up that sounded like someone he knew but not the someone he knew now. Or maybe had known.

“Don’t mean we have to accept it,” he finally said, turning to look at her. “I’m done being passive. Passive is gettin’ us nowhere. We don’t have the right to call ourselves the Guardians if all we do is sit around like a bunch of a-holes.”

“Then it’s good that I’m not one,” Nebula retorted. Peter shoved the screen aside and stomped right up to her, face-to-face, slamming his palms down on the table. He almost detected a twitch in her otherwise stone-cold expression, a betrayal that revealed how affected she truly was.

“You’re a Guardian, Nebula, okay?” His voice was dangerously low, the kind of pitch and tone he usually reserved for when he wore his mask, but there was no finger on the trigger of his quad blasters, just the wetness of his eyes and the intensity of his gaze. “No matter what anyone says. Including yourself.”

She stared back, standing up slowly; he followed her inch by inch. “I’m far beyond letting anyone tell me who or what I am. So you take your self-hatred for what you’ve done and what you didn’t do, and keep it to yourself, Quill. When you stop by the nearest planet to pick up supplies, I suggest you drop me off. This is no longer a ride I want to be on.”

The closest planet they came across was like many others they’d been on before - nondescript in every shape and form, lacking distinguishing features or unique characteristics that would make it any more memorable than the last. For Rocket, all he wanted whenever they touched down somewhere new was a junkyard and a bar, preferably within spitting distance of one another so he could walk in sober and stumble out drunk.

Upon returning to their landing site an hour after they’d first arrived, he apparently came back just in time to see Nebula stomp her way down the Benatar’s ramp and out the loading bay, snarling at the nearest attendant who had gingerly approached, wondering if Peter needed any help with the engine. Peter was stood by the nose of the ship, running his fingers through his hair agitatedly, but made no move to follow her. “She’ll be back,” he was saying to a concerned-looking Drax and Mantis by the time Rocket joined them. “Look, Rocket came back and he talks about leavin’ all the time!”

Rocket fixed him with a long, haunted stare. “Don’t even joke about that, Quill.” Peter’s face crumpled. Rocket turned and made his way up the stepladder and directly into the ship’s engine, feeling incredibly uncomfortable. It was hard for anyone to look anyone else in the face these days, but Peter was especially difficult to take, Nebula even more so for how numb she seemed to be.

He poked around aimlessly for a few minutes, trying to find the cause of their latest ship-related issue. If it wasn’t the computer system, it was the pipes, or it was the engine, or it was the fact that the Benatar was a piece of crap when they got it and was still a piece of crap now. Rocket huffed impatiently, nudging the casing with his foot. “C’mon,” he grumbled. “What kinda engineer would I be if I can’t fix the damn engine?” Another swift kick, harder this time, but all it resulted in was a stubbed toe and a bruised ego. It was a testament to how distracted Peter was that he didn’t even bother chastising Rocket for it, instead disappearing back inside the ship with the others in tow.

Another low growl, and Rocket sat back on his haunches defeatedly, pushing his toolbox aside for the time being. He leaned forward, resting his head in his paws, pulling at the bits of fur that seemed to be falling out of his temples in worryingly large patches, the grooves where his claws had dug near-permanent welts into his cheeks. “I am Groot?”

Rocket lifted his head to see Groot approaching him apprehensively, still clutching his beloved handheld Defender in one hand, the other outstretched in Rocket’s direction. “What d’ya think? We shoulda gotten rid of this rustbucket a long time ago.”

“I am Groot,” he protested, climbing up to sit beside him, his legs swinging over the edge of the ship’s hood. “I am Groot.”

“Yeah, well, nothing’s ever gone right for us, why should it start now?” Rocket let out a hysterical laugh. “Out of the last five jobs we had, two were a complete and utter failure, and one shorted us on units. All ‘cos Quill’s too busy dragging us around the galaxy to find her. ‘Cept that wasn’t her. That wasn’t...that wasn’t our Gamora. That was a Gamora. And I dunno if she wants to be ours, or if she can be in the first place. But he’s done it, Groot. He’s gone and lost his mind, and now we’re the ones who gotta pay for it.” The engine sparked pathetically. “More like not get paid for it.”

“I am Groot.” They both fell silent, Groot politely ignoring the loud, shaky breath Rocket took that certainly wasn’t related to the engine issue. Then, Groot began to hum. It sounded a little thin and reedy in his voice - “tree puberty”, as Peter had so delicately once put it, looked and sounded a lot like human puberty - but it was instantly recognizable.

“Don’t - don’t do that, man,” Rocket said half-heartedly. “We haven’t heard that since you were no bigger than a boot.”

“I am Groot,” he shrugged. He still remembered every note, let it linger in his head sometimes when he needed it most; only he remembered it in her voice, heard the joy when she first remembered the lullaby her parents had sung to her as a baby, how she sang it to him when he was fussy or scared or just wanted to keep her by his bedside for a few more minutes. He’d grown out of it eventually, scoffing at everything and everyone around him like a typical stubborn adolescent, but now he longed for it again, even if just for one more time. “I am Groot?”

“Nah, I don’t think she would’ve known how to fix this.” Rocket twisted a series of wires around his finger, nearly slicing through them with his claw in his absentmindedness. He quickly withdrew his paw before it could happen. “Hell, I’d ask Nebula if she wasn’t in such a...Nebula mood.”

He glanced around the hangar where they’d parked, how very average it all seemed - sky-high ceiling heights, long stretches of metal and concrete as far as the eye could see, and people of all kinds milling about, fawning over a cool ship someone had brought in or arguing over how to best fix the reason they’d landed here in the first place. They had been in a place very similar to this the first time she asked him if she could help, mere weeks after the Guardians had officially formed, with everyone still cautious and nervous and new to existing alongside other people.

“I spent years helping Nebula with her implants,” she had said with her arms folded across her chest, watching him yank at the wires fruitlessly. “Let me take a look.”

“Ship mechanics and implants ain’t the same thing,” Rocket had retorted without sparing her a glance. “Look, I’m sure you were a big ol’ help to your wacko sister, but leave the engineering to me. You go...swing your sword at somethin’ or whatever.”

“You insult me by insinuating I’m only useful in a fight.” The cadence of her voice had been even, measured, but there was a hint of danger to it that gave Rocket the impression he wasn’t going to win this one. “I’ve also shadowed some of the best engineers in the galaxy and made countless minor repairs before. At least let me watch so I can learn. No one ever gets anything done just standing by.”

Rocket had sighed, moving aside so she had room to hover over him, her gaze intensely focused on the meticulousness of his work. “Is that what you told yourself when you first went after the Orb?”

“Yes.” The quickness, the sureness, even, of her reply had surprised him. “I spent years watching Thanos destroy homes, destroy families. Knowing his plans for the Stone, I couldn’t watch any longer.”

“But your sister could? She’s a real piece of work.”

“Watch yourself, Rocket.” She had reached out, gripped his tiny wrist with her long, battle-calloused fingers far too tightly. “My sister and I, we’re like you. Built for someone else’s purpose. Taken apart to fulfill another’s desires. Her lack of morality may disappoint me, but I can’t deny that not too long ago, I still felt the same way.”

He had yanked his arm out of her grasp, shaking it, mulling over her words. “So what changed? Why did you turn your back on the big purple man, and not her?”

“It could be anything that kept her from doing so - disposition, personality, personal traumas…” She had trailed off, tapping one fingernail gently on the glint of silver in her cheekbone, a particular piece that outlined the sharp planes of her bone structure a bit too well. “...repeated body mutilation and a craving for validation that will never come would break anyone’s spirits. You know that as well as we do.”

Rocket had cleared his throat, turned his attention back to the work at hand. “Alright, honesty hour’s over. You gonna pick up a wrench of your own or what?”

“I am Groot.” Groot’s voice brought Rocket back to the present, his chest aching with something he could identify, but wanted to deny. Melancholic longing had always been part of his life, but never his vocabulary, and he wasn’t about to start now. He didn’t want to sound like one of the morose love songs Peter had taken to playing on the ship through to the early hours in the morning. He didn’t want to wake up crying, chest heaving, gasping for air, the way Peter did sometimes, the way they all pretended he didn’t do, for the sake of what was left of his dignity. “I am Groot?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Stop starin’ at me, you’re making me nervous,” Rocket spat, his tone harsher than intended. His ears drooped when Groot’s eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed. Groot hopped back down onto the stepladder and started walking back to head inside the ship, his footsteps heavier than they had been when he first came out. “Wait, Groot...look, we’re all on edge, I don’t mean to be a dick about it. C’mere, let me show you how this junkpile works.”

Groot sighed, his shoulders heaving, and he went back into the ship without another backward glance. Rocket stared after him, his chin dropping to his chest as he hung his head. He could vaguely hear Peter and Drax arguing inside, with Mantis trying her best to moderate without using her powers, something Peter had sorely been against as of late, something about not wanting to numb himself to how much everything hurt (Rocket hadn’t really been paying attention, mostly because it hit too close to home).

“I am Groot.” Rocket lifted his head to see Groot walking back up to join him. Instead of carrying his video game, he was carrying a familiar-looking book, one that was dusty from lack of use, its spine still in perfect condition. He held it up to Rocket in a sort of peace offering, smiling tentatively. Rocket’s breath shook as he accepted it, brushing away the residue so the title could be read: Engineering Basics, Volume XI: Spacecraft.

“I can’t tell this is a gift or an insult,” she had said dubiously when Rocket first gave it to her. It had been two months since their encounter with Ego, and everyone was finally starting to feel more settled, more at peace with who they were and who they were with.

“You said you wanted to learn,” Rocket had protested. “Look, I spent a whole fifteen units on this!” She had fixed him with a look. “Okay, so I found it at yesterday’s trading post, the attendant said it was a gift from his parents, never used, wanted to get it off his hands. Isn’t it the thought that counts or some crap?”

She had laughed, an unexpectedly soft, musical sound that made Rocket’s ears perk up. “If you say so, Rocket. And thank you. I’m not sure when I’ll have the time with everything that’s going on right now, but I’ll keep it in mind.”

“I am Groot,” he said gently, now placing a hand on Rocket’s.

Rocket inhaled. “Guess she never got around to it. Thing’s never even been opened!”

“I am Groot,” he said, looking pensive. Groot looked younger then, a little bit more like his toddler self, his eyes round and liquid and perpetually in a state of nervous, uncertain energy. The lullaby continued to play in his head; he felt the ghost of a slightly calloused hand cup his cheek as if to say hello, goodnight, goodbye.

Nodding slowly, Rocket opened the book, running his paws over the glossy pages that were otherwise untouched. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I miss her, too.”

a/n: I just watched the movie yesterday and I have to get on a plane tomorrow but I just really, really needed to get some feelings out! This is more of a character relationship study than a strict "The Search For Gamora" fic, mostly because I needed a place to explore all the little headcanons I have about her relationships with each Guardian. And I know Thor was there with them at the end, but as much as I adore him, I wanted to strictly keep the focus on the team, so let's just say he left for a hot minute to check in with Valkyrie in New Asgard or something.

This fic probably exists in a dozen other forms already but regardless, this was oddly therapeutic to write and I hope you enjoyed it all the same! Thanks so much for reading, likes and reblogs would be much appreciated, and see you next time :)

#starmora #starmora fic #peter x gamora #gamora x peter #endgame spoilers #spoilers #myfic #myfic: bring it home #marvel #i'm leaving for vacation tomorrow but i really needed to get my feelings out lmao

[yinzhengs]

timeline of zhai tianlin drama

—aka, why OS s2 is in peril: the tl;dr is that people are casting suspicion on zhai tianlin’s phd thesis’ validity + it’s blown up. this is taken from this weibo post here that tried to give a summary / timeline of events (note that as far as i can tell, OP is biased against ztl...) 

note that a lot of (if not all) of these claims are unsubstantiated / based on questionable “evidence.” my heart goes out to ztl for having to deal with the massive influx of hate — tags abt this have been trending all week, and this drama’s even made the news. (link to english article, south china morning post)

avenuex also made a video about it here (which i haven’t watched yet bc frankly i don’t have the emotional energy, but i’ve heard it’s good)

throughout the post they refer to ztl as “翟博士” which is lit. doctor/phd zhai. whether or not it’s snarky... well... i’ll leave it to you to decide. all my additions in the form of links or supplementary info are in square brackets.

一个翟博士引发的惨案 / lit. a massacre that dr. zhai started

背景：翟博士微博晒出北大光华学院博士后站录取通知书，自勉“加油，小翟”。

background: dr. zhai shared on weibo his acceptance letter to the brilliant beijing university, encouraging himself with the caption “加油 [jiayou], xiao zhai” (approx. keep up the good work, little zhai) 第一波：翟博士不知知网。网友问他能否在知网看见他的博士论文，他一头雾水问“知网是什么” 翟博士：自我挽尊“我说不知道1+1=2都有人信”。 the first wave: dr. zhai didn’t know about 知网 [zhiwang] / China National Knowledge Infrastructure (wiki link provided, but it’s a research database similar to jstor in the west). netizens asked if they would be able to read his phd thesis on CNKI. completely confused, he asked: “what’s CNKI?”

dr zhai [later], trying to save his own dignity: “people would believe me even if i said i didn’t know 1+1=2.” 

[ie. he commented this to note that he meant it sarcastically. ppl on the net didn’t believe him, sparking the next events...]  第二波：翟博士无c刊论文。网友通过知网查询，发现翟博士没有c刊论文，正规大学毕业一般都需要发论文。 翟博士轧戏无时间上学。网友分析翟博士博士期间的工作量，基本都在拍戏和活动，完全不符合全日制学生的在校时间。 翟博士工作室挽尊：“博士论文将由学校统一上传”，“通过函授、导师进组指导学习”。

the second wave: dr. zhai doesn’t have a paper in the CSSCI (a rather unhelpful wiki link provided, essentially the largest social science publication citation index in china + a measure by which a publication’s authenticity/accredibility is measured). netizens searched across CNKI and found that dr. zhai didn’t have any papers [cited] in the CSSCI, though according to usual university graduation standards, theses must be published [into the system].

dr. zhai had no time to attend class while filming. netizens analyzed dr. zhai’s workload during his phd program [2014-2018] and found that he was always either filming or doing promotional activities — there was no way he could have had time to attend full-time schooling during the semester.

his studio’s damage control: “[ztl’s] doctoral thesis will be organized and uploaded by his university,” “through correspondence [long-distance teaching], his advisor oversaw his studies”

第三波： 网友继续质疑没有c刊论文如何答辩。 粉丝拿翟博士唯一发表在《广电时评》文章挽尊，但被嘲笑不是c刊，又挽尊北电不一定用c刊。

the third wave: netizens continue to question — without a published thesis, how could he defend his dissertation?

fans tried to defend him with an essay he published in “广电时评” [a film-related magazine], but were mocked because that wasn’t a CSSCI publication. fans also tried to defend him saying that beijing film academy [where ztl got his phd] didn’t necessarily use CSSCI. 第四波：于妈下场。于妈发出对话截图，证明翟博士有十万字论文，且高达645k，赞他写的好。 网友质疑十万字论文怎么只有600多k，引用文献和开头学校图标都没有吗。 the fourth wave: mama yu [nickname for director yu zheng, notable for shows like story of yanxi palace + yin zheng’s upcoming winter begonia] appears. yu posts a screenshot of their chat history [with picture of attachments sent], proving that dr. zhai had a thesis w/ over 100,000 words, and a file size of over 645 kilobytes, praising that he wrote it well.

netizens call into question why a 100,000 word thesis is only ~600 kilobytes — was there no bibliography, or even a icon [ie. picture file which would increase file size dramatically] of his school[’s logo]?

[unfortunately... this didn’t really help his case, considering yu zheng has also been involved in controversy regarding plagiarism allegations many times]

第五波：同学被拖下水扒皮。与翟博士一起毕业的其他学生名单被翻出，网友挨个知网查询，均有3-5篇论文，有人非c刊。  电博士不用发c刊论文，含金量受质疑。

the fifth wave: classmates are pulled into the controversy + not spared. the list of the other classmates that graduated w/ dr. zhai was dug up. netizens searched each of them one by one on CNKI: they all had 3-5 papers, some didn’t have CSSCI publications.

beijing film academy’s phd students don’t need to publish CSSCI-level papers — beijing film academy’s academic standards are called into question.  第六波：翟博士抄袭。翟博士发表在《广电时评》的普通文章知网查重高达40%，抄袭十几年前的文章。 文章被抄袭的黄教授朋友圈回应“春晚饰演打假警察的人要我来打假”。 打脸工作室声明没有学术不端行为。

the sixth wave: dr. zhai’s plagiarism. the essay [mentioned earlier], published in 广电时评 was ran through CNKI and [supposedly] had a similarity rating of over 40%, with passages plagiarized from papers over ten years old.

professor huang li hua posted on his wechat: “the one who acted on 春晚 [lunar new year broadcast show] as someone exposing cops as fake has to be exposed by me as a fake.”

[ztl’s] studio officially announced that no academic dishonesty had taken place.

[huang later continued, translation from the south china morning post: “The celebrity’s management company claimed Zhai had no academic misconduct issues, but my essays a decade ago were copied paragraph by paragraph. The truth trumps his argument,” Huang wrote on the Chinese social media app WeChat.] 第七波：学术不端列���。四川大学将翟博士事件列为学术不端案例，几日后又删除。

the seventh wave: removal from “academic dishonesty” list. sichuan university listed dr. zhai’s case as an example of academic dishonesty, but deleted it after a few days. [link to the world’s worst screenshot] 第八波：导师被拖下水扒皮。翟博士导师被扒出，身为博导却是本科毕业！导师另一位弟子也无c刊论文。

the eighth case: [ztl’s] academic advisor is dragged into the controversy. dr. zhai’s advisor was dug up — he was appointed phd advisor, but had only an undergraduate degree! another one of this advisor’s students also didn’t have a CSSCI-level publication. 第九波：官媒发声。人民日报、共青团微博、紫光阁等官媒发表对翟博士的质疑。 北电回应：自查自纠小组成立。 北大回应：看北电查的怎么样根据规则处理。

the ninth wave: official state media starts reporting: people’s daily [newspaper], the communist youth league’s weibo, tower of purple light [magazine], etc. publish articles regarding the suspicion surrounding dr. zhai

beijing film academy’s response: an internal investigation committee has been established.

beijing university’s response: we will wait on beijing film academy’s investigation results, and then follow standard regulations to deal with this matter.

[ according to smcp: around this time, essay is also reported to have been taken down from CKNI ] 第十波：院长被拖下水扒皮。翟博士毕业答辩导师、北电表演系张院长被网友扒出五十多岁娶了自己的九零后学生刘某，也是杨紫同学，北电下制片厂投资两人演男女主角，找杨紫张一山关晓彤当配角，只获得75万票房。 the tenth wave: a university dean is pulled into the controversy. [one of the] advisors dr. zhai had to defend his dissertation against to graduate, dean zhang of beijing film academy’s acting school, is revealed to have married a student (surname liu) of his born in the 90′s(?), despite being over fifty himself. she was also a classmate of yang zi [this is very irrelevant but she’s a very famous post-90′s actress who graduated from beijing film academy. you might know her for being in ashes of love.] 

a movie production studio under beijing film academy invested in producing a movie where dean zhang + his wife liu were the male/female leads, getting yang zi, zhang yishan, and guan xiaotong [all v v v v famous] to play supporting roles, though it only made 750,000 at the box office.

[so i did some digging and it appears that this is the movie they’re talking about. again it’s mostly irrelevant if you ask me, but maybe you wanted to know. mostly the controversy is for like, taking a really young wife and then making beijing film academy pay for his romantic fantasy movie lol. 

what does this have to do with zhai tianlin? pretty much nothing tbh] 第十一波：北电侯亮平、阿廖沙再次被提起……北电的水有多深? 豆瓣赐翟博士新绰号：靖北侯。

the eleventh wave: previous allegations of professors’ sexual assault cases / misconduct brought back into question ... how much is beijing film academy hiding?

[ the specific cases they reference are 阿廖沙 and 侯亮平, both web names that anonymous posters used on weibo to report/investigate sexual assault allegations at beijing film academy. (the second name is a reference to a character in a tv show who’s a anti-corruption prosecutor); i can talk about those cases but it’d take a whole separate post — tl;dr anonymous poster shares account of sexual assault and ensuing ostracization from faculty/classmates when they tried to bring it to light and ultimately turned to weibo. it was a rly big trending topic for a while back in 2017. ]

douban confers on dr. zhai a new nickname: 靖北侯 

[the meaning, v. approx “peaceful north marquis” is a reference back to “平西王,” “peaceful west king/prince,” the nickname for 薄熙来 (bo xilai), a PRC politician sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption — obviously, the 北/bei also refers to beijing film/uni + 候 is a convenient callback to the previous anon investigator into beijing film sexual assault cases]

that was very very long. i hope this was somewhat helpful ;-; chinese social media has been blowing up about this, this is an attempt to capture some of the context. (this has been stressing me and my friends out as well — fingers crossed for ztl to get out of this unscathed.)

#zhai tianlin #translation #zhai tian lin #翟天临

[boaws]

BOAWS Top Records of 2018

20 – Bichkraft – 800 (Wharf Cat) You know, I've heard every Bichkraft record and up until 800 (the groups third) I didn't quite really know what to think of them other than...weird? I'd pretty much filed them away in a lump of experimental bands that I kind of dug, but I wasn't terribly sure what the angle was. It seems things have been a bit cleared up for me with 800, a record that is undoubtedly more refined than any of their previous, production wise. I imagine some of this can be attributed to recording with Merchandise member Carson Cox rather than a makeshift studio in a junk ridden field somewhere. However, the bands sound manages to keep a lot of the looseness of a group that would, in fact, record in such an aforementioned manner. I've never thought of Bichkraft to be much on the rhythmic side of things, but the songs on 800 are shockingly catchy at times and bounce along in a nice haphazard manner...even though I have no fucking clue what they are saying. I suppose it could be some really grim stuff, but the songs themselves wouldn't really ever reveal that. Nevertheless, their combination of post-punk and disjointed indie-rock is certainly an interesting one...in that it lies somewhere on the exteriors of both. There are times where I'm picturing late 80's or early 90's music videos with an over abundance of neon and hair for some reason...which may in fact be due to the vocals and the drum machine. It's almost like listening to A.R. Kane if they had been heavily influenced by no-wave. Like I said, interesting and I'm not real confident I've made much headway in figuring Bichkraft out, but at the very least 800 is a pretty good record. Bichkraft – Ashley (stream) BUY IT! 19 – Cloud Nothings – Last Building Burning (Carpark & Wichita) A band many are familiar with and one that has already appeared on these lists a couple times now already I believe. Cloud Nothings find themselves here again on the strengths of their fifth album that doesn't change the formula up much, other than possibly embracing the rawer aspect of their sound for an A-side that blows through five songs in a few minutes before opening up the B-side with the 11 minute “Dissolution”. They are the type of songs that Cloud Nothings have doled out before, but in a far more limited basis...or possibly in bits and pieces, however on Last Building Burning a good majority the album is consumed by that type of raucousness that had only been previously teased. The tunes still seem to incorporate a good amount of the hook heaviness of old, but one might have to dig a bit deeper beneath some of the chaos here to find it, which is fine by me. “Dissolution” ends up being an interesting track in its own, massively sized, right...wherein the band starts off in tried and true jagged fashion only to end up taking a break midway through for some improvisational noisy meandering/psychedelics before latching back on to each other to form a nice apex of noise/melody to cap it off. I'll hand it to them, Last Building Burning is an album that, in a way, I got what I expected but also came out a bit surprised as well. Cloud Nothings – Offer an End (stream) BUY IT! 18 – Gouge Away – Burnt Sugar (Deathwish Inc.) It took me awhile to get around to this one, and by that I mean I just heard it maybe three or so weeks ago, but that is just how things work with me sometimes. Anyway, Gouge Away do a lot of things well on Burnt Sugar. That's about as generic as a statement as one can make, right? But it's kind of true, especially when the takeaway with most is that they are a hardcore/punk band playing songs that are somewhere in between power chord driven noise-rock or 90's alternative and being able to blur the lines between all of that is commendable. How that's really any different than a lot of bands these days? I don't really know, but at the very least Gouge Away pull it together in a much tidier way for some memorable songs that do well in the way of being powerful and noisy enough satisfy my taste for aggro delights of 90's noise-rock. So if that's also your cup of tea, then Gouge Away will likely be of particular interest to you as well. Gouge Away – Fed Up (stream) BUY IT! 17 – Bush Tetras – Take the Fall (Wharf Cat) Another entry from Wharf Cat, which has sneakily become one of my most appreciated record labels over the past couple years. Although, I'd argue it's hard to miss on something like Bush Tetras, but good on them on at least having the initiative to release these five new jams. Dating all the way back to 1979, Bush Tetras material hasn't exactly been plentiful, but it HAS often been good and Take the Fall sees them return in a form that still has them right in step with anything they did during when they were in the thick of the NYC no-wave movement. There is a little more brute force to be found here, with a deep bass slink and a rainfall of atonal distortion that lurch along in a delightfully sleazy way while vocalist Cynthia Sley takes every opportunity to wrap her voice all around it. Take the Fall is every bit as jagged and poignant as any of their past material, but somewhat removed from the time of dub-esque/dance influenced rhythmic nature of their infancy...sitting more firmly in the post-punk camp, but still something that could have only been culled from a specific time and place. Bush Tetras – Red Heavy (stream) BUY IT! 16 – Hide – Castration Anxiety (Dais) There is generally an appeal to me, to some extent or another, for when a record functions primarily in such a primitive manner as one like Castration Anxiety does. Maybe even more so when it comes creeping out of the depths of the darker side of the industrial/electronic world, as Hide does...the duo of visual artist Heather Gabel and percussionist Seth Sher. The ingredients are relatively simple for the pairing, who throw together the monotonous pulse of heavy beats/percussion to largely drive this excursion into brute force, but decidedly steer it down a darker path thanks to the inclusion of some creative synth work. Occasionally dream-like, but probably more so in the nightmarish sense, the synth/electronics are often of the buzzing/scraping variety rather than the ethereal airy gothy qualities that a project like this may initially suggest. Nope. This is definitely more so about leather, dungeons and the sound of anything colliding with metal. And while it could be concluded that Hide had boiled everything down to the coldest possible fraction, there still lies Gabel's vocals which by the end of Castration Anxiety are such an inclusive part of the narrow singular vision at play, that it's easy to forget there is an actual person performing the constant moans and spoken mantras among it all. Dais always seems to do well in finding these particular types of releases, and this one can certainly be added to the list of winners. Hide – Wildfire (stream) BUY IT! 15 – Ian Sweet – Crush Crusher (Hardly Art) I got a late start on Ian Sweet, so late in fact that I completely missed the transition from solo project...to band...back to solo project. So, as it stands now, Ian Sweet is the solo work of Jilian Medford. I did get a chance to hear 2016's album Shapeshifter, however by that point I'm sure everything had already been shifted back to full solo mode. My initial thoughts on that album were a mixed one, a fun and somewhat catchy slab of indie-rock, but ultimately an album that didn't grab me a whole lot aside from a couple songs. However, on Crush Crusher things have dramatically veered towards deeper/interpersonal territory, dealing with issues of anxiety/depression among others. With that comes an album that is actually far more melodic and riff laden than prior heard, but on work as emotionally revealing as Crush Crusher it's not entirely surprising, as there is a lot being unearthed here in a therapeutic fashion. For Medford, I imagine even if Crush Crusher had been met with little to no response it wouldn't have mattered, as I highly doubt this album was really meant for anyone other than herself. Ian Sweet – Spit (stream) BUY IT! 14 – Marriage + Cancer – Marriage + Cancer (Self Sabotage) A Portland based band that showed up this past year with their debut album sporting some nice Texas Chainsaw Massacre inspired artwork on it. While some may be disappointed to learn that this self-titled first attempt isn't as grimy and sadistic as the aforementioned movie, Marriage + Cancer prove mighty capable of being one of those bands that can actually marry noise AND rock; not too clean but also not a room clearer either...although I've rarely turned my nose up at that as well. I think the Jesus Lizard thing gets bandied about with these guys for sure, I mean, I even mentioned it in the initial write up did for this record, but after hearing this over a full year it's almost as if Drive Like Jehu was forced to slow their asses down a bit and then things are just dirtied up some...which may be a large reason I like it as much as I do. I just love big loud ringing guitars, sure...feedback/distortion is pretty a-ok too, but something about that “sound” will always do it for me and Marriage + Cancer seem to have just that. Marriage + Cancer – Six Feet + A Box (stream) BUY IT! 13 – Big'n – Knife of Sin (Computer Students) When you want something done right then seek out someone who has plenty of experience doing the job. If the same can be said about noise-rock then Big'n would be a fine choice to employ. Having made most of their mark during the 90's with a number of singles/splits and two full-length albums, they didn't necessarily get the attention they likely deserved during their initial run throughout that decade. However, after getting back together a few years back now...that's slowly began to be rectified. For the uninitiated, Big'n provide a workman-like quality of noise that bands within the same region often did...like Tar and Shorty...meaning they were, and are undeniably, Midwestern sounding. Maybe one of the magnificent things about Big'n is that nearly 30 years later this band can sound 100% as they did at the very start and are absolutely undeterred in their approach. Essentially, it's a formula of razory guitar work and start/stop rhythms that worked for them then, and it works equally well for them now. It's even amazing how the singers vocals are no less raspy/strained. A time capsule of a band, but in the very best way. The packaging for this EP is absolutely ridiculous too and I love it. Comes in a giant silver zip-lock type case/bag that holds the actual record in a whole other sleeve. Pretty labor intensive I would have to guess, but it provides for a pretty spectacular whole package. When people try and argue why folks enjoy records over any other more convenient medium, I'll kindly (maybe not so kindly) direct them to Knife of Sin as an example as to why. Big'n – Snake Eater (stream) BUY IT! 12 – Viagra Boys – Street Worms (Year 0001) I can't even recall the number of times I watched the video for the track “Sports” on YouTube. I then made practically anyone I thought would even remotely care watch it. I apologize for likely being kind of insufferable there for a bit, but damn if that isn't a killer track and a great video to pair it up with. I guess these guys have been stirring it up for a bit now over in Sweden, but this past year was my first exposure to their brand of off-kilter post-punk, if that's even what one could call it, as there is plenty more going on here with everything from saxophone skronk, a consistent element of dance-punk, and near two minute skit of some absurd dog show. It would be easy to dismiss Viagra Boys as some foreign version of Electric Six, but that would be a fairly big disservice, as there is quite a bit more substance to their music underneath all the foolishness and imagery, to which there is a fairly precise and poignant message of co-existing with everyone else in an immoral society. Maybe one of the less disguised songs, “Worms” is a good indicator of that. No matter, Viagra Boys deliver on the promise of an excellent single with an album that provides more to digest than I think anyone really anticipated. Good stuff. Viagra Boys – Worms (stream) BUY IT! 11 – Casanovas in Heat – Twisted Steel, Sex Appeal (Katorga Works) Announced a couple years ago, Twisted Steel, Sex Appeal just now made it out this past year after a handful of delays that are both label related and just rockin' too fucking hard by the sound of it. While Casanovas in Heat have since disbanded during the albums stay in release purgatory, this is no less a great way to go out as Twisted Steel, Sex Appeal is a power pop gem that absolutely smokes through ten wonderful tracks. Riffs aplenty here folks, and they are cranked the hell up on top of that. It's a shame this couldn't have come out around the time it was originally designated as the album could have had a good chance of really taking off, but nevertheless things happen and you get what you get...and that is 100 copies of an album that kind of just eventually floated out there with little to no fanfare. Kudos to Katorga Works for seeing it through though, despite fates best efforts to crater it. For those that appreciate big melodic power/pop-punk, then this is an album that you have to absolutely track down. The more I listen, the better it gets honestly. I'm sure wherever I place it now won't do it justice a few months from now, which is kind of funny when I think about it in context with how this album was released, huh? Casanovas in Heat – Wet Dreams (stream) BUY IT! 10 – Wrong – Feel Great (Relapse) Wrong would have been one of my favorite bands when I was much younger, if they had in fact existed then. To say that nostalgia is a strong feeling is quite an understatement when I listen to their second album Feel Great, as drop-D taco riffing rock was king to me then, and still even now when I hear it done there are parts of me that get all teary eyed. Ok, probably not to that extent, but it does still stir me a bit and Wrong likely does it better than anyone out there right now...although I don't think there are a whole lot out there to count. While Feel Great doesn't quite capture me like their debut album did, it's still quite the fun and heavy ride through its ten tightly spun tracks. At the very least it helps me forget about the atrocities of post-Stanier/Bogdan era Helmet. So yeah. Wrong – Upgrade (stream) BUY IT! 09 – Pinkshinyultrablast – Miserable Miracles (Club AC30 & Shelflife) I remember writing about an Air Formation album years ago and then got an e-mail from Club AC30 grilling me about how I got the album and so on. Never mind that I enjoyed it and wrote positively about it, but that's cool. No hard feelings right? I'll even consider it kind of making amends by having the good sense in releasing this fantastic nugget of dream-pop/synth-wave/what-have-you from Russia's Pinkshinyultrablast. They are a band that has shown considerable steps forward from album to album, which is honestly quite rare within the shoegaze/dream-pop genre, thanks to a sound that has been so definitively mapped out. Pinkshinyultrablast seem to pay little attention to that on the groups third album Miserable Miracles, by moving towards a more heavily synth based sound that sees the washes of guitar and fuzz take second fiddle to a myriad of dreamy tones and pulsing bass. Undoubtedly a bit influenced by the meteoric rise of vapor/synth-wave (one look at the cover art could have given that away), the band incorporates it well without it ever becoming a tacky or glaring needless inclusion...in fact it sounds as natural as anything they've done before. It's a brighter sound, one not muddled in distortion like past albums, but open and airy...and one that strives to drive the ethereal factor into the red. Miserable Miracles honestly reminds me a lot of the Rumskib album that came out a few years ago and then the number of Keith Canisius solo records that followed it. Those that wish to spend a day in the clouds, this is an album that wants to take you there. Pinkshinyultrablast – Find Your Saint (stream) BUY IT! 08 – Criminal Code – 2534 (Deranged) Didn't see a whole lot on this one, but I quite enjoyed the third effort from Criminal Code, an album that sports cover art that would lead me to believe this was released sometime in the 80's on 4AD. And actually, that's not a bad place to start with 2534, because the band has apparently jettisoned a lot of the jagged straight forward post-punk styling of previous records to drape things in a much darker, but dreamier state of mind. Can't argue with the results though, as Criminal Code take a ride through some of the same musical landscape as The Sound and The Chameleons did before them, certainly presenting more a more melodical side of the band than anyone has likely heard before. At almost a dead even thirty minutes, there is very little dead weight that can be found on 2534, efficiently honing in on the sound they wanted and executing it to a T. While maybe not getting the fan fare of other bands that Deranged have put out over the years, Criminal Code has proven to be a consistently good one and that's worth noting in a pool of post-punk revivalists that at this point is likely as big as the Pacific ocean. Criminal Code – The Subject (stream) BUY IT! 07 – Ovlov – Tru (Exploding in Sound) For a time there, albeit a small one, it didn't seem like there would ever be another Ovlov album. The band had pretty much garnered themselves the reputation of the equivalent to the couple in high school that would be together one week but “done” the next. You honestly never knew if Ovlov was a band or not, and at one point it seemed like they were actually fiirreeal done. However, here we are a couple years later and things have actually been pretty stable in the Ovlov camp after putting out a singles comp and some touring, Tru came upon the listening world late this past year with about as much anticipation from me as you're about to get. For the most part I'd say I'm pretty happy with Tru, it's definitely a bit of a different beast than Am, but all the warmth/thick fuzziness that engulfed me originally is all here...just deployed in a slightly different...tender manner. And maybe a lot of that has to do with Steve Hartlett dealing with the tribulations of handling a full-time band and maybe some overflow from his more introspective side-project Stove. Either way, Tru hits the mark of all the 90's indie/alt fuzz that made that decade so special. Ovlov – Stick (stream) BUY IT! 06 – Exhalants – Exhalants (Self-Sabotage) The Xerox-ish cover art on the debut album from Exhalants had me under the impression that this was going to be some pretty wild noise-punk stuff. While what I received was in fact “noisy”, Exhalants are a far different band than those preconceptions, and while calling Austin, TX their home...almost seem like an anomaly for the area too. Oddly enough, this album sounds mighty upper Midwestern and for a noise-rock band, they are packing a metric ton of melody and riffs into their debut. It's interesting to hear an album that rides a fine line between big sweeping rock elements, but at the same time has the sound and appearance of one that is as every bit grime/filth ridden. Buildings are another band that comes to mind that were close to doing the same thing, but at times are just too polished around the edges to pull it off. Exhalants aren't afraid to cross that threshold of “noise”. And guess what? It turned out great for them. Exhalants – Latex (stream) BUY IT! 05 – Slow Crush – Aurora (Holy Roar) Huge sounding grunge/alternative infused shoegaze...there is a record like this every single year that I fall in love with. The year before it was Lacing, the year before that it was the list topper from Sigh Down One and so on. You could say I'm kind of a sucker for this kind of stuff and that's perfectly fine as I fully own up to it. The draw has always been a contrast between the dream like state that shoegaze tries to emulate into sound but also tying it to a feeling of heaviness. I've probably said it before, but Lilys on In the Presence of Nothing did it about as well as anyone ever will. It's entirely possible to create heavy music but not make it “ugly”, so to speak. So yeah, the allure is a sound akin to what Slow Crush manages to do and a handful of other bands have done over the years. The opener “Glow” is a pretty fantastic track that I kind of wish was a little more representative of Aurora as a whole, but the album steadies itself after that to slow things down for the most part, opting for a little more on atmosphere and swirling feedback. Still, a really nice slice of shoegaze. Slow Crush – Glow (stream) BUY IT! 04 – Conduit – Drowning World (Kitschy Spirit) Like how I go from talking about heavy music not necessarily needing to be ugly? Well, this is ugly. Really really ugly in fact. Ever wanted to know what happened to some of the dudes in Twin Stumps? Your answer somewhat lies in Conduit, which contains a couple of them along with a couple other guys from White Suns and Squad Car. Together they create a similar racket to that of many of the members prior bands...namely Twin Stumps, to which Conduit proudly hoist the torch in the air and trudge forward with their misery stricken lurch of decaying feedback while fishing around in there every so often for a riff or two to whip out and surprise everyone. They even go as far to occasionally throw in an every so brief ambient spot of noise in there just for good measure. One of the definite takeaways from Drowning World is that it might be some of the most uncompromisingly violent sounding music that any of the members have been apart of so far. It's truly a disturbingly disgusting sounding record and I pretty much love every second of it. Even if that's not your cup of tea, it's hard not to hand it to them as they are grinding on with this stuff even after the whole noise-rock revival thing kind of fell off and I can't really imagine there being as big of a receptive audience to it anymore. It's ok though, because I still think Rusted Shut is pretty awesome and it's evident that most of the members of Conduit do too. Of all the records on this list, Drowning World is probably the one the planet deserves the most right now. Conduit – A Hex (stream) BUY IT! 03 – Barlow – In a Strangers Car (Crafted Sounds) So In a Strangers Car was technically released around July...a couple years ago, but I didn't hear it until early last year and it didn't see much in the way of a physical release until then either, so to hell with it...it counts. That and it's far too good to not be in some type of best of list, so I'm parking it firmly here and happy to rain praise for it once again. I don't know if Barlow choose to exist in indie lo-fi obscurity, but their music deserves far more attention than it gets, that I can say for certain. With In a Strangers Car the band throws together a handful of tracks that were recorded over a several year period. In most cases, the patch work like recording process would yield head scratching results, but Barlow soundly weave these tracks together in a way that plays out in the same manner as a fever dream of whirring fuzz and hiss...stops, starts, rewinding and rumbling warbles before songs peak their head out for a minute before vanishing from your memory forever (or until you listen to the record again I guess). I make it through four songs and it feels like I've already heard bits and pieces of at least ten, however it somehow makes sense and trying to pick apart why almost seems silly. The only real option is to just sit back and enjoy it. Barlow – Tirebiter (stream) BUY IT! 02 – Olden Yolk – Olden Yolk (Trouble in Mind) I knew there was something familiar about this record when I first heard it, but obviously my mind kept firing but never connecting the dots. Naturally I turned to everyone's best friend Google and some quick searching there turned up that Olden Yolk was originally a side solo project for Quilt's Shane Butler. Tada! Answer found. I, for the most part, dug Quilt's easy breezy mixture of vaguely psych/folk and dream-pop and Butler's singing on those records only added to the distinct smoothness of it. Olden Yolk have since developed into a full band and this would mark as their debut album, which presents a lot of the same characteristics that would be familiar to Butler, however takes a noticeably larger dive into folk territory. This especially isn't too surprising, given that Quilt's last release was a full on cover album of the brilliant F.J. McMahon classic Spirit of the Golden Juice. The formula works equally well with Olden Yolk, however, possibly even better I would argue. The band might be basing themselves in folk roots, but the success of the album largely stems from the ranges/reaches of the smaller influences that have worked their way in; blurring the image with touches of psych fuzz and drumming that would certainly be a bit unorthodox on any other record. But that combination is what pushes the album outside the box, and at this point, that's the kind of album I want to hear. Olden Yolk – Common Ground (stream) BUY IT! 01 – Fond Han – Wronked (Exploding in Sound) Maybe it was just the whole of 2018 and my abysmal handling of everything concerning my life during those 365 days, but upon hearing Fond Han and their latest album Wronked, it struck me as entirely relatable. As is Wronked, things were at a constant push-pull between chaos and hibernating lulls, the struggles of depression and anxiety are real folks. There have been many albums over the years that have bravely documented such struggles, however I guess Wronked just came at the right time. Not to say it isn't a great album in its own right, because it most certainly is. Fond Han is essentially the brain child of Thomas Baumann, who took what could be considered unfinished ideas/loose ends and expanded on them, or tied them together, to create this ultimately dark but revealing look into ones very own psyche. Not at all surprising, is to find out that the sounds of that are fragmented, uneven, and extremely unpredictable...almost to the point of being full on excursions into noise. There is no real “ebb and flow” to Wronked, because there just can't be. That's not how it works. The escalation of panic and fear isn't a gradual one and Fond Han frames it as such by taking hard 90 degree left turns from the steadily, albeit loose, melodies into heaping low end/feedback that has a hardcore/metalcore slant to it...think Daughters or very early Dillinger Escape Plan. It's likely that Wronked will be highly divisive in opinion, but love it or hate it...it's a fascinating piece of work and one that helps substantially sum up what was a predominately a lost year for me. Fond Han – Dumpty (stream) BUY IT!

#top20 #bestof

[greatreviewreview]

The Best Garden Tillers According to Hyperenthusiastic Reviewers

Here at the Strategist, we like to think of ourselves as crazy (in the good way) about the stuff we buy, but as much as we’d like to, we can’t try everything. Which is why we have People’s Choice, in which we find the best-reviewed products and single out the most convincing ones. (You can learn more about our rating system and how we pick each item here.)

And while we’ve written about lots of landscaping gear before — including garden hoses and leaf blowers — here, we’ve rounded up the best garden tillers as praised by the most enthusiastic reviewers on Amazon.

More than 40 percent of reviewers describe this electric garden tiller as powerful. One reviewer, who used this on a flower bed that hadn’t been tended to in decade, said, “It powered through everything, the roots of old rosemary shrubs, weed stems, larger chunks of old mulch, it ground them all up and dug deep into the dirt and mixed it all up nice.” Another reviewer, working with hard clay soil, writes, “It practically cut through concrete and was able to go to a depth of 6-8.” But reviewers with soft soil like it too: “The soil itself was fairly soft and unchallenging, but even at that, I was shocked at how quickly this tiller busted it up into a surprisingly fluffy soil.” Many also say it’s easy to operate and appreciate that it comes almost completely assembled. Plus, it’s electric, which is a huge selling point for many. “Unlike my gas ones though, it’s easy to turn it off, and it actually starts right back up again, doesn’t stink, and you don’t run out of gas halfway through … so far has made short, albeit back breaking, work of tilling up my garden,” explains one reviewer. The only fear one reviewer has is that it has “almost has too much power, so you have to be careful when you hit a rock or thick root as you can break a tine or overheat the motor; but the quick release stop works great.”

“I didn’t have high expectations for this product considering its low price, it being electric, and the toughness of the dirt where I live,” writes one reviewer, but their fears were eased once this tiller arrived. “As soon as I pressed the power button, this thing took off like a rocket. I live in north Georgia, right at the North Carolina line and our soil here isn’t all that friendly when it comes to landscaping or digging because of the thick red clay and large natural stones. This tiller dug in without any issue.” And much like our best-rated tiller, this one from Earthwise also gets a lot of praise for its smaller size, especially for those with small gardens or flower beds. “Used this to till for a 20x20 foot wildflower plot,” one reviewer writes. “Did a great job of cutting through the fairly thin turf and the clay soil, tilling down a few inches.” Another says, “It was very easy to put together and has just the right amount of power needed in a flower bed.” And one says, “There is enough power to even work through the hard clay we have.” The flip side, however, is that “It takes more passes than a full size tiller because it is small, but overall I still think it was easier because it is just so easy to use.”

“This thing really is the little roto-tiller that could,” one reviewer writes of this Sun Joe machine. “We have VERY heavy clay soil that is full of rocks/stones and roots ranging from pencil thickness to several inches in diameter. This bad boy took it all on no problem. It simply chucks the rocks out of the way.” And though it looks like a toy, one reviewer swears, “This machine is a BEAST. I tilled up a hundred square feet of rock-hard ground that is a clay and river cobble mixture to a depth of six to eight inches in short order.” Many say this is also the ideal tiller for a small garden. “My vegetable garden is about 20 by 35, it is a rear tine tiller for something around that size,” one says, while another used it to till their 360-square-foot “garden area in an hour or less.” And while many reviewers prefer electric tillers to gas ones because they don’t require multiple cranks to start up and you don’t have to fuss with mixing gas and oil to fuel it, one downside is needing to plug in with a cord. However, it’s not a dealbreaker. As one reviewer explains, “The cord is a pain, but I have found a way to control it and don’t have to worry about having enough gas in the gas cans.”

This Sun Joe electric garden tiller is nearly the same as the one previously mentioned, but it’s got a slightly more powerful motor with 13.5 amps, rather than 12. And according to one reviewer, “No regrets paying more for the 13.5 amp motor.” They describe it as a beast, explaining, “My backyard had a mulched area that was kept in disarray by the previous owner. I wanted to get rid of the iris, weed and other undesirable plants. This tiller shredded the area pulling out the weed and the roots.” Others agree that the extra power gets any size job done. “I tilled ground that was clay and compacted with rocks, buried pieces of wood, fabric pieces decomposing, beer bottles,” one writes, adding, “The tiller cut through this like butter.” Another says, “I did an area about 40x25 in no time on our first nice day, and it never lacked for power.” And even though it packs a punch, it is still easy to handle, according to more than a quarter of reviewers. One reports it “handles as easily as a vacuum cleaner albeit more bouncy.” One word of warning, since this tiller is not cordless: You’ll need “AT LEAST a 14-gauge extension cord … Long runs over 50-feet will need 12-gauge which isn’t cheap but nice cables to have anyways.”

While reviewers admit this tiller isn’t powerful enough to break through new ground, they do say it’s ideal for mixing up soil in their flower beds. “I have 200 sq ft of 4x4 raised beds and this is perfect for turning over the soil in the whole box or just a space between plants,” says one reviewer. Another who calls this “a kitchen mixing machine for the soil” says, “It’s not a tractor, it instead is great for breaking up soil in one spot, like if you want to plant something like a rose bush and you need to break up the soil and/or mix in soil amendments.” Another compares it to an egg-beater, because “it loosens dirt adequately to about a 4-inch depth and keeps me off my aging knees.” The fact that it’s cordless keeps this tiller lightweight and easy-to-operate, too. Reviewers say batteries last between 30 minutes and an hour, enough for these smaller projects, though one reports that one charge “made it for 2+ thorough passes of a 15X3 ft space.”

“This little machine will dig to China if you let it,” says one reviewer, and 75 percent of reviewers give this Mantis gas tiller five stars. One reviewer, with “decades of experience with Mantis tillers,” says, “You really can convert an established lawn into a plantable bed without first scraping off the sod” with this thing. Another says that despite the power, it’s still “very easy to make it till or cultivate.” They continue, “Rocks I couldn’t see did not stop this mean machine.” And while some note it works in their small gardens, others have taken this to their entire backyard: “We did an entire backyard border with the Mantis tiller and it did an amazingly excellent job of prepping the soil. It was powerful, dug deep for planting shrubs and whatever we wanted. Cleaning it is a breeze and its light weight makes it very enjoyable to use.” As for fuel, one user says, “I can till my entire garden on less than a tank.”

“It is light, but, man, does it dig in,” one reviewer says of this four-cycle gas tiller. One says it’s “Great for gardening, installing landscaping beds, trenching for rock borders, Hell, I even used mine to dig a 3-foot deep trench for a drain-tiled downspout.” The main advantage of this four-cycle tiller, compared to the two-cycle above, is that it doesn’t require a mix of oil and gas. That means the set-up is pretty quick. “Thirty minutes out of the box to tines in the ground. Oiled, gassed up, and primed, it started on the second pull; bonus, it’s quiet,” one reviewer writes. Another says it “has the torque and ease of operation wrapped into one unit,” and others say it also offers more control. “It really digs in when tilling and In an established garden, you can get right in around your plants without destroying half the garden.”

Bob Crewe is an expert on garden tillers, but when he needed one at his suburban Chicago home, he rented it.

That's about to change.

"This might be the season when I finally pick one up," said Crewe, who works for Power Equipment Direct, an online home equipment store. "If you already have one waiting for you, you're more apt to go out and get to it."

The advantages of owning or renting a mini tractor -- or its smaller cousin, a cultivator -- are many.

Tillers and cultivators are useful for turning soil, mixing in compost and fertilizer for soil amendment and loosening soil to help water reach plant roots.

Gardeners are firing up their tillers now to prepare flower beds and vegetable gardens for planting. This year's early spring has brought strong demand for tillers, said Joseph Cohen, CEO of Snow Joe, a garden equipment company headquartered in Edison, N.J.

"No one expected to be in the garden this early. I've never seen demand this early," Cohen said.

In summer, tillers and cultivators can weed between vegetable rows, said Barbara Hastings, senior manager of marketing and communication for Troy-Bilt brand of outdoor equipment. The company is headquartered in Valley City.

Come fall, tillers plough garden waste back into the soil to decompose over the winter, Hastings said.

Many homeowners like to rent a tiller just for a few hours, and let someone else deal with maintenance and storage. Fees at tool rental companies can run from $29 for a two-hour rental of a small tiller up to $85 for a 24-hour rental of a large unit. Rental companies typically ask for a deposit.

But, when you rent a tiller, transportation is your headache. That means lifting a heavy unit in and out of the car, and protecting the car trunk from dirt and mud, Crewe said. You may also need to wash and dry the tiller before returning it.

If you rent a tiller every year, the fees will soon equal what a new tool would cost. Plus, owning a tiller means no more working with one eye on the clock.

[tonpower91-blog]

Freelance Friday 046 – March 15 2019

This week, the family was sick again. As I write this I only slept a few hours, and some of them were on the couch so I didn’t disturb my wife more as I tossed and turned.

Last week I mentioned thinking about a content change, well it’s going to happen. Watch for a video next week as I talk about what’s going on with my content in the future.

If you’ve found my content helpful then new in 2019 I’ve opened up a Patreon page. You can help ensure that more helpful content keeps coming.

I Shipped

Monday I walked you through my GoRuck GR1 and what I’ve liked about it in the 2 years I’ve had the bag. In short, if you’re looking for a great all around bag, then this is a solid option. You’ll want a few packing cubes to provide some extra organization but it’s a sturdy bag that won’t let you down.

Wednesday I brought you along for a workout as I rode/ran/rode to a local mountain in the cold. Since then we’ve had snow and yesterday was 15C. The weather is crazy.

Friday Five

1. You Focus on what you don’t have

Oliver Burkeman for The Guardian:

When you don’t have enough of something, you fixate on it, so it occupies much more mental bandwidth. If you’re not sure you’ll have enough money to feed your family all this month, you have an obvious problem, but also a non-obvious one: the toll on your mental resources, research suggests, will undermine your ability to make wise spending decisions, damaging your chances of escaping your predicament.

Probably one of the hardest chunks of my marriage was 2017 and 2018 as we worked so hard to figure out every month how to even come close to the household expenses. We spent so much time arguing over money and being stressed about it. Having a bit of slack in the system (where I can look forward and we’re paid for a few months with cash in the bank) is nice.

I want to make 2019 the year of space, which is really what the article is about. This is one reason I spend 4 hours Friday afternoon doing whatever strikes my fancy. Maybe writing short pieces like this, maybe trolling the library. How about some sushi and a coffee with a book. Why not take a long walk home to explore a few random streets.

Those few hours on Friday are some of the best hours of the week. They’re certainly the ones I look forward to most.

Sure, I can resolve to leave work early on Friday to spend an hour strolling in the park – I’m lucky to have that option – but when it comes to Friday afternoon itself, any mildly urgent task will prove more powerful than my initial intention, and I’ll end up rooted to my desk.

This is why I ignore my email on Friday and never plan to work then. It’s been about 8 years I’ve been telling clients I have a standing Friday meeting. It’s with me, but it still communicates my lack of availability for anything.

2. I need to get back to book reviews

This goes with the upcoming content change.

Thomas Oppong:

Learning comes down to two things: repetition, and connecting new information to existing knowledge.

And

Learn for 50% of the time and explain what you learn for 50% of the time.

You’ll notice a lack of book reviews. I haven’t stopped reading but with attempting to see what’s up with YouTube I haven’t had time to review the books I’m reading.

I talked to my Patreon members today about cutting my quantity of content to go deep. I’d guess that this would go with the books I’m reading, or at least the topics would jump off the ideas found in the books I’m reading.

I certainly feel like I have less understanding of the books I’m reading right now. This is not a good thing.

How do you make sure you retain what you learn?

3. On Hybrid Digital and Analog Task Management

If you’re looking for a solution for this, check out this thread in The Productivity Guild. I do a hybrid system, which I wrote about in Analogue Productivity, and showed off in my March planning video.

4. I keep grabbing my phone

Kevin Rose for The New York Times:

For the rest of the week, I became acutely aware of the bizarre phone habits I’d developed. I noticed that I reach for my phone every time I brush my teeth or step outside the front door of my apartment building, and that, for some pathological reason, I always check my email during the three-second window between when I insert my credit card into a chip reader at a store and when the card is accepted.

I keep finding that having my phone in my pocket is a terrible thing. I reach for it in a minute of boredom and I don’t even have social media or email on it. I do check RSS feeds just in case someone has written something excellent.

I’m working to remember to put my phone in my bag loose with the rest of my stuff so that I have to put my bag down and fish it out to do anything with it.

If you’re looking for a good read on cutting screen time then I just finished Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport and very much enjoyed it’s balanced approach to getting away from the pull of the screen. Yes, I’ll be writing more on it in the next while.

5. Jason Snell on iOS Roadblocks

From Jason:

As I wrote earlier this month, I ended up finishing my Six Colors Report Card story on the Mac because I ran into several roadblocks when I tried to finish the project on my iPad.

He has a bunch of minor things that he couldn’t “just do” on an iPad and so…he went back to macOS. I think his last paragraph is telling though.

This is perhaps my final lesson from this process : That I can work around most, if not all, of the roadblocks that iOS places in front of me. It might take an app I’ve never heard about, a feature of an app I rarely use, or hours of hacking together scripts based on code samples found in Google searches, but I can probably make it work. That’s not necessarily an endorsement—in the end it was far easy for me to go back to the Mac, where I’ve assembled all the tools I need to do my job over more than two decades. It’s a reminder that as appealing as working on my iPad is, there are still rough areas that I’m much more comfortable handling on my Mac.

As I read this section it seems a bit like you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Not that I’m implying Jason can’t learn, but that he has already solved all these issues on his Mac over the decade of working on it and learning to solve them again seems like way too much work.

We all fall into that space in different places. Where we once dug deep into something, we have stopped digging and are happy with whatever we have. Learning has stopped unless forced upon us.

Source: https://curtismchale.ca/2019/03/15/freelance-friday-046-march-15-2019/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

[pipeact12-blog]

Freelance Friday 046 – March 15 2019

This week, the family was sick again. As I write this I only slept a few hours, and some of them were on the couch so I didn’t disturb my wife more as I tossed and turned.

Last week I mentioned thinking about a content change, well it’s going to happen. Watch for a video next week as I talk about what’s going on with my content in the future.

If you’ve found my content helpful then new in 2019 I’ve opened up a Patreon page. You can help ensure that more helpful content keeps coming.

I Shipped

Monday I walked you through my GoRuck GR1 and what I’ve liked about it in the 2 years I’ve had the bag. In short, if you’re looking for a great all around bag, then this is a solid option. You’ll want a few packing cubes to provide some extra organization but it’s a sturdy bag that won’t let you down.

Wednesday I brought you along for a workout as I rode/ran/rode to a local mountain in the cold. Since then we’ve had snow and yesterday was 15C. The weather is crazy.

Friday Five

1. You Focus on what you don’t have

Oliver Burkeman for The Guardian:

When you don’t have enough of something, you fixate on it, so it occupies much more mental bandwidth. If you’re not sure you’ll have enough money to feed your family all this month, you have an obvious problem, but also a non-obvious one: the toll on your mental resources, research suggests, will undermine your ability to make wise spending decisions, damaging your chances of escaping your predicament.

Probably one of the hardest chunks of my marriage was 2017 and 2018 as we worked so hard to figure out every month how to even come close to the household expenses. We spent so much time arguing over money and being stressed about it. Having a bit of slack in the system (where I can look forward and we’re paid for a few months with cash in the bank) is nice.

I want to make 2019 the year of space, which is really what the article is about. This is one reason I spend 4 hours Friday afternoon doing whatever strikes my fancy. Maybe writing short pieces like this, maybe trolling the library. How about some sushi and a coffee with a book. Why not take a long walk home to explore a few random streets.

Those few hours on Friday are some of the best hours of the week. They’re certainly the ones I look forward to most.

Sure, I can resolve to leave work early on Friday to spend an hour strolling in the park – I’m lucky to have that option – but when it comes to Friday afternoon itself, any mildly urgent task will prove more powerful than my initial intention, and I’ll end up rooted to my desk.

This is why I ignore my email on Friday and never plan to work then. It’s been about 8 years I’ve been telling clients I have a standing Friday meeting. It’s with me, but it still communicates my lack of availability for anything.

2. I need to get back to book reviews

This goes with the upcoming content change.

Thomas Oppong:

Learning comes down to two things: repetition, and connecting new information to existing knowledge.

And

Learn for 50% of the time and explain what you learn for 50% of the time.

You’ll notice a lack of book reviews. I haven’t stopped reading but with attempting to see what’s up with YouTube I haven’t had time to review the books I’m reading.

I talked to my Patreon members today about cutting my quantity of content to go deep. I’d guess that this would go with the books I’m reading, or at least the topics would jump off the ideas found in the books I’m reading.

I certainly feel like I have less understanding of the books I’m reading right now. This is not a good thing.

How do you make sure you retain what you learn?

3. On Hybrid Digital and Analog Task Management

If you’re looking for a solution for this, check out this thread in The Productivity Guild. I do a hybrid system, which I wrote about in Analogue Productivity, and showed off in my March planning video.

4. I keep grabbing my phone

Kevin Rose for The New York Times:

For the rest of the week, I became acutely aware of the bizarre phone habits I’d developed. I noticed that I reach for my phone every time I brush my teeth or step outside the front door of my apartment building, and that, for some pathological reason, I always check my email during the three-second window between when I insert my credit card into a chip reader at a store and when the card is accepted.

I keep finding that having my phone in my pocket is a terrible thing. I reach for it in a minute of boredom and I don’t even have social media or email on it. I do check RSS feeds just in case someone has written something excellent.

I’m working to remember to put my phone in my bag loose with the rest of my stuff so that I have to put my bag down and fish it out to do anything with it.

If you’re looking for a good read on cutting screen time then I just finished Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport and very much enjoyed it’s balanced approach to getting away from the pull of the screen. Yes, I’ll be writing more on it in the next while.

5. Jason Snell on iOS Roadblocks

From Jason:

As I wrote earlier this month, I ended up finishing my Six Colors Report Card story on the Mac because I ran into several roadblocks when I tried to finish the project on my iPad.

He has a bunch of minor things that he couldn’t “just do” on an iPad and so…he went back to macOS. I think his last paragraph is telling though.

This is perhaps my final lesson from this process : That I can work around most, if not all, of the roadblocks that iOS places in front of me. It might take an app I’ve never heard about, a feature of an app I rarely use, or hours of hacking together scripts based on code samples found in Google searches, but I can probably make it work. That’s not necessarily an endorsement—in the end it was far easy for me to go back to the Mac, where I’ve assembled all the tools I need to do my job over more than two decades. It’s a reminder that as appealing as working on my iPad is, there are still rough areas that I’m much more comfortable handling on my Mac.

As I read this section it seems a bit like you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Not that I’m implying Jason can’t learn, but that he has already solved all these issues on his Mac over the decade of working on it and learning to solve them again seems like way too much work.

We all fall into that space in different places. Where we once dug deep into something, we have stopped digging and are happy with whatever we have. Learning has stopped unless forced upon us.

Source: https://curtismchale.ca/2019/03/15/freelance-friday-046-march-15-2019/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

[lostsummerdayz]

Castle Point Anime Convention Wrap-Up!

Castle Point Anime Convention is in the books! It surely indeed was one for the books as well, coming from someone who has not attended Castle Point in literal years. Try...2012 to be exact. Seven years passes by so flipping fast. To think, the last time I was at this convention was back when I was a mere nineteen year old! Regardless, time flies and as we get older and we evolve, so too must our conventions that we attend. If conventions do not improve of evolve, then they will never last for the long term. Rather dire things to say for an opening to a wrap-up post, but it’s how I personally feel on the matter. It’s a challenge for grassroots conventions to pull it off, but for those who do, the payoffs are grand. In Castle Point’s case, they have pulled it off. They have evolved greatly from the small yet modest “college con” that I recall attending way back when.

KDA Akali by projectxayah and KDA Evelynn by melanubis

As such, to end this foreword, I’ll be making some comparisons to the last time I attended CPAC back in 2012, to now, throughout this article. It’s going to be quite a lengthy read, so strap in everyone!

The Meadowlands Expo venue was simple to arrive with no issues on our end. A simple fifteen-minute-at-best-half-hour-at-worse-due-to-traffic bus ride from Port Authority was all that was needed to arrive. The bus stop even lets you off directly in front of the convention center itself! Here is where I can immediately talk about how helpful the staff was towards myself and the rest of the podcast. When we needed help as far as knowing where to go and con assistance in general, everyone was able to help, but, there weren’t any crowding that I noticed as well. Lines were handled well, and the Dealer’s Room/Artist Alley, places where there’s known to be a packed pandemonium, was handled well. Mainly this was due in part to there being a designated entrance and a designated exit. Take notes future cons!

As the time drew nearer for the gates to be open, the hall slowly but surely filled itself with various cosplayers, attendees wearing gaming and anime inspired apparel, and soon enough the events began.

One of the first events was a maid performance, made to kick off the opening of the anime convention. It certainly had set the tone for the convention for sure, where one could hear it in ambiance even if they weren’t there to physically attend.

After the opening ceremonies concluded, I was left to explore the event as it were. One of the first stops I take in any convention is within the game room, so to speak. Majority of the games featured, due in part from the Snow Phoenix team, in the game room below are games in which I have played at least once, play on a regular at the local arcade, or games in which I never had played before (Or ever will play outside of cons)

Regardless of which category the games fell under, it’s always fun to go back to these games from time to time. Free play is just a bonus in all honesty. My personal favorite of the games featured here had to have been Sound Voltex, always a fine game in my book. The second being Crossbeats, a touch based rhythm game which, sadly, development ceased as of last year. It’s still a great game to go back to from time to time.

Another portion of the game room were console setups. These had a slew of fighting games ranging from the Street Fighter Collection to Mortal Kombat 11, Soul Calibur 6 to Tekken 7, and of course an entire section of CRT televisions dedicated to Melee. Tournaments were held throughout the weekend, which, unfortunately I didn’t make it as far as I would have liked. However, those who I had met were friendly enough to me.

Back on the topic of rhythm games, I had attended a rhythm game panel that was being presented later on that afternoon. The convention was split into two venues. The main venue, at the Meadowlands Expo, had the main events while the Holiday Inn had the extra panels. This was where the Rhythm Game panel was held.

Held by RhythmCore Gaming, the rhythm game panel spoke about the history of rhythm games, mainly focusing on Bemani games, as well as touching upon mobile rhythm games briefly as well. For those reading who aren’t aware of what a “Bemani” is, essentially it’s the rhythm game division of Konami. Familiar titles include Dance Dance Revolution, Beatmania IIDX, Sound Voltex, Pop’n Music, and so much more.

All in all, as far as presentation, it was a well run panel. From a technical standpoint, the Castle Point staff made sure all equipment that were in use were running well, as far as projectors for example. Crowd control was also handled quite well, to avoid overflow. From the panelist’s standpoint, I feel they had gotten the gist of what each game is and how they play. Being slightly critical, I feel some of those who were assigned to talk about a specific game went more in depth with their game than others, but I know more than anyone the challenge of running a rhythm game panel.

See, way back in 2013, I, too, ran a rhythm game panel at a convention that has long since been discontinued. A good friend of mine and I both ran the panel, yet, with technical difficulties due to the inability of the staff to assist us, as well as not informing the panel ahead of us that we were running late due to the technical difficulties, the experience gave me more of a headache than I’d like to admit.

An awesome ass couple cosplay that, sadly, did not have any social media :( I still dug it!

However, this is where I can once again praise the Castle Point staff for being on top of making sure the panel ran smoothly. I can also give respect to the RhythmCore Gaming group for tackling on a subject to appeal to a crowd that may look at an arcade rhythm game in fear and confusion. I suppose I admit I attended this panel to see how others would tackle such a topic. I give the panel a “Certified Nay’s Thumb Up.”

For the rest of the convention, I had made sure to try to get my fill in of taking pictures of as many cosplayers as I found whom caught my eye, all of whom you’ll see throughout this post. One in particular who caught my eye was a Kasumi cosplayer.

Kasumi from Persona 5 Royale by ZodiacKind

See, again, for the reader who may not know this about me. I am a huge Persona fan. When I had heard news that Persona 5 Royale was a thing and I had saw the trailer earlier that same week, I was hoping that the cosplay community would work fast.

The cosplay community would not disappoint me.

This cosplayer deserves special mention just for having this at the ready so quickly, so, for that I appreciate this so much!

Another cosplayer who I felt deserved an honorable mention was a woman who was a very good Sub-Zero, but also earlier that weekend she was Kratos. I had the chance to interview her as Sub-Zero in which the video can be found below.

Sub-Zero by Amarys Berry

I mentioned in my previous post about Winter Brawl that vendors are the underappreciated glue that holds a regional/major together. There will be a post separate from this one where I interview one of the vendors from Artist Alley, but the same sentiment is stated here. There are so many vendors in the Artist Alley with their own story and own purpose for doing what they love.

I, in fact, covered an Artist Alley vendor at the Con itself! However, I feel a paragraph alone won’t be enough to give them justice, so please be sure to read the companion article here where I discuss meeting with Bunnies & Cream! You don’t want to miss it, for sure!

In any case, the same could be said for cosplayers. Cosplayers are not so much the glue, but the exoskeleton that makes the entire convention worth it. Each cosplayer has their own story in terms of what got them into it, how long they’ve been doing it, and what made them cosplay certain characters.

Unfortunately, things can tend to go awry when you least expect it. The blade on your sword prop may hang loose, an annoying thread may linger on one’s dress, a shirt may be ripping from the seams. All of these nightmares are easily avoided by those on standby who are dedicated to make any mess a fixable one!

This was quite possibly one of the few points of interest that I saw at the convention. An “all in one” emergency repair station not unlike one you would see at a convention. I couldn’t help myself. I had to learn more. Thankfully these guys were friendly enough to answer my questions I’ve had. Big thanks!

With all of the maintenance that goes into making the perfect, subjectively of course, cosplay, no matter if it’s been a decade or ten days, every cosplayer is equally important to the well-being of any convention.

Even moreso when cosplayers engage in violent carnage within the squared circle and go for a swinging neck cutter as a finishing move.

In what was perhaps the highlight of the convention, the Cosplay Pro Wrestling event was a fitting end to an action packed weekend. Although I had caught it while in the middle of the event, what surprised me the most was how there was an actual story arc.

From what I was able to gather, the main story arc revolved around the face, or hero, Big Boss, feuding with Team Rocket, who formed an allegiance with Princess Peach. The main event was scheduled for Big Boss vs Princess Peach for the title.

Throughout the set, one of the matches I did see in its fullest was Winter Soldier versus, and I quote, “Jeff Harley Quinn.”

As you could expect from the name alone, this Harley Quinn shared a lot of Jeff Hardy’s likeliness as far as his mannerisms and his moveset. What one may not have expected, was Winter Soldier, who bore resemblance and a moveset similar to Roman Reigns.

Spears, Twists of Fates, Leg Drops, and Swanton Bombs were present here as one would expect to see from fans of both wrestlers, yet they also brought about some of Quinn’s cunning which was what gave her the overall victory.

Harley Quinn by Catie V

Eventually, after a match of Link vs Liu Kang, the main event transpired. Paing homage to heel stables of the Attitude Era, trickery was used while Team Rocket was able to give enough damage to Big Boss to have Princess Peach secure the pin.

However, when all hope seemed lost... Mario and Luigi, decked out in “Bullet Bill Club” shirts, went out and chased Team Rocket as well as Princess Peach out of the ring. What followed after was a tag team match, with more story building now that the Bullet Bill Club entered the scene.

There was so much more that could be said as to what transpired in this two hour finale to an otherwise action packed weekend, including one of the guys from Attack on Titan fighting Isabelle from Animal Crossing, but it was one of those events where you had to be there to experience it.

That’s the one thing I can say about the convention. For a two-day con, there was always something to experience. If you wanted to meet one of your favorite voice actresses like I had, you could do so.

If you wanted to take in the sights and experience panels and learn new things about otaku culture and the like, you could do so as well. There’s literally no right or wrong way to attend the convention and the only thing that I can recommend is to do everything you possibly can. Unfortunately some conventions don’t have that, but, with this year’s Castle Point I can definitely say that the community as well as the staff had pulled out all the stops to make it memorable.

With that said in conclusion, for this being my first anime convention of the year, it was a fantastic way to start. Thank you once again to the Castle Point staff for giving myself and my fellow members of the Geeks podcast for giving us the opportunity. I’ll definitely try to attend next year for sure.

As always, may the Lost Summer never end! Tune to us soon for the next post!

#cpac2019 #Castle Point Anime Convention

[steves-on-a-plane]

Web of Secrets

Words: 1307 Pairing:Peter Parker x Male!Reader Request:  “hi! could i request a spiderman × male reader where they are college roomates and the reader starts coming home with bruises as well but they're not from saving the world. he is getting bullied for being gay and peter doesn't know anything until he's had enough of seeing his friend in pain and the reader confesses to being gay and liking him IDK IDK BUT SOMETHING FLUFF Y LIKE THAT PLS THANK.” -Anon

Peter Parker was your best friend. He had been since your first minutes of college. You had been assigned as roommates together in college. At first it was nerve racking, knowing you were going to be living with a guy you didn’t know, who didn’t know anything about you. Sure, it was the mid twenty-tens and most people recognized by now that being gay was not a “lifestyle choice.” But being friends with someone who is gay is completely different than rooming with someone you don’t know, who is also gay.

Peter was already in the room when you go there. He was unpacking from several expensive looking cases. You felt ridiculous with your small, single suitcase. You expected to greet each other with a nod, and then go about your own business. Peter wouldn’t have any of that. He greeted you with a warm, friendly smile.

“Oh hey! I’m Peter. You must be [Y/N].” He extended a hand out to you. You took his hand and gave it a gentle shake. “Hey, man listen. I know I have a ton of stuff here. Way more than one person should. But it’s my, uh, my uncle. He has a lot of money and so he bought me all this weird luggage and a bunch of stuff I don’t need. So, like if there is anything you want to use…”

“Yeah, thanks. I, don’t usually need much. Just my camera and my computer. But I’ll keep that in mind.” You said.

“You have a camera? I just thought everyone used their iphone these days.” Peter dug into one of his suitcases and pulled out a camera case of his own.

“Well not everyone’s a photography major.” You smirked, leaning against your college issued loft bed. “Are you…?”

“No, no.” Peter sighed. “It’s just a hobby of mine. Computer Science is my thing. But it’s always nice to meet a fellow shutterbug.”

From then on you and Peter did almost everything together. You sat through the first week of Freshman orientations together. Whenever possible you had lunches and dinners together. Your schedules rarely allowed for a breakfast that wasn’t coffee and a cold pastry, but even sometimes those were done on-the-go together. Somehow, despite sharing nearly every out of class minute together, the fact that you were attracted to men never came up in the first year of knowing each other. That Peter was always too busy to have a girlfriend or boyfriend of his own had probably contributed a lot to this.

Eventually you grew to have feelings for Peter. Feelings that went well beyond “just friends”, but Pete was one of the only people you knew at school. And he was always so much nicer to you than you deserved. It wasn’t worth jeopardizing your friendship on a one-sided romance. Besides, how cliché was it for you, a gay guy, to fall for your roommate?  So you tried to occupy your time with a few non-Peter related activities.

You joined the Photography Club the fourth month of school. Freshman year it had been exactly what a club should be. A place for likeminded individuals to get together to share their work. But at the end of the year, the executive board graduated and they were replaced with new students who didn’t promote the same ideals. The new E-Board didn’t live up to the legacy of their predecessors. While other groups and organizations were becoming more progressive on campus, it seemed the “leaders” of the Photography Club were falling behind a few decades.

The first time you came into your dorm room with bruises, you told peter it was from working out at the gym. He laughed and said he didn’t know you ever went to the gym. The second time, you lied, you said that you were fiddling with the settings on your camera and tripped on a statue on the quad. By the fifth or sixth time you were begining to think that Peter just assumed you were slightly unhinged and nothing more. And you let him think so, because admitting the truth to him was so, so much worse.

It was embarrassing that you had gone so long without telling your best friend who you really were. Even worse that the people who did know about you…seriously you were nineteen years old. How were you still letting yourself be bullied? No. You couldn’t ever let Peter find out what happened. It was your own burden to bare.

“[Y/N], I need to talk to you about something.” Peter said to you one day. He leaned against the door of your room so that you couldn’t leave.

“Jeez Pete, seems serious. I promise I’ll wash my shoes with the next load of laundry so they don’t keep stinking up the place, alright?”

“What? No this isn’t about your shoes.” Peter frowned and suddenly his voice was very serious. “Look, I’ve been trying not to say anything about this but you’re my best friend and I can’t keep letting this happen to you. Where do the cuts and bruises come from, [Y/n]?”

“They’re all from different things, dude.” You shrugged as you tried to remember your layers of lies. One look in Peter’s eyes told you the jig was up. “Ok, fine.” You sighed. “I’ll tell you everything, but you’re gonna have to sit down, because it’s a lot.” You inhaled a deep breath and stared at the white cinderblock wall.

“I’m gay.” You didn’t elaborate at first. You stared at the wall and waited for him to react. Peter reacted. He came and sat at his desk.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He raked a hand through his hair. “I mean all this time…you could have said…”

“I know.” You breathed. “I know. And I should have said something the first day. But you were so nice. I didn’t want you to think of me differently. Then after that there was just, never a right time.” You expected Peter to be angry. You expected him to kick you out, but he didn’t.

“Okay.” He nodded. “We all have our secrets. We never really talked about our sexuality before. I guess you’re right. It never really came up. For your record, I consider myself bisexual. Even though I’ve only ever been with girls.” You weren’t expecting this reaction from him at all. Yet you somehow knew he was being genuine with you. “Tell me about the bruises. Is someone else doing this to you because they know you’re gay?”

“Peter, what good would telling you do? It’s not like you’re going to go out and kick their asses.” You snorted.

“Actually, I am. That’s…” Peter jumped up from his seat and started riffling through his closet. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Give me a name, [Y/N]. All I need is a name.”

“No offense Pete, but you’re a scrawny dude and if I can’t take them, there’s no way you could.”

“like I said, [Y/N], everyone had secrets.” He found what he was looking for and pulled it from the closet. He held up a flabby red and blue get up. “My secret, is that I’m Spiderman.”

“Okay, now you’re just making fun of me.” You sighed. “You know, I really put myself out there telling you this. And I actually thought I was going to confess that I had feelings for you, but I…”

“[Y/N], you don’t understand. I’m not making fun of you. I can prove it.” Peter dug around in another drawer and strapped something to his arm. He bent his hand and a web shot across the room and attached to his laptop.

“Holy shit!” You gasped. “You’re Spiderman.”

“I did try to tell you.” He shrugged. “So you give me the names and I’ll make sure they never hurt you again.”

#Peter Parker X Reader #Peter Parker Fan Fiction #Peter Parker Reader Insert #Peter Parker Fan Fic #Peter Parker FF #Bisexual!Peter Parker #Bisexual!PeterParker #Male!Reader #request #and they were roommates

[ecotone99]

[RF] The Secret the Supreme Court Justice never told

(Before I start, this isn't a true story)

Viewpoint of the Adoptee Mary Vineland Stikes

I was born on August 21, 1958 in Orlando, Florida. About 12 hours after giving birth at Orlando Hospital, my biological mother quickly left. The story made the news in the Orlando Sentinel. I was put into foster care and then put up for adoption. I grew up in Winter Park Florida. I had a very good life and the parents that raised me loved me very much. My adoptive parents had a child (my older sister Patty) but couldn't have any more children for unknown reasons.

My mother struggled with her weight and people assumed that she was pregnant at the time (she wasn't but she didn't say anything). Everyone said it was a surprise but they didn't know that I was adopted. My parents decided not to tell me unless they had to and it was decades before I found out. Me and my older sister always assumed we were blood relatives growing up even though we didn't look like each other and had very different interests and talents. We were close anyway.

My interest was in the law, so I went to law school and I became a lawyer. I became a judge winning an election and for eight years was a Supreme Court Justice for the state of Florida. All I was say about politics is that I was middle of the road basically. This didn't really create any controversy. Like any judge, some people liked my decisions and then others didn't. Of course I got phone calls, e-mails, letters, etc. from people expressing their opinions.

Then I was asked to be on the Supreme Court in Washington D.C. a couple of years ago. I was in my late 50's, married with 2 children and 4 grandchildren. I couldn't believe it. I barely knew the president but he liked me. I didn't have any scandals in my past which was true. Even so, someone always manages to find something.

Viewpoint of the Biological Mother Louann Jones Burgess (Supreme Court Justice)

I became the second female Supreme Court Justice. I was born in Nashville Tennessee and hobnobbed with the Nashville elite. My father was a record producer for many of the top Country Stars, so I pretty much know them all. My brother is still in the Country Music Industry as a consultant so I know many of the younger stars.

When I was confirmed, I got a few questions about my families involvement with the Country Music Industry, but not many. At one time I was an attorney for the Country Music Industry and when I was a Supreme Court Justice in Tennessee there were a few cases that I had to recuse myself. One case my brother was involved in a lawsuit over royalties and another was a Country Star Lisa Jacobs that I knew personally. Not many cases relating to Country Music ended up in the Supreme Court in Tennessee. One of the senators did ask me if I tried to influence the case my brother was in as he won and I didn't. The outcome in the court would have been the same as the Supreme Court in Washington looked at the case and found it to be correct.

There is a chapter in my life that I've told no one about and only one other person knows. Shortly before Mary Stikes was chosen to be the next Supreme Court Justice, Cassie Miller who was my great aunt died. She was 100 years old. She was the only other person that knew. I could tell her things and she would never tell another soul.

I was 17 years old in May of 1957 when I met Billie Boltz who was a year older than me. At that time he was an up and coming Country Music Star. Now of course, he's a County Music Legend. He was so good looking. I first met him in the spring of my junior year. I went to a fancy private school that Nashville elites went to (Nashville Academy).

Billie was a greaser, so to speak. My father found out that we had gone on a movie date and barred me from dating him. My father considered him to be on the wrong side of the tracks which he was. The high school he attended had a bad reputation for greasers and other getting into fights. I managed to secretly date him as we went places that I knew the Nashville elite wouldn't go, much less be seen at. It was fun.

In January of 1958 I found out that I was pregnant. I told no one except Aunt Cassie. Since I'm a tall thin woman, I was able to hide the entire pregnancy. Billie had graduated from high school in 1957 and had just gone into the army in December of 1957. He had been arrested for fighting and was given the option of military service or jail.

My aunt had a summer home in Tampa and Orlando. I went to a doctor in Tampa during spring break and during the summer. My aunt didn't tell the doctor that I was her niece. I was a girl in trouble and she was helping me. I was supposed to give birth in Tampa, give the child up for adoption and then go back to Tennessee. But this didn't happen according to plan. I went into labor a month early. My aunt was in Tampa when this happened. Once I knew that I was okay, I left the hospital and went to my Aunt's home which was nearby. I called her from her house and told her what happened. She thought it best that we tell no one. She told the doctor that I had given birth in Tennessee. The doctor never questioned her or looked into it as far as I know. He died in 1976.

Bill knew nothing about this. He had sent me a letter stating that he had another girlfriend and was breaking up with me. In September of 1958 I went to Vanderbilt University and tried to forget about this chapter in my life.

When I first saw Mary Stikes, I knew that she was my long lost daughter as she looks just like Bill. When I saw the circumstances of her birth, which was now public knowledge, I knew. Now what am I going to do? No one knew who the mystery woman is who gave birth to her.

Viewpoint of Adopted Father Dr. William Vineland (retired Dentist)

I thought that somehow this information would never come up. I was concerned when Mary ran for Supreme Court Justice in Florida that this would come up but it didn't. Someone in the Congress dug it up and now are trying to find the biological parents. They would be in their late 70's. It's possible that the biological mother of Mary is deceased. As for the biological father, well good luck with that.

I wish the Senator would just drop this. He isn't going to find anything. If the biological parents of Mary are still alive, I doubt that they would come forward because they would be grilled on Capital Hill and I doubt they would want this. This Senator put out an ad in several newspapers and on the internet trying to find Mary biological parents. So far they haven't come forward but you know there will be those who do so for attention.

I'm 90 years old. My wife Shirley died back in 1998 at the age of 68. She had numerous health problems which was why she only had one child. We always wanted to have at least 2 children, so Mary was adopted. When Patty called me to ask me questions about this after she had read about it on-line, she wasn't too surprised. That explains everything she told me. Patty and Mary are very different people with different talents and different likes/dislikes. Patty is a more free-spirit who owns a art gallery on Park Avenue. She majored in art in college.

Mary is more serious and went into law (something Patty had no interest in). Mary has a easy time getting good grades. Patty got good grades but struggled to get them. I'll left Patty continued this conversation.

Viewpoint of Sister Patty Vineland Jones

Mary called me when she heard about the news and asked me what I knew about it. I didn't know she was adopted. I really didn't. We called our dad who confirmed the news. I was shocked as was Mary.

This is what I told the Congressional Hearing committee. This was the truth.

Viewpoint of Mary Stikes

I was in shock for a couple of days after I found this out. Thankfully my father called me before I saw it. For a couple of days I felt strange like I was disconnected from the world. The person I thought I was, I wasn't. I really didn't want to talk to anyone as I didn't want this getting out as I would be judged.

I was grilled for a hour by a Congressional Hearing Committee about this. If I were a man, I doubt I would be grilled about it.

"There were reasons why my biological mother did what she did. It was 1958, very different social mores than today. I can say the fact that I was abandoned at a hospital indicates to me that my biological mother cared about me and perhaps for many reasons couldn't care for me. I know she wasn't from the Orlando area. My birth mother said she was from Tallahassee but one nurse who was just starting out and who is now quite old is the only one still living that worked in the hospital at the time I was born said that the woman's accent sounded like she was either from Tennessee or Kentucky. Who knows. I just want to say that I'm not angry with her nor do I harbor any bad feelings towards her."

Viewpoint of Biological mother Louann Burgess (Supreme Court Justice)

Thankfully I was alone when I watched the congressional hearing. I cried when I heard Mary's testimony. I really don't know what to do, so I'm keeping quiet.

I graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1962 and was one of the first women to go to law school in Tennessee. I met my husband Dale Burgess and we married in 1966. I had 3 children and I have 9 grandchildren. Life has been good for me. Sadly my husband died a couple of years ago.

I decided to write Mary a letter. It's long overdue. She was confirmed at a Supreme Court Justice.

Dear Mary:

Congratulations on your confirmation as Supreme Court Justice.

This is the most painful letter that I've ever had to write. I feel that I must tell you something about myself. I am your biological mother and for various reasons I can not come forward or reveal who I am. I will say that I'm in my 70's and fortunately have had few health issues. I have children and grandchildren (they are not from your biological father as we married other people). I also have a brother who is in his 80's and is healthy.

Your biological father is musical and has musical talent. He also likes to sing. Years of smoking caused him to develop heart problems (not sure if this is genetic or just relates to smoking) and he has quit. When I knew him, he didn't have any health issues. Like me, he has children and grandchildren. Don't have information on medical history but will say that your father's sister had dental problems.

I will say that no one who knows about this with the exception of me is still alive. (I never told your father about the pregnancy). My father disapproved of the relationship. All I will say is we came from different worlds, different social backgrounds. I was not from Florida but will not say where I'm from.

For a single unmarried woman in the 1950's with a pregnancy, there wasn't a lot of options. You were supposed to be born in Tampa but you were born in Orlando. Once I knew that you were okay and that I was okay, I left the hospital. I stayed with someone in the area and then went home a month later.

I cried when I saw you testify at the Court hearings. I really don't understand why this Congressman is so obsessed with this.

Love, You birth mother.

I sent the letter out. I was careful not to leave any fingerprints. I mailed the letter in Jacksonville Florida at a mail box where I knew there were no cameras. I made sure no one was following or watching me.

Viewpoint of Supreme Court Justice Mary Stikes 2 months later

I was confirmed to be a Supreme Court Justice by a wide margin. Congratulations to me.

My father received this letter from someone claiming to be my birth mother. Gave a copy of the letter to the FBI. I asked them to keep this quiet and they did. I didn't tell anyone and the only people that know are my father, my sister Patty and my husband. I wasn't too happy when the FBI told the Chief Supreme Court Justice Tanner Lewis about this (we are good friends despite our differences) but they felt that they should. Tanner was in agreement with me that this matter was a private one and the Congressman shouldn't have made it an issue as it had nothing to do with my ability to become a Supreme Court Justice.

It's hard to tell if this is for real or if's someone fooling with me. The information so vague that this person could be anyone. Don't believe that the person lives in Jacksonville.

Viewpoint of Supreme Court Justice Louann Burgess (2 years later)

About six months after Mary was confirmed, I became very ill unexpectedly. I died from complications from surgery. The FBI was never able to find out who sent the letter to Mary's father. I guess my secret is kept. There was a large gathering at my funeral. All my children, grandchildren and one great-grandchild. All of the Supreme Court Justices were there. I was Mary's mentor and she spoke of this mentoring that I gave her.

What would have happened if this secret had came out? Well, one of us would have to leave (most likely it would be Mary) and it would have upset the balance of the court and this was very important. That is why the President appointed her.

Mary looked so much like her father that I surprised no one noticed this. Her father didn't when she was introduced to him at a concert. Of course men in general don't notice this.

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#Blogger #Story

[prosperopedia]

How to Migrate Your WordPress Website to the Google Cloud Hosting Platform

The past decade has seen a mad rush “to the cloud”, as performance requirements (speed and availability) for apps, websites, and other technology have increased.

For me, it seems like I’ve been looking for a solid place to host my websites for as long as I’ve been building them, as far back as 2000, when I set up my first ecommerce store on a shared server business shopping cart platform called BizHosting. Between then and now, I’ve tried all of the popular hosting companies, including GoDaddy, HostGator, BlueHost, and most recently LiquidWeb. When one host would underperform, I’d move to another one. When that one disappointed me, I’d move to the next.

Over the past five years, I’ve been tempted to jump in and spend the time figuring out how to setup my ecommerce stores on one of the popular cloud hosts. I looked long and hard at using Amazon AWS, DigitalOcean, and the Google Cloud Platform. Each time I dug in and tried to make some progress, I found myself overwhelmed and unable to make the switch.

Over the past few months, I’ve been getting so many error messages and experiencing so many performance issues with my Liquid Web VPS account that the pressure to move my dozen or so sites somewhere has motivated me to shop around.

I’ve heard that pricing and features are comparable between the most popular cloud hosting providers, but when I looked at Google Cloud, I saw that they’re running a promotion in which they give you $300 towards free hosting (including resources like static IP addresses and Compute Engine instances) that can be used over a 12-month period. That sold me. I signed up and started moving my first website over.

I’m going to walk you through the process of moving your WordPress (lots of this stuff applies to websites built on other platforms too, but mine all run on WordPress) website from wherever you’re currently hosting it to getting all set up on the Google Cloud Platform, which has lots and lots of benefits, including cheaper overall cost (typically), much better performance, and more control over the nuts and bolts of your website or web-based application.

Although what I’ll explain here walks specifically through the process of migrating a WordPress website, you can use much of this documentation for migrating other types of websites (Joomla, Drupal, Ghost, etc) from your old-school, low-performance type of host over to Google Cloud. The main difference is your data migration procedure. I’ll use a WordPress plugin called All-in-One WP Migration for my explanation. Other content management systems (almost any one that’s worth using) typically have their own respective mechanisms for creating backups of themselves that can be used to replicate the website.

Shout Out to One Page Zen

As I was considering and then working through the process of migrating to Google Cloud, a complicated ordeal for someone who knows only an average amount about networking and web hosting, I found myself relying upon the tutorials (which were up to date amazingly, even tracking changes from the Google Cloud menu layout) of One Page Zen. I have to publicly say thanks to those guys for being very detailed about how to perform several of the steps I’ll explain below. I’m including a link to the tutorials they publish on each of these topics, including in written form as well as with video walk-throughs.

Setting Up WordPress on Google Cloud Platform

The first step to migrating your WordPress website over to Google Cloud is to create a new WordPress site on Google Cloud. You’ll use this new WordPress site as a sort of landing pad when you move the information (i.e. theme files and database) over from your old website.

Following along with the One Page Zen tutorial, I used the WordPress Google Click to Deploy installation from the Google Cloud Marketplace.

Follow along with the One Page Zen WordPress setup tutorial to see the details of how to set up WordPress on Google Cloud.

Transfer Your WordPress Website Content to Google Cloud

After you have set up your new WordPress website (using the Google Click to Deploy installation, which differs from Bitnami, Multisite, and other types of WordPress installations) on Google Cloud, it’s time to move your old WordPress data over.

The One Page Zen tutorial on how to do this WordPress migration uses the All-in-One WP Migration WordPress plugin, which worked perfectly for me. To summarize, you download and install the plugin on both your existing site and the new WordPress instance you’re moving to. You then do a full export from your old site, after which you’ll import into your new WordPress site using the file you downloaded from the export step.

Because of how big my website is, I ran into the problem of not having enough memory and processing time allocated for doing the import into the new WordPress site. To fix that problem (and you’re almost guaranteed to have it) you’ll need to increase the memory limit. Fortunately, One Page Zen provides a tutorial that describes how to increase this limit. In my case, I found that the limit was initially 64MB, and I had to increase it to nearly 1GB to get the import to work correctly. I’m not sure whether it was completely necessary, but in addition to increasing the upload_max_filesize and post_max_size variables, I also increased the memory_limit,  the max_execution_time, and max_input_time variables according to the support article that was written by the author of the All-in-One WP Migration plugin.

After the Site Migration: Networking Tasks

Now that you’ve got a new version of your website set up on Google Cloud, you need to do a few networking things to finish up, including:

Create a static IP address for your new website instance

Point your domain to your new hosting location

Install an SSL certificate on your new website

Setting Up a Static IP Address on Google Cloud

You’ll need to associate a static ip address with your website if you want to install an SSL certificate. Having your site secured with SSL used to be kind of optional unless you were running an ecommerce website with a checkout system that needed to be encrypted, but now it’s imperative for all websites that want to be in compliance with what Google and other search engines have standardized for user privacy and protection.

As you might have thought, One Page Zen also has a tutorial that walks you through the not-so-complicated process of reserving a static IP address using the Google Cloud Platform console.

Transferring Your Domain to Google Cloud

Another critical step you’ll need to take is to transfer your domain over to point to the Google Cloud Platform DNS servers instead of your old location.

Follow the One Page Zen tutorial for changing the DNS information for your domain.

Installing LetsEncrypt SSL on Your Domain

With your static IP address set up, and with your domain now pointing to the new version of your website on Google Cloud, you can now secure your website with an SSL certificate from LetsEncrypt. With LetsEncrypt, you can have a free SSL certificate, which is a great advantage over the old SSL certificates that you had to pay for. One Page Zen’s tutorial that covers setting up SSL using LetsEncrypt includes an important section that uses a cron entry to renew the certificate automatically so that it doesn’t expire after just a few months.

Fixing WordPress Permalinks

After I followed these tutorials and had my website all set up and looking like it was working as I’d hoped, I noticed that my internal links were not working unless I changed them to the default WordPress URLs that used query parameters instead of SEO friendly URLs like I had on the old version. I was getting 500 errors each time I tried to access one of my pages or posts.

I found a tutorial on Studio40k.com that helped me figure out how to fix that issue, which involved editing my apache configuration file.

All Set Up on Google Cloud Platform

I was surprised at how straight-forward these steps were to follow. I hope you have the same success I experienced moving from a host that was limiting and even frustrating to an experience that is much more fulfilling.

If you run into snags or have advice that might be useful for other Prosperopedia.com readers, feel free to share them with us here.

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