#i'm going to try to live my life through the path of least email. the less emails i have to write the better

[twogoliathbeetles]

hmm. i think i've fucked something up with my uni timetable but i have no idea how...

#.txt #they never asked me to choose optional modules? but my timetable looks very bare... #and there's no options on there. so i've fucked something. or something's been fucked anyway #and also i have 2 seminars that run over each other and i feel like that's just kindof silly #especially bc they're all at the beginning of the week. they'd spread them out if it was right. right? #anyway. i refuse to email them! if i get there and it's fucked i'll simply drop out :) #one of my friends told me that if u drop out within the first month u get your student loan money back #no idea if that's true and i won't be looking it up bc then i won't be worrying about it #actually i wonder if it would take more emails to drop out or to fix whatever timetable calamity has happened here #i'm going to try to live my life through the path of least email. the less emails i have to write the better #also the less forms i have to fill out. but usually they're part of emails now so #as long as i avoid an email i've probably avoided a form (maybe multiple!) as well

[archived-kin]

solomon deserves a husband so i'm giving him one (it's you)

note from kin: i don’t know HOW i’ve managed to get this out so soon after my last piece but i do know that it is a miracle (now watch me disappear for like a month lmao)

anyway there’s a severe lack of content for the boys in this fandom and therefore i am here to try to mitigate that!!

(as a heads up, this is sort of an au version of obey me’s story?? there’s no exchange program, and the general human world doesn’t know about the devildom or celestial realm, apart from sorcerers and similar special cases. solomon and simeon both still visit the devildom, though - solomon because he has a sort of job at the r.a.d., and simeon as an ambassador sort of thing for the celestial realm. the r.a.d.’s also less of a school and more of an organisation?? i haven’t really fleshed it out haha)

fandom: obey me!

character(s): male! reader, solomon, mammon (briefly), simeon (briefly)

pairing(s): solomon/reader

warning(s): blasphemy??? solomon disses god really briefly and that’s about it

genre: fluff!!!!!!!!!

As a general rule of thumb, Solomon doesn’t believe in destiny.

He’s lived long enough to know that, no matter what he does, the universe does not care about him, much less have some sort of plan for his future. The course that the world takes isn’t affected by some grand puppet master pulling the strings; one has to force the so-called path of fate in the direction they want it to take if they want something. Solomon knows this better than anyone.

It’s as much a downfall as it is a strength - as much as power as he’s amassed over the countless years, his constant need to challenge the universe’s power has lead him down a path far from humanity. There had been a time when he was like every other human on the Earth, when he was still young, full of hope and determination and promise, believing earnestly in some God high in the sky who would guide him through his life.

He shudders to think what sort of insufferable fool he’d been back then. An almighty God? Don’t make him laugh. The ruler of the Celestial Realm is incompetent at best, and a downright childish brat at worst. He doesn’t know how the angels put up with him - though he supposes his realm-smiting power is part of it. Why the universe chose to place such power on such a being’s shoulders will always be beyond him.

Long as it has been since he had been so naive, Solomon has learnt his lesson, to say the least. He’s seen people come and go, witnessed kings and queens reign and fall, watched on as friends and family live and die. It’s a truth that he’s been forced to learn across the years of his long, long life, a curse that he brought upon himself the moment he gave up the purity of his soul in pursuit of magical arts. 

He supposes he’s always had an insatiable thirst for the unknown - to play all his cards out front, to tempt fate’s hand, to jump into the void and hope to find ground beneath his feet when he lands. It’s that sort of reckless abandon and hunt for knowledge that has led him so far down this path, through so many years, across so many sleepless nights. The world continues to swirl around him, always changing, but Solomon refuses to be swept away. Because, even in the tumultuous movement of the universe, there has always been one constant that keeps him anchored - you.

The night he'd first met you isn’t as clear in his mind as he would have liked. He wants to be able to remember everything - the way the soft blue light of the will-o’-whisps had lit up your eyes in the dark of the night, the way that your hand had felt in his as you greeted him with a handshake, the way that you had said his name for the first time - in sharp detail, but Solomon knows better than to hope to recall something so long ago so perfectly.

He’d still been relatively new to a sorcerer’s life at the time - excited and determined and a little too full of himself. You… well, he doesn’t remember exactly, but he does remember thinking that you must be the most handsome being to exist. The you of today would probably shake your head and dismiss the past you as an obnoxious high hoper, but Solomon has loved you for so many years that he’s never been able to think of you as anything less than perfect.

There are times when he wondered how he managed to stumble upon such luck. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Solomon has has had truly insufferable periods over the years he’s known you, and he’s always considered it a miracle that you still chose to stay. Even through all the restless nights and the exhausting trips, even after all of the clashes and vexation, you have refused to give up on him.

He had asked you once, in the aftermath of an argument spurred by his inability to confide in you and your own frustration with his refusal to communicate. He remembers that night so vividly that it might well have happened just yesterday - the frustrated shouts, the shattering of glass, the warmth of your arms around his shoulders as he finally collapsed on himself. He doesn’t know what your face had looked like as he stuttered the question out in stuttering breaths, head buried in your shoulder in an effort to conceal his tears, but he imagines that it had been soft.

“I’m not going to leave you to yourself,” You had told him matter-of-factly, stroking his hair with such fondness  that it still sometimes brings a tear to his eye when he remembers it on particularly long nights. “And I’m not giving up on you, either - not now, not ever.”

Solomon had been unable to speak, too choked up by his feelings and the sudden, overwhelming love spreading through his entire body to reply. He’d only sunk deeper into your embrace, wishing that the moment could last forever.

I wonder if he still remembers that…?

“...lomon! Anyone home?!”

He jolts up from the table he’s sitting at so abruptly that he nearly knocks his head right into Mammon’s chin. The Avater of Greed, however, reacts quickly, and hops back before Solomon can break his jawbone.

“Jeez, you’re off on a different planet today,” He comments, setting his hands on his hips as Solomon shoots him the sort of look that tells him that he’s not particularly enthused about his presence at the moment. “What’s up with ya?”

Solomon isn’t quite sure how to answer. Sorry, I got distracted thinking about how perfect and lovely my husband is and how I’m the luckiest man in the entire world - nay, the universe - to have him. He nearly physically shudders at the thought of how much teasing he’d receive if he answered like that.

Instead, he chooses a much safer and still technically true option. “Just thinking about going home today.”

Mammon nods in understanding, pulling up a seat next to him and throwing himself down into it without much grace. “I feel ya. S’ been a long day.”

“You’ve barely done anything today,” Solomon quips flatly, not particularly impressed by the demon’s attempt at… empathy? Relatability? Either way, it isn’t working. “I doubt it’s been that hard.”

“Now, now, Solomon, let’s not be rude,” interjects a soft voice from behind them. Simeon is still dressed in his fancy envoy cloak - the one so long and heavy that it trails along behind him like a bridal train, decorated with a number of elaborate golden charms that jingle as he moves.

Solomon attempts to shoot him a slightly annoyed look, but it’s kind of hard to stay irritated by one of the literal embodiments of holiness and light, even if he wakes you up at very unholy hours of the morning to help him figure out how to answer an email. Solomon isn’t ungrateful for the new age of technology descending on humanity, but he’d like it a lot better if it hadn’t somehow reached the angels as well. The amount of times he’s had to tell Simeon that he needs to actually turn his D.D.D. on before he starts calling someone is… embarrassing, to say the least.

“You’re back in the Devildom, I see,” He observes as the angel pulls up a seat and sits beside him. “Did Michael send you down again?”

Simeon nods with a smile. “There were some arrangements that needed to be made with Lord Diavolo. Naturally, I volunteered.”

“Naturally,” Solomon echoes, raising a brow at his friend. “I don’t suppose your biases had anything to do with your decision?”

“Well, they may have had some effect,” Simeon answers with a shameless smile and shrug, beginning to undo the tassels of his heavy cloak and draping it on the back of chair he’s sitting on. He’s still wearing all of his regular clothes underneath it - including the other, much smaller cloak. Solomon wonders how he hasn’t somehow melted in the heat.

“When’re you gonna start heading home, anyway?” Mammon asks, beginning to pick at a loose thread on his jacket sleeve. “It’s gettin’ late.”

Solomon blinks and looks up at the clock. “...ah, you’re right. In that case, I'll get going now.”

Mammon shoots him an odd look as he pushes himself up from the table and reaches for his bag, managing to hoist it onto his shoulder with some effort. He’s never been particularly good at heavy lifting - you’re usually the one helping him carry everything around the house.

“Oi, oi, what’s the rush?” the demon asks as Solomon adjusts the weight of his bag and starts heading for the door. “You on a timer or something?”

“I promised [Name] I’d be home earlier tonight,” is Solomon’s slightly absent-minded reply as he fiddles about in his pocket to find his transportation charm, nearly losing his balance and dropping his bag in the process. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

Mammon watches him in clear confusion for a moment as he pats down his pockets, mumbling a quiet curse under his breath as he realises that he’s left his charm at home again. How many times this month does that make it now...? He supposes that he could always perform a teleportation spell, but knowing his luck with those, he’ll probably end up somewhere in Morocco again.

“Oi, Simeon,” Mammon hisses to the angel, who cocks his head slightly to the side and leans over so as to hear him more clearly. “Who’s this ‘[Name]’ Solomon’s talkin’ about?”

“You don’t know?” Simeon blinks at him in blatant perplexion - as if he can’t even fathom the idea that Mammon might not know who Solomon’s talking about. “He’s talking about his husband.”

There’s a long moment of silence. Then—

“Solomon has a HUSBAND!?” Mammon practically shrieks, completely flabbergasted. “I thought he was totally, like, the forever alone type!”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never noticed?” is Simeon’s bewildered response. “Who do you think Solomon is always talking about buying groceries for?”

“I thought he was just buyin’ them for himself!” Mammon fires back, looking far more ruffled and shocked than he probably should be. He whips around to look at Solomon, who’s flicking through the little packet of blank charms he keeps on him at all times in an effort to find the right one to create a temporary transportation charm. He’s had to do it so many times this month that he’s already beginning to run out. “You’re married?!”

“Of course,” Solomon answers vaguely, briefly raising his left hand, allowing Mammon to spot the soft glint of a ring around his fourth finger. “You’re not?”

“Wh— ‘course I’m not!” Mammon exclaims, positively scandalised by the very concept. “Why would I get married, huh?! It’s a waste of time and a waste of money!”

“Think whatever you like,” Solomon dismisses him easily, which only seems to irritate Mammon further.

Finally having found the right blank charm, he plucks it out and begins carefully tracing patterns onto it with a single glowing finger. He’s dimly aware of Mammon furiously whispering to Simeon in the background, with the angel responding in kind, most likely sharing some exaggerated story from back when the three of you had worked together - when Solomon had accepted a job from the Celestial Realm. The details of the whole thing are a little fuzzy to him now, long as it has been, but he’s almost completely sure that Simeon somehow still remembers the whole thing flawlessly.

“How old even is he?!” He hears Mammon hiss.

“I’m not so sure myself,” Simeon replies, placing his chin in a thoughtful hand. “Let’s see… their two millennial anniversary’s coming up in about two years, and I remember Solomon saying that they got married when he was around two hundred or so… which means he’s about twenty-one hundred years old.”

“Holy shit,” Mammon mutters in disbelief, turning glance at the sorcerer as he starts folding down the corners of his charm into the right shape. “Humans aren’t supposed to live that long. How’s his husband still alive, then?”

“That isn’t really a question for me to answer,” Simeon shakes his head slightly. “I suppose you can always ask him yourself if Solomon ever brings him to work with him.”

“I doubt it,” Solomon speaks up for the first time since announcing his departure. “He’s usually busy during the day. Besides, transportation charms make him queasy, and I’m not making him walk all the way down here.”

“Aren’t you a wizard?” Mammon asks, scratching his head. “Just do one of ya fancy teleportation spells. Why d’you need a charm?”

Solomon sighs. He hates to admit it, but he can’t be bothered to make up some other reason to cover up for himself. “I’m afraid that teleportation spells aren’t actually particularly accurate. We could end up somewhere in the Pacific if I’m not careful.”

Mammon looks thunderstruck. “Then what about all those times you’ve teleported us?! Don’t tell me we coulda ended up in, like, the Archaic Pit or something?!”

“Well, it was always a possibility,” Solomon shrugs in reply, finishing the charm with a deft flick of his hand. “You’re a demon, I sure you could have handled yourself.”

“But…!” Mammon crosses his arms and turns away like a grumpy child. “Hmph…”

“Do say hello to [Name] for me, will you?” Simeon requests as Solomon turns to open the door, ignoring the sulking demon sitting beside him. “We haven’t been able to talk for a while.”

“You text him every day, don’t you?” Solomon asks, shooting him an unimpressed look. “I’d say that’s conversation enough.”

“Now, now, there’s no need to be stingy,” Simeon countered with a smile, tilting his head slightly to the side and leaning forward. “Besides, one misses the presence of an actual person after a while of nothing but electronic communication... especially texting is so difficult. Tell him he’s always welcome to come around for some tea - Luke would be happy to see him.”

Solomon shakes his head, but makes a sound of affirmation nevertheless. You had mentioned that you’ve missed seeing Simeon since he’d started the whole negotiator businesss, and he isn’t the sort of person to deny you the company of a friend. “I’ll let him know. Anyway, I should really be going now…”

“Have a safe journey!” Simeon calls after him as he swings the door open and sweeps out. Solomon waves a hand over his shoulder in response, then disappears down the corridor, most likely to a quiet spot in the courtyard to use his charm. He’s been banned from using them indoors ever since he accidentally shattered one of the fancy artifacts in the assembly hall and sent hundreds of shards flying everywhere. Apparently Barbatos is still finding tiny pieces of glass in the crevices of the floor.

“Why didn’t Solomon ever say anythin’?” Mammon asks Simeon after a moment of quietude. “Seems like the sorta thing you’d mention.”

“Solomon’s a private man,” Simeon says with a shrug. “Besides, he and [Name] have made plenty of enemies over the years, and you’d be shocked by how quickly names and locations can spread…”

“Does he mind us knowin’ about it, then?”

“Well, personally, I’ve known for a while,” Simeon answers, “And I’m sure the others will have worked it out by now - Solomon’s always finding ways to mention [Name] in passing. But no, I’m sure he doesn’t mind. He’d say something if he did.”

Mammon nods and goes silent for a little while. Then he asks, “What’s this [Name] like, then? Must be some guy if Solomon liked him enough to put a ring on him and keep him for that long.”

“Well, let’s see…” Simeon drums his fingers thoughtfully against the tabletop. “He has quite the penchant for raising deadly plants, he hasn’t gone more than a full month without exploding something or another for about five centuries, he takes clocks apart in his spare time, he likes his coffee with a touch of vanilla, he collects cursed books, he makes a lovely butterscotch-cinnamon pie, and he works as a curse breaker for hire.”

It takes a moment for Mammon to process all of the information that’s just been dumped on him. “...sounds like the kinda guy Satan would get along with.”

“I thought so as well,” Simeon agrees. “Their house even reminds me of Satan’s room, in a way… [Name] is quite the avid reader.”

“What, you’ve been?”

“Only once,” Simeon’s eyes flutter closed for a moment as he reminisces. “Quite a long time ago now. I wouldn’t know where to find it even if I wanted to go again, though - it’s always moving.”

“Do they move house a lot, then?”

Simeon shakes his head. “Oh, no, no. They’ve lived in the same house for centuries - it’s the house that moves itself.”

Mammon pauses. “...what?”

“The building,” Simeon clarifies. “They’ve got an enchantment on the whole thing that makes it change locations every couple of weeks or so.”

“But… why?”

Simeon shrugs. “[Name] doesn’t like staying in one place for too long.”

“Still, isn’t that a bit much…?” Mammon pulls a face. “They could always just travel, ya know…”

“As Solomon said, transportation talismans make [Name] feel queasy,” Simeon explains. “And he prefers not to use teleportation spells when it comes to him, just in case they end up somewhere dangerous.”

“And he doesn’t care about the rest of us ending up somewhere dangerous?” Mammon huffs and collapses forwards onto the table.

“Well, you can’t really compare the two,” Simeon says patiently as the demon continues to mutter indignantly under his breath. “He’s his husband, and we’re essentially just his friends from work.”

Mammon opens his mouth to make a rebuttal, then thinks about it for a moment and changes his mind. After a moment, he comments, a little less resentfully, “Well, you’d think he’d at least introduce us.”

“He’s been planning to for a while, actually,” Simeon tells him. “Give him some time and he’ll probably bring it up on his own.”

Mammon nods. “He’d better!”

“I’m home.”

You look up from the book you’re reading and hop down from your seat on the roof just in time to see Solomon emerge from the back garden, looking noticeably dishevelled, with leaves decorating his head like some sort of fancy accessory.

“Welcome back!” You greet him happily, setting the book aside and moving forward to start picking the leaves from his hair. Solomon smiles softly at you as you take his bag in one hand and start pulling him to the front door with the other. “You forgot your talisman again, by the way.”

“I noticed,” He laughs, gently removing your hand from his upper arm and wrapping his fingers around it instead. “Why else do you think I ended up in the hedges again?”

“It’s a wonder that you’ve had to make these temporary talismans so many times and you still haven’t gotten one right yet,” You tease in reply, nudging him in the shoulder. “How many points is that on the tally now, then?”

“Ten for the basement, seven for the roof, and eleven for the hedges now,” He answers with a small pout as you laugh. “Honestly, you’d think I would have learnt my lesson...”

“You never do, love.” 

The door creaks as you and your husband enter the house, only to immediately be greeted by a bundle of scales hitting you head-on. You manage to keep your footing and steady yourself on the doorway; Solomon isn’t so lucky, and ends up laying spread-eagled on the floor with about two hundred kilograms of excited adolescent dragon purring on his chest.

“Looks like Triton missed you,” You comment with a bright smile, setting Solomon’s bag down beside the umbrella rack and leaning over to give the dragon a scratch behind his left horn, just the way he likes it. He rumbles happily and jingles the little bell around his neck at you. “Isn’t he getting big?”

“I saw him this morning, [Name],” Solomon wheezes from his position on the floor, somehow managing to reach up and tickle Triton’s chin with one hand despite the dragon’s weight. “He can’t have grown that much in ten hours.”

“You never know!” You tell him, reaching up and wrapping your arms around Triton’s neck. He coos in a delighted fashion and raises his head, setting it heavily on your shoulder. Solomon uses the brief lightening of the weight on him to take in a deep breath as you allow your dragon to nuzzle furiously into your neck. “Dragons are unpredictable, you know.”

“Believe me, I do,” He sighs tiredly as Triton blows out a pleased puff of hot air and knocks the clock off the wall again. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind, Triton, I’d quite like to get back up again.”

The dragon blinks and raises his head from your shoulder, glancing down at the sorcerer that he’s crushing under his weight. Then he huffs and turns away again.

“Oh, you—!” Solomon curses as the dragon seems to press even harder into him. Your laughter rings out across the hall, and while he’d normally take a moment to admire the sound, he’s a little preoccupied. “[Name], stop laughing and help me!”

“He’s like a rebellious teenager!” You splutter helplessly in reply, voice still trembling slightly out of mirth. Triton makes a happy noise as you reach up and rub his scaly cheeks, his ears fluttering slightly. “Awww, you’re really growing up, aren’t you, baby? Your poor dads are really going to have their work cut out for them, huh?”

“Hey,” Solomon calls reproachfully from beneath Triton’s enormous chest. “Your husband’s still being crushed down here.”

“Oh, right!” You click your tongue and give Triton a meaningful look. He grumbles but obeys nevertheless, hopping off of Solomon (though not without knocking all the air out of him by using his chest as a launchpad) and scampering off, most likely to go play with the salamanders that have set up shop in the storage room again.

“I’ll never understand how you manage him so well,” Solomon sighs as you bend down to pull him to his feet, rubbing at the sore spot on his chest. “He never listens to me.”

“Aw, he loves you, really,” You reassure him, taking his hand and pressing a comforting kiss to his knuckles. “He just likes roughhousing with you.”

Solomon shakes his head, wanting to complain further about the big lizard that the two of you had adopted six months ago after the last one grew up and flew the nest, but then he sees the smile on your face, and he feels the flicker of irritation in his chest die down almost immediately. It’s at times like this that he’s really reminded of how absolutely worth it all of the nonsense he has to put up with at work is - because, at the end of the day, you are here, with your warm eyes and your lovely smile, with your comforting hands and your warm embrace, and there is no road too long to walk if you are waiting for him at the end of it.

“I know,” He sighs, tugging off his shoes and stepping into his favourite pair of slippers - the ones with the little cat faces printed on them that you’ve charmed to always maintain a perfect temperature for his feet. He glances at your own feet and notes that you’re wearing your matching pair as well.

The two of you have long since set up a routine for this sort of occasion, and you both fall into it with unconscious ease. Solomon changes into something more comfortable while you put the kettle on in the kitchen, and the two of you inevitably spend so long snuggled up together on the largest armchair in the living room, unwilling to leave the warmth of each other’s presence, that the water cools down, and you end up having to put it back on again. Then you sit together at the table, you with a coffee with a dash of vanilla and him with his favourite chrysanthemum tea that you always brew just the way he likes it. Sometimes you’ll sit side by side, shoulders pressed up against each other as you show him the specifics of your latest curse-breaking commission, and sometimes you’ll sit across from each other, holding hands across the tabletop as he tells you about his day.

Today it is the former, but Solomon can’t help but zone a little out of the detailed deep-dive you’re giving him about the intricacies of the spell that’s cursed this teapot to shoot its contents at anyone who attempts to fill it. It isn’t that your explanation is boring - quite the contrary, in fact; Solomon could probably listen to you describing the most mundane or trivial of things on loop for the rest of his life and be perfectly content with it. No, it’s more to do with the fact that this is the first time he’s been home before dark in a long while, and he can’t help but revel in the fact that he can spend time with you like this again. Of course, there’s something wonderful in coming home to be able to collapse into bed beside you and bury his face in the crook of your neck, drifting to sleep as you burrow closer to him even in your sleep, but Solomon can’t run off of that forever - he needs to see you with your eyes open as well, after all. 

“You’re not listening to a word I say, are you?” You ask as you note the far-off look on your husband’s face. You’re not offended in the slightest by the way he starts at the directed question, evidently guilty, but you are a little puzzled. “Is there something wrong?”

Solomon’s mouth falls open slightly, then shuts again. There’s something about the way you’re looking at him so earnestly that makes his heart stutter like nothing else. Honestly, you’d think he’d be used to this after nearly two thousand years, but it seems that he’s still as weak for you as he was on the very first day of your marriage. “...I suppose I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”

“You always have a lot on your mind,” You counter softly, giving his hand a brief squeeze. “Come on, you can tell me.”

He laughs quietly, bringing your linked hands up to his face and gently holding yours to the side of his face; you, in turn, unfurl your fingers from around his and rub his cheek affectionately. After a moment, a fond smile pulling at his lips, Solomon replies, “I’ve… missed you a lot this week.”

You pause in mild surprise, but it quickly turns to endearment as Solomon presses his body even closer to yours. The hand that you’re using to hold your mug of coffee moves to settle on his shoulder as you pull him closer. “Really now? What a coincidence. I’ve missed you lots as well, love.”

He chuckles a little bashfully, his cheeks flushing. It seems that your ability to fluster him hasn’t declined even a bit over the years. He’s still well and truly besotted.

You can’t help but find it rather amusing that, despite already having spent a good hour and a half or so in the living room, bundled so close together in the blankets that you could feel his breath on your skin, the two of you are still nestling so close together now. You suppose it’s the effects of a week with much less contact than usual.

You lean forward and press a kiss to his jaw before pulling back again, reaching for your coffee and taking a sip. Solomon exhales softly, pulling his own drink towards him and draining the last of the tea in a single mouthful.

“You know,” He says, setting his empty cup down on the table. “One of my coworkers was asking about you earlier.”

“‘Coworkers’,” You snort at his choice of language, earning a reproachful poke in the side as punishment. “Come on, just admit that they’re your friends.”

“Fine,” He sighs. “One of my friends, then - Mammon, the one that Lucifer’s stringing up all the time.”

“The one with white hair?” You recall, thinking back to the group photo that Simeon had sent you a while back. “He’s the Avatar of Greed, right?”

“That’s the one,” Solomon nods. “Apparently he never noticed that I was married.”

“Well, you can’t really blame him,” You say, giving him a playful nudge. “Honestly, the way you keep your mouth shut, you’d think I was some shameful secret or something.”

Solomon looks scandalised by the very idea - it had only been a little joke, but his eyes flash with such affront that it’s almost as if someone has genuinely called you such a thing. “Of course not! I’d never—”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, I was joking,” You cut him off before he can get more riled up. Solomon calms down quickly once you set a comforting hand on his knee, though he still looks a little indignant. “I know why you don’t like talking about us much, but really, it’s okay. They’re your friends, aren't they?”

He hesitates, then nods, releasing another deep sigh soon afterwards. “I suppose. There isn’t much I can really do about it at this point anyway… according to Simeon, most of them have somehow figured it out already.”

“They’re probably a lot smarter than you give them credit for, Sol,” You hum, reaching up and brushing a stray lock of hair out of his eyes for him. “They’re demons, after all. They’ve lived even longer than us.”

“Believe me, they really aren’t.” Solomon shakes his head, a frown pinching at his brow at the very memory of the amount of things that his coworkers have done recently - some of the most notable being Diavolo setting an entire flock of geese free in the courtyard for an ‘experiment’, Levi quite literally throwing himself out of a window just to win a bet against Mammon about who could get down the stairs faster, Asmo causing a stampede in the main hall by dropping and shattering a bottle full of a powerful aphrodisiac potion that became even more powerful once released into the air, and Lucifer accidentally breaking one of Solomon’s favourite cauldrons when he’d transformed into his demon form and inadvertently smacked halfway across the room it with one of his upper wings.

“I’d really love to meet them some day,” You sigh, swirling the contents of your mug around. “They sound like fun.”

“Trust me, the trouble isn’t worth it—” Solomon attempts to reason with you, but he gives up laughably quickly as you pout at him in protest. “Oh, fine. But don’t blame me if you get sick because of the charm again.”

“We don’t have to use the charm,” You shake your head. “Just do a teleportation spell!”

“You know that that’s risky,” Solomon sighs, chucking you under the chin and leaning forward to kiss the tip of your nose. You laugh as he draws back again, a pleased smile rising on his face at your reaction. “We could end up anywhere.”

“You’ve teleported them a bunch of times, though, haven’t you? And you haven’t ended up in Texas or the Sahara Desert any of those times!”

The resemblance to his earlier conversation with Mammon and Simeon is almost uncanny. “That’s different. I was still teleporting them within the Devildom, not across an entire realm barrier… and besides, I can afford the risk with them. You’re a different story.”

You pout again, shoulders dropping in defeat, though it doesn’t escape Solomon’s notice that his sentiment seems to have appeased you at least a little. “...guess we’ll just have to use a transportation talisman, huh…?”

“That’s your only option if you really want to visit, yes.”

You go quiet for a moment or two, nose wrinkling and face scrunching as you think it over. Solomon doesn’t mind the lack of conversation - he entertains himself by studying your features, wondering for perhaps the millionth time how he managed to find someone like you.

Finally, a determined look rising on your face, you nod and proclaim, “Then I’ll do it!”

Solomon cocks his head slightly to the side. He can’t say he’s surprised by your eagerness, but he had expected it to take you longer to make up your mind. He opens his mouth to say something, but tou answer his question before he’s even asked it, a skill that you’d managed to pick up within the first year or so of knowing him.

“I really wanna see what you actually get up to when you work,” You explain, looking a little sheepish. “You’ve had a job there for nearly two years and I’ve never even said a word to the people you work with.”

Solomon laughs. “It isn’t usually a requirement in the workplace. Wear appropriate uniform, bring any equipment you need, introduce your husband to your coworkers within the decade…”

“Still, I’d feel bad if I didn’t at least meet them,” You say. “Besides, I want to see Simeon as well. You said he’s working down in the Devildom for a bit as well, didn’t you?”

“Why are you so eager to see him, huh?” Solomon’s tone is light and teasing, so you know not to take him seriously as he puts on an hurt expression. “I’m offended. Your dear husband’s right here and you’re thinking about some angel.”

“Oh, stop it, you,” You shake your head in slightly exasperated amusement as he runs a finger down his cheek in lieu of a tear. “You know it’s not like that.”

“Isn’t it?” He pulls an exaggeratedly petulant face and pretends to turn away like an upset child. “Sometimes I feel like you love him more than me.”

“Simeon’s a lovely guy, but you’re still the only guy for me, you doof,” You tell him, tapping fondly at the cheek he’s turned to you with your free hand. Solomon obligingly turns back around to look at you, a grin pulling at his mouth. “Why would I marry you and then stay here for two thousand years if you weren't?”

“I guess I always assumed it was out of pity or something,” He jokes in response, leaning forward and briefly brushing his nose against yours. “And, just so you know, you’re the only guy for me as well.”

“I’d better be,” is your lighthearted reply as he pulls away. After a moment, looking at him expectantly, you begin tentatively, “So…?”

He sighs, but gives you a smile nevertheless. “I’ll ask Diavolo. He probably wouldn’t mind if I brought you without asking first, but Lucifer definitely would.”

“What’ll we do if they hate me?” You ask. “Do demons actually eat humans?”

“They wouldn’t dare,” He replies firmly. “Not if I have anything to say about it. Besides, they won’t hate you. I doubt anyone could.”

You laugh and drop your head to rest on his chest. “You’re too nice to me, love.”

Solomon turns to wrap both his arms around your shoulders, setting his chin on the crown of your head. You smile into his jumper, looping your own arms around his waist and pushing yourself closer to him.

“I’m not just being nice. Honestly, [Name], you’re kind of the most perfect man in the universe.”

#obey me #obey me imagines #obey me x reader #swd solomon #swd mammon #swd simeon #solomon x reader #reader insert #male reader #fluff #domestic sorcerer husbands #planning on turning this into a series if i can haha

[peachymess]

Any advice on how to deal with bad news or an undesirable outcome? Or just anticipating the worst? I've always sucked at handling that and I'm not dealing with the last chapter of SNK well. Any general tips for the future? 😔

Hi, anon. I’ll do my very best to give some advice, although it is not lost on me that it’s a bit of an ironic act, as I can be very slow to let go myself. But then again quick, it just depends.

And what it depends on, is emotion dependency.

If I have used something as a comping mechanism, connected something directly to my happiness or health, or otherwise feel like I need something in order to be ok, then... it’s hard to accept losing it. For instance, I can not stand change in my childhood home or mom and dad’s mountain cabin - and least of all grandma and grandpa’s country side cabin. Why? Because due to my depression, I feel like happy moments is hard to obtain. I know I’ve had many good moments in these places, and so I’m terrified of them altering so that they will no longer be able to produce the same happiness-inducing environment as in the past. (But guess what, there will always be happy moments; I am not dependent on having any given building/place accessible to me in order to obtain it).

What I’m trying to say is, the most important advice is this: don’t trick yourself into thinking your life or happiness makes or breaks depending on this or that thing. Bar the things you actually need, like meds and doctors and all that (I trust you to tell essential and non essential dependencies apart). I’ve made this very mistake. I put an ‘=‘ between “my ability to be happy/live” and “Armin surviving the story”. And at one point: “snk in general”. Try not to to give into that urge. This is a coping mechanism. When you need a solid thing to turn to, because happiness feels otherwise too elusive. In the future, try not to take the easy way out and bind yourself to something so concrete. Because when you do - when happiness begins to actually depend on something concrete never changing - you will at some point lose. Because everything solid eventually changes. Ends. Sours.

So begin to build trust in yourself. The goal is to know that even if everything around you crumbles, you will be ok in yourself. I’ve come to learn that this also applies to people. All friendships change over time. Some last a lifetime, others drift apart. Others might hurt you. And it’s natural to hurt from drifting or betrayal... But so long as you don’t lean your full weight on someone else, you will maintain your balance once a pillar crumbles. Just like older family will one day leave you and you’ll need to be secure enough in yourself to stand not having parents to run to forever.

... ok, that got bleak, I’ll shift gears. Anon, for the future, my advice would be to approach situations with the knowledge that very few things will actually break you. And even more: that no situation has a fixed way of being read. Take arriving too late at the bus stop, for instance. The bus is pulling back into traffic and you barrel after if, but it’s too late. In the dust, you stand there panting and cursing. It’s easy to get mad, say “day ruined” or worse “damn it, this is the third time I’ll be late for work, I’m getting fired”. But... the bus is lost, man. It’s done. It is something you can’t change now. So you have two options: either spend your good time pulling yourself down into the negative by cursing how much you hate what is. OR, you can acknowledge that this turn of events leaves you off somewhere, and utilize it the best you can. It’s the “when life gives you lemons” - only with dogshit. Yeah, it smells bad and I guess you could like... make it into compost or something. Or, anon, you can just walk away from it. Who said you had to take the shit?

Now that you have to wait for the bus anyways, might as well take the time waiting to listen to some more of a podcast you like, or reply to the emails you didn’t get to answer before running out the door. And what about the job? Well, firstly, it’s not a given yet that you lost it. But if you did - listen. This is where the “many ways to read a situation” comes in. Who decided this job was your only possible path? You. And falsely. “No, it’s the only job I could get, I can’t just sell the house and live in an RV for a year selling my art on Etsy”. Why not? That’s you deciding certain options to be a non-option. But the option is there. Do things come with work and sacrifice? Yes. Just like the job you had meant you had to live within physical reach of it. Every path takes you shaping to their requirements. And some things might seem daunting because it asks you to bend into a new shape than you’re used to. But look at all the different kinds of people and paths taken by people. Losing that bus today, was not a make or break of you having any path at all. It didn’t end your path. If it did anything at all (because who knows, maybe work didn’t even notice you came late or turns out there was a flood so they were closed anyways), and at most it just altered the path.

This is my stilted way of saying: when you realize just how non-essential most things are to your life - how you’ll always be ok as long as you keep going and looking for solutions - you’ll stop feeling doomed every time seemingly bad stuff happens.

“So you want me to be apathetic and care about nothing?” No. Not at all. I want you to love and enjoy the life around you. But I want you to be ok with it not lasting forever. Because when something ends, you don’t end. For you, their end, only alters your surrounding.

I don’t know if I’m making sense. And if I am, I’m still aware that “that’s just the way it is” is a hard pull to swallow. I know some situations are much, much harder to be ok with... and to that I say: yeah. I’m sorry about that. Some paths are harder than others. And some paths are only available to some and not all. But mindset is - simply is - your most important tool. You have the power to make any situation awful to you, or even good.

When bad shit happens to me, I have that essential steam blow of going through all the negatives, then I breath and look around for where to head next. I move on, because I realize no amount of moping will undo or alter the situation. It’s up to me to make something of the lemons/dogshit - or leavening it to find something else. Otherwise, I’m just standing still on the trail, crying next to a foul smelling shit for eternity. No thanks.

Another good trick I’ve found for when unlucky things alter the path, is this: I ask myself “what lesson can I take from this?” I even go as far as think “I guess this was meant to be a lesson for me”. I try to always find a way to grow from a situation, good or bad.

I don’t know... it’s taken a long while for me to live by this as well, anon, but I think the most important thing is just attitude. If you tell yourself: “I am able to grow from bad experiences and move on”, you will be more prone to do so, than if you say “this has ruined my life”. The event was the same, but the mindset shaped it.

So I ask you... even though it’s bitter, will you be able to heal from snk with time? Will you be able to move on and grow?

#I believe in you anon #anon #snk 139 #Also lifehack: listen to music with banjo in it #I’ve found that you can’t be mad or mopey when you listen to banjo #oh my god I love banjos

[tcheschirewrites]

Hey, are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Have you ever? And what was your experience like? I'm considering it but I feel so intimidated because I know I won't be able to commit to it wholeheartedly. Lowering my expectations and pacing myself would seem like the perfect solution but work kills my creative brain cells by the seconds. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of November I've only written half of page of alien language. Any advice? Also does Nano have to be a new project?

Oh man, Nano. I’m well familiar with Nano, and I’ve participated a few times (to varying degrees of success). This got very long, so I’m putting a cut.

The first time I attempted Nano was in 2006 for my novel Seerking. I had heard about it from a friend who was in an LJRP I was in, and she encouraged me to try it. I was still in high school at the time, and very frankly I did not have the dedication necessary to complete it. I got a lot of worldbuilding complete, but very little writing. I got about two pages of prose, and three notebooks of character and setting history, as well as a fairly detailed outline. I still have all of this.

The second time I attempted was in 2009, for a story that is based heavily on the Iron&Wine song ‘Boy With a Coin’. I got a little bit further, but I got stuck in a few places. I think it’s because my idea was bigger than my life experience, and I also got stuck in a lot of small details. Additionally, my first Word document (where I got about two chapters in?) was destroyed when my laptop’s hard drive just straight gave up on life - I did buck up and rewrite quite a bit, though it didn’t sing quite the same notes, and I have this handwritten copy still. (It’s possible I tried again with this same project the year after? I don’t remember tbvh)

My third attempt was in 2011, about a goverment operative and a faun. This one I got the furthest, and I still have the original handwritten draft and the typed copy. I pantsed this one, 100%. To this day, I still don’t know how this story ends, but I’d love to attempt a rewrite someday.

Then, unfortunately, from around 2012 until Fall of last year, I stopped writing period. I was in a real bad situation, and just didn’t have the energy for anything, let alone a novel. My most recent experience with Nano as an organization was Camp Nano, which is a much looser structure, and it is in May and July. Rather than the hard and fast 50k, you set your own goal when you announce your project.

I can understand your hesitance to participate, honestly. Nano is a beast of a project – to reach the minimum goal of 50k in the 30 allotted days, you have to produce 1667 words of new content every single day. This is approximately 3 pages, maybe a little more – which is a lot when you’re already stressed! And if you miss a day you have to adjust your daily totals for every following day, and the pressure starts to mount! It’s a lot, even if it is only meant to be a neat little challenge (mostly, I’ll cover benefits a bit later).

Now, my recommendations are going to follow two paths: planning, and pantsing. If you are naturally a planner – that is, you like having rough outlines, refined outlines, you like having character data, history, etc – then I recommend you have as much of your novel planned ahead of time before November 1st hits. Whatever notes or files you need to have set aside before you begin writing those first words, have them ready – read over them, refine them, and have them memorized front to back so that you know what your story is meant to be. If you are a natural planner, and you have not done this by today’s date (it’s 30 October where I am), then I do not recommend participating this year because it will stress you the fuck out and you might even make yourself sick.

The other popular option is called pantsing – essentially, you have a rough idea, and you’re flying by the seat of your pants. (This is literally what it is called on the Nano website, by the by – there are badges for it and everything.) If you are a pantser, then I still recommend a little preparation, but of a wildly different degree and type: find your story’s ambiance. If you are a pantser, think about what sparked the idea for your story? Try to put yourself back in the place (emotionally or physically) where you had the most intense version of the idea, and hang onto that feeling with both hands. This is incredibly important, because it will allow you to harken back to that feeling without chasing the high of first being hit by that feeling. If you are a pantser, focus heavily on the feelings you want to evoke with your story, and let your heart guide you.

Now the third option (I know what I said, I lied all right) is if you are a combination planner-pantser; you don’t want to have the rigidity of the outline, but you also like having a little bit of structure, or at least a direction to go in. If you are a combination planner-pantser, I recommend doing very soft preparation for yourself in the week leading up to Nano. So things like building yourself a playlist, maybe doodle what your main looks like in your head, or small details like character names and short dossiers. If you’re able, I recommend coming up with an ending, so you know what the end-goal looks like and you are able to track your story’s completion in your head.

For all three, I would recommend deciding ahead of time how you want to write your novel – are you going to type it up in a word processor (please make so many backups, do not live the heartache that I had to)? Are you going old school and hand writing it? Are you feeling like a boss that day and maybe want to dictate it into an app on your phone? Pick one, and make a dedicated space for your novel. You can mix them up, certainly, but make sure that you are able to consolidate effectively or you’re going to stress yourself out.

Now, you asked whether or not it has to be a “new” project. There are actually a few answers to this, depending on what you mean. Now, if we are to assume that “new” strictly means a brand new, fresh idea that you have just come up with specifically for National Novel Writer’s Month 2020, then the answer is no; it does not. Back in the day, there were a few purists that insisted you had to have a designated project every year, but like most purists, they’re just being assholes about it.

As a matter of fact, it does not even have to be a brand new project that you have not written any words for at all – however, if you do have an idea that you have already written for, you are not permitted to use any of your previous word count toward your goal. This is definitely a no-no. Personally, I’ve tried this, and I found it rough – I liked having the designated project, and I liked the buildup to it.

If you have, though, an idea that you’ve worked over and you are simply ready to start putting words on a page, this, I think, is Nano’s sweet spot.

Now, I know most of this 1000+ answer has been cautioning and reminders that Nano is tough – because, well, it is. It is a huge undertaking, and I feel like every participant has their horror stories to tell about their experience. But I want to reassure you that it isn’t 100% a hard slog to a dreary end; there are so many tools that Nano themselves provide you, as well as user-run communities and workshops, and even some benefits after the fact. These are the things I want to wrap this post up with.

Firstly, no matter how tired or stressed you are, if you register for nanowrimo.org, you’ll begin receiving daily emails from published authors and past participants. These range from silly and tedious, to incredibly comforting. My favorite one, which I cannot remember a lot of specifics from, was from a man who detailed his experience and reassured everyone that the work doesn’t have to be good – it just has to be 50k words. That’s it. You can have typos and errors all over the place, plot holes of all shapes and sizes, and a main character who doesn’t make any sense at all; it doesn’t matter, because the point of the event is simply to finish. Neil Gaiman has also said a time or two that your first draft’s only purpose is to exist. Just get the words out; you can fix them later.

Additionally, when you are completing your profile, you can enter in your location and there are designated forums for participants in your area. In the past, there have been meetups for group-writes and workshops as well, though I imagine they will be more along the lines of Discord calls this year. If you are a social person who needs a pair of eyes to help you work through a scene, Nano’s got your back. They will also send you statistics for your area for the average word count, daily word count, past winners, etcetera. It can sometimes feel like you are very alone during this difficult project, but a lot of these things bring a very human element to the event.

Finally, what comes after you have completed. A lot of these benefits are newer than my time, but I browsed through them when I did my Camp Project. When you complete the goal in the allotted time, you get a neat little badge for your webpage and a printable certificate for the immediate boost of dopamine. But you will also get discounts to some neat shit, like different word processing applications (I got 50% off of Scrivener when I finished Camp), as well as things like The Great Courses, discounts in the swag store, etc. But more than that, there are partnering websites who want to help you on the road to being published. Wattpad is in this group, but I believe also big name publishers (I might have seen Penguin on there at one point) are willing to work with winners to get their works distributed.

All that said, I recommend every writer attempt Nano at least once in their writing career. Even if I personally have not done so stellar in the past, it is a fantastic learning experience for all of the work that goes into producing a novel from start to finish – it forces you to know your limits, and sometimes to overcome them. I don’t think I will be participating this year – I have so many side projects that I want to get done, but I will very likely drop everything to do it next year. I have two novels that are real roughly built up that I could do for this, though, and I would love the dedicated time to spend on them.

#asked and answered jim #red-write-district #writeblr #writing advice #nanowrimo #i'm actually really fond of every nano project i've ever done #even if i didn't finish any of them #i still go back and read them sometimes #and i still have a lot of like plot details in my head for them

[transgenderteensurvivalguide]

Incredibly urgent! I'm in the midst of a breakdown right now. My mom decided to show her true colors today and basically told me that as long as I live in this house I should shut my mouth and act like a girl. So what I'm asking is: is there any way I could escape this house? Not as in running away, I don't think I could pull that off since none of my family accepts me and all of my friends' parents are the same or worse than mine. (Part 1/?)

urgent (2/2) I want to know if there’s any way that,, I don’t know? The law could protect me maybe? Because my parents are generally emotionally abusive and manipulative. Is there some miraculous way I could be able to make them loose custody of me? Or at least make it so they don’t have control over my actions (medically or otherwise)? I don’t know, maybe I’m being too hopeful but I genuinely can’t see myself surviving for much longer if this keeps up. I’m in Greece. Sorry for bothering.”

Lee says:

I honestly can’t figure out what the laws are in Greece, but if you’re a minor who is being abused you usually have a few options, like becoming an emancipated minor if you can prove that you’re supporting yourself, or having the government remove you from your home to live in a group home if the child protective services there deem there to be a credible threat to your safety and wellbeing at home. 

But be aware- it won’t be an easy road for you, and if you can’t get proof that they’re abusing you then the child protective services likely won’t do any more than recommended family therapy at most. And your family may react very negatively when they’re interviewed and find out that someone has accused them of being abusive- this may put you in even more danger. I’ve had a lot of friends who were in unsafe homes but decided to stay in their home and spend almost all their hours at work or at school or in the library so they don’t actually go home until it’s time to sleep. Sometimes that’s the best path for someone- and other times, it’s best to get the government involved. I’ve also had friends who were removed from their homes and put in group homes run by the state.

I’d talk to a trusted adult outside your family about the emotional abuse. We’re teens and college students on this blog, not professionals. If you go to school then you should talk to a teacher or guidance counselor, and if you aren’t able to go to school then look on your school’s website for their contact info and email them even if they aren’t in session. Talking to adults and asking for help can be anxiety-producing, but if you’re being abused and you think that getting out is the best path for you, then it’s important to reach out for help anyway. Talk in person, text, email, write a letter and hand it to them, whatever you gotta do, just get the info on what’s happening to you across. It may help to have a friend there for moral support. 

You likely won’t be able to get the courts to revoke your parents legal guardianship over you if the only thing they did is tell you that you have to act like a girl while living with them, you’d have to prove there’s other serious abuse occurring. You should start documenting any abuse that you’re going through right now which can help prove whatever they’re doing, and if you can get voice recordings using the memos app on your phone that’s even better.

If you’re having mental health problems as a result of the abuse, I’d look into the links in our Mental health page! We have a lot of info on coping with distress and depression while you try to survive to 18- there are a lot of trans people who don’t have supportive parents and have to wait until 18 to transition, so we’ve addressed it on the blog a lot in the past.

I personally don’t know the extent of the abuse you’re going through, but being having a parent who won’t allow you to wear masculine clothes or medically transition isn’t usually considered abusive behavior in the eyes of the law. I’d look into becoming an emancipated minor instead- you may have better luck with the courts in that area if you can prove you’re economically self-sufficient and your parents aren’t supporting you. I’m sorry I couldn’t help more, and I’m sorry you’re going through this- nobody deserves to be mistreated.

These links may be useful:

How to prove emotional abuse

Documenting dating abuse

5 important ways to document abuse

How to document abuse

Journaling tips

Getting out and recording evidence

What to do when you’re living with an abusive person

How to Deal With Abusive Parents

How to deal with emotional abuse

How to cope if your parents are bullies

Coping with an alcoholic parent

Three skills to cope with abuse

3 ways to take care of yourself when you live with toxic parents

4 positivity doodles

Mental Support Community

Caring for yourself

Therapy for abuse victims

Tons of abuse information and coping links

If you have to sneak food

Abuse resources for men

Stalking help

Interactive guide to safety planning

Calling the police

What not to do when calling 911

Safety planning around sexual abuse

Emotional safety planning

Domestic violence

6 ways to reject abusive relatives and restart your life

If you are being kicked out

Having to sneak out

How to Deal With Emotionally Abusive Parents

Beware- Hundreds of Apps Can Empower Stalkers to Track Their Victims

Followers, if anyone is in Greece and knows more info that can help anon, please add on!

#Lee says #Greece #abuse #abuse tw #abuse / #abuse m #Anonymous #transgenderteensurvivalguide #trans #transgender

[echodrops]

Hi! I'm a high schooler considering majoring in creative writing, and I was wondering if there are any tips, pros and cons, advice, etc. you could give since you teach it? :3

Ahhh, I’m excited to get asks like this because I love to hear that people want to major in creative writing–nowadays there’s such a heavy emphasis on STEM careers, and poor English is so often ignored… But I hope I can do this response justice. Please keep in mind that I can only share my own experiences and that the path I’ve taken may not work for everyone!

I guess if you’re in the “considering” stage, the number one thing I would suggest is that you ask yourself two things:

1) What is my “absolute” goal? If I could score my dream job at the end of college, what would that look like?

2) What am I willing to consider doing instead if I don’t score my dream job at the end? What other related careers could I enjoy?

If you’re considering creative writing as a career, your likely end goal is to become a professional writer and make a living off your writing, right? (Some people treat that like a pipe dream, but it’s no less likely, and in fact sometimes far more likely, than any other creative career.) But becoming a writer who is well-known enough to live off your advances and royalties will likely take you a significant amount of time–even if you are published, especially in the early years, you may not be earning enough from your books to pay the bills all by yourself. (If you’ve got a supportive significant other that has a high-paying job, by all means, get them to pay the bills while you build up your writing fan base–then you can repay later when you’re rolling in royalties!)

But you will, at least at first, very likely need to ask yourself: What am I willing to do as a day job?

And I think the answer to that question is really what determines whether or not you should pursue a creative writing degree.

A degree in creative writing is one of the most versatile college degrees you can get. (Certainly I’m biased, but there do seem to be certain degrees that are simply more applicable to a wider field of career options–someone who gets a degree in sculpting can sculpt, for example, but I’m not sure about its applicability beyond that.)

English, like math, is a broad enough type of degree that it achieves some “universality.” A huge, huge number of careers require strong writing and communication skills. English degrees can get you into law school, into marketing and content-writing careers, into teaching careers, into office jobs, into HR and PR positions, into management, and essentially into any position in which writing will be a major component. Demonstrated ability to write well and clearly is a golden ticket to many jobs because it is a skill that many people lack. Even people who might otherwise be better qualified for a technical position can still end up rejected in favor of people who are able to express their skills in a more professional manner!

So getting an English degree/having creative writing for your emphasis is a far, far safer career choice than many people will lead you to believe.

But just because the degree can apply to many fields doesn’t always mean it’s the best degree for those fields–the “jack of all trades” saying is applicable here. There are certain careers that English degrees feed into very well, and others where you’ll have to stretch things a little. So, another question:

Are you interested in any of the following?

Teaching

Writing content/reviews for products or websites

Handling correspondence, such as managing emails for a business

Creating and managing social media accounts

Tutoring/Proof-reading for pay

Technical writing (someone has to write all our user manuals after all)

Managing records or handling public relations

If so, you can probably sign up for a creative writing degree with no real worries. Case closed, problem solved. XD

But if none of that stuff looks remotely interesting to you, you might want to take a deep breath and think about your other options (of which the following are just some):

Skip an undergraduate degree in creative writing specifically, but plan on studying writing in graduate school, such as through an MFA program (a bit difficult but not uncommon)

Double major in creative writing and another field where the day jobs interest you more (difficult but very useful)

Skip formal education for creative writing entirely and go it on your own to become a great writer (not ideal, but also not totally impossible)

Having a creative writing Bachelor’s degree can help you on your way to becoming a professional writer. But it isn’t a requirement to become a great author–in fact, many authors never formally studied creative writing before writing their great novels (Kurt Vonnegut was in science; Ernest Hemingway was a journalist before a novelist, etc.). If day jobs in other fields interest you more, pursuing a degree there doesn’t mean you’ll never write and publish your great novel.

Nor will skipping a creative writing Bachelor’s degree block you from ever studying creative writing later on: in my MFA program, only three of the seven of us in the poetry track had undergraduate English degrees. It is possible to earn an undergraduate degree in a totally different field and then still go on to study creative writing later if you decide that writing on your own isn’t working.

Furthermore, you’re not locked into certain classes at most colleges–you could take a creative writing minor or simply take writing classes as part of your electives, and still get the benefits of the education, while earning a different degree where the day jobs interest you more.

As a personal aside, when I was an undergraduate student, I was very nervous about my ability to succeed in the writing field, and so I decided to go the double major route, with English as my “fun” degree and criminal justice as my “pay the bills” degree. Ironically, almost a decade later, here I am, paying my bills with my “fun” degree. I rarely use my criminal justice degree as anything more than a party trick (people really love to talk about murder). But studying two subjects gave both myself and my family relief, and I did learn many, many things that would later appear in my writing, so I have no regrets.

Basically, what I’m getting at here is: When you think about how you’re going to be paying your bills for 5-10 years after college, what careers can you see yourself doing other than writing fiction/poetry? If none of the things you imagine line up with the “easy to get” English degree careers, that’s a sign that maybe you should at least consider studying something else and just take your writing classes on the side instead. (Or double major, if you’re a masochist like me lol.)

Ultimately, I’m not enough of an optimist to tell you that you should blindly follow your passion for writing and assume it will all work out–the basic fact is you’ll almost inevitably need a day job, at least for a while, and that’s what I think the deciding factor in your major should be.

Nevertheless, one of the biggest hang-ups I hear from people thinking about majoring in writing is that they are worried the degree will be worthless, and that simply isn’t true. Almost all my friends from college were English majors (we flock together) and all of my English major friends are gainfully employed–none of us are homeless or starving or still living off our parents. Some of us might have better jobs (I’m not going to brag–lol jk yes I am–with my professor’s salary I own two houses and am two months from completely paying off my gorgeous 2SS RS Camaro), but essentially every English major I know is doing well for him- or herself. (This may not be everyone’s story though–I’m sure some others have struggled; I just don’t know them.)

The longest time I was ever unemployed since earning my creative writing degree was a period of four months after grad school, when I moved back to southern California and realized the job market there was horrific. THAT SAID, even during my four-month job search, I took an internship at a refugee and immigration center and got the opportunity to help people literally escape human trafficking rings and modern-day slavery, so that was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.I haven’t always liked the jobs I’ve had, but I’ve never felt afraid of not having enough money to feed or house myself since leaving college with a creative writing degree.

You can do perfectly well for yourself with a degree in writing. I wouldn’t even call it a risky choice, at this point. So if that’s the sticking point in your decision to major in writing–that part I wouldn’t worry too much about.

As for advice… ah, this post is really long already. If you want some advice about what to look for in schools you apply to, or what to do if you do decide on creative writing as your major, send me another message and I’ll try to whip something up.

Hope this is what you were looking for!

#college advice #life advice #writing advice #??? #I have no idea how to tag this lol #why you should get an English degree #or maybe some cases where you shouldn't #creative writing #creative writing major #IRL stuff #echo answers asks

[avoidtheratracenow-blog]

How To Become A SUPER Affiliate Even If You’ve Failed Multiple Times Before… ​​Just Copy The Exact Process I’ve Been Using For Years…

Sign Up To Clickfunnels Before You Watch Step 3

You Must Get It Through This Link To Get Into The Affiliate Club

After Signing Up To Clickfunnels Email: [email protected] To Get Access To Frank's Affiliate Club For FREE

Let me ask you a question...

What if you could wake up one random day, say a Wednesday... And spontaneously book a ticket to go travel to a new country?

Regardless if you want to take a vacation, or you just want to get work done in a different location...

You're STILL getting money deposited into your bank account...

The money that you spent on your plane ticket and trip expenses is made back in a matter of weeks. Or even days...

Look, I know that this might sound too good to be true. But people around the world like Guy are completely changing their lives by learning how to build profitable sales funnels that automate their entire business and help them generate sales 24/7. 

Building sales funnels is EXACTLY what they are doing.

Imagine Being Able To Generate Thousands Of Dollars Per Week And Generate Sustainable Passive Income Even If You're Out Doing Things You Enjoy Doing

​ I was recently in Rarotonga then came home and took a trip around the South Island of New Zealand. I must say it was a great time! But even when I'm out having a great time I'm STILL generating thousands of dollars... 

How would that make you feel?

But I just want to tell you one thing before I move on... 

Most people going through this training that I put together will never accomplish these results that I'm showing you above.

And this has nothing to do with their intelligence or their capabilities to generate income online.

Actually, this business is more simple than you think. People tend to overcomplicate it and create confusion in their own heads for no reason.

To start making your first $100/per day or even your first $50/day, you have to meet these 3 requirements:REQUIREMENT #1: You have to stop chasing "guru" after "guru". First of all, you will get confused by listening to many people at the same time. Second of all, you have to stop believing them when they say that you will get rich by pushing a magic button. This is a serious business and requires consistency, determination, and willingness to put in the work every day. I won't tell you that you will become a millionaire if you don't actually do that work that I tell you to do. I have created a very easy to understand game-plan that you can follow, but you still need to commit to it. REQUIREMENT #2: You have to be coachable and open minded to the strategies that I will teach you. I can guarantee that the information that you will learn WORKS. I've tested it myself and create dozens of profitable sales funnels. But you have to be willing to listen and execute. I've been learning from people that are more advanced than me ever since I started out online. If you want to change your life you have to listen to people that already walked the path.REQUIREMENT #3: Don't lose focus. Look, it's very easy to lose focus in this industry. Everyone is telling you to do a different thing and buy their newest opportunity. This is called "The Shiny Object Syndrome". Every time people see a shiny object they ditch what they were doing and go follow the new thing. If you want to make this work you have to stick to the strategy and do it UNTIL it works. If you stick to it, your life will change.

You Will Learn My Proven Strategies To Leverage Sales Funnels + Affiliate Marketing To Create A Passive Income Stream That Deposits Money Into Your Account Every Week.

​

So right now you have 2 different choices:

The first choice is to go through all the learning curve to learn affiliate marketing and sales funnels by yourself and have to learn:

 How to find the best affiliate marketing offers that will actually make you money.

 How to create high converting sales funnels that turn visitors into buyers.

 How to create engaging advertising campaigns to get visitors to your funnel.

 How to write email copy and sales copy so that people are persuaded to buy from you.

 How to create a bonus package to make an irresistible offer to your leads.

 And a whole lot of other minor details that will have to work on to make this work.

And to be honest it's possible to make this work if you decide to learn all these things.

I believe if you really want to learn something, you will do whatever it takes to learn it and reach your goals.

Having said that, if I were to give my "old me" one piece of advice, it would be "don't  reinvent the wheel". I would tell myself to follow a mentor that already walked the path.

If you choose to go with learning all these things that I mentioned, you will find yourself losing time, energy and money. You will have to go through a lot of trial and error to really figure out how to "crack the code".

I have invested well over $18,000 in my own education including buying coaching, masterminds, live events and courses from other marketers.

So unless you want to spend AT LEAST $18,000 to figure these things out by yourself, I suggest you go with the second and BEST option.

Follow a proven mentor that has helped normal people around the world generate hundreds of thousands of dollars through online marketing. Even helped a few people generate millions of dollars.

Also, follow a proven strategy that has been tested over and over again to generate consistent passive income with affiliate marketing and sales funnels. A system that will allow you to save a TON of money, time, energy and resources that you would have to invest if you wanted to learn everything by yourself.

If that sounds like YOU, I would like to invite you to join Franks Affiliate Club 

Get Access To Frank's Affiliate Club

After Signing Up To Clickfunnels Email: [email protected]  To Get Access To Frank's Affiliate Club For FREE.

Fast Track Your Results By Partnering With Me

You're going to learn:

 What is a sales funnel and why it's basically the most important tool that any online or offline business can use to generate sales and survive in this competitive business environment that we're living in.

 The simple drag and drop tool used to create and launch high converting sales funnels fast. Anyone can successfully use this software even if you have no technical skills, business skills, or marketing experience.

 Which affiliate offers to choose and which ones actually allow you to start generating anywhere from $100-$1000/day fast.

 How to leverage my own high converting sales funnels that I use, for FREE. I usually charge $12,000+ to create custom sales funnels because you can potentially earn 2X, 3X or even 5X that amount. By partnering with me you will be given the exact sales funnel that generates me results so you can plug it in and start making sales. This will fast-track your success and help you start making money while you're learnings.

 How to rapidly start promoting affiliate offers through sales funnels and generating monthly recurring income. 

 How to stack monthly recurring income without having to convince anyone to buy your products.

 My exact step-by-step sales funnel training program so you can go ahead and build future profitable sales funnels for yourself. 

 My insane traffic generation methods showing You EXACTLY where to find the best high converting traffic

Access to my porfitable email swipes that you can use for your own email campaigns. Saving your hours and even weeks of work!

 Access to the exclusive Affiliate Club where you will get access to me daily inside to ask me questions!

Stop The Trial And Error And Get Inside My Affiliate Mastermind To HELP You Build A Reliable Recurring Income Business!

Get Access To Frank's Affiliate Club

After Signing Up To Clickfunnels Email: [email protected] To Get Access To Frank's Affiliate Club For FREE

Here's What You Get When You Join Frank's Affiliate Club!

What's In It For You? 

Full Sales Funnel Training 

($997 value)

Most people that ever try to promote any affiliate offers like Clickfunnels struggle to even make a couple of sales. 

On the other hand, successful affiliates that make thousands of dollars per month in recurring income know how to create irresistible offers that people simply can't say "no" to.

Inside the Affiliate Club, you will learn the step-by-step process to start making awesome high converting funnels!

This same information could potentially make you a 6 figure affiliate marketer if you put in the work and treat this as a real business.

Done For You High Converting Sales Funnel 

($12,997 value)

Sales funnels are basically money machines if you do them the right way. On one side you get visitors entering the funnel, and on the other side, you make sales.

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There is a lot of work involving the creation of a sales funnel. Copywriting, the psychology behind it, the structure, design and the workflow.

When you join the Affiliate Club, you will get to use my exact sales funnels that I use to sell Clickfunnels and other program for free.

All you have to do is click one button to download my funnel into your Clickfunnels account, and instantly start using it. This way I'm doing 90% of the work for you.

This will help you start making money while learning to master the skills yourself. After you go through the video training you will learn to create these funnels yourself for the future.

Done-For-You Email Swipes 

($1997 value)Building a successful sales funnel involves different components. It's kind of like building a puzzle.

Part of building a sales funnel is the email sequence that you use to take people to take action and the random emails that you send to your email list.

Writing emails is not as easy as you think. It involves copywriting skills and knowing how to persuade people to take a specific action.

At this point, you might be wondering what kind of emails to write, and how to structure them properly.

When you join the Affiliate Club you will get my own email swipes that I use for my business so you can model them and start making commissions.

Rocket Traffic Generation 

($997 value)In the past years I've generated over 300,000 leads combining all my businesses which have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit.

Leads are the energy source of every business. If you have no leads (people that go through your funnel and give you their email address), you won't make any sales regardless if you are selling an amazing product like Clickfunnels.

When you get into the Affiliate Club you will also get access to my Rocket Traffic Generation Video which will teach you my exact advertising techniques to send people to your funnel.

Leverage My Bonuses To Get Sales 

($2997 value)So by this point, I'm giving you all the cool stuff above but the key ingredient that you're missing to have massive success is...

A bonus stack to offer people in exchange for them to sign up using your affiliate link.

The difference between a regular affiliate, and a super affiliate, is that the super affiliate offers bonuses so people immediately sign up using his link. 

Now, I understand that when you're starting out you don't have bonuses created.

So what I'm doing is for people that sign up to my Affiliate Club I will allow you to use my bonuses to help you get more people to sign up using your link.

This will save you a ton of time, energy, money and resources.

So basically you're telling people you will give them a ton of bonuses (which are really my own), and when it's time for you to give them the bonuses you just send them to my mastermind where they receive all the value. This is something I've never done before.

Private Club Facebook Group 

($997 value)This is a group of action takers, people to support each other, case studies, questions getting answered and tech support. 

In the group, you will have exclusive access to me and this is for members only so it will be full of other members sharing ideas and methods!

Extra Bonus! Lead Generation Authority

($497 value)

This is a complete training course and book on how to generate leads to your funnels. This is actually created by a good friend of mine who has done millions online!

You will learn all the top secrets he's used to build multiple online 7 figure business over the years.

I wasn't going to give this away but Its hard not to share it!

Get Access To Frank's Affiliate Club

After Signing Up To Clickfunnels Email:[email protected] To Get Access To Frank's Affiliate Club For FREE

You're in good hands, I will literally guide you and help you every step on the way to become a super affiliate! I've designed this push and play system because I know that's what you get stuck with when you try to start an online business.

Let's get you to the Gucci Shop so you can buy some sweet Orange things to put on your feet! I didn't actually buy those I'm playing..... Serious Internet Marketers are boring. Let's Go!

Total Combined Value: 

$21,479 

Get Access To Frank's Affiliate Club

After Signing Up To Clickfunnels Email: [email protected] To Get Access To Frank's Affiliate Club For FREE

#makemoneynoline howtomakemoneyonline #how to make money online 2019 #best way to make money with clickfunnels #best way to make money with clickfunnels affiliate program #clickfunnels #clickfunnels free trial #clickfunnels alternatives #free way to make money with clickfunnels #clickfunnels affiliate #best strategy to make money with clickfunnels affiliate program #clickfunnels affiliate program #best strategy in 2019 #strategy #in2019 #how to make money online fast #sales funnel #free sales funnel #clickfunnels sales funnel #make money fast as a clickfunnels affiliate #can you make moey with affiliate marketing #how to make money in 2019 with affiliate marketing #russell brunson #best strategy to make money as a clickfunnels affiliate for free #free technique to promote clickfunnels #how to promote clickfunnels as a affiliate #how to promote clickfunnels #make money with clickfunnels

[mychemicaldoodle]

In light of recent events people have posted all this great stuff about being motivated and going after what you want and living life and all this great stuff, but I still somehow feel like I'm stuck in a rut. I haven't been out of it in a while. I don't know what I want to do with my life, I'm questioning if college was the right choice or not, and I feel really isolated. I want to go out and do what I love, but my motivation's gone. I'm so stuck and I don't want to be stuck until I die...

If it’s any comfort, I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do with my life after this year, I have no plans, but so many things I’d like to achieve - I’m at a sort of fork in the road but the fork has ten or more prongs and I want to go out and conquer the world but I have to decide which path to take first. I can relate to your situation, and have often fallen into ruts of my own.Often I find motivation and inspiration come in waves, and like surfing you have to watch and be prepared, know which ones to ignore and jump at the right time in order to go the furthest. Keep a casual eye on the trends, lingo, memes and fads, something might strike your fancy and inspire you, or you might find a gap in culture that desperately needs to be filled.

I’m currently going through an uninspired phase, an antinode. I’m working on an online portfolio for myself. Maybe you could try that? Its something you can add to every time you make something new, and you can put the url on business cards, on email footers and stuff - it gets you out there. I also highly recommend RedBubble, if you’re into art and design. As for college, education at least looks good on a resume, even if it’s not what you want to do with the rest of your life, it’s a starting point. If you’re getting decent grades, please stick it out. You don’t want to switch bows right when you’ve got the arrow lined up on the target. Even if it’s not a super valuable qualification, it still shows that you had a good enough work ethic and enough determination to get it, and you applied yourself. Don’t ever take what you learn in college for granted, it is an investment.If you’re frustrated about life, don’t lose heart because the discomfort you’re experiencing could likely be because you are growing as a person and what used to fit you no longer does. If you keep at it, you’ll get a breakthrough. Situations, like most things in this world are temporary.Mark Twain said “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why” - remember, you have plenty of your days ahead of you. Don’t dwell too much on the future or you’ll miss what’s happening in front of you, which could be very important.

#motivation #life purpose #this is for me too #Anon

[douglasconstruction]

7 Things I'm Totally Obsessed with This Month (August 2017 Edition)

These are thoughts, the artwork, the news stories, the tools, the food, the conversations, and whatever else we just can't get out of our heads this month.       

1. The Astronomical Event: The 2017 Solar Eclipse

A lot of people are talking about this today. Consider me among them. My house is only 45 minutes from the "path of totality," which means two things - 1) the epicenter of the event is extremely physically close and accessible (with planning) and 2) what I would have seen from my front yard is 99.3% of the real deal. Is that good enough?

In most situations, I'd say — yeah, 99.3% is as much as you can ask for. And you can avoid the crowds, the hassles, and the traffic jams. But, in this case, that .7% makes all the difference.

So, we headed out on Sunday, to Madras, Oregon, the premier place identified by experts to see the eclipse. (Dead center in the path of totality, and the least chance of clouds or other weather to obscure the sky.) Madras, where NASA itself decided to host its event. Madras, where teams of scientists from all over the the world set up their equipment to monitor the event.

Madras, which is accessible only by two-lane mountain pass state routes that were guaranteed to clog with traffic.

I'll share the details with you if you want. Email me. Yes, it was crowded, but not unbearably. Yes, I stood in line for an hour to use the filthiest portable bathroom I've ever been in. Yes, the traffic on the way out was truly ridiculous (though we arrived there with no problems). Yes, the volunteers running the thing had no idea what they were doing. Yes, my neck still hurts from sleeping in the car. 

But — and I have no other way of saying it — it was completely amazing and totally worth every, dust-covered second. The people their became a real community, they helped each other out, they bonded, they shared their supplies, telescopes, and food and water. I had a completely enjoyable hour long conversation while waiting for that bathroom with folks from all over the west. And. the. moon. covered. up. the. sun. entirely. for. more. than. two. minutes.

It came. Just like they said it would. The light was insane. The shadows unreal. I stared directly at the sun at 10:20 in the morning, and it was among the most beautiful things I've ever seen. 

The older I get, the more I struggle with the calculus about going to big, crowded events. Is that concert really worth $50 a ticket, plus fees? Do I really want to stand on my feet for six hours through two opening bands and not have the headliners start until after 11:00pm, meaning I don't get to bed until at least one or two on a work night?

But, when I go. I never regret it. I don't remember the traffic jams. I remember the event that I signed up to see. The eclipse reminded me that when I say yes, I always think it's worth it. 

Photo: Andy Whale/Courtesy of Faber & Faber

2. The Interview: Billy Bragg in conversation with Terry Gross

Here's my take on Billy Bragg before listening to this: I like him. He's really important to a certain lineage of roots music that I'm particularly interested in. I'm glad he's out there. He's had a thirty-plus year career and I'm familiar with some of his music, but I certainly haven't heard most of his catalog.

Here's my take on Billy Bragg after listening to this: Billy Bragg is the most fascinating, well-spoken musician of all time, and I should listen to him non-stop.

I exaggerate, but just a bit. The truth is: this is a great forty-five minute conversation. Bragg is incredibly evocative with his language, but always approachable and easy to listen to. Terry Gross is obviously charmed by him, and she's at her best when she lets her guard down a bit, and allows herself to become a bit giddy. 

Worth a listen, even if your not a huge fan of either Fresh Air or Billy Bragg. It's simply great audio, period. 

3. The Film: Beatriz at Dinner

This thing truly blew me away. It's one of the most interesting movies I've seen this year. 

Not a line in this movie is wasted. There's so much control present in the filmmaking here. Everything is intentional, purposeful, and contributes to the desired tone. Every actor delivers every single line exactly the way they should. Hayek and Lithgow get the biggest lines, but Connie Britton and Amy Landecker manage to pull up both a creepy/disgusting and yet sympathetic vibe that totally blew me away.

The reviews seem to think it's "pretty good," though users don't seem to give it as high praise of the critics. It might be because it was released the same year as "Get Out" They're great companion pieces, for sure.

Maybe it's because I've seen all of Miguel Arteta's previous movies, and liked them. I think Mike White is a particularly interesting screenwriter. Maybe it's because I was on a really nice date night with my wife, on our first evening out alone after having had house guests for nearly a month. It might have even been the two particularly good Oregon beers I sipped during the run time. But I really, really loved this as a piece of filmmaking, and an avenue for serious performers to be great. I think you should see it too.

Honorable mention: I watched Nocturnal Animals last night. I think it's pretty great, and worth a watch. It's streaming now on HBO if you have access. 

4. The Recipe: Big's Smoked Chicken

This is the dish I have been craving all summer. I made it early in the season, and many times since, and I'm certain it will become a go-to when having friends over for a grill night.

It's from a local Portland restaurant, that I have not been to, because, tragically, the building that housed it experienced an electrical fire a riff on Alabama-style barbecue chicken, meaning it comes with a white, mayo-based sauce which sounds crazy, but it amazing as it caramelizes and blackens over high heat at the last minute. (Mayo, is, basically just oil and eggs, so not that nuts.) I've made some adjustments to make it simpler to prepare on the regular in smaller batches. I'll use whatever fruitwood or hickory smoking woods I have on hand. I don't always do the Fresno pepper sauce, though I do like it, and sometimes I'll just brine or use a simpler rub to make it happen faster. 

But - it's good stuff, and anyone who eats meat will love this, we promise. Throw in a couple extra thighs or leg quarters to make sure you have plenty of leftovers to go with the sauce. 

5. The Podcast: Slate's Hit Parade

Here's why Hit Parade from Chris Molanphy is my podcast of summer: it's the exact right length. It gives you only as much details as you need to dig deep and understand what's happening, and spares you unnecessary details.

What is it? It's a look at music chart history, and an exploration of the cultural context that surround pop music hits: four, so far. 

Here's what I don't like about it: it's hard to find. Technically, I think it lives in Slate's Culture Gabfest feed once a month, but it doesn't show up in my SlatePlus version, so I have to remember to look for it and manually track it down. It's worth it, but the info here is good enough to warrant its own URL. 

Here are the episodes so far. Please start in order, even though you don't think you can listen to forty minutes on UB40. You can.

6. The Chart: The Ultimate Single Malt Scotch Flavor Map

I love summer, like a lot. But when the weather starts to crisp and the days shorten a bit, I'll be plenty okay. I have my fall traditions, but the one I'm looking forward to the most is my annual indulgence bottle of whiskey purchase.

I actually don't spend much on liquor. People think I'm some connesieur, but I think I really just have an interest in learning. I like higher end stuff, but I really don't drink enough to justify the spending. I have a few sub $25 staples that I keep around, and that's usually it. 

But each October, I do treat myself to one $80 or $100 bottle to enjoy as the leaves change, and before the craziness of the holidays hit, and this graphic on Vinepair totally helps me understand why I like what I do. You better believe I'll be consulting it before I bust out the credit card. (Considering that Talisker 18...but it goes for $165 here. Maybe I should see if I can find a glass first. Anyone have any experience with it?)

7. The Good for You Habit: Stretching

I'm hesitant to give any sort of medical advice here, but I do want to share: this month, I have visited the chiropractor for the first time. I wanted to learn proper stretching technique to tackle specific issues, and its completely changed my life. I had no idea how few of my muscles I was using to support my back, and how limited the two activities I do most - road biking and working at a desk - keep me cramped up from the top of my head to the base of my feet. 

If you've never been, and your health insurance will make it affordable, I really do encourage you to try it. It's not just about cracking and adjusting, it's about learning lifestyle changes to keep you flexible for as long into life as possible. I'm sold. 

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