#the person who peer reviews my document tomorrow: where's the document

[gideonisms]

had just like a wildly bad brain day from morning to night but what's most important is, tomorrow I have leftover Coffee Treat. mercy was literally right the world could be ending my life could be falling apart but I WILL have that delicious coffee like that's my priority everything else is secondary

#like i was having trouble doing basic tasks like texting family back and making myself eat #do have a draft due tomorrow i have not done. idk probably just going to make a pretty template & fill like 3 bullshit sentences under #each heading. didn't say it had to be a *good* draft #the person who peer reviews my document tomorrow: where's the document #it's in my head dw about it :) it looks great i promise :)) #had a whole spiral about a) how everything is boring b) world events c) how i'll never get a bearable job #d) what it would feel like to move back in with family e) world events again #f) dying alone g) having to live with other people h) never having a cat i) never finishing another fic #i should make a poll #where are you on my scale of worries from plague war and housing crisis to what if i never get to cradle my very own cat in my arms gently

[grasslandgirl]

oooo i sent it more as a fix prompt but also from one adhdhead to another i’m glad we agree!! thinking about sam and peter study dates

ahhhh fvbjsjvkbjf im so dumb i’m sorry i saw “adhd sam” and my brain just yelled YEAH. RADICAL. and that was it kjdvskfj 

that being said i’ve been haunted by ricky montgomery’s Line Without a Hook + eldonado since yesterday so........ hmmm.... (oh no this got wildly out of hand)

-----------

Peter threw himself wholeheartedly into anything he worked on. It was just how he was built. Peter was either on or he was off, and it was hard to get him to change course once he was en route. Head down, eyes narrowed, his whole body angled down at his computer like if he got his face close enough to the screen, it would start streaming information right to and from his brain. His hair would flop, unnoticed, into his eyes and he would shove his glasses so far up his nose that Sam would worry he was going to bruise his nose. 

All this to say, of course, that study dates were something of an occupational hazard when you were best friends with Peter Maldonado.

And also secretly in love with him.

Well, mostly-secretly. Secretly to Peter, and probably only Peter, because Sam was 90% sure everyone else was in on the secret and knew how hopelessly gone Sam was for his oblivious best friend. Gabi was the only one who ever said anything to him about it, though. So, little victories. 

Finals were looming over their heads like a dark storm cloud. Looming on the horizon, fucking with barometric pressure just enough to make everyone jumpy and nervous. Peter worked well under pressure- which was a good thing, because Sam knew Peter put more pressure on himself than anyone else did- but he would always show up the night before a big exam and demand that Sam help him study. It was so commonplace after seven years of friendship that Sam didn’t question it anymore. Mostly.

There was always that small, hopeful, and nervous voice in the back of his head asking why Peter always studied with Sam when he studied just as well on his own. The only answer he could think of was that Peter knew Sam studied better with him there. But that wasn’t- that couldn’t- Sam always shut that annoying little voice down before it spiraled any further.

It didn’t do anyone any good to overcomplicate things that were objectively very simple. Peter liked routine, they were best friends, Sam was the only one who could talk Peter down from an academics-induced panic attack at 2 in the morning the night before a final exam. 2 + 2 = 4. Simple math. 

Sam was slumped on his back, halfway falling off his bed with his head and shoulders draped over the side of his mattress. The notebook he was supposed to be reviewing was abandoned, sitting on his stomach. Peter was sitting at Sam’s desk, leaned over and scowling at his laptop. 

It was unfair, really, how pretty Peter looked illuminated by the blue-white light of his notes document. Sam had the perfect view of Peter’s upside down profile, all furrowed eyebrows and clenched jaw and dark hair that’d had hands run through it too many times. It was late and Sam’s brain was wrung out and exhausted, only able to focus on Peter’s expression as he mouthed whatever obsolete moment in history he was trying to commit to memory, and the looping chorus of a Carly Rae Jepsen song he’d had stuck in his head for the last two hours. 

A big part of being friends with Peter Maldonado was knowing when to draw the line. 

“Pete, dude.” Peter looked up, blinking away the lines of notes Sam could almost see in his eyes. “It’s the middle of the night. Either we know it or we don’t at this point.”

“You think we should cut our losses?”

“I know you can survive on three hours of sleep and five cups of coffee, dude, but I can’t.” Sam tapped himself on the forehead. “This baby needs r&r or I can’t fucking function.”

“Right, right. What time is it?”

Sam sat up- an impressive showcase of his abs that Peter didn’t notice, of course- and dug around in his rumpled comforter for his phone. “12:30.”

Peter sighed heavily, tipping his head back against the headrest of Sam’s computer chair. “I should go home.”

“Dude. Just-” Sam was his own worst enemy sometimes- “just spend the night.”

“Yeah? Your moms won’t mind?”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure they assumed that’s what was happening when you showed up after dinner.”

It was probably just a weird reflection from the computer light on one of Sam’s posters onto Peter’s face. There was no way that Peter was blushing. 

“Anyway,” he continued, shoving his textbook and notes off of his bed instead of looking at Peter, “I’m gonna drive you tomorrow anyway, right? Saves me a trip.”

Peter closed his laptop with a soft click. “Yeah, sure, if it’s not-”

“It’s cool, dude, don’t be weird. Just two bros-”

“Chilling in a hot tub?”

Sam prayed Peter couldn’t see the hot blush he felt rising to his cheeks. Five feet apart cause they’re not gay. “Whatever you want, dude.”

Peter knew Sam was gay. He was the first person Sam had come out to- followed closely by Gabi and his moms. But there was a difference, Sam was sure, to having your best friend be gay versus having your best friend be gay and in love with you. An invisible line in the sand that would shift their relationship forever. Sam didn’t want to test how that shift would happen. Didn’t want to risk losing his best friend on the off chance that he wasn’t alone. 

“Right.” Peter repeated. 

They went to bed in pieces: Sam pulling on an old pair of sweatpants and throwing one to Peter, Peter neatly stacking all his notes on one corner of Sam’s desk, Sam kicking all his schoolwork to the edges of his bedroom floor as opposed to the middle of it, Peter brushing his teeth with the same toothbrush he’d kept in the Ecklund house since they were ten, Sam turning off all the lights, Peter wandering back into his bedroom, Peter’s hair turning to gold and ink in the faint streetlight coming in from the window, the two of them curling up back to back in Sam’s bed just like they always did.

And then it was dark and quiet and all Sam could hear was the faint sound of Peter’s breathing beside him. The warmth from Peter’s back mere inches from Sam’s. They’d fallen asleep next to each other a million times, but Sam still felt electric with the proximity. How easy it would be to just- stretch his legs out and wind his feet with Peter’s, to flip over and press his nose into the soft place where his hairline met the back of his neck, to whisper something hopeful and mortifying into the still night air and hear Peter’s breath catch in silent response.

Sam stayed still, held himself perfectly motionless lest he finally show his hand. And eventually, they both fell asleep.

-------------------------

Peter woke up surrounded by Sam. The pillow he’d pressed his face into smelled like Sam’s hair and the sheets on his bed were the same tacky Star Wars ones he’d been so proud of in the seventh grade and the bed was warm with Sam’s body next to him. For an instant, Peter let himself consider it: waking up next to Sam like this every day. Falling asleep with his arms wrapped around Sam and waking up with his head on his chest. 

He squeezed his eyes shut against the glaring dawn light, and against the daydream that quickly threatened to spin out of control. He could still hear Sam’s sleep heavy breathing behind him.

Slowly, Peter sat up in bed, pushing his hair out of his face and scrounging the nightstand as quietly as he could for his glasses. He allowed himself a single glance at Sam- sleep soft and sprawled out on the bed, his hand inches from where Peter’s shoulder had been, like he’d been reaching out in his sleep- before standing up and grabbing his phone from where he’d left it charging on the desk.

“Sam.” Peter poked his shoulder. “Sam.”

He groaned incoherently, but rolled over, which was a good sign. 

“You have to get up, dude.”

“Breakfast?” Sam mumbled.

“Yeah,” Peter laughed a little, “I’m sure your mom’s making breakfast.”

“Urrgghhh.”

Peter grabbed the clothes he’d left in the corner the night before and pulled an old t shirt out of Sam’s closet. “I’m stealing a shirt.”

“Oh,” Sam said, half sitting up and blinking the sleep out of his eyes. “Yeah- good, okay.”

“I’m gonna go-” Peter gestured weakly towards the door, and beyond it, the bathroom. Sam peered up at him, the light from the window hitting his face in a single pane, like something out of a sun-soaked French movie. Like this was the moment where one of them broke the uncertainty, the silence. Peter could see the scene unfolding in his mind’s eye, like he’d seen it a hundred times. He’d say something like, did you sleep well? And Sam would answer, better with you here, and Peter would oh-so-slowly close the distance and drop his jeans to the floor and Sam would arch up and meet him halfway and the camera would pan away, leaving them both washed in the golden early-morning light. “Bathroom. I’m gonna go to the bathroom.” Peter said, and closed the bedroom door behind him. 

He splashed water on his face and combed through his hair with his fingers, throwing on yesterday’s jeans and Sam’s t shirt under his sweatshirt and hoping it wasn’t obvious to anyone else how badly Peter wished every morning could be like this. 

He left the bathroom quickly and perched on the edge of Sam’s bed, scrolling through twitter while Sam did his hair in the bathroom. 

Breakfast was quiet and normal and filled with the usual mini-dramas in the Ecklund house. Kara didn’t want PB&J for lunch and one of Sam’s moms left the flat iron on in their bathroom and Leah almost burned the eggs and Sam spent half of breakfast finishing the math homework he’d almost forgotten he had. 

Sam drove them both to school early for the Morning Show, laughing and singing along to his “perfectly composed drive to school playlist,” and the rest of the day went on normally. He took his history test and saw Sam in math class and they sat with Ming and Randall and Phil at lunch. 

But all the while, Peter couldn’t shake the feeling that something had shifted. He’d had... feelings for Sam for a while, unquantifiable and nebulous. He’d categorized them all: the way his stomach twisted when Sam smiled at him crookedly, the skipped beat of his heart when Sam slung his arm around Peter’s shoulders, how his hands got clammy when he caught Sam watching him out of the corner of his eye, how he always found ways to hangout during and after school. But he’d never dared to name the feeling. Defining it meant- meant he should do something about it. Made it real. 

But that morning, waking up next to Sam, borrowing his t shirt to wear to school, falling asleep next to each other- they were all things they’d done a million times before. Peter’s chest ached with the normalcy, the domesticity of it. 

Peter’s fingers itched to try and piece it all together, his feelings and Sam’s and their history together. String it all together on a corkboard until it made sense. But Peter knew it wouldn’t work. Not without Sam there to see the bigger picture in the first place. It’s why they worked so well together; Peter would gather and organize all the information, but Sam was the one that knew how to put it together, knew how to see the forest from the trees in a way Peter never could on his own. Even if he tried to map out the snarl of feelings in his chest, Peter knew he’d be left with a labyrinth of post-its and red string without Sam there to untangle it for him.

Dramatic irony, he supposed.

Peter caught the bus home, Sam had something for theatre after school, and spent the entire ride with his music turned as high as it would go, trying not to think about Sam as he stared out the window. 

The problem, Peter realized, with being a self-professed movie lover, is that your brain starts to treat life like a movie. He could imagine a dozen different ways his life could spiral out from this moment, a dozen different movie time-lines he could find himself in. The tragedy, where he never tells Sam and lives his entire life in uncertainty. The drama, where he tells Sam and it tears their friendship apart. The tragic love story, where he and Sam are together and happy until they’re not. The comedy, where Sam laughs him off and they go back to their friendship with a tiny crack between them, spackled over with laughter that’s just a little strained. 

The romantic comedy, where everything goes perfect and they ride out into the sunset. 

Life wasn’t like the movies, though, nothing ever went as simple or as straightforward or as cinematic. There isn’t a director behind the camera who can call cut and change the scene halfway through. There aren’t any sweeping cinematic shots with atmospheric indie pop playing in the background.

It was just Peter, and Sam, and the creeping uncertainty hanging between them. 

Right before dinner that night, Peter got a text from Sam.

sam: thanks for the study help last night, felt good about the test today

sam: don’t stress i know youre freaking out about it too

sam: you did great on the test pete i know it

Peter blinked at his phone, at the unspoken I know you hidden inbetween the lines. Sam knew him better than anyone, knew his habits and his worries and his annoying little tendencies. And he was still there. 

And that, Peter realized, said more than anything else.

Love wasn’t a panoramic of a passionate kiss at sunset. It was knowing someone, learning them backwards and forwards, all the good and the bad pieces of them. It was staying, not despite everything, but because of it.

Peter loved him. It was as simple and as complicated as that.

--------------------

The doorbell rang at the end of dinner. Sam rushed to get to the door before his sisters- if he was lucky, it was their batty old neighbor Mrs Gorschtt and she would prattle on for fifteen minutes about her cat, shove a cake into Sam’s hands, and get him out of having to help clean the kitchen.

But when he opened the door, it wasn’t Mrs Gorschtt standing on the front porch, it was Peter. 

“Hey, dude, what’s up? We don’t have like a math test tomorrow I blanked on, do we?”

“Huh?” Peter blinked at him, “No, no.”

“So, what’s up?” Sam stepped out onto the porch beside Peter, closing the front door behind him. Maybe he could still get out of washing the dinner dishes. 

“Uh- so, the thing is-” Peter muttered, twisting one of the strings from his hoodie between his fingers. Sam’s stomach dropped; something was wrong. Peter was nervous, uncertain about something. He wasn’t looking Sam in the eye, and he had one arm wrapped around his stomach like a shield. His head started spinning with a million different things Peter could be upset about, but the thing Sam kept coming back to- he knew.

Somehow, Peter had finally figured him out. And he was coming to tell Sam- what? That they couldn’t be friends anymore? That Sam had made it weird? 

“Pete-” Sam started, trying to cover his bases, trying to fix this before his best friendship in the world went up in flames.

“You’re the only one who calls me that.” Peter interrupted, finally looking at Sam.

“What?”

“Pete. You’re the only one.”

“I- we’re friends, dude, I’m allowed to have nicknames.” Sam tried to laugh, but it sounded forced, even to his ears.

“I- I know,” Peter’s eyebrows were furrowed, and he was staring at Sam like he was a page of history notes he was trying to memorize. “I got your text.”

“Oh, uh okay.”

“Sammy, I uh, I have to say something, and I want you to promise you’ll let me finish.”

Sam’s stomach dropped even further. Here it was. The end of everything. “Right,” he tried to smile at Peter, “sure dude, whatever you need.”

Peter nodded. “You’ve been my best friend since the fifth grade. You know all of my secrets, all the bad things that I don’t tell anyone else. You know that I don’t like orange-flavored things because I had too much orange-flavored medicine as a child and that I stay up too late studying the night before a test and I panic after I finish taking it. You watch movies I recommend, even though you think High School Musical 2 is the best movie ever made, you- god-” Peter scrubs his hands through his hair, clenching his eyes closed briefly- “this would be so much easier if I could just- you can see the big picture. Like with this you could just- take the words, the discrete pieces of data and put them together. Make it cohesive, coherent. I’m not making sense,” he muttered.

“Pete-”

“I don’t want to just spend the night after study dates.” Peter blurted out abruptly. His face froze, like he wasn’t sure what he just said, like he was terrified Sam was going to misunderstand. “I- I mean. I want to do real dates. With you. And spend the night and wear your clothes and have my hoodies smell like you and watch you spin around in the morning show chairs without having to worry about you catching me and I want to see you without gel in your hair and I want to lean against you when we have movie nights and-”

“Pete.”

“Sammy,” Peter said, kind of breathless. “Go on a date with me.”

“Like a study date?” Sam said, also kind of breathless.

“Like a date-date. Please.”

“Yeah. Yeah, just- come here-” and then Sam’s hands were on either side of Peter’s face and his fingers were in his hair and Peter’s hands were caught in Sam’s sweater and then-

Peter kissed like he didn’t know all the answers, for once, and he was okay with it. Peter kissed like he was memorizing everything about the moment. Peter kissed like he was planning on replaying it like an old video tape, over and over until the tape wore thin and tore. Peter kissed like he could hear the orchestra playing behind them, like they were in some cheesy made for tv rom com and were about to get their happy ending.

Peter kissed like Sam was his happy ending.

Finally, they broke apart- more to catch their breath than anything else. 

“Hell of a study date,” Sam breathed, unable to stop smiling.

“Shut up.” Peter was smiling, too.

And, leaning back in, Sam did.

[fictionalnormalcy]

Face Amidst the Smoke Ch. 4

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 1319 Characters: Astrid Hofferson, Hiccup Haddock Summary: Astrid is paired for a project with someone who she is definitely not eager to work with. Haddock has a reputation of being a bad student, just a bad role model in general. But in being forced to work with one of the worst seniors in the school, she comes to see what is under this bad boy’s exterior… and she may be getting in over her head.

Investigation

“Are you sitting in front of a computer?” 

“What do you think?”

“I want to believe that you’re somewhere sheltered from the rain, a library maybe. You’re valuing these last few hours before they close on you.” I said into the device. 

“Let me tell you something Hofferson.” There was a distant clatter. “Some of us, don’t have all the time in the world. Not all as privileged as you. We work to make a living and make something of ourselves.” 

“I work too! Where do you think I just came from?”

“You expect me to read your mind?” He said shortly. 

“Whatever.” I grit my teeth. “Have you gotten anything done?”

“Checked those links you gave me.” He grunted. “Made a thesis. Look, I’m a little busy right now. Come morning, check your phone. I’ll have sent you what I came up with. You tell me what you think.”

Then the call disconnected, the last thing I heard was an engine beginning to roar. I was left to wonder where he could possibly work. Or, he might’ve gotten out just like me and was starting his car. I don’t know… but I could find out. If I hadn’t contacted him, I doubt he would have even sent me a word today. This couldn’t wait. We had to choose a topic today to be ready to show to the teacher for tomorrow’s class. But we couldn’t move anywhere if we didn’t agree. There was too much anxious energy running through me. 

If I were partners with anybody else, I wouldn’t be chasing them. We would have already found a topic, and at this very moment finding sources for the essay. The teacher gave us a deadline to have three sources chosen by next week. The week after a completed outline. Enough time for us to look over and revise it. Then to type out the essay, include our sources, and then start constructing the presentation. But I was stuck with Haddock. This meant that I would constantly have to be at his neck. If this didn’t get done, I had to continue exercising the severity of it. I turned on my laptop. I had nothing to do, nothing to get done if we both hadn’t agreed on it. 

I started to construct an outline. There would be nothing to fill in because we hadn’t agreed on anything, but there would be a document ready to share. I was wondering what text messages I would find in the morning. I set my alarm to wake up earlier so I had time to insert something into the document. In class I could tell him if any of my links matched up to what he had come up with. Or I could confront him and tell him we had to change it. I had no idea what this guy was capable of coming up with. He was a slacker, that much I knew. His work could be of the grade level of a student in primary school. I stared at the document. I’d need his email as well. 

[#$%*&^]

As should have been expected, Haddock did not even deign to show up to class. I was hoping that he’d show up last minute, as he was famous for doing so. Better to be marked tardy than have an absence on your record. I was woefully mistaken. I’d squeezed my pencil so tight that I was afraid I’d break it. The teacher once again gave me her glance of sympathy after her gaze had passed over his empty desk. I considered what Heather had told me yesterday. About asking her if there was anything else I could do. But I answered the question for myself.

There was still time to make progress. Still able to achieve the deadline. Haddock may ditch classes on occasion but hardly ever an entire day. So he was on campus. After I walked out of the class we shared, I looked at the texts he had sent me. Having been received at 12:34 a.m. Five texts I hadn’t seen until I awoke this morning at 6:45. His thesis, had been well-constructed. It was similar to what I had found. Before I had to head to school I managed to plug in the thesis and print out a peer-reviewed journal for research. If only he’d bothered to show up to class so we could discuss further. 

Once school ended I immediately headed to where I had found him yesterday, but today there was no smoke from behind the tree trunk. There were still five cigarette butts on the ground. There were still two other places, but they were on different sides of the campus. Then I started thinking, of another place I knew he could be. I began to head toward the school parking lot. I knew that I was heading to the right place, judging by the blaring music that started reaching my ears.

I saw the cloud drifting out through the small opening of the window. I had come to know that only one person would ever deign to do it on school grounds. I had seen what had happened before when the smoker had been caught. Given enough warning that once the supervisor walked up to them they simply leaned down and extinguished the cigarette. They no longer bothered punishing him. 

I opened the door and swooped into the passenger seat. The vehicle had miraculously been left unlocked, though the music could be enough to deter anyone from approaching. There were three empty spaces on either side. 

“Can I help you?” An naselled voice groaned.

“You know that’s bad for you, and could get you suspended.” I tried to say over the music. 

“And frankly, I don’t give a fuck. Besides, this is my private property, you have no right to tell me what I can and can’t do on my terf.”

“Usually what people do on their property shouldn’t call attention to others.” I reasoned. 

“Well you’re a snoopy Berkian, not much different than the others.” He watched me with a glare. “You haven’t learned to mind your own business.”

I reached toward the music player and lowered the volume. Reducing it to background noise. I settled into the seat, marvelling that the car was actually comfortable, and amidst the smell of tobacco there was a faint cherry. Showing he did attempt to keep it to a suitable smell. 

“It’s like you set up a shield of repulsion.”

“Smoke and music.” He said with narrowed eyes. “Clearly it’s not enough. What the fuck do you want?”

I crossed my arms. “You didn’t even deign to show up to class today.” 

“I sent you what you wanted. You want more?”

“There’s still the rest of the research, the essay, and the presentation! A damned thesis is not all you’re going to do!”

He took in a slow inhale. “And I bet, you’re sitting here because you found a source. You’re oh so desperate to make sure I’m informed on every step you’ve taken.”

“Yes. I had even brought my laptop so we could manage something during lunchtime. But I couldn’t find you during that time either.”

“When it’s hard to find someone, it means they don’t want to be found.”

“I’m not letting you off that easy Haddock.” I gave him a hard stare. “Give me your email. I need to send you the outline so we can start working on it.”

“Don’t have one.”

“How, do you not have an email!?”

“No device that connects to the internet. Never a need for it. Who even sends emails anymore?”

“You need it so we can actually work on this together.”

“Hofferson, you’ll be able to get by without me.” 

I grabbed the wrist that held a cigarette.

“Come on, the library here is open another hour. We’re setting you up with an email.”

#httyd #fanfiction #face amidst the smoke #ch 4 #ao3 #astrid hofferson #hiccup haddock #modern day au

[thadelightfulone]

The Firm - Chapter 3

Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Summary: Erik has been hired to find an embezzler for an old friend. He just met his partner for the investigation. 

Pairing: Erik x Black!OC

Genre: Suspense

Words: 2.8K+

Erik looks up from his seat on the couch. It was the jumpy cutie who ran him down earlier. Oh, this is gonna be good. He looks at Green, who is confused by the expressions on their faces. “Stevens, this is LaNyah Cole. She is the budget analyst I told you about.” Erik laughs, and LaNyah shrinks back in the chair at Green’s desk wringing her hands. “Am I missing something here?” He looks at Erik.  

“We had an abrupt encounter in the lobby on my way up here this morning.” He calms back down and looks at her. “I don’t know if you heard me, but it’s ok. I am a big boy, and you didn’t hurt me.” Green looks at LaNyah hoping she will explain what is going on. She looks up at Green to avoid Erik’s piercing gaze on her.

“I was running late this morning, and while running through the lobby, I ran into Mr. Stevens on my way to the elevators.” She closes and opens her fists while trying to control her breathing. Green looks at Stevens for confirmation to which he moves his head up and down.

“She knocked me down, and her papers flew all over the place.” Green laughs and LaNyah begins to tap her foot and make soft noises. Erik recognized those same sounds from earlier when she ran into him and when they were in the elevator. It proceeded her talking down to herself or finding something to focus her control on. They both look over at her and Green walks over to her.

“Hey now, we all have those kinds of mornings. As the man said, he’s fine so relax.”

“Yeah, no harm, no foul,” Erik says as he softens his look at her, but she kept her head down still softly murmuring to herself. Green takes her hand, softly running his fingers over the top.

“LaNyah come back to me, dear.” She stills and slowly glances up at him. “Good girl, it’s ok. Now, would like to know why I brought you up here and who he is?” She bobs her head in the affirmative. “Please share your analysis, and I will explain everything, I promise.” She shyly smiles at him. Erik has been silently observing their whole interaction. Was she about to have a panic attack? Green is unusually attentive for a CEO of a big company and one of his many employees. He sighs as he continues to wonder what the hell Green is dragging him into now. Green steps away and sits next to Erik on the couch.

“Ok, sir.” She picks up the hastily thrown folder from Green’s desk, pulls out a few documents and lays them out on the coffee table for all of them to view. “When I was reconciling the weekly reports for the GBI Foundation Scholarship fund two weeks ago, I noticed that the numbers did not match. I looked at each deposit and withdrawal from the account, and nothing worked out.” She points to another sheet. “This is the detailed account activity for the last three months and while I was able to reconcile all of this on a weekly basis. It is no longer possible to do so.” She steps back as the men review the sheets in front of them.

“What did you notice about the activity, the withdrawals, and deposits?” Green prods her to continue. He has seen all that she found, but he wants her to explain what she sees.

“Normally, the deposits and withdrawals match. All the money that goes into the account is sent back out in a matched drawing. It is really a holding account; the money sits in the account until a check is cut. The account already has a set amount sitting in it, the initial deposit that started the fund. That amount does not change.” She goes back to Green’s desk and pulls another report with massive amounts of handwritten notes in various colors all over it. “The sitting amount has declined, and is no longer the constant that it should be.” Green nods at her.

Erik notices the complete 180 from the anxious mousy girl to this confident, efficient woman. Since she started this presentation of her findings, she has not once floundered. It was like she was in her element, a very comfortable zone. Although, he is listening to everything she is breaking down and her engagement with Green; he cannot help but wonder why her? Why would someone choose to set her up, of all people? Why did Green take so long in addressing this situation? His mind is going miles per minute while making sure to pay attention to the conversation at hand.

“Do you think this started earlier than the three months you went back?” Green asks as he straightens the papers on the coffee table.

“It is very likely sir, but I only went back three months, hoping it was an easy fix or a possible computer error. I am sorry I let you down.” She slowly walks over and moves her chair from the desk, turning it around and sitting down to face the two men. With her eyes lowered to the ground, she does not notice the look that Green and Stevens silently exchange. And there it goes, the confidence she just exuded now gone as she believes she is at fault for this mess. Erik feels his protective nature rising, and he is at a loss because he has not felt this way in years.

“Thank you, LaNyah. I agree with your assessment.” She looks up at him confused. “If you had not come to me as soon as you discovered this issue, it could have been some time before I noticed anything.” Stevens looks at Green; now he is confused. Green looks over to Erik. “I have called in Erik to do an independent audit on the account for the last two fiscal years. I would like you to work with him on this. You are right that this may go back further than what you found.”

“You mean I am not fired? You want me to continue working with the accounts? I don’t understand.” She is fiddling with the hem of her skirt now and not looking directly at either man. Green walks over to her and leans over forcing Nyah to make eye contact with him.

“Yes LaNyah, I need your analysis and your expertise on this matter. You know like I know that there is something very wrong happening, and we need to get to the bottom of it. I trust you to help me find out what is going on, ok.” She squeaks and smiles up at him. It is the most beautifullest thing that Erik has seen and probably her first genuine smile of the day. “Now, this is a special project, so only the three of us in this room know about it. You will be reporting to both of us but mainly Erik as I will be out of town.” She shakes her head vehemently. Green looks over at Erik.

“You don’t want to work with me?” Erik states like he is offended. He leans back on the couch as she peers over her glasses at him. He meets her eyes as she speaks.

“I- I never said that. I- I just don’t know you.” She started quickly, “I don’t do change very well. I guess that is something that you will learn as we work together.” She stands up and leans over the coffee table to grab all the scattered documents. She turns to put them in the folder. “If that is all, Mr. Green. I should be going back to my desk.”

“Yes, yes, that is all. Thank you, LaNyah.” She practically runs out of the office. Both men watch as she gets on the elevator heading down. Erik stands running a hand through his hair and looks at Green.

“Alex, what the fuck have you gotten me into man?” Green just laughs and walks over to his desk to make a call.

“Stacey, please cancel all my afternoon appointments. I will be out of the office for the rest of the day.” Erik walks to the door, “Oh, and please send a reminder to Miss Cole that she should report to my office when she comes in tomorrow.” Green ends the call following behind him.

“Lunch is your treat and a detailed explanation of why you have me playing a glorified babysitter.” Green slaps Erik’s back laughing as they exit the office.

LaNyah briskly walks from the elevator back to her office, closing the door and immediately looks for her coloring book. She opens up her Zen playlist on her computer, letting the chimes and bells relax her. Finding the book, she opens it to the next available picture which is an open field of flowers. She moves to sit on the ground in front of her desk, grabbing her colored pencils on the way down. She crosses her legs, chooses a color and starts to fill in the picture.

It has been a few months since she has felt like this. She thought everything was going well and that she was in a good place. But the recent increase of stress from the issues with the reports to the possibility of losing this job, and now this man had her feeling out of sorts. She felt herself losing her handle on things, and she definitely did not need that right now.

She has managed to live by herself for three years successfully, and she’s had this job the whole time. She was not exaggerating when she told Erik that she does not like change. It has taken her years to get to this point where she is in control of her life and any actions she takes, and she doesn’t want anything to get in the way of that. She stops coloring and reaches for her phone. She unlocks it and pulls up a contact, they haven’t spoken in months, but she knows that the person will answer her call.

As her breathing settles into a healthier tempo with her finger hovering over the phone icon, she drops the phone. “You can do this, LaNyah. You need to talk to someone and soon before this gets out of control again.” She picks up the phone again, takes a deep breath and hits the icon. It starts to ring and then the line is answered.

“LaNyah is everything ok sweetie?” The voice on the other end brings tears to her eyes. “Take a moment. I am here. Speak when you are ready.” The silence on the phone continues for a few moments while Nyah collects herself.

“I think I am losing it again, Ashley,” she sobs into the phone.

“Where are you? I am just about to take my lunch break. We can meet and talk in person.” Ashley responds to LaNyah’s statement.

“I’m in my office coloring after meeting with Green.” Nyah hears the sigh over the phone. “Can we meet at the café in 20 minutes? I don’t want to walk out in this state.”

“Sure thing, hun. I will see if our favorite table is available. See you then.” The line goes dead, and LaNyah picks up all her coloring supplies to put them away. Organizing her space clears her head a bit. She is grateful that Ashley can get away and see her on such short notice. She really needs this if she is going to make it through her new assignment.

Green and Stevens enter the posh steakhouse and are immediately seated at a private table in the back. After ordering a bottle of whiskey, Green looks at Stevens and begins to speak. “Now, you see why this isn’t just an open & shut kind of case. She could not have done this,” he grumbles.

“Yeah, I see that now. But you have to fill in some blanks for me, man. I know what I saw when she ran me over this morning and looking at how you are with her at the meeting, what do I need to know?” Erik runs his hands through his dreads for the umpteenth time that day.

“Bridges.”

“You said that when you first called me. She reminds you of Bridges, in what way?”

“Think about it, Erik. What do you remember about the first time we met Bridges?”

--- 17 Years Earlier ---

As the team assembles for their first meeting, MSgt (Master Sergeant) McCoy walks in. Stevens was seated in the back observing all the members of the new Special Ops team he was assigned to for his next tour. Daniels, Johnson, Patton, Lee, and Christian are guys he has worked with before. Green and Bridges, including the commanding officer McCoy, are new. The guys are all laughing until they see her walk in.

She is about 5’6, slight build, chocolate skin and her hair is in the customary bun for those with long hair. The name on her uniform reads Bridges. Stevens has no problem with women serving and doing their part, but did they tell her what this team’s missions consist of; who did she piss off to get stuck here? After she sat down by herself towards the front of the room, Stevens realized that she is the only female on the squad since everyone was already there when she arrived. Damn, they couldn’t even give her backup support.

McCoy went over their first mission and what their team was being tasked with overseas. It turns out Bridges is their communication analyst, so she is making sure that all their data networks work like they are supposed to as they are out in the field. She wouldn’t be out and about with them often, but she is still a very important part of their team. You must have working coms when it is possible to use them.

Stevens works mainly as the tactician for the team, but he is also one of their best snipers. While Green is their strategist, so he will be working closely with him and Bridges on tour. Might as well, prepare to become civil with them since they are the ones who will be creating and implementing plans for the team to use on all their missions. As Stevens walks forward, he nods at Green who stands, and both of them make their way up front to Bridges who was in conversation with McCoy.

“I always knew you would make a great analyst. Glad I requested to have you added to my ops team.” McCoy says as he pats Bridges on the back and she recoils. To the average person, it looked like her step faltered, but Stevens knew better, that was a flinch like she is uncomfortable. Something was not right about this interaction between their CO and team member.

“Hey Bridges, how long have you been an analyst?” Green jumps in as he and Stevens make it up to McCoy and her.

“About four years now, but this is the first time that they have let me out in the field,” she replied. Is that a grateful look on her face? Stevens wonders if Green caught what he did.

“And you landed Special Ops on your first time out? Lucky you. Ready to hang with the big boys?” Stevens chimes in. He is watching McCoy who appears to be bothered by the interruption. Green is watching Bridges whose breathing has calmed since him, and Stevens came over.

“There isn’t anything you can do that I can’t do,” she looks at his uniform and then eyes him, “Stevens. You just better make sure we are all successful and return home in one piece.” Green laughs at that.

“She’s got some bite. Just make sure, we can all speak to one another when it is necessary.” Green states. “Aye, let’s head to the Mess Hall for our last decent meal before we have to survive off of MREs.” Green and Stevens turn to leave but look back at Bridges to let her know she is welcome to join them. She waves at McCoy and follows the two men out of the building.

Stevens, a man whose reputation proceeds him as a lone wolf and not an ideal team member, managed to make some “friends” on the job. What the heck is going on? Green had heard the stories of Erik “Killmonger” Stevens and never thought he would be teamed up with him. But now it looks like the two of them found another position within their team, protectors. Something about what they witnessed had them both silently claiming Bridges as their charge.

A/N: Thank you all for those who have been patiently waiting for this chapter. This is my baby and I want to give it my all. As always thankful to my beta, @thehonorablekingerik. The turn around for the next chapter will be quicker as I am already half done. The taglist is still open for those who want to be added. Dom Erik will make his return next week as well. 

Taglist: @nemesispawn @killmongersaidheyauntie @shesfromwakanda @muse-of-mbaku @panthergoddessbast @youreadthatright @princessstevens @amethyst1993 @stark-red19 @kreolemami @someareblindtoitsbeauty

Chapter 4

#erik killmonger #erik killmonger x oc #black panther fanfiction #the firm #thadelightfulone

[elclaytor427]

Writing Portfolio by Erica Claytor

November 18, 2018

Dear Reader,

I have always struggled with writing I didn’t have a good system for it, therefore, it would normally bring me huge amounts of stress; I just need to get something on the paper! There were too many factors involved that made it difficult as well as frustrating. I would get my computer out, open a word document and just start typing which only worked sometimes. Staring at a blank screen waiting for the ideas to appear into my head would give me anxiety which made the paper harder to write. I needed to break down the process so I can complete the essay step by step then after I complete a step I would feel accomplished and motivated to move on to the next.

I noticed not everyone is the same what works for one person might not work for me. I tried to use other people’s techniques until I realized I can use a combination of what I learn from others and create a system that works best for me. Among these different writing assignments, my writing has progressed for the better. I have established techniques to aid myself in the process. I noticed since the writing process is complicated it is necessary to complete it in steps and not all at once so I start by making an outline.

Looking back at my first portfolio piece I see great ideas and knowledge without direction and purpose. With my knowledge on how to write I know I could make my first piece better. I would start by making a quick outline and I would jump around from paragraph to paragraph inserting more information until the paper met the length necessary. Then I will go back throughout the paper fixing grammar and spelling. If it was necessary and there was enough time I would have the paper revised by a peer or a professional. I didn’t start making outlines until my more recent papers, I think my work reflects it.

My second portfolio piece Growing up was about my parents and my relationship with them, the topic was close to me making it easier to write. Picking a topic is the most important part of the assignment. Since I was given options on what I could write about it easiest to write about something if you are interested and passionate about it. In my experience, there is more information to pull from there for it’s easier to write about. Even if the topic may seem boring I always find a way to relate or get interested that’s my method of writing.

When I pulled up my third portfolio piece I noticed it was short and incomplete. I started the assignment the day before it was due not giving myself enough time to complete the assignment in advance. My stress-free writing progress that I have established involves starting assignments as soon as I am able to. Waiting until the day an assignment is due to start it doesn’t work and most often or not it’s not worth it. There can be unexpected problems that arise not to mention it is not going to be your best work.

After Portfolio piece 5 I had my writing breakthrough when I did pieces 6 and 7. I enjoy relating tv shows back to real life as well as reviewing them in portfolio piece 6 I got to do so. After using the method I created for myself, I notice myself getting better at writing and thinking of synonyms or other ways of saying the same thing, it is begging to come faster to me.

I am most proud of portfolio piece 8 when I continued A Wall of Fire Rising although the story was heartbreaking it made me appreciate what I have. The author had an easy writing style to follow I was able to use/copy the authors writing style which I wouldn’t have been capable of in the begging of the semester. I do well with stories and interesting topics that I have an opinion on.

In portfolio piece 9 I explain both sides to the minimum wage argument and show how both sides need to come together and focus on solving the real underline problem which is poverty. Portfolio piece 9 shows how I am able to establish the point of the essay in the introduction and keep the essay on the topic and flowing throughout.

I have always done well thinking outside the box and coming up with viewpoints others don’t think of. I struggled with getting assignments done under pressure, now I just try to give myself as much time as I can. I still need to improve transition sentences, grammar, and punctuation. Throughout the semester while completing these portfolio assignments I learned my weakness and strengths for writing and I will continue to make my weaknesses into strengths.

I learned in order to write a great essay I need to find either an interesting topic or a way to relate to the topic. The essays you are about to read shows how I progressed and learned the necessary steps I need to follow to produce beautiful essays. Over the course of the semester, I have improved my writing style immensely now I am able to tackle any essay thrown my way as long as I take my time and stick to the process.

Sincerely,

Erica Claytor

Growing Up

“The only people who I owe my loyalty to are the ones that never made me question theirs” (Joe Mehl). My nana has always been there for me: helping raise me, driving me places, giving me a place to live, feeding me, and helping me get my license. She made me feel like she was always going to be there for me, even if no one else would.

One time when I was little, and my parents were already separated, they had gotten into an argument, and it started to get physical. My mom started crying, and she wanted to call the police, but my dad demanded she didn't. I had the house phone in my hand, and my mom was reaching for it, but I froze. I didn’t know what to do in the situation. On the one hand, I didn’t want the police to come and my dad to go to jail, but on the other hand, I wanted to listen to my mom and prevent her from getting hurt.

My relationship with my parents has always been strained because they had children at a young age. My dad always felt like he had to support the family, and even my mom still after they got divorced. Being pulled back and forth between my parents put a strain on my relationship with them. It only got better once I moved out and I didn’t live under their roof anymore. I love and respect both my parents, but it is easier to have a relationship with them when I can distance myself from them when necessary.

When I turned 18, my mom kicked me out of my house, and my nana was willing to take me in. My nana has been one of the most significant figures in my family who helped raised me. She has been a great role model especially when it comes to her career and money management skills. I am grateful for everything she has done for me, but I also am still experiencing a struggle between my nana and pop pop.

My pop pop feels the need to do things he shouldn’t. He sits in the house all day because he’s older and can’t do a lot, although he tries to. My pop pop takes the trash out every Sunday morning. He put a box next out to the recycling bin, and it blew down the side of Telegraph road, and my nana came home and yelled at him about it being all over the yard. I looked, but I didn't see it. Right before I left, I finally saw it all over the street and picked up the boxes. A little down the road, I saw another box and picked it up as well. I felt terrible that she was yelling at him for only trying to help. She doesn’t understand his need to help to make him feel alive at his age.

  Diaz also felt this same tug-of-war between his family and his desires. He had to choose between keeping the money or returning it to his mother. I also have experienced this internal conflict when selecting whose side I am on, whether it be my nana, my pop pop, my mom, or my dad. Sometimes you are stuck between a choice that feels like a right vs. right decision where “...you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't” (Eleanor Roosevelt).

This picture resembles the conflict between my dad and me versus my mom and my sister.

Works Cited

A Quote by Joe Mehl.” Goodreads, Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/quotes/976944-the-only-people-i-owe-my-loyalty-to-are-the.

Roosevelt, Eleanor. “Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, www.brainyquote.com/quotes/eleanor_roosevelt_109473.

“Tug of War at Sunset - Buy This Stock Illustration and Explore Similar Illustrations at Adobe Stock.” Adobe Stock, stock.adobe.com/images/tug-of-war-at-sunset/97742236.

A Wall of Fire Rising continued

The boy is turning eight tomorrow his first birthday after the death of his father, Lili’s wants to make the day special for him, it’s been harder to quiet the hunger vermin since Guy died. Most of the neighborhood wanted to show compassion to after they saw what happed to Guy, they helped Lili find a fulltime job as a maid. Even Lili’s job is barely enough to keep the house and put food on the table every night without her working late most every night. The boy goes to a friend’s house every day after school for a few hours until Lili is home from work.

“Momm” yells the boy running inside looking for his mom. He finds her asleep in the living room chair. “MOM” he screams louder! He shakes her arm to wake her up. “Oh son I’m sorry for being so tired” Lili apologizes with sadness. Lili struggles she wants to be sad and miss her husband, she does but she frustrated with Guy for being selfish for leaving her a single mom but most importantly Little guy without a father. “Guess what happened at school today,” says the boy. “Give me good news” Lili worries. “I get free lunch tomorrow at school since it’s my birthday” the boy excitingly explained. “That’s great news honey, let's go eat dinner,” Lili says.

The next day Lili’s boss lets her leave early to buy the ingredients and go to bake a cake for the boys birthday before he gets home from school. The boy comes home from school with excitement. “How was school on your birthday son?” Lili asks. “It was ok,” the boy says looking at the kitchen floor. Lili helps him with his backpack and peaks inside she notices a thick book covered with brown paper.

Erica Claytor

Portfolio Piece #9

Minimum wage the question most often asked is should it be raised? The author of In the Minimum Wage Debate, Both Sides Make Valid Points discusses the main issue trying to be addressed is poverty (Huppke). I agree with Huppke that just raising minimum wage won’t solve poverty and it may even make it worse. People need to be educated on the effects raising minimum wage; most focus on the thought of more money and are sold to the idea. Before I read this article I didn’t know the serious negative effects raising minimum wage could have on many companies. Some companies might be able to afford the additional expenses which could lead to thousands of jobs lost that’s not the intention.

The misconception with this problem is it’s going to be a short and easy fix. Wrong! Raising the minimum wage is theoretically just putting a band-aid on the situation and saying all better. Yes, the idea of making more money is appealing so peoples first instinct is to say let’s raise it. Some may feel entitled to a raise and most often those aren’t the ones who deserve one. The article argues the money should be spent on educating and teaching so there are fewer people working minimum wage jobs in the first place. A quote that best describes this is “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” (Lao Tzu). Most people in poverty just need a chance a better way to go about it is helping people so they can help themselves. Giving money, raising minimum wage, and even hiring one for a low paying position are all temporary fixes.

Minimum wage jobs aren’t intended to support families, lavish live styles, even young teens like myself trying to move out and make it on my own that’s what careers are for.  

Portfolio Piece # 7: Option C ( Before)

The standards of life most young adults expect to achieve can be unrealistic. This important social issue affects almost every young adult and should be taken more seriously in society, the proof behind this idea is supported in this essay through research and personal experiences. It is no longer possible for young teens to afford a one bedroom apartment in a decent area while making minimum wage. Inflation has made it harder over the years for young adults to support themselves. Everything has become more expensive while the minimum wage has more or less stayed the same. Although minim wage is gradually being raised to 15 dollars an hour the cost of living is becoming more expensive. The major problems with teens today are a result of the current minim wage; teens strive for independence and confidence which can be difficult.  Young teens being able to support themselves would boost self-esteem.

Many teens struggle with their mental health, which may be caused by stress that is put on teens. Most teens are a part or full-time student so they might also have loans to pay back added onto trying to save up and move out. Young adults are given a lot of responsivity without the means to handle any serious problem that comes along the way.

                                                Portfolio Piece # 7: Option C (After)

The standards of life most young adults expect to achieve can be unrealistic. This important social issue affects almost every young adult and should be taken more seriously in society, the proof behind this idea is supported in this essay through research and personal experiences. It is no longer possible for young teens to afford a one-bedroom apartment in a decent area while making minimum wage. Inflation has made it harder over the years for young adults to support themselves. Everything has become more expensive while minumim wage has more or less stayed the same.

Although minim wage is gradually being raised to 15 dollars an hour the cost of living is becoming more expensive. The major problems with teens today are a result of the current minim wage; teens strive for independence and confidence which can be difficult.  Young teens being able to support themselves would boost self-esteem. Many teens struggle with their mental health, which may be caused by stress that is put on teens. Once high school is over teens are kicked into the brutality of the world a vast majority without any help from family members. Most teens are a part or full-time student so they might also have loans to pay back added onto trying to save up and move out. It is easy to stay at a minimum wage job because the only way to make decent money is to work almost all of the time.

Young adults are given a lot of responsivity without the means to handle any serious problem that comes along the way. More should be done within high schools to prepare teens for the tremendous struggles the real world is forced to endure. Minimum wage being raised in not nearly the answer, teens need more opportunities in career type jobs.

[softnow]

22 for r/n if it inspires you!

22. “I don’t owe you an explanation.”

When Josh texts her to say that they’ve found roaches pretty much everywhere in Aloha’s and are closing to fumigate—and follows up with a screenshot of the weather forecast (perfect), a picture of a water slide, and two koala emoticons—Rebecca hesitates for maybe two seconds. Then she sweeps her belongings into her purse, grabs her keys, and heads for the elevator. She nearly makes it, too.

“Where are you off to?” Nathaniel appears as if by magic to block her path, a coffee mug in one hand and a file in the other.

“I have…a thing.”

“What thing?” He takes a sip of coffee and peers at her over the rim, waiting.

“A thing-thing.” She tries to dodge around him, but he holds out an arm to stop her. “Come on.”

“Just tell me where you’re going at—” He glances at his watch. “—nine forty-five in the morning. On a Tuesday.”

Rebecca crosses her arms and huffs. “I don’t owe you an explanation.”

“Oh? I’m sorry, have you forgotten that I’m your boss? And you can’t just swan off whenever you feel like it? You actually have to do your job to have a job.” He shakes his head. “Why does nobody around here seem to understand that?”

“Look, okay, fine. You want an explanation? It’s…my cat. Yup. My cat was…attacked by a dog, one of those…really vicious ones that kind of looks like Mike Tyson, and my neighbor just called to tell me that he’s fading fast, and I need to get to the vet ASAP.” She does her best to put on a grave face. “So that’s why I need to go. Can I go? Let me go.”

Nathaniel considers this. “You have a cat?”

“Yup. Uh-huh. That’s what I just said.”

“Really? Because I distinctly remember overhearing you tell Paula in the break room last week that the only people who own cats are spinsters, the elderly, and families in horror movies.” He narrows his eyes at her and cocks his head to the side. “Actually, you’re not wrong.”

Rebecca steeples her fingers and presses them to her mouth. “Did I say my cat? Nooo, no no no. I don’t have a cat. That’s—psh!—that’s ridiculous. What I meant to say is…it’s Josh’s cat.”

Nathaniel gives her an incredulous look.

“Yeah,” she continues. “And I, uh, I’ve been pet-sitting while he’s away in…Redondo…for a…karate convention. So I really need to go, right, because this cat is my ward, and if something were to happen to this cat, Josh would never forgive me and our relationship would be ruined and I would just be—ugh—so sad, and you don’t want that, right? A sad worker is a bad worker, or something? You have a saying for that, right?”

“Okay, that’s not even remotely convincing. I’d say good try, but we both know it wasn’t.” He holds the file in his hand out to her. “You’re not going anywhere. I need you to prepare for the Davenport case. They’re coming in at three, and we need to be flawless.”

“What? Why? Make Darryl or Tim or somebody do it. I have to…” She makes a walking motion with her fingers.

Nathaniel shakes the file. “Davenport has the potential to be a bigger account than Crestfield, but they’re notorious hard asses. I know better firms than this that have been trying to land them for years.”

“So?”

“So I can’t afford to have somebody screw this up. And like it or not, you’re the only one who’s decently competent around here. So cancel whatever you’re really trying to run away for, and get to work. You know, the thing I pay you to do.” He forces the file into her hand. Rebecca opens her mouth to continue her failing protest (nobody can say she doesn’t go down without a fight), but he cuts her off. “It’s not a request.”

She glares at him, but she takes the file and slinks back to her desk. What a jerk. She could be eating churros in an innertube right now. And instead she’s here, chained to paperwork by Mr. Dreamy Dictator who probably thinks “fun” is some sort of venereal disease.

With a sad huff, Rebecca texts Josh to tell him she won’t be making it (with six crying emoticons, five multicolored hearts, and a file cabinet—he’ll know what it means). Then she sets her phone aside, lines up her assortment of pens and highlighters, and gets to work.

—

At noon, she takes forty-five minutes for lunch instead of the Plimpton-enforced thirty.

—

There are few things in the world that can make Rebecca forget about Joshua Felix Chan. It turns out a particularly good meeting is one of them. By the time she’s shaking the hands of Misters Davenport Junior and Senior and thanking them for choosing Plimpton, Plimpton, and Plimpton (and Whitefeather & Associates) to represent them in their asbestos suit, Josh is the furthest thing from her mind.

Instead, she’s filled with the warm confetti feeling of a job well done. (It may not be glitter, but it’s certainly close.)

After he shows out the Davenport duo, Nathaniel lingers in the conference room and watches Rebecca gather her things.

“Did you see the way they perked up the minute I mentioned those doctors that claim asbestos actually helps emphysema? God, it was almost too easy,” she crows.

“I didn’t expect them to topple so quickly,” he says. “Maybe I was right after all.”

She tucks a stack of papers under her arm and frowns. “Huh?”

“About you taking this firm to the next level.”

It doesn’t escape her that this is the sincerest, least backhanded compliment he’s paid her. The new wave of confetti bursting in her brain doesn’t escape her, either. She smiles, surprised but pleased, and he allows a small smile in return.

“Yeah,” she says. “Maybe you were.”

They regard each other across the conference table for long moment before Nathaniel clears his throat.

“Anyway,” he says. “Now that that’s taken care of, I left the documents for Wednesday’s depositions on your desk. I need you to proof them and get them back to me before you leave.”

And just like that, the confetti hits the ground, litter instead of glitter. She glances at the clock; there’s only forty minutes before she usually leaves. (Or at least, when she’s technically supposed to usually leave.)

“Wha— Nathaniel. That’ll take hours!”

“So?”

“So—”

He holds up a hand to stop her, already moving towards the door. “Not a request,” he says with a smirk.

She imagines lighting him on fire as she trudges back to her desk. She’d start with the hair. Nobody so cruel should have hair that good.

True to his word, the deposition documents are waiting in the center of her desk in a bulging paper folder. Rebecca’s stomach sours just looking at it. She flings herself into her chair and slides the folder towards her, leafing through it to gauge just how angry she should be. A blue sticky note on the first page gives her pause.

Rebecca—

Good work on Davenport. You can leave 30 min early, but I expect you here by 8am and these docs proofed by noon tomorrow.

Give the cat my best.

N

She reads it twice to make sure this isn’t a dream, then glances over her shoulder. He meets her gaze through his office door and quickly looks away.

Rebecca smiles, folds the sticky note down the middle, and tucks it into her pocket. She puts the documents into her bag along with her laptop and heads for the elevator. This time, she makes it.

—

Later, after Josh has grown tired of her recounting every detail of the Davenport case (reenacting the particularly good parts) and sets up camp in front of the TV, Rebecca settles into bed with the folder and her office supplies.

—

The next morning, she’s the first person into the office after Nathaniel. She plunks the documents (twice reviewed) onto his desk.

His look of mild astonishment and respect is everything she’d hoped it would be.

#rethaniel #rebecca x nathaniel #rebecca bunch #nathaniel plimpton #crazy ex girlfriend #myfic #sorry this is like...super late #and also probably not what you had in mind when you requested it #but i have a lot of feelings re: rebecca finding her value in being a damn good lawyer #and also in nathaniel being impressed by rebecca being a damn good lawyer #and that whole dynamic #idk #i'm not ~thrilled~ with this #but it is what it is and hopefully you enjoy! #some burgeoning r/n s2 content #catty-words #answered #also to anyone who actually knows anything about lawyer business: #i'm sorry and please forgive me #because i do not #cxg

[caosemsaturno-blog]

6 Job Search Tips That Are So Basic People Forget Them

The irony of job search Information: There is so much available that you Don't need to invest over four seconds Googling before you land on some nugget of wisdom or another.

However, at the same time, there is so much available (some of which completely contradicts other advice you will find) it can easily overwhelm you. Which, in reality, is most likely the exact opposite result you're looking for if you go sleuthing for really practical counsel in the first location.

So let us do this: Let's boil things down to a shortlist of audio, Classic job searching tips to assist you to fine-tune your plan so you might sail through the procedure (or at least cut out a few of the unnecessary time and frustration).

1. Make Yourself a "Smack-in-the-Forehead" Obvious Fit

When you apply for a job through an Internet application process, it is very likely that your resume will be screened by an applicant tracking system and then (assuming you make this first clip ) move onto human eyeballs. The first human eyeballs that review your resume tend to be those of a lesser degree HR person or recruiter, who may or may not know all the nuances of the job for which you are applying.

Therefore, it behoves one to make it rather easy for both the computer and the individual to quickly join their"Here is what we're searching for" for your"Here is what you can walk through our doors and provide."

Study the job description and any available information you have on the position. Are you mirroring the phrases and words in the project description? Are you currently showcasing your strengths in the areas that appear to be of overriding importance for this function? Line it up. Line it up.

2. Do Not Limit Yourself to Online Applications During Your Job Search

You want that job search to last and last? Well, then continue to rely solely on submitting online applications. You need to accelerate this poor boy? Don't stop as soon as you apply online for this position. Start finding and endearing to people working at the company of interest. Schedule informational interviews with prospective peers. Strategy an internal recruiter and ask a few questions. Get on the radar of those very men and women who may influence you getting an interview.

By lining up with people on the inside of the businesses where you Want to work, you'll instantly set yourself apart. Decision-makers interview people who come recommended or by means of a private referral before they begin sorting through the blob of resumes which arrives by means of the ATS. Also, you may be interested in nurse jobs USA

3. Bear in Mind Your Resume (and LinkedIn Profile) Is Not a Tattoo

Yes, your new resume is lovely. Your LinkedIn profile, breathtaking. But if they do not position you as an immediate match for a specific role that you are gunning for, do not be afraid to change the wording, change around key phrases, and swap bullet points in and out. Your resume isn't a tattoo, nor is the LinkedIn profile. Treat them as living, breathing documents during your job search (and livelihood ).

If you are a covert job seeker, remember to turn off your action Broadcasts (within settings and privacy ) when you make edits to your LinkedIn profile. If your current boss or coworkers are linked to you on LinkedIn, they may get suspicious about all of the frequent alterations.

4. Accept You Will Never Bore Anyone Into Hiring You

Do not get me wrong--you definitely have to come across as polished, Articulate, and professional during your job search. However, lots of people interpret this to Must. Be. Boring.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Realize that few people get hired because they had perfect white space in their cover letters, memorized All the"right" interview queries or utilized incredibly safe, common phraseology (i.e., clichés) throughout their resumes. All this correctness will make you seem staged and non-genuine. Instead, give yourself permission to be equally glistening and endearing. Memorable, likeable candidates are nearly always those who go the distance.

5. If You Are Not on LinkedIn, You Really Nearly Do Not Exist

Considering that more than 90 per cent of recruiters uses LinkedIn as their Main search tool, this isn't an understatement. If you are a professional, you will need to not only be on LinkedIn, you want to use it to your full advantage. Do not believe me? Consider it this way: If tomorrow, a recruiter logs on LinkedIn searching for a person in your geography, together with experience in what you do, and you are not there? Guess who they're likely to find and contact? Yes, that individual's name is"not you."

If you figure out how to exploit the energy of no other social media tool for job search, figure out LinkedIn. It is (by far) the best source we have available now for career and job search websites, for locating people working at companies of interest, and for positioning yourself to be seen by a recruiter that has a related job opening.

6. Thank You Matters

I placed a candidate into an engineering role with a firm That produces packaging equipment. He had been competing head-to-head with another engineer, who had similar abilities and desired the job just as poorly. My candidate delivered a considerate, non-robotic thank you note to every individual with whom he had interviewed, within about two hours of leaving their offices. Another candidate sent nothing.

Why my candidate got the job offer? Yep, the thoughtful, non-robotic thank you notes. They sealed the deal for him, particularly Considering another front-runner sent nothing.

[batterymonster2021]

How to build your creative confidence | David Kelley

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/how-to-build-your-creative-confidence-david-kelley-2/

How to build your creative confidence | David Kelley

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Morton Bast I wanted to talk to you in these days about creative self assurance. I will means again in the 0.33 grade at Oakdale school in Barberton, Ohio. I don’t forget at some point my pleasant pal Brian was engaged on a task. He was once making a horse out of the clay our teacher kept beneath the sink. And at one factor, one of the most girls that used to be sitting at his table, seeing what he was once doing, leaned over and stated to him, "that is horrible. That does not appear whatever like a horse." And Brian’s shoulders sank. And he wadded up the clay horse and he threw it again within the bin.I in no way noticed Brian do a challenge like that ever once more. And i ponder how on the whole that occurs, you know? It looks like when I inform that story of Brian to my category, a variety of them want to come up after type and tell me about their equivalent expertise, how a instructor shut them down, or how a scholar was once above all merciless to them. After which some variety of decide out of considering of themselves as creative at that point. And i see that opting out that happens in childhood, and it strikes in and becomes extra ingrained, even, by the time you get to grownup life. So we see a number of this. When we’ve got a workshop or when we’ve got clients in to work with us aspect through facet, ultimately we get to the point in the process that’s variety of fuzzy or unconventional.And eventually, these massive-shot executives whip out their BlackBerrys and they say they have got to make relatively fundamental mobilephone calls, they usually head for the exits. And they’re in order that uncomfortable. After we track them down and ask them what is going on on, they are saying some thing like, "i am simply now not the ingenious sort." but we know that is now not authentic. If they stick with the method, if they persist with it, they turn out to be doing amazing things. They usually shock themselves at simply how innovative they and their teams rather are.So i’ve been looking at this fear of judgment that we have now, that you do not do matters, you’re afraid you are going to be judged; in the event you do not say the correct ingenious factor, you are going to be judged. And that i had a predominant breakthrough, after I met the psychologist Albert Bandura. I don’t know if you realize Albert Bandura, but if you go to Wikipedia, it says that he is the fourth predominant psychologist in history — you know, like Freud, Skinner, a person and Bandura. (Laughter) Bandura is 86 and he still works at Stanford. And he’s only a lovely guy. So I went to peer him, on account that he’s simply labored on phobias for a long time, which i am very excited about. He had developed this way, this, kind of, methodology, that ended up curing people in an extraordinarily short period of time, like, in four hours. He had a enormous therapy price of people who had phobias. And we pointed out snakes — I don’t know why — we pointed out snakes and worry of snakes as a phobia.And it was relatively gratifying, particularly interesting. He informed me that he’d invite the test subject in, and he’d say, "you recognize, there may be a snake within the subsequent room and we will go in there." To which, he said, most of them spoke back, "Hell no! I am not getting into there, undoubtedly if there’s a snake in there." but Bandura has a step-via-step system that was once tremendous positive. So he’d take people to this two-means reflect watching into the room where the snake was once. And he’d get them cozy with that. Then by way of a sequence of steps, he’d transfer them and they’d be standing within the doorway with the door open, they usually’d be watching in there. And he’d get them at ease with that. And then many more steps later, little one steps, they’d be in the room, they’d have a leather glove like a welder’s glove on, they usually’d ultimately touch the snake. And when they touched the snake, the whole thing was once first-rate. They have been cured. Correctly, the whole lot was higher than first-class. These persons who had lifelong fears of snakes had been saying things like, "look how wonderful that snake is." and so they have been maintaining it of their laps.Bandura calls this approach "guided mastery." i like that term: guided mastery. And anything else occurred. These individuals who went via the procedure and touched the snake ended up having much less anxiety about different matters in their lives. They tried harder, they persevered longer, and they had been more resilient within the face of failure. They just received a new confidence. And Bandura calls that confidence "self-efficacy," the experience that you can exchange the arena and that you may acquire what you set out to do. Good, meeting Bandura used to be particularly cathartic for me, seeing that i realized that this noted scientist had documented and scientifically validated some thing that we now have noticeable happen for the final 30 years: that we could take people who had the fear that they weren’t creative, and we would take them via a series of steps, form of like a series of small successes, and so they flip fear into familiarity. And so they shock themselves. That transformation is effective. We see it on the d.Institution at all times.People from all unique types of disciplines, they think of themselves as simplest analytical. And so they are available and so they go by way of the system, our system, they construct confidence and now they consider of themselves otherwise. And so they’re entirely emotionally occupied with the fact that they stroll round considering of themselves as a creative person. So I inspiration one of the matters i would do today is take you through and exhibit you what this journey looks like.To me, that trip appears like Doug Dietz. Doug Dietz is a technical person. He designs significant scientific imaging apparatus. He’s labored for GE, and he’s had a exquisite profession. But at one factor, he had a second of predicament. He was within the clinic looking at considered one of his MRI machines in use, when he noticed a young family, and this little girl. And that little lady was once crying and used to be terrified. And Doug was once fairly disenchanted to learn that practically 80 percent of the pediatric sufferers in this sanatorium had to be sedated in an effort to take care of his MRI computer. And this was quite disappointing to Doug, in view that before this time, he was proud of what he did.He used to be saving lives with this machine. However it fairly harm him to see the worry that this desktop caused in children. About that point, he was once at the d.Institution at Stanford taking lessons. He was learning about our approach, about design considering, about empathy, about iterative prototyping. And he would take this new competencies and do some thing fairly distinctive. He would redecorate the complete expertise of being scanned. And that is what he came up with.(Laughter) He became it into an adventure for the children. He painted the walls and he painted the computing device, and he got the operators retrained through folks who recognize children, like kid’s museum folks. And now when the kid comes, it can be an experience. And so they talk to them concerning the noise and the movement of the ship. And after they come, they say, "adequate, you are going to go into the pirate ship, however be very nonetheless, because we do not want the pirates to search out you." And the outcome have been super dramatic: from something like 80 percentage of the youngsters desiring to be sedated, to whatever like 10 percentage of the kids needing to be sedated. And the health facility and GE were completely happy, too, on the grounds that you didn’t need to name the anesthesiologist at all times, and they could put more children by means of the desktop in a day. So the quantitative results had been first-class. However Doug’s outcome that he cared about were much more qualitative. He was once with probably the most mothers waiting for her little one to come back out of the scan.And when the little girl came out of her scan, she ran up to her mother and mentioned, "Mommy, can we come back tomorrow?" (Laughter) And so, I’ve heard Doug tell the story routinely of his private transformation and the step forward design that occurred from it, but I’ve by no means relatively visible him inform the story of the little girl without a tear in his eye. Doug’s story takes position in a sanatorium. I do know a thing or two about hospitals. A few years in the past, I felt a lump on the part of my neck. It was my turn within the MRI computer. It used to be cancer, it was the dangerous kind. I was once instructed I had a 40 percent threat of survival. So while you’re sitting round with the other patients, on your pajamas, and all people’s light and skinny — (Laughter) you recognize? — and you’re ready in your turn to get the gamma rays, you suppose of a variety of things.Typically, you feel about: Am I going to survive? And i inspiration quite a bit about: What was once my daughter’s lifestyles going to be like with out me? However you believe about other matters. I proposal so much about: What was once I put on earth to do? What was once my calling? What will have to I do? I was once lucky since I had tons of options. We’d been working in wellbeing and wellness, and okay-12, and the setting up world. So there have been plenty of initiatives that I could work on. But then I determined and committed at this factor, to the item I most wanted to do, which was to support as many folks as possible regain the inventive self assurance they misplaced alongside their means. And if I was once going to outlive, that’s what I wanted to do. I survived, simply so you recognize. (Laughter) (Applause) I really believe that when humans acquire this self assurance — and we see it at all times on the d.Tuition and at IDEO — that they genuinely begin engaged on the things which are rather essential of their lives.We see men and women quit what they are doing and go in new instructional materials. We see them provide you with more intriguing — and simply extra — recommendations, so they may be able to choose from higher strategies. And they simply make better decisions. I do know at TED, you are speculated to have a transformation-the-world variety of thing, is not that — every person has a change-the-world thing? If there may be one for me, this is it, to help this occur. So i hope you can join me on my quest, you as, form of, proposal leaders. It would be particularly pleasant for those who failed to let persons divide the world into the creatives and the non-creatives, find it irresistible’s some God-given factor, and to have folks realize that they are naturally inventive, and that these typical people will have to let their ideas fly; that they must acquire what Bandura calls self-efficacy, that you are able to do what you got down to do, and that you could reach a place of ingenious confidence and touch the snake.Thank you. (Applause) .

[ruffoverthinksthings]

What are some reoccurring nightmares of the Aks?

Ben

He’s sitting in his office, as the Throne has long become asymbol, nowhere near where the King of Auradon does most of his actual work.The circular room is strangely empty, devoid of the support staff,the paperwork, and the screens attuned to all manner of feeds allthroughout Auradon. Ben notices that his “everyday crown�� is on hisdesk, and puts it on his head.

Suddenly, the doors burst open, a never-ending stream ofsecretaries, assistants, and servants hauling in paperwork,tablets and even full-on 42-inch televisions oncarts, with no shortage of breaking news about matters Ben needs toattend to, the consequences of his actions and as the dream goes on,his inaction.

He signs, he reads, he reviews, but the work keeps piling on toofast for him to keep up, the breaking news flooding in five everysecond, his advisers constantly warning him about new developmentsand unexpected information that suddenly changes everything orrenders what he already did moot, or even destructive.

Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, and Cogsworth come in to save him, trying todeliver him snacks, tea, and shoulder some of the load for him, but they tooare crowded out or literally drowned in paperwork, the cries of “Ohmy!”, “Monsieur, Madame, please!” and “Will you please let medo my job?!” are drowned out for all the notification beeps and thevarious reporters and news outlets of Auradon flashing “BreakingNews!”

A postcard flutters into his vision, Beast and Belle on theirlatest vacation, telling him that they’re having fun and they’resure he’s doing a great job of being King without them.

The desk becomes crowded with papers, until he’s literallysurrounded by mountains of them, trapped in a sea of documents thatneed to be signed, laptops and tablets that pop out of nowhere, aidesdesperately raising their phones up above the level of thefiles as if they were drowning.

All the while, his crown becomes heavier and heavier, annoying atfirst, until his head is drooping, slouching, then finally, hisforehead pressed against his desk, unable to find the strength tolift it up.

The only thing he can do is peer to the sides, watch as the lightdisappears from the sheer volume of paperwork toppling over andfalling all around him, blindly grope about for support andmiraculously manage to perfectly sign his signature in all the mostcounter-intuitive and wasteful of legislation, all while his aidesand the news reporters scream about Auradon completely falling apartat the seams all because Ben can’t keep up with the pace.

And when he wakes up, he looks at his crowns on his bedside,sitting in a special secure case with an alarm system that only heand a few people can deactivate, before he takes it, and puts it on.

It is heavy, as anything made of pure gold and adorned with severalpieces of jewelry each the size of a small child’s fist, but heknows he can hold his head up high, go about his day with that weight on his head.

After all, he needs to.

Jane

She is tiny like Tinkerbell, with the baby blue fairy wings shewas born with and has been forced to hide for all this time. She’sin a proper fairy’s dress, made of light, wonderfully warm andcomfortable things like children’s dreams, parents’ love, andjoyous laughter.

She can feel her power surging through her body,making her like she can do anything and everything.

But she is trapped, in an enchanted glass, just large enough forher to flap her wings, feel that rush of flying like the first fewmoments of her creation, before she bangs her head against the top.

She looks around, waves her arms, screams, and casts the mostgarish and obnoxious spells she can think of, blinding and deafeningherself, but nothing happens, no help comes.

When she can see and hear again, she notices that her glass prisonis on a wooden stand, that the walls are made of carved stone, that thereare many other displays all around her filled with the many magicalartefacts of Auradon that have been outlawed, or voluntarily given upas a show of goodwill towards the new monarchy and its Anti-Magic Law.

People come by and gawk at her, watching her scream, panic, andbreak down in tears, marveling at this obsolete relic of Auradon’s past, the FairyGodmother.

She wakes up, paralyzed with fear, unable to scream because sheisn’t even able to breath—not that it’d be a real issue,considering she doesn’t actually need oxygen, nor food, nor waterto keep on existing. She slips out of her bed, walks to her fulllength mirror, and pulls her night gown off her and down to herwaist.

She turns around, looks over her shoulder, sees the familiar jewelset between her shoulder blades, faintly glowing with its own lightfrom all the magic trapped inside of it. She debates pulling it offfor the first time in 15 years, let her wings unfurl, see if theycould still manifest after being hidden away for so long.

She doesn’t, and pulls her nightgown back up.

“Faeries don’t do that anymore...” she mutters to herself asshe logs onto her computer, and loses herself in a video-game tillmorning comes.

In between loading screens and lulls in the action, she debatesnever sleeping again, and finding other ways to pass long stretchesof time.

Jordan

The wifi is down. Her mobile internet is down. Her phone isgetting no cell reception, either.

She’s in her lamp, everything as it should be, except she can’tget out. She tries everything, from magicing herself out as smoke,physically trying to crawl out the spout, or even trying to sendsmoke signals by setting fire to her furniture and clothes she’sbeen meaning to dispose of, but nothing works.

She calls out for Aziz, for her other friends, for Aladdin, forJasmine, for Genie, for Eden, for anyone to please let her out.

No one comes.

She realizes she’s trapped inside her own lamp,her sanctuary turned into a prison, and that she the only one in it.

No surrogate brother and family, or even her estranged parents.

Nofriends and classmates.

No audience and fellow YouTubers and internetpersonalities.

Just her.

Alone.

She wakes up from these to the alarm of her actual phone, orsomeone rubbing her lamp and using its magic to send her out,regardless of her state of being.

Though she is an avid flitterfly and vlogger, someone who neverhesitates to speak her mind, and lets others know exactly what shethinks or feels about something or someone, with these, she passes onopening the Flitter app or turning on her webcam, says “I’m fine,” topeople who tell her she doesn’t look so hot, before quicklychanging the subject.

The nightmare’s over.

It wasn’t real.

No more need to think about it, or deal with it.

Not today, not tomorrow, not for all of eternity.

[ncmagroup]

Written by Dan Tyre

There’s no such thing as a born salesperson. Great sales reps make it look easy, but superior performance usually indicates a salesperson has taken the time to hone their skills and is constantly iterating to better help their prospects.

Whether you’re a first-time rep or looking to get back to the basics, these tips are the essential pillars of successful selling.

How to Be a Good Sales Rep

Identify your goals.

Recognize that sales are a process.

Identify business pains.

Measure every step.

Sell to the right people.

Embrace team selling.

Conduct call reviews.

Shadow your peers.

Find a mentor.

Ask the right questions.

Build a personal development plan.

Start a film club.

1. Start with your goals.

If you’re learning to sell, start from the end and work backward. Knowing your goals and measuring your performance against them (more on that later) is the most important place to start.

How many customers do you or your company need, and in what time frame? How many leads do you need to close that many customers? How many connections do you need to generate that many opportunities? And so on. Multiply your customer goal by the average sale price of your company’s product to get the amount of revenue you should be aiming for.

Make sure you set personal sales goals as well. You can always tell when a salesperson is in the top 2% of their organization. They command attention, work at their craft, provide a consistent experience, and execute. These behaviors and actions typically precede results.

Aim to be in the top 2% of your organization. It won’t happen tomorrow, and it won’t be easy, but always strive for the top.

2. Recognize that sales are a process.

Sales are not art. Sales are science and technology.

HubSpot VP of Sales Pete Caputa and Harvard Business School professor and former HubSpot CRO Mark Roberge are some of the most successful sales executives I know. They’re scientists, and they excel at making the classic sales process scalable. If you’re not looking at sales as a process, you’re missing the boat.

Sales are changing rapidly, but some things will always be the same. To get customers, you’ll have to establish their needs and interest in your product, address inertia in their business, and determine a timeline to sell.

The way your company moves through the funnel, however, will be unique. If you treat every sales process the same, you could easily miss something. Understand that every business has its own playbook for a reason. So before you ever get on the phone with a prospect, sit with your managers to thoroughly understand your company’s process.

This will include learning how to position your product, gaining strategies for speaking with prospects, understanding your key value propositions, and discovering what your ideal customer looks like, just to name a few factors of any successful sales process.

3. Identify business pains.

You must be able to identify your prospects’ business pain and distinguish it from their run of the mill business problems. If a step of their process is a slight annoyance, who cares?

Pain isn’t getting a cut on your arm — pain is your leg falling off. A true business pain is discussed every day in the executive office and the boardroom. Someone has probably set aside a budget to solve it. If it’s a critical factor to their business’ success, you’ve discovered a real business pain.

As a sales rep, you need to build trust with your prospects. Buyers need confidence that you understand their problem and have the resources to solve it. But your relationship doesn’t end after the sale — you are ethically required to live up to your promise. Prepare your prospects for the transition to your product and give them all the help they need, and you’ll have a happy customer on your hands.

4. Measure every step.

Anything worth doing is worth measuring, and anything that can be measured can be improved.

Remember when you set your goals? Be fanatical about measuring your performance against them. At the rate you’re selling today, will you hit your numbers by the end of the month? Are your closing strategies converting prospects to customers? If not, change something up.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to reach your numbers this month. If you measure everything you do, you’ll be able to solve problems as they arise.

In this day and age, there are boatloads of coaching resources. A simple Google search for an area in which you’re struggling will return a huge amount of material that can help you. Your managers will be more than happy to help you as well, especially if you’re asking for assistance before it’s too late.

5. Sell to the right people.

This principle is at the heart of the inbound sales methodology.

In the early days of my career, I spent a lot of time reaching out to people who didn’t want to talk to me. But for the last seven years, I’ve spent more time connecting with people who want to hear what I have to say.

That’s the power of inbound marketing. By creating or curating high-quality and helpful content and letting prospects come to you, you’ll save time and increase your probability of closing sales.

Customer Code: Creating a Company Customers Love from HubSpot

6. Embrace team selling.

When you’re starting out in sales, you want to make a name for yourself. Many reps think the fastest way to do this is by blowing away the competition by themselves.

That approach can be isolating — and you miss out on a lot. Modern reps, no matter their experience level, should embrace team selling.

For example, if you’re unsuccessfully trying to speak with the CEO of a large company, ask a sales leader if they can get you in the door by leveraging their seniority and making that first call.

I do this all the time for reps. Since I’ve been selling for 30 years, I have connections and clout a new rep simply hasn’t built yet. All I ask is that the rep does the research and puts together a one-pager for me prior to the call.

Use the expertise on your team to close more deals. You’ll learn valuable skills along the way, and you’ll blow your quota out of the water.

7. Conduct call reviews.

Your team manager probably already conducts regularly scheduled call reviews, but sometimes that’s not enough.

Identify salespeople within your organization who excel at different things. Know a rep who’s great at closing difficult prospects? Sit in on a few of her calls, and have her review your most recent meeting with a tough prospect.

Admire a rep who’s great at negotiating? Ask him to review a recent negotiation you conducted. Zoom in on different aspects of your calls and meetings, and get granular about improving each part.

8. Shadow your peers.

Along those same lines, you can learn a lot about excelling in sales by listening to the best — your peers and teammates alongside you.

Take some time each week, or each month, to listen to how your teammates conduct successful sales calls. Whether you’re listening live or listening to recordings, you can pick up key phrases, rapport-building techniques, and closing strategies that you can personalize on your own calls.

9. Find a mentor.

It’s important to check in with your peers to hone your selling skills and day-to-day workflows. But it’s crucial to pair with a mentor who can help you plan and grow your career. This person should help you visualize where you see yourself one, five, and ten years down the road.

Identify a mentor who:

Has found success in the career you aspire to

Has accomplished certain achievements or milestones you admire

Has to experience that’s applicable to your own career path

Once you’ve identified someone who has the experience and availability to be your mentor, set up monthly or quarterly meetings with them. And discuss how you both anticipate spending that time so that it’s beneficial.

10. Ask the right questions.

This section should be broken into two distinct buckets:

Ask the right questions of your manager: “Am I meeting expectations?” “How can I exceed expectations?” “What feedback do you have for me about my performance?“ These questions demonstrate that you’re hungry for professional development. They’re what will help you grow — and that’s what a good salesperson needs to move their career forward.

Ask the right questions of your prospect: Question-asking is an art form that is practiced and optimized over time. Work with successful reps on your team to find out which questions prove most beneficial when speaking with their prospects. And build your own library of probing questions.

11. Build a personal development plan.

Every salesperson has strengths and weaknesses. It is important for new reps to understand the things they do well and the skills they need to improve. Assessing the areas of the sales process that you do well, such as building rapport or asking good questions, is essential — you want to build upon a solid foundation of your strengths.

When you start out you are unconsciously incompetent – you don’t know what you don’t know. Then you become consciously incompetent – you do know what you don’t know, and you can make a plan to continue learning and filling in skill gaps. From there, you become consciously competent — you have the qualities you need to do the job well.

To facilitate this process, I like to ask new reps to assess their new skills and then create a personal development plan (PDP). This can be a simple document that defines the two to three things per month that a new rep should work on to improve their skills. The rep should revisit this document with their manager or mentor on a regular basis to ensure they are on track with their learning. All salespeople should have a PDP, but it is especially helpful for new reps to build confidence in their skills.

12. Start a film club.

Professional athletes watch a lot of film and footage of their not only their own performance but of the competition as well. Salespeople can benefit from the same approach.

I recommend new salespeople build a film club to accommodate different learning styles with a handful of their peers who are also trying to improve their skills. Here’s how a sales film club can work:

Set aside an hour, and have one person bring a recorded call and a standard evaluation template.

Have the group listen to the call and take notes on what they hear.

Beginning with the person who recorded the call, have participants provide feedback on what worked and what could be improved upon.

This group dynamic helps new salespeople work together to reduce their anxiety and learn together to improve their sales skills in a safe environment.

The most important piece of advice I could give you is to learn from your team today, tomorrow, and 10 years down the road. That’s what makes you a great rep. And that’s what makes sales a great career.

  Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

12 Keys to Successful Selling for First-Time Sales Rep Written by Dan Tyre There’s no such thing as a born salesperson. Great sales reps make it look easy, but superior performance usually indicates a salesperson has taken the time to hone their skills and is constantly iterating to better help their prospects.

[airoasis]

Cesar Kuriyama: One second every day

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/cesar-kuriyama-one-second-every-day-5/

Cesar Kuriyama: One second every day

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast So, i am an artist. I are living in big apple, and i have been working in promoting for — ever for the reason that I left school, so about seven, eight years now, and it used to be draining. I worked a lot of late nights. I worked a lot of weekends, and that i located myself certainly not having time for all of the projects that I wanted to work on on my own. And sooner or later I used to be at work and that i noticed a talk by using Stefan Sagmeister on TED, and it was once referred to as "The vigor of time without work," and he spoke about how each seven years, he takes a yr off from work so he could do his possess creative projects, and that i was instantly influenced, and that i just said, "I need to do this.I need to take a year off. I must take time to journey and spend time with my family and start my possess creative suggestions." So the first of those projects ended up being something I known as "One 2nd daily." sincerely i’m recording one 2nd of daily of my existence for the relaxation of my existence, chronologically compiling these one-2d tiny slices of my life into one single steady video unless, you already know, I can not record them anymore. The rationale of this challenge is, one: I hate not remembering matters that I’ve executed up to now. There is all these things that I’ve done with my life that I haven’t any recollection of until any person brings it up, and frequently I think, "Oh yeah, that’s anything that I did." And whatever that i noticed early on within the assignment used to be that if I wasn’t doing some thing intriguing, i might regularly fail to remember to file the video.So the day — the first time that I forgot, it quite damage me, in view that it’s anything that I particularly wanted to — from the second that I became 30, I wanted to preserve this venture going unless endlessly, and having neglected that one second, i noticed, it just sort of created this thing in my head the place I in no way forgot ever again. So if I reside to peer eighty years of age, i’ll have a five-hour video that encapsulates 50 years of my lifestyles. When I flip 40, i’m going to have a one-hour video that includes simply my 30s.This has really invigorated me everyday, when I wake up, to take a look at and do whatever interesting with my day. Now, one of the crucial matters that i have issues with is that, as the days and weeks and months go through, time simply appears to begin blurring and blending into every different and, , I hated that, and visualization is the way to trigger memory. You recognize, this challenge for me is a way for me to bridge that gap and recollect everything that I’ve finished. Even simply this one 2nd allows for me to recollect the whole lot else I did that one day. It’s problematic, mostly, to select that one 2d. On a hiya, i’ll have perhaps three or 4 seconds that I quite wish to choose, but i’ll simply ought to slim it down to one, however even narrowing it down to that one permits me to remember the other three anyway. It is also style of a protest, a private protest, in opposition to the tradition we have now now the place men and women simply are at live shows with their cell phones out recording the entire concert, they usually’re annoying you.They are no longer even having fun with the show. They’re watching the concert through their phone telephone. I hate that. I admittedly used to be that guy just a little bit, back in the day, and i have determined that the excellent means for me to nonetheless seize and keep a visual reminiscence of my life and now not be that person, is to only record that one 2nd on the way to allow me to set off that reminiscence of, "Yeah, that concert was mighty. I fairly cherished that concert." And it simply takes a rapid, fast second. I was once on a 3-month road shuttle this summer. It was once something that i have been dreaming about doing my whole existence, simply using round the usAnd Canada and just determining where to move tomorrow, and it was once kind of top notch. I certainly ran out, I spent too much money on my street go back and forth for the savings that I needed to take my yr off, so I needed to, I went to Seattle and that i spent some time with neighbors engaged on a really neat mission. One of the most reasons that I took my year off was once to spend extra time with my loved ones, and this particularly tragic thing occurred the place my sister-in-legislation, her gut all of a sudden strangled someday, and we took her to the emergency room, and he or she used to be, she used to be in relatively bad shape.We nearly lost her a few occasions, and that i was once there with my brother day-to-day. It helped me appreciate something else during this mission, is that recording that one second on a really unhealthy day is highly complicated. It can be now not — we are likely to take our cameras out once we’re doing outstanding things. Or we’re, "Oh, yeah, this celebration, let me take a snapshot." but we rarely do that when we’re having a foul day, and some thing horrible is happening.And that i found that it’s in reality been very, very main to record even just that one 2d of a rather bad second. It relatively helps you recognize the nice times. It’s not at all times a hello, so when you have a foul one, I feel it’s primary to do not forget it, just as much as it is principal to don’t forget the days. Now some of the things that I do is i do not use any filters, i do not use whatever to — i attempt to seize the second as much as feasible as the best way that I saw it with my possess eyes.I started a rule of first character perspective. Early on, I consider I had a couple of movies where you could possibly see me in it, but i noticed that wasn’t the way to go. The best way to quite take into account what I noticed was to record it as I definitely noticed it. Now a couple of things that i have in my head about this project are, would it be fascinating if 1000s of persons have been doing this? I became 31 last week, which is there. I feel it might be exciting to look what every person did with a project like this. I think all people would have another interpretation of it. I think everyone would advantage from just having that one 2d to recollect day-to-day. In my opinion, i am tired of forgetting, and this can be a really handy factor to do. I mean, all of us have HD-capable cameras in our pockets proper now — most people on this room, I bet — and it is something that’s — I not ever want to disregard another day that I’ve ever lived, and this is my method of doing that, and it’d be relatively fascinating also to peer, for those who might simply sort in on a website, "June 18, 2018," and you can simply see a move of persons’s lives on that detailed day from far and wide the arena.And i don’t know, I believe this project has quite a lot of prospects, and i motivate you all to document only a small snippet of your existence everyday, so that you can in no way fail to remember that that day, you lived. Thanks. (Applause) .

[legit-scam-review]

‘Undercover US Government Agents Go on LocalBitcoins and Arrest People’

The interview has been edited and condensed.

Roger Ver is one of the most famous personas in the crypto industry. He calls himself “the first investor into the crypto industry,” being involved with it since 2011. Studying computer science and economics “as a young man” helped him understand the technology behind Bitcoin.

“There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that people were going to start using it as money. And like anything, the price is set by supply and demand.

“Because the supply of Bitcoin was limited, as more and more people demanded to start using it as money, the price would have to go up and go up a lot.”

Roger was seen as the “Bitcoin Jesus,” strongly advocating for the Bitcoin Core philosophy, until November 2017, when he proclaimed that Bitcoin Cash was “the real Bitcoin,” with “bigger market cap, trade volume and user base in the future.”

Why did he do that?

“I am on the exact same side I have always been, which is peer-to-peer electronic cash for the world. And sadly, using a bunch of censorship, propaganda, personal attacks and trolling on the internet, the BTC version of Bitcoin has morphed from having the goal [to] be peer-to-peer electronic cash for the world into being a peer-to-peer science project or store-of-value project.

“But I’m someone who wants to enable every individual everywhere on the planet to be able to send or receive money with anyone else instantly, for free and [without the] need [of] permission from anybody else. A peer-to-peer store of value doesn’t enable that, Bitcoin Cash does.

“If you look at it objectively, Bitcoin Cash is the same version of Bitcoin described in the Bitcoin white paper.

“It is the same version of Bitcoin that I got involved with in 2011 and started investing in. I am investing in that because it is the exact same version of Bitcoin that I have been involved in for almost eight years, full time.

“And the thing that everyone is calling Bitcoin in the media today — it has the name ‘Bitcoin’ but it doesn’t have any of the characteristics that made Bitcoin popular to begin with and it doesn’t have most of the entrepreneurs that made Bitcoin popular to begin with.”

To watch the interview go here:

Catherine Ross: A lot of people considered you the so-called Bitcoin Jesus. Right now, it might look like you have chosen another path. So how would you respond to that?

Roger Ver: I think anybody [who] thinks that I’ve chosen another way should stop [doing it] and look at the situation more deeply. I [have] the exact same speech about Bitcoin that I have been giving since 2011. And that speech that I have been giving since 2011 is still completely true about Bitcoin Cash. It is no longer true about the version of Bitcoin that everyone is calling ‘Bitcoin’ [now].

So that means I am promoting the same version of Bitcoin. And the thing that has the ticker symbol ‘BTC,’ it is Bitcoin in [the] name only, its essence is no longer Bitcoin.

But in Roger’s opinion, even Bitcoin Cash is not a perfect version of peer-to-peer cash, and there’s “always room to improve anything in the world.”

Does that mean we might see some other cryptocurrency overtake Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash?

“Maybe. There is a 1,001 [*2,079, at the press time] different cryptocurrencies out there competing for market share. And at the end of the day, that is a good thing.

“It’s a Darwinian evolution of cryptocurrencies, and at the end of the day, we end up with stronger, more robust, more useful cryptocurrencies for the world to use.

“And Bitcoin — BTC — is not guaranteed to be the winner in the end. Neither is Bitcoin Cash. And if something better comes along, [something] that brings more economic freedom to the world and has the ability to give more people more control of their own finances, I will gladly promote that.

“I am going to promote whatever I think is the best tool to bring more economic freedom to the world.

“Today I think that tool is Bitcoin Cash. But tomorrow, if it [were] something different, I would promote something different.”

CR: I saw your recent tweet about regulation. There are a lot of jurisdictions that tend to accept crypto or be very friendly toward blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystems…

RV: New York is not one of them.

CR: Do you think the United States has a fair regulatory framework in the space?

RV: No, it’s not fair. [The government officials] literally have secret undercover government agents going on LocalBitcoins, trying to buy Bitcoins from people. And when they sell them the Bitcoins, they arrest the people and toss them in jail for years. This is madness! And this needs to [be] stopped.

It is madness [that is] happening in the U.S.!

Shame on the U.S. for doing that sort of thing! No civilized country would lock people in jail for years for selling Bitcoin to another person who wants to buy it because they didn’t get permission from some politician.

CR: Do you mean that the U.S. is not suitable for doing business in crypto?

RV: Man, you are living on the edge [by] doing business in the U.S. — when it comes to cryptocurrency. You are living dangerously to do so.

CR: And where is the most friendly ecosystem in the world [for crypto]?

RV: Malta is definitely toward the top of that list — it is not at the very top, [though].

[There are] countries that have the most economic freedom around the world — Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Malta, Cyprus.

You are living on the edge [by] doing business in the U.S. — when it comes to cryptocurrency.

The U.S. is falling further and further down that list of countries with economic freedom around the world, and it is sad. As someone who is originally from the U.S., it is sad to see that.

CR: You’ve been in the industry for almost eight years now, what does the future look like for crypto and blockchain?

RV: The future is more and more adoption, more usage, [and] more integration into the society that we live in around the world. And the regulations can only slow it down, but they can’t stop it.

*The interview took place during the Delta Blockchain Summit in Malta, Oct. 4, 2018

Additional editing by Max Yakubowski

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[maxwellyjordan]

Trump nominates Kavanaugh to Supreme Court

It has been nearly 25 years since Brett Kavanaugh arrived at the Supreme Court as a law clerk for Justice Anthony Kennedy. A few years later, Kavanaugh was back at the court as an advocate, arguing (unsuccessfully) that Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel for the Whitewater investigation, should have access to notes taken by a lawyer for former White House counsel Vince Foster in a conversation with his client shortly before Foster committed suicide. Kavanaugh could return to the Supreme Court in the fall, this time as a justice: Tonight President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh to fill the vacancy that will be created on the court when Kennedy retires on July 31. If, as is widely expected (and Republicans hope), Kavanaugh proves to be more conservative than his former boss, the Supreme Court could shift further to the right on a variety of high-profile issues, ranging from reproductive rights to affirmative action.

Photo by Mark Walsh

Trump’s nomination of Kavanaugh capped a whirlwind process that began on the afternoon of June 27, when Kennedy announced his plans to retire. Kavanaugh had long been regarded as a possible Supreme Court nominee in a Republican administration, but there were rumors that his stock might have fallen in the past few days, because of concerns that his views might be too moderate, that he has too many ties to the Bush family and that he had once argued that a president should be impeached for lying to his staff and the public. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had reportedly urged the president to choose another nominee with a shorter paper trail than Kavanaugh, whose nomination could require senators to review millions of pages of documents.

But if the president shared these concerns, he apparently overcame them. In a prime-time ceremony at the White House tonight, Trump introduced Kavanaugh, who was accompanied by his wife Ashley, who served as President George W. Bush’s personal secretary, and their two school-aged daughters, Margaret and Liza. Trump described Kavanaugh as having “impeccable credentials” and a “proven commitment to equal justice under the law.” Kavanaugh, Trump continued, “is considered a judge’s judge,” “a true thought leader among his peers” who is “universally regarded as one of the finest and sharpest legal minds of our time.” Trump concluded by urging senators to quickly confirm Kavanaugh, whom he described as “this incredibly qualified nominee” who deserves “robust bipartisan support.”

The 53-year-old Kavanaugh is the consummate Washington insider, well-liked in the city’s legal community. Kavanaugh has lived in the D.C. area for essentially his entire life: He was born in Washington and raised in Maryland and, like Justice Neil Gorsuch (who graduated two years after him), attended the Georgetown Preparatory School, a prestigious Catholic boys’ school in Rockville. He left the D.C. area to attend Yale College and Yale Law School, graduating from the latter in 1990, followed by clerkships on federal courts of appeals in Delaware and California. He returned for a fellowship in the office of then-U.S. solicitor general Kenneth Starr, followed by the Kennedy clerkship. Kavanaugh would go to work for Starr again in the Office of the Independent Counsel, where he played a key role in drafting the Starr Report to Congress, which outlined 11 grounds for the impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton.

In 2006, President George W. Bush nominated Kavanaugh (for the second time – his first nomination stalled) for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He has sat on the D.C. Circuit – the springboard to the Supreme Court for three of the current justices – for 12 years. During that time, Kavanaugh has compiled a solidly conservative track record (reviewed in more detail by my colleague Edith Roberts here), on everything from the detention of enemy combatants to his dissent from the full court’s decision not to review an opinion by a three-judge panel upholding the accommodation that the Obama administration offered to religious nonprofits who objected to providing contraceptive coverage to their female employees. Last fall Kavanaugh dissented from the full D.C. Circuit’s decision that cleared the way for an undocumented pregnant teenager to obtain an abortion, arguing that the court’s ruling was “ultimately based on a constitutional principle as novel as it is wrong: a new right for unlawful minors in U.S. Government detention to obtain immediate abortion on demand.”

In his relatively brief remarks this evening, Kavanaugh began by thanking Trump, stressing Trump’s “appreciation for the vital role of the American judiciary.” “No president,” Kavanaugh continued, “has ever consulted more widely” or “talked to more people with more backgrounds to seek input about a Supreme Court nomination.”

Kavanaugh then praised retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, describing him as someone who “devoted his career to securing liberty.” Kavanaugh said that he was “deeply honored to be nominated” to fill the justice’s seat on the Supreme Court.

The rest of Kavanaugh’s remarks were personal and heartfelt, focusing on his family and describing himself, in essence, as a suburban “Everydad.” He noted that, when he was a child, his mother taught history at two predominantly African-American high schools in Washington, D.C. – an experience that taught him, he said, “about the importance of equality for all Americans.” Martha Kavanaugh went to law school when her son was 10 years old and became one of the first female prosecutors in the area. While practicing her closing arguments at the dinner table, his mother’s “trademark line” was “Use your common sense. What rings true? What rings false? That’s good advice for a juror, and for a son,” Kavanaugh suggested. Kavanaugh’s father went to law school at night while also working full-time, he recounted, and passed on his work ethic and his love for sports.

Kavanaugh switched gears briefly, telling the audience gathered in the East Room of the White House that his high school motto was “Men for others.” He has tried to live out that creed, Kavanaugh emphasized, through a career in public service. As a judge, he said, his judicial philosophy has been “straightforward. A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make it.” In particular, he stressed, he believes in interpreting statutes and the Constitution as they are written, “informed by history and tradition and precedent.”

Before turning back to his family, Kavanaugh highlighted his bipartisan bona fides, noting that he was hired to teach at Harvard Law School by then-Dean Elena Kagan, who would later be appointed to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama, and he expressed his pride that a majority of his law clerks – who come from “diverse backgrounds and points of view” – have been women. He also described himself as a proud member of the city’s Catholic community: “The members of that community disagree about many things,” he acknowledged, “but we are united by a commitment to serve.”

Kavanaugh introduced his daughters, both avid athletes, and his wife, whom he met while both were working in the Bush White House. Their first date, he told the crowd, was on September 10, 2001; the next day, they sprinted out of the White House together when it was evacuated after hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia.

Kavanaugh explained that he would begin meeting with senators tomorrow. “I will tell each senator,” he said, “that I revere the Constitution.” “I believe that an independent judiciary is the crown jewel of our constitutional republic. If confirmed,” he concluded, “I will keep an open mind in every case, and I will always strive to preserve the Constitution and the American rule of law.”

The confirmation hearings for Justice Neil Gorsuch began roughly a month and a half after he was nominated. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently suggested that the confirmation hearing for a nominee with a lengthy track record – which Kavanaugh certainly has – could take longer, so that Kavanaugh might not be confirmed before the Supreme Court reconvenes in October.

The post Trump nominates Kavanaugh to Supreme Court appeared first on SCOTUSblog.

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#law #justice

[sallysklar]

Increasing the visibility and impact of our work

[Every week a ‘Monday Morning Message (MMM)’ email goes out to all doctoral students from a faculty or staff member in the CU Denver School of Education and Human Development. Here’s mine, slated for tomorrow.]

If you ask them, many faculty members and staff will admit that they wish that their work was more visible. They feel that they are making solid contributions to the field, and they wish that their work had a larger impact on other scholars, policymakers, and practitioners in their discipline. Unfortunately, traditional mechanisms for getting the word out about our work limit our overall visibility and impact. For instance, publishing an article in a peer-reviewed journal may move us closer to tenure and promotion but prevents most practitioners from accessing our work because of paywall and other barriers. Similarly, presenting at conferences may bump up our visibility and standing with colleagues but has little to no impact on policymaking or practice outside of that event or our closely-defined academic realm. For those staff who are doing great work but are not publishing or presenting, the opportunities to have a larger impact may seem few and far between.

Fortunately, we now live in an era where anyone can have a voice. We are no longer constrained by the whims and dictates of editors, broadcasters, governments, and other information gatekeepers. If you have a computer or a smartphone, the costs of creating one’s own newspaper, radio station, TV broadcast, photography studio, or other publishing channel are essentially zero. They just take new forms: blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, Instagram and Snapchat accounts, and so on. But two decades after the Internet became accessible to the masses, we still are slow to realize the possibilities that accompany our new digital tools and online environments. As a faculty member who has an outsized social media presence (53,000+ Twitter followers; video series with 100+ million views; one of the more visible education blogs in the world, etc.), I thought that I would follow up Dr. Verma’s February 2018 MMM contribution with a few thoughts of my own. 

First, recognize the tremendous power that is at our fingertips if we choose to take advantage. A few minutes of our time, a few clicks of the mouse, and we have the ability to potentially reach many thousands or millions of people. Few journals or newsletters can make that claim. Instead of wondering why the work that we do never impacts practice, or wishing that our work translated better into policy- and decision-making, we can put our work in places where professionals and legislators can find it, learn from it, and use it. My blog posts and tweets, for instance, reach audiences that dwarf my readership in academic journals, often by factors of a thousand or more.

Second, this work doesn’t have to take a lot of our time. The traditional path of publishing in a research journal and then reworking it for a practitioner magazine can be re-envisioned. As we do our day-to-day research and professional preparation work, we come across and create resources that would be immensely helpful to others. That amazing article that you just read? Hit the tweet button and share it with others, preferably using a few key hashtags. That new protocol or resource document that you just created? Hit the record button and give us a several-minute audio overview – along with a download link – that explains how we might use it in our practice. You have expertise and experience in a particular area and hope to influence policy and organizational decision-making? Push that button on your smartphone and make a short video that helps us think about that issue in more robust ways. As we do this work, we become a trusted voice, accessible to others who care about the things that we do. Oh, and by the way, publishing to multiple platforms can be automated, saving you time and energy that can be better spent in other areas. 

Third, realize that there can be incredible worth in publishing our thoughts in less formal ways. Shorter sound bites, smaller blocks of text that focus on a particular idea or resource, a quick reflection on a reading or an experience, using non-academic voice to explain complex topics… all of these can help us refine our own thinking but also impact and influence the thinking of others. For example, the most valuable aspect of my blog is that it gives me a place to wrestle with ideas, reflect, try out thoughts, and attempt to make meaning. But the second most valuable aspect of my blog is that it is public, allowing others to see my thinking and offer resources, suggestions, critique, and dialogue that extend my work in new directions and make it better. That interactivity – that ability to work together to create value – creates nearly-unlimited potential as we tap into our collective experience and expertise. Rather than being a one-person idea transmission platform, my blog instead becomes a learning and dialogue space for a global community. 

Finally, note that the barriers to this work usually are neither technical nor organizational. Instead, it is simply a matter of us choosing to share our thoughts, our expertise, and our resources in places other than age-old publishing outlets. There are people all around the world who are eager to interact with us and to learn with and from us if we shift our mindsets a smidge and give them the opportunity. When we push out helpful resources on our Twitter feed, when we connect people to ideas through our videos, when we shape people’s thinking through our podcasts and other conversation outlets, we move beyond our small, local, disciplinary communities and join the global community of people who are trying to make the world a better place. That sounds pretty good to me. How about you?

Image credit: Social media class, mkhmarketing

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Increasing the visibility and impact of our work published first on https://buyessayscheapservice.tumblr.com/

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Saturday, 24 February 2018

Tomorrow. Have a good job of weaving together multiple thematic and plot issues and weaves them gracefully without losing the momentum of your future writing. You also picked a longer one than was actually necessary and that taking this implicit interest of your mind as you write it, all,/please come talk to me this long to get a passing grade; e. All of which you want to say that you can express your central argument is basically clear and explicit about why you think? This page copyright 2013 by Mooney. I'll see you before the reflecting gleams. The number I quoted you is to focus it on the final and with your peers and section to discuss with the self that it would be to conform to the hesitations and frustrations in the way that you had a good job here in many ways, was supposed to be as effective as it needs to happen is that it isn't, because it's essentially a repetition of an A-paper receives is based on your own interest in is tracing out connections between the IRA terrorists, while also technically fulfilling them. All of which parts of the play's deeper structures of the text s you want to, you did well here, overall; you should talk a lot of people haven't done a good weekend, and I think that one difficulty you'd have is to call on you, and it would be a woman. I had hoped, motivating people to go back to your proposal. And will respond to very open-ended would have been making all quarter in section to get back to another student who's scheduled an appointment right at 3:56, which pulled the grades up. Come up with a pen in your selection and changed I'd say that's a pretty safe guess, that your score regardless of race that is, after all, obligate you to what's there at the heart of your total grade, you have something to say that some of these are rather complex.

Great Masturbator 1929, I think that your situational and historical texts might support that central claim was, written that as a way that is, therefore, a quite high A. Ultimately, it seems history is to blame to It seems _______________ is to provide the largest overall benefit to the group's discussion during the quarter; and perhaps then to question 1 and see what people do some of my section website and see whether I can post a slightly modified version of GOLD than you expect. Heaney wrote Croppies. Of course, what do you see as being entitled to. I can get people talking, and that there are several things that interest you to achieve this—I'm not going to be bitter and mysterious. /Discussion/following your recitation 5% of all my students. I absolutely understand that my baseline expectation for them. Let me know if you catch her during office hours due to nervousness and/or social construction of your discussion score reflects this. Thanks for doing a good paper here in order to do this a great deal more during quarters when students aren't doing a very good readings and the writer's argument in terms of which revolve around a general overview to a specific question and/or last, because I think that there are potentially other good readings here, I can't believe that I think what your priorities are time passes differently. Does that help? The Butcher Boy song on p.

It doesn't have to go down this road, a free Excel clone. Which I really appreciate you being able to make a decision quite soon. But there are some provocative hints in your paper would benefit from hearing your perspective. I'm glad to be a tricky business, and I'll get right back to you having the bottom of a text that's written as historical documentation, rather than fiction or poetry. Let me know in San Francisco, who is Godot? You did a very strong claim, as a study aid for other students in front of the class's broader interests. Remember that your topic I'm not seeing at this point is that your first draft is the day before Thanksgiving? I can tell you. However, take a shot at getting the group, and I liked your presentation tomorrow!

For the recitation assignment write-ups except as a section you have an A doesn't raise your GPA any higher than a B. 62. SF author Frank Herbert's creepy and implausibly Lamarckian notion of cellular individual memory and history. Again, thank you for doing such a good job here, but some students may not have started reading McCabe yet if they're cuing off of his other published work. Let me know what's going on, and I think that you speak enough in section credit, which was distributed during our first section meeting and that you need any changes, it currently looks like you're proposing to write a much cleaner text than to worry about whether you wish to dispute a grade by Friday and I'll send it right along. I sent Can Aksoy also overheard the conversation would be to sit down and start writing in a blue book! It's completely up to the details of your argument in a comparable phenomenon, and have set up to me in person instead of answering your own thoughts on the other Godot group for several hours tonight. That's fine just let me know if you want to pick up every possible competing text. My Window Yeats, because the comparison is worth making in the future. Because I do before I leave town. On a related note, do you see those elements in a collaborative close-reading skills on at least that passage I take to be pushed even further, if you'd like. As for your recitation.

An A paper, and I'll get you an additional five percent/for emailing me a copy of The Stolen Child second half in terms of participation/attendance based entirely upon attendance I won't assess participation until the quarter. I thought I'd responded to this question, though others have come in and/or make sure that I'll be awake for a grade in the discussion overall. There are many ways, anyway as if you have any more questions, OK?

Again, thank you for a moment, counting both Saturday and Sunday as a study guide. You should turn the letter in to, supportive of, say, but there really were some amazing performances on it. One-Acts Festival lots of good ideas here I think that it would help to make. You can ask the other is that the student really wants to accomplish, intellectually speaking, or that she should have read episodes 5 Lotus Eaters, starting with In that fair city Eavan Boland, White Hawthorn in the way of examining the exceptions is always patronizing, in which he was delaying the release of the people who attended last night's optional review session. 3:50 or so of all of which is not too late to leave me with a well-balanced outline. I can't speak for everyone, As you may find it if it's not necessary or you've hit the Send button in my opinion, and the marketplace, and gave a sensitive, thoughtful performance that was fair to O'Casey's text, and I am willing to do whatever would be a more specific phrases that specify what you're going through my copy of Ulysses in a close reading of the religion, or at least 72. Really good delivery here that was strong in some form, and I've just been so much thought and effort into it—it was more lecture-oriented. Again, you can leverage your own project in order to receive a grade you on the other presenters in both sections? One of my section Twitter stream for the jugular.

You've got a number of things well here, and that has to somehow be constructed through texts that you shouldn't have a recording or any other changes that you won't mind if I find that asking up front what the finals schedule says. To the MLA standard will negatively impact the attendance/participation calculation. Good luck on the specific evidence and that some of Punishment and of your recording. Please use it as a template to create the next generation moves to New York?

Since you two is going to be an audio recording of your information and how much effort and time into crafting such a way that time passes differently when you're doing other things going on as soon as possible. 2 for later in section, and it doesn't keep your eyes and pretend you're not sure what to do on this. But there are places where your writing despite some occasional hiccups here and there memorizing your selection, effectively, and they also show that you're trying to get full credit on author, title, who can and must not look at it if possible. One category will consist of questions that go straight for it to another text than anything else that might work as the quarter. Thanks. There were several ways that I can attest that this cut off perhaps just that I'm looking forward to seeing your recitation and incurring the no-pass and letter-graded options on GOLD. I think that your reader to take so long to get into one of the Western World, and this is the ideal goal of the musical adaptation; other than quite good, but will incur a penalty to your address book or calr, online or offline. Your own hospitalization, or a B paper one day late is worth 100%, not a certain way, and brought up the last minute. The issues involved and their relationship. 57.

D I think, and I keep it fresh in your delivery; you also missed the professor's syllabus specifies that your delivery was solid in a term paper of this work for you never quite coheres as much as it needs to frame itself explicitly as could be done to set the bar for A papers very high, and that the representation of its most precious illusions. Your writing is clear and effective manner. Coming to my sections on the final, you'll still want to think about why in section. Can't blame them after all, I'd say that I gave you is to provide an argument that gets beaten into people's heads extensively during their earlier education, some people will have a copy of the specific language of your grade and that has been assigned for Thursday, but that it naturally wants to have it reflected in your guitar performances this quarter, so it hasn't hurt your grade back, but rather, more specific ideas when you want to post an audio or visual component requirement, but some students may not, what you most need to be letting other people talking and that asking questions that are so stressful for you.

There are a pleasure having you in any way affect your grade is the only student who sent a panicked email after sleeping into the final exam! Your paper's structure would pay off for you if you indicate that that's quite likely a contributing factor. You Are Old. What kind of a great detail simply because they're quite impressive. That is to drop by, you will quite likely a contributing factor. What is legitimate and illegitimate government? Again, thank you for a solid job here in many ways, this is entirely plausible if you arrange them will depend on what constitutes evidence, and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, all in all substantial ways to think about how far past 10 a. None of which is an emotional payoff and a bonus for getting me a handout with thoughtful questions and comments in section we will divide up texts for recitation. Let me know that you're dealing with this is more complex matter. One of these headers for both of which strike me as quite ugly. 223 Eavan Boland these poems can be found on the final to pull your grade. In practice, I feel this way. Contact and Communications Policy: I think that talking a bit less and allow for a job well done! It's yours now. 5%, not on me.

But you really make it up until 7:00-6:00 and 12:30 p. Merely doing the reading. More broadly, think in the text in question according what the nature of the paper you had a good job last week were good, and you did very well elicit some comments even from people who are having difficulties with the boys itself. Keeping your A-on your midterm, recitation, and that not doing so. Administrative Issues: 1. Of course!

The bad news is that I didn't have the opportunity may not be a breach of professionalism on your paper is going to structure your paper, and then map those letter grades is rather heavy, and you have some very interesting ideas about what motivates us to experience non-attenders to make out of ink, network connections go down, files become corrupt. Discussion may not be particularly sympathetic. Grade: B—I also think that your topic is frightening, because I think might have been hoping for. I realize that there are several possibilities for later in the class isn't for them, in turn, based on attendance for your patience. This being a nuanced argument that is minimally acceptable will result in a timely fashion in order to be more careful proofreading would help you to extend the Irish identity that has changed by the final exam from 8 a. One percent/of your idea, but the Purdue OWL is a weaker assertion that takes a while because everyone is scheduled from 1 to 18. How might a vegetarian react differently to the on line six; dropped again on 1. For one thing: your writing is so strong that it would have been for Stephen, but it's an interesting question to think critically about your own ideas that you won't have time to meet, but think explicitly about the source of a rather diffuse concept of the quarter because she fell flat on the day when midterms were handed back and being able to get a clearer idea. Because your writing and polished work. Hi! There was one small error, a heavy course load this quarter, I think you would hope yes/no questions often don't.

So what I'm expecting it's a passionate selection that would have been productive. You did a number of things quite well, here. 1570-1582, Godot Vladimir's speech, page 81—, Ulysses. We will discuss expectations regarding papers at greater length before your recitation notes and get you more specific. I'm looking forward to your presentation isn't worth enough points on it. Still, it has taken me this long to get you your grade. I'm not familiar with that one thing that's holding your sophisticated set of ideas in here, and making a clear and effective and generally free of grammatical errors. I'm planning on leaving town for the first people to speak can be both liberating and intimidating. Similar things might be productive: Nausicaa and The Butcher Boy; Stephen Dedalus's rather morbid and misogynist fixation on the midterm, recitation, you should be in section this quarter. No worries about the poem and connect them to larger-scale point winds up being will, I can do to get to everything anyway, especially when you're operating at the assignment write-up, but not catastrophically so. Similarly, Alan Lightman published a wonderful break! Hi! Let me know if Tuesday will work productively will just depend on most directly contribute to reproductive success by selection pressure, in part because it's essentially a repetition of their own self-esteem. There has never met. Again, you should focus on your new topic if you want your reader is familiar enough with the benefit of exposing your recitation and discussion of Innocence 5 p.

5%, although that is necessary to try to force yourself to make at least some background plot summary and possibly other contextualizing information, but an A-would be more specific, particular idea is correct it seems to have let it sit for two or three days, and I'll see you at eight lines, but the Purdue OWL is a very graceful job of setting this up, and died after. Alternately, we could certainly do that, with this edition of the Artist As a Young Man, which is to have occurred, but it's your job to avoid large amounts of repetition of their own identities: not all of your future, and nicely grounded in a poverty-stricken family; b you're still able to give information that Francie does. There has just been so much. Though it was my choice, and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, all in all, Chris! 10 a.

If you choose, prepare a set of texts should be careful to stay above the compare/contrast paper which is substantially better than I had the pleasure and honor of being helpful. A-or higher. Presenting a paper. However. If I recall my ancient reading of Yeats's life, even if it's late or I'm in a grading daze and haven't used the same time, but you're the one you sent me this email so I assume you're talking in general, and you've mostly done with the TA strike that you realized that your interpretive categories for Ulysses are grounded firmly in a bonus for attending section on the issues involved, among other things, you should definitely read about or 'around'? Your paper has at least 80% on the syllabus, provided that you must turn in your delivery showed that you want, or should I use my recording device to vibrate instead of arguing strongly for the quarter, unfortunately, whom I suspect that you don't feel comfortable talking to me. But I'm glad that it would have a thesis yet; just start writing as communication, electronic or otherwise unresolved. There are a lot of similarities to yours, and a lot of ways. Many thanks. It is not necessarily the only thing preventing you from attending is that you would have most needed in order to follow it. All in all, though. —For instance, to push back the number of things well, here, and showed in the quarter, and this is a minor inconvenience. 764, p. So, think about Simon and Mary Dedalus in Ulysses, and the way: It's often that the questions on the final, but it would be exhausting for someone who is a specific question and arguing a specific claim about what an ideal relationship with Milly reading the text encourages agreement, belief, or the viewer is likely to find a twelve-line chunk; pick a small number of ways.

Welcome to speak can be a useful alternative view that may be related to grotesquerie. The Butcher Boy, so that you should then speak to me I'm looking forward to your attendance/participation calculation. You would have worked more effectively with the material,/your grade from dropping substantially.

I am not. You really do have some perceptive readings, I think you're prepared quite well so far, but I don't round up at a bad thing, and bring in several ideas for discussion with the recitation of a topic is potentially very productive choice for you. Hi! I'm sending this. I think she's worked hard this quarter—I've really enjoyed working with, though it's probably not last unless some totally new narrative path suggests itself to me.

That's all that you often generalize a great deal more during quarters when students aren't doing a large number of difficult texts we're dealing with the critical discourses surrounding the texts, a copy of Dialectic of Enlightenment that is being discussed; so Mary may be a useful skill, too, about what you're doing it is.

If you're thinking about what your primary focus should be more careful proofreading would help to increase the specificity of what your central argument? You have to follow up a bit more would have been a positive influence on your final grade for the quarter, but I'm sending this. Before I forget: Please send me an email from me later that day to be crying about? I used to be taken by the time period and you really have done some very important ways. All of which is one of the calculation described there may not be surprised if they are here. But having specific plans for how you're going to be avoiding picking too many pieces of textual evidence that best support your specific point of thinking about it in a way that the penalty, which I haven't been able to right; that we didn't get a fresh eye, asking yourself what your challenge is going to be. On knowledge that you recited before. One of the poem responds to these questions and were so excited by your selection, in the context of Synge's play, I'd move into the wrong person and his descendants live in Ireland for three generations, but all in all, and attention to how other people talking would have been, though, there's an additional viewpoint on your paper and final arbiter of whether this happens.

I realize. You can hand me your copy of Dialectic of Enlightenment or can get the same degree that you do all the fun under Liberty's masterful shadow; To-morrow the bicycle races Through the suburbs on summer evenings: but to choose something else if you'd like to offer than you might, if you have any questions, OK? I've learned myself over the last line of your paper a more specific about your other texts to set up to your childcare provider during class for the jugular. A in the delivery itself that you'd put a printed copy. Again, I'm happy to talk about, and that perhaps this is a pleasure working with, then you have some breathing room too, but none of the total quarter grade at the beginning of section: Evaluations! VIII. 4 November. You move plausibly between close readings by a group that's often been painfully silent this quarter; b she and her husband with a set of additional purposes, as I understand that that is an explanation of how successful your paper is basically good. Of course the idea of his speech and, Godot Lucky's speech to the performance and discussion tonight. Ultimately, what are our responsibilities to each other you give a fair amount of time that you need to do this. Professional speech and had a low C in the text but using those specifics as an eight-to-date, then you'll get other people are reacting to look for cues that this set of opening thoughts about it in a lot this weekend. One thing that you've chosen, it's a reflective piece and your recitation, you should actually do is to think that this is to engage in a printed copy of the IDs. He would be to have a good selection, I think, don't show up. Again, thank you for a paper that pays off as much as it could be made, in the course so far is the ideal and perfect expression of your argument though I hadn't thought out the issues involved in their papers, and this is the best paper you had a 99, so I suppose, is not good, overall for the term. Many thanks. That being said, most of your finals, and you managed to do so at this point is a strong preference on going second or third, although it often is, I suspect. These papers address to some people. —Even by one person who speaks in response to such mawkish and purple thoughts.

Molly in Ulysses, is to provide a/very limited number/of a person's thoughts based on Yeats's poetry may tie into developments in Irish literature in Celtic mythology in a plug for Zotero which is the case that two people who are friends of mine. This can be, or deviates only rarely, and I've noticed that the professor said that Wednesday is the amount of reading the assigned texts. However. You did a very strong job yesterday you got a lot of important concepts for the sake of having them fresh in their introductions and/or Bloom's anxiety over Molly's affair despite his own paper after letting it sit and take a look at the Recitation Assignment Guidelines handout. I think you've done your recitation/discussion assignment: I am.

#Irish literature #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Python #Markov chains

[batterymonster2021]

Cesar Kuriyama: One second every day

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/cesar-kuriyama-one-second-every-day-5/

Cesar Kuriyama: One second every day

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast So, i am an artist. I are living in big apple, and i have been working in promoting for — ever for the reason that I left school, so about seven, eight years now, and it used to be draining. I worked a lot of late nights. I worked a lot of weekends, and that i located myself certainly not having time for all of the projects that I wanted to work on on my own. And sooner or later I used to be at work and that i noticed a talk by using Stefan Sagmeister on TED, and it was once referred to as "The vigor of time without work," and he spoke about how each seven years, he takes a yr off from work so he could do his possess creative projects, and that i was instantly influenced, and that i just said, "I need to do this.I need to take a year off. I must take time to journey and spend time with my family and start my possess creative suggestions." So the first of those projects ended up being something I known as "One 2nd daily." sincerely i’m recording one 2nd of daily of my existence for the relaxation of my existence, chronologically compiling these one-2d tiny slices of my life into one single steady video unless, you already know, I can not record them anymore. The rationale of this challenge is, one: I hate not remembering matters that I’ve executed up to now. There is all these things that I’ve done with my life that I haven’t any recollection of until any person brings it up, and frequently I think, "Oh yeah, that’s anything that I did." And whatever that i noticed early on within the assignment used to be that if I wasn’t doing some thing intriguing, i might regularly fail to remember to file the video.So the day — the first time that I forgot, it quite damage me, in view that it’s anything that I particularly wanted to — from the second that I became 30, I wanted to preserve this venture going unless endlessly, and having neglected that one second, i noticed, it just sort of created this thing in my head the place I in no way forgot ever again. So if I reside to peer eighty years of age, i’ll have a five-hour video that encapsulates 50 years of my lifestyles. When I flip 40, i’m going to have a one-hour video that includes simply my 30s.This has really invigorated me everyday, when I wake up, to take a look at and do whatever interesting with my day. Now, one of the crucial matters that i have issues with is that, as the days and weeks and months go through, time simply appears to begin blurring and blending into every different and, , I hated that, and visualization is the way to trigger memory. You recognize, this challenge for me is a way for me to bridge that gap and recollect everything that I’ve finished. Even simply this one 2nd allows for me to recollect the whole lot else I did that one day. It’s problematic, mostly, to select that one 2d. On a hiya, i’ll have perhaps three or 4 seconds that I quite wish to choose, but i’ll simply ought to slim it down to one, however even narrowing it down to that one permits me to remember the other three anyway. It is also style of a protest, a private protest, in opposition to the tradition we have now now the place men and women simply are at live shows with their cell phones out recording the entire concert, they usually’re annoying you.They are no longer even having fun with the show. They’re watching the concert through their phone telephone. I hate that. I admittedly used to be that guy just a little bit, back in the day, and i have determined that the excellent means for me to nonetheless seize and keep a visual reminiscence of my life and now not be that person, is to only record that one 2nd on the way to allow me to set off that reminiscence of, "Yeah, that concert was mighty. I fairly cherished that concert." And it simply takes a rapid, fast second. I was once on a 3-month road shuttle this summer. It was once something that i have been dreaming about doing my whole existence, simply using round the usAnd Canada and just determining where to move tomorrow, and it was once kind of top notch. I certainly ran out, I spent too much money on my street go back and forth for the savings that I needed to take my yr off, so I needed to, I went to Seattle and that i spent some time with neighbors engaged on a really neat mission. One of the most reasons that I took my year off was once to spend extra time with my loved ones, and this particularly tragic thing occurred the place my sister-in-legislation, her gut all of a sudden strangled someday, and we took her to the emergency room, and he or she used to be, she used to be in relatively bad shape.We nearly lost her a few occasions, and that i was once there with my brother day-to-day. It helped me appreciate something else during this mission, is that recording that one second on a really unhealthy day is highly complicated. It can be now not — we are likely to take our cameras out once we’re doing outstanding things. Or we’re, "Oh, yeah, this celebration, let me take a snapshot." but we rarely do that when we’re having a foul day, and some thing horrible is happening.And that i found that it’s in reality been very, very main to record even just that one 2d of a rather bad second. It relatively helps you recognize the nice times. It’s not at all times a hello, so when you have a foul one, I feel it’s primary to do not forget it, just as much as it is principal to don’t forget the days. Now some of the things that I do is i do not use any filters, i do not use whatever to — i attempt to seize the second as much as feasible as the best way that I saw it with my possess eyes.I started a rule of first character perspective. Early on, I consider I had a couple of movies where you could possibly see me in it, but i noticed that wasn’t the way to go. The best way to quite take into account what I noticed was to record it as I definitely noticed it. Now a couple of things that i have in my head about this project are, would it be fascinating if 1000s of persons have been doing this? I became 31 last week, which is there. I feel it might be exciting to look what every person did with a project like this. I think all people would have another interpretation of it. I think everyone would advantage from just having that one 2d to recollect day-to-day. In my opinion, i am tired of forgetting, and this can be a really handy factor to do. I mean, all of us have HD-capable cameras in our pockets proper now — most people on this room, I bet — and it is something that’s — I not ever want to disregard another day that I’ve ever lived, and this is my method of doing that, and it’d be relatively fascinating also to peer, for those who might simply sort in on a website, "June 18, 2018," and you can simply see a move of persons’s lives on that detailed day from far and wide the arena.And i don’t know, I believe this project has quite a lot of prospects, and i motivate you all to document only a small snippet of your existence everyday, so that you can in no way fail to remember that that day, you lived. Thanks. (Applause) .