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tigerdovefan34-realone · 3 years

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So why is there such a damn passion for Sayonika?

Are we going to ignore what Monika did to Sayori leading up to her in game death? Manipulating her files, likely verbal abuse, psychological torture, things most people would go to jail/be crucified online (rightly) for?

And then there's all the Monika love and the excuses for her... Yeah, she's lonely and yeah, she's in love but there are better ways to go about it than fucking torturing the Club VP and deleting the other two girls.

Should we forgive AM from IHNMAIMS because he was programmed to be hateful? Should we forgive Skynet for genociding humanity as a means of self-preservation?

No, no we shouldn't. In their respective fictions, they're the clear cut villains, so why do so many people make excuses for Monika?

She needs more of a punishment than just simple deletion. She seriously got off light and when I have enough experience, I might make a mod where's she receives a proper punishment for what she did.

Also, to those who are attacking MC because of what he does to Sayori, please note the following : 1) He does not know about Sayori's depression. At this point in time, it seems only Monika knows (I haven't been able to look at the Natsuki DDLC+ Side stories, so maybe she told Natsuki there (and also, can we not forget nor forgive what Monika did to Sayori despite knowing that she was going through a lot of bad stuff because she was wonewy?)). To MC, all of this happening is just Sayori being a ditz like he's always known her to be since they were children. 2) he's incredibly dense and not that smart (like some Teenage guys are, sadly enough). It's not him being rude, he just genuinely understand what's the matter. 3) any "rude" thing he says to Sayori is clearly in a teasing and playful manner, since that's what childhood friends do with one another. Sayori understands this and plays along with the teasing, because at the end of the day, she knows he doesn't really mean all the 'mean' things he says to her (the conversation leading up to fixing her Blazer is clearly the two having fun chatting it up like good friends. Same with the snack conversation).

4) The moment Sayori's mask begins to slip, being when he sees "Bottles", he immediately begins to put a stop to his teasing for the most part and shows a lot of concern for her. There's multiple points in Act I where he drops the teasing and playfulness and just interacts with Sayori like the friend she is to him, like the closet chat

5) When Sayori doesn't act like her usual happy, bubbly self (aka, her mask), he drops the teasing and immediately tries to help her, even getting Monika involved because he's never seen her like this before so he's trying to get as many possible to help.

6) As soon as he learns about her Depression, he drops all pretenses of teasing and making fun of her and makes it known how much he treasures her as a Friend.

7) with her confession, it's up to you to decide how to respond, but canonically, there could be two reasons why he'd say the bad option : 1) He genuinely doesn't love her that way but wants to let her down as gently as possible or 2) He actually does love her but doesn't say that because he thinks it's important for her to learn to love herself before any relationship. Either way, that answer will crush her, so it's a lose-lose, but can you say you would've done better in such a situation? I know I wouldn't have. I mean, for God's sake, MC's a teenage boy, not some all knowing, OP protagonist.

8) leaving Sayori behind on the day of the festival is a dick move, I agree, but look at it from his perspective. His oldest and dearest friend from childhood just told him she's depressed and in love with him the day prior all in the span of a few hours and depending on your answer, you two either have started dating or you crushed her unintentionally. In both cases, he doesn't know what to say to her, he's likely still processing everything that happened and trying to find a decent thing to do for her. Also, with it being stated Sayori did what she did before MC even woke up, it's made clear that even if he checked in on her, it would've been too late anyway.

9) The moment, the absolute moment he sees '%' and realizes Sayori had a breakdown, he drops everything and rushes to her place and tries to check on her. When he sees her body, he suffers a breakdown himself which I will detail here word for word, so TW : "...What the hell...? What the hell?! I-Is this a nightmare?! It...has to be. This isn't real. There's no way this can be real. Sayori wouldn't do this. Everything was normal up to a few days ago. That's why I can't believe what my eyes are showing me...! *Surpresses vomit* Just yesterday...I told Sayori I know what's best and everything will be ok. Then why...? Why would she do this...? How could I be so helpless? What did I do wrong? [Place choice statement here] this is my fault---! If I just spent more time with her. Walked her to school. And remained friends with her like it always has been...then I could've prevented this. I know I could've prevented this!"

"Screw the Literature Club. Screw the festival. I just...lost my best friend. Someone I grew up with. She's gone forever now. Nothing I can do will bring her back. This isn't a game where I can reset and try something different. I had only one chance and I wasn't careful enough. And now I'll carry this guilt with me until I die. '''Nothing in my life is worth more than her's'''...but I still couldn't do what she needed from me. And now...I can never take it back. Never."

This breakdown shows that the moment he saw what he did, his world collapsed. He's just a young teenager, do you honestly expect to know everything and handle this better and that you'd handle it better than him because if you say that than I know you're fucking bullshitting.

In conclusion, all the people hating MC for what he does to Sayori are either misunderstanding what he does, not paying enough attention, or just doesn't care and hates him to hate him. I can forgive the former two, but if you're the latter, then I guess there's no getting through to you. Have fun being spiteful to some teenage boy, hope you have a fun life.

Also, I might be a tad bit biased because I hardcore ship MCori but even with me being open to admit that, it doesn't discount my argument.

#sayori #mc #ddlc #ddlc+#monika #Sayonika talk #monika hate explanation #protagonist #protagonist defence squad #MCxSayori #MCori #ProtagonistxSayori #rant i guess

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bellatrixobsessed1 · 3 years

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The Killing Cure (Part 6)

Sleep takes her regardless of whether or not she welcomes it and her waking comes as a very unpleasant surprise. She is only tolerant of her awakening as far as her daughters go, even then she is no more able to protect them than her rotting corpse could.

“Mother?” Cassandra murmurs sleepily.

Alcina weakly strokes her hair, “I’m still...here dear.” She isn’t sure for how long. She needs to get up but her body ails her unceasingly and without mercy. She tries to stand, her muscles are all so weak and the pain in her abdomen is still so sharp. She gets to her feet anyhow, she is going to have to endure. Endure until her last breath.

“Lay back down mother.” Cassandra mumbles.

Alcina shakes her head. “I have to do things for myself.” She makes her way across the room, somehow she has to make herself useful. She loathes to think of what Hiesenberg will say to her when he sees her again, the mockery and the endless taunting. And she would deserve it getting bested like that by a human man.

She braces herself against the wall.

“Don’t hurt yourself, mother.” Cassandra frowns.

“Where are your sisters?”

“Daniela thought that it would be nice to make you some new dresses. Bela is better at sewing though.”

“When did Bela learn…?”

“She watched the maiden do it before we turned her into fine wine!” Cassandra replies joyfully.

Alcina chuckles. It is the first prickle of genuine humor she has had in a while. At the very least it is the first moment that the pain had subsided even just a little. She attempts to heave herself away from the wall and stand on her own. It is still dizzying to look upon her furniture from this vantage point. It is one thing to get adjusted to it from the semi-comforts of her mattress and another thing entirely to walk by the towering room decor.

She inhales deeply--at least she doesn’t have to put thought into breathing anymore. And she takes her first few steps, slow and meek. Cassandra holds out her hand and Alcina takes it, privately pretending that she has done so for the girl’s comfort and not her own.

“Where are we going, mother?”

“Let’s check on your sisters and perhaps I can find myself something to eat…”

.oOo.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Ethan shouts. Lady Dimitrescu is not tucked safely into her bed when he arrives in her bedroom. He runs his hands through his hair, he can’t imagine that she could get very far.

Most likely, she is somewhere in the castle, lurking as she always had. But what if she has gotten herself further hurt than she is already? He imagines that she is the exact sort of woman who would push herself well beyond her limits just to prove something to herself, to impress an audience that isn’t even in attendance.

Or maybe she has assumed that he wasn’t coming back for her. Maybe she has left the castle in search of something to fix her up. But she wouldn’t leave those little demon flies, would she? He rubs his hands over his face and curses again.

He tells himself that he is only frustrated that he had gone all of that way and endured all of the Duke’s chatter and taunting for nothing.

“Got yourself in a really tight situation this time, didn’t you, Mr. Winters?” He’d chuckled. A fool he was to think that that would be the end of the Duke’s commentary.

“I thought up an assortment of scenarios about you and Lady Dimitrescu but this one never crossed my mind…” He had trailed off. “A small human. You might have four daughters to take care of now.”

“Absolutely not, Duke. She’s ill, not a child.”

The Duke had chuckled. “You’ve never overheard one of their family meetings, boy! The woman can cavil and grouse like the most petulant teenagers I’ve come across.” He took a swig of ale. “And that Hiesenberg, what a mouth that one has!”

“Duke…”

“Just how small is she now? I’ve heard hearsay that she was a tiny thing.”

“She’s...she’s small. Yeah.”

At that he had given his heartiest, most bellowing laugh yet. “Oh! What a treat. You’ll have to bring your new missus by when she’s all healed up!”

“She’s not...she won’t be...just sell me my goods, Duke!” He had waved the coins at him. Even a bribe--double the usual charge--hadn’t been able to deter him from his jesting. And so he’d resigned himself to several hours of jokes, gossip, and idle conversation. None of it of any particular importance. And now Dimitrescu is gone.

“Son of a fuck!” He shouts, noting that Heisenberg would probably appreciate that one. He slams his fists against her nightstand, knocking a glass to the floor. It shatters at his feet.

“Haven’t you ruined enough, Winters?” The woman, looking more thoroughly exhausted than before, stands in the doorway pinching her nose.

“I’m sure that you have a lot more glasses.”

“It’s the sentiment, Winters.” She, accompanied and assisted by her daughters, finds her way back to her bed. She falls heavily upon the mattress and just about curls in on herself. “What kept you?”

“Have you talked to the Duke?” He groans.

The look on her face and that deep sigh tells him everything that he needs to know.

“Now, you might want to start treating me better because I didn’t have to do this…”

“You didn’t have to put me in this condition either, Winters. I won’t thank you for fixing what you broke…”

Broke. He looks her over. Does she really see herself as broken? Really he thinks with the proper treatments she could probably function relatively well. “Well, look, I didn’t just get you medication, I also got some new clothes for you and some food that’s more...suitable for a human.”

She seems none to pleased about this.

“Look, I even got you a new hat, just like your other one.” He tries.

This seems to lift her mood, if only a little. She reaches for it and fixes it onto her head. It is only when he hands her the pile of clothes that he realizes she is already dressed in something new. Rather, aged but different than what she had been wearing.

“Bela and Daniela made it for me.” She notes.

He doesn’t want to be touched by it but, by God, he is. To think that those beasts have flickers of humanity. “There are two types of drugs here.” He holds them out, “one for diet and nutrition and one to suppress the immune system. Believe it or not, the Duke said that he got a supply just in case something like this happened.”

Lady Dimitrescu takes the pills and supplements.

“He was going to charge me extra too! He said that he was planning on getting extra riches from this, I told him that I put up with enough chatter to get a discount!”

She rolls her eyes. “That man is a character.” She takes a glass of water and swallows a pill. He can’t imagine that someone so small would need any more than one. She seems to stare sadly at her hands. But when she looks upon him it isn’t with as much hatred as it has been prior.

.oOo.

Alcina picks her way through the pile of clothing and, to her relief, finds a pair of gloves. She stuffs her rashed and blistered hands into the gloves, glad to be rid of the sight of them. She hates the sight of them, hates the sight of herself in general. She doesn’t just hate the sight of herself, she thinks that she hates herself entirely.

“Do you want something to eat?” Winters breaks her from her daze.

“Yes!” Daniela declares.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” He mumbles.

“A meal would be ideal.” She replies quietly.

The man seems to bite at his cheek before asking, “what would you like?”

“I don’t know, Winters. I haven’t had a taste for human dishes since making dishes of humans.”

For some reason, he chortles at this.

“Surprise me, you’re aggravatingly good at that.”

Ethan nods. “Alright, I’ll cook some potato salad, Mia used to love potato salad especially when I added cider vinegar…” He trails off in thought.

She thinks that the memory is painful for him, it must be with his wife so newly dead. She tries her best to fight off the sympathy but doesn’t quite succeed. She has enough success to not reassure him but not enough to stop herself from pulling him out of his own head. “My girls need food too.”

“They can have some of the salad.”

She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “You need to go hunting. They prefer raw human, but deer or wolf will suffice.”

He sighs and says exactly what she hadn’t expected. “Alright, I’ll show you how to make a good potato salad and then I’ll go on a hunting trip. I’ve already shot dozens of lycans, how hard can one deer be?”

#Resident Evil #Alcina Dimitrescu #Lady Dimitrescu #Ethan Winters #Alcina/Ethan #Fanfiction

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candyjack99 · 3 years

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supremeuppityone · 4 years

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Written for Klaroline Bingo @klaroline-events Prompt: “You’re safe.”

This is a sequel to Chapter 70: Summer of Salvatore, found in A Beautiful Symmetry. Thanks for all of your asks about this one and I appreciate your patience in how long it took me to come up with the idea for this!

Caroline just wanted to casually date the mysterious new guy from work. Something nice and normal. But the universe had other plans.

Chapter 115: Part 2 - Summer of Salvatore

"Crime is common. Logic is rare."

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

“You didn’t hesitate when I gave you the address,” Caroline observed, taking a sip of her coffee. “I mean, I know you’re new to town, but everyone knows the south side of the city is a bit shady.”

Klaus let out a chuckle, amusement dripping from his voice as he asked, “Detective Forbes, are you concerned for my safety? I can assure you, given your act of valor at that crime scene, I can’t imagine a safer place than at your side.”

She could feel her cheeks grow hot, and she ducked her head shyly. She’d relied on instinct when Stefan had attacked them, and while she never went for the kill unless she had to, there was no denying the relief that washed over her once she saw he was dead. He’d been a monster. “I’m just glad I was there to stop him.” She fiddled with her nails, a nervous edge to her voice as she asked, “As much as I hate that you were there, I was wondering if you’d feel comfortable going back with me? I’ve been asked to provide a detailed report of my findings and I could really use your perspective since you may have observed something I missed.”

He looked surprised by her invitation and she hurriedly explained, “I mean, the methodology established to empirically score copycat crimes is measured in seven factors ranging from sociology, biology and psychology, not to mention influences of the media and even geography, and I just don’t want to overlook a single opportunity for a thorough report given the potential ramifications this case could have on future criminal justice procedures.”

Klaus flashed her a dimpled smirk, taking a drink of his coffee as though contemplating something. “Of course. You’re a widely respected expert in your field, sweetheart, and I’m flattered that you asked.”

She could feel her cheeks grow hot at his perusal. “Um, sorry...I didn’t mean to ramble on about forensics and crime scenes on a date.” Tucking a blonde curl behind her ear, she muttered, “Guess it’s been awhile for me,” and then immediately squeezed her eyes shut, mortified.

He reached across the table to hold her hand, winking as he said, “I don’t mind a bit of murder on a first date.”

She returned his smile, hardly believing her luck. It was really difficult to meet someone who wasn’t turned off by forensics, and this was the first date she’d had with a coworker who hadn’t been a misogynist who instantly discounted her research. “Can I ask how you got into this field? Have you always been a dispatch driver?”

“It’s a recent change for me, but I’ve always been interested in the more historic aspects of murder. For example, are you familiar with ling chi? It’s known as —”

“Slow slicing or death by a thousand cuts initially practiced in 10th century China,” Caroline interrupted excitedly.

Klaus smiled, his gray eyes lighting up at her enthusiasm. “I always found it fascinating to see the ingenuity involved in finding blades sharp enough in that era to gradually shave away the bits of skin and muscle tissue.”

“Exactly! Murder weapons are such an essential part of forensics,” she replied a bit breathlessly, her heart beating a bit faster when she saw the unmistakable lust in Klaus’ gaze. She was giddy at the thought of finding someone who shared her enthusiasm for criminal science forensics. She noticed Klaus suddenly stiffened as he studied something intently behind her. She glanced at the reflection in the window, frowning as she realized someone had walked in wearing a Halloween mask and the black tip of a small caliber gun was peeking out of his sleeve.

Seriously? Of course this would happen on her date. Taking a calming breath, she slowly slid her phone over to Klaus, murmuring quietly, “Call 911.” Using carefully controlled movements, she quietly removed her concealed sidearm, promising, “You’re safe. It’s going to be ok, I promise.”

The would-be robber had just raised his gun to the cashier when Caroline yelled, “Police! Put down your weapon and turn around slowly!” She could read in those tense muscles that the suspect would run, but before she could make a move, he hopped over the counter, putting the cashier between them as he made his escape. Registering the clatter of his weapon being dropped in the commotion, she raced after him, briefly pausing in the brick alleyway to determine which way he went.

Running in the most likely direction, she stopped short when she saw Klaus casually holding the suspect against the rough brick. Arm wrenched up his back in what appeared to be a painful wrist hold, his face was scrunched as he howled. Stepping over the mask that must have fallen off in the struggle, Caroline wryly observed, “Did you run track or something? How’d you manage to beat me here?”

Klaus shrugged, a small smile on his face as he replied, “Perhaps I’m faster than I look.”

_______________________________

Something weird was going on. Caroline brushed some of the ashy residue into a sterile envelope, sighing as she mentally went over everything she knew about desiccation and growing more and more frustrated as she couldn’t find a rational explanation. Stefan sustained a gunshot to his tibia. Which should’ve crippled him. Instead, it seemed to enrage him further and when he leapt at her, she issued a fatal headshot.

She felt little remorse at having brought down a serial killer; especially one that had posed an imminent danger to both Klaus and herself. What she found disturbing was the accelerated decomposition of Stefan’s remains. What the hell happened? By the time dispatch had arrived, Stefan’s corpse appeared as though he’d been dead for more than a century. Frowning, she studied the chalk outline notating where the remains had been prior to her team’s removal, and Klaus’ amused voice interrupting her thoughts. “It’s almost as though you expect the evidence to talk back, sweetheart.”

Carefully pressing an evidence seal to the envelope, she replied, “All evidence speaks; it’s just a matter of understanding what’s being said.” She settled more comfortably on the plastic sheet, blue eyes straying back to the powdered residue that clung to the grooves in the wooden floor. “Accelerated desiccation is almost unheard of in forensics. I can’t account for what happened to Stefan’s body. The remains appeared to have been subjected to an even source of airflow or aerated soil to damage the soft tissues in that manner.”

He leaned back on his palms, stretching his legs out next to hers, and the almost-touch of his body made her shiver. Crime scene, Caroline — get it together. “There’s emerging studies regarding destructive micro-organisms contributing to desiccation. I actually read an interesting take on this in Drs. Parker and Sommers’ joint work in the latest Forensics Quarterly,” he ventured, a small smile gracing his lips as though pleased with himself.

It was a statistical improbability that someone with those cheekbones would read Forensics Quarterly. When they wrapped up the scene for the night, she planned to drag him back to her place to ride his test tube until it broke. “Seriously?! You’re trusting Parker and Sommers’s research? You might as well say a Kardashian is a respected forensics authority.”

He let out an amused chuckle, pulling her in for a quick kiss. “You are a delight, love. It’s rare to find someone so enthusiastic about this type of work.”

Her lips burned from the kiss, and her pulse raced when she thought of where the night would take them. She’d never met someone who seemed to genuinely appreciate the science behind the macabre. “It’s hard for people who aren’t in the field to understand. There’s a certain beauty to it; the way the research can lead to a hypothesis and eventually a satisfying resolution.”

“There was a...case I worked on in which a body had been drained while hanging right-side-up. Utter poppycock as everyone knows the most efficient draining method is —”

“Upside-down,” Caroline cheerfully interrupted, “because the subclavian and carotid arteries’ location is ideal. No self-respecting killer would attempt draining without having a basic understanding of anatomy.” A slight tingle went down her spine as she realized that Klaus seemed to appreciate her dark humor. It was nearly impossible to succeed in this industry without developing at least a hint of gallows humor.

He shook his head in bemusement, and she barely resisted the urge to poke at those innocent-looking dimples. But they still had work to do. Clearing her throat, she leaned over to access her files, zooming in on the dental images from the remains. “I’ll admit I’ve seen some unusual remains during my career, but nothing like this.” She pointed at the obvious deformity, adding, “It’s a clear case of megadontia, but I can’t imagine someone willingly allowing their condition to grow out of control like this to the point that they have large, curved canines. Given the depth of the unnatural growth, he must’ve been in incredible pain.”

Stefan had smiled at her. With those teeth that had been so sharp. Too sharp. Caroline had been proud of how she’d handled the situation, but something primal had overtaken her when she saw those canines. Fangs. She shook her head slightly, ignoring the cold pit in her stomach that inexplicably had formed. Klaus looked decidedly uncomfortable, and she cursed herself for being so oblivious. Clearly, Klaus was traumatized by what had happened and it was selfish of her to expect him to bounce back right away after seeing such violence.

However, before she could apologize, Klaus abruptly stood up, helping her to his feet even as he seemed weirdly fixated on the front door. Suddenly, a forceful blow had the wood splintering, and two musclebound, intimidating men with dark eyes walked in. Their vacant, mindless stares were somehow more disquieting than their size.

“Caroline, there you are,” drawled a familiar voice, and she didn’t miss the way Klaus stiffened as he moved in front of her.

Peering around Klaus, her eyes widened in surprise as she exclaimed, “Dr. Maxfield? What are you doing here?” What was her biology professor from Whitmore doing at her crime scene?

He still wore the same smug grin she’d done her best to forget all those years ago. There always had been something vaguely threatening about him, but Caroline inevitably dismissed it as the typical sleazy college professor creeping on naive students and made sure to steer clear whenever he tried to get her alone multiple times. But now there was something more. Something dangerous. As he took a cocky step toward her, Klaus growled in warning. Wait — Klaus growled?

“Forgive my intrusion, but I’ve been following your fascinating work for some time now, and your research of the Ripper of Monterey’s murders over the past century caught my attention,” he explained, eyeing his two companions in a manner that was both reverent and dispassionate — he might as well have been examining a piece of art. “I’m certain your research will aid me in locating other ripper vampires capable of successfully hosting the Ripper Virus my lab has created.”

Ripper vampires? Ripper Virus? Not to mention his ridiculous assertion that murders spanning more than a century could’ve been the work of a single individual. What the hell was going on? Caroline kept her hand next to her sidearm, studying Professor Maxfield and his companions to determine the threat.

Suddenly, black veins appeared underneath the dark eyes of the two men who bracketed Professor Maxfield, their sharp canines inexplicably long. What the hell? Those were fangs. She was staring at fangs. Fear gripped her heart, but she was proud of how steady her grip was as she raised her gun.

She flicked her gaze to Klaus, who seemed strangely at ease. He rocked back on his feet, hands casually clasped behind his back as he sneered, “Words cannot express the trouble you find yourselves in, gentleman.” With his signature smirk, he added, “I’m Klaus Mikaelson.”

It was when Klaus shockingly revealed a double set of curved fangs along with feral gold flashing in his gaze that Caroline began to understand. She was safe. Professor Maxfield and his companions were not. The intruders stepped back uncertainly, no longer flanking Professor Maxfield like vicious guard dogs. “Ah, you’ve heard of me. Fantastic,” Klaus said, his chest swelling with pride.

While Caroline felt her heart beat a rapid tattoo in her chest, she somehow wasn’t afraid with Klaus beside her. He’d positioned himself between her and the intruders, clearly comfortable in this dangerous situation, but also not willing to risk her safety. He leaned into her, and her body instinctively curled into his.

Klaus’ voice carried a solemn promise that despite the insanity around them, Caroline couldn’t help but believe as he told her, “You’re safe. It’s going to be ok, I promise.”

#kcbingo2020 #klaroline fanfic #uppity bitch fanfic #klaroline #klaroline aesthetic #aesthetic #thx for requesting a sequel!#klaroline does crime scene investigation #plus awkward murder flirting

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hippyspacewitch · 4 years

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Unable to freely wield confidence temporarily displayed for whatever partial second you might see. Very few even exist, if not any for the majority of time, before I began capturing moments. It isn’t to remember, recently I’ve spent far too much time trying to fall back into my picture. Making an attempt to ward away this lost sense of identity, but that action alone cannot stop a snapshot from reducing everything by nature, therefore in my opinion cheapening my experience somewhat.

During my time in Arizona, there were members of certain Native American tribes which informed me they believe a photograph is capable of stealing a person’s essence. Not necessarily all at once. It depends on what kind of power the object and person in its possession hold.

Soul searching is endless in a way. I’ve accepted that things can never be how I want them to be, not entirely. There’s a lot to cover there, so I won’t even start. I’ll just say, I hope growing does not end here.

It’s been a few months since my physical health has taken a bit of a downturn. I haven’t opened up to anyone about it. I don’t intended on elaborating here, but it hasn’t been very good. I have an appointment to hopefully find referrals in February. I’ll know more after that. My attitude hasn’t been good either. At times I want to get sick and die, just so I can feel even close to satisfied knowing I made changes anyone who knew me five years ago could plainly see, but more than that I’m happy to have been true to myself to the point I cry tears of joy.

May come as a surprise to some, but I do pray, and listen I have every excuse to believe at one time or another, the Goddess has abandoned me, yet I reach out. I am Her symbol of faith. There is a reason I’m sensitive. Although you may not agree with the methodology, my dedication is indisputable. It is this day again, humble but willing to ask for more patience and strength.

Hoping to distinguish a difference between me, myself, and my ego the living embodiment of frailty. If I can make it through the year improving my health, then it shall be for the better. It has been painful making changes again, I keep telling myself it will get easier, but if it gets worse before it gets better, so be it.

I sold the world. Leaving everyone I knew well enough behind, never asking one person to follow me. If you are a person who once uttered my dead name, and you are reading this now. I needed you a long time ago.

I ran the social media gambit with people from my past who thought now it was time to pay attention, after I did all the hard work on my own. For a while, I entertained their approval so they could pat themselves on the back, and say they were there to make a difference. No one made a difference besides me. No one made it easier, in actuality the people I romanticized the most served to disappoint me and my unreachable expectations, not saying the bar ever need to be high for some.

For those who only know this person by her true name, I apologize if you’ve made any real attempt to reach me, only to be shut out. I am often unreachable, unresponsive, and disassociative. I don’t have energy for anyone not really here, in a deeper sense I’m so desperate for the alternative. I used to pretend very well to care about people who have little to not interest in my wellbeing. I made it my profession for awhile, but I never thought I could make a life from it. Care that comes outside of reading a post every few months, where I just explode like this. For that alone connections are not a priority for me, as I’m just working on reinventing myself to where I better recognize the womxn I have hid away more than most of my life.

Luckily, even though I’ve treaded a long way out to water, there is still this amazing person who is so patient with me, she has been for a few years now, she is accepting of all my faults, and looking out for me. We share a similar path and even if we don’t have a physical romantic relationship, I love her. I’m not a fetish to her, she doesn’t sexualize my needs to align myself correctly. She’s the first honest to god person to help me improve myself. We have had our struggles and she has grown so much since I met her, I’m glad I could help. I know that’s why she cares for me, because I put her needs next to my own. We prop each other up that way. She is pretty much as isolated as I am, if not more. We match well and she is my best friend. I’m so fortunate to have attracted her attention all those years ago. She lets me do what I believe will make me happy and I feel like I trust her as much as I can.

I haven’t spent hardly any time searching for people who will prey on my weakness and vulnerability. Small amounts, it’s somewhat unavoidable when you’re the female of the species, but I could be worse off for it. Plenty of examples out there to learn from. I crave physical intimacy, but I can’t get comfortable or form a connection until after establishing enough time together to get to know someone. I kind of hate how most people want to talk it out to death on a phone before the act itself even happens, or all they do is ask for pictures. It makes me hate technology.

Alone I’ve rediscovered by own sexuality, for better and worse, as my past is littered with abuse, trauma, and genuine negativity. For that, I doubt I’ll share myself fully with any random stranger who hasn’t known me for more than ten minutes. That has come as a surprise almost every man I’ve personally met, also if I haven’t met you in person, we haven’t met personally. So feel free to do the math there.

Just a brief run down on my vagina functionality, after two years, in case anyone is wondering, I found a new toy called The Empress. Shout out to theguerrillafeminist on Instagram for getting me that steal of a discount. It mimics oral sex, but honestly it is way better than any oral sex I’ve ever had. That’s the only sex I’ve had still, no rush there. The toy is great and really the only thing to get me incredibly wet prior to climaxing. I have a hard time focusing on myself. It has changed my life. Sometimes masturbation is the only thing that frees me from the hell of disassociation. I’m pretty good with my hands, but the toy definitely helps stimulate bunches. Plus it is also just nice to mix things up.

I really should share the information on my favorite dildo too, it is glow in the dark, has a suction cup that works well! I use it in the shower a lot. It’s also a great size for me personally, maybe too big for some, but I really appreciates that it’s made from silicone I believe and works with like every kind of lubricant. It has balls, and I guess I kind of like that because I want it as close to the real thing as possible.

I feel like I’m on an island of my own, but I’m learning to embrace self care and restraint easier, that will dip and rise. At times it feels instinctive for me to self harm, but it comes in the form of being far more indirect these days. Sadness and bad habits have replaced swollen knuckles, burns, along with my need to see red. Giving up these habits never came about through recovery. I choose not, because I don’t even feel like I own myself anymore. Like I cannot let people believe I’m no better or worse from this, and no it isn’t fair considering all the shit I have to put up with, but it is a cross I bear. I’ve exceeded what were very low expectations, so I don’t even feel like I have any right to damage myself directly.

Opening up about my mental health freely here. Doing so without shame. I have various diagnosed mental illnesses and ptsd as a result of physical abuse, sexual trauma, and exposure as a child. For that alone, my fantasies are often linked to rape in various ways. If you are a woman who goes through similar phases, as a result of surviving the awful incident itself, feel free to explicitly reach out to me in a way that conveys you are feeling alone and need help specifically being reminded that it is natural and you don’t need to feel guilty. I became close friends with a women who really helped set my head on straight. It was so helpful to just know I’m not the only one who has these thoughts. I’m done feeling guilty about the suggestive fictional material I choose to read or otherwise seek familiar arousal in. Rape culture created the fantasy for women long before my individual experience, yet stigma exists and it is something we should all be more open to discussing. No one should feel the need to endure shame and guilt someone else put on them against their will.

Please don’t message me asking for specifics about physical health, I won’t open up about it, unless you are someone who I spend enough time around that I feel comfortable with. You will have to make an effort to form a real life bond with me. Mental health is a different question, in case you’re wondering, feel free to ask. No one ever cares to ask about that, that’s why I said you could. Also, just thought it might be worth a mention, my health emergencies are entirely separate to anything post surgery or hormone replacement therapy related.

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theadmiringbog · 5 years

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RULE 1 / Stand up straight with your shoulders back

RULE 2 / Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping

RULE 3 / Make friends with people who want the best for you

RULE 4 / Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today

RULE 5 / Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them

RULE 6 / Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world

RULE 7 / Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)

RULE 8 / Tell the truth—or, at least, don’t lie

RULE 9 / Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t

RULE 10 / Be precise in your speech

RULE 11 / Do not bother children when they are skateboarding

RULE 12 / Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street

RULE 1 / Stand up straight with your shoulders back

If a dominant lobster is badly defeated, its brain basically dissolves. Then it grows a new, subordinate’s brain—one more appropriate to its new, lowly position. Its original brain just isn’t sophisticated to manage the transformation from king to bottom dog without virtually complete dissolution and regrowth. Anyone who has experienced a painful transformation after a serious defeat in romance or career may feel some sense of kinship with the once successful crustacean.

Among the chimp troupes he studied, males who were successful in the longer term had to buttress their physical prowess with more sophisticated attributes. Even the most brutal chimp despot can be taken down, after all, by two opponents, each three-quarters as mean. In consequence, males who stay on top longer are those who form reciprocal coalitions with their lower-status compatriots, and who pay careful attention to the troupe’s females and their infants. The political ploy of baby-kissing is literally millions of years old.

“In my kingdom,” as the Red Queen tells Alice in Wonderland, “you have to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place.”

If you have a high status, on the other hand, the counter’s cold, pre-reptilian mechanics assume that your niche is secure, productive and safe, and that you are well buttressed with social support. It thinks the chance that something will damage you is low and can be safely discounted. Change might be opportunity, instead of disaster.

If someone is badly hurt at some point in life—traumatized—the dominance counter can transform in a manner that makes additional hurt more rather than less likely. This often happens in the case of people, now adults, who were viciously bullied during childhood or adolescence. They become anxious and easily upset. They shield themselves with a defensive crouch, and avoid the direct eye contact interpretable as a dominance challenge. This means that the damage caused by the bullying (the lowering of status and confidence) can continue, even after the bullying has ended.

When the wakening occurs—when once-naïve people recognize in themselves the seeds of evil and monstrosity, and see themselves as dangerous (at least potentially)— their fear decreases. They develop more self-respect. Then, perhaps, they begin to resist oppression. They see that they have the ability to withstand, because they are terrible too. They see they can and must stand up, because they begin to understand how genuinely monstrous they will become, otherwise, feeding on their resentment, transforming it into the most destructive of wishes. To say it again: There is very little difference between the capacity for mayhem and destruction, integrated, and strength of character. This is one of the most difficult lessons of life.

Maybe you are a loser. And maybe you’re not—but if you are, you don’t have to continue in that mode. Maybe you just have a bad habit. Maybe you’re even just a collection of bad habits. Nonetheless, even if you came by your poor posture honestly—even if you were unpopular or bullied at home or in grade school—it’s not necessarily appropriate now. Circumstances change. If you slump around, with the same bearing that characterizes a defeated lobster, people will assign you a lower status, and the old counter that you share with crustaceans, sitting at the very base of your brain, will assign you a low dominance number. Then your brain will not produce as much serotonin. This will make you less happy, and more anxious and sad, and more likely to back down when you should stand up for yourself. It will also decrease the probability that you will get to live in a good neighbourhood, have access to the highest quality resources, and obtain a healthy, desirable mate. It will render you more likely to abuse cocaine and alcohol, as you live for the present in a world full of uncertain futures. It will increase your susceptibility to heart disease, cancer and dementia. All in all, it’s just not good.

Thus strengthened and emboldened, you may choose to embrace Being, and work for its furtherance and improvement. Thus strengthened, you may be able to stand, even during the illness of a loved one, even during the death of a parent, and allow others to find strength alongside you when they would otherwise be overwhelmed with despair. Thus emboldened, you will embark on the voyage of your life, let your light shine, so to speak, on the heavenly hill, and pursue your rightful destiny. Then the meaning of your life may be sufficient to keep the corrupting influence of mortal despair at bay. Then you may be able to accept the terrible burden of the World, and find joy.

RULE 2 / Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping

Perhaps Heaven is something you must build, and immortality something you must earn.

You need to consider the future and think, “What might my life look like if I were caring for myself properly? What career would challenge me and render me productive and helpful, so that I could shoulder my share of the load, and enjoy the consequences? What should I be doing, when I have some freedom, to improve my health, expand my knowledge, and strengthen my body?”

RULE 3 / MAKE FRIENDS WITH PEOPLE WHO WANT THE BEST FOR YOU

When people have a low opinion of their own worth—or, perhaps, when they refuse responsibility for their lives—they choose a new acquaintance, of precisely the type who proved troublesome in the past. Such people don’t believe that they deserve any better—so they don’t go looking for it. Or, perhaps, they don’t want the trouble of better. Freud called this a “repetition compulsion.”

Are you so sure the person crying out to be saved has not decided a thousand times to accept his lot of pointless and worsening suffering, simply because it is easier than shouldering any true responsibility? Are you enabling a delusion?

Vice is easy. Failure is easy, too. It’s easier not to shoulder a burden. It’s easier not to think, and not to do, and not to care. It’s easier to put off until tomorrow what needs to be done today, and drown the upcoming months and years in today’s cheap pleasures. As the infamous father of the Simpson clan puts it, immediately prior to downing a jar of mayonnaise and vodka, “That’s a problem for Future Homer. Man, I don’t envy that guy!”

RULE 4 / COMPARE YOURSELF TO WHO YOU WERE YESTERDAY, NOT TO WHO SOMEONE ELSE IS TODAY

You are either a success, a comprehensive, singular, over-all good thing, or its opposite, a failure, a comprehensive, singular, irredeemably bad thing. The words imply no alternative and no middle ground. However, in a world as complex as ours, such generalizations (really, such failure to differentiate) are a sign of naive, unsophisticated or even malevolent analysis. There are vital degrees and gradations of value obliterated by this binary system, and the consequences are not good.

The world allows for many ways of Being. If you don’t succeed at one, you can try another. You can pick something better matched to your unique mix of strengths, weaknesses and situation. Furthermore, if changing games does not work, you can invent a new one.

But winning at everything might only mean that you’re not doing anything new or difficult. You might be winning but you’re not growing, and growing might be the most important form of winning.

When the internal critic puts you down using such comparisons, here’s how it operates: First, it selects a single, arbitrary domain of comparison (fame, maybe, or power). Then it acts as if that domain is the only one that is relevant. Then it contrasts you unfavourably with someone truly stellar, within that domain. It can take that final step even further, using the unbridgeable gap between you and its target of comparison as evidence for the fundamental injustice of life.

You set the following goal: by the end of the day, I want things in my life to be a tiny bit better than they were this morning. Then you ask yourself, “What could I do, that I would do, that would accomplish that, and what small thing would I like as a reward?” Then you do what you have decided to do, even if you do it badly. Then you give yourself that damn coffee, in triumph. Maybe you feel a bit stupid about it, but you do it anyway. And you do the same thing tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. And, with each day, your baseline of comparison gets a little higher, and that’s magic. That’s compound interest. Do that for three years, and your life will be entirely different. Now you’re aiming for something higher. Now you’re wishing on a star. Now the beam is disappearing from your eye, and you’re learning to see. And what you aim at determines what you see. That’s worth repeating. What you aim at determines what you see.

What would your life look like, if it were better? What would Life Itself look like? What does “better” even mean?

Everything you value is a product of unimaginably lengthy developmental processes, personal, cultural and biological. You don’t understand how what you want—and, therefore, what you see—is conditioned by the immense, abysmal, profound past.

Faith is not the childish belief in magic. That is ignorance or even willful blindness. It is instead the realization that the tragic irrationalities of life must be counterbalanced by an equally irrational commitment to the essential goodness of Being.

Notice something that bothers you, that concerns you, that will not let you be, which you could fix, that you would fix. You can find such somethings by asking yourself (as if you genuinely want to know) three questions: “What is it that is bothering me?” “Is that something I could fix?” and “Would I actually be willing to fix it?”

If you find that the answer is “no,” to any or all of the questions, then look elsewhere. Aim lower. Search until you find something that bothers you, that you could fix, that you would fix, and then fix it. That might be enough for the day.

What if you allowed yourself a glass of wine with dinner, or curled up on the sofa and read, or watched a stupid movie, as a reward? What if you instructed your wife, or your husband, to say “good job” after you fixed whatever you fixed? Would that motivate you? The people from whom you want thanks might not be very proficient in offering it, to begin with, but that shouldn’t stop you. People can learn,

Ask yourself what you would require to be motivated to undertake the job, honestly, and listen to the answer. Don’t tell yourself, “I shouldn’t need to do that to motivate myself.” What

You are, on the one hand, the most complex thing in the entire universe, and on the other, someone who can’t even set the clock on your microwave. Don’t over-estimate your self-knowledge.

Do this every day, for a while. Then do it for the rest of your life.

You are less concerned with the actions of other people, because you have plenty to do yourself. Attend to the day, but aim at the highest good. Now, your trajectory is heavenward. That makes you hopeful. Even a man on a sinking ship can be happy when he clambers aboard a lifeboat! And who knows where he might go, in the future. To journey happily may well be better than to arrive successfully….

Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.

RULE 5 / DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN DO ANYTHING THAT MAKES YOU DISLIKE THEM

Children are damaged when those charged with their care, afraid of any conflict or upset, no longer dare to correct them, and leave them without guidance. I can recognize such children on the street. They are doughy and unfocused and vague. They are leaden and dull instead of golden and bright. They are uncarved blocks, trapped in a perpetual state of waiting-to-be.

RULE 6 / SET YOUR HOUSE IN PERFECT ORDER BEFORE YOU CRITICIZE THE WORLD

if one parent abused three children, and each of those children had three children, and so on, then there would be three abusers the first generation, nine the second, twenty-seven the third, eighty-one the fourth—and so on exponentially. After twenty generations, more than ten billion would have suffered childhood abuse: more people than currently inhabit the planet. But instead, abuse disappears across generations. People constrain its spread. That’s a testament to the genuine dominance of good over evil in the human heart.

When the hurricane hit New Orleans, and the town sank under the waves, was that a natural disaster? The Dutch prepare their dikes for the worst storm in ten thousand years. Had New Orleans followed that example, no tragedy would have occurred. It’s not that no one knew. The Flood Control Act of 1965 mandated improvements in the levee system that held back Lake Pontchartrain. The system was to be completed by 1978. Forty years later, only 60 percent of the work had been done. Willful blindness and corruption took the city down.

A hurricane is an act of God. But failure to prepare, when the necessity for preparation is well known—that’s sin. That’s failure to hit the mark. And the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

The ancient Jews always blamed themselves when things fell apart. They acted as if God’s goodness—the goodness of reality—was axiomatic, and took responsibility for their own failure. That’s insanely responsible. But the alternative is to judge reality as insufficient, to criticize Being itself, and to sink into resentment and the desire for revenge.

RULE 7 / PURSUE WHAT IS MEANINGFUL (NOT WHAT IS EXPEDIENT)

for dust you are and to dust you will return. (Genesis 3:16-19. KJV) What in the world should be done about that? The simplest, most obvious, and most direct answer? Pursue pleasure. Follow your impulses. Live for the moment. Do what’s expedient. Lie, cheat, steal, deceive, manipulate—but don’t get caught. In an ultimately meaningless universe, what possible difference could it make?

Benjamin Franklin once suggested that a newcomer to a neighbourhood ask a new neighbour to do him or her a favour, citing an old maxim: He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged. In Franklin’s opinion, asking someone for something (not too extreme, obviously) was the most useful and immediate invitation to social interaction. Such asking on the part of the newcomer provided the neighbour with an opportunity to show him- or herself as a good person, at first encounter.

RULE 8 / TELL THE TRUTH—OR, AT LEAST, DON'T LIE

Taking the easy way out or telling the truth—those are not merely two different choices. They are different pathways through life. They are utterly different ways of existing.

Typical calculated ends might include “to impose my ideological beliefs,” “to prove that I am (or was) right,” “to appear competent,” “to ratchet myself up the dominance hierarchy,” “to avoid responsibility” (or its twin, “to garner credit for others’ actions”), “to be promoted,” “to attract the lion’s share of attention,” “to ensure that everyone likes me,” “to garner the benefits of martyrdom,” “to justify my cynicism,” “to rationalize my antisocial outlook,” “to minimize immediate conflict,” “to maintain my naïveté,” “to capitalize on my vulnerability,” “to always appear as the sainted one,” or (this one is particularly evil) “to ensure that it is always my unloved child’s fault.” These are all examples of what Sigmund Freud’s compatriot, the lesser-known Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler, called “life-lies.”

What did she know about her fifty-two-year-old self, when still a teenager? Even now, many years later, she has only the vaguest, lowest-resolution idea of her post-work Eden. She refuses to notice. What did her life mean, if that initial goal was wrong? She’s afraid of opening Pandora’s box, where all the troubles of the world reside. But hope is in there, too. Instead, she warps her life to fit the fantasies of a sheltered adolescent.

A naively formulated goal transmutes, with time, into the sinister form of the life-lie.

If you will not reveal yourself to others, you cannot reveal yourself to yourself. That does not only mean that you suppress who you are, although it also means that. It means that so much of what you could be will never be forced by necessity to come forward. This is a biological truth, as well as a conceptual truth. When you explore boldly, when you voluntarily confront the unknown, you gather information and build your renewed self out of that information. That is the conceptual element. However, researchers have recently discovered that new genes in the central nervous system turn themselves on when an organism is placed (or places itself) in a new situation. These genes code for new proteins. These proteins are the building blocks for new structures in the brain. This means that a lot of you is still nascent, in the most physical of senses, and will not be called forth by stasis. You have to say something, go somewhere and do things to get turned on. And, if not…you remain incomplete, and life is too hard for anyone incomplete.

If you’re lucky, and you fail, and you try something new, you move ahead. If that doesn’t work, you try something different again. A minor modification will suffice in fortunate circumstances. It is therefore prudent to begin with small changes, and see if they help. Sometimes, however, the entire hierarchy of values is faulty, and the whole edifice has to be abandoned. The whole game must be changed.

Error necessitates sacrifice to correct it, and serious error necessitates serious sacrifice. To accept the truth means to sacrifice—and if you have rejected the truth for a long time, then you’ve run up a dangerously large sacrificial debt.

“Did what I want happen? No. Then my aim or my methods were wrong. I still have something to learn.”

That is the voice of authenticity.

“Did what I want happen? No. Then the world is unfair. People are jealous, and too stupid to understand. It is the fault of something or someone else.”

That is the voice of inauthenticity.

It is not too far from there to “they should be stopped” or “they must be hurt” or “they must be destroyed.” Whenever you hear about something incomprehensibly brutal, such ideas have manifested themselves.

it is necessary to aim at your target, however traditional, with your eyes wide open. You have a direction, but it might be wrong. You have a plan, but it might be ill-formed. You may have been led astray by your own ignorance—and, worse, by your own unrevealed corruption. You must make friends, therefore, with what you don’t know, instead of what you know. You must remain awake to catch yourself in the act. You must remove the beam in your own eye, before you concern yourself with the mote in your brother’s. And in this way, you strengthen your own spirit, so it can tolerate the burden of existence, and you rejuvenate the state.

Nietzsche said that a man’s worth was determined by how much truth he could tolerate.

You are by no means only what you already know. You are also all that which you could know, if you only would. Thus, you should never sacrifice what you could be for what you are. You should never give up the better that resides within for the security you already have—and certainly not when you have already caught a glimpse, an undeniable glimpse, of something beyond.

In His human form, Christ sacrificed himself voluntarily to the truth, to the good, to God. In consequence, He died and was reborn. The Word that produces order from chaos sacrifices everything, even itself, to God. That single sentence, wise beyond comprehension, sums up Christianity.

Every bit of learning is a little death. Every bit of new information challenges a previous conception, forcing it to dissolve into chaos before it can be reborn as something better. Sometimes such deaths virtually destroy us. In such cases, we might never recover or, if we do, we change a lot.

Set your ambitions, even if you are uncertain about what they should be. The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability, rather than status and power. Status you can lose. You carry character with you wherever you go, and it allows you to prevail against adversity.

If you bend everything totally, blindly and willfully towards the attainment of a goal, and only that goal, you will never be able to discover if another goal would serve you, and the world, better. It is this that you sacrifice if you do not tell the truth. If, instead, you tell the truth, your values transform as you progress. If you allow yourself to be informed by the reality manifesting itself, as you struggle forward, your notions of what is important will change. You will reorient yourself, sometimes gradually, and sometimes suddenly and radically. Imagine: you

Perhaps it is better to conceptualize it this way: Everyone needs a concrete, specific goal—an ambition, and a purpose—to limit chaos and make intelligible sense of his or her life. But all such concrete goals can and should be subordinated to what might be considered a meta-goal, which is a way of approaching and formulating goals themselves. The meta-goal could be “live in truth.”

If your life is not what it could be, try telling the truth. If you cling desperately to an ideology, or wallow in nihilism, try telling the truth. If you feel weak and rejected, and desperate, and confused, try telling the truth. In Paradise, everyone speaks the truth. That is what makes it Paradise.

RULE 9 / Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t

Memory is a tool. Memory is the past’s guide to the future. If you remember that something bad happened, and you can figure out why, then you can try to avoid that bad thing happening again. That’s the purpose of memory. It’s not “to remember the past.” It’s to stop the same damn thing from happening over and over. I thought,

If I had been the adherent of a left-wing, social-justice ideology, I would have told her the first story. If I had been the adherent of a conservative ideology, I would have told her the second. And her responses after having been told either the first or the second story would have proved to my satisfaction and hers that the story I had told her was true—completely, irrefutably true. And that would have been advice.

You can be pretty smart if you can just shut up.

RULE 10 / Be precise in your speech

We see rocks, because we can throw them, and clouds, because they can rain on us, and apples, to eat, and the automobiles of other people, to get in our way and annoy us. We see tools and obstacles, not objects or things.

Here’s the terrible truth about such matters: every single voluntarily unprocessed and uncomprehended and ignored reason for marital failure will compound and conspire and will then plague that betrayed and self-betrayed woman for the rest of her life. The same goes for her husband. All she—he—they—or we—must do to ensure such an outcome is nothing: don’t notice, don’t react, don’t attend, don’t discuss, don’t consider, don’t work for peace, don’t take responsibility. Don’t confront the chaos and turn it into order—just wait, anything but naïve and innocent, for the chaos to rise up and engulf you instead.

Why refuse to specify, when specifying the problem would enable its solution? Because to specify the problem is to admit that it exists. Because to specify the problem is to allow yourself to know what you want, say, from friend or lover—and then you will know, precisely and cleanly, when you don’t get it, and that will hurt, sharply and specifically.

But you will learn something from that, and use what you learn in the future—and the alternative to that single sharp pain is the dull ache of continued hopelessness and vague failure and the sense that time, precious time, is slipping by.

RULE 11 / Do not bother children when they are skateboarding

Women have a strong proclivity to marry across or up the economic dominance hierarchy. They prefer a partner of equal or greater status. This holds true cross-culturally.184 The same does not hold, by the way, for men, who are perfectly willing to marry across or down (as the Pew data indicate), although they show a preference for somewhat younger mates.

Any hierarchy creates winners and losers. The winners are, of course, more likely to justify the hierarchy and the losers to criticize it. But (1) the collective pursuit of any valued goal produces a hierarchy (as some will be better and some worse at that pursuit no matter what it is) and (2) it is the pursuit of goals that in large part lends life its sustaining meaning.

We experience almost all the emotions that make life deep and engaging as a consequence of moving successfully towards something deeply desired and valued. The price we pay for that involvement is the inevitable creation of hierarchies of success, while the inevitable consequence is difference in outcome. Absolute equality would therefore require the sacrifice of value itself—and then there would be nothing worth living for.

We might instead note with gratitude that a complex, sophisticated culture allows for many games and many successful players, and that a well-structured culture allows the individuals that compose it to play and to win, in many different fashions.

There are only two major reasons for resentment: being taken advantage of (or allowing yourself to be taken advantage of), or whiny refusal to adopt responsibility and grow up. If you’re resentful, look for the reasons.

Agreeable, compassionate, empathic, conflict-averse people (all those traits group together) let people walk on them, and they get bitter. They sacrifice themselves for others, sometimes excessively, and cannot comprehend why that is not reciprocated.

RULE 12 / Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street

I started with my thoughts about my son. She had asked, like everyone in her situation, “Why my husband? Why me? Why this?” My realization of the tight interlinking between vulnerability and Being was the best answer I had for her. I told her an old Jewish story, which I believe is part of the commentary on the Torah. It begins with a question, structured like a Zen koan. Imagine a Being who is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. What does such a Being lack?211 The answer? Limitation. If you are already everything, everywhere, always, there is nowhere to go and nothing to be. Everything that could be already is, and everything that could happen already has. And it is for this reason, so the story goes, that God created man. No limitation, no story. No story, no Being. That idea has helped me deal with the terrible fragility of Being.

Perhaps that is true prayer: the question, “What have I done wrong, and what can I do now to set things at least a little bit more right?”

#12 Rules for Life #books

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this-shit-needs-documenting · 4 years

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This Overlooked Variable Is the Key to the Pandemic

It’s not R.

ZEYNEP TUFEKCI SEP 30, 2020

Updated at 1:17 p.m. ET on October 1, 2020

There’s something strange about this coronavirus pandemic. Even after months of extensive research by the global scientific community, many questions remain open.

Why, for instance, was there such an enormous death toll in northern Italy, but not the rest of the country? Just three contiguous regions in northern Italy have 25,000 of the country’s nearly 36,000 total deaths; just one region, Lombardy, has about 17,000 deaths. Almost all of these were concentrated in the first few months of the outbreak. What happened in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in April, when so many died so quickly that bodies were abandoned in the sidewalks and streets?* Why, in the spring of 2020, did so few cities account for a substantial portion of global deaths, while many others with similar density, weather, age distribution, and travel patterns were spared? What can we really learn from Sweden, hailed as a great success by some because of its low case counts and deaths as the rest of Europe experiences a second wave, and as a big failure by others because it did not lock down and suffered excessive death rates earlier in the pandemic? Why did widespread predictions of catastrophe in Japan not bear out? The baffling examples go on.

I’ve heard many explanations for these widely differing trajectories over the past nine months—weather, elderly populations, vitamin D, prior immunity, herd immunity—but none of them explains the timing or the scale of these drastic variations. But there is a potential, overlooked way of understanding this pandemic that would help answer these questions, reshuffle many of the current heated arguments, and, crucially, help us get the spread of COVID-19 under control.

By now many people have heard about R0—the basic reproductive number of a pathogen, a measure of its contagiousness on average. But unless you’ve been reading scientific journals, you’re less likely to have encountered k, the measure of its dispersion. The definition of k is a mouthful, but it’s simply a way of asking whether a virus spreads in a steady manner or in big bursts, whereby one person infects many, all at once. After nine months of collecting epidemiological data, we know that this is an overdispersed pathogen, meaning that it tends to spread in clusters, but this knowledge has not yet fully entered our way of thinking about the pandemic—or our preventive practices.

The now-famed R0 (pronounced as “r-naught”) is an average measure of a pathogen’s contagiousness, or the mean number of susceptible people expected to become infected after being exposed to a person with the disease. If one ill person infects three others on average, the R0 is three. This parameter has been widely touted as a key factor in understanding how the pandemic operates. News media have produced multiple explainers and visualizations for it. Movies praised for their scientific accuracy on pandemics are lauded for having characters explain the “all-important” R0. Dashboards track its real-time evolution, often referred to as R or Rt, in response to our interventions. (If people are masking and isolating or immunity is rising, a disease can’t spread the same way anymore, hence the difference between R0 and R.)

Unfortunately, averages aren’t always useful for understanding the distribution of a phenomenon, especially if it has widely varying behavior. If Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, walks into a bar with 100 regular people in it, the average wealth in that bar suddenly exceeds $1 billion. If I also walk into that bar, not much will change. Clearly, the average is not that useful a number to understand the distribution of wealth in that bar, or how to change it. Sometimes, the mean is not the message. Meanwhile, if the bar has a person infected with COVID-19, and if it is also poorly ventilated and loud, causing people to speak loudly at close range, almost everyone in the room could potentially be infected—a pattern that’s been observed many times since the pandemic begin, and that is similarly not captured by R. That’s where the dispersion comes in.

There are COVID-19 incidents in which a single person likely infected 80 percent or more of the people in the room in just a few hours. But, at other times, COVID-19 can be surprisingly much less contagious. Overdispersion and super-spreading of this virus are found in research across the globe. A growing number of studies estimate that a majority of infected people may not infect a single other person. A recent paper found that in Hong Kong, which had extensive testing and contact tracing, about 19 percent of cases were responsible for 80 percent of transmission, while 69 percent of cases did not infect another person. This finding is not rare: Multiple studies from the beginning have suggested that as few as 10 to 20 percent of infected people may be responsible for as much as 80 to 90 percent of transmission, and that many people barely transmit it.

This highly skewed, imbalanced distribution means that an early run of bad luck with a few super-spreading events, or clusters, can produce dramatically different outcomes even for otherwise similar countries. Scientists looked globally at known early-introduction events, in which an infected person comes into a country, and found that in some places, such imported cases led to no deaths or known infections, while in others, they sparked sizable outbreaks. Using genomic analysis, researchers in New Zealand looked at more than half the confirmed cases in the country and found a staggering 277 separate introductions in the early months, but also that only 19 percent of introductions led to more than one additional case. A recent review shows that this may even be true in congregate living spaces, such as nursing homes, and that multiple introductions may be necessary before an outbreak takes off. Meanwhile, in Daegu, South Korea, just one woman, dubbed Patient 31, generated more than 5,000 known cases in a megachurch cluster.

Unsurprisingly, SARS-CoV, the previous incarnation of SARS-CoV-2 that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, was also overdispersed in this way: The majority of infected people did not transmit it, but a few super-spreading events caused most of the outbreaks. MERS, another coronavirus cousin of SARS, also appears overdispersed, but luckily, it does not—yet—transmit well among humans.

This kind of behavior, alternating between being super infectious and fairly noninfectious, is exactly what k captures, and what focusing solely on R hides. Samuel Scarpino, an assistant professor of epidemiology and complex systems at Northeastern, told me that this has been a huge challenge, especially for health authorities in Western societies, where the pandemic playbook was geared toward the flu—and not without reason, because pandemic flu is a genuine threat. However, influenza does not have the same level of clustering behavior.

We can think of disease patterns as leaning deterministic or stochastic: In the former, an outbreak’s distribution is more linear and predictable; in the latter, randomness plays a much larger role and predictions are hard, if not impossible, to make. In deterministic trajectories, we expect what happened yesterday to give us a good sense of what to expect tomorrow. Stochastic phenomena, however, don’t operate like that—the same inputs don’t always produce the same outputs, and things can tip over quickly from one state to the other. As Scarpino told me, “Diseases like the flu are pretty nearly deterministic and R0 (while flawed) paints about the right picture (nearly impossible to stop until there’s a vaccine).” That’s not necessarily the case with super-spreading diseases.

Nature and society are replete with such imbalanced phenomena, some of which are said to work according to the Pareto principle, named after the sociologist Vilfredo Pareto. Pareto’s insight is sometimes called the 80/20 principle—80 percent of outcomes of interest are caused by 20 percent of inputs—though the numbers don’t have to be that strict. Rather, the Pareto principle means that a small number of events or people are responsible for the majority of consequences. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has worked in the service sector, for example, where a small group of problem customers can create almost all the extra work. In cases like those, booting just those customers from the business or giving them a hefty discount may solve the problem, but if the complaints are evenly distributed, different strategies will be necessary. Similarly, focusing on the R alone, or using a flu-pandemic playbook, won’t necessarily work well for an overdispersed pandemic.

Hitoshi Oshitani, a member of the National COVID-19 Cluster Taskforce at Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and a professor at Tohoku University who told me that Japan focused on the overdispersion impact from early on, likens his country’s approach to looking at a forest and trying to find the clusters, not the trees. Meanwhile, he believes, the Western world was getting distracted by the trees, and got lost among them. To fight a super-spreading disease effectively, policy makers need to figure out why super-spreading happens, and they need to understand how it affects everything, including our contact-tracing methods and our testing regimes.

There may be many different reasons a pathogen super-spreads. Yellow fever spreads mainly via the mosquito Aedes aegypti, but until the insect’s role was discovered, its transmission pattern bedeviled many scientists. Tuberculosis was thought to be spread by close-range droplets until an ingenious set of experiments proved that it was airborne. Much is still unknown about the super-spreading of SARS-CoV-2. It might be that some people are super-emitters of the virus, in that they spread it a lot more than other people. Like other diseases, contact patterns surely play a part: A politician on the campaign trail or a student in a college dorm is very different in how many people they could potentially expose compared with, say, an elderly person living in a small household. However, looking at nine months of epidemiological data, we have important clues to some of the factors.

In study after study, we see that super-spreading clusters of COVID-19 almost overwhelmingly occur in poorly ventilated, indoor environments where many people congregate over time—weddings, churches, choirs, gyms, funerals, restaurants, and such—especially when there is loud talking or singing without masks. For super-spreading events to occur, multiple things have to be happening at the same time, and the risk is not equal in every setting and activity, Muge Cevik, a clinical lecturer in infectious diseases and medical virology at the University of St. Andrews and a co-author of a recent extensive review of transmission conditions for COVID-19, told me.

Cevik identifies “prolonged contact, poor ventilation, [a] highly infectious person, [and] crowding” as the key elements for a super-spreader event. Super-spreading can also occur indoors beyond the six-feet guideline, because SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen causing COVID-19, can travel through the air and accumulate, especially if ventilation is poor. Given that some people infect others before they show symptoms, or when they have very mild or even no symptoms, it’s not always possible to know if we are highly infectious ourselves. We don’t even know if there are more factors yet to be discovered that influence super-spreading. But we don’t need to know all the sufficient factors that go into a super-spreading event to avoid what seems to be a necessary condition most of the time: many people, especially in a poorly ventilated indoor setting, and especially not wearing masks. As Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida, told me, given the huge numbers associated with these clusters, targeting them would be very effective in getting our transmission numbers down.

Overdispersion should also inform our contact-tracing efforts. In fact, we may need to turn them upside down. Right now, many states and nations engage in what is called forward or prospective contact tracing. Once an infected person is identified, we try to find out with whom they interacted afterward so that we can warn, test, isolate, and quarantine these potential exposures. But that’s not the only way to trace contacts. And, because of overdispersion, it’s not necessarily where the most bang for the buck lies. Instead, in many cases, we should try to work backwards to see who first infected the subject.

Because of overdispersion, most people will have been infected by someone who also infected other people, because only a small percentage of people infect many at a time, whereas most infect zero or maybe one person. As Adam Kucharski, an epidemiologist and the author of the book The Rules of Contagion, explained to me, if we can use retrospective contact tracing to find the person who infected our patient, and then trace the forward contacts of the infecting person, we are generally going to find a lot more cases compared with forward-tracing contacts of the infected patient, which will merely identify potential exposures, many of which will not happen anyway, because most transmission chains die out on their own.

The reason for backward tracing’s importance is similar to what the sociologist Scott L. Feld called the friendship paradox: Your friends are, on average, going to have more friends than you. (Sorry!) It’s straightforward once you take the network-level view. Friendships are not distributed equally; some people have a lot of friends, and your friend circle is more likely to include those social butterflies, because how could it not? They friended you and others. And those social butterflies will drive up the average number of friends that your friends have compared with you, a regular person. (Of course, this will not hold for the social butterflies themselves, but overdispersion means that there are much fewer of them.) Similarly, the infectious person who is transmitting the disease is like the pandemic social butterfly: The average number of people they infect will be much higher than most of the population, who will transmit the disease much less frequently. Indeed, as Kucharski and his co-authors show mathematically, overdispersion means that “forward tracing alone can, on average, identify at most the mean number of secondary infections (i.e. R)”; in contrast, “backward tracing increases this maximum number of traceable individuals by a factor of 2-3, as index cases are more likely to come from clusters than a case is to generate a cluster.”

Even in an overdispersed pandemic, it’s not pointless to do forward tracing to be able to warn and test people, if there are extra resources and testing capacity. But it doesn’t make sense to do forward tracing while not devoting enough resources to backward tracing and finding clusters, which cause so much damage.

Another significant consequence of overdispersion is that it highlights the importance of certain kinds of rapid, cheap tests. Consider the current dominant model of test and trace. In many places, health authorities try to trace and find forward contacts of an infected person: everyone they were in touch with since getting infected. They then try to test all of them with expensive, slow, but highly accurate PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests. But that’s not necessarily the best way when clusters are so important in spreading the disease.

PCR tests identify RNA segments of the coronavirus in samples from nasal swabs—like looking for its signature. Such diagnostic tests are measured on two different dimensions: Are they good at identifying people who are not infected (specificity), and are they good at identifying people who are infected (sensitivity)? PCR tests are highly accurate for both dimensions. However, PCR tests are also slow and expensive, and they require a long, uncomfortable swab up the nose at a medical facility. The slow processing times means that people don’t get timely information when they need it. Worse, PCR tests are so responsive that they can find tiny remnants of coronavirus signatures long after someone has stopped being contagious, which can cause unnecessary quarantines.

Meanwhile, researchers have shown that rapid tests that are very accurate for identifying people who do not have the disease, but not as good at identifying infected individuals, can help us contain this pandemic. As Dylan Morris, a doctoral candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton, told me, cheap, low-sensitivity tests can help mitigate a pandemic even if it is not overdispersed, but they are particularly valuable for cluster identification during an overdispersed one. This is especially helpful because some of these tests can be administered via saliva and other less-invasive methods, and be distributed outside medical facilities.

In an overdispersed regime, identifying transmission events (someone infected someone else) is more important than identifying infected individuals. Consider an infected person and their 20 forward contacts—people they met since they got infected. Let’s say we test 10 of them with a cheap, rapid test and get our results back in an hour or two. This isn’t a great way to determine exactly who is sick out of that 10, because our test will miss some positives, but that’s fine for our purposes. If everyone is negative, we can act as if nobody is infected, because the test is pretty good at finding negatives. However, the moment we find a few transmissions, we know we may have a super-spreader event, and we can tell all 20 people to assume they are positive and to self-isolate—if there are one or two transmissions, there are likely more, exactly because of the clustering behavior. Depending on age and other factors, we can test those people individually using PCR tests, which can pinpoint who is infected, or ask them all to wait it out.

Scarpino told me that overdispersion also enhances the utility of other aggregate methods, such as wastewater testing, especially in congregate settings like dorms or nursing homes, allowing us to detect clusters without testing everyone. Wastewater testing also has low sensitivity; it may miss positives if too few people are infected, but that’s fine for population-screening purposes. If the wastewater testing is signaling that there are likely no infections, we do not need to test everyone to find every last potential case. However, the moment we see signs of a cluster, we can rapidly isolate everyone, again while awaiting further individualized testing via PCR tests, depending on the situation.

Unfortunately, until recently, many such cheap tests had been held up by regulatory agencies in the United States, partly because they were concerned with their relative lack of accuracy in identifying positive cases compared with PCR tests—a worry that missed their population-level usefulness for this particular overdispersed pathogen.

To return to the mysteries of this pandemic, what did happen early on to cause such drastically different trajectories in otherwise similar places? Why haven’t our usual analytic tools—case studies, multi-country comparisons—given us better answers? It’s not intellectually satisfying, but because of the overdispersion and its stochasticity, there may not be an explanation beyond that the worst-hit regions, at least initially, simply had a few unlucky early super-spreading events. It wasn’t just pure luck: Dense populations, older citizens, and congregate living, for example, made cities around the world more susceptible to outbreaks compared with rural, less dense places and those with younger populations, less mass transit, or healthier citizenry. But why Daegu in February and not Seoul, despite the two cities being in the same country, under the same government, people, weather, and more? As frustrating at it may be, sometimes, the answer is merely where Patient 31 and the megachurch she attended happened to be.

Overdispersion makes it harder for us to absorb lessons from the world, because it interferes with how we ordinarily think about cause and effect. For example, it means that events that result in spreading and non-spreading of the virus are asymmetric in their ability to inform us. Take the highly publicized case in Springfield, Missouri, in which two infected hairstylists, both of whom wore masks, continued to work with clients while symptomatic. It turns out that no apparent infections were found among the 139 exposed clients (67 were directly tested; the rest did not report getting sick). While there is a lot of evidence that masks are crucial in dampening transmission, that event alone wouldn’t tell us if masks work. In contrast, studying transmission, the rarer event, can be quite informative. Had those two hairstylists transmitted the virus to large numbers of people despite everyone wearing masks, it would be important evidence that, perhaps, masks aren’t useful in preventing super-spreading.

Comparisons, too, give us less information compared with phenomena for which input and output are more tightly coupled. When that’s the case, we can check for the presence of a factor (say, sunshine or Vitamin D) and see if it correlates with a consequence (infection rate). But that’s much harder when the consequence can vary widely depending on a few strokes of luck, the way that the wrong person was in the wrong place sometime in mid-February in South Korea. That’s one reason multi-country comparisons have struggled to identify dynamics that sufficiently explain the trajectories of different places.

Once we recognize super-spreading as a key lever, countries that look as if they were too relaxed in some aspects appear very different, and our usual polarized debates about the pandemic are scrambled, too. Take Sweden, an alleged example of the great success or the terrible failure of herd immunity without lockdowns, depending on whom you ask. In reality, although Sweden joins many other countries in failing to protect elderly populations in congregate-living facilities, its measures that target super-spreading have been stricter than many other European countries. Although it did not have a complete lockdown, as Kucharski pointed out to me, Sweden imposed a 50-person limit on indoor gatherings in March, and did not remove the cap even as many other European countries eased such restrictions after beating back the first wave. (Many are once again restricting gathering sizes after seeing a resurgence.) Plus, the country has a small household size and fewer multigenerational households compared with most of Europe, which further limits transmission and cluster possibilities. It kept schools fully open without distancing or masks, but only for children under 16, who are unlikely to be super-spreaders of this disease. Both transmission and illness risks go up with age, and Sweden went all online for higher-risk high-school and university students—the opposite of what we did in the United States. It also encouraged social-distancing, and closed down indoor places that failed to observe the rules. From an overdispersion and super-spreading point of view, Sweden would not necessarily be classified as among the most lax countries, but nor is it the most strict. It simply doesn’t deserve this oversize place in our debates assessing different strategies.

Although overdispersion makes some usual methods of studying causal connections harder, we can study failures to understand which conditions turn bad luck into catastrophes. We can also study sustained success, because bad luck will eventually hit everyone, and the response matters.

The most informative case studies may well be those who had terrible luck initially, like South Korea, and yet managed to bring about significant suppression. In contrast, Europe was widely praised for its opening early on, but that was premature; many countries there are now experiencing widespread rises in cases and look similar to the United States in some measures. In fact, Europe’s achieving a measure of success this summer and relaxing, including opening up indoor events with larger numbers, is instructive in another important aspect of managing an overdispersed pathogen: Compared with a steadier regime, success in a stochastic scenario can be more fragile than it looks.

Once a country has too many outbreaks, it’s almost as if the pandemic switches into “flu mode,” as Scarpino put it, meaning high, sustained levels of community spread even though a majority of infected people may not be transmitting onward. Scarpino explained that barring truly drastic measures, once in that widespread and elevated mode, COVID-19 can keep spreading because of the sheer number of chains already out there. Plus, the overwhelming numbers may eventually spark more clusters, further worsening the situation.

As Kucharski put it, a relatively quiet period can hide how quickly things can tip over into large outbreaks and how a few chained amplification events can rapidly turn a seemingly under-control situation into a disaster. We’re often told that if Rt, the real-time measure of the average spread, is above one, the pandemic is growing, and that below one, it’s dying out. That may be true for an epidemic that is not overdispersed, and while an Rt below one is certainly good, it’s misleading to take too much comfort from a low Rt when just a few events can reignite massive numbers. No country should forget South Korea’s Patient 31.

That said, overdispersion is also a cause for hope, as South Korea’s aggressive and successful response to that outbreak—with a massive testing, tracing, and isolating regime—shows. Since then, South Korea has also been practicing sustained vigilance, and has demonstrated the importance of backward tracing. When a series of clusters linked to nightclubs broke out in Seoul recently, health authorities aggressively traced and tested tens of thousands of people linked to the venues, regardless of their interactions with the index case, six feet apart or not—a sensible response, given that we know the pathogen is airborne.

Perhaps one of the most interesting cases has been Japan, a country with middling luck that got hit early on and followed what appeared to be an unconventional model, not deploying mass testing and never fully shutting down. By the end of March, influential economists were publishing reports with dire warnings, predicting overloads in the hospital system and huge spikes in deaths. The predicted catastrophe never came to be, however, and although the country faced some future waves, there was never a large spike in deaths despite its aging population, uninterrupted use of mass transportation, dense cities, and lack of a formal lockdown.

It’s not that Japan was better situated than the United States in the beginning. Similar to the U.S. and Europe, Oshitani told me, Japan did not initially have the PCR capacity to do widespread testing. Nor could it impose a full lockdown or strict stay-at-home orders; even if that had been desirable, it would not have been legally possible in Japan.

Oshitani told me that in Japan, they had noticed the overdispersion characteristics of COVID-19 as early as February, and thus created a strategy focusing mostly on cluster-busting, which tries to prevent one cluster from igniting another. Oshitani said he believes that “the chain of transmission cannot be sustained without a chain of clusters or a megacluster.” Japan thus carried out a cluster-busting approach, including undertaking aggressive backward tracing to uncover clusters. Japan also focused on ventilation, counseling its population to avoid places where the three C’s come together—crowds in closed spaces in close contact, especially if there’s talking or singing—bringing together the science of overdispersion with the recognition of airborne aerosol transmission, as well as presymptomatic and asymptomatic transmission.

Oshitani contrasts the Japanese strategy, nailing almost every important feature of the pandemic early on, with the Western response, trying to eliminate the disease “one by one” when that’s not necessarily the main way it spreads. Indeed, Japan got its cases down, but kept up its vigilance: When the government started noticing an uptick in community cases, it initiated a state of emergency in April and tried hard to incentivize the kinds of businesses that could lead to super-spreading events, such as theaters, music venues, and sports stadiums, to close down temporarily. Now schools are back in session in person, and even stadiums are open—but without chanting.

It’s not always the restrictiveness of the rules, but whether they target the right dangers. As Morris put it, “Japan’s commitment to ‘cluster-busting’ allowed it to achieve impressive mitigation with judiciously chosen restrictions. Countries that have ignored super-spreading have risked getting the worst of both worlds: burdensome restrictions that fail to achieve substantial mitigation. The U.K.’s recent decision to limit outdoor gatherings to six people while allowing pubs and bars to remain open is just one of many such examples.”

Could we get back to a much more normal life by focusing on limiting the conditions for super-spreading events, aggressively engaging in cluster-busting, and deploying cheap, rapid mass tests—that is, once we get our case numbers down to low enough numbers to carry out such a strategy? (Many places with low community transmission could start immediately.) Once we look for and see the forest, it becomes easier to find our way out.

* This article originally stated that, in April, coronavirus deaths spiked in Quito, Ecuador. In fact, they spiked in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected].

ZEYNEP TUFEKCI is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and an associate professor at the University of North Carolina. She studies the interaction between digital technology, artificial intelligence, and society.

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swordliliesandebony-blog · 7 years

Text

The Art of a Perfect Gift | Promptis Birthday Oneshot

Pairing: Promptis

Rating: T

Warnings: Absolutely tooth-rotting fluff. There is no other way to put it.

Summary:

Everyone Lives/Nobody dies AU, Prompto’s first birthday after Noct’s return from the crystal. Literally irredeemable fluff for Prompto’s birthday + to cheer up @destatree

[READ ON AO3]

Prompto is happy.

It’s a position he certainly never envisioned himself in. If he had been asked, at any point prior to this year, whether he even could be happy, he isn’t sure what he would have said. A staunch ‘unlikely’ would have probably been the case. Things tended to work out poorly for him. Hell, until a couple months ago, things tended to work out poorly for everyone. The world had been steeped in darkness, its only hope apparently lost to that stupid damn crystal. That stupid damn crystal is gone, though. It spit out the hope and they all clung to it, so impossibly hard, against fate and prophecy and all sorts of things that also tend to go poorly.

That hope, of course, being Noctis; Noctis, alive and well and- Prompto is pretty sure- happy just the same, months after a set of tearful, inevitable goodbyes. Months after they had been certain he had come back to them, just for that night, just to be stolen away again. They clung really hard. Maybe it isn’t real. Maybe they all died there, and they’re only existing on the other side of some invisible curtain, living out their well-deserved happiness while some real world picks up the pieces. He doesn’t think that’s so likely the case.

There wouldn’t have been such a recovery period if this were some many-named afterlife. Not for the world and not for Noctis, who is still walking a little slower, who still has one leg dragging at times and an elegant, regal, inherited cane to help on those worse days. There’s still pain and things are still hard. Rebuilding a world takes a lot out of a guy. It takes a lot out of a number of guys, in this case. And still, Prompto is absolutely, unspeakably, perfectly happy. He’s happy because he’s waking up warm and safe and with an arm tight around his waist, a hand trailing aimlessly over his chest.

“You’re up early,” Prompto mumbles the words only when he feels a familiar heat pressing against his shoulder. He might have mistaken everything else for dream-fueled gestures or mindless, sleep-addled touches, but the kiss is something that Noctis would only manage if he was closer at least to waking than slumber. It has him smiling, has his hand going to press over Noct’s and trap it close to the warmth of his chest. He can set aside, almost forget, the years he spent curled up to old shirts, curled up alone and dreaming of a morning like this. His heart feels swollen, so close to bursting, on this kind of morning.

“Big day. Wouldn’t wanna miss it,” Noct says it in a low tone, not tired but conscious of Prompto being so fresh from sleep. He says it and follows the words with more kisses, at the base of Prompto’s throat and running a line up to the edge of his ear, where he goes for just a brief, gentle little nip. It’s a somewhat uncommon affection. Not that they don’t share plenty on a regular basis, but Prompto is more the instigator, more the one who so deeply desires those reminders that Noct is there and alive and with him, against all possible odds.

“Big day…” Prompto repeats the words, and it’s clear enough that he has no idea what they refer to. He’s not great with dates. He would pretend it’s a pesky side effect of barely paying them mind for that dark third of his life, but that’s being a little bit too optimistic. The truth of the matter is, Prompto has never been great with them. There were important ones, of course, that he would keep track of and usually even pinpoint before they entirely passed. If there was a deadline, though, a big meeting or some new groundbreaking or any number of things that should definitely not be forgotten though, Prompto was sure to nearly miss the whole damn thing.

“Of course. You didn’t think I’d forget, did you?” Noctis asks, and there’s a certain tone to his voice that gives Prompto cause. As if he’s actually a little bit hurt by the notion. It has Prompto turning in bed to face him, making sure all the while his face is arranged to perfectly display his confusion. To make it utterly obvious that he has no idea what it is he would expect Noctis to forget.

“I mean, if you had, I wouldn’t have known. What’s the date, anyway?” There’s a beat where it seems like Noctis is trying to decide whether he believes Prompto’s question. It’s only a second though, and then his face is cracking into a proper smile and a chuckle is catching in his throat. It makes Prompto blush a little, makes him put on something close to a scowl while he tries to work out the answer all his own. Noctis cranes down to press a kiss onto his forehead then, deciding that apparently isn’t entirely sufficient, trails a few more down across Prompto’s temple and over freckled cheeks. More warmth chases the kisses and, well, Prompto is smiling again before he has a chance to stop himself.

“You really are an old man now, huh? Forgetting your own birthday,” Noctis laughs through the words, eyes all lit up in the way that only the most genuine of his smiles manage to achieve. It makes Prompto’s breath catch every damn time. The words, though, they make him laugh just a little bit too. His birthday. Obviously. It’s a bit ironic, really, given how much excitement Prompto had harbored when it came to arranging that gift for Noctis a couple months before. This gift, more accurately, as the bed they’re sharing happens to be part of it. On the scale of important dates though, Prompto ranks his own birthday about a hundred notches below Noct’s and, well, he’d gone through many years without acknowledging the date at all, so maybe it’s only fair for him to have forgotten.

“Hush. You’re way older than me.”

“And still sharp enough to know it. C’mon, get up,” it’s absolutely a special day in Noct’s mind, if he’s the one urging them out of bed. Prompto groans but he doesn’t fight it, even if he takes a moment to crawl up over Noct, to get all straddled over him and laying on some kisses of his own. Noctis allows it, leans into it, plays right back at them for a few moments before he has them parting and Prompto guided to the edge of the bed.

“Not even gonna let me have a nice wake-up gift?” Prompto pouts, though it’s all a bit of a show. It’s easy to tell when Noct has something up his proverbial sleeve. Especially easy when it’s so obviously before noon and he’s making real, concentrated efforts to make it out of bed. It still wins a laugh and a shaken head though so Prompto is happy enough with the attempt. Their shoulders bump together when they’re both sitting there, a sort of gesture that makes Prompto feel very much half his age.

“Got something better planned, but you’re gonna have to get dressed for it.”

“Not sure I’m buyin’ anything that requires clothes as better. ”

“Gonna hafta trust me. If I’m wrong, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you. But I’m not wrong,” Noctis is putting on that total kingly confidence voice and, well, it works. It has Prompto finally rising from the bed and grumbling through the act of actually getting dressed. Noctis keeps reassuring, sliding an occasional touch or joke while he joins Prompto in the same. Prompto, for his part, isn’t entirely convinced. But it’s clear that Noctis has actual plans here, that he’s gone through the effort of coming up with something that he’s properly proud of, and Prompto isn’t about to discount that.

And, he has to admit, he’s pretty curious. Noctis isn’t big on the ‘planning’ thing. He leaves that sort of work to Ignis, more often than not. He’s more of the, ‘signing papers and looking pretty’ part of the equation. Okay, that isn’t entirely fair. He’s, more accurately, the public face of the rebuilding effort. The figurehead for a new world. The guy who died to save Everyone, then got plucked back from that to lead them. None of that means he’s ever planned an especially elaborate date, though.

Whatever the plan is, it’s set outside the slowly-rebuilding remnants of the city. Everything considered, Insomnia has returned to life at an absolutely startling speed. Structurally, some parts of the city weren’t entirely destroyed, though you wouldn’t necessarily know it when you spend a great deal of your time in and around the citadel. Still, people had a home here once, and a great deal of them want to reclaim it. Streets, as they head for the outward gate, are lined with makeshift stands; food, trinkets, crafted goods… there’s a great variety, enough that if Noctis weren’t leading them so pointedly out of the city, Prompto might have easily gotten lost among the shops. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

Noctis takes them to the gates of the city, to a truck Talcott has waiting for them and suddenly Prompto is incredibly interested in what exactly Noctis has in mind for the day. He tries to weasel the information out of Talcott, only to be told that he really has no idea, that they should have a good time, relax, all that. And, no, he really doesn’t know anything , please stop asking, happy birthday though. Deep down, Prompto is glad that Talcott didn’t have anything to spill. There’s a certain air of suspense and excitement when he climbs up into the cab of the truck, waits for Noct to get settled in and get them moving.

The truth of the matter is, their positions don’t give a lot of opportunity to steal away from the city. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, either. Noctis has still been recovering from his injuries, and the confinement is about the only way Prompto can imagine he would get any meaningful rest. He’s not exactly the sort of guy who appreciates being told to take anything easy. And, everything considered, the citadel has stood up well to all those years of enemy occupation. The throne room notwithstanding, of course, but Prompto is pretty sure they’re all better off for that fact, for any proper excuse to avoid looking back on what happened there. So, really, it’s exciting as hell to get a trip away from the city. Noctis must have pulled any number of strings to make it happen, too. His duties are endless, even more so than Prompto’s, which feels impossible at times. The odds of Noctis actually getting a day off all to himself? Well, the gesture is more than soundly appreciated.

“You’re seriously not gonna tell me where we’re going?” Prompto makes sure that his question has the appropriate amount of feigned bratty whining sung through the tone. It’s a game now, and it’s one that has Noctis smiling while they drive, only shaking his head at the thought of giving up the big surprise.

“Nope. Just gonna hafta be patient,” Noctis sounds terribly proud of himself with that, and it makes Prompto groan and throw himself back in the seat.

“Can I have a hint?” Prompto asks this when they’re a little ways out of the city, when they’ve passed Hammerhead and shown no signs of stopping off. Prompto didn’t exactly expect it to be their destination, but on the few journeys they’ve managed through the gates, they’ve tended to make it a quick stop before they head anywhere else. The place has purposed itself again so quickly it really does make Prompto’s mind spin. The remnants of the hunters’ camp still cling around the edges, but the place has easily reinvented itself again as a service outpost, thanks no doubt to Cindy’s efforts. Prompto likes stopping in, on the rare occasions they can, just to see how much has managed to change each time.

“You’re gonna like it,” Again, Noctis sounds proud of his words, the non-hint that they absolutely are. A silence falls for just a moment while Prompto squirms and makes a show of watching their surroundings pass, trying very obviously to guess their destination. Noctis breaks it though, with a lip quirking upward, “too bad about your camera getting all smashed. You’re totally gonna want pictures.”

Prompto feels his face fall for just a moment. It really is too bad, though it’s not as if their lives now have a whole lot that requires recording in photos. Still, it was a hobby he held close for a long time, one that he had even considered taking up again after Noct returned, in those few hours before he truly understood how short said return was thought to be. Something goes tight in his throat at the flood of memories, the ones that span back further, to campsites and inns and battles won by the skin of their teeth.

“Hey, could you grab me a drink? Should be some in the center console,” Noct’s voice snaps Prompto from his quickly sinking mood and he nods at once, eager to get his head around anything other than memories. These times, for once, are better in ways. Nothing is hidden any more. They aren’t holding hands behind any backs, they aren’t sneaking kisses when Gladio’s off training and Ignis is hard at work on dinner. They can be together, and they can do it safely. The nostalgia isn’t so deep and strangling as it was when the world was dark and Noct was gone and Prompto was trying so desperately to wait out his return. More things not to think about, as he snaps open the compartment to fish out Noct’s drink.

He probably should’ve caught the tone in his voice, or that smile that Noctis was losing the battle to fight down, but Prompto had been lost in his mind. So when he opens the console and instead of drinks, finds his camera waiting, it catches him entirely by surprise. He seizes it out at once, turns the thing in his hands, such a familiar weight even after all these years. It doesn’t quite compute to him. Every detail is exactly as he remembers, however impossible it is. He can still see the shattered pieces of the thing on the throne room floor, clear as day.

“How?”

“It’s not exactly the same one, obviously. But, y’know, same model and everything…” Noct’s voice sounds uncertain, apologetic even. Prompto has a feeling, if it was really an option, that Noctis would have had the original pieced back together and repaired properly. This would be, in his mind, the next best thing. Prompto can’t really think about anything along those lines, though. He’s flipping through settings, playing with buttons at once, something to hide the sudden sting in his eyes and tightness in his throat.

“Noct… this is amazing. I can’t believe you managed…” he really can’t say much, can’t trust his voice to hold out. But it has Noctis smiling all the same and, when the little waves of emotion stop rushing quite so hard through Prompto, he’s matching the expression. And, of course, he’s turning the camera to get a quick shot of them both crammed into the cab of the truck, all shining eyes and bitten-down smiles, “seriously, this is the best. I can’t believe it,” and Prompto keeps saying similar things every few minutes, his focus set properly on the camera.

Noctis doesn’t often do grand romantic gestures, but when he does, he manages to get them right. Even just that camera would have been enough to make Prompto’s whole damn day, he’s absolutely convinced of it. But they’re together, just the two of them, driving to some unknown destination on top of it. Noct is really good at this, when he puts his mind to it. Prompto is mostly glad that he’s gotten enough of a handle on his emotions when they turn finally off the main road and he realizes where they’re heading.

Generally speaking, there are two fates that the outposts of Lucis met over the ten years of darkness. The first is that the inhabitants fled for safer ground, somewhere closer to a main road, somewhere they might not be overwhelmed by the endless surges of daemons; usually Lestallum or Hammerhead or the old Hunters HQ, depending on where they might reach quickest. The second outcome was that the ever-swelling number of Hunters would come to them, establish a sort of field station, provide safety in their numbers. As a general rule, there had to be some draw. High ground, light from the meteor, sturdy shelters. Transportation.

The chocobo outpost isn’t entirely as Prompto remembers from that old lifetime, but it’s not far off, either. The value of the birds, when vehicles were increasingly hard to come by- and fuel more scarce still- was immeasurable. It was only natural that a place like this survive, perhaps even flourish. It still takes Prompto’s breath away when Noctis pulls them down that worn path, to see that sort of resilience in action.

“ Noct ,” Prompto doesn’t have the right words for it. He’s springing from the truck the moment it’s stopped, eyes huge with wonder, with excitement, and with absolute joy . Noctis tells him he can slow down, that the bird aren’t going anywhere, and that seems to be about as true a statement as any, but it doesn’t quite click in Prompto’s brain. It takes a lot of self-control to manage some words to the staff, though Noctis follows up to chat with them, and they don’t seem to take any mind with the absolutely childlike excitement.

Prompto is absolutely in heaven here. He’s snapping endless photos of the birds, of himself with the, then of Noct, of both of them, of every damn inch of the place. It’s not until he’s absolutely satisfied that he’s captured enough- and even then, he’s sure the camera will come back into play soon enough- that he focuses himself entirely on the chocobos. He really does feel like a kid, maybe even more so than their excursions out here on that road trip, when he was only a few years outside of actually being one. He offers up treats, and big lengthy pets along their necks. He feels very close to tears of joy when the occasional one will swoop down and nuzzle into his hand or chirp happily at his attention. It’s damn near more than he can comprehend.

“Why don’t we take one out for a ride?” Prompto has finally calmed a little, found himself giving special attention to an elderly old bird, jet black and full of affection for them both, when Noctis makes the suggestion. He has arms looped around Prompto’s waist and his chin rested on Prompto’s shoulder and he follows the suggestion with a brief kiss at his jaw. If the open affection bothers, or is even noted by any of the stable hands, nobody says a word. The birds definitely don’t seem to mind.

“Really? You wanna?” Prompto turns a little so that he can get a look at Noct. He almost- almost - feels guilty. He’s been absolutely swept up with this particular gift. Noctis hadn’t been wrong by any means when he said that Prompto would enjoy it, but there certainly hasn’t been enough thanks on that end. Noctis doesn’t seem to mind though, only smiles and nods and shifts so he can get a hand around Prompto’s.

“Told you it’d be good. I went all out, Prom. You set the birthday bar pretty high, y’know,” they share a laugh, though Prompto isn’t entirely convinced that Noct is being truthful there. Yeah, Prompto worked hard in getting that room set up for Noct. He busted his ass, searching through boxes and boxes to find old comics and games, all sorts of relics from the past that he hadn’t even been fully convinced Noctis would want. It had turned out perfectly in the end, but it was still a gamble, and still not all that impressive by Prompto’s way of thinking. Noctis was happy, though, and that made it all feel a hell of a lot better. Maybe this is the same.

Noctis wasn’t lying to say that he really had gone all out. The chocobo in question is already saddled up for them, an enormous bird more than fit to take them both. Prompto really does try to keep a lid on his enthusiasm, but when he’s perched up there, Noct all pressed against his back, reins in hand, he’s grinning like an absolute idiot. And he doesn’t care that he is. It’s all so damn exciting, so exhilarating. It’s perfect.

They move slow when they head out of the corrals and away from the outpost, relatively speaking. There’s still a pleasant breeze ruffling through Prompto’s hair and they’re still going far quicker than if they walked. Prompto asks, after a little ways, if he could take control for a little bit. Noctis only promises that he can in a bit, that he has a spot in mind beforehand though, just a little bit more carefully orchestrated birthday magic.

The place he has his mind is a plateau set high a mile or two off from the outpost. The view there is stunning, endless sky above and landscape below for miles in any direction. It makes Prompto just a little bit dizzy when Noctis helps him down. Prompto’s legs are a little sore, wobbly from the ride and the now-unfamiliar sensation of it, but that fact can easily be set aside for how breathtaking it all is. Noctis tells him to enjoy it, because he’ll set up lunch. It’s a silly little bit, absolutely cliche. A tiny picnic, complete with a blanket spread on the ground and sandwiches prepared back at the outpost and canned drinks that overflow and draw a long bout of laughter when they try to open them.

Prompto doesn’t think it can get a whole lot better. They talk about nothing at all, really, all pressed together and working on their sandwiches. It’s a relief. It feels like being kids again, like being best friends again in a more straightforward, simple way. There’s still all that love, absolutely overflowing from Prompto, almost drowning him. There’s still the kisses they steal between bites and the hands that roam a little bit under the warmth of the sun. But, more than anything else, there’s the two of them together and happy and living a life they were never allowed to have.

“Okay. You have one more gift, then we can do whatever you want. It’s kinda small, so I hope you’re not too disappointed,” there’s a certain playfulness in Noct’s voice, sparkling right through his eyes when he says this. The food has been laid to waste by now, their trusty steed happily relaxing and munching on more chocobo-friendly snacks. Noctis is making for the saddlebag that held the components of the picnic even as he says this.

“ Another ? Noct, you went totally overboard. This is already perfect,” Prompto is still sitting on the blanket, toying with some of the crumbs, sipping occasionally at the frothy remnants of his soda. Noctis has absolutely outdone himself, there’s no denying, and another gift feels almost like overkill. Not that he’s complaining. He’s happy when Noctis settles behind him again, legs spread to either side of Prompto’s, arm dipping to hold against his waist.

“I think you’re technically supposed to be standing up, but I like it this way better,” Noctis has his voice pitched low when he speaks. There’s a certain shaky quality to it, one that makes Prompto frown. He seems nervous. He feels nervous, where he’s all tense around the arm, where he’s breathing a little quick where his chest is pressed to Prompto’s back.

“Noct…” Prompto doesn’t know what to make of it, but there’s a bit of concern rising. He feels Noct’s arm tighten a little at his waist and feels a kiss press against his shoulder, keeping him firmly in place.

“And I definitely didn’t come up with a speech. Ignis usually writes those for me. He said it ‘wouldn’t be appropriate’ here, though. So you can blame him for this being so weird,” Prompto doesn’t speak this time, but he can’t say he’s much other than confused, maybe a touch of Noct’s nerves catching on him. He tilts his head just a little, tries to get a look enough at Noct’s face to read his expression. It doesn’t quite work. Noctis is speaking again, though, “so, if you don’t like this or don’t want it or whatever, that’s okay, I understand. It’s a lot, and…”

“Noct, why are you giving me a disclaimer for a birthday gift?” Prompto’s voice is giving just a little bit of alarm. He practically feels Noct wince, but there’s a hint of laughter in his chest too. He shifts and he frees his hand from Prompto’s waist. He moves it to wrap tight around Prompto’s instead, and when his other hand joins, it’s holding an exceptionally small box. Prompto’s mind is a little fuzzy, a little blank. He doesn’t make the connection until Noctis, all trembling fingers and full-body tension against him, flips the thing open to reveal a heavy gold band set at a plush center.

“I was hoping you’d maybe wanna... “ he doesn’t get the words out entirely, but the gist is there and he’s raising that held hand. His thumb brushes with a heavy amount of significance over Prompto’s ring finger.

“...for real?” Prompto is pretty sure his response is the wrong one, but he’s also pretty sure that ‘maybe you wanna’ isn’t a widely accepted proposal, either. Noctis says that he’s absolutely for real and Prompto untangles their hands so that Noct can get the ring slid on. He feels shaky, dizzy, overwhelmed. He stares for what feels like an eternity at the ring on his finger, the way it catches the light, the delicate engraving of a feather on the band. He’s trying to will away the hot, wet sensation at his eyes, but it doesn’t quite work. Noctis pulls back, just so he can turn, so he can tug Prompto into his lap and catch his gaze properly.

“Good crying or bad crying?” Noctis asks this from time to time, because it’s been a real question through the course of the past few months. Prompto’s life while he was gone, his life even before Noct was whisked away, had been difficult. There are scars that don’t show, that haven’t healed, that leave him a mess at the most inopportune moments. He’s given up, more often than not, at keeping the tears at bay. Noctis doesn’t always know where they come from- Prompto doesn’t always know himself- so asking is only fair.

“Good. Really good. I...yeah, really good,” Prompto laughs through the tears and he laughs a little at the relief obvious on Noct’s face when he draws him in, arms crushing around him, breath hot against his neck.

“Totally should’ve ordered Ignis to write me a speech,” Prompto laughs again and he pulls up for a kiss. Then another. They’re lengthy and growing longer, the sort of kisses where they part for air and find that they still haven’t had enough. The tears don’t last long, though the kisses go salty for a moment or two between. They leave their foreheads resting together when they finally part, all breathless and utterly overwhelmed.

“You know how hard this is gonna be for me top on your next birthday?” Prompto goes for the joke, because Prompto always goes for the joke. Because that is their relationship, their friendship and their love and, apparently, soon enough their marriage. The teasing feels so easy and right, the same as just about everything between them does.

“Can’t wait to see you try.”

#promptis #prompto argentum #noctis lucis caelum #final fantasy xv #fanfic #my writing

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wsmith215 · 4 years

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The coronavirus pandemic taught me I was booking travel wrong in 5 ways I never thought of before and changed the way I’ll do it forever

A business class suite design by All Nippon Airways.

Thomas Pallini/Business Insider

As a seasoned traveler, I thought I knew all the best practices for booking travel before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

But I was proved wrong.

Having canceled a trip to Europe that was booked 10 months in advance the night before I was supposed to leave, I learned just what mistakes I had been making by not considering all possible scenarios.

I found that saving money doesn’t trump convenience in all cases and how you book matters the most.

Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Related Video: 15 College Students on How COVID-19 Derailed Their Lives

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the only potential issues I was worried about when booking a trip for months in the future were bad weather and catching a cold right before. Everything else, whether it be a flight delay or cancellation, I knew how to handle as a seasoned traveler.

In my journeys, I thought I’d dealt with it all and booked my travel accordingly. I was so confident in the system that it took a major pandemic to highlight the errors in my ways. Like most, I never thought that a global health crisis could hinder travel in the way that the coronavirus did for many.

The night of March 11, just a few hours before President Donald Trump’s announcement that travel to Europe would be restricted, I had assured family members that such a massive undertaking could never be done as it would be largely unprecedented. A few minutes after the announcement, I began the ongoing, months-long process of canceling the trip and getting my money back, which still hasn’t been fully achieved.

Despite the worldwide lockdown, it wasn’t easy to claw back the money I had shelled out for the trip. Had I done just a few things differently, I would’ve been able to recoup more than I did without having to fight for it.

Here’s how I’ll change my travel booking habits moving forward.

I’ll no longer book non-refundable accommodations and will seek out hotels with lenient cancellation policies.

Story continues

A hotel room.

Getty Images/Ken Ishii

Hotels will often offer discounts for prepaid bookings with savings of usually $20 or more, the catch being that they’re non-refundable in the event of a cancellation. The same applies to most car rentals, tours, and other activities.

While the practice was generally safe for those with pre-planned trips, barring any force majeure circumstances, some hotels during the pandemic decided to hold firm to those contracts even if the reason it couldn’t be fulfilled was a fast-spreading virus.

I’ll always look to save money on my trips and while that once included booking prepaid hotel stays, the flexibility gained from a fully cancelable stay is worth the extra charge. As the old saying goes, losses loom larger than gains so I’m seeking to minimize potential losses by paying more up-front.

If a hotel offers same-day or 24-hour cancellation and the stay is looking to be inevitable, the option to do a last-minute switch to the prepaid option is always there and can save you some money.

I’ll no longer book accommodations on third-party booking sites and would rather deal with hotels directly in case something goes wrong. A hotel room.

August_0802/Shutterstock

In the past, I saw no problem booking with websites like Expedia, Booking.com, and Hotels.com for hotel stays as they are reputable, have good loyalty programs, and I never had a problem. This go around, however, was another story.

Once travel restrictions were put into place, I immediately called the third-party booking site that I had made my hotel reservation with and the received a message stating that there was a technical glitch that prevented the site from taking more calls. This was the case for about a week.

When I did finally get someone on the phone, the resolution process took a week as the site was inundated with similar requests. In the future, I’d rather take my chances with the hotel directly and cut out the middle man, especially as the benefit of booking through a third-party is often negligible.

I’ll always keep a credit card until all trips I’ve booked on it are completed. Credit cards.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

I had booked the trip before I became financially diverse in terms of the amount of credit and debit cards I had in my wallet. At the time, I was only using one credit card but was considering investing in more worthwhile cards that offered more benefits. I ultimately settled on the Chase Sapphire Reserve and wasn’t too keen on keeping my original credit card.

About a month before the trip, I had firm intention to cancel the card but figured I’d wait just to make sure I didn’t get hit with any surprise payments that would incur a balance after I canceled as that could lower my credit score. I didn’t even think about my trip being put on the card when I booked 10 months prior.

When I went to go cancel my trip, I was told the funds would be refunded back to that card and I breathed a sigh of relief for not canceling the card earlier. Had I canceled the card, I would’ve had worked extensively with the credit card company to get that money refunded, ultimately delaying the amount of time it would take to be made whole.

I’ll no longer book a trip on a credit card for no reason when I can put the cost on a debit card. Chase Sapphire credit cards.

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

Most people put big trips on credit cards as it offers more time to pay off the large expense, offers travel protection, or earns points, which are all valid reasons. I learned the hard way, however, that if there’s no real reason to put a trip on a credit card, besides building credit, it’s better off going on a debit card.

After canceling my flight tickets to Europe on a credit card that the only benefit I received was 1% cash-back, I was left with a negative $300 balance in my credit card account. I had two options, either pay down the negative balance by putting most of my charges on the card or work with my credit company to get a check for the balance, both ways would delay getting whole again.

While my future bookings will go on my new credit card that offers genuine travel protection and assistance, those without notable travel perks should stick to booking on a debit card if the price allows.

I’ll pay more to fly an airline with a US phone line. A Ryanair aircraft taxis behind an easyJet aircraft at Manchester Airport in Manchester, UK.

REUTERS/Andrew Yates

I had booked travel within Spain and neighboring countries on a low-cost European airline that doesn’t operate to the US and thus, doesn’t have a US phone number or booking center. While this wasn’t a problem in the days leading up to the trip, it became a huge problem when I tried to go cancel the flight and could only ring a UK-based phone number.

The rate for the call would’ve been $.25/minute on Google Voice, which would add up if I was on hold for too long or if wait times were longer, which they were in the weeks following the shutdown of US-Europe travel. The price difference to take the Spanish national airlines, which had a toll-free US number, was around $20 but, again, it would have been worth it in the end for peace of mind.

I couldn’t have predicted that the world would be engulfed in a pandemic when I booked my trip for March 2020 back in June 2019 but now that I know these things can happen, I’ll be booking my travel differently from now on.

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justwravel-blog · 5 years

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15 Incredibly Useful Travel Tips for Egypt! Below you’ll find my top travel tips for Egypt along with a little personal advice sprinkled on top. I hope you find these Egypt travel tips helpful. If you find these tips to be helpful or you have some tips of your own, please be sure to leave a comment at the end of this article. Egypt is one of my favorite countries in the world for a variety of reasons. I’ve visited the country on four different occasions over the course of the last few years and three of those visits were 3 weeks or longer. While I love this country to pieces, it also should be known that it’s one of the more difficult countries I’ve ever traveled to. Ready to learn more about my top 15 travel tips for Egypt? Let’s get started.

Travel Insurance

When preparing for a trip to Egypt your first priority should be to make sure you make the small investment towards your health and well being by purchasing a flexible, reputable and affordable travel insurance policy for your trip. Not only will this travel insurance policy cover you if your bags are lost/stolen and if your flight is delayed/canceled, but you’ll also be covered for all medical and injury-related issues as well. Let’s face it. No parents, family or friends want to have to cover the cost of you getting MedEvaced home from the middle of Egypt. As you know, in life, things happen. Do yourself a favor and get your coverage now so you can rest assured that you’ll be taken care of in the event of a serious emergency in Egypt.

Hire an Egypt Tour Guide

Planning a trip to Egypt isn’t as easy as you’d think. From accommodations to transportation and planning all the smaller logistics, there always seems to be a major disconnect somewhere along the way. As you know, I’m more of an independent traveler than anything else and I rarely recommend hiring a tour guide. If there’s one place in the world that I would recommend hiring a guide, it’s in Egypt. Why? Because Egypt is a very unique and difficult country to travel to if you don’t have any prior experience. In order to be sure that you have the best trip possible, my advice is to head on over to my recent article:

Bring Your Haggling Skills

One of the most important skills you need in order to have a positive experience in Egypt is the skill of haggling and negotiating. Everything is negotiable in Egypt and it’s expected so don’t worry about offending anyone with your offers. From buying water at the corner store to shopping for souvenirs at the market to non-metered taxis, haggling is absolutely necessary.

Bring Your Own Toilet Paper

Bring your own toilet paper. Trust me on this one. You’ll be hard-pressed to find toilet paper in most restrooms in Egypt. The toilets have a built-in bidet spray nozzle for those who forget to bring toilet paper along but who the heck wants to walk out of the bathroom with a wet behind? Not me. That’s for sure. I think it’s safe to assume you wouldn’t either. To avoid this sticky situation simply stop into a local shop and pick up a roll of TP and take enough to last you the day when you’re heading out to explore.

Use Uber in Cairo

Did you know Uber operates in the city of Cairo? If not, well now you know. What’s even better is that you can get your first ride free (up to 70 EGP or approximately $8 USD) when signing up for a new Uber account. While taxis are generally safe and easy to use, Uber is definitely your best bet if you’re looking to move around the city without worries. All you have to do to take advantage of this Uber first ride free discount is the following:

Beware of Scammers

Be careful who you trust in Egypt. Many people are out for your money. That being said, you should be able to figure out who is genuine and who's not after the first few minutes of conversation. If a person mentions a single thing about money, simply move along. Personally, I’ve met some of the most genuine people in the world during my travels to Egypt, so I highly recommend that you attempt to initiate a conversation with the locals. Note: If someone approaches you and starts to tell you that he owns a perfume shop, or mentions the Arabic word “baksheesh” which means “tip” in English, tell them “La, Shukran” which means “No, thank you.” in English and simply walk the other way.

Always Ask for Prices

Ask the price before buying water, soda, candy, and anything else that you can imagine buying at a convenience store. If you’re used to paying a lower price in other shops for your item, haggle with the shop owner a bit to get a little closer to the local rate.

Use the Cairo Metro System

The Cairo Metro system is surprisingly one of the more efficient metro systems that I’ve encountered on my travels. Be aware that it’s rare that you’ll run into other foreigners on the metro. I’ve taken the metro countless times and never once saw another tourist or foreigner. Considering you’ll be a minority, expect the train to go silent at times and when you look up, the entire car will be looking at you out of curiosity. Did you know that the Cairo Metro system is the first of two built and completed metro systems in the entire continent of Africa?

Wear Comfortable Shoes

Walking shoes or comfortable sneakers are best when planning a trip to Egypt. Sure, you can wear flip flops or sandals from time to time but please realize that the streets of Cairo and the majority of Egypt are dirty therefore you’ll be sure to return to your hotel with a pair of dirty feet.

Don’t Forget to Wash Your Hands

Carry hand sanitizer with you when you travel to Egypt! You’ll constantly be touching doors, handrails, and currency while you’re in the city and you won’t be the only one touching these things. Remember, there are an estimated 20-25 million people in Cairo. Be sure to wash your hands often and use hand sanitizer whenever you don’t have the opportunity to make a bathroom stop.

Watch Your Step

Watch where you’re walking while exploring the city. The streets of Cairo are not maintained well. One time I got really lucky and avoided breaking an ankle or worse after my foot and half of my leg fell into a hole in the sidewalk while walking through the city. This was not your typical pothole, this was a hole that engulfed half of my leg to above my knee. Dangerous isn’t even the word for the streets and sidewalks in Cairo. Beware.

Stay Hydrated

No worries about drinking tap water because nobody drinks it (including the locals). During your trip, you’ll be buying lots of bottled water. You’ll need it to brush your teeth, drink during the day and maybe even some to pour over your head after being in the extreme heat all day. Note: As a foreigner, you’ll be charged anywhere from 4 to 10 EGP for a “big bottle” (1.5, 2 liters) of water depending on where you purchase it. Trust me, you can get these bottles for 2, 2.5 EGP. Just haggle with the shop owner and you’ll get it for 2 EGP. If they say that it’s 4, or 5 EGP just tell them that you buy water down the street all the time for 2EGP and they’ll usually have no problem selling it to you. Just be aware of what the real “Egyptian” prices are for certain items and you’ll be fine.

Eat Where the Locals Eat

There is a universal rule for consuming food in foreign countries. The rule is to only eat at street stalls and restaurants that are occupied by locals. If there’s nobody in the restaurant during what should be a busy time of day, avoid it. If there’s a line of locals standing in front of a street stall, get in line because you know that it’s not only great food but it’s also very affordable.

Cross the Streets with Confidence

The driving and traffic in Cairo will be shocking to you when you first arrive. Crossing the streets is quite intimidating at first but after you get used to it, you’ll be crossing the streets without issue. Trust me, there’s a science to it! Don’t bother getting assistance from the “Tourist Police” when crossing the roads as it’s not necessary. Note: If you’re wondering why a police officer is asking you for baksheesh (tip) it’s because they probably just did something for you that you thought was a kind gesture (like escorting you across the road). This happens often so be prepared.

Respect the Dress Code and Culture

If you’re planning on traveling to Egypt please do your research before you leave. Many foreigners arrive in Egypt and dress like they’re still in their home country. This type of behavior can and will attract more unwanted attention, stares, and even perhaps physical advances by Egyptian men. In order to blend in a little more and avoid disrespecting the culture, my best advice is to choose your clothing carefully. Females:

Be sure to keep your knees and shoulders covered at all times.

Bring a scarf to cover your hair when visiting mosques and other religious sights.

Always remove shoes before entering a mosque.

If you’re visiting a mosque and do not have something to cover your shoulders, legs (from the knee down), and hair the staff will likely provide you with an oversized robe.

Bikinis and other swimwear are totally acceptable to wear while at the resorts on the Red Sea.

Males:

Wearing shorts when exploring the city isn’t a problem but you’ll need a pair of long pants or jeans for the evenings as well as when you visit someone's home or get invited to an event.

Sleeveless shirts, tank tops, and gym attire is not acceptable. Don’t be that guy.

Think light, comfy and layers for the chilly nights.

Swimming trunks and other swimwear would be acceptable to wear at the resorts or wandering around town in the destinations on the Red Sea.

Check Egypt Tour Packages from USA

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chancetumg048-blog · 5 years

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Insider Tips to Avoid Having GMAC Deny Your Loan Modification

If you are a homeowner having problem paying your home mortgage please know that you are not alone! There are 10s of countless property owners throughout the United States who have actually missed their payments currently or will miss this month's payment! There are options for you and there is hope!

Here are 10 Things that you should NEVER EVER do if you will fall behind or lag on your home mortgage:

1. DONT bury your head in the sand!

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Although it can be appealing to simply not do anything and let the cards fall where they may, DONT! You HAVE options and require to do something to change the situation. In a current poll taken of individuals who did absolutely nothing and wound up having their home foreclosed on about 94% stated they wished they could do it over once again. They would check out other choices, go over the possibility of a brief sale, or at least pursue a loan modification.

2. DONT call and chew out your loan provider!

Will you feel much better? Most likely, but what about the bad customer support rep whom you just screamed at that does not care if the bank gets any loan or not? The choice makers that you require to speak with about your situation probably will never ever take your call leaving you ranting and raving to someone who can't change anything and now probably wouldn't if they could! "You can catch more flies with honey" definitely uses here! You can be relentless and still be'll get much even more!

3. DONT sell your house at a deep discount when you have equity!

If anybody from "We purchase your home for money in 7 days" or something along those lines offers to buy your property then opportunities are you might offer it for a much greater quantity by using a professional genuine estate agent, consequently putting MORE loan in your pocket at the close. Always talk to a realty expert prior to selling your property - there ought to never be a charge or a charge for a consultation and an excellent representative will most likely get you much more money than some investment company seeking to make a quick buck.

4. DONT deed your residential or commercial property over to any 3rd parties!

The majority of the time when somebody asks you to deed your residential or commercial property over to them it is a rip-off! Always seek advice from a lawyer or expert real estate representative before signing any documentation like this! If the person tells you NOT to discuss it with anybody then run the other way as quick as you can!

5. DONT try to do a short sale or other foreclosure avoidance approach alone!

It's a good concept to do as much research study as possible about short sales, loan modifications, deeds-in-lieu, etc. Then get in touch with the market specialists in your location and let them help you through the process. Just because you enjoy "HOME" does not suggest you can go out and start carrying out surgical treatment!

6. DONT pay any outrageous in advance fees!

Numerous short sale agents do not charge any charges upfront. If they do it's generally a small fee less than $500.00 and covers marketing, documentation, etc. Property representatives are paid at closing from the loan provider. Loan modification experts must charge best around $3000.00 for an effective loan modification. If you are priced estimate anything greater than these quantities you should find somebody else to help you.

7. DONT strip products from your house!

This is a criminal activity and you can be prosecuted for it! I understand it can be tempting to tear up that carpet and rob the cabinet hardware and sell everything on eBay but it's a criminal activity and it's not worth it. A number of these individuals are being caught and prosecuted fully by the lending institutions.

8. DONT work with simply anyone to help you!.

Know who you have helping you through this transaction. Do your research, find out whatever you can about the process, then call the specific experts in your area and ask some questions. I make sure there are a great deal of realty representatives in your area however just how much do they understand about brief sales? Make sure to ask! Not all lawyers are new fidelity funding yelp versed in realty laws so call around and discover! And not all loan mod experts are all that special! Do your research - if they can't answer your concerns, promise more than you think they can deliver, or if you just aren't comfy with them then proceed.

9. DONT get prevented!

Conserving a house, conserving your credit, or buying your future are not fast repairs and can require time. Don't get too prevented through the procedure and keep your head high and a favorable attitude. It will not just make you feel much better but quicker than you understand it you'll hear those magic words "WE HAVE AN APPROVAL!"

10. DONT quit.

When you have missed a home mortgage payment or understand you will be missing out on one or more in the future it can appear like you remain in scary, unfamiliar territory. You may ask yourself; "How did I get into this? How did I let this happen?" Please know that you are not alone and there IS hope! You have options and there IS a light at the end of the tunnel. The only person who can decide to fix this problem is you and YOU CAN DO IT! Now head out there and take your primary step toward LIBERTY from your mortgage issues!

#refinance #home loan #mortgage loan #loan modification

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harrisjv · 5 years

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Private Cash Sites Review Discount And Huge Bonus

Private Cash Sites Testimonial - Are you looking for even more expertise concerning Private Cash Sites? Please review my honest testimonial about it before choosing, to evaluate the weaknesses and also toughness of it. Can it be worth your time and effort and also money?

Private Cash Sites Evaluation & Overview

Creator: TriadEXCEL Advertising

Item: Private Cash Sites

Release Date: 2019-Feb-15

Introduce Time: 00:00 EST

Front-End Price: $47

Particular niche: Listing Structure

21 Secret Truths About Successful Online Companies That Nobody Comprehends

There are a lot of false impressions concerning what it requires to run an effective online organisation. I discover that also experienced company owner commonly undervalue the time, power as well as ability it takes to truly do well online.

This article will certainly check out 21 "secret" truths that set successful online services aside from the rest. If you want to do well at developing your Private Cash Sites on-line realm. Make note.

1. They expand quickly.

While it's unusual that an on the internet organisation becomes an overnight success, it's equally as rare for it to take greater than a couple of years. This is specifically true in really affordable particular niches. If you're a year or 2 in as well as haven't grown in any way, it's probably time to reassess your business design.

2. They utilize amazing devices to save money and time.

I test you to find a solitary, successful online service that does not depend on at the very least 5-10 remarkable devices to run their service. As a matter of fact, I would certainly say that tools are an absolute requirement for every online organisation. From social media sites management tools to on-line invoicing devices, to team interaction devices, these are crucial to conserving you time and money as well as enhancing your efficiency.

3. Part of achieving success is knowing when to surrender.

I can detail a bunch of "never ever quit" prices estimate here, but that would just negate my factor. Successful online entrepreneur recognize that often you absolutely MUST cut your losses and also generally there will be something or somebody you need to quit on. It might be a strategy, a person or perhaps on an entire Private Cash Sites service endeavor.

A good general rule: if relied on consultants or colleagues are telling you it's time to quit on something, do yourself a support-- pay attention as well as consider what is being stated. You can't track every little thing.

4. They outsource. In some cases, A LOT.

Advertising magnate David Ogilvy famously stated, "Work with individuals far better than you are, then leave them to obtain on with it." The very same opts for contracting out. If you intend to remain competitive, contract out everything that a) does not come normally to you, as well as b) that you do not take pleasure in doing. This will release you up to concentrate on what you love, which is vital to lasting development.

5. Social media is their not-so-secret tool.

You can not run a successful online company without utilizing social media sites. Just over two years ago, Shareholic revealed that almost a third of all reference website traffic was from social media sites. I suspect this number is considerably higher today. If you're not making use of social media to reach brand-new consumers and also to connect with current ones, you don't stand a possibility.

6. They know that passive income is never completely passive.

Many individuals have this concept that running an online business permits you to work minimal hours while drinking a margarita on the beach. And also while it does provide you far more flexibility than a standard work, "passive income" is a little bit of a misnomer. Even if your organisation is very automated as well as can run mostly without your hands-on involvement, a lot of Private Cash Sites on the internet companies will certainly still need you to manage as well as handle the large photo jobs (which, admittedly, you can usually do while laying on the coastline).

7. They concentrate on the large picture.

Running an on the internet business isn't for everybody. If you tend to spend even more time on details than you do on establishing goals, making plans, trying to find fads, etc., running an on-line business may not be the path for you.

8. They know the value they provide - as well as bill as necessary.

You'll never compete long term by undervaluing your service or products. While it might be tempting originally to undercut the competition in order to make a name for yourself, it's often better to set prices that are sustainable for your service for the direct future.

9. They grow their list from the first day.

Email marketing is an important approach for all companies. But for on-line businesses, it's definitely essential. Research study is clear that e-mail advertising and marketing leads to boosted click-through prices, involvement, as well as sales. Actually, some study recommends email provides a higher ROI than any kind of various other advertising channel. Focus on developing your listing from the first day to see these advantages for your very own organisation.

10. They resolve an actual trouble.

Just like any kind of kind of organisation, locating a genuine requirement in your specific niche is essential. What problem or Private Cash Sites concern can you help solve? Does your product and services really resolve that problem? If not, what can you do to make that happen?

11. They distinguish themselves.

Simply exactly how big is the global e-commerce market? Some estimate that it's a trillion buck market spread among 12 million on the internet shops. Effective online local business owner understand the significance of separating themselves so they can actually claim their piece of the pie.

12. They comprehend the value of incredible material.

Material advertising isn't optional anymore, especially for on-line companies. If you're not producing a constant stream of pertinent, beneficial content, you don't have an opportunity of succeeding. Uncertain where to begin? Take a look at my thorough content advertising overview.

13. They go done in.

Some individuals believe they can construct an on-line realm in their extra time. They put most of their effort and time right into their 9-5 task, then adjust their company when they seem like it. Effective online companies are hardly ever developed by doing this. If you treat it like a leisure activity, it will certainly remain a pastime. Provide your online service the focus it should have as well as treats it like the genuine company it is.

14. They listen to their customers.

Don't take too lightly the worth your clients offer the procedure of growing as well as creating your online service. Nella Chunky, the creator of hugely effective apparel firm Fresh-Tops, believes Private Cash Sites customer recommendations were key to her start-up's success: "We relied on e-mail requests as well as recommendations from our social media sites fans when determining exactly how to move forward and what things to include in our line, and also it worked actually well."

15. They pursue their passion.

Running an online business can be challenging, which is why it's so vital you're passionate regarding what you're doing. Ask on your own: Can I see myself still be in this organisation in 5-10 years? Otherwise, it's probably better to move directions as well as pick something you actually care about.

16. They spend heavily in Search Engine Optimization.

According to research study from Ascend2, 82% of marketers think the effectiveness of SEO gets on the increase. Obtaining high rankings in the online search engine is imperative for an on the internet company, as this will likely be just one of your biggest resources of web traffic. Required some aid with optimizing your site? Take a look at The Newbie's Guide To SEO.

17. They do something about it even before every little thing's ideal.

Ryan French, Creator of GameKlip has fantastic recommendations for new company owner: do not wait until everything's ideal to get relocating. He composes, "Do not seem like you require to understand every little thing, or that everything has to be ideal prior to you begin. I knew absolutely nothing about running a service, had no concept exactly how to have actually something produced, and also had no idea just how to ship a package overseas. I've currently shipped countless Private Cash Sites systems to over 80 nations worldwide. It will not be easy, there'll be numerous factors where you seem like giving up, yet it deserves it."

18. They quit searching for the cash cow.

There is no magic bullet when it concerns constructing a successful online business. Yet numerous company owner throw away a lots of time trying to find that one technique or approach that will catapult them to success. The truth is, if there were a gold mine, it would certainly be determination and hard work. Fail to remember looking for that wonderful thing, place your head down, and do the effort of running your company.

19. They have an actual plan (a composed one).

An additional common mistaken belief concerning on-line companies: individuals simply sort of locate your website, acquire your stuff, and you begin making lots of loan. This isn't real for brick and mortar businesses, and it most definitely isn't real for online ones! Effective on-line businesses profit greatly from a solid company plan, along with a documented marketing technique.

20. They do not allow failure defeat them up.

Similar to any company, failing is just part of the landscape. It's what you do when you fall short that counts. Search Engine Optimization approach not driving traffic? Choose various key phrases. Material marketing stopping working? Concentrate on more thorough content. Social network blog posts not obtaining involvement? Research your competitors to see what you can imitate (or do far better).

21. They're dominating their Private Cash Sites niche.

If you take something from this article, let it be this: do not bang your head against the wall trying to compete with the huge guys. Rather, specific niche down and also focus on a subset of your sector - and also do whatever you can to control in that location. For instance, among my very first niches was Christmas tree storage.

Rather than targeting the whole holiday style sector, we concentrated solely on developing our credibility as using the most effective storage space at the most affordable prices. We swiftly developed a 7-figure organisation using this method - something we can have never done if we had actually pursued the huge guys!

What Is Private Cash Sites?

I Intended To REVEAL Something Incredibly Exciting Associating With The "Spin" That I Was Discussing.

I pointed out a minute ago that we were going to do be doing the help you - as well as obtaining other individuals to meet the solutions that you offer, on your behalf.

Well, THIS is what "Personal Cash Money Sites" is everything about.

What we are mosting likely to do is deal with whatever, eliminate any kind of guesswork on your part as well as leave it pretty much "hands-free" for you, so your focus is simply on making sales as well as revenues.

So what does this actually mean and just how will it operate in method?

Let me discuss ...

One of the secrets to developing an effective organisation is to replicate what is already verified to work (rather than reinventing the wheel).

... and also this is specifically what we are doing below.

Yet ... in this circumstances, we're taking it a step further.

Not just are we mosting likely to provide you all the training you need to be successful with this service design ...

You'll Get The Opportunity To Team Up And Also Companion With United States.

I know 'collaboration' is a spin that you have actually heard bandied regarding in the past - yet in this instance it is actually the fact - because you'll be able to ...

Replicate Our Proven Equipment And Also Generate Income With Them Yourself.

In company terms, what we're speaking about below is known as a franchise.

If you're unsure as to what a franchise business is, do not stress - it's easy to understand.

Franchising is like having a service plan that has actually been CONFIRMED to earn money.

The concept is that the "franchisor" (the original organisation) has actually experienced the procedure of getting know-how in a particular location as well as has actually developed a successful business.

... They then allow other people to duplicate that success by giving them a whole system for operating their own variation of business whilst enabling them to use their brand as well as sell their product or services.

Let me elaborate with an instance ...

Among the biggest as well as most successful franchise business on the planet is McDonalds. Love them or hate them, they are EXTREMELY effective in service and also earnings terms.

Virtually $10 BILLION DOLLARS is generated each year from their franchised restaurants that other individuals very own as well as run.

The method this functions is rather basic ...

A person seeks authorization from McDonalds to open a restaurant area in a particular location of a town or city.

When McDonald's gives them the thumbs-up, they will certainly give them all the recipes, devices, procedures as well as marketing products that they need in order to open the dining establishment and also hit the ground operating.

To ensure that's exactly how McDonald's do it.

But how will it work in the case of 'Exclusive Cash Money Sites' and business version we are talking about today?

Every Little Thing Will Be Set Up For You On A SILVER PLATE

First of all we are mosting likely to fast-track you to expert condition in this extraordinary service version, then we are mosting likely to give the opportunity to companion with us.

We're literally hand you EVERYTHING you require to build your very own version of the business in collaboration with us.

Everything will be established for you, pre-packaged as well as ready-to-go. You won't also require to buy a domain name.

You merely choose your territory (we'll explain what this means in a moment), allow us produce your individual service internet site and also tailored advertising and marketing products, get set-up with our automated marketing systems and also go out with the capacity to begin making sales practically instantaneously.

Conclusion

"It's A Good deal. Should I Spend Today?"

Not just are you obtaining access to Private Cash Sites for the best rate ever before offered, but additionally You're investing completely without risk. Private Cash Sites consist of a 30-day Money Back Guarantee Plan. When you pick Private Cash Sites, your satisfaction is guaranteed. If you are not entirely pleased with it for any factor within the initial 30 days, you're entitled to a full reimbursement - no question asked. You've got nothing to lose! What Are You Waiting on? Try It today and also obtain The Following Incentive Currently!

#Private Cash Sites #Private Cash Sites review #Private Cash Sites reviews #Private Cash Sites Bonus #Private Cash Sites Discount

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sphynxtee · 4 years

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Blood inside me HERSHEYS covid19 2020 I cant stay at home shirt

Are you currently fed up with buying in malls or tiny stores as a result of high prices and very long lines? Happily for you personally, you may shop online! Having a few easy clicks of the mouse, you can get issues from the ease and comfort of your own residence. Before you start, review the important information provided on this page to get the best internet shopping practical experience.

An up to date anti-virus plan is crucial to obtain when shopping online. You may stumbled upon a great deal of believe websites although shopping on the web. Online hackers build web sites that may infect your personal computer with trojans and other malicious software applications. Get affordable safeguards before visiting any on the web place, regardless of your level of rely on.

Keep close track of your bank account when you shop on the internet, and ensure all charges are saved to the up-and-up. Although an organization like Amazon.com is surely worthy of your rely on, they can make mistakes way too. With nearly everything entirely automatic, it doesn t get very much for the decimal or absolutely no to add an enormous change to your buy!

When searching for a provider out of which to purchase something, you should guard towards providing your details to unknown retailers. Become informed about safety icons including Cybertrust or Verisign to help you assess if a web site is legit and worried about your security.

To be able to store such as a master online, you have to make the most of any discount rates you could realize that are merely available to people that purchase online. Sign up for news letters, every day offers and search for coupon codes prior to making your buy. Often you will find discounts readily available in the event you make time to try to find them.

Make sure you comprehend who seems to be liable if an object will get broken throughout shipment while shopping online. Some merchants will be responsible for this, and some input it around the shipping business. Make sure you know who get in touch with and that is sensible if products are damages or need to be sent back.

Spend some time to look for the very best bargains when you shop on the web. This is one of the greatest features of shopping on the internet. In traditional store shopping, you must check out numerous stores to discover the most effective price. Nevertheless, when shopping on the internet, another merchants are only a mouse mouse click away and you may always be sure you will find the least expensive cost.

Do not go to just one on the web merchant to buy something. Do some selling price assessment with some other shops. Examine the product fees in addition to shipping costs and their return guarantee. If you have this data, you are able to sleep assure that you can expect to buy from a retailer whom you can count on.

Thankfully, shopping not any longer demands needing to push or walk yourself to the nearest shop and go through big crowds. You can now store through the convenience of your own property by shopping on the internet. You happen to be now aware about exceptional information on shopping on the internet, so utilize them in order to take advantage of the best prices.

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Im not as stupid as people think I my I just play stupid shirt

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