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Why Harry Potter Doesn't Live Up to the Legend of His Name
2024.05.14 13:16 DeanOnEverything Why Harry Potter Doesn't Live Up to the Legend of His Name
As a fan of both the Harry Potter books and films, I've often pondered the disparity between the legend of Harry Potter's name and his actual accomplishments. From the moment Hagrid brings him to the wizarding world, Harry is treated as if he's some sort of mythical figure, destined for greatness. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that Harry's journey doesn't quite live up to the lofty expectations set by his name.
Early Hype vs. Reality
From the very beginning of the series, Harry Potter is hailed as "The Boy Who Lived," a title that carries immense weight and expectation. Every mention of his name elicits awe and reverence from those around him, as if he's destined to be the saviour of the wizarding world. Yet, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Harry is just an ordinary boy thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
Struggles and Setbacks
Throughout his time at Hogwarts, Harry faces numerous challenges and obstacles, but he's far from the infallible hero that his name implies. He makes mistakes, he doubts himself, and he often requires the help of his friends to overcome adversity. While he certainly displays bravery and resilience, he doesn't possess the prodigious talent or innate skill that one might expect from someone with his reputation.
Unfulfilled Potential
One of the most disappointing aspects of Harry's character development is the sense of unfulfilled potential. Given his status as "The Boy Who Lived" and the chosen one destined to defeat Voldemort, one would expect Harry to evolve into the world's strongest wizard. However, as the series progresses, it becomes evident that Harry's strengths lie more in his courage and loyalty than in his magical abilities.
Final Verdict
In the end, while Harry Potter undoubtedly plays a crucial role in the defeat of Voldemort and the salvation of the wizarding world, he falls short of the legendary status that his name suggests. He may not be the most powerful wizard or the smartest student at Hogwarts, but he is a symbol of resilience, friendship, and the triumph of good over evil. And perhaps, in the end, that's a legacy worth celebrating in its own right.
Conclusion
While the legend of Harry Potter may not entirely live up to the lofty expectations set by his name, his journey remains a captivating and deeply resonant tale of courage, friendship, and the power of love. Through the trials and tribulations he faces, Harry emerges not as a mythical hero, but as something far more profound: a beacon of hope and resilience in the face of adversity.
Harry's story is not just about defeating dark wizards or mastering spells; it's about overcoming personal struggles, forging lasting bonds of friendship, and discovering the true meaning of bravery and sacrifice. His journey serves as a powerful reminder that heroism is not measured by the magnitude of one's magical abilities, but by the strength of one's character and the depth of one's convictions.
In the end, it is Harry's unwavering commitment to his friends and his unwavering belief in the power of love that ultimately defines him as a hero. He may not be the world's strongest wizard, but he possesses a courage and resilience that far surpasses any magical prowess. He is a hero not because of the title bestowed upon him, but because of the choices he makes and the sacrifices he is willing to endure for the greater good.
As we journey alongside Harry through the pages of J.K. Rowling's beloved series, we are reminded that true heroism lies not in the grandeur of one's deeds, but in the quiet moments of kindness, compassion, and selflessness that define us as human beings. Harry Potter may not live up to the legend of his name, but in the hearts of fans around the world, he will always be remembered as a symbol of hope, resilience, and the enduring power of magic.
submitted by DeanOnEverything to u/DeanOnEverything [link] [comments]
Early Hype vs. Reality
From the very beginning of the series, Harry Potter is hailed as "The Boy Who Lived," a title that carries immense weight and expectation. Every mention of his name elicits awe and reverence from those around him, as if he's destined to be the saviour of the wizarding world. Yet, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Harry is just an ordinary boy thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
Struggles and Setbacks
Throughout his time at Hogwarts, Harry faces numerous challenges and obstacles, but he's far from the infallible hero that his name implies. He makes mistakes, he doubts himself, and he often requires the help of his friends to overcome adversity. While he certainly displays bravery and resilience, he doesn't possess the prodigious talent or innate skill that one might expect from someone with his reputation.
Unfulfilled Potential
One of the most disappointing aspects of Harry's character development is the sense of unfulfilled potential. Given his status as "The Boy Who Lived" and the chosen one destined to defeat Voldemort, one would expect Harry to evolve into the world's strongest wizard. However, as the series progresses, it becomes evident that Harry's strengths lie more in his courage and loyalty than in his magical abilities.
Final Verdict
In the end, while Harry Potter undoubtedly plays a crucial role in the defeat of Voldemort and the salvation of the wizarding world, he falls short of the legendary status that his name suggests. He may not be the most powerful wizard or the smartest student at Hogwarts, but he is a symbol of resilience, friendship, and the triumph of good over evil. And perhaps, in the end, that's a legacy worth celebrating in its own right.
Conclusion
While the legend of Harry Potter may not entirely live up to the lofty expectations set by his name, his journey remains a captivating and deeply resonant tale of courage, friendship, and the power of love. Through the trials and tribulations he faces, Harry emerges not as a mythical hero, but as something far more profound: a beacon of hope and resilience in the face of adversity.
Harry's story is not just about defeating dark wizards or mastering spells; it's about overcoming personal struggles, forging lasting bonds of friendship, and discovering the true meaning of bravery and sacrifice. His journey serves as a powerful reminder that heroism is not measured by the magnitude of one's magical abilities, but by the strength of one's character and the depth of one's convictions.
In the end, it is Harry's unwavering commitment to his friends and his unwavering belief in the power of love that ultimately defines him as a hero. He may not be the world's strongest wizard, but he possesses a courage and resilience that far surpasses any magical prowess. He is a hero not because of the title bestowed upon him, but because of the choices he makes and the sacrifices he is willing to endure for the greater good.
As we journey alongside Harry through the pages of J.K. Rowling's beloved series, we are reminded that true heroism lies not in the grandeur of one's deeds, but in the quiet moments of kindness, compassion, and selflessness that define us as human beings. Harry Potter may not live up to the legend of his name, but in the hearts of fans around the world, he will always be remembered as a symbol of hope, resilience, and the enduring power of magic.
2024.05.14 12:45 Errora403 PUBG MOBILE VERSION 3.2 UPDATE ANNOUNCEMENT
 | Report bugs here and earn rewards: https://pubgmobile.live/supportPUBG MOBILE will begin pushing out the update on 5/13 at 2:00 (UTC+0). Service will not be interrupted. To ensure a quick and smooth update, please be in a good network environment and make sure you have enough available storage on your device. Update Reward: Update the game between 5/13–5/27 (UTC+0) to get 3,000 BP, 100 AG, and a Mecha Warship Theme (3d). Key Updates
New Themed Mode: Mecha FusionAvailable: 2024/5/13 at 2:00 (UTC+0)–2024/7/9 at 20:59 (UTC+0)Supported Maps: Erangel, Livik, and Miramar (Ranked and Unranked) https://preview.redd.it/6m82y04sfd0d1.png?width=1384&format=png&auto=webp&s=a0ce25f8079e2fabcfe43c9bb5b98fb3d648170e New Mecha Vehicles
Brand New Environments
New Items
New Legendary Pilot ChallengeGet themed items, special vehicle cosmetics, Armamech dance emotes, special Elimination Broadcasts, and more by completing this difficult themed mode challenge.World of WonderAvailable: Releases with the versionhttps://preview.redd.it/p1fd1vgtfd0d1.png?width=1384&format=png&auto=webp&s=e85c32e7ca039909f454cf08cf359f0df7137de5 World of Wonder Updates
New Gameplay Devices
Gameplay Device Improvements
New Interactive Objects
Interactive Object Improvements
Controls & Interaction
Game Parameters
Other Updates
Classic UpdatesLivik Map Updates
Erangel Map Updates
Home UpdatesThe Home System is permanently available, and will be updated each version with interesting gameplay and building cosmetics.Home CompetitionSubmission Period: 2024/5/13 at 00:00–2024/6/1 at 8:59 (UTC+0)Selection Period: 2024/6/1 at 9:00–2024/7/1 at 9:00 (UTC+0)
Home Events
Home Building Updates
Home Resource & Content Updates
Metro Royale UpdatesAvailable: 2024/5/15 at 1:00 (UTC+0)Matchmaking: 2024/5/15 at 2:00 (UTC+0)
Firearm & Vehicle Improvements
General Improvements
System Improvements
New Season: Cycle 6 Season 18Available: 2024/5/18 at 2:00 (UTC+0)–2024/7/15 at 23:59 (UTC+0)https://preview.redd.it/4125d8rwfd0d1.png?width=1384&format=png&auto=webp&s=a74a0f8340ef11eecf1c7d4c0e9f9104b22ad806
All-Talent Championship S19Available: 2024/5/20–2024/7/4 (UTC+0)
Popularity Gift EventsNew Redemption Shop
Popularity Battle EventRegistration Period: 2024/5/14 at 00:00–2024/5/19 at 8:59 (UTC+0)Battle Period: 2024/5/19 at 9:00–2024/6/18 at 9:00 (UTC+0)
Team Popularity Battle EventRegistration Period: 2024/6/17 at 00:00–2024/6/23 at 8:59 (UTC+0)Battle Period: 2024/6/23 at 9:00–2024/7/9 at 9:30 (UTC+0)
Security & Game Environment ImprovementsAccount Security
Security Strategy Improvements
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2024.05.14 12:06 ditord Blackout 2024: Why Social Media Users Are Blocking Celebrities Like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé
There's a new movement on social media called "Blackout 2024" sparked by celebrities' views (or lack thereof) on Palestine.
Context:
Last week's Met Gala highlighted the disparity between celebrity opulence and global suffering. Influencer Haley Baylee (real name Haley Kalil) posed in an extravagant floral gown, saying, "Let them eat cake" along with a TikTok sound. This phrase, attributed to Marie Antoinette, symbolizes an out-of-touch attitude toward the suffering of the masses. Although historians doubt she actually said it, the phrase remains a powerful symbol of severe wealth inequality.
Photos of the Met Gala flooded social media alongside images of Israel's attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The stark contrast between celebrities displaying wealth and Palestinians mourning their dead shocked the world. People compared it to The Hunger Games, where the wealthy Capitol residents dressed opulently while children died in the games. The book series' author, Suzanne Collins, drew inspiration from flipping between Iraq War coverage and reality TV shows.
The Blackout 2024 Movement:
TikTok user @ladyfromtheoutside started the Blackout 2024 movement, frustrated with celebrities' silence on Palestine. "It’s time to block all the celebrities, influencers, and wealthy socialites who are not using their resources to help those in dire need," she said in a video with 2.5 million views. "We gave them their platforms. It’s time to take it back, take our views away, our likes, our comments, our money."
People have differing views on who deserves to be blocked. For example, some believe Billie Eilish should be boycotted for not posting about Palestine, while others argue her Ceasefire pin at the Oscars showed her stance.
Celebrities Respond:
Some celebrities have spoken out. Haley Baylee posted a nearly 9-minute apology video, explaining she wasn't an official Met Gala guest but a host interviewing celebs. She claimed ignorance on the Palestine issue, which drew backlash. Critics argued that in the seven months since the attacks began, there has been ample time to educate oneself.
Three days ago, Lizzo posted a TikTok sharing GoFundMe pages and organizations helping people in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo, stating she had donated to all three. Commenters pointed out the timing and questioned why a millionaire asked regular people to donate.
Impact:
The campaign seems to be making an impact. Haley Baylee's follower count dropped from 10 million to 9.9 million. Social media users claim Kim Kardashian also lost followers after her ambiguous "Free everybody" comment to a "Free Palestine" protestor.
Operation Blockout:
Online critics argue that events like the annual Met Gala, where elite figures from the fashion world showcase their extravagant styles, highlight the disconnect between such opulence and pressing social issues. As attendees dazzled in dramatic attire, protests in support of Palestine were underway just blocks away in New York City. This juxtaposition sparked the inception of "Operation Blockout."
TikTok users such as @blockout2024, who is credited with founding the celebrity blocking campaign, have called out several of the world's biggest names. Users, from Kim Kardashian to Taylor Swift to Justin Bieber, did not hold back. In one video, @blockout2024 said followers have "full control of celebrities' money and lives." "When we hate on them, they make money. When we praise them, they make money. But when we block their social media accounts and completely forget their names, they lose it all," he said. "The amount of attention we give them and the amount of engagement we give them is their direct currency. Take it from them."
Reducing celebrities' followers aims to pressure them to highlight issues in Palestine and Sudan. Jenny, a TikTok user from Vietnam, told The New Arab that "the genocide going on in Palestine" prompted her to join the campaign. "The algorithm of TikTok allows anyone, regardless of age, sex, or societal status, to go viral if their content aligns with the interests of other users. That's why the portrayal of any social issue on TikTok is non-biased and very authentic since it's the voice of mundane people like you and me," she said.
"I've never been able to comprehend the power of social media until I saw a whole movement to support Palestine, Congo, and Sudan start from TikTok. Especially among Gen-Zs, who are perceived to be the generation that's much more sensitive to social matters."
The 22-year-old TikToker reiterated that with power comes responsibility, adding that celebrities' silence has contributed to the miseducation of humanitarian crises worldwide. "I personally feel so much rage at why people can put so much effort into participating in a lavish event, which costs thousands of dollars while being completely ignorant of the fact that people are being bombed to pieces on the other side of the world," she told The New Arab. "The Met Gala 2024 depicted the imbalance of power and resource distribution in our society."
submitted by ditord to CelebrityBlockout [link] [comments]
Context:
Last week's Met Gala highlighted the disparity between celebrity opulence and global suffering. Influencer Haley Baylee (real name Haley Kalil) posed in an extravagant floral gown, saying, "Let them eat cake" along with a TikTok sound. This phrase, attributed to Marie Antoinette, symbolizes an out-of-touch attitude toward the suffering of the masses. Although historians doubt she actually said it, the phrase remains a powerful symbol of severe wealth inequality.
Photos of the Met Gala flooded social media alongside images of Israel's attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The stark contrast between celebrities displaying wealth and Palestinians mourning their dead shocked the world. People compared it to The Hunger Games, where the wealthy Capitol residents dressed opulently while children died in the games. The book series' author, Suzanne Collins, drew inspiration from flipping between Iraq War coverage and reality TV shows.
The Blackout 2024 Movement:
TikTok user @ladyfromtheoutside started the Blackout 2024 movement, frustrated with celebrities' silence on Palestine. "It’s time to block all the celebrities, influencers, and wealthy socialites who are not using their resources to help those in dire need," she said in a video with 2.5 million views. "We gave them their platforms. It’s time to take it back, take our views away, our likes, our comments, our money."
People have differing views on who deserves to be blocked. For example, some believe Billie Eilish should be boycotted for not posting about Palestine, while others argue her Ceasefire pin at the Oscars showed her stance.
Celebrities Respond:
Some celebrities have spoken out. Haley Baylee posted a nearly 9-minute apology video, explaining she wasn't an official Met Gala guest but a host interviewing celebs. She claimed ignorance on the Palestine issue, which drew backlash. Critics argued that in the seven months since the attacks began, there has been ample time to educate oneself.
Three days ago, Lizzo posted a TikTok sharing GoFundMe pages and organizations helping people in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo, stating she had donated to all three. Commenters pointed out the timing and questioned why a millionaire asked regular people to donate.
Impact:
The campaign seems to be making an impact. Haley Baylee's follower count dropped from 10 million to 9.9 million. Social media users claim Kim Kardashian also lost followers after her ambiguous "Free everybody" comment to a "Free Palestine" protestor.
Operation Blockout:
Online critics argue that events like the annual Met Gala, where elite figures from the fashion world showcase their extravagant styles, highlight the disconnect between such opulence and pressing social issues. As attendees dazzled in dramatic attire, protests in support of Palestine were underway just blocks away in New York City. This juxtaposition sparked the inception of "Operation Blockout."
TikTok users such as @blockout2024, who is credited with founding the celebrity blocking campaign, have called out several of the world's biggest names. Users, from Kim Kardashian to Taylor Swift to Justin Bieber, did not hold back. In one video, @blockout2024 said followers have "full control of celebrities' money and lives." "When we hate on them, they make money. When we praise them, they make money. But when we block their social media accounts and completely forget their names, they lose it all," he said. "The amount of attention we give them and the amount of engagement we give them is their direct currency. Take it from them."
Reducing celebrities' followers aims to pressure them to highlight issues in Palestine and Sudan. Jenny, a TikTok user from Vietnam, told The New Arab that "the genocide going on in Palestine" prompted her to join the campaign. "The algorithm of TikTok allows anyone, regardless of age, sex, or societal status, to go viral if their content aligns with the interests of other users. That's why the portrayal of any social issue on TikTok is non-biased and very authentic since it's the voice of mundane people like you and me," she said.
"I've never been able to comprehend the power of social media until I saw a whole movement to support Palestine, Congo, and Sudan start from TikTok. Especially among Gen-Zs, who are perceived to be the generation that's much more sensitive to social matters."
The 22-year-old TikToker reiterated that with power comes responsibility, adding that celebrities' silence has contributed to the miseducation of humanitarian crises worldwide. "I personally feel so much rage at why people can put so much effort into participating in a lavish event, which costs thousands of dollars while being completely ignorant of the fact that people are being bombed to pieces on the other side of the world," she told The New Arab. "The Met Gala 2024 depicted the imbalance of power and resource distribution in our society."
2024.05.14 12:00 magictcgmods Daily Questions Thread - Ask All Your Magic Related Questions Here!
This is a place for asking simple questions that might not deserve their own thread. For example, if you have a question about a rules interaction, want sleeve and accessory recommendations, or suggestions for your new deck, then this is the place for you.
We encourage that you post any questions that you may have concerning Magic the Gathering here rather than make a separate thread for each question, though for now we won't require that you do so.
Rules Questions
Rules questions and interactions are allowed to be posted here, but if you need an answer quickly it may be best to use a dedicated resource like the 24/7 Magic the Gathering Rules Chat.
Deckbuilding Questions
If you're trying to get help with a deck, it is recommended that you post your decklist to a deckbuilding website so that it is easier to view. Some popular sites are Aetherhub, Archidekt, Deckbox, Deckstats, Moxfield, MtgGoldfish, and TappedOut.
Additionally, please include some description of what you are trying to accomplish. Don't just give us a decklist with no explanation, and don't ask extremely vague questions such as "what cards should I add to my deck to make it better?", because it's hard to give good advice in those cases. Let us know details, the more the better. Are you building with a particular strategy or theme in mind? Are there any non-obvious combo lines or synergies that people should be aware of? Are you struggling with a particular matchup, or are you finding yourself missing consistency in an important area, and need some help specifically for it? Let us know.
Commonly Asked Questions
You can view the contents of The List on Wizards of the Coast's official website. For example, the contents of The List for Streets of New Capenna boosters can be found here.
submitted by magictcgmods to magicTCG [link] [comments]
We encourage that you post any questions that you may have concerning Magic the Gathering here rather than make a separate thread for each question, though for now we won't require that you do so.
Rules Questions
Rules questions and interactions are allowed to be posted here, but if you need an answer quickly it may be best to use a dedicated resource like the 24/7 Magic the Gathering Rules Chat.
Deckbuilding Questions
If you're trying to get help with a deck, it is recommended that you post your decklist to a deckbuilding website so that it is easier to view. Some popular sites are Aetherhub, Archidekt, Deckbox, Deckstats, Moxfield, MtgGoldfish, and TappedOut.
Additionally, please include some description of what you are trying to accomplish. Don't just give us a decklist with no explanation, and don't ask extremely vague questions such as "what cards should I add to my deck to make it better?", because it's hard to give good advice in those cases. Let us know details, the more the better. Are you building with a particular strategy or theme in mind? Are there any non-obvious combo lines or synergies that people should be aware of? Are you struggling with a particular matchup, or are you finding yourself missing consistency in an important area, and need some help specifically for it? Let us know.
Commonly Asked Questions
I opened a card from a different set in my booster pack, is this unusual?Don't worry, this is completely normal. If you opened a set booster, you have a small chance of obtaining a bonus card from a previous set. This is an extra card that does not replace any of the other cards in your pack, and is from a curated set of past hits that Wizards of the Coast has selected, which they call "The List".
You can view the contents of The List on Wizards of the Coast's official website. For example, the contents of The List for Streets of New Capenna boosters can be found here.
My foil card has a shooting start symbol over the bottom left. I can't find anything about it online.All old-bordered foils have the shooting star symbol. Most sites that display card images just overlay a generic foil graphic over all foil cards, which doesn't include the shooting star. Your card is normal.
2024.05.14 11:27 LiveListenLearnGrow How Can The Fruit Of The Spirit Help Your Marriage?
I'm going to share with you today a message on how the Fruit of the Spirit can help a married couple (or potential married couple) have a loving, blessed, and fulfilling marriage.
Let me share with you first and foremost the Bible verses concerning the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians Chapter 5:22-23 (KJV)
But the Fruit of the Spirit is
The spiritual and practicality of a married couple (or a couple planning to get married) applying the Fruit of the Spirit will help them have a good marriage instead of a toxic one.
This will conclude my message for today.
God bless and take care everyone.
submitted by LiveListenLearnGrow to BiblicalMarriages [link] [comments]
Let me share with you first and foremost the Bible verses concerning the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians Chapter 5:22-23 (KJV)
But the Fruit of the Spirit is
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Long-suffering
- Gentleness.
- Goodness
- Faith
- Meekness
- Temperance Against such there is no law.
The spiritual and practicality of a married couple (or a couple planning to get married) applying the Fruit of the Spirit will help them have a good marriage instead of a toxic one.
- Fruit number one is Love If a married couple apply God's Agape Love unto each other, it will solidify and protect all the areas of their marriage that the enemy and their flesh will try to disrupt.
- Fruit Number Two is Joy Having the Fruit of Joy will bring happiness, delight, and appreciation in the marriage of the husband and wife.
- Fruit number three is Peace Having and applying the Fruit of Peace will keep toxicity, ungodliness, demise, hostility, and so on out of your marriage.
- Fruit number four is Long-suffering which means being patience. Having and applying the Fruit of Long-suffering with one another, despite neither party in the marriage being perfect. Being long-suffering will compel and inspire both in the marriage to be loving, respectful, and appropriately transparent when dealing with challenges that may arise in their marriage. ——————————————————
- Fruit number five is Gentleness Having and applying the Fruit of Gentleness will help the married couple to be considerate, thoughtful, kind, loving, and supportive of each other without being disrespectful, demeaning, condescending, degrading, and so forth.
- Fruit Number six is Goodness Having and applying the Fruit of Goodness will weed out badness, shrewdness, malice, hostility, put downs, etc.
- Fruit Number seven is Faith The Fruit of Faith will embellish both individuals in the marriage to stay faithful, true, loyal, devoted, and committed to each other.
- Fruit Number eight is Meekness The Fruit Of Meekness will help the married couple to be humble, content, and supportive of each other within the jurisdiction of God’s word not the world, culture, busybodies, home-wreckers, and ungodly advice.
- Lastly, Fruit number 9 is Temperance The Fruit of Temperance will help both in the marriage to show respect toward each other without displaying unwarranted anger, hostility, ungratefulness, malice, and so forth.
This will conclude my message for today.
God bless and take care everyone.
2024.05.14 10:56 HaroldHGull The job begins
Your ships finally arrive at the meeting place, Sitnalta Freeport. The Freeport is a major trade centre well known for being an anonymous place of business due to the abnormal amounts of heavy metals in the surrounding nebula which blocks IFFs. Whilst IFFs are useless the station is more than well defended enough to deter potential attackers as well as the amount of enemies anyone would make from trying to harm their favourite place of business. There is one rule on the station, don't rock the boat. Although officially being controlled by independent interests it is well known that Trion Incorporated holds the largest amount of shares in the station. When you dock Trion's influence is obvious, most of the station's security being made up of personnel from the mercenary branch of Trion Security as well as a number of simple mk1 and mk2 combat droids in standby mode all on display to demonstrate what happens to those who "rock the boat". The coordinates of the meeting place lead you to a private docking bay on the lower levels of the station, where most of the dregs of the station go as to not impede its public image. The moment you enter the private docks multiple turrets and guns are aimed at you. A hooded individual, bearing the symbol of Faction Paradox, greets you with the same modulated voice as the person in the message.
"Apologies for the paranoia, when you're going after the company's dirtiest of dirty secrets a little bit of caution is warranted. Right, now that everyone's here we can begin."
They slot a datachip into a cheap holographic projector and the image of the person who originally made the briefcase is shown
"You already know my name, and if you are listening to this message I am already dead. I've already given my sorry speech so I'll get to the point. There is a reason why the datavault is so difficult to access, why no traceback routines work, the datavault doesn't exist. Well, not really, the datavault exists in a state of quantum flux, simultaneously existing and not existing. This means that it cannot be tracked by any normal means, I have found a way around this. When I first accessed the datavault I installed a piece of code onto the database, completely benign until it comes into contact with the second part, once it does it will create a constant stream of data between the datavault and reality causing it to become "anchored". In order to install it properly you will need access to a datavault interface and slot in the stored datachip, a slight issue considering that only high ranking members of Trion Incorporated are given access to them. Once the datavault is anchored you will have a short window of opportunity to reach and infiltrate it before Trion realises anything is wrong and removes the anchor code. I wish you luck in your endeavours."
The figure removes the datachip.
"There are two locations that can be easily accessed by the public which contain a datavault interface. The Kerris interface and the SS Ultra Lux. Since Kerris has been compromised by the daleks and I don't want to risk giving them access to the datavault we will have to go for the Ultra Lux. Tomorrow, the Ultra Lux will be passing by the station to pick up guests for its latest business party, I have already forged invitations for each of you as well as a copy of the code for eveyrone. Once you're on the ship your job will be to find your way to the interface, either in the captain's quarters or on the bridge. Do try to be carefull, some of the wealthiest and most influential scum of the galaxy will be there and security will be tight, all out assault will be nigh imposible."
They give a pointed look at the pathers.
"Payment for the job is 500k credits per head, if you die it will be sent to your next of kin, if you don't have a next of kin that's one less person I need to pay. More details will be discussed once the location is established, any questions?"
As she says this most of the mercenaries scatter and start taking stock of weapons.
submitted by HaroldHGull to Fleetposting [link] [comments]
"Apologies for the paranoia, when you're going after the company's dirtiest of dirty secrets a little bit of caution is warranted. Right, now that everyone's here we can begin."
They slot a datachip into a cheap holographic projector and the image of the person who originally made the briefcase is shown
"You already know my name, and if you are listening to this message I am already dead. I've already given my sorry speech so I'll get to the point. There is a reason why the datavault is so difficult to access, why no traceback routines work, the datavault doesn't exist. Well, not really, the datavault exists in a state of quantum flux, simultaneously existing and not existing. This means that it cannot be tracked by any normal means, I have found a way around this. When I first accessed the datavault I installed a piece of code onto the database, completely benign until it comes into contact with the second part, once it does it will create a constant stream of data between the datavault and reality causing it to become "anchored". In order to install it properly you will need access to a datavault interface and slot in the stored datachip, a slight issue considering that only high ranking members of Trion Incorporated are given access to them. Once the datavault is anchored you will have a short window of opportunity to reach and infiltrate it before Trion realises anything is wrong and removes the anchor code. I wish you luck in your endeavours."
The figure removes the datachip.
"There are two locations that can be easily accessed by the public which contain a datavault interface. The Kerris interface and the SS Ultra Lux. Since Kerris has been compromised by the daleks and I don't want to risk giving them access to the datavault we will have to go for the Ultra Lux. Tomorrow, the Ultra Lux will be passing by the station to pick up guests for its latest business party, I have already forged invitations for each of you as well as a copy of the code for eveyrone. Once you're on the ship your job will be to find your way to the interface, either in the captain's quarters or on the bridge. Do try to be carefull, some of the wealthiest and most influential scum of the galaxy will be there and security will be tight, all out assault will be nigh imposible."
They give a pointed look at the pathers.
"Payment for the job is 500k credits per head, if you die it will be sent to your next of kin, if you don't have a next of kin that's one less person I need to pay. More details will be discussed once the location is established, any questions?"
As she says this most of the mercenaries scatter and start taking stock of weapons.
2024.05.14 10:51 mtufekyapan Marketing Guide For Shopify
Marketing is one of the most crucial operation for a Shopify store. There are lot’s of tactics Marketing is one of the most crucial operation for a Shopify store. There are lot’s of tactics to grow quickly and none of them not working. Well, if you looking for a way to create solid marketing plan, then this guide is for you. In this guide you’ll learn
What do you see here?
Let’s say we have a Shopify store that has some high-end, organic baby clothes targeting new parents.
Let’s say you have a new Shopify store that has less than 500 order per month. You can hire expensive agencies, expensive experts to research the market, create market reports for you, etc. Even if you do that, I highly suspicious if it helps you.
However you can talk with your new-parent friends. Ask them about how do they decide to buy baby clothes? What they are looking for before completing their purchases? Do they get any expert opinion before making buying decision? How do they search online and what they want to see? Is there any great YouTube channels about this.
Don’t have any friends? Checkout your friends not a new-parents but parents and ask similar questions to them. If you also don’t have them, try to make new born friends. I know how hard it is but let’s be honest here. If you don’t know anybody in your target audience, how do you manage to get know them? All of the successful stores I saw they have direct relationship with their target audience.
When you make your research with real people, then you can extend your project to online. Try to search as they do. What do you find? Deep in dive and take your notes.
Now it’s time to analyze them.
Nope, it can’t. You need to deep dive into your market and find a sub-segment, a niche that will need your products much better than anybody else and afford it easily.
This is what I called ideal customer profile (ICP). Check out what is ideal customer profile and how to create your ideal customer profile posts to learn more about the concept.
For our hypothetical store, ICP can be something like this;
Demographics
Now we know our baby clothes Shopify store market, customer’s buying process and our ideal customer profile.
First look at brand definition. AMA defines brand as “any distinctive feature like a name, term, design, or symbol that identifies goods or services”.
Branding is for creating and managing your brand’s identity. It involves your mission, values, culture and public image.
I’m not an expert on brand, but I know how branding can be effective for your conversions and performance. Here are some checklist for you.
Now it’s time to work on go-to-market strategy and crafting our marketing strategy.
You need a plan to introduce your store or new products to the market. This is what we called go-to-market(GTM) strategy.
Main goal of the GTM is letting people know that there is a new brand or product line. It’s similar to launch marketing. Key message here is there is a new products/brand launched and it offer the best for you. Give it a try, you’ll love it.
All of your messages and communication should be parallel to this process.
Our focus is convincing people to try our products/brand. So I always offer a special campaign just for the launch to give people to a reason to try your products/brand.
For our hypothetical Shopify store we can run a special campaign for launch like;
Let’s say you have GREAT advertising creatives and a huge budget and just spending it. Don’t wait to crack the code and having lot’s of sales.
Your marketing strategy should be follow sales funnel. If you don’t have a high-converting sales funnel, you can’t expect people to buy from you. Check out How to Build High Converting Sales Funnel For Shopify post.
AIDA Sales Funnel Framework
Now we can continue with our hypothetical store example. We’re selling high-end, organic baby clothes on our store. We crafted our ICP, empathy map, work on branding and created our story.
We can create a educative e-book like “7 Harmful Chemicals Commonly Used in Baby Clothes and How to Avoid Them” and run some campaigns targeted new parents on social network (Facebook, Instagram or YouTube)
This ads will land on a landing page that gives brief information about why we should pay attention to chemicals in baby clothes for our little ones and make a promise like “I spend my last 5 years about researching chemicals on baby clothes and prepare this book for you and your little one”. Also there can be a quick video about our story explaining our expertise in this field and why we’re building this brand.
We can ask for their email address to share the book with them. When they enter their email address, we’ll send them this ebook.
After first email with the ebook, we can send a few more emails with easy to digest information about chemicals.
This will create an expertise image on our target customers and start to create a bond with them. Not a bad start, right?
At the same time we can use this content on our social media, right? Quick videos, infographics and posts about the chemicals in the baby clothes.
After getting a few thousands subscribers we can organize a webinar to answer questions. This will also a great content for re-used social media content and creating trust and expert image.
Then we can share a time-limited promotion with this people for a bundle. Like we’re running a campaign and these 5 chemical free baby clothes bundles 10% discounted until next week!
We can send emails about it and use this campaign for remarketing for only people who show interest in our e-book and webinar.
This is a very brief template of marketing plan.
Now let’s take a look at more common one.
Don’t forget that marketing strategy is not a hope. It’s a well documented plan of actions designed for turning strangers into customers.
Inbound Marketing Channels: With the inbound marketing your customers will find you and start the interaction. Most common channel for inbound marketing is organic search engine optimization.
After creating high quality content, when customers search something online, they can see your articles and first interaction happens.
Outbound Marketing Channels: With the outbound marketing you reach out to customers. Facebook/Instagram/YouTube ads, influencer marketing, display ads, podcast ads can be count in this category.
As you can imagine inbound marketing channels takes lot’s of efforts and time however over the time you’ll have organic marketing channel and it brings you customer without needing any budget.
Outbound marketing channels generally works with advertisement models and you need budgets to run these channels.
Most of time I recommend to start with outbound marketing channels and then invest inbound marketing channels overtime. Don’t forget to check Mastering Paid Ads For Shopify post.
Succesful marketing plans should be supported by high converting growth and conversion plans. Don’t forget to check Growth Guide For Shopify and Conversion Optimization Guide For Shopify too.
to grow quickly and none of them not working. Well, if you looking for a way to create solid marketing plan, then this guide is for you. In this guide you’ll learn
What do you see here?
Let’s say we have a Shopify store that has some high-end, organic baby clothes targeting new parents.
Let’s say you have a new Shopify store that has less than 500 order per month. You can hire expensive agencies, expensive experts to research the market, create market reports for you, etc. Even if you do that, I highly suspicious if it helps you.
However you can talk with your new-parent friends. Ask them about how do they decide to buy baby clothes? What they are looking for before completing their purchases? Do they get any expert opinion before making buying decision? How do they search online and what they want to see? Is there any great YouTube channels about this.
Don’t have any friends? Checkout your friends not a new-parents but parents and ask similar questions to them. If you also don’t have them, try to make new born friends. I know how hard it is but let’s be honest here. If you don’t know anybody in your target audience, how do you manage to get know them? All of the successful stores I saw they have direct relationship with their target audience.
When you make your research with real people, then you can extend your project to online. Try to search as they do. What do you find? Deep in dive and take your notes.
Now it’s time to analyze them.
Nope, it can’t. You need to deep dive into your market and find a sub-segment, a niche that will need your products much better than anybody else and afford it easily.
This is what I called ideal customer profile (ICP). Check out what is ideal customer profile and how to create your ideal customer profile posts to learn more about the concept.
For our hypothetical store, ICP can be something like this;
Demographics
Now we know our baby clothes Shopify store market, customer’s buying process and our ideal customer profile.
First look at brand definition. AMA defines brand as “any distinctive feature like a name, term, design, or symbol that identifies goods or services”.
Branding is for creating and managing your brand’s identity. It involves your mission, values, culture and public image.
I’m not an expert on brand, but I know how branding can be effective for your conversions and performance. Here are some checklist for you.
Now it’s time to work on go-to-market strategy and crafting our marketing strategy.
You need a plan to introduce your store or new products to the market. This is what we called go-to-market(GTM) strategy.
Main goal of the GTM is letting people know that there is a new brand or product line. It’s similar to launch marketing. Key message here is there is a new products/brand launched and it offer the best for you. Give it a try, you’ll love it.
All of your messages and communication should be parallel to this process.
Our focus is convincing people to try our products/brand. So I always offer a special campaign just for the launch to give people to a reason to try your products/brand.
For our hypothetical Shopify store we can run a special campaign for launch like;
Let’s say you have GREAT advertising creatives and a huge budget and just spending it. Don’t wait to crack the code and having lot’s of sales.
Your marketing strategy should be follow sales funnel. If you don’t have a high-converting sales funnel, you can’t expect people to buy from you. Check out How to Build High Converting Sales Funnel For Shopify post.
This article first published at MarketingLib.
Don't forget to check Growth Suite on Shopify App Store.
submitted by mtufekyapan to GrowthSuite [link] [comments]
- Definition of Marketing
- Market Research, Competitor Analysis and Defining Your Target Market
- Brand Identity and How to Create Your Branding
- Go-to-Market Strategy and Defining Your Marketing Strategy
- Inbound and Outbound Marketing Channels
- Marketing Plan Template
- FAQs
Definition of Marketing
American Marketing Association defines marketing as activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. SourceWhat do you see here?
- Marketing is not about activities, it contains activities, set of institutions and process.
- Function of marketing is not generating sales. It’s creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that has value.
- In this post we’ll focus on Shopify stores marketing. However in the big picture marketing has not limited with companies. Marketing can be done within organization or society.
Market Research, Competitor Analysis and Defining Your Target Market
This is a practical guide for marketing so I want to continue with a hypothetical Shopify stores for each steps.Let’s say we have a Shopify store that has some high-end, organic baby clothes targeting new parents.
Market Research
How can we do the market research?Let’s say you have a new Shopify store that has less than 500 order per month. You can hire expensive agencies, expensive experts to research the market, create market reports for you, etc. Even if you do that, I highly suspicious if it helps you.
However you can talk with your new-parent friends. Ask them about how do they decide to buy baby clothes? What they are looking for before completing their purchases? Do they get any expert opinion before making buying decision? How do they search online and what they want to see? Is there any great YouTube channels about this.
Don’t have any friends? Checkout your friends not a new-parents but parents and ask similar questions to them. If you also don’t have them, try to make new born friends. I know how hard it is but let’s be honest here. If you don’t know anybody in your target audience, how do you manage to get know them? All of the successful stores I saw they have direct relationship with their target audience.
When you make your research with real people, then you can extend your project to online. Try to search as they do. What do you find? Deep in dive and take your notes.
Competitor Analysis
When you done this market research, you’ll also see there are some other brands. This is a huge subject but let’s call these brands as competitor for now.Now it’s time to analyze them.
- Checkout their branding strategy.
- What are their value propositions?
- What is hot about them? Return guarantee, free shipping etc.
- What is not hot about them? Poor product or store design, low UX on the website, etc.
- What people think about them? Google reviews, Trust pilot reviews, product reviews on the store.
- Are there any partnership or influencer program they’re running?
- What is their Google/YouTube campaign strategy? Check it here.
- What is their Facebook/Instagram campaign strategy? Check it here.
Define Your Target Market
What do you say about our target market? Can all of new parents be our target market?Nope, it can’t. You need to deep dive into your market and find a sub-segment, a niche that will need your products much better than anybody else and afford it easily.
This is what I called ideal customer profile (ICP). Check out what is ideal customer profile and how to create your ideal customer profile posts to learn more about the concept.
For our hypothetical store, ICP can be something like this;
Demographics
- Age: 25-45 years old
- Gender: Primarily women, but also some men
- Education: College degree or higher
- Income: $75,000+ per household
- Location: Urban areas
- Occupation: Professionals, entrepreneurs, stay-at-home parents
- Values: Health, wellness, sustainability, social responsibility
- Lifestyle: Active, eco-conscious, family-oriented
- Interests: Organic food, natural products, children’s activities
- Media consumption: Social media, parenting blogs, magazines
- Shopping habits: Researches purchases thoroughly, values quality over price
- Concerns about harmful chemicals in baby clothes
- Difficulty finding stylish and affordable organic baby clothes
- Wants to make sustainable choices for their children
- High-quality, organic baby clothes that are safe and healthy for their children
- Unique and stylish designs that make their children look and feel good
- A brand that shares their values and commitment to sustainability
- Researches products online before making a purchase
- Reads reviews and testimonials from other parents
- Shops at specialty stores and online retailers
- Willing to pay a premium for quality and sustainability
Now we know our baby clothes Shopify store market, customer’s buying process and our ideal customer profile.
Brand Identity and How to Create Your Branding
I’ll follow the American Marketing Association (AMA) in here too.First look at brand definition. AMA defines brand as “any distinctive feature like a name, term, design, or symbol that identifies goods or services”.
Branding is for creating and managing your brand’s identity. It involves your mission, values, culture and public image.
I’m not an expert on brand, but I know how branding can be effective for your conversions and performance. Here are some checklist for you.
- Design consistency is the key. Your visual identity should be consistent across social media, Shopify store, emails, product detail pages, etc.
- Copy consistency is the key. Your communication style should be consistent across social media, Shopify store, emails, product detail pages, etc.
- Experience consistency is the key. Let’s say your brand looks like a high-end brand and when a new visitor visit your store first they see is an annoying popup saying want to get 10% OFF. This is simply how to destroy your brand.
- Craft a story and stick to it. What makes you create this brand? Faces behind the brand. This is a huge leverage for creating trust and building bonds.
Go-to-Market Strategy and Defining Your Marketing Strategy
So far we identified our target market and ideal customer profile. Check out competitors and creates the branding for our store.Now it’s time to work on go-to-market strategy and crafting our marketing strategy.
Go-to-Market Strategy
Let’s say you recently launched your Shopify store or add a new line of products.You need a plan to introduce your store or new products to the market. This is what we called go-to-market(GTM) strategy.
Main goal of the GTM is letting people know that there is a new brand or product line. It’s similar to launch marketing. Key message here is there is a new products/brand launched and it offer the best for you. Give it a try, you’ll love it.
All of your messages and communication should be parallel to this process.
Our focus is convincing people to try our products/brand. So I always offer a special campaign just for the launch to give people to a reason to try your products/brand.
For our hypothetical Shopify store we can run a special campaign for launch like;
- Free shipping until X date.
- 5 different boy and girl bundle with 40% OFF to try our products.
Marketing Strategy
This is your plan of actions to sell or advertise your products. Now we can talk about selling part of the marketing.Let’s say you have GREAT advertising creatives and a huge budget and just spending it. Don’t wait to crack the code and having lot’s of sales.
Your marketing strategy should be follow sales funnel. If you don’t have a high-converting sales funnel, you can’t expect people to buy from you. Check out How to Build High Converting Sales Funnel For Shopify post.
AIDA Sales Funnel Framework
Now we can continue with our hypothetical store example. We’re selling high-end, organic baby clothes on our store. We crafted our ICP, empathy map, work on branding and created our story.
Example Marketing Strategy
First step we’ll work on attention step. Our focus is getting attention of our target market attention.We can create a educative e-book like “7 Harmful Chemicals Commonly Used in Baby Clothes and How to Avoid Them” and run some campaigns targeted new parents on social network (Facebook, Instagram or YouTube)
This ads will land on a landing page that gives brief information about why we should pay attention to chemicals in baby clothes for our little ones and make a promise like “I spend my last 5 years about researching chemicals on baby clothes and prepare this book for you and your little one”. Also there can be a quick video about our story explaining our expertise in this field and why we’re building this brand.
We can ask for their email address to share the book with them. When they enter their email address, we’ll send them this ebook.
After first email with the ebook, we can send a few more emails with easy to digest information about chemicals.
This will create an expertise image on our target customers and start to create a bond with them. Not a bad start, right?
At the same time we can use this content on our social media, right? Quick videos, infographics and posts about the chemicals in the baby clothes.
After getting a few thousands subscribers we can organize a webinar to answer questions. This will also a great content for re-used social media content and creating trust and expert image.
Then we can share a time-limited promotion with this people for a bundle. Like we’re running a campaign and these 5 chemical free baby clothes bundles 10% discounted until next week!
We can send emails about it and use this campaign for remarketing for only people who show interest in our e-book and webinar.
This is a very brief template of marketing plan.
Now let’s take a look at more common one.
- Post product photos on social media with lot’s of hashtags
- Run a Meta campaign without any targeting, land people on product detail page
- Give them WELCOME10 discount if they enter their email address
- Send them 15 emails in the next 5 days to maximize your sales.
Don’t forget that marketing strategy is not a hope. It’s a well documented plan of actions designed for turning strangers into customers.
Inbound and Outbound Marketing Channels
Inside the marketing strategy, channels plays a vital role. There are lot’s of ways to group channels. I’ll use most basic one.Inbound Marketing Channels: With the inbound marketing your customers will find you and start the interaction. Most common channel for inbound marketing is organic search engine optimization.
After creating high quality content, when customers search something online, they can see your articles and first interaction happens.
Outbound Marketing Channels: With the outbound marketing you reach out to customers. Facebook/Instagram/YouTube ads, influencer marketing, display ads, podcast ads can be count in this category.
As you can imagine inbound marketing channels takes lot’s of efforts and time however over the time you’ll have organic marketing channel and it brings you customer without needing any budget.
Outbound marketing channels generally works with advertisement models and you need budgets to run these channels.
Most of time I recommend to start with outbound marketing channels and then invest inbound marketing channels overtime. Don’t forget to check Mastering Paid Ads For Shopify post.
Succesful marketing plans should be supported by high converting growth and conversion plans. Don’t forget to check Growth Guide For Shopify and Conversion Optimization Guide For Shopify too.
to grow quickly and none of them not working. Well, if you looking for a way to create solid marketing plan, then this guide is for you. In this guide you’ll learn
- Definition of Marketing
- Market Research, Competitor Analysis and Defining Your Target Market
- Brand Identity and How to Create Your Branding
- Go-to-Market Strategy and Defining Your Marketing Strategy
- Inbound and Outbound Marketing Channels
- Marketing Plan Template
- FAQs
Definition of Marketing
American Marketing Association defines marketing as activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. SourceWhat do you see here?
- Marketing is not about activities, it contains activities, set of institutions and process.
- Function of marketing is not generating sales. It’s creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that has value.
- In this post we’ll focus on Shopify stores marketing. However in the big picture marketing has not limited with companies. Marketing can be done within organization or society.
Market Research, Competitor Analysis and Defining Your Target Market
This is a practical guide for marketing so I want to continue with a hypothetical Shopify stores for each steps.Let’s say we have a Shopify store that has some high-end, organic baby clothes targeting new parents.
Market Research
How can we do the market research?Let’s say you have a new Shopify store that has less than 500 order per month. You can hire expensive agencies, expensive experts to research the market, create market reports for you, etc. Even if you do that, I highly suspicious if it helps you.
However you can talk with your new-parent friends. Ask them about how do they decide to buy baby clothes? What they are looking for before completing their purchases? Do they get any expert opinion before making buying decision? How do they search online and what they want to see? Is there any great YouTube channels about this.
Don’t have any friends? Checkout your friends not a new-parents but parents and ask similar questions to them. If you also don’t have them, try to make new born friends. I know how hard it is but let’s be honest here. If you don’t know anybody in your target audience, how do you manage to get know them? All of the successful stores I saw they have direct relationship with their target audience.
When you make your research with real people, then you can extend your project to online. Try to search as they do. What do you find? Deep in dive and take your notes.
Competitor Analysis
When you done this market research, you’ll also see there are some other brands. This is a huge subject but let’s call these brands as competitor for now.Now it’s time to analyze them.
- Checkout their branding strategy.
- What are their value propositions?
- What is hot about them? Return guarantee, free shipping etc.
- What is not hot about them? Poor product or store design, low UX on the website, etc.
- What people think about them? Google reviews, Trust pilot reviews, product reviews on the store.
- Are there any partnership or influencer program they’re running?
- What is their Google/YouTube campaign strategy? Check it here.
- What is their Facebook/Instagram campaign strategy? Check it here.
Define Your Target Market
What do you say about our target market? Can all of new parents be our target market?Nope, it can’t. You need to deep dive into your market and find a sub-segment, a niche that will need your products much better than anybody else and afford it easily.
This is what I called ideal customer profile (ICP). Check out what is ideal customer profile and how to create your ideal customer profile posts to learn more about the concept.
For our hypothetical store, ICP can be something like this;
Demographics
- Age: 25-45 years old
- Gender: Primarily women, but also some men
- Education: College degree or higher
- Income: $75,000+ per household
- Location: Urban areas
- Occupation: Professionals, entrepreneurs, stay-at-home parents
- Values: Health, wellness, sustainability, social responsibility
- Lifestyle: Active, eco-conscious, family-oriented
- Interests: Organic food, natural products, children’s activities
- Media consumption: Social media, parenting blogs, magazines
- Shopping habits: Researches purchases thoroughly, values quality over price
- Concerns about harmful chemicals in baby clothes
- Difficulty finding stylish and affordable organic baby clothes
- Wants to make sustainable choices for their children
- High-quality, organic baby clothes that are safe and healthy for their children
- Unique and stylish designs that make their children look and feel good
- A brand that shares their values and commitment to sustainability
- Researches products online before making a purchase
- Reads reviews and testimonials from other parents
- Shops at specialty stores and online retailers
- Willing to pay a premium for quality and sustainability
Now we know our baby clothes Shopify store market, customer’s buying process and our ideal customer profile.
Brand Identity and How to Create Your Branding
I’ll follow the American Marketing Association (AMA) in here too.First look at brand definition. AMA defines brand as “any distinctive feature like a name, term, design, or symbol that identifies goods or services”.
Branding is for creating and managing your brand’s identity. It involves your mission, values, culture and public image.
I’m not an expert on brand, but I know how branding can be effective for your conversions and performance. Here are some checklist for you.
- Design consistency is the key. Your visual identity should be consistent across social media, Shopify store, emails, product detail pages, etc.
- Copy consistency is the key. Your communication style should be consistent across social media, Shopify store, emails, product detail pages, etc.
- Experience consistency is the key. Let’s say your brand looks like a high-end brand and when a new visitor visit your store first they see is an annoying popup saying want to get 10% OFF. This is simply how to destroy your brand.
- Craft a story and stick to it. What makes you create this brand? Faces behind the brand. This is a huge leverage for creating trust and building bonds.
Go-to-Market Strategy and Defining Your Marketing Strategy
So far we identified our target market and ideal customer profile. Check out competitors and creates the branding for our store.Now it’s time to work on go-to-market strategy and crafting our marketing strategy.
Go-to-Market Strategy
Let’s say you recently launched your Shopify store or add a new line of products.You need a plan to introduce your store or new products to the market. This is what we called go-to-market(GTM) strategy.
Main goal of the GTM is letting people know that there is a new brand or product line. It’s similar to launch marketing. Key message here is there is a new products/brand launched and it offer the best for you. Give it a try, you’ll love it.
All of your messages and communication should be parallel to this process.
Our focus is convincing people to try our products/brand. So I always offer a special campaign just for the launch to give people to a reason to try your products/brand.
For our hypothetical Shopify store we can run a special campaign for launch like;
- Free shipping until X date.
- 5 different boy and girl bundle with 40% OFF to try our products.
Marketing Strategy
This is your plan of actions to sell or advertise your products. Now we can talk about selling part of the marketing.Let’s say you have GREAT advertising creatives and a huge budget and just spending it. Don’t wait to crack the code and having lot’s of sales.
Your marketing strategy should be follow sales funnel. If you don’t have a high-converting sales funnel, you can’t expect people to buy from you. Check out How to Build High Converting Sales Funnel For Shopify post.
This article first published at MarketingLib.
Don't forget to check Growth Suite on Shopify App Store.
2024.05.14 09:03 UsualAcanthaceae8775 What if their was a Ben 10 5v5 hero shooter like marvel rivals (Redesigns)
Feel free to make art of these redesigns and give criticism of the designs
Redesigns: Heatblast Redesign: Sleeker with magma-like veins glowing beneath his rocky exterior. Equipment: Volcanic Gauntlets that enhance his fire abilities. Outfit: A flame-retardant suit with a core reactor symbol on the chest.
Diamondhead Redesign: Crystalline armor with reflective surfaces and sharper edges. Equipment: A crystal shield that can morph into different defensive shapes. Outfit: A suit with geometric patterns that shimmer with a diamond-like brilliance.
XLR8 Redesign: More aerodynamic with streamlined armor and a visor for high-speed travel. Equipment: Turbo boots that leave a trail of blue energy when he sprints. Outfit: A racing suit with a sleek helmet that has a retractable visor.
Fourarms Redesign: Bulkier with reinforced joints for extra strength. Equipment: Heavy-duty gauntlets that can smash through barriers. Outfit: A gladiator-inspired ensemble with a belt displaying his alien number.
Stinkfly Redesign: Brighter colors with translucent wings and bioluminescent spots. Equipment: A harness that helps distribute healing mist more effectively. Outfit: A lightweight suit that glows in the dark, highlighting his flight path.
Upgrade Redesign: Futuristic with a sleek metallic finish and circuit patterns. Equipment: A modular backpack that can transform into various tech gadgets. Outfit: A tech-suit that integrates with his body, allowing for seamless transformations.
Ghostfreak Redesign: More ethereal with a ghostly aura and chains that represent his phasing ability. Equipment: Ectoplasmic chains that can extend and bind enemies. Outfit: A tattered cloak that billows as if always caught in an otherworldly wind.
Snare-oh Redesign: Ancient Egyptian motifs with hieroglyphs etched into his bandages. Equipment: Ankh-shaped gauntlets that enhance his sand powers. Outfit: A pharaoh’s headdress that symbolizes his regal presence on the battlefield.
Frankenstrike Redesign: More industrial with visible bolts and conductive wiring. Equipment: A pair of Tesla coil shoulder pads that amplify his electric attacks. Outfit: A patchwork suit that resembles a mad scientist’s lab coat.
Eye Guy Redesign: Eyes of varying sizes with adaptive irises for different vision modes. Equipment: A visor that coordinates his eye beams for precision strikes. Outfit: A suit with lens patterns that focus his ocular energy.
Swampfire Redesign: More plant-like with vibrant green foliage and fiery red flowers. Equipment: Compost Gauntlets that enhance his regenerative abilities. Outfit: A botanical suit with leaf patterns and a fiery emblem on the chest.
Echo-Echo Redesign: Sleek and white with sound wave patterns across his body. Equipment: Sonic Amplifiers that boost his sound-based attacks. Outfit: A suit with a sound equalizer display that reacts to his sonic screams.
Humongosaur Redesign: Dinosaur-like with armored plating and a more pronounced tail. Equipment: Meteor Hammer fists that increase his smashing power. Outfit: A prehistoric-themed armor set with bone and rock elements.
Jetray Redesign: More streamlined with sharper wings and a jet engine-like back. Equipment: Aero Fins that improve his maneuverability in the air. Outfit: A flight suit with a sleek helmet and goggles for high-altitude visibility.
Big Chill Redesign: Ghostly with icy blue tones and frost-covered wings. Equipment: Frostbite Claws that leave a chilling effect on enemies. Outfit: A cloak that shimmers like thin ice and leaves a trail of frost.
Brainstorm Redesign: Brain-like patterns with neural connectors and a brighter shell. Equipment: Cerebral Enhancer that increases his psychic abilities. Outfit: A lab coat with a brainwave pattern and a utility belt for gadgets.
Goop Redesign: More viscous with glowing internal organs visible within. Equipment: Polarity Boots that allow him to stick to surfaces and maintain shape. Outfit: A containment suit that helps him keep form and focus his attacks.
Spidermonkey Redesign: More arachnid with additional eyes and spikier fur. Equipment: Web Slingers that shoot stronger and stickier webs. Outfit: A stealth suit with a spider emblem and grip-enhancing gloves and boots.
Loadstar Redesign: Magnetic with a core that glows when using his powers. Equipment: Gravitational Greaves that enhance his magnetic field control. Outfit: An armored suit with polarized plates that attract and repel metal.
Rath Redesign: Fiercer with more pronounced claws and tiger-like stripes. Equipment: Rage Amplifiers that boost his strength when his health is low. Outfit: A luchador-inspired costume with a mask that embodies his wild spirit.
Water Hazard Redesign: More aquatic with a sleeker, streamlined body and gill-like structures. Equipment: Aqua Cannons that can shoot high-pressure water streams. Outfit: A wetsuit with hydrodynamic patterns and a water drop emblem.
Ampfibian Redesign: More translucent with visible bio-electric currents flowing through his body. Equipment: Electro-Flippers that increase swimming speed and maneuverability. Outfit: A suit with neon trims that pulse with his electric charge.
Armodrillo Redesign: Bulkier with reinforced armor plating and drill bits. Equipment: Seismic Boots that enhance ground-shaking abilities. Outfit: A miner’s outfit with a helmet light and a rugged utility belt.
NRG Redesign: Glowing core with a more robust containment suit. Equipment: Reactor Gauntlets that can channel and shoot nuclear energy. Outfit: A radiation suit with a warning symbol and energy-absorbing layers.
Terraspin Redesign: Shell patterns resembling wind turbines and more pronounced fins. Equipment: Cyclone Discs that can be thrown to create gusts of wind. Outfit: An aviator jacket with a turtle shell pattern and wind direction arrows.
Clockwork Redesign: More gears and clockwork mechanisms visible with a timeless finish. Equipment: Chrono Keys that can unlock temporal abilities. Outfit: A steampunk-inspired suit with brass accents and a pocket watch.
Jury Rigg Redesign: More mechanical with tools integrated into his limbs. Equipment: Wrecking Ratchets that increase his dismantling speed. Outfit: A mechanic’s jumpsuit with patches and a tool belt.
Chamalien Redesign: More chameleon-like with adaptive skin that changes patterns. Equipment: Camo Cloak that enhances his stealth capabilities. Outfit: A suit with a chameleon scale motif that shifts colors with his movements.
Feedback Redesign: More electrically charged with pulsating energy lines across his body. Equipment: Antenna Arrays that increase the range and power of his electrical attacks. Outfit: A suit with circuitry patterns that glow with stored energy.
Bloxx Redesign: Modular with interlocking blocks that can reconfigure on the fly. Equipment: Building Bracers that allow for quicker construction of barriers and structures. Outfit: A construction-themed outfit with a hard hat emblem and utility belt.
Ball Weevil Redesign: Brighter colors with a more pronounced spherical body for rolling. Equipment: Plasma Cores that create larger and more potent explosive orbs. Outfit: A sleek suit with orb patterns and a visor that helps target his plasma globes.
Pesky Dust Redesign: Fairy-like with more delicate wings and a dreamy aura. Equipment: Dreamcatcher Net that can capture and amplify his sleep-inducing dust. Outfit: A mystical robe with star and moon motifs that enhance his magical presence.
Atomix Redesign: Radiant with a mini-reactor core and energy veins visible on his body. Equipment: Fusion Gauntlets that stabilize and focus his nuclear energy. Outfit: A hazard suit with a reactor symbol and protective plating.
Gutrot Redesign: Chemical tanks visible on his body with tubes connecting to his gauntlets. Equipment: Diffuser Mask that spreads his gases over a wider area. Outfit: A biochemical suit with a respirator and hazard symbols.
Whampire Redesign: More vampiric with bat-like features and a darker color scheme. Equipment: Echo-Locator Goggles that help him navigate and hunt in the dark. Outfit: A gothic cloak with a high collar and a clasp shaped like a bat.
Shocksquash Redesign: Bulkier with coils and capacitors integrated into his limbs. Equipment: Shock Boots that generate electricity with each stomp. Outfit: An electrified suit with lightning bolt patterns and insulated gloves.
Wildmutt Redesign: Enhanced sensory nodes and a more streamlined body for agility. Equipment: Sonic Collar that amplifies his roars and tracking abilities. Outfit: A sleek suit with padded armor to protect while maintaining flexibility.
Grey Matter Redesign: More pronounced cranial features and brighter skin to highlight his intelligence. Equipment: Quantum Computer Backpack that assists with hacking and strategy. Outfit: A miniaturized lab coat with various gadget holsters.
Ripjaws Redesign: Sharper teeth and fins, with a bioluminescent glow for underwater combat. Equipment: Aqua Jetpack that allows for swift movements in and out of water. Outfit: A reinforced diving suit with pressure resistance for deep-sea excursions.
Cannonbolt Redesign: A more aerodynamic shell with reinforced plating for rolling attacks. Equipment: Momentum Wheels that increase speed and control during rolls. Outfit: A racing stripe motif with impact-absorbing materials.
Wildvine Redesign: Thicker vines and a broader range of plant-like features. Equipment: Photosynthesis Boosters that enhance healing and growth abilities. Outfit: A botanical armor set with leafy camouflage.
Spitter Redesign: More pronounced glands and a wider mouth for his spitting attacks. Equipment: Hydration Pack that keeps him primed for slime production. Outfit: A moisture-retaining suit that helps in slime regeneration.
Buzzshock Redesign: Brighter electrical arcs and a more compact body for zipping around. Equipment: Static Amplifiers that boost his electrical output. Outfit: A suit with conductive pathways that glow with stored electricity.
Blitzwolfer Redesign: More pronounced fangs and claws, with a darker, more intimidating appearance. Equipment: Lunar Lenses that enhance his night vision and howling range. Outfit: A tattered cape that billows as he moves, adding to his fearsome presence.
Upchuck Redesign: A wider mouth and a more robust digestive system visible on his belly. Equipment: Digestive Accelerators that allow for quicker consumption and energy conversion. Outfit: A suit with reinforced areas around the stomach to handle his expansive appetite.
Ditto Redesign: Brighter colors and more expressive faces to differentiate his clones. Equipment: Cloning Belt that enhances the stability and independence of each clone. Outfit: A uniform with a number system to keep track of his duplicates.
Waybig Redesign: Cosmic patterns on his skin and a more imposing stature. Equipment: Stellar Stabilizers that help him maintain balance and leverage his size. Outfit: A suit with celestial motifs that reflect his cosmic origins.
Arctiguana Redesign: Icier appearance with sharper spines and a more pronounced frill. Equipment: Cryo Converters that enhance his ice beam’s freezing capabilities. Outfit: An insulated suit that protects him from overheating and helps focus his cold powers.
Chromastone Redesign: More prismatic with a crystalline structure that refracts light. Equipment: Prism Gauntlets that enhance his energy absorption and refraction abilities. Outfit: A suit with angular, reflective panels that mimic his crystalline form.
Alien X Redesign: Cosmic and ethereal with starry patterns that shift and change. Equipment: Celestial Scepter that focuses his reality-warping powers. Outfit: A robe that seems to contain a piece of the universe, complete with twinkling stars.
Nanomech Redesign: Sleeker with more advanced nanotechnology features. Equipment: Micro-Assembler that allows him to construct various devices on the fly. Outfit: A tech-enhanced suit that adjusts to his size changes.
Fasttrack Redesign: Streamlined with aerodynamic features for enhanced speed. Equipment: Velocity Vambraces that boost his speed and agility. Outfit: A racing suit with dynamic lines that glow when he accelerates.
Eatle Redesign: Bulkier with a reinforced exoskeleton and sharper mandibles. Equipment: Digestive Reinforcement Belt that aids in processing consumed materials. Outfit: A utility belt with compartments for storing consumed materials.
Gravattack Redesign: More planetary with a core that glows like a molten core. Equipment: Graviton Anchor that helps him control his gravitational fields. Outfit: A suit with orbiting bands that represent his control over gravity.
Crashhopper Redesign: More insectoid with enhanced leg hydraulics for powerful jumps. Equipment: Impact Dampeners that protect him during high-velocity landings. Outfit: A suit with spring-loaded accents that highlight his leaping abilities.
Walkatrout Redesign: More amphibious with sleek scales and a streamlined body. Equipment: Aqua-Dynamic Fins that improve his swimming and maneuverability. Outfit: A wetsuit with a slippery surface to aid in evasive maneuvers.
Molestache Redesign: More distinguished with a larger, more versatile mustache. Equipment: Mustache Combs that can be used as weapons or tools. Outfit: A Victorian-style suit with a bow tie and a monocle for a touch of class.
The Worst Redesign: Tougher looking with visible scars and a more rugged appearance. Equipment: Resilience Amplifiers that make him even harder to take down. Outfit: A battered suit that looks like it’s been through many battles.
Kickin Hawk Redesign: Sharper talons and more pronounced feathers for a fiercer look. Equipment: Talon Enhancers that increase the power of his kicks. Outfit: A martial arts gi with feathered accents that flutter as he moves.
Toepick Redesign: Darker and more ominous with a face that’s hidden until revealed. Equipment: Fear Inducers that amplify the terror he instills in enemies. Outfit: A cloak that shrouds him in mystery, only opening to unleash his frightful visage.
Astrodactyl Redesign: More alien with wing membranes that glow with cosmic energy. Equipment: Jetpack Harness that enhances his flight and energy projection. Outfit: A suit with aerodynamic features and a helmet with a visor for space travel.
Bullfrag Redesign: More muscular with amphibious traits and a tougher skin texture. Equipment: Strength Enhancers that boost his physical prowess. Outfit: A tactical vest with various pouches for carrying mission essentials.
submitted by UsualAcanthaceae8775 to Ben10 [link] [comments]
Redesigns: Heatblast Redesign: Sleeker with magma-like veins glowing beneath his rocky exterior. Equipment: Volcanic Gauntlets that enhance his fire abilities. Outfit: A flame-retardant suit with a core reactor symbol on the chest.
Diamondhead Redesign: Crystalline armor with reflective surfaces and sharper edges. Equipment: A crystal shield that can morph into different defensive shapes. Outfit: A suit with geometric patterns that shimmer with a diamond-like brilliance.
XLR8 Redesign: More aerodynamic with streamlined armor and a visor for high-speed travel. Equipment: Turbo boots that leave a trail of blue energy when he sprints. Outfit: A racing suit with a sleek helmet that has a retractable visor.
Fourarms Redesign: Bulkier with reinforced joints for extra strength. Equipment: Heavy-duty gauntlets that can smash through barriers. Outfit: A gladiator-inspired ensemble with a belt displaying his alien number.
Stinkfly Redesign: Brighter colors with translucent wings and bioluminescent spots. Equipment: A harness that helps distribute healing mist more effectively. Outfit: A lightweight suit that glows in the dark, highlighting his flight path.
Upgrade Redesign: Futuristic with a sleek metallic finish and circuit patterns. Equipment: A modular backpack that can transform into various tech gadgets. Outfit: A tech-suit that integrates with his body, allowing for seamless transformations.
Ghostfreak Redesign: More ethereal with a ghostly aura and chains that represent his phasing ability. Equipment: Ectoplasmic chains that can extend and bind enemies. Outfit: A tattered cloak that billows as if always caught in an otherworldly wind.
Snare-oh Redesign: Ancient Egyptian motifs with hieroglyphs etched into his bandages. Equipment: Ankh-shaped gauntlets that enhance his sand powers. Outfit: A pharaoh’s headdress that symbolizes his regal presence on the battlefield.
Frankenstrike Redesign: More industrial with visible bolts and conductive wiring. Equipment: A pair of Tesla coil shoulder pads that amplify his electric attacks. Outfit: A patchwork suit that resembles a mad scientist’s lab coat.
Eye Guy Redesign: Eyes of varying sizes with adaptive irises for different vision modes. Equipment: A visor that coordinates his eye beams for precision strikes. Outfit: A suit with lens patterns that focus his ocular energy.
Swampfire Redesign: More plant-like with vibrant green foliage and fiery red flowers. Equipment: Compost Gauntlets that enhance his regenerative abilities. Outfit: A botanical suit with leaf patterns and a fiery emblem on the chest.
Echo-Echo Redesign: Sleek and white with sound wave patterns across his body. Equipment: Sonic Amplifiers that boost his sound-based attacks. Outfit: A suit with a sound equalizer display that reacts to his sonic screams.
Humongosaur Redesign: Dinosaur-like with armored plating and a more pronounced tail. Equipment: Meteor Hammer fists that increase his smashing power. Outfit: A prehistoric-themed armor set with bone and rock elements.
Jetray Redesign: More streamlined with sharper wings and a jet engine-like back. Equipment: Aero Fins that improve his maneuverability in the air. Outfit: A flight suit with a sleek helmet and goggles for high-altitude visibility.
Big Chill Redesign: Ghostly with icy blue tones and frost-covered wings. Equipment: Frostbite Claws that leave a chilling effect on enemies. Outfit: A cloak that shimmers like thin ice and leaves a trail of frost.
Brainstorm Redesign: Brain-like patterns with neural connectors and a brighter shell. Equipment: Cerebral Enhancer that increases his psychic abilities. Outfit: A lab coat with a brainwave pattern and a utility belt for gadgets.
Goop Redesign: More viscous with glowing internal organs visible within. Equipment: Polarity Boots that allow him to stick to surfaces and maintain shape. Outfit: A containment suit that helps him keep form and focus his attacks.
Spidermonkey Redesign: More arachnid with additional eyes and spikier fur. Equipment: Web Slingers that shoot stronger and stickier webs. Outfit: A stealth suit with a spider emblem and grip-enhancing gloves and boots.
Loadstar Redesign: Magnetic with a core that glows when using his powers. Equipment: Gravitational Greaves that enhance his magnetic field control. Outfit: An armored suit with polarized plates that attract and repel metal.
Rath Redesign: Fiercer with more pronounced claws and tiger-like stripes. Equipment: Rage Amplifiers that boost his strength when his health is low. Outfit: A luchador-inspired costume with a mask that embodies his wild spirit.
Water Hazard Redesign: More aquatic with a sleeker, streamlined body and gill-like structures. Equipment: Aqua Cannons that can shoot high-pressure water streams. Outfit: A wetsuit with hydrodynamic patterns and a water drop emblem.
Ampfibian Redesign: More translucent with visible bio-electric currents flowing through his body. Equipment: Electro-Flippers that increase swimming speed and maneuverability. Outfit: A suit with neon trims that pulse with his electric charge.
Armodrillo Redesign: Bulkier with reinforced armor plating and drill bits. Equipment: Seismic Boots that enhance ground-shaking abilities. Outfit: A miner’s outfit with a helmet light and a rugged utility belt.
NRG Redesign: Glowing core with a more robust containment suit. Equipment: Reactor Gauntlets that can channel and shoot nuclear energy. Outfit: A radiation suit with a warning symbol and energy-absorbing layers.
Terraspin Redesign: Shell patterns resembling wind turbines and more pronounced fins. Equipment: Cyclone Discs that can be thrown to create gusts of wind. Outfit: An aviator jacket with a turtle shell pattern and wind direction arrows.
Clockwork Redesign: More gears and clockwork mechanisms visible with a timeless finish. Equipment: Chrono Keys that can unlock temporal abilities. Outfit: A steampunk-inspired suit with brass accents and a pocket watch.
Jury Rigg Redesign: More mechanical with tools integrated into his limbs. Equipment: Wrecking Ratchets that increase his dismantling speed. Outfit: A mechanic’s jumpsuit with patches and a tool belt.
Chamalien Redesign: More chameleon-like with adaptive skin that changes patterns. Equipment: Camo Cloak that enhances his stealth capabilities. Outfit: A suit with a chameleon scale motif that shifts colors with his movements.
Feedback Redesign: More electrically charged with pulsating energy lines across his body. Equipment: Antenna Arrays that increase the range and power of his electrical attacks. Outfit: A suit with circuitry patterns that glow with stored energy.
Bloxx Redesign: Modular with interlocking blocks that can reconfigure on the fly. Equipment: Building Bracers that allow for quicker construction of barriers and structures. Outfit: A construction-themed outfit with a hard hat emblem and utility belt.
Ball Weevil Redesign: Brighter colors with a more pronounced spherical body for rolling. Equipment: Plasma Cores that create larger and more potent explosive orbs. Outfit: A sleek suit with orb patterns and a visor that helps target his plasma globes.
Pesky Dust Redesign: Fairy-like with more delicate wings and a dreamy aura. Equipment: Dreamcatcher Net that can capture and amplify his sleep-inducing dust. Outfit: A mystical robe with star and moon motifs that enhance his magical presence.
Atomix Redesign: Radiant with a mini-reactor core and energy veins visible on his body. Equipment: Fusion Gauntlets that stabilize and focus his nuclear energy. Outfit: A hazard suit with a reactor symbol and protective plating.
Gutrot Redesign: Chemical tanks visible on his body with tubes connecting to his gauntlets. Equipment: Diffuser Mask that spreads his gases over a wider area. Outfit: A biochemical suit with a respirator and hazard symbols.
Whampire Redesign: More vampiric with bat-like features and a darker color scheme. Equipment: Echo-Locator Goggles that help him navigate and hunt in the dark. Outfit: A gothic cloak with a high collar and a clasp shaped like a bat.
Shocksquash Redesign: Bulkier with coils and capacitors integrated into his limbs. Equipment: Shock Boots that generate electricity with each stomp. Outfit: An electrified suit with lightning bolt patterns and insulated gloves.
Wildmutt Redesign: Enhanced sensory nodes and a more streamlined body for agility. Equipment: Sonic Collar that amplifies his roars and tracking abilities. Outfit: A sleek suit with padded armor to protect while maintaining flexibility.
Grey Matter Redesign: More pronounced cranial features and brighter skin to highlight his intelligence. Equipment: Quantum Computer Backpack that assists with hacking and strategy. Outfit: A miniaturized lab coat with various gadget holsters.
Ripjaws Redesign: Sharper teeth and fins, with a bioluminescent glow for underwater combat. Equipment: Aqua Jetpack that allows for swift movements in and out of water. Outfit: A reinforced diving suit with pressure resistance for deep-sea excursions.
Cannonbolt Redesign: A more aerodynamic shell with reinforced plating for rolling attacks. Equipment: Momentum Wheels that increase speed and control during rolls. Outfit: A racing stripe motif with impact-absorbing materials.
Wildvine Redesign: Thicker vines and a broader range of plant-like features. Equipment: Photosynthesis Boosters that enhance healing and growth abilities. Outfit: A botanical armor set with leafy camouflage.
Spitter Redesign: More pronounced glands and a wider mouth for his spitting attacks. Equipment: Hydration Pack that keeps him primed for slime production. Outfit: A moisture-retaining suit that helps in slime regeneration.
Buzzshock Redesign: Brighter electrical arcs and a more compact body for zipping around. Equipment: Static Amplifiers that boost his electrical output. Outfit: A suit with conductive pathways that glow with stored electricity.
Blitzwolfer Redesign: More pronounced fangs and claws, with a darker, more intimidating appearance. Equipment: Lunar Lenses that enhance his night vision and howling range. Outfit: A tattered cape that billows as he moves, adding to his fearsome presence.
Upchuck Redesign: A wider mouth and a more robust digestive system visible on his belly. Equipment: Digestive Accelerators that allow for quicker consumption and energy conversion. Outfit: A suit with reinforced areas around the stomach to handle his expansive appetite.
Ditto Redesign: Brighter colors and more expressive faces to differentiate his clones. Equipment: Cloning Belt that enhances the stability and independence of each clone. Outfit: A uniform with a number system to keep track of his duplicates.
Waybig Redesign: Cosmic patterns on his skin and a more imposing stature. Equipment: Stellar Stabilizers that help him maintain balance and leverage his size. Outfit: A suit with celestial motifs that reflect his cosmic origins.
Arctiguana Redesign: Icier appearance with sharper spines and a more pronounced frill. Equipment: Cryo Converters that enhance his ice beam’s freezing capabilities. Outfit: An insulated suit that protects him from overheating and helps focus his cold powers.
Chromastone Redesign: More prismatic with a crystalline structure that refracts light. Equipment: Prism Gauntlets that enhance his energy absorption and refraction abilities. Outfit: A suit with angular, reflective panels that mimic his crystalline form.
Alien X Redesign: Cosmic and ethereal with starry patterns that shift and change. Equipment: Celestial Scepter that focuses his reality-warping powers. Outfit: A robe that seems to contain a piece of the universe, complete with twinkling stars.
Nanomech Redesign: Sleeker with more advanced nanotechnology features. Equipment: Micro-Assembler that allows him to construct various devices on the fly. Outfit: A tech-enhanced suit that adjusts to his size changes.
Fasttrack Redesign: Streamlined with aerodynamic features for enhanced speed. Equipment: Velocity Vambraces that boost his speed and agility. Outfit: A racing suit with dynamic lines that glow when he accelerates.
Eatle Redesign: Bulkier with a reinforced exoskeleton and sharper mandibles. Equipment: Digestive Reinforcement Belt that aids in processing consumed materials. Outfit: A utility belt with compartments for storing consumed materials.
Gravattack Redesign: More planetary with a core that glows like a molten core. Equipment: Graviton Anchor that helps him control his gravitational fields. Outfit: A suit with orbiting bands that represent his control over gravity.
Crashhopper Redesign: More insectoid with enhanced leg hydraulics for powerful jumps. Equipment: Impact Dampeners that protect him during high-velocity landings. Outfit: A suit with spring-loaded accents that highlight his leaping abilities.
Walkatrout Redesign: More amphibious with sleek scales and a streamlined body. Equipment: Aqua-Dynamic Fins that improve his swimming and maneuverability. Outfit: A wetsuit with a slippery surface to aid in evasive maneuvers.
Molestache Redesign: More distinguished with a larger, more versatile mustache. Equipment: Mustache Combs that can be used as weapons or tools. Outfit: A Victorian-style suit with a bow tie and a monocle for a touch of class.
The Worst Redesign: Tougher looking with visible scars and a more rugged appearance. Equipment: Resilience Amplifiers that make him even harder to take down. Outfit: A battered suit that looks like it’s been through many battles.
Kickin Hawk Redesign: Sharper talons and more pronounced feathers for a fiercer look. Equipment: Talon Enhancers that increase the power of his kicks. Outfit: A martial arts gi with feathered accents that flutter as he moves.
Toepick Redesign: Darker and more ominous with a face that’s hidden until revealed. Equipment: Fear Inducers that amplify the terror he instills in enemies. Outfit: A cloak that shrouds him in mystery, only opening to unleash his frightful visage.
Astrodactyl Redesign: More alien with wing membranes that glow with cosmic energy. Equipment: Jetpack Harness that enhances his flight and energy projection. Outfit: A suit with aerodynamic features and a helmet with a visor for space travel.
Bullfrag Redesign: More muscular with amphibious traits and a tougher skin texture. Equipment: Strength Enhancers that boost his physical prowess. Outfit: A tactical vest with various pouches for carrying mission essentials.
2024.05.14 06:35 Ukrainer_UA 5:11 EEST; The Sun is Rising Over Kyiv on the 811th Day of the Full-Scale Invasion. About the Ukrainian tradition of honoring the departed by sharing food and drink with them.
 | We are Ukraïner, a non-profit media aimed at advocating for the authentic Ukraine - and unexpected geographical discoveries and multiculturalism. submitted by Ukrainer_UA to ukraine [link] [comments] This is an article that was published on May 11th, 2024. It has been condensed for Reddit. _______________________________ Provody, Provodna Nedilia, Hrobky, Mohylky... let us tell you about these holidays and why people celebrate them.Photo: Taras Kovalchuk.In Ukraine you might see small groups of people who gather at cemeteries every Spring, bringing food and strong drinks, setting tables right among the graves, and conversing and praying for a long time. This might seem strange or even uncouth to some, however, this is a longstanding Ukrainian tradition of honoring ancestors. Unfortunately, many perceive it with prejudice or hostility nowadays because there is often a lack of understanding of how this ritual actually took place before various ideologies influenced its interpretation (and the ritual itself). Primarily, this concerns the detrimental impact of the Soviet era, during which this Ukrainian tradition either withered away or degenerated completely. Provody, Provodna Nedilia, Hrobky, Mohylky, also known as Radunytsia (Radonytsia), Didy, Babskyi Velykden—all these are names common in various regions of Ukraine but denote the same thing: the days of honoring departed souls and remembering their lives during a symbolic meal. Ancestor worship has been known since the times of ancient societies: both in matriarchal communities (in Melanesia, Micronesia) and in later patriarchal societies. Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Slavs also had such traditions. Origins of the Ukrainian TraditionDuring the early times of Rus, tradition of Radonytsia was known to already exist and it was closely linked with ancestor worship. Its roots trace back to the era of paganism and the word literally means "solemn days." Ancient Slavs referred to Radonytsia or "spring joy" as a whole cycle of spring holidays dedicated to commemorating the dead. When Christianity was adopted, the celebration condensed into a single day—the second Sunday after Easter. According to ancient folk beliefs, the dead rejoice when their living relatives remember them fondly and tend to their graves.According to Ukrainian folk beliefs, the annual commemorations of relatives during the spring awakening of nature symbolized the infinity of the life cycle and the inclusion of people who had passed away into this cycle. After the adoption of Christianity, Orthodox clergy initially condemned all such holidays, including Provody (the common name given by the church), considering them pagan rituals, and called for the eradication of this custom. However, such powerful archetypal traditions are impossible to erradicate, so they remained, albeit transformed into various forms and manifestations. For example, in addition to Provody, honoring the dead found expression in the following holidays: Winter
Photo. Luchka Village, Poltava region, 1960s. Photo from the family archive of Oleksandr Liutyi. The first known written mention of commemorating relatives in the second week after Easter is recorded in the Chronicles of Rus from 1372. Throughout the ages, addressing ancestors and/or honoring them was fundamental for Ukrainians, shaping their identity and influencing various aspects of life, including spirituality. Thematic holidays and rituals existed in all Ukrainian regions, so the stereotype that this is a Soviet relic or lacks cultural taste is fallacious, as the connection with ancestors provides an answer to the question "who are we?" Before Provody, on the Thursday of Holy Week, it is customary to visit the cemetery to tidy up the graves of relatives—pull out weeds, tidy or update plaques, plant new flowers. Therefore, this day is sometimes called the “Mavka’s Easter” or "Easter for the Dead" because it was believed that on this day the news of Easter reached the afterlife, and the dead joined the celebration with the living. Photo: Taras Kovalchuk. Memorial event after EasterIn simplified terms, Hrobky, Provody, Mohylky, etc., are a way to commemorate the dead loved ones, sharing a meal with them, so to speak. Therefore, in addition to the usual food for daily consumption, special food with ritual significance is prepared. This includes consecrated bread and kolyva. Kolyva among Slavic peoples, including Ukrainians, refers to a memorial kutia made from grains with a sweet syrup. The name of this dish originates from the ancient custom of offering grain and fruits during memorial ceremonies, which in Ancient Greek was called "kolluba" (in Byzantine pronunciation — "kollyva").The recipe for memorial kutia may overlap with the recipe for Christmas kutia, but the former is usually less sweet. Traditionally, kolyva is made from boiled wheat, but nowadays it can be made from rice, with the addition of raisins, nuts and sometimes candy-coated seeds or nuts. The porridge is poured over with water mixed with honey or sugar. The use of grain in kolyva symbolizes the continuation of the family line, while honey was believed to cleanse from sins. Of course, the recipe may vary slightly depending on the region. For example, in the Dnipro region, instead of grains, people traditionally use slices of white bread soaked in syrup. Kolyva is usually eaten with a single shared spoon, just as a symbolic amount of alcohol is drank from a single glass. The leftover memorial kutia is intended as food for the dead, as if they were visiting the living during the meal. Ethnographer Dmytro Zelenin noted that according to the beliefs of Eastern Slavs, "the dead has all the same needs as a living person, especially the need for food." Photo: Taras Kovalchuk. Our ancestors believed that sharing a meal with the souls of the dead granted them eternal peace. And for the living, it served as a reminder not only of the cycle, transience, and cyclical nature of life but also strengthened the family through this connection with their ancestors. During the meal, proverbs were recited: "They lie down to rest—holding up the land, while we walk—waking up the land," "Let us be healthy, and let them rest easy." The script of the event in various regions of Ukraine was and sometimes remains more or less constant: first, the priest performs the solemn liturgical service, then the families gathered at the cemetery sit down to commemorate the dead with the food and drinks. The memorial meal begins with a collective prayer. In the Polissia region, for example, there is a tradition of sprinkling the graves with blessed eggs, and in some regions, it was customary to sing spiritual songs. During the pre-Soviet period, significantly more food was traditionally consumed during these memorial days than nowadays. Dishes like kulish, cabbage soup, peas with smoked meat, pork liver, bread, creppes with various fillings, dumplings, pies, knyshi (a type of bread), stuffed cabbage rolls, fried fish, and more were prepared specifically for the event. Special bread called paska and kutia were also made. Interestingly, the meals were either eaten at tables set in advance or on blankets spread out on the grass. In the 1970s, tables and benches began to be universally installed, one for each family. This allowed living relatives to share the memorial meal in close proximity to the dead. In addition to food, drinks, including alcoholic beverages, were also brought to the graves. However, this should not be equated with a regular feast, as everything had a ritual significance. For example, a symbolic shot of horilka was passed around in a circle among those present so that everyone could take a sip "for the Kingdom of Heaven" and for the repose of the dead. It is noteworthy that the glasses were only raised, not clinked, as this was strictly forbidden at memorial gatherings. If the table was large and many people gathered around it, there were two such shots, but no more. The reason for this restrained feast near the graves was simple— it was believed that a loud celebration could scare the souls of the dead, who, according to folk beliefs, were present there. People didn't sing, they spoke quietly and solemnly. Toasts were not proposed; instead, they said phrases like "[Name] eat, drink, rest, and wait for us!"; "Eat, drink, and remember us, sinners!"; "May you await the Kingdom of Heaven, and may we not hurry to join you!"; "May the earth be soft!"; "Let's drink to the Kingdom of Heaven for our (Ivan, Olha, etc.)!" Photo. Luchka village, Poltava Region, 1960s. Photo from the family archive of Oleksandr Liutyi. In addition to dishes for the common table, people would always prepare dishes for the dead that they particularly enjoyed in life. After the meal, a portion of these dishes, some kutia, and sometimes even horilka were left at the grave, and the earth was sprinkled with this strong drink. Such memorial gatherings often invited passersby and the poor. Leftover food was distributed to those who couldn't attend, with a request to eat or drink "in memory of the souls." Photo. Engraving from 1877 based on a drawing by Kostiantyn Trutovskyi. Source: \"Vsesvitnia Ilustratsiia\" magazine, volume 17. In the church dictionary of 1773, there is mention of such a custom: — On Radonytsia, it was a common practice among the common folk to remember their deceased relatives with pagan rituals, and whoever remembered them brought sweetened wine, pies, crepes to the grave. After performing prayers the priest would take a cup of wine or a glass of beer, and poured out most of it onto the grave and drank the rest themselves; at the same time, women would lament the good deeds of the deceased with tearful voices...Photo: Yuriy Stefanyak. All this once again prompts us to think that cemeteries are not only about personal stories but also about the life of a whole nation. That is why it is important to take care of preserving cemeteries and rediscovering authentic traditions. During the full-scale war, this is more relevant than ever, as russia is making daily efforts to destroy not only the Ukrainian nation but also any memory of it. Unfortunately, many Ukrainians currently cannot even visit the graves of their relatives because they are buried in occupied territories; many villages, towns, and even cities are destroyed, so there is nowhere to come to remember. Every piece of native land becomes more precious, the value of each life becomes sharper, and the importance of memory becomes more significant. _______________________________ The 784th day of a nine year invasion that has been going on for centuries. One day closer to victory. 🇺🇦 HEROYAM SLAVA! 🇺🇦 |
2024.05.14 05:44 courtingdisaster Presenting the evidence: 17 May 2024
 | Come one, come all, we're clooowning again! 🤡 submitted by courtingdisaster to GaylorSwift [link] [comments] Thanks to u/1DMod for posting the Jimmy Fallon video that led to me to start to connect the dots that other creators have noticed. Long story short, we're clowning for Stockholm N1 (maybe even night ✌️ as well), buckle up clowns! ✌️First things first, May 17 is ✌️ fortnights after the release of TTPD on April 19. We know that Taylor is still throwing up peace signs which seems unnecessary if it only ever meant that there was a second part of TTPD. I think it's an indication that we haven't completely cracked that egg yet.This photo was necessary for the post, ok National/International Day OfWhile these days aren't necessarily solid proof of anything, Taylor did release TTPD on Poetry & The Creative Mind Day and also released the ME! music video (ME! Out now!) on Lesbian Visibility Day so I think it's definitely worth investigating.After publishing this post I was reading through the comments in this thread about easter eggs and was reminded by u/-periwinkle that some people predicted the Toe breakup date based on something Taylor mentioned in her NYU speech ("Part of growing up and moving into new chapters of your life is about catch and release"). 11 months later, the Toe breakup news came out on, you guessed it, National Catch and Release Day. More on the NYU speech later. First, let's have a look at the holidays for May 17 that could be relevant:
https://preview.redd.it/4ikx6teucd0d1.jpg?width=443&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6aec634e52a1083cccbcaefcb78227f2fe8db793
Direct 17/5 easter eggs
Important days in historyThese could be nothing, could be something, still worth noting.
Important events in Taylor's history on this day
Stockholm
https://preview.redd.it/a28zn1akid0d1.jpg?width=1237&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e2b4751ac3530892d8a17d3c5ca1bbea8a1f5ee9
New RomanticsKristen, who I have referenced in nearly every part in this post (again, she's amazing, go follow her), has a mass coming-out theory that she has dubbed the New Romantics. I highly recommend checking out her content on Twitter and TikTok and she's also recently launched a podcast that you can read more about here for a lottttttt more information on this theory. Essentially the theory is that a large number of artists in the entertainment industry are queer and are working together as a "safety in numbers" type approach to coming out of the closet and potentially changing the industry in a monumental way.Let's have a look at some players that are relevant to either May 17 or Stockholm (or both in one person's case!):
Theories as to what exactly is coming
In SummationSomething is happening in Stockholm. I don't know what exactly but it is THE ONE to watch. I think it would be interesting to revisit the NYU speech, Karma music video, Stephen King and the Lover era in general for hints as to what's coming.Regardless, I'll be there talking smack in the megathread on Friday and keeping an eye out for any new Chiefs colours. See you there, clowns! Who's clowning with me?! 🤡🤡🤡 Edit: I'll be making some additions to this post as people have been making incredible connections already, thank you! These will be noted as a new bulletpoint to try and keep it transparent as to what has been added. As I'm researching I'm also making new connections of my own that I will also add as separate bulletpoints. |
2024.05.14 05:06 UserSkittles1214 [Mobile Game (iOS or Android)][2000’s-Early 2010’s] Space shooter featuring anthropomorphic animals, somewhat akin to Sky Force Reloaded -Repost of a repost of a repost of repost- Platform(s): Mobile-Likely iOS, possibly Android.
Genre: Space ShooteShoot ‘em up.
Estimated year of release: 2000s-Early 2010.
Graphics/art style: 3D and neither realistic nor cartoony for the most part.
Notable characters: A pilot or pilots that resemble(s) a hamster and probably is/are (an) anthropomorphic ones. An anthropomorphic bear that is a commander for said pilot. Five bosses. The first one is a large geometrically shaped ship, and the second one is a giant spider-like monster. I can’t remember the designs of the third and fourth ones. The fifth one is multiple blue and purple fleshy alien ships.
Notable gameplay mechanics: You manually fire your main laser gun with your finger on the screen, move ships with finger swipes/dragging finger, shop to upgrade ship stats, enemies to fight in each level, bosses at the end of each level, and increasing enemy variety and types of objects when replaying levels.
Other details: The first level only had asteroids, and no actual enemies even on replays, with more explosive asteroids added on replays, with a boss at the end that kind of resembled an octagon or a boss from Astro Avenger 2. The rest of the levels had aliens and ships to fight. The second one featured a cyclops-spider-like boss at the end with destroyable parts, and I think the boss was an orange-to-brown color. I don't remember what the other two levels or their respective bosses looked like. The fifth level also had colored aliens as enemies. The final boss battle had identical flying bosses with the color scheme of the Resident Evil 6 “6” logo/symbol, being blue, bluish-purple, and purple.
Pic related, Space Hamster in Turmoil:
And yes, the actual game I'm referring to also had Boss Health displayed at the end of each level and had Ship HP shown.
submitted by UserSkittles1214 to tipofmyjoystick [link] [comments]
Estimated year of release: 2000s-Early 2010.
Graphics/art style: 3D and neither realistic nor cartoony for the most part.
Notable characters: A pilot or pilots that resemble(s) a hamster and probably is/are (an) anthropomorphic ones. An anthropomorphic bear that is a commander for said pilot. Five bosses. The first one is a large geometrically shaped ship, and the second one is a giant spider-like monster. I can’t remember the designs of the third and fourth ones. The fifth one is multiple blue and purple fleshy alien ships.
Notable gameplay mechanics: You manually fire your main laser gun with your finger on the screen, move ships with finger swipes/dragging finger, shop to upgrade ship stats, enemies to fight in each level, bosses at the end of each level, and increasing enemy variety and types of objects when replaying levels.
Other details: The first level only had asteroids, and no actual enemies even on replays, with more explosive asteroids added on replays, with a boss at the end that kind of resembled an octagon or a boss from Astro Avenger 2. The rest of the levels had aliens and ships to fight. The second one featured a cyclops-spider-like boss at the end with destroyable parts, and I think the boss was an orange-to-brown color. I don't remember what the other two levels or their respective bosses looked like. The fifth level also had colored aliens as enemies. The final boss battle had identical flying bosses with the color scheme of the Resident Evil 6 “6” logo/symbol, being blue, bluish-purple, and purple.
Pic related, Space Hamster in Turmoil:
And yes, the actual game I'm referring to also had Boss Health displayed at the end of each level and had Ship HP shown.
2024.05.14 03:11 OttoVonBlastoid Nature Of A Homeless Musician: Special Thanks/Announcements
 | Hello all! Otto here. And, as you all now know. NoaHM has finally come to an end. It's been a hell of a ride that I'll never forget. But before I move on to thanking specific people and telling you all what's in store, I wanted to be a bit mushy for a minute if you'll indulge me... submitted by OttoVonBlastoid to NatureofPredators [link] [comments] When I first heard of NoP, I was in the middle of the night shift that I'm still working to this day. I had a single ear bud in, which was TECHNICALLY against the rules, and still is but fuck 'em. And to pass the time, I listened to stories. Either Mr. Creeps' Creepypasta compilations or, in this case, Agro Squirrel's Tales From Outer SPACE series. And eventually, I heard the name, The Nature Of Predators...and it all went downhill from there as you all can well imagine. Jokes aside, I fell in love with the story and universe and decided to check out the community. And soon, I found the very first fic I ever read on here, "My Floridian Arxur Daughter". From that point on, I was hooked. I read "Arxur Nursery", "The New Terran Refugee", "Feathers Of Deceit", "Lost In Found", "Recipe For Disaster", "Playing By Ear", and so, SO many more. The sheer amount of creativity on display was amazing. And so...I decided to try my hand at it. I'd already written a short creepypasta, as well as a small five-part miniseries based off of one of my friends DnD campaigns, so I had a LITTLE experience, but I still hadn't taken a single writing course or knew...anything about what I was doing, so I decided to try something small. (That worked out well...) I was in the middle of rereading "Floridian Arxur Daughter" for...maybe the sixth time when a particular scene stuck out to me. Something about it...made something click in my head. After evacuating young Chalta from the house, her big bother Carlos and his girlfriend Salisek decide to take her out on a drive, and while their driving, Carlos mentions his ability to sing, and after both Chalta and Salisek both ask for a demonstration, he sings a beautiful rendition of "Send Me A Peach" from Over The Garden Wall. It was a touching scene, and hearing the song from Chalta's point of view clicked with me. It was by this point that I'd also discovered "Playing By Ear" by u/VeryUnluckyDice, which was essentially this "listening to music through the perspective of someone else's mind" idea made manifest. And that's where it all began. I made a post, proposing the premise of my story, and while I didn't get a LOT of feedback, most of the feedback I got was positive. And a few days later, "Nature Of A Homeless Musician: Prologue" was born, in all of its overly edgy glory. And well...you know the rest from there... I never could have imagined just how big this story would get. It was NEVER supposed to grow this much, touch so many people, inspire so many others to make stuff themselves. Sure, I hoped that it might, but I never thought it would! But now...here we are... I...can't put into words, how thankful I am to each and every single one of you, who gave my little idea a chance. It means more to me then I could ever describe. Ever since I was a kid, I knew I wanted to make my living by making things! At first, I thought that just meant being a Youtuber, like every cringy middle schooler does, but now...I think I get it... I've always wanted to be able to make things, and for those things to make OTHER people happy. Make them laugh, make them cry, make them smile, and make their days just a little bit brighter. I've...long since given up that old dream... I just didn't think it was possible, not for me anyways. But you all proved me wrong. Every comment, every meme, every bit of art you guys make...proves me wrong. When I got my first bit of fanart, I cried at my monitor. Because for the first time in so long that I can't even remember, I was happy. I was so, so happy, because it genuinely felt like this dream that I've had since I was a kid was finally possible. Someone discovered something I made, and enjoyed it enough, loved it enough, got invested enough, to make something themselves just to show me and everyone else just how much they loved it.... And it made me happy, so, so damn happy. So thank you. Thank you all so much for everything you do. Thank you for reading, commenting, replying, suggesting, joking, laughing, creating, and expressing with me. It means more than you'll ever know. And even if I don't end up pursuing writing after this, my life will never be the same, thanks to all of you. If you're reading this, right here, right now, YOU, yes YOU... Thank you...for everything you do. And even if you don't think so, I think you're one of the most amazing people in this ass-backwards galaxy of ours. Thank you. Now then, on to specific thanks: u/Bow-tied_Engineer: You were literally the first person to tell me that this fic was a good idea. If you hadn't been there in the comments, I might not have gone through with it. And even since then, you've still been an absolute chad. We might not have the same taste in romance sub-plots, but I'll always respect you and your takes. Thank you, for giving me the confidence to give this a try. u/CaptainChristopher02: The man himself. Your fic, "My Floridian Arxur Daughter" as well as "My Brazilian Arxur Nursery" were, as stated before, the very first fic I read on the sub. And your work was the first tiny spark that slowly became NoaHM. I've said it multiple times, and I'll say it again, if there was no "Arxur Daughter", there would be no "Homeless Musician". When I first started writing, I didn't even think I'd ever even meet you, but the fact that I have, and that you've joined my own little community of music and Tohba memes means the world to me. u/VeryUnluckyDice: Reading through "Playing By Ear" for the first time was an experience I'll never forget. It was so interesting and different to almost everything else on the sub at the time except "Venlil Metal". You've done so much to inspire me and my work and even now, you're still an absolute chad and someone this community just wouldn't be the same without. I'm really looking forward to the day when our two stories really do cross. It'll be a grand sonata of sound the likes of which this sub has never seen, I just know it! u/JulianSkies: Ever since you first started commenting on my chapters, you have been an absolutely ENDLESS source of positivity, helpful advice, information on the setting, proofreading, and all around good vibes. I always look forward to seeing what you have to say on the most recent post, and I hope you decide to stick around for whatever comes next. Thank you. u/xskipy10: Good lord, where to even begin with you? Before, when I mentioned that first bit of fanart that made me cry, that was YOUR artwork. And that one picture, of Michael and the rest of the main cast has had such an enormous impact on not just me, but the rest of the sub as a whole. It was that one picture that gave me hope that the dream I've had since I was a kid was possible. It was your artwork of Tohba that, TO THIS DAY, Dovah is still using to award people who beat him to the precious title of "SPEED". I mean it when I say you are an absolute treasure, not just to me and my story, but to the entire NoP community. u/OmegaOmnimon02: Before there was GuyWhoExists, there was Omega, the fastest memer in The West. You were the architect of the origianl "Rejoice! Tohba Be Upon Ye" meme, and it has since been used to this day as a form of mutual celebration for all. You've been one of my avid supporters for a long time now, and seeing another of your shitposts in the Discord never fails to brighten my day. Thank you for all that you do. u/DOVAHCREED12: I swear, if you aren't SPEED when this post drops, I'm gonna be so disappointed. Jokes aside, I have loved and appreciated every single Venbig hug I have ever received from you. Back when I first started writing this, the "Official Venbig Seal Of Approval" was this vaunted, holy, symbol that a lowly peasant such as myself would never be able to earn. And then one appeared in my comments and it felt like freaking Christmas. Thank you so much for giving my story a chance. u/Ben_Elohim_2020: I'll never get over just how hilarious our first meeting was. What was meant to be a quick one-to-two chapter long side trip with some shady dude in an alley completely spiraled into a giant, five-part, spat with the actual Space Mafia known as The Family. While the Twilight Valley Arc was divisive for a lot of people reading, I hope you know I had a MASSIVE amount of fun writing it with you, and I can't wait to see where you're future projects lead. Papyroo: (Sorry, I can't remember your new Reddit name) Along with Omega, I've always looked forward to seeing what you have to say when it comes to my fic. And the impact you've had on my story can't be overstated. The Ficnapping you did is the reason that Tohba now has his blue "Tiwfish" plushie. And the events of your addition to my canon will continue to be referenced and fondly looked back on by my characters for a long time to come. u/Spacer_Catgirl4969: I remember a time when you were still SpacerNEKO. You were always one of my most avid commenters way back when, and I always appreciated your kind words. And I still can't express how cool it was that you actually made a pixel art music video for Dohkar. It still holds up, even now. You and Guywhoexists should TOTALLY work on a project together. With your combined pixel art skills, who knows what's possible?! u/Mini-Tonk: Well, if it isn't the Rat boi, himself. You have never once faltered in your efforts to not only support my work, but also protect Tohba from the shadows. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed, and you canonically making ME a character in your fic is still hilarious and heartwarming. Thank you for everything you do. u/Guywhoexists2812: While you are one of the newest members of our little NoaHM family, that hasn't stopped you from being one of the most active and creative folks we have to offer. The sheer amount of memes and pixel art you've created is downright INSPIRATIONAL. Along with Skipy, whenever someone comes up with a cute idea for art, I know you'll find some way to pull through. Keep creating, King. You are no mere "Guy". You are a KING who exists! And of course, u/SpacePaladin15 for creating this awesome universe to begin with, without whom, none of use would be here right now. There are two other names missing on this list, but that's mostly because I'm currently working on a project with them and I don't want to spoil anything...yet. And speaking of future projects! ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!!!! It's been one hell of a wild ride, hasn't it? But I tell you this: THE RIDE AIN'T OVER YET!!!!! But...it will be slowing down for a while... After working on this story for so long, (especially that triple upload. GOD, what was I thinking?!) I am in dire need of rest. So, for now, I will be going on about a month-long hiatus from posting, except for a small occasion here and there. I'll still be active in the community, especially on Discord, but you won't get any big story updates for a while. Does this mean that I'm done and the story's over? No. This was but the first arc in the tale of Michael Ruiz Andrews and his family. There will INDEED be MOAR!!! More music! More hijinks! More action! More romance! More drama! More touching family moments! And, of COURSE, MORE TOHBA!!!! There will be MOAR!!! Just not yet. My Hiatus will officially start tomorrow after a belated NoaHM Mother's Day Special. I also have a Father's Day Special planned for next month as well. But other than the occasional announcement post, you won't be getting anything story-related out of me until my break is over and I'm ready to unveil the next project I and three other creators have been working on. I won't say anything more on the project, but I will say to keep an eye out... "But Otto!", I hear you ask. "If there won't be any more big story updates, how will I get my fix of Baby-roo induced dopamine?! My brain requires more Tohba and Ven-floof memes to give me the goody good chemicals!!!" Well my friend, I have just the solution for you!!! A SHAMELESS SELF-PLUG!!! Most of you may already know, but Nature Of A Homeless Musician has its OWN DISCORD SERVER!!!!!! We've got MEMES, STORY IDEAS, FOOD SO FULL OF LOVE THAT MAMA-ROO HERSELF COULD'VE MADE IT! We got fanart, gaming chats, and we even plan the occasional movie night! As well, as soon as this post goes live, I'll be adding a new channel specifically for Q&A and Trivia! For Example: Did you know that NoaHM was originally meant to only be ten chapters long? Did you know Trilly and Dailo were created entirely on accident? Did you know that the events of the FINALE have been remade, reorganized, and rewritten at LEAST four times? Did you know...THAT TOHBA WAS BASED OFF A REAL PERSON?! All of these things are true! And if you want to learn more about the making of this series, direct from my brain, the come on in and ask away! All I ask in return is that you follow the rules I've laid out a generally not be a jerk. We're here to have fun and be wholesome, so let's keep it that way. I hope to see you there! https://discord.gg/YSysvHHx And now, lastly, here's nearly EVERY single meme bit of fanart I've received: And once again, from the bottom of my heart, with all the love I can muster, thank you. https://preview.redd.it/2nxhg18mia0d1.jpg?width=2388&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5887802bce7c20b6fe2f190ce0992be17a3f6a58 https://preview.redd.it/u9i0zbgtia0d1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d0ff76b390ec3f7daed9d66a4d556db0a063fc97 https://preview.redd.it/pg860rcvia0d1.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2d6fa595bb160514ce214c1594e70ffdf9c8c4e3 https://preview.redd.it/u94h5np0ja0d1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=373918e5c84b606979efd9f793418068e6cbc468 https://preview.redd.it/609h59x3ja0d1.jpg?width=1334&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b09601d8f19c0b7aaf262bdd887b24317e95a6d https://preview.redd.it/01pbmbs6ja0d1.jpg?width=524&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5cdbf19cfa75be452cdfb4c54e19924d0b5b1aa https://preview.redd.it/6iz7wh8bja0d1.jpg?width=512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2257a778a87bb3013b08bac4ce9021d1de8e56d1 https://preview.redd.it/zxry3gddja0d1.jpg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f0a0b18130d8e3283970f3e8f97002362c957e0 https://preview.redd.it/qfx79v5gja0d1.jpg?width=1164&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0d5db5c8624a18513160ebb6f9648f2486a238cb https://preview.redd.it/metjjzphja0d1.jpg?width=888&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6adabe3c438808bbeb623f5690e9f34766d7e04f https://preview.redd.it/8yrync9lja0d1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=d75e3c651c99936f2eccd6135ba769aeab119208 https://preview.redd.it/0uawe15aka0d1.jpg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5999790ce154f9022ca51812b857aeefd348b66f https://preview.redd.it/uug3dq1bka0d1.jpg?width=1668&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ca76e5a6939143aad5dc148607934b896eeb9305 https://preview.redd.it/lr2gzj6cka0d1.jpg?width=1521&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d4b2ec5e86862c8268aa0efdfde022b1a3ce37c1 https://preview.redd.it/sk0rz05eka0d1.jpg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0eedf45cb5627708f6c5449a4d4ce96f5820cca7 https://preview.redd.it/hwztvo5vka0d1.jpg?width=577&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2492936771668389e1e33eb37adfdde5ff898e9 https://preview.redd.it/ns5mvayvka0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=78658096eda7cd47a2faf0add5806d78a2b9ea20 https://preview.redd.it/cn5ruxxwka0d1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e36414e11ee37f23418a5d7b9d3fce6f13b7d57c https://preview.redd.it/3w08uzb2la0d1.png?width=2048&format=png&auto=webp&s=84608636603a71dba3863d02cf3e0d655062fbe7 Thank you... Thank you all... |
2024.05.14 03:09 LiveListenLearnGrow How Can The Fruit Of The Spirit Help Your Marriage?
My apologies the title of this post should state, “How Can The Fruit Of The Spirit Help Your Marriage?”
I'm going to share with you today a message on how the Fruit of the Spirit can help a married couple (or potential married couple) have a loving, blessed, and fulfilling marriage.
Let me share with you first and foremost the Bible verses concerning the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians Chapter 5:22-23 (KJV)
But the Fruit of the Spirit is
The spiritual and practicality of a married couple (or a couple planning to get married) applying the Fruit of the Spirit will help them have a good marriage instead of a toxic one.
This will conclude my message for today.
God bless and take care everyone.
submitted by LiveListenLearnGrow to u/LiveListenLearnGrow [link] [comments]
I'm going to share with you today a message on how the Fruit of the Spirit can help a married couple (or potential married couple) have a loving, blessed, and fulfilling marriage.
Let me share with you first and foremost the Bible verses concerning the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians Chapter 5:22-23 (KJV)
But the Fruit of the Spirit is
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Long-suffering
- Gentleness.
- Goodness
- Faith
- Meekness
- Temperance Against such there is no law.
The spiritual and practicality of a married couple (or a couple planning to get married) applying the Fruit of the Spirit will help them have a good marriage instead of a toxic one.
- Fruit number one is Love If a married couple apply God's Agape Love unto each other, it will solidify and protect all the areas of their marriage that the enemy and their flesh will try to disrupt.
- Fruit Number Two is Joy Having the Fruit of Joy will bring happiness, delight, and appreciation in the marriage of the husband and wife.
- Fruit number three is Peace Having and applying the Fruit of Peace will keep toxicity, ungodliness, demise, hostility, and so on out of your marriage.
- Fruit number four is Long-suffering which means being patience. Having and applying the Fruit of Long-suffering with one another, despite neither party in the marriage being perfect. Being long-suffering will compel and inspire both in the marriage to be loving, respectful, and appropriately transparent when dealing with challenges that may arise in their marriage. ——————————————————
- Fruit number five is Gentleness Having and applying the Fruit of Gentleness will help the married couple to be considerate, thoughtful, kind, loving, and supportive of each other without being disrespectful, demeaning, condescending, degrading, and so forth.
- Fruit Number six is Goodness Having and applying the Fruit of Goodness will weed out badness, shrewdness, malice, hostility, put downs, etc.
- Fruit Number seven is Faith The Fruit of Faith will embellish both individuals in the marriage to stay faithful, true, loyal, devoted, and committed to each other.
- Fruit Number eight is Meekness The Fruit Of Meekness will help the married couple to be humble, content, and supportive of each other within the jurisdiction of God’s word not the world, culture, busybodies, home-wreckers, and ungodly advice.
- Lastly, Fruit number 9 is Temperance The Fruit of Temperance will help both in the marriage to show respect toward each other without displaying unwarranted anger, hostility, ungratefulness, malice, and so forth.
This will conclude my message for today.
God bless and take care everyone.
love #marriage #husbandandwife
maleandfemale #marriageadvice
2024.05.14 00:10 Dream1iner MacBook pro battery data
 | Hey folks. submitted by Dream1iner to MacOS [link] [comments] I've been on a little adventure with my MB Pro 2021, the battery stats reported by the system are weird. Couple issues that I've noticed: 1. When I unplug it, the battery just sits there at 100% for maybe just half an hour or so, and then it starts its slow descent to 0%.
That command will return tons of raw battery data including health, charge, resistance. etc. So I decided to put together my app to replace "not entirely true" menu bar application that provided in mac os. it's written on Go, and basically doing 1 calculation: batCharge := int(float64(battery.Current) / float64(battery.Full) * 100)
There is 3 states, that it can display: Discharging - regular xx% value Charging - xx% values + ⚡ symbol 3When battery actually charged it will display \"Full\" Code is available on github, as usual pre builded .app is also there. Pre builded app tested on MB Pro 2021. |
2024.05.13 23:57 ArcsOfMagic V4 "Berries and Weeds" released!
Dear All!
I am happy to announce the first major update to "Arcs of Magic" since the middle of the last year. The V4 "Berries and Weeds" is now available for download!
A completely reworked user interface with all new menu graphics, icons, and fonts makes spell editing more intuitive than ever.
Integration of the industry standard 3D editing format (GLTF) allowed me to introduce more complex 3D models for two types of bushes: yew bush and white currant bush. Both spawn with the corresponding berries that can be harvested and eaten, although eating one of them will cause poisoning, a new affliction added to the game. I have also reworked the grass models, and added "low" and "high" variants thereof.
Speaking of afflictions, you can now see detailed health information for your character in a new menu tab created for this purpose. The health tab joins the inventory and the magic tabs in the main menu. I also added some slight poisoning due to the uncooked meat and a possibility to die directly from poisoning and hunger.
Finally, in preparation for the initial public announcement, I have added full fullscreen support. Display resolution and frequency can now be selected from the existing options menu.
You are welcome, more than ever, to provide your feedback about the game. Thanks to the built-in feedback panel, you can now send me your thoughts directly from within the game in just a couple of clicks.
As you can see in the roadmap I updated earlier this year, I plan to release updates more frequently from now on, hopefully every three months. See you soon to introduce you to the first means of progression: magic books and scrolls!
submitted by ArcsOfMagic to ArcsOfMagic [link] [comments]
I am happy to announce the first major update to "Arcs of Magic" since the middle of the last year. The V4 "Berries and Weeds" is now available for download!
A completely reworked user interface with all new menu graphics, icons, and fonts makes spell editing more intuitive than ever.
Integration of the industry standard 3D editing format (GLTF) allowed me to introduce more complex 3D models for two types of bushes: yew bush and white currant bush. Both spawn with the corresponding berries that can be harvested and eaten, although eating one of them will cause poisoning, a new affliction added to the game. I have also reworked the grass models, and added "low" and "high" variants thereof.
Speaking of afflictions, you can now see detailed health information for your character in a new menu tab created for this purpose. The health tab joins the inventory and the magic tabs in the main menu. I also added some slight poisoning due to the uncooked meat and a possibility to die directly from poisoning and hunger.
Finally, in preparation for the initial public announcement, I have added full fullscreen support. Display resolution and frequency can now be selected from the existing options menu.
You are welcome, more than ever, to provide your feedback about the game. Thanks to the built-in feedback panel, you can now send me your thoughts directly from within the game in just a couple of clicks.
As you can see in the roadmap I updated earlier this year, I plan to release updates more frequently from now on, hopefully every three months. See you soon to introduce you to the first means of progression: magic books and scrolls!
2024.05.13 22:51 adventurepaul E-commerce Industry News Recap 🔥 Week of May 13th, 2024
Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth with sources in the full edition. Let's dive in...
___
STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
___
BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
___
Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
___
ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
___
OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
___
Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
___
In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
___
Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
___
Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
___
Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
___
Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
___
Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
___
Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
___
Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
___
Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
___
Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
___
Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
___
Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
___
FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
___
800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
___
Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
___
TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
___
eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
___
Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
___
A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
___
Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
___
Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
___
Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
___
Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
___
Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
___
The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
___
Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
___
Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
___
E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
___
Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
___
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter
PS: If I missed any big news this week, please share in the comments.
submitted by adventurepaul to ecommerce [link] [comments]
___
STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
___
BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
___
Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
___
ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
___
OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
___
Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
___
In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
___
Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
___
Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
___
Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
___
Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
___
Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
___
Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
___
Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
___
Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
___
Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
___
Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
___
Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
___
FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
___
800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
___
Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
___
TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
___
eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
___
Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
___
A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
___
Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
___
Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
___
Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
___
Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
___
Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
___
The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
___
Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
___
Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
___
E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
___
Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
___
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter
PS: If I missed any big news this week, please share in the comments.
2024.05.13 22:46 adventurepaul What's new in e-commerce? 🔥 Week of May 13th, 2024
Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. Let's dive in...
___
STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
___
BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
___
Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
___
ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
___
OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
___
Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
___
In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
___
Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
___
Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
___
Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
___
Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
___
Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
___
Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
___
Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
___
Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
___
Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
___
Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
___
Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
___
FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
___
800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
___
Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
___
TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
___
eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
___
Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
___
A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
___
Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
___
Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
___
Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
___
Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
___
Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
___
The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
___
Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
___
Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
___
E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
___
Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
___
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
For more details on each story and sources, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/bigcommerce-for-sale-openai-gpt-4o-instacarts-unlikely-partnership/
What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
-PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter
PS: Want the full editions delivered to your Inbox each week? Join free at www.shopifreaks.com
submitted by adventurepaul to ShopifyeCommerce [link] [comments]
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STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
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BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
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Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
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ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
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OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
___
Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
___
In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
___
Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
___
Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
___
Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
___
Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
___
Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
___
Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
___
Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
___
Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
___
Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
___
Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
___
Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
___
FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
___
800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
___
Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
___
TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
___
eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
___
Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
___
A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
___
Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
___
Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
___
Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
___
Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
___
Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
___
The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
___
Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
___
Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
___
E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
___
Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
___
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
For more details on each story and sources, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/bigcommerce-for-sale-openai-gpt-4o-instacarts-unlikely-partnership/
What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
-PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter
PS: Want the full editions delivered to your Inbox each week? Join free at www.shopifreaks.com
2024.05.13 22:17 SciFiTime Aliens Were Never Prepared For Cookie Scouts
So far sales had been steady but not spectacular. Jenna hoped they would pick up after the school let out. She chatted and sampled with customers, pitching her spiel about supporting their troop's efforts to earn badges. It was fun work even if tiring on her feet.
Gazing up at the cloudless sky, Jenna wondered idly if it might rain later. The forecast hadn't mentioned anything, but you never knew. A tiny speck in the distance caught her eye. She squinted, trying to make it out. It grew rapidly in size—and shape. Whatever it was, it wasn't a bird.
"Hey Jamie, do you see that?" Jenna nudged her friend, pointing. Now the other girls had turned to look as well. What had been a speck was now clearly some large, cylindrical object descending from the heavens. It shone silvery-grey in the sunlight.
"Is that...a rocket ship?" breathed Tammy.
As it neared the treetops, its design became evident. Definitely not any spacecraft Jenna had seen on the news or in movies. It was smoothly rounded on all ends, with no visible engines or fins. Eerily silent, it drifted toward an open field and settled softly on four tapering legs.
The girls stared open-mouthed, cookies momentarily forgotten. A hatch appeared in the side of the ship. Light spilled out, glowing an ethereal blue. Then towering figures emerged, moving with an inhuman grace.
Jenna caught her breath. Peering closer, she could just make out bipedal forms wrapped in loose, silvery garments. Their limbs seemed overly long and jointed in odd places. As they turned in her direction, two dark eyes set wide in hairless faces met hers. No nose or mouth was visible beneath.
"Aliens," Jamie whispered. "Actual aliens. I don't believe it."
Tammy squeaked and clung to Jenna's arm. But Jenna's mind was racing. This was an incredible opportunity, too good to pass up. She flashed the others a mischievous smile. "Come on, girls. Let's go make some sales!"
The troop fell into step behind her as she marched into the field. The creatures had paused, gazing around at their surroundings with a palpable air of curiosity and caution. As Jenna neared, they angled their expressive eyes down at the little band approaching. Up close, their skin shimmered in shades of aqua and moss green, veined with silvery networks.
The tallest one shifted its gaze between the girls, as if taking their measure. It spoke, but the sound was like rushing wind and dripping water blended into an eerie melody. Its friends chattered in response, their voices blending into a dissonant choir.
Undeterred, Jenna beamed and proudly presented her box of Thin Mints. "Cookies!" she enunciated clearly. "Would you like to buy some cookies?" To her astonishment, a glowing rectangle like a computer screen lit up on the tall one's torso. Words scrolled across it in crisp English letters.
WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND. WHAT ARE COOKIES? IT SEEMS YOU ARE SELLING SOMETHING, BUT WE HAVE NO CURRENCY OF YOUR WORLD.
Jamie leaned in to whisper, eyes shining, "They can understand us! This is so cool."
Jenna gathered her thoughts, focusing on her sales pitch despite everything unusual about the situation. "Cookies are a sweet treat made of chocolate and biscuits. They're very popular here on Earth. And all the money we earn from selling them goes towards fun trips and learning new skills as Girl Scouts. Please, won't you buy a box to help support our troop? I'm sure you'll love them!"
The aliens conferred amongst themselves, still in untranslatablespeech. Finally, the glowing display lit up again. I APOLOGIZE, BUT WE HAVE NO MEANS OF TRANSACTION. WE ARE EXPLORERS HERE IN PEACE TO STUDY YOUR WORLD. PERHAPS ANOTHER TIME WE CAN BARTER. FOR NOW, WE ONLY WISH TO LEARN.
Jenna tried to hide her disappointment. This wasn't how she'd envisioned the interaction going at all. But she had come this far, so she wasn't giving up yet. An idea bloomed in her mind. "Well, since you want to learn about us, how about a trade? We'll give you a box of cookies to try in exchange for letting our whole troop come aboard your ship for a little while. What do you say?"
The girls held their breath. This was assuredly against every safety rule. But an opportunity for an out of this world experience was too enticing to pass up. The aliens conversed quietly before responding.
VERY WELL, HUMAN CHILDREN. FOR THE SAKE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE, WE AGREE TO YOUR TRADE. COME, WE SHALL GIVE YOU A TOUR OF OUR VESSEL.
Screeches of delight arose from the Scout troop. Jenna tried to shush them, not wanting the aliens to change their minds. But she couldn't contain her own grin of excitement and triumph. This was going to be one very memorable cookie sale!
Jenna stepped forward nervously, holding out the box of Thin Mints for the aliens to see. She did her best salesperson smile while gesturing to the colorful packaging. "Cookies!" she said again loudly and clearly.
The tallest alien leaned down, its large dark eyes fixing on the box in Jenna's hands. A long, nimble finger reached out to poke gently at the box, then drew back just as swiftly. Its companions murmured again in their strange tongue.
Frustrated not being able to communicate properly, Jenna popped open the lid so the sweet scent could waft up. She took one mint and mimed taking a bite, sighing happily and rubbing her belly. The aliens copied the sign for stomach, looking quizzical.
An idea sparked in Jenna's mind. Rummaging in her bag, she pulled out her phone and found the notepad app. Typing awkwardly with her thumbs, she showed them the words "Will you trade for this?" Arrows pointed to the cookies and to their ship.
A spark of understanding lit in the aliens' eyes as they studied the makeshift message. Their glowing display lit up in response. I APOLOGIZE, SMALL HUMAN, BUT WE HAVE NOTHING OF VALUE FROM OUR WORLD TO OFFER IN RETURN. OUR MISSION HERE IS ONE OF DISCOVERY ONLY.
"Please?" Jenna typed, giving her best pleading look. The girls clustered behind her, joining in the silent begging. But the aliens only seemed perplexed by this behavior.
Suddenly Tammy piped up, "What if we clean your ship for you? We'll dust and sweep and take out the garbage." The others stared at her, surprised by this inventive offer.
The display considered this. THAT IS A GENEROUS OFFER. HOWEVER, OUR CRAFT UTILIZES TECHNOLOGY FAR BEYOND YOUR WORLD'S CURRENT STAGE. I DOUBT YOU COULD PERFORM MAINTENANCE TO OUR STANDARDS.
At this rejection, the girls deflated with twin sounds of disappointment. But Jenna wasn't giving up yet. She furiously texted another message. "How about you give us a little tour then? We promise to be very careful and not touch anything."
The aliens conferred quietly amongst themselves for several moments. The girls held their breath, hoping their persistence was finally paying off. Then the glowing display lit up once more.
VERY WELL, SMALL HUMANS. FOR THE SAKE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE, WE WILL ALLOW YOU A BRIEF LOOK INSIDE OUR VESSEL. BUT YOU MUST FOLLOW OUR INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. OUR TECHNOLOGY COULD PROVE DANGEROUS IF MISUSED.
The Girl Scouts whooped and cheered, doing a little victory dance. Jenna grinned, popping another Thin Mint in her mouth triumphantly. "Deal! Thank you so much for this."
The tallest alien gestured gracefully with one long arm. "THIS WAY, YOUNG ONES. WE SHALL BEGIN OUR TOUR."
Clutching their cookie boxes eagerly, the girls fell into line behind the extraterrestrials. They followed them up a floating gangway into the belly of the ship.
Inside, the walls glowed with an otherworldly luminescence. Strange symbols and interfaces winked all around, totally indecipherable. The floors felt bouncy underfoot, as if made of gelatin.
"Wow," breathed Jamie. "It's so beautiful in here."
The aliens guided them through sleek corridors and compartments full of glowing tech. They pointed out living quarters, a laboratory, hydroponic gardens, and an observation deck showing the curve of the Earth.
In the cockpit, countless viewscreens displayed alien constellations and scans of their small town below. Control panels rippled like liquid mercury beneath touch.
"This is where we navigated our journey to your solar system," explained their guides. "Truly a marvel, the distances stars can be bridged.
Tammy peered out the main viewing portal. "Your ship is so fast! How did you get here from wherever you came from?"
As the explorers launched into an explanation involving hyperdrives and folded spacetime, Jenna began to lose the thread. Space travel clearly worked very differently where these beings hailed from.
Their tour lasted nearly an hour, the aliens answering every barrage of questions patiently. All too soon, it was over, and they found themselves back outside in the late afternoon sun
"Thank you so much for the amazing tour!" Jenna gushed, hugging her now-empty cookie box. "Learning about aliens is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The tallest being dipped its head graciously. "IT WAS OUR PLEASURE, SMALL HUMANS. YOU HAVE PROVIDED US AN INSIGHT INTO YOUR YOUNG ONES AS WELL."
Its fellows chattered in their musical language, some holding half-eaten cookies and gesturing appreciatively. Jenna beamed, glad they seemed to have enjoyed the treats.
"Will you come back to see us again?" asked Jamie hopefully.
"PERHAPS, IF OUR EXPLORATIONS BRING US BACK THIS WAY," was the reply. "BUT FOR NOW, WE MUST RESUME OUR JOURNEY AMONG THE STARS. FAREWELL, AND THANK YOU ONCE MORE FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY.
The aliens turned as one and glided back up the gangway. The rockets flared, rising gracefully into the sky until they vanished into the dusk.
The girls stood watching long after, buzzing with excited chatter about this unforgettable day. In the end, it had been the best cookie sale ever. Maybe even worth breaking a few rules...
submitted by SciFiTime to HFY [link] [comments]
Gazing up at the cloudless sky, Jenna wondered idly if it might rain later. The forecast hadn't mentioned anything, but you never knew. A tiny speck in the distance caught her eye. She squinted, trying to make it out. It grew rapidly in size—and shape. Whatever it was, it wasn't a bird.
"Hey Jamie, do you see that?" Jenna nudged her friend, pointing. Now the other girls had turned to look as well. What had been a speck was now clearly some large, cylindrical object descending from the heavens. It shone silvery-grey in the sunlight.
"Is that...a rocket ship?" breathed Tammy.
As it neared the treetops, its design became evident. Definitely not any spacecraft Jenna had seen on the news or in movies. It was smoothly rounded on all ends, with no visible engines or fins. Eerily silent, it drifted toward an open field and settled softly on four tapering legs.
The girls stared open-mouthed, cookies momentarily forgotten. A hatch appeared in the side of the ship. Light spilled out, glowing an ethereal blue. Then towering figures emerged, moving with an inhuman grace.
Jenna caught her breath. Peering closer, she could just make out bipedal forms wrapped in loose, silvery garments. Their limbs seemed overly long and jointed in odd places. As they turned in her direction, two dark eyes set wide in hairless faces met hers. No nose or mouth was visible beneath.
"Aliens," Jamie whispered. "Actual aliens. I don't believe it."
Tammy squeaked and clung to Jenna's arm. But Jenna's mind was racing. This was an incredible opportunity, too good to pass up. She flashed the others a mischievous smile. "Come on, girls. Let's go make some sales!"
The troop fell into step behind her as she marched into the field. The creatures had paused, gazing around at their surroundings with a palpable air of curiosity and caution. As Jenna neared, they angled their expressive eyes down at the little band approaching. Up close, their skin shimmered in shades of aqua and moss green, veined with silvery networks.
The tallest one shifted its gaze between the girls, as if taking their measure. It spoke, but the sound was like rushing wind and dripping water blended into an eerie melody. Its friends chattered in response, their voices blending into a dissonant choir.
Undeterred, Jenna beamed and proudly presented her box of Thin Mints. "Cookies!" she enunciated clearly. "Would you like to buy some cookies?" To her astonishment, a glowing rectangle like a computer screen lit up on the tall one's torso. Words scrolled across it in crisp English letters.
WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND. WHAT ARE COOKIES? IT SEEMS YOU ARE SELLING SOMETHING, BUT WE HAVE NO CURRENCY OF YOUR WORLD.
Jamie leaned in to whisper, eyes shining, "They can understand us! This is so cool."
Jenna gathered her thoughts, focusing on her sales pitch despite everything unusual about the situation. "Cookies are a sweet treat made of chocolate and biscuits. They're very popular here on Earth. And all the money we earn from selling them goes towards fun trips and learning new skills as Girl Scouts. Please, won't you buy a box to help support our troop? I'm sure you'll love them!"
The aliens conferred amongst themselves, still in untranslatablespeech. Finally, the glowing display lit up again. I APOLOGIZE, BUT WE HAVE NO MEANS OF TRANSACTION. WE ARE EXPLORERS HERE IN PEACE TO STUDY YOUR WORLD. PERHAPS ANOTHER TIME WE CAN BARTER. FOR NOW, WE ONLY WISH TO LEARN.
Jenna tried to hide her disappointment. This wasn't how she'd envisioned the interaction going at all. But she had come this far, so she wasn't giving up yet. An idea bloomed in her mind. "Well, since you want to learn about us, how about a trade? We'll give you a box of cookies to try in exchange for letting our whole troop come aboard your ship for a little while. What do you say?"
The girls held their breath. This was assuredly against every safety rule. But an opportunity for an out of this world experience was too enticing to pass up. The aliens conversed quietly before responding.
VERY WELL, HUMAN CHILDREN. FOR THE SAKE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE, WE AGREE TO YOUR TRADE. COME, WE SHALL GIVE YOU A TOUR OF OUR VESSEL.
Screeches of delight arose from the Scout troop. Jenna tried to shush them, not wanting the aliens to change their minds. But she couldn't contain her own grin of excitement and triumph. This was going to be one very memorable cookie sale!
Jenna stepped forward nervously, holding out the box of Thin Mints for the aliens to see. She did her best salesperson smile while gesturing to the colorful packaging. "Cookies!" she said again loudly and clearly.
The tallest alien leaned down, its large dark eyes fixing on the box in Jenna's hands. A long, nimble finger reached out to poke gently at the box, then drew back just as swiftly. Its companions murmured again in their strange tongue.
Frustrated not being able to communicate properly, Jenna popped open the lid so the sweet scent could waft up. She took one mint and mimed taking a bite, sighing happily and rubbing her belly. The aliens copied the sign for stomach, looking quizzical.
An idea sparked in Jenna's mind. Rummaging in her bag, she pulled out her phone and found the notepad app. Typing awkwardly with her thumbs, she showed them the words "Will you trade for this?" Arrows pointed to the cookies and to their ship.
A spark of understanding lit in the aliens' eyes as they studied the makeshift message. Their glowing display lit up in response. I APOLOGIZE, SMALL HUMAN, BUT WE HAVE NOTHING OF VALUE FROM OUR WORLD TO OFFER IN RETURN. OUR MISSION HERE IS ONE OF DISCOVERY ONLY.
"Please?" Jenna typed, giving her best pleading look. The girls clustered behind her, joining in the silent begging. But the aliens only seemed perplexed by this behavior.
Suddenly Tammy piped up, "What if we clean your ship for you? We'll dust and sweep and take out the garbage." The others stared at her, surprised by this inventive offer.
The display considered this. THAT IS A GENEROUS OFFER. HOWEVER, OUR CRAFT UTILIZES TECHNOLOGY FAR BEYOND YOUR WORLD'S CURRENT STAGE. I DOUBT YOU COULD PERFORM MAINTENANCE TO OUR STANDARDS.
At this rejection, the girls deflated with twin sounds of disappointment. But Jenna wasn't giving up yet. She furiously texted another message. "How about you give us a little tour then? We promise to be very careful and not touch anything."
The aliens conferred quietly amongst themselves for several moments. The girls held their breath, hoping their persistence was finally paying off. Then the glowing display lit up once more.
VERY WELL, SMALL HUMANS. FOR THE SAKE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE, WE WILL ALLOW YOU A BRIEF LOOK INSIDE OUR VESSEL. BUT YOU MUST FOLLOW OUR INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. OUR TECHNOLOGY COULD PROVE DANGEROUS IF MISUSED.
The Girl Scouts whooped and cheered, doing a little victory dance. Jenna grinned, popping another Thin Mint in her mouth triumphantly. "Deal! Thank you so much for this."
The tallest alien gestured gracefully with one long arm. "THIS WAY, YOUNG ONES. WE SHALL BEGIN OUR TOUR."
Clutching their cookie boxes eagerly, the girls fell into line behind the extraterrestrials. They followed them up a floating gangway into the belly of the ship.
Inside, the walls glowed with an otherworldly luminescence. Strange symbols and interfaces winked all around, totally indecipherable. The floors felt bouncy underfoot, as if made of gelatin.
"Wow," breathed Jamie. "It's so beautiful in here."
The aliens guided them through sleek corridors and compartments full of glowing tech. They pointed out living quarters, a laboratory, hydroponic gardens, and an observation deck showing the curve of the Earth.
In the cockpit, countless viewscreens displayed alien constellations and scans of their small town below. Control panels rippled like liquid mercury beneath touch.
"This is where we navigated our journey to your solar system," explained their guides. "Truly a marvel, the distances stars can be bridged.
Tammy peered out the main viewing portal. "Your ship is so fast! How did you get here from wherever you came from?"
As the explorers launched into an explanation involving hyperdrives and folded spacetime, Jenna began to lose the thread. Space travel clearly worked very differently where these beings hailed from.
Their tour lasted nearly an hour, the aliens answering every barrage of questions patiently. All too soon, it was over, and they found themselves back outside in the late afternoon sun
"Thank you so much for the amazing tour!" Jenna gushed, hugging her now-empty cookie box. "Learning about aliens is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The tallest being dipped its head graciously. "IT WAS OUR PLEASURE, SMALL HUMANS. YOU HAVE PROVIDED US AN INSIGHT INTO YOUR YOUNG ONES AS WELL."
Its fellows chattered in their musical language, some holding half-eaten cookies and gesturing appreciatively. Jenna beamed, glad they seemed to have enjoyed the treats.
"Will you come back to see us again?" asked Jamie hopefully.
"PERHAPS, IF OUR EXPLORATIONS BRING US BACK THIS WAY," was the reply. "BUT FOR NOW, WE MUST RESUME OUR JOURNEY AMONG THE STARS. FAREWELL, AND THANK YOU ONCE MORE FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY.
The aliens turned as one and glided back up the gangway. The rockets flared, rising gracefully into the sky until they vanished into the dusk.
The girls stood watching long after, buzzing with excited chatter about this unforgettable day. In the end, it had been the best cookie sale ever. Maybe even worth breaking a few rules...
2024.05.13 22:16 SciFiTime Aliens Were Never Prepared For Cookie Scouts
So far sales had been steady but not spectacular. Jenna hoped they would pick up after the school let out. She chatted and sampled with customers, pitching her spiel about supporting their troop's efforts to earn badges. It was fun work even if tiring on her feet.
Gazing up at the cloudless sky, Jenna wondered idly if it might rain later. The forecast hadn't mentioned anything, but you never knew. A tiny speck in the distance caught her eye. She squinted, trying to make it out. It grew rapidly in size—and shape. Whatever it was, it wasn't a bird.
"Hey Jamie, do you see that?" Jenna nudged her friend, pointing. Now the other girls had turned to look as well. What had been a speck was now clearly some large, cylindrical object descending from the heavens. It shone silvery-grey in the sunlight.
"Is that...a rocket ship?" breathed Tammy.
As it neared the treetops, its design became evident. Definitely not any spacecraft Jenna had seen on the news or in movies. It was smoothly rounded on all ends, with no visible engines or fins. Eerily silent, it drifted toward an open field and settled softly on four tapering legs.
The girls stared open-mouthed, cookies momentarily forgotten. A hatch appeared in the side of the ship. Light spilled out, glowing an ethereal blue. Then towering figures emerged, moving with an inhuman grace.
Jenna caught her breath. Peering closer, she could just make out bipedal forms wrapped in loose, silvery garments. Their limbs seemed overly long and jointed in odd places. As they turned in her direction, two dark eyes set wide in hairless faces met hers. No nose or mouth was visible beneath.
"Aliens," Jamie whispered. "Actual aliens. I don't believe it."
Tammy squeaked and clung to Jenna's arm. But Jenna's mind was racing. This was an incredible opportunity, too good to pass up. She flashed the others a mischievous smile. "Come on, girls. Let's go make some sales!"
The troop fell into step behind her as she marched into the field. The creatures had paused, gazing around at their surroundings with a palpable air of curiosity and caution. As Jenna neared, they angled their expressive eyes down at the little band approaching. Up close, their skin shimmered in shades of aqua and moss green, veined with silvery networks.
The tallest one shifted its gaze between the girls, as if taking their measure. It spoke, but the sound was like rushing wind and dripping water blended into an eerie melody. Its friends chattered in response, their voices blending into a dissonant choir.
Undeterred, Jenna beamed and proudly presented her box of Thin Mints. "Cookies!" she enunciated clearly. "Would you like to buy some cookies?" To her astonishment, a glowing rectangle like a computer screen lit up on the tall one's torso. Words scrolled across it in crisp English letters.
WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND. WHAT ARE COOKIES? IT SEEMS YOU ARE SELLING SOMETHING, BUT WE HAVE NO CURRENCY OF YOUR WORLD.
Jamie leaned in to whisper, eyes shining, "They can understand us! This is so cool."
Jenna gathered her thoughts, focusing on her sales pitch despite everything unusual about the situation. "Cookies are a sweet treat made of chocolate and biscuits. They're very popular here on Earth. And all the money we earn from selling them goes towards fun trips and learning new skills as Girl Scouts. Please, won't you buy a box to help support our troop? I'm sure you'll love them!"
The aliens conferred amongst themselves, still in untranslatablespeech. Finally, the glowing display lit up again. I APOLOGIZE, BUT WE HAVE NO MEANS OF TRANSACTION. WE ARE EXPLORERS HERE IN PEACE TO STUDY YOUR WORLD. PERHAPS ANOTHER TIME WE CAN BARTER. FOR NOW, WE ONLY WISH TO LEARN.
Jenna tried to hide her disappointment. This wasn't how she'd envisioned the interaction going at all. But she had come this far, so she wasn't giving up yet. An idea bloomed in her mind. "Well, since you want to learn about us, how about a trade? We'll give you a box of cookies to try in exchange for letting our whole troop come aboard your ship for a little while. What do you say?"
The girls held their breath. This was assuredly against every safety rule. But an opportunity for an out of this world experience was too enticing to pass up. The aliens conversed quietly before responding.
VERY WELL, HUMAN CHILDREN. FOR THE SAKE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE, WE AGREE TO YOUR TRADE. COME, WE SHALL GIVE YOU A TOUR OF OUR VESSEL.
Screeches of delight arose from the Scout troop. Jenna tried to shush them, not wanting the aliens to change their minds. But she couldn't contain her own grin of excitement and triumph. This was going to be one very memorable cookie sale!
Jenna stepped forward nervously, holding out the box of Thin Mints for the aliens to see. She did her best salesperson smile while gesturing to the colorful packaging. "Cookies!" she said again loudly and clearly.
The tallest alien leaned down, its large dark eyes fixing on the box in Jenna's hands. A long, nimble finger reached out to poke gently at the box, then drew back just as swiftly. Its companions murmured again in their strange tongue.
Frustrated not being able to communicate properly, Jenna popped open the lid so the sweet scent could waft up. She took one mint and mimed taking a bite, sighing happily and rubbing her belly. The aliens copied the sign for stomach, looking quizzical.
An idea sparked in Jenna's mind. Rummaging in her bag, she pulled out her phone and found the notepad app. Typing awkwardly with her thumbs, she showed them the words "Will you trade for this?" Arrows pointed to the cookies and to their ship.
A spark of understanding lit in the aliens' eyes as they studied the makeshift message. Their glowing display lit up in response. I APOLOGIZE, SMALL HUMAN, BUT WE HAVE NOTHING OF VALUE FROM OUR WORLD TO OFFER IN RETURN. OUR MISSION HERE IS ONE OF DISCOVERY ONLY.
"Please?" Jenna typed, giving her best pleading look. The girls clustered behind her, joining in the silent begging. But the aliens only seemed perplexed by this behavior.
Suddenly Tammy piped up, "What if we clean your ship for you? We'll dust and sweep and take out the garbage." The others stared at her, surprised by this inventive offer.
The display considered this. THAT IS A GENEROUS OFFER. HOWEVER, OUR CRAFT UTILIZES TECHNOLOGY FAR BEYOND YOUR WORLD'S CURRENT STAGE. I DOUBT YOU COULD PERFORM MAINTENANCE TO OUR STANDARDS.
At this rejection, the girls deflated with twin sounds of disappointment. But Jenna wasn't giving up yet. She furiously texted another message. "How about you give us a little tour then? We promise to be very careful and not touch anything."
The aliens conferred quietly amongst themselves for several moments. The girls held their breath, hoping their persistence was finally paying off. Then the glowing display lit up once more.
VERY WELL, SMALL HUMANS. FOR THE SAKE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE, WE WILL ALLOW YOU A BRIEF LOOK INSIDE OUR VESSEL. BUT YOU MUST FOLLOW OUR INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. OUR TECHNOLOGY COULD PROVE DANGEROUS IF MISUSED.
The Girl Scouts whooped and cheered, doing a little victory dance. Jenna grinned, popping another Thin Mint in her mouth triumphantly. "Deal! Thank you so much for this."
The tallest alien gestured gracefully with one long arm. "THIS WAY, YOUNG ONES. WE SHALL BEGIN OUR TOUR."
Clutching their cookie boxes eagerly, the girls fell into line behind the extraterrestrials. They followed them up a floating gangway into the belly of the ship.
Inside, the walls glowed with an otherworldly luminescence. Strange symbols and interfaces winked all around, totally indecipherable. The floors felt bouncy underfoot, as if made of gelatin.
"Wow," breathed Jamie. "It's so beautiful in here."
The aliens guided them through sleek corridors and compartments full of glowing tech. They pointed out living quarters, a laboratory, hydroponic gardens, and an observation deck showing the curve of the Earth.
In the cockpit, countless viewscreens displayed alien constellations and scans of their small town below. Control panels rippled like liquid mercury beneath touch.
"This is where we navigated our journey to your solar system," explained their guides. "Truly a marvel, the distances stars can be bridged.
Tammy peered out the main viewing portal. "Your ship is so fast! How did you get here from wherever you came from?"
As the explorers launched into an explanation involving hyperdrives and folded spacetime, Jenna began to lose the thread. Space travel clearly worked very differently where these beings hailed from.
Their tour lasted nearly an hour, the aliens answering every barrage of questions patiently. All too soon, it was over, and they found themselves back outside in the late afternoon sun
"Thank you so much for the amazing tour!" Jenna gushed, hugging her now-empty cookie box. "Learning about aliens is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The tallest being dipped its head graciously. "IT WAS OUR PLEASURE, SMALL HUMANS. YOU HAVE PROVIDED US AN INSIGHT INTO YOUR YOUNG ONES AS WELL."
Its fellows chattered in their musical language, some holding half-eaten cookies and gesturing appreciatively. Jenna beamed, glad they seemed to have enjoyed the treats.
"Will you come back to see us again?" asked Jamie hopefully.
"PERHAPS, IF OUR EXPLORATIONS BRING US BACK THIS WAY," was the reply. "BUT FOR NOW, WE MUST RESUME OUR JOURNEY AMONG THE STARS. FAREWELL, AND THANK YOU ONCE MORE FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY.
The aliens turned as one and glided back up the gangway. The rockets flared, rising gracefully into the sky until they vanished into the dusk.
The girls stood watching long after, buzzing with excited chatter about this unforgettable day. In the end, it had been the best cookie sale ever. Maybe even worth breaking a few rules...
submitted by SciFiTime to u/SciFiTime [link] [comments]
Gazing up at the cloudless sky, Jenna wondered idly if it might rain later. The forecast hadn't mentioned anything, but you never knew. A tiny speck in the distance caught her eye. She squinted, trying to make it out. It grew rapidly in size—and shape. Whatever it was, it wasn't a bird.
"Hey Jamie, do you see that?" Jenna nudged her friend, pointing. Now the other girls had turned to look as well. What had been a speck was now clearly some large, cylindrical object descending from the heavens. It shone silvery-grey in the sunlight.
"Is that...a rocket ship?" breathed Tammy.
As it neared the treetops, its design became evident. Definitely not any spacecraft Jenna had seen on the news or in movies. It was smoothly rounded on all ends, with no visible engines or fins. Eerily silent, it drifted toward an open field and settled softly on four tapering legs.
The girls stared open-mouthed, cookies momentarily forgotten. A hatch appeared in the side of the ship. Light spilled out, glowing an ethereal blue. Then towering figures emerged, moving with an inhuman grace.
Jenna caught her breath. Peering closer, she could just make out bipedal forms wrapped in loose, silvery garments. Their limbs seemed overly long and jointed in odd places. As they turned in her direction, two dark eyes set wide in hairless faces met hers. No nose or mouth was visible beneath.
"Aliens," Jamie whispered. "Actual aliens. I don't believe it."
Tammy squeaked and clung to Jenna's arm. But Jenna's mind was racing. This was an incredible opportunity, too good to pass up. She flashed the others a mischievous smile. "Come on, girls. Let's go make some sales!"
The troop fell into step behind her as she marched into the field. The creatures had paused, gazing around at their surroundings with a palpable air of curiosity and caution. As Jenna neared, they angled their expressive eyes down at the little band approaching. Up close, their skin shimmered in shades of aqua and moss green, veined with silvery networks.
The tallest one shifted its gaze between the girls, as if taking their measure. It spoke, but the sound was like rushing wind and dripping water blended into an eerie melody. Its friends chattered in response, their voices blending into a dissonant choir.
Undeterred, Jenna beamed and proudly presented her box of Thin Mints. "Cookies!" she enunciated clearly. "Would you like to buy some cookies?" To her astonishment, a glowing rectangle like a computer screen lit up on the tall one's torso. Words scrolled across it in crisp English letters.
WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND. WHAT ARE COOKIES? IT SEEMS YOU ARE SELLING SOMETHING, BUT WE HAVE NO CURRENCY OF YOUR WORLD.
Jamie leaned in to whisper, eyes shining, "They can understand us! This is so cool."
Jenna gathered her thoughts, focusing on her sales pitch despite everything unusual about the situation. "Cookies are a sweet treat made of chocolate and biscuits. They're very popular here on Earth. And all the money we earn from selling them goes towards fun trips and learning new skills as Girl Scouts. Please, won't you buy a box to help support our troop? I'm sure you'll love them!"
The aliens conferred amongst themselves, still in untranslatablespeech. Finally, the glowing display lit up again. I APOLOGIZE, BUT WE HAVE NO MEANS OF TRANSACTION. WE ARE EXPLORERS HERE IN PEACE TO STUDY YOUR WORLD. PERHAPS ANOTHER TIME WE CAN BARTER. FOR NOW, WE ONLY WISH TO LEARN.
Jenna tried to hide her disappointment. This wasn't how she'd envisioned the interaction going at all. But she had come this far, so she wasn't giving up yet. An idea bloomed in her mind. "Well, since you want to learn about us, how about a trade? We'll give you a box of cookies to try in exchange for letting our whole troop come aboard your ship for a little while. What do you say?"
The girls held their breath. This was assuredly against every safety rule. But an opportunity for an out of this world experience was too enticing to pass up. The aliens conversed quietly before responding.
VERY WELL, HUMAN CHILDREN. FOR THE SAKE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE, WE AGREE TO YOUR TRADE. COME, WE SHALL GIVE YOU A TOUR OF OUR VESSEL.
Screeches of delight arose from the Scout troop. Jenna tried to shush them, not wanting the aliens to change their minds. But she couldn't contain her own grin of excitement and triumph. This was going to be one very memorable cookie sale!
Jenna stepped forward nervously, holding out the box of Thin Mints for the aliens to see. She did her best salesperson smile while gesturing to the colorful packaging. "Cookies!" she said again loudly and clearly.
The tallest alien leaned down, its large dark eyes fixing on the box in Jenna's hands. A long, nimble finger reached out to poke gently at the box, then drew back just as swiftly. Its companions murmured again in their strange tongue.
Frustrated not being able to communicate properly, Jenna popped open the lid so the sweet scent could waft up. She took one mint and mimed taking a bite, sighing happily and rubbing her belly. The aliens copied the sign for stomach, looking quizzical.
An idea sparked in Jenna's mind. Rummaging in her bag, she pulled out her phone and found the notepad app. Typing awkwardly with her thumbs, she showed them the words "Will you trade for this?" Arrows pointed to the cookies and to their ship.
A spark of understanding lit in the aliens' eyes as they studied the makeshift message. Their glowing display lit up in response. I APOLOGIZE, SMALL HUMAN, BUT WE HAVE NOTHING OF VALUE FROM OUR WORLD TO OFFER IN RETURN. OUR MISSION HERE IS ONE OF DISCOVERY ONLY.
"Please?" Jenna typed, giving her best pleading look. The girls clustered behind her, joining in the silent begging. But the aliens only seemed perplexed by this behavior.
Suddenly Tammy piped up, "What if we clean your ship for you? We'll dust and sweep and take out the garbage." The others stared at her, surprised by this inventive offer.
The display considered this. THAT IS A GENEROUS OFFER. HOWEVER, OUR CRAFT UTILIZES TECHNOLOGY FAR BEYOND YOUR WORLD'S CURRENT STAGE. I DOUBT YOU COULD PERFORM MAINTENANCE TO OUR STANDARDS.
At this rejection, the girls deflated with twin sounds of disappointment. But Jenna wasn't giving up yet. She furiously texted another message. "How about you give us a little tour then? We promise to be very careful and not touch anything."
The aliens conferred quietly amongst themselves for several moments. The girls held their breath, hoping their persistence was finally paying off. Then the glowing display lit up once more.
VERY WELL, SMALL HUMANS. FOR THE SAKE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE, WE WILL ALLOW YOU A BRIEF LOOK INSIDE OUR VESSEL. BUT YOU MUST FOLLOW OUR INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. OUR TECHNOLOGY COULD PROVE DANGEROUS IF MISUSED.
The Girl Scouts whooped and cheered, doing a little victory dance. Jenna grinned, popping another Thin Mint in her mouth triumphantly. "Deal! Thank you so much for this."
The tallest alien gestured gracefully with one long arm. "THIS WAY, YOUNG ONES. WE SHALL BEGIN OUR TOUR."
Clutching their cookie boxes eagerly, the girls fell into line behind the extraterrestrials. They followed them up a floating gangway into the belly of the ship.
Inside, the walls glowed with an otherworldly luminescence. Strange symbols and interfaces winked all around, totally indecipherable. The floors felt bouncy underfoot, as if made of gelatin.
"Wow," breathed Jamie. "It's so beautiful in here."
The aliens guided them through sleek corridors and compartments full of glowing tech. They pointed out living quarters, a laboratory, hydroponic gardens, and an observation deck showing the curve of the Earth.
In the cockpit, countless viewscreens displayed alien constellations and scans of their small town below. Control panels rippled like liquid mercury beneath touch.
"This is where we navigated our journey to your solar system," explained their guides. "Truly a marvel, the distances stars can be bridged.
Tammy peered out the main viewing portal. "Your ship is so fast! How did you get here from wherever you came from?"
As the explorers launched into an explanation involving hyperdrives and folded spacetime, Jenna began to lose the thread. Space travel clearly worked very differently where these beings hailed from.
Their tour lasted nearly an hour, the aliens answering every barrage of questions patiently. All too soon, it was over, and they found themselves back outside in the late afternoon sun
"Thank you so much for the amazing tour!" Jenna gushed, hugging her now-empty cookie box. "Learning about aliens is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The tallest being dipped its head graciously. "IT WAS OUR PLEASURE, SMALL HUMANS. YOU HAVE PROVIDED US AN INSIGHT INTO YOUR YOUNG ONES AS WELL."
Its fellows chattered in their musical language, some holding half-eaten cookies and gesturing appreciatively. Jenna beamed, glad they seemed to have enjoyed the treats.
"Will you come back to see us again?" asked Jamie hopefully.
"PERHAPS, IF OUR EXPLORATIONS BRING US BACK THIS WAY," was the reply. "BUT FOR NOW, WE MUST RESUME OUR JOURNEY AMONG THE STARS. FAREWELL, AND THANK YOU ONCE MORE FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY.
The aliens turned as one and glided back up the gangway. The rockets flared, rising gracefully into the sky until they vanished into the dusk.
The girls stood watching long after, buzzing with excited chatter about this unforgettable day. In the end, it had been the best cookie sale ever. Maybe even worth breaking a few rules...
2024.05.13 21:06 Several_Image782 LULD shouldn’t be a thing
 | Can’t we just let it run into the moon already? submitted by Several_Image782 to Superstonk [link] [comments] |
2024.05.13 19:27 goodwarrior12345 Hey Valve, can you please give us an option to turn this off?
submitted by goodwarrior12345 to DotA2 [link] [comments]
2024.05.13 19:18 APetrolDrinker Terranova And Shai-Gen Might Be Possibly Connected After All???
 | So not long ago I made a post theorising about how Terranova and The Shai-Gen Corporation from Crackdown might be as a matter of fact secretly connected to one another (See post here: https://www.reddit.com/Crackdown/comments/1cqqwx1/crackdown\_4s\_possible\_next\_main\_antagonist\_theory/). Just not long ago when I was capturing Terranovas Science Tower, I noticed a very odd attention catching thing about some of the billboard screens around the building at close spection. Why do the arrow heads displayed in them look like they were purposfully made to display as the Shai-Gens iconic symbol? Like you cannot tell me thats not the Corporations logo from the first game just by the way it's shaped and formed. submitted by APetrolDrinker to Crackdown [link] [comments] Shai-Gen might indeed be returing for the next Crackdown game. https://preview.redd.it/odbcmli5c80d1.png?width=1324&format=png&auto=webp&s=269ddcab25a50ad030581f423552c8dbbfa44a54 https://preview.redd.it/98sf5sg4c80d1.png?width=380&format=png&auto=webp&s=78654f1bb781224ff9d2d7df0151bb8afc82f9dc https://preview.redd.it/bemz6b6fa80d1.png?width=1317&format=png&auto=webp&s=88598c2c49f2ddc078cd834f8e614d9e1a66b60d |