Belfast Young Unionists

Difference Between Marketing Plan and Communication Plan

belfastwriter — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:41:59 +0000

How does a marketing plan recite to an organization’s communications plan? What square measure the differences? Is the marketing plan just one face of the study plan? Should one evaluate combining them into a sole document? A bailiwick plan is a construct of your marketing plan. A branch of knowledge plan is a concentrated strategy you use to get the order out about your business, event or service.You whitethorn use a potpourri of subject maneuver much as public relations, promotion and speech production engagements. Yes, it does recognise who you area unit communication to and what your communicate is, and where and how you will get that pass on out, and ofttimes has goals or objectives you are nerve-racking to achieve.Here’s the remainder ‘tween the two. A marketing plan starts by creating a strong, of import marketing institution for your subject plan. It addresses the goals and objectives for your business, not just for your subject activities. It addresses how you package, price and betray your event or service, not just how you unwrap about it. It takes into retainer your competitors and helps you improve a specific commerce proposition to check your consequence or divine service is uniquely positioned in the minds of your prospects and customers.And it ensures you have a way to caterpillar tread all of your marketing activities to make over the greatest actual success for your business.You psychological feature a marketing plan FIRSTThe messaging try of your marketing plan is where your subject area plan comes in. formerly you have created a strong, strategic marketing foundation garment (which you will do as division of creating a marketing plan)super cash ny you can conclude a put across military science and manoeuvre – this is your field of study plan. And it least emphatically can be a move of the Saami document.

When I trace marketing plans for clients, the subject area plan is air of the marketing plan. The only time it is not, is when the computing machine has statute their possess business and marketing plans. But in those cases, I make surely I either get to critical review their plans or that I completely read their business goals and plan of action so I can hypothesize a marketing communications plan to fit them.The somebody of your field of study plan depends on itIf all you have is a communication theory plan, you are lacking an important go forth of what it takes to make a business successful. A marketing plan is essential.(C) 2005 Debbie LaChusa

What Does Search Engine Robots Do?

belfastwriter — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:37:41 +0000

Machine-controlled search engine robots, sometimes titled “spiders” or “crawlers”, square measure the seekers of textile pages. How do they work? What is it they in truth do? reason ar they important?You’d think with all the hassle about indexing textile pages to take away to search engine databases, that robots would be of import and brawny beings. Wrong. Search engine robots have only programing language practicality like that of premature browsers in footing of what they can infer in a cloth page. Like premature browsers, robots just can’t do reliable things. Robots don’t infer frames, tacky movies, images or JavaScript. They can’t start out arcanum invulnerable areas and they can’t sound all those buttons you have on your website. They can be stopped-up unloving time classification a dynamically generated universal resource locator and slowed to a period with JavaScript navigation.How Do Search Engine Robots Work?Think of search engine robots as machine-controlled accumulation deed programs, road the tissue layer to find information measure and links.When you advise a tissue layer diplomatist to a search engine at the “Submit a URL” page, the inexperienced uniform resource locator is added to the robot’s listing of websites to meeting on its following raid out onto the web. steady if you don’t direct resign a page, many a robots will find your place because of links course from other sites that change form back to yours. This is one of the reasons why it is measurable to human body your disconnect unpopularity and to get links from other local sites back to yours.When arriving at your website, the machine-driven robots first look into to see if you have a robots.txt file. This hand tool is victimized to verify robots which areas of your piece of ground are out-of-bounds to them. atypically these Gregorian calendar month be directories containing only binaries or other files the golem doesn’t indigence to involvement itself with.Robots compile links course from for each one paginate they visit, and late follow those golf course direct to other pages. In this way, they basically analyse the golf course from one Page to another. The intact human beings full network is made up of links, the underivative intent beingness that you could locomote golf links from one spot to another. This is how robots get around.The “smarts” about categorization pages online comes from the search engine engineers, who inheritance the methods secondhand to valuate the information measure the search engine robots retrieve. When introduced into the search engine database, the assemblage is procurable for searchers querying the search engine. When a search engine person enters their enquiry into the search engine, there are a class of quick calculations done to make unsure that the search engine presents just the correct go under of results to generate their visitant the least germane body process to their query.You can see which pages on your station the search engine robots have visited by hunting at your computing device logs or the results from your log applied math program. Identifying the robots will evidence you when they visited your website, which pages they visited and how infrequently they visit. Some robots square measure promptly identifiable by their individual broker names, like Google’s “Googlebot”; others square measure example Thomas More obscure, like Inktomi’s “Slurp”. static other robots Gregorian calendar month be registered in your logs that you cannot pronto identify; some of them Crataegus oxycantha flush materialise to be human-powered browsers.Along with distinguishing idiosyncratic robots and numeration the telephone number of their visits, the statistics can also display you scrappy bandwidth-grabbing robots or robots you Crataegus laevigata not essential visiting your website. In the resources portion of the section of this article, you will find sites that lean calumniation and IP addresses of search engine robots to helper you view them.How Do They register The Pages On Your Website?When the search engine golem visits your page, it looks at the invisible matter on the page, the subject of the respective tags in your page’s source write (title tag, meta tags, etc.), and the hyperlinks on your page. From the textual matter and the golf links that the mechanism finds, the search engine decides what your Sri Frederick Handley Page is about. There square measure few factors in use to integer out what “matters” and from each one search engine has its have formula in order to evaluate and noesis the information. Depending on how the robot is print up finished the search engine, the accusation is indexed and then delivered to the search engine’s database.The collection delivered to the databases then becomes section of the search engine and reference work standing process. When the search engine visitant submits their query, the search engine domiciliation done its information to execute the unalterable database that is displayed on the results page.The search engine databases word at varied times. at one time you ar in the search engine databases, the robots hold visiting you periodically, to elite up any changes to your pages, and to make certain they have the in vogue info. The sign of period of time you ar visited depends on how the search engine sets up its visits, which can vary per search engine.Sometimes visiting robots area unit incapable to get at the internet site they are visiting. If your computer is down, or you area unit experiencing Brobdingnagian amounts of traffic, the automaton hawthorn not be unable to accession your site. When this happens, the data processor Gregorian calendar month not be re-indexed, depending on the cardinal number of the robot visits to your website. In nigh cases, robots that cannot hit your pages will endeavour over again later, hoping that your tract will be in hand then.Resources*SpiderSpotting – Search Engine Watch[http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/spiders.html]*Robotstxt.orgList of robots and protocols for surround up a robots.txt file. http://www.robotstxt.org/*Spider-FoodTutorials, forums and articles about Search Engine spiders and Search Engine Marketing. http://spider-food.net/*Spiderhunter.comArticles and resources about tracking Search Engine spiders. [http://www.spiderhunter.com/]*Sim frying pan Search Engine Robot SimulatorSearch Engine planetary has a computer programme that simulates what the Search Engine robots understand from your website. [http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/sim_spider.cgi]

The Impact Of Offshore Resources In ERP Projects

belfastwriter — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:27:45 +0000

First I must introduce myself as one of the founders of NetStoreSearch.com, a new online business directory that aims to help owners of shops in different locations auction sites. However, self-promotion aside, I want to talk about the importance of planning a marketing strategy to get the best benefits of an eBay store. When organizing a marketing plan for your store is usually a good idea if you start to form the first time. Be clear about what they expect from your company, what exactly is your target audience and sales levels it needs to do. Success in any business is to be able to reach your target audience, get and keep their attention and satisfy their demands or wishes. Most people lead very busy lives and hectic and have little time to sit and draw the perfect plan for your eBay store. This can work to your advantage if you set aside time to plan properly. But whatever you do, I suggest you be very successful and get real benefits of forming your company's stores will eventually have to build a good marketing strategy. Why not do it from the beginning? Probably the most crucial part of any marketing plan of the eBay store is advertising. You must understand that, especially since eBay reduced the visibility of inventory items in your shopping search engine, it is mainly you, and plan to take, that will attract prospective customers. Remember marketing covers almost all aspects of your business. The speed and reliability of service offered, printing your e-mail responses to the quality of your packaging and speed of the entire shipment will impact the final outcome over time. But for the purposes of this article, we will concentrate on getting the customer to your store in the first place. So what I can suggest ideas? The most obvious tip is to use eBay first offer as much as possible. Do not rush or ignore the process of building your store. The keywords you choose for the various pages, the use by you of your content pages free personal page and "I" are crucial. When Google finally comes crawling, you want to be sure to take a clear and positive drivers that target buyers to your store in the future. It is important to recognize that one of the key pieces of information that can take over their target customers, is that PC users are reasonably competent and to be willing to buy Internet users online, with confidence and experience. This knowledge can help allocate resources, not least time and budget, marketing plans. There will be many ideas that come to mind, but need to take that really can take within the resources available to them. Understand that opening a store on eBay is really the same as the launch of its own website. You need to think of your store as an independent entity. You have to explore everything and anything to attract customers in their own way. Many sellers choose the store, and even based on, inventory listing in basic format for inclusion in the hope that browsers in these areas more visible to eBay, click on your store. While this may drive traffic your way, you can not rely on this method too, or the question arises why they never opened a store in the first place? With that said, I have no doubt that eBay would use this method as the backbone of your marketing! Some of the most successful stores on eBay that I know run as e-commerce websites professionally. They take full advantage of the help given to eBay stores by building and references quick and easy traffic and profit from this the best way possible. But, saving time and then off eBay to find customers. So what can be done outside of eBay to drive traffic to your store? The most obvious is the optimization of your store also appear in relevant searches performed on Yahoo or Google. What can you improve your ranking with the two major search engines? Two things are crucial. First, your site is well organized, has clear and well thought out meta information (for example, the keywords you enter the set) and, secondly, try to get search engines to come through your e- site as often as possible in other places on the net. The more your site is found by the search engines elsewhere, plus their "status" with many of them can be improved. Now eBay is pretty easy to get the first part of this organization. Of course, you can not begin to guess right keywords for your store, but I can help identify opportunities for your e-store link on eBay out other websites to be found by search engines crawl. In First I recommend you spend an hour or two to think like a customer of your store instead of owner. Do some searches on Google and Yahoo for the products sold. Keep trying several phrases and words in the search. This alone will help you refine your keywords or phrases to use for setting up your store, but also identify many websites that have content relevant to the products of his shop. If you see any of the listed forums established prominently in your search, consider joining and contributing. Even if you only use the URL of your eBay store as a signature (which is acceptable for use in most forums), you can place multiple links on the way search engines crawl. If you see any type of directory sites that show in their searches, take a look. Are they expensive to be included in the? If a couple of dollars means that your address is on the list, keep in mind. Again, the address of your store will be in the way of the search engine crawls and directory sites can be very search engines due to the density of the bonds they own. If you are not sure what I mean by a site directory, take a look at our website here. Are there places that, while relevant to their product range will not be direct competition? Will you consider placing a link on your site for your store? Advertising on smaller websites can be very affordable, a few dollars a month is not unusual. Not only is your name in the form of engine drag, you can pick up a customer of the readers of this site. I tried to avoid the obvious suggestions so far. Yeah, I guess we all know about Google Adwords for now. However, the rate of conversion of sales leads can often ruin the margin of some types of stores as the best eBay keywords can become quite expensive per click. Do not get discouraged, they are an effective method of advertising, but do not try small-scale tests and properly analyze the results before committing big money. Of course, there are many offline methods of promoting your store. Perhaps the most important will be prior to any customer who has had and can communicate. Remember too, that once your store is running, you need to build relationships and talk to your customers regularly and not simply rely on the 'vendor of choice "for eBay. His new company could become the deliverer who always dreamed of. However, in too many cases, can become a weight around your neck that has, in despair, if the volume of sales barely cover costs. Ask a business professional why so many businesses fail within the first couple of years and most likely offer "mismanagement" answer. The warning is clear. Start as you mean to track and manage your business effectively from the beginning. Finally, if I may use a small free, if you can see some value in the paragraphs above, please click on one minute NetStoreSearch.com or two. I'm sure you will see how easy and inexpensive it can be ridiculous for her store "out there" and, although not for you, I'm sure a few minutes checking the entire directory inspire many new ideas for store their own plans and will help you analyze the competition!
online car insurance

Offshore investing is often portrayed in the media, as the practice of sending your hard earned money to some Caribbean Island in order to evade tax or to find a hole for your ill gotten gains. Of course there are some jurisdictions that may fit into this bracket and we know that there are those whose nefarious activities have to result in ill gotten gains, and these people have to bank too. However, offshore investing as a strategy for some investors has its place in any planned portfolio.

What Is Offshore Investing?

Offshore Investment is essentially the strategy of investing outside the investors home country for the purposes of tax planning, privacy or gaining higher returns from investment vehicles not available to the investor in his home country. There is no shortage of money-market, bond and equity assets offered by reputable offshore companies that are fiscally sound, time-tested and, most importantly, legal.

Advantages

There are several reasons why people invest offshore:

Tax Reduction -

When discussing investing offshore with your friends down the local watering hole this is the one area that comes up most frequently and, one would assume, would be the first reason that investors look offshore. Plenty of jurisdictions offer tax breaks of many kinds to encourage investments by foreigners. For small countries with little resources and not much tax income from its citizens there is an incentive to increase the countries economic activities by offering a safe, legal, tax efficient structure for companies to base themselves for investment purposes either as holdings companies or investment vehicles.

To put it in simple terms an individual or corporation can set up a company in an offshore jurisdiction where that corporation does not have any operational facilities or business (in fact most of these types of company are prohibited from operating in the host country) and as such it attracts little or no tax in that jurisdiction for investments made. This makes it very attractive as part of an investment strategy to route investments rather than doing this individually or corporately in the home state.

In recent years, however, the U.S. and UK governments has become increasingly aware of the tax revenue lost to offshore investing, and has created more defined and restrictive laws that close tax loopholes. Investment revenue earned through offshore investment is now a focus of regulators and the tax man alike. According to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), U.S. citizens and residents are now taxed on their worldwide income. As a result, investors who use offshore entities to evade U.S. federal income tax on capital gains can be prosecuted for tax evasion. Therefore, although the lower corporate expenses of offshore companies can translate into better gains for investors, the IRS maintains that U.S. taxpayers are not to be allowed to evade taxes by shifting their individual tax liability to some foreign entity. In the UK the European Savings Directive was intended to be an anonymous way of a European country paying withholding tax on interest on foreign held accounts directly to the home state of the account holder. Unfortunately this has recently been usurped by the UK government to gather information on offshore accounts. They then gave an amnesty called ‘The Offshore Disclosure Facility’ which gave UK taxpayers until the 22nd of June 2007 to tell the tax man about their accounts, pay taxes due and a 10% fine. 50,000 people did so.

However, as the taxman becomes more sophisticated at finding ways to reel in the offshore loopholes, the practitioners will find ever more complicated ways of helping clients plan for their taxes in an efficient manner and investing in the right offshore jurisdiction is still the place to do this.

Asset Protection – Offshore centers are popular locations for restructuring ownership of assets. Through trusts, foundations or through an existing corporation, individual wealth ownership can be transferred from people to other legal entities. Many individuals who are concerned about lawsuits, or lenders foreclosing on outstanding debts elect to transfer a portion of their assets from their personal estates to an entity that holds it outside of their home country. By making these on paper ownership transfers, individuals are no longer susceptible to seizure or other domestic troubles. If the trustor is a U.S. resident, their trustor status allows them to make contributions to their offshore trust free of income tax. However, the trustor of an offshore asset-protection fund will still be taxed on the trust’s income (the revenue made from investments under the trust entity), even if that income has not been distributed.

The use of bearer shares, for example is a classic strategy of exchanging ownership of companies without a paper trail of transfer, and therefore tax. What is a bearer share? If you are in the UK pull out a bank note and you will see “promise to pay the bearer…” The very notes in your pocket are bearer notes meaning that whoever has the ten pound note in their hand owns it and it can be exchanged for goods and services. It is the same with bearer shares. Lets say you own a company that you have built up to be worth ten million Euros and you want to sell it. If it is a UK company, there would be capital gains and stamp duty on the transfer, evidence by a trail of paperwork. If it is an offshore company held with bearer shares, you could simply give the shares to whomever you are selling the company to and there is no trail to follow.

Of course it is not that simple, as there are other considerations, such as the fact that you should declare the sale, but you see where we are coming from.

Confidentiality – Many offshore jurisdictions, such as Switzerland, offer the complimentary benefit of secrecy legislation. These countries have enacted laws establishing strict corporate and banking confidentiality. If this confidentiality is breached, there are serious consequences for the offending party. An example of a breach of banking confidentiality is divulging customer identities; disclosing shareholders is a breach of corporate confidentiality in some jurisdictions. However, this secrecy doesn’t mean that offshore investors are criminals with something to hide.

It’s also important to note that offshore laws will allow identity disclosure in clear instances of drug trafficking, money laundering or other illegal activities. From the point of view of a high-profile investor, however, keeping information, such as the investor’s identity, secret while accumulating shares of a public company can offer that investor a significant financial (and legal) advantage. High-profile investors don’t like the public at large knowing what stocks they’re investing in. Multi-millionaire investors don’t want a bunch of little fish buying the same stocks that they have targeted for large volume share purchases – the little guys run up the prices.

Because nations are not required to accept the laws of a foreign government, offshore jurisdictions are, in most cases, immune to the laws that may apply where the investor resides. U.S. courts can assert jurisdiction over any assets that are located within U.S. borders. Therefore, it is prudent to be sure that the assets an investor is attempting to protect not be held physically in the United States.

Diversification of Investment – In some countries, regulations restrict the international investment opportunities of citizens. Many investors feel that such restriction hinders the establishment of a truly diversified investment portfolio. Offshore accounts are much more flexible, giving investors unlimited access to international markets and to all major exchanges. On top of that, there are many opportunities in developing nations, especially in those that are beginning to privatize sectors that were formerly under government control. China’s willingness to privatize some industries has investors drooling over the world’s largest consumer market.

Disadvantages

Tax Laws are Tightening – The UK ‘Offshore Disclosure Facility’ is just the start of an assault on tax loopholes and the IRS already tax US citizens on their worldwide income. However, where there is a will from investors and fees for the offshore practitioners and jurisdictions, there will be armies of accounts and advisers working on structuring further strategies for clients.

Cost – Although the general myth is that offshore investing is for the very wealthy, this is not necessarily true. In years gone by this may have been the case but with the information age and specifically the Internet, services are becoming more freely available and cheaper. However, services do not come free and the old adage is true “pay peanuts, get monkeys”. Many companies offer a quick fix… set up an offshore company for $300 and away you go. Offshore tax planning is simply not this easy, it requires thought and planning, and with that comes fees.

How Safe Is Offshore Investing?

More than half of the worlds assets are held in offshore jurisdictions. If you ever go down to Monaco, have a look at the flags hanging off the super yachts. Ask yourself the question as to why a country such as St Vincent and the Grenadines (with 120,000 population and a low average income) is represented very well by multi million dollar yachts being registered there. St Vincent just happens to be a very tax efficient jurisdiction for such assets.

The question of safety is relative to what you are investing and where. Registering your super yacth in St Vincent is safe, because someone there is hardly likely to steal it, Would you invest your multi million portfolio from there? Maybe not. Places such as the Bahamas, BVI and of course, the daddy of all jurisdictions, Switzerland, have first class reputations for safety, privacy and security.

Conclusion

Investing offshore is different for every investor, depending on their home country, their wealth, the assets that they are looking to protect or the kind of investments that are being made, so each person requires a selected strategy. Creating this strategy may take lawyers, accounts and investment advisers to create the right structure. In the end, however, if the correct structure is created the benefits can be very good indeed.

There is, after all, a reason that the wealthy have been doing it for years….

Marketing Plans: The Framework for Organizational Marketing

belfastwriter — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:49:31 +0000

Marketing Plans are the reference materials to look at when a company is searching for the various measures to be able to get on the right track and place their commodities and goods. A word of caution though, not all marketing plans may contain the favorable aspects that people are looking for in line with the direction to which the company may foresee itself moving to. Convincing powers and showing concrete results through examples or proper illustrations, guidelines and flowcharts to the decision making body of an organization will surely be effective and proper enough for management to go to the direction to which the proposed marketing plan is aimed at.

Marketing plans are of various formats, and whichever the case, people will study it analytically and properly to be able to the gist of the entire report and what is aiming for. It may contain different things of concerns, such as:

1. Niche Marketing

2. Pricing Strategies

3. Market Segmentation

4. Market Concentration

5. Market Attraction towards its consumers or target market

The possibilities are endless, and while not all are covered in the enumerated probabilities above, a marketing plan contains the most essential key factors that are aimed to help the organization gain headway and be aggressive towards its target market customers. More than just a bunch of words combined together with graphs, financial projections and analysis and hypothetical suggestions and so forth, the essence and what the author/s of the marketing plan is directed to, will be the only thing that is up for consideration and probably arbitration, all for the good of the company as a whole.

Tax Haven Company Formation

belfastwriter — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:42:35 +0000

Tittle: 'Apart' [One-too-long-shot]
Author: mireya_11
Pairing: H/W
Rating: none
Summary: 'But he just hangs his head in pain and prays to hear him state No more, I'll never leave again…' (modified lyrics of The Cure – Apart)
Note: Forgive me for being so lazzy… and such a bad writer *sighs* Lyrics at the end (on blue) belongs to The Cure – Apart. Long life to The Cure <3
Made to: the disappeared hang_monet
Disclaimer: *crazy-face* They are… M I N E ! *coughs* Well… uhmm *runs*

It’s always the same weird feeling.

First it was amusement.
Then he got angry, very angry and destroyed everything that used to belong to him.
And then… he got sad.

It felt like a cold… a very long and painful cold.
And for five years he waited.

It was the same old sad joke.
Like the bride who didn’t allow herself to cry, not even when everyone had left from the wedding.

And so what? Why should he care about other’s gossip? None of them mattered.
But again, the problem was that the only one who mattered wasn’t there to complain about his lack of care for other human beings.

No. It was only he now.
He was too used to that… too tired…

———

The familiar sound of the door slamming makes him grin madly. So he decided to retire? Good. So he wanted them to move forward with their relationship? Even better. So he wanted to marry? Awesome, no with that (especially not with the honeymoon). But wanting him to grab his parents into their wedding was definitely off the table.

- Why not?! They will eventually find out

- Yes but not by me.

- What’s the trouble about it? Will your dad stand up and punch you and the middle of the ceremony or something?

- No

- Then what’s the fucking trouble House?! I don’t understand!

- It’s none of your business

- I beg you pardon?! OF COURSE IT’S MY FREAKING BUSINESS! I’M GOING TO BE YOUR HUSBAND!

- It’s still none of your business; there is nothing about not saying things to his wife…

- I’m not your wife House, I’m going to be your husband and if you want to keep it that way you tell me right now why you don’t want them to be around. You better start trusting me.

- And what are you going to do, Jimmy? Are you gonna punch me? Are you going to leave me?

- Yes! YES HOUSE I’M GOING TO LEAVE YOU IN THIS VERY MOMENT IF YOU DON’T GROW UP AND TELL ME WHY YOU DON’T WANT YOUR PARENTS TO BE ON THE WEDDING. YOUR WEDDING. OUR WEDDING, HOUSE.

- Is my turn to play with words, mommy? Can I play, can I play? Pleeeease…

- HOUSE I AM NO JOKING!

- But mooom… it’s not funny that way!

- House… try for once to get serious with me and answer the dammed question! Why you don’t want your father to come to our wedding?!

- BECAUSE I DON’T WANT HIM TO SEE THE STUPID SISSY THAT HIS SON HAS BECOME! THAT’S WHY! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, WILSON? ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THAT ANSWER NOW?!

When House sees the damage it’s too late.
Well… he will way until he comes back and then he will state the truth.
The stupid truth that he didn’t want to show to Wilson.

He decides to drink a little so he will get brave enough to state it three hours later.
But three hours passed.
So maybe 6 hours.
And nothing.
Tomorrow, maybe?
Nope.

A week. A moth. A year.
Five years now.

It’s not like if he didn’t try to find him. He did. But he just couldn’t. It was like trying to catch smoke with your hands. It keeps going away.

——–

Another stupid case.
Another stupid lie.
Another stupid patient who will die no matter what.

Case solved.

But something, something clicks inside House’s brain and he remembers where he had seen that before… so long ago…

- You, were did you find that ring?

- Why is that even relevant? I am going to die, leave me alone

So this is going to be another useless conversation.
House takes out the massive guns… and cuts the morphine.

- If you don’t start to tell me all that you know about that ring you will die… but with pain… sweet and inevitably pain… fair, don’t you think?

- What?! Are you nuts?! Don’t be ridiculous that’s…

- Unethical?… well, that’s my second name, uh? So… were I was? Oh yes… the sweet and inevitably pain… but I’m sure that I mentioned that already…

- But you are a doc-… what the…? it hurts… Oh God it hurts!… STOP IT PLEASE MAKE IT STOP PLEASEE…

- I am sure that I told you about the inevitably pain… maybe I forgot to mention how swiftly that was going to be…

- STOP IT JACKASS I WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING STOP IT S-T-O-P-I-T…!

- First the information, don’t you think? In case you want to cheat

- ARE YOU CRAZY? S-T-O-P THIS PLEASEEE!!

- Let me spell it for you… I-N-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-O-N… R-I-N-G… N-O-W!

- MY UNCLE GAVE IT TO ME. IT BELONGED TO SOMEONE CALLED WILSON I GUESS, NO ONE CAME, NO ONE ASKED. THEY BERRIED HIM. PLEASE MAKE IT STOP. PLEASE.

As he walked out the room the nurses hurried inside to control the patient’s screams. Wilson. Berried. No one.

But how? How that happened? How is that he never knew? How is that no one ever asked?

Wilson… how could this happen?

———–

You have been so near all this time, you see?
The cemente-… this place had been near me even more than you.

And now… now what are we going to do?
and now what?
Now what, Wilson?

If my dad goes to our wedding he will beat you until you die, Wilson.
That’s why I don’t want him to know.
‘Cause I care too much about you.

- We should have married anyway Wilson… – House says, leaving the bottle of whiskey aside- we should have married anyway…

How did we get this far apart?
We used to be so close together
How did we get this far apart?
I thought this love would last forever
I thought it would last forever…

I’m a Windows user since 15 years ago. From the age of Windows 95 to Windows 7 now. Windows is always hide with secret command.

If you could learn those command, your work become easier and faster. Come on don’t be lazy, pick up frequent use command and use it in your daily work.

[Photo by danb1to]

How do you open frequent use program in Windows 7? It maybe too old style to use “Run” command. But sometime a command easier than complex clicks.

Press Windows+R to launch Run command. Let’s see the 10 most wanted Windows 7 command in my list:

calc – Calculator

explorer – Windows Explorer

eventvwr - Event Viewer

iexplore – Internet Explorer

regedit – Registry Editor

notepad – Notepad

mspaint – Microsoft Paint

taskmgr – Task Manager

mstsc – Remote desktop connection

msconfig – Microsoft System Configuration tool

More commands refer here.

I’m a Windows user since 15 years ago. From the age of Windows 95 to Windows 7 now. Windows is always hide with secret command.

If you could learn those command, your work become easier and faster. Come on don’t be lazy, pick up frequent use command and use it in your daily work.

[Photo by danb1to]

How do you open frequent use program in Windows 7? It maybe too old style to use “Run” command. But sometime a command easier than complex clicks.

Press Windows+R to launch Run command. Let’s see the 10 most wanted Windows 7 command in my list:

calc – Calculator

explorer – Windows Explorer

eventvwr - Event Viewer

iexplore – Internet Explorer

regedit – Registry Editor

notepad – Notepad

mspaint – Microsoft Paint

taskmgr – Task Manager

mstsc – Remote desktop connection

msconfig – Microsoft System Configuration tool

More commands refer here.

belfastwriter — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:02:39 +0000

Italian Autumn Inspiration

Not that it takes much for me to dream of vacationing in Italy, but this styled shoot from Cinzia Bruschini has me daydreaming away. From the sweet vintage lace to the candy-covered apples, this al fresco dining shoot is the real deal. I will let the stylist take the stage: Getting married in autumn with the glorious burst of colours in the trees, the crisp crunch of dried leaves underfoot, the nip in the air and the abundance of choices you have with this season being one of the most dramatic symbols of endings and beginnings autumn stands for.

We have been inspired by the magical atmosphere of an ancient town called Moresco in the Marche region, Italy. Gold, red, dark chocolate and coffee — The typical seasonal colours have been used to give life to a very refined design on which the nature is the undisputed Queen.

View all images from this shoot in the gallery

Wedding vendors (Marche Region, Italy):

Venue: Historical Centre of Moresco / Production and styling: Officina Stravagante (site coming soon!) / Photographer: Cinzia Bruschini / Stationery: Ara Marvin from Caratterino / Bridal Dress: Alida Giordani Boutique / Bridal Shoes: Loriblu / Wedding Cake and Sweets: Monplaisir / Flowers: Amoa

Starting in the year 2012 and in the month of January, Facebook will be starting the flood of ads in their main news feed with a trickle: one sponsored ad in your main feed per day at the start, with these ads appearing as normal posts save for the small “Sponsored” tag in the comment line. Users wont be able to opt out of seeing sponsored ads in their main news feed, and mobile news feed stories MAY be in the works for 2012 as well. It appears that a few sites from all walks of life such as Inside Facebook and TechCrunch have received confirmation from Facebook that these changes will appear, again, at the begin of 2012.

There’s almost certainly no way this action, in whatever set of forms it ends up showing up in, will receive heavy backlash from Facebook users and defectors alike. Facebook will be pushing this project as a value-added adventure where advertisers show off their awesome wares through your friends activities, much superior than traditional banner ads, for example. On the other hand, Sponsored Ads showing up too often in the main feed, no matter how relevant they are to our daily lives, will result in masses of users exiting the platform.

This isn’t the first step in Facebook’s efforts to turn your activities into advertisements, as you may have seen “Sponsored Stories” showing up on your right-hand sidebar for many months now (starting at the beginning of 2011.) This newest project is essentially the opposite of that, where instead of turning friends activities into ads up on the sidebar, sidebar ads will be showing up in your news feed. The difference between this and straight up dropping banners down in front of you is that these ads will be affected by your activity and perceived interests. Clicking ice cream sandwich pages will result in ice cream sandwiches.

You can see a few use-cases in the gallery here, courtesy of Facebook and TechCrunch. Feel free to let loose on what you think of this situation in the comments below. Time to find a new place to roam, or are ads the way of the future?

The importance of implementing an integrated marketing plan for your small business

belfastwriter — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:17:50 +0000

The progression of marketing – to go beyond traditional to include interactive, consumer-driven marketing, social has spread like Ebola. Often referred to as Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). BMI is the prelude to a new era in which marketers blend communication messages across all channels of communication available on a continuous brand experience. As part of a successful marketing strategy, IMC integrates public relations, advertising, etc. online, social media and other communications elements into a cohesive entity all sharing the same message. Many organizations today are adopting this concept of IMC. Instead of dividing marketing communications into separate groups that rarely communicate, organizations are integrating all marketing disciplines under one roof, so, so every communication consistent with one message, sharing the same strategy . This also allows marketers to execute marketing campaigns more efficiently without having to jump through hoops to get approval for creative content, messaging, etc. The key to effective integration is consistency between marketing messages, and understanding that marketing is fundamentally a conversation between a company and its prospects. There is a specific marketing campaign or press release, but how the mix of disciplines and execution as to convey a message synergistically, and at every point of customer contact as possible. IMC includes the various tools, such as advertising, PR advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing and database, sponsorship, event marketing, social media marketing and online marketing (search, banner advertising, affiliate, etc.). Since the purpose of marketing is generate revenue, increase market share, the preference of the buying unit and / or build brand awareness, companies need to find ways to do this effectively, and take an integrated marketing strategy is the first step. Examples of Nike Integrated Marketing is a great example of a company that has fully embraced the concept of integrated marketing. Its holistic approach includes traditional advertising (billboards, magazines and television), sponsorship of sports events and players like the Superbowl and Tiger Woods, and participate in online marketing initiatives, allowing consumers to customize their Nike shoes. They also spend a lot of money on search engine marketing. Nike approach allows them to communicate their message consistently across all media, while sharing that message at every point of customer contact, that is, use Nike products and that will increase your performance, regardless of what sport they are involved in. Another example is HP "The Computer is Personal again" campaign. We used various forms of media with great consistency, and took each of the individual strengths of the media. Television shared real life stories, printed many of the same stories and online extended each into a positive experience that the customer can interact with HP. The campaign also used paid search to capture queries about HP products and services. Conclusion The adoption of integrated marketing is essential in today's market. As consumers, we are bombarded with thousands of messages from thousands of different advertisers each day. It has become natural for us to filter out messages that do not appeal to the need or interest. On the other hand, as marketers, we must ensure we are doing everything we possible can reach these consumers at a time who are interested in our value proposition. This means that our message has to be where consumers are looking for all along.

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belfastwriter — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:03:30 +0000

Rodney Crowell Outsider Rock Music CD Review

belfastwriter — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:53:43 +0000

It's a deja vu again. After the unprecedented security breaches that led to the attacks of 9 / 11, our government decided that the problem was not not have adequate communication between the police and other government agencies (FBI-CIA link broken), but simply Do not 't have enough government agencies. Therefore, we had a commission to report on a number of years he found the attacks could have been avoided if a lot of holes had been patched before, and if the notes from one organism to another has been better received or heard so more complete. Long before the report of the commission of the 9 / 11, however, we started a new agency, Homeland Security, giving oversight of certain existing bodies and the responsibility to coordinate with others.The Budget for 2007 was $ 35billion DHS, for 2008 is $ 39 million, and for 2009 is projected at $ 41 billion. (DHS Budget Request 2008). The budget of the FBI (which is within the budget of the Department of Justice) LTo 2007 was $ 6 billion for 2008 $ 6,500 million for 2009 projects $ 6.8 billion, representing just under one third of the total budget Department of Justice in any given year since. The budget of the CIA, is, of course, an expense secret.Granted, securty in this country are higher than they used to be, but the budget of the DHS, including FEMA, the Coast Guard and some federal agencies and other is enormous and far exceeds (by 40%) which combined budgets of agencies that have been pulling them away from DHS. And we all know how well they did during Katrina Homeland Security – increased costs due to poor planning, decisions Abyssmal shopping, etc. tab by Hurricane Ike is already in a severe scrutiny, and only in recent years that our emergency agencies have been criticized as to buy the wrong thing, responding too slowly, and so on. If you remember some pre-existing major disasters dating back to the DHS, as the San Francisco earthquake of 1989, FEMA was the site quickly and responded well and the long-term disaster relief unpredictable, as it did for Northridge, CA earthquake two years later. That the responses have not been as well coordinated or as effective in predicting storms in recent years raises the question whether FEMA and other agencies could have been better organized in accordance with the old configuration with less information and a larger string with smaller, more nimble agencies of the federal budget by the largest disbursement purchasing.The 2008 is $ 627 billion dollars for the combined line items, the Department of Defense and the continuing war on terror. These figures do not include any of the funds allocated to DHS HTE, and even greater than our annual expenditure on Social Security (which has traditionally been the largest expenditure that was both directly financed through contributions and investment in the it). The number three largest budget item is to combine the interests of the national debt and Unemployment / Welfare – along with $ 585 billion.In look at our budget, understanding that DHS took some hits this year with Ike major troop withdrawals in Iraq until it is dealt with at the end of 2009 the best, and that the deployment of troops in Afghanistan are increasing – it is easy to see that the Department of Defense / War on Terror theme for 2009 will grow. Given our economic situation, we expect that the item of interest on the debt (especially with numerous bailouts funded by the Treasury) increase significantly, with unemployment approaching 8%, the unemployment / welfare also rise.Looking that big picture and the reality we have many agencies within the Department of Justice (Antitrust Division, U.S. Attorneys) within the Treasury (Financial Crimes Enforcement, Office of Thrift Supervision) and the Securities and Independent Exchange Commission, all of which are under the direct control of the administration and the funds have been combined now $ 18 billion, the question is, what are each of these entities and agencies to the police our financial institutions? Once again, we have learned during the S & L crisis that financial institutions are not the police. We have learned during the energy crisis, which actually was not a lack of resources, was that energy companies got into the market speculation that caused its collapse. We learned through many failures of private pension plans that employers in many cases taking advantage of the retirement funds of employees against the current market risk and investment that should have been borne by shareholders and subject to shareholder vote . All these circumstances are still factors that contribute to our current financial crisis. We are monitoring markets when price spikes. We should have learned to energy – but when housing prices soared tip and turnover, there was a clear indication that speculation was going on, and the suspicion of price manipulation. Instead, we look at the borrowers, in most individual cases of individuals who had no market power, and very probably were victims of imperfect market information. The SEC, the Federal Housing Authority, and of course the major lenders should have been exploring this. Anti-trust of the Department of Justice should have been looking at the wing. Instead, probably through an appalling lack of leadership at the top that says the state's coffers are being fed, and even if it is artificial stimulation, is the economic stimulus – not fully explore. Foreclosures began to happen when outside the standard rate, our government agencies should have been the research, and indeed many have been doing just that. However, the Justice Department was mired in investigations against himself for the politicization of the agency, U.S. attorneys were demoralized and not at all clear what antitrust case is encouraged to explore. Yes, the SEC should have been at the forefront at this time. Obviously, when banks begin to fail or suffer huge losses, one wonders about what was happening with their projections of earnings, loan portfolios. The cost of the bailouts in the hundreds of billions now.So, is the answer for a commission to study all this and create a kind of public-private finance in what McCain would call a Mortgage and Financial Institutions Trust (CNN, 19/09/08) to work with the private sector "to identify and correct weak institutions before they go bankrupt?" Are you kidding? Now, our government will micromanage banks, perhaps infusing cash before going out of business? What's holding these institutions accountable? What about the millions of homeowners who lost everything in the past two years as falsely inflated home prices dipped and the sub-prime loans spurrious escalation in the price? Exactly how many homeowners have been allowed to successfully renegotiate or block rates with current creditors over the past two years? Exactly how many middle class Americans will be able to do that this year? Yet at least one of two major lenders who broke the rules and is spread too salvaged! No need for our government in bed with the financial institutions through a commission and a new super agency to spend more of our tax dollars. The relationship and is very welcoming. Look at the size of the federal budget includes revenue and cover those costs – and fills the gap loans increasing. As our real incomes are reduced, as more unemployed workers move to temporary or sustained unemployment due to layoffs and reductions, which contribute less, get more. If we are more agencies in place to solve the structural problems with the regulatory oversight – we spend and borrow more as a country. We're going to perpetuate the evil itself that got us into this mess – loans when they have nothing to borrow – the attraction of investments based on growth projections for speculation. Yes, this article is written by a fiscal conservative. Well, the truth is that now is the time to be fiscally conservative. Our government has been throwing around the OPM for years – and has used measures such as projected revenues from increased consumer spending, income, property value, to obtain money from other people. I can earn over $ 200k per year. I do not pay taxes at a percentage of earning $ 75-100k to pay – and Trump, Donald, and T. Boone Pickens' the world pay less than me. Our government will be giving them tax breaks and bail out their bankrupt companies – but the last vestiges of the middle class will pay the price. As Carly Fiorina, McCain's campaign chairman, said – neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin would be qualified to run a company, and now we need people in our government who are willing to make tough decisions not to create new alliances private by the government to continue to concentrate wealth and minimize loss of business – to return our economy to the fundamentals of capitalism in a democratic society.We have to do the steps the federal government is currently taking, but we must insist strict compliance with existing laws at present and much stricter controls on financial transactions. The loan market has become extremely difficult for borrowers qualified for ordinary citizens, so if we do not fix this is the American middle class and all but the wealthiest to continue to bear the burden of bad decisions and will continue to pay in the government's bailout tab.

Rodney Crowell Outsider Rock Music CD Review Rodney Crowell, very talented Rock artist has released him latest album titled Outsider and Wow! It’s good.

I wish it weren?t the case but, it?s not everyday that I get a CD from an artist that I can just pop in and comfortably listen to from beginning to end. There is usually a song or two that I just can?t force myself to get through. Not at all the case with Outsider. Every track is enjoyable and was pretty easy for me to listen to from start to finish.

Outsider is a nicely varied, mix of 11 tracks that are very well written songs by this clearly superb artist. Most of the songs display a lot of the kind emotion that makes for a really great listen. Clearly drawing from what I can only imagine are him own real life experiences. At different points touching on the most real emotions like love, heartbreak, pain, failed relationships and unattainable romance. They?re all here.

Listen and I think you?ll agree that the song choices are excellent, the production is outstanding and Rodney Crowell is clearly in top form.

While this entire album is really very good some of my favorites are track 1 – Say You Love Me, track 4 – Dancin’ Circles Round The Sun, and track 9 – Things That Go Bump In The Day

My Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore [...as in "Stuck On REpeat"] is track 10 – Shelter From The Storm. Wow!

Outsider Release Notes:

Rodney Crowell originally released Outsider on August 16, 2005 on the Columbia label.

CD Track List Follows:

1. Say You Love Me 2. Obscenity Prayer, The (Give It To Me) 3. Outsider, The 4. Dancin’ Circles Round The Sun (Epictetus Speaks) 5. Beautiful Despair 6. Don’t Get Me Started 7. Ignorace Is The Enemy 8. Glasgow Girl 9. Things That Go Bump In The Day 10. Shelter From The Storm 11. We Can’t Turn Back

Personnel include: Emmylou Harris (vocals); Will Kimbrough (electric guitar); Steve Fishell (steel guitar); Jonathan Yudkin (fiddle); John Mock (tin whistle, concertina); John Hobbs (organ); Tony Harrell (keyboards); Michael Rhodes (bass guitar); Eddie Bayers, Shannon Forrest (drums).

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Creative solutions

belfastwriter — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 01:08:26 +0000

When it comes to unexpected pieces of jewelry to signify your never-ending love, we’ve only got eyes for one brand: Anna Sheffield Bridal and Commitment. We know you’re familiar with Anna Sheffield’s namesake line and her lower-priced jewelry collection, Bing Bang, but she’s just debuted a stunningly gorgeous wedding and commitment range that will blow your socks off. Filled with precious stones in unexpected cuts, (we love the East-West oval diamond ring, and her inverted stones are unlike any other we’ve seen) her newest offerings are for the supremely hip lovers who want to tie the knot with the most breathtakingly original jewels around. Of course, Sheffield goes way beyond the engagement ring—for every anniversary, birthday, and baby, there’s a piece of jewelry that will tell the story of your love and become heirlooms you will treasure forever. Trust—once you see these gems, you’ll be screaming, “I do!” If (s)he gets you enough to buy you one of these babies, the answer’s gotta be Y-E-S.

Photo: Courtesy of Anna Sheffield.

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I am not a talented decorator, but I love decorating for the Holidays. I have collected knick knacks over the years to turn my house into a seasonal wonderland (although I admit that I could do better…).

Tips for bringing the holiday spirit to your house

Have seasonal-only artwork and decor. Because we only pull certain decorations out once a year, they feel even more special. We retire the normal wall hangings for the last month and a half of the year.
Save seasonal toys and books, too. We have Christmas toys, books, and videos that only come out for the holidays as well. They are like “new” toys every year!
Fill your home with music. Yes, I love Christmas music. Having music playing always adds to the special holiday feeling.
Enjoy the holiday smells. I love baking during the Holidays, but I can’t bake every day. When I’m not making a holiday treat, I like to light a cinnamon-scented candle or put a simmer pot on my stove. And then there’s the wonderful smell of a fresh-cut Christmas tree!

How do you bring the Holiday Spirit into your home?

Gallery Direct would love to help you decorate this holiday! Whether it’s adding a new Holiday-themed piece of art to your walls or finding the perfect gift for someone special (like yourself!), Gallery Direct is here to help.

Enter to Win Gallery Direct Art for your home

Gallery Direct and Better in Bulk is giving YOU a chance to get some new art for your home.

To enter to win a $200 Gallery Direct Gift Card, let me know what piece of art you would like to add to your house.

For extra entries, you can follow @GalleryDirect on twitter and tweet the following message: I’m getting my home ready for the holidays! Enter to a $200 #gallerydirect gift card from @gallerydirect & @1momof5 #art #giveaway (or you can use the tweet button on this post) – tweet up to twice per day.

Added bonus: Connect with Gallery Direct on Facebook for a ton of additional chances at prizes and news.

This giveaway will end on Monday, November 21 and a winner will be chosen at random and notified via email. Please note: Giveaway is open to US residents only and winner can not have won from Gallery Direct in the last year. Also shipping is not part of the gift card, but if your art piece is less than your GC amount, then you can use it towards shipping.

Gallery Direct Twitter Party!

@GalleryDirect is hosting a twitter party tonight (11/7) at 10pm ET. They’ll be giving away two $200 pieces of art, one $100 giftcard and one $50 giftcard. RSVP on Thrifty and Chic Mom…. I hope to see you there!

Disclosure: I am a Gallery Direct Ambassador and receive Gallery Direct artwork to review and test out regularly.

love on a farmboy’s wages
Far too much work on my plate these last few weeks. Naturally, this comes at exactly the time I’m frigging desperate to get out of this job, with no time to go through the Civil Service’s diabolically non-intuitive, cumbersome Job Search site where all the vacancies are uploaded these days.

I did spot one job that looked quite interesting last week. Rang the contact person to ask her about a couple of things related to my eyesight and current working patterns, and got the third degree about what was wrong with me, and that distinct feeling she was already looking for reasons why my disability would make me unsuitable, rather than how they might be able to make what’s politely and compliantly known as ‘reasonable adjustments’ to accommodate me if I was in fact to turn out to be the candidate. Well you know, fuck that, Ms DDA Non-Compliance. You want to be an old-school bigot, your loss. I’m trying to get out of the current job but luckily, right now they’re still pretty keen to hang on to me, so I’ll take my time to find somewhere where the potential future colleagues aren’t giving out ‘fuck off cripple’ vibes.

(Home Office vacancy, though, so what do you expect? That place has been falling apart for the last 15 years. Watch Theresa May’s space, folks.)

I’m a serial fandom monogamist, so the sudden and unexpected 100% upswing in the quality of this season’s Merlin is confusing my shippy little synapses no end! The two XM1C fics I’ve started have been ruthlessly kicked out of the nest by a giant Merlin cuckoo hatching out of nowhere. That just guarantees I’ll have three WIPs on the boil and 33% less chance of any of them seeing the of day now. Tut.*

This week’s Merlin once again left me satisfied. It’s not too hard to understand why it’s all working much better for me than the last year or even two have done. Basically, the writing is smarter and funnier, the characters are interacting with each other in a variety of amusing ways, everyone feels a bit less immature and more assured, and the balance of entertainment, drama, comedy, poignancy and optimism is – I think – just about perfect.

Most of all, there’s a real warmth running through everything these days. That comes across in part from the affection the characters are showing for each other: everything from Arthur’s unabashed concern for Merlin, care for his safety, desire for his company, and (finally) a totally straight-up expression of pride and praise for Merlin’s true loyalty and courage, to the quiet moments of affirmation – Gwaine riding off with Arthur to search for Merlin, the knights being touchy-feely, everyone’s snarky-fond banter (fair reminds me of happy S2 Torchwood heydays, sob!), Leon’s pride in the armoury while he’s cheerfully joking with Merlin about wanting to kill Arthur, the effortless team-working between Gaius and Gwen, and Gwen’s exchanges with Arthur – the naked Arthur most of all. She’s so charming and playful in that scene, while lying like a mofo to keep Arthur and Merlin both safe and save the day.

There also seems to have been a real change under that, with the writers and showrunners themselves actually loving all their characters, treating all of them with humanity and affection. The way mindfucked Merlin behaved, for example, his brisk, scornful determination to assassinate Arthur with Real!Merlin’s eternal cheerful bunny demeanour, as well as his fatal clumsiness. It came over to me as amusing, playful, when similar Merlin’s-a-clumsy-prat sequences last year felt cruel and contemptuous. Arthur’s still a bit of a clueless posh chump, still a terrible judge of character – but he’s also got a kind of quiet dignity these days, which makes him less the butt of the joke. I like that they’re also rationalising his dependency on the sinister Agravaine, by making Arthur himself point out how lost he feels without the wisdom of his father’s experience, how much he wants to live up to Uther’s greatness, at the same time as not emulating his cruelty or brutality.

I like shows that treat the characters I like with some measure of compassion, so I do want to see even the villains given some sympathy – and that’s coming across in the twisted tiny relationship between poor desolate Morgana and Agravaine himself, who actually treats her tenderly and with respect that he shows to no-one else. The sequence between herself and Old Merlin (what’s this ‘Dragoon’ business, Merlin peeps? Did he do that name for the old dude disguise some time last year? I thought Old!Merlin was called Emrys? #clueless) was nicely done, with Morgana herself making the point that she knows exactly what loyalty is, even if there’s no-one left alive tho whom she feels loyal. Even if the fight was just two mages smashing the shit out of each other all across the forest floor, it still felt strangely potent, this sense that these are the Morgana and Merlin of legend, very closely matched in their powers and abilities.

I also just adore Old Merlin, he’s every kind of awesome and his grumpy delight in running rings around the knights who tease him so gleefully when he’s not wearing 60 years of disguise is delicious. Colin Morgan plays the shit out of that role and the age-makeup, plus his acting skill, blows me away. Most of all, though, it’s his tee-hee-hee naughty relishing of his own scope for mischief that’s just wonderful and fun!

I could do with Gwen having more to do than be Arthur’s ballsy love-interest. I could wish Morgana had more to do as an ace Big Bad, but that’s limited by her having no regular allies anymore apart from five minutes of rather UST-ish nattering with Agravaine each week. I could really wish for some other female presence on the regular cast, especially if that could be Lindsay Duncan again. Why can’t she come back and be Arthur’s go-to Wise Adviser, instead of Uncle Badtouch?

But at least the creepy hint of misogyny from last year also seems to have been put away for the time being, so fingers crossed. And right now everyone’s pretty mutually loved-up, which works for me, and also no-one bats an eyelid anymore about how the King of Camelot is desperate to drop everything and send half the kingdom off to look for his lost and favourite servant – least of all Arthur himself: this also works for me. I can’t be doing with shows that have a panic attack any time a man shows an ounce of emotional interest towards another man he’s not actually directly related to, and Merlin went down that path pretty sharply for the last couple of years, pimping its bromance and then frantically cringing and flailing in what felt like an absurd homophobic shame. Now all the knights grope each other shamelessly, Merlin spends most eps draped right on top of Arthur, and Arthur can’t wait to grab Merlin and give him a great huge hug even when he’s covered in shit. And if that isn’t the mark of a good King, I don’t know what is!

(sorry about the cut-fails: posting interface is like Wank Central these days. Livejournal, what the fuck?)

*Pish, of course I’m not going to write it really! I just like, uhm, thinking about it a lot.